It took nearly an hour before Lance Quinn and I finally came to our senses. Yuna Ji was already sprawled on the sofa, laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face.
"I mean, Ethan, you still haven’t learned a thing, have you?"
I couldn’t answer Yuna Ji’s question. The feeling now was unbearable—my eyes burned, and my vision blurred.
I sat up, ate a few bites, then looked seriously at Yuna Ji. She couldn’t help but laugh again—my eyes were completely red.
"Go ahead, Ethan. Say whatever’s on your mind."
Lance Quinn crawled up from the floor and walked out toward the door.
"I’ll go check if The Engineer has fallen into a pit and still hasn’t come up."
Lance Quinn tactfully left. Yuna Ji lay on the sofa, and I looked at her, asking a question.
"Is war really the only solution? Isn’t there any other way?"
The smile vanished from Yuna Ji’s face. She nodded.
"Pacify war with strength. The situation now is beyond my control. Only by killing every last rebel and severing the source of defiance can the war in Netherhell finally end."
"So they’ll have to die again and again—endlessly—because of war?"
Yuna Ji nodded and smiled.
"Maybe it’s cruel, but it’s the only way."
I’d wondered before why Yuna Ji didn’t just let them go. Maybe it wasn’t that she wouldn’t—it’s that she couldn’t.
"Is there some reason you can’t let them go?"
Yuna Ji nodded again, then led me up to the rooftop. I followed her up to the third floor, where she sat at the edge of the balcony, gazing at the distant Styx River.
"The monsters in that river weren’t created by me."
Yuna Ji pointed at the Styx River as she spoke. I stared at her in astonishment.
"They came into existence on their own."
Then Yuna Ji told me that even this royal city wasn’t built by her—it simply formed, little by little, on its own. This is the reality of it all.
"So you didn’t build this place yourself?"
"You could say I built it, but not entirely. You’ve heard, haven’t you? I dug through the Styx River with my bare hands."
Yuna Ji smiled. I nodded, but she shook her head.
"Back then, I only dug maybe a few dozen kilometers before I was exhausted. But to break through to the Sanzu River, it’s thousands of kilometers. For a frail woman like me, it was impossible."
I stared at Yuna Ji in shock. It’s true—when I first heard she’d dug through the Styx River with her bare hands, I was astonished. Later, I realized it would take centuries to do such a thing.
"At the time, I desperately wanted to know the whereabouts of my soldiers, my generals, and my citizens. So I thought of this method: I wanted to mix my own power into the river, so they could sense my presence. My only goal was to tell them that the war was over."
After hearing the truth, I was deeply shocked.
But eventually, everything changed. Under Yuna Ji’s rule, the entire nation plunged into a frenzy of war. Even after death, her people continued to suffer under its destruction.
Unable to reincarnate, they remained in the deserted kingdom, endlessly repeating everything from before they died—unnoticed by anyone.
Back then, the Underworld Path wasn’t like it is now. After Yuna Ji entered, she asked around everywhere. At that time, there weren’t even any Underworld Denizens. She tried to hire some Hell’s Registrars to help, but they demanded a huge sum before they’d act.
At that time, Yuna Ji was just a lowly White-Clad Wraith. It was then that she met Luna Quay, who advised her to find a way to bypass the Styx Gate and reach the Sanzu River. He could help guide the corpses there, sending them straight to reincarnation.
Yuna Ji kept asking and searching, until she accidentally discovered Netherhell, this burial ground. It took tremendous effort, but she finally arrived—this was the closest place to the Sanzu River.
So Yuna Ji came up with the idea of digging the Styx River all the way to the Sanzu River.
"I spent a whole century digging on my own. Eventually, I became numb. I had no idea what had happened to my people. I didn’t want to give up, but there was no end in sight."
I nodded in silence.
Then something changed in Netherhell. Yuna Ji told me she planned to go back and check on her people.
She found her people still in the same place. Many practitioners tried to intervene and help those lost souls, but they were powerless.
Seeing her people safe, Yuna Ji no longer wished for revenge. She only wanted to guide them to the Sanzu River, so they could reincarnate.
But when Yuna Ji returned, she was shocked to find the river had been dug out, and at the end of the Styx River stood a royal city—the Netherhell Citadel.
"Gradually, I started to feel afraid, Ethan. When I was a child, I used a stone stylus to draw these. I always loved stories, and one day I heard the legend of the Nine Dragon Sons. So I drew them here—I thought that was what a royal city should look like."
I swallowed and looked at Yuna Ji.
"It’s just the shapes, really. I feel like this world is moving according to my will. The people of the Underworld have actually visited once."
I stared at Yuna Ji in astonishment. She continued speaking.
The ones who first noticed the changes in Netherhell were the Fifth Tribunal Yama and Quentin Kue. In the end, Quentin Kue entered Netherhell, subdued Yuna Ji, while the Netherhell Citadel kept building itself, shaped by Yuna Ji’s thoughts.
Yuna Ji’s people began to be ferried to the Sanzu River by Luna Quay, and these souls all flowed into Netherhell.
(This chapter isn’t finished yet~.~ Please click next page to continue reading!)
Originally, Quentin Kue wanted to take Yuna Ji back to the Underworld for judgment. But to his surprise, he couldn’t move her from here. Whenever he tried, a force blocked him—a force even Quentin Kue couldn’t break.
Afterward, Quentin Kue kept returning, searching for a solution. But from that moment on, Yuna Ji was defeated and captured by him again and again. Meanwhile, in the Styx River, powerful monsters began to appear. Although Quentin Kue could crush them easily, they would immediately re-emerge from the river, utterly indestructible.
"It was my will that summoned them. They were born to protect me."