The pressure caused by the voice alone could've easily destroyed the underworld.
The one who spoke was a fair-skinned middle-aged looking man with silver hair, sharp, prism-colored eyes and a handsome and domineering visage, he wore a majestic white battle armor, and in his left hand he held a halberd.
What stood out the most was a huge scar on the left side of his face which seemed to stretch from his left eye to the other side of his face.
The King of Hell felt the blood drain from his face.
He swallowed hard. "Mi-Milord… I..." He forced himself to remain composed.
"There has been a… complication."
The silver-haired figure's expression did not change, but the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.
"A complication?" He echoed.
"I asked you, where is my son?"
The King of Hell resisted the urge to take a step back.
He had ruled the underworld for eons, feared by countless entities, yet at this moment, he felt no different than an insect beneath an executioner's boot.
"I-It was not intentional," he stammered.
"We didn't know who he was, he entered the gate on his own. We also didn't get notified that an esteemed figure would be amongst the souls today. There was truly nothing that we could do."
The King of Hell tried to reason with the silver-haired man, hoping that he would not blame them.
A heavy silence followed. The weight of it pressed into the very fabric of existence.
The silver-haired man took a step forward, and the underworld trembled even more, as if on the brink of destruction. "I'll give you three days," he declared, his voice ringing through the chamber like a divine decree.
"Three days to find my son's soul. If you fail…" His gaze darkened.
"There will be no underworld left for you to rule, and you will lose all right to your pitiful existence."
The King of Hell felt his knees threaten to buckle.
Three days? To search through the infinite expanse of the universe, across countless realms and dimensions, for a single lost soul? It was an impossible task.
But arguing was not an option. He could only blame his luck that he came across this unreasonable lord.
"I… understand," he said through gritted teeth, bowing deeply. "I swear upon my existence; I will find him."
The silver-haired man stared at him for a long moment before turning to leave.
With that, the divine figures clad in white armor vanished, leaving the underworld in a state of chaos.
The King of Hell teleported back to his castle and slumped back into his throne, his face ashen.
He exhaled shakily and announced to the whole underworld. "Find the lost soul within three days," he ordered. "Search every plane, every realm, every corner of existence. I shall grant to whoever succeeds a fiefdom in the underworld. The price of failure is... eradication of all existence!"
…
Realm of Immortals, Crestreign Clan.
"Great General Kirin, is that soul truly the young master?" A knight clad in white asked the silver-haired man who was looking at the sky.
Another knight hesitated before speaking. "Young Master Gray's soul… I heard that his soul was banished to the Mortal Realm. Could it really be him?"
The silver-haired man, whose name is Kirin, didn't respond right away.
His lips curved into the faintest smile, yet it carried more sorrow than joy.
"There is no doubt. Even if he was stripped of his name and cast into the lower realms, a father recognizes his child. That is Gray's soul."
The knights exchanged uneasy glances. None of them dared to question him outright, yet the silence pressed heavily until one finally spoke.
"But… I heard that His Divine Eminence decreed that the Young Master's soul be destroyed for being too weak, bringing shame to the family…"
Kirin squinted his eyes for a moment, remembering.
"Yes. My father, Soulsaint, wished to erase my son entirely. But I could not allow it. I pleaded… no, I begged him. In the end, due to my meritorious contributions, he relented. Instead of annihilation, Gray's karma was severed, and his soul was cast down into the mortal world."
He sighed at the thought of his father.
As one of the strongest beings in the universe, he cared too much about face and image.
Even more than his own family.
The knights listened in silence.
"I thought he would never return," Kirin said, his hand trembling slightly.
"But now… his soul has grown stronger. I do not know what he endured or how he changed his soul, but fate has returned him to me, to us."
The knights bowed their heads, awe and unease mingling in their hearts.
Kirin's voice hardened, carrying the weight of command. "Prepare yourselves. Whether the family sees him as a disgrace or a miracle, I will take Gray back. He belongs with us."
The white-clad divine knights spoke as one, "Yes, Great General!"
…
The Underworld, King of Hell's Palace.
"Your Highness, it has been nearly three days, yet we have found no trace of that soul..." Meng Po's voice trembled as she knelt before the King of Hell.
The King of Hell appeared as if he had aged a million years.
"We've done everything in our power… no, we've exceeded our limits. We even sought the assistance of an Empyrean who specializes in locating souls. Yet we still cannot find it, that soul is either eradicated, trapped in an unfathomably dangerous place, or has transmigrated."
"All we know is that it definitely did not reincarnate."
Meng Po hesitated before speaking. "Your Highness, let's just tell that Lord that the soul had already transmigrated."
"Silence!" The King of Hell's voice cracked like a thunderclap.
"Lying in front of such a being, if he finds out the truth, eradication of our souls is already a lenient fate. I have enough troubles, Meng Po. Do not add to them."
"I-I apologize, Your Highness! This subordinate will not make the same mistake again," Meng Po quickly bowed, realizing just how grave her thoughts had been.
"Not only that, but the Vortex of Reincarnation still has that large crack on it, as if there's a chunk of it missing…" the King of Hell sighed.
"Could it be because of that soul…?"Meng Po asked weakly.
"I don't think so, no matter how strong a soul is, it can't possibly have such an effect on the Gate of Reincarnation." the King of Hell shook his head, however, deep inside, there was a sliver of uncertainty.
"I hope that lord doesn't come back soon." Meng Po sighed.
At that moment, the skies above crackled with power. Lightning split the eternal darkness as a massive rift tore open in the underworld.
From within emerged an army of white-clad warriors with a suffocating presence. The ground trembled beneath their feet, and the very air hummed with an ancient, boundless power.
Leading them was Kirin, his long, silver hair gleaming under the dim glow of the underworld, and his aura causing space itself to distort around him.
The King of Hell and Meng Po froze.
Meng Po shuddered, her mind screaming in terror.
'He's here...!'
She turned to the King of Hell and saw him trembling violently as he kneeled on the ground with a terrified expression.
"Milord... it's nice to see you again," the King of Hell said, his voice unsteady, as though the weight of his fear was suffocating him.
He then glared at Meng Po as if to blame her mouth for being such a jinx.
Meng Po felt wronged, 'It was just a coincidence, why are you looking at me like that?'
Kirin gazed down at him, his expression void of emotion.
From the King of Hell's fearful expression, he could tell that he had failed to find his son's soul.
"How do you wish to die?"
The King of Hell felt his blood turn to ice. Cold sweat drenched his back as his body stiffened.
'Too ruthless!'
"P-please wait! Milord, though we have not found your son's soul, we have discovered clues that might lead to his whereabouts!" Meng Po suddenly pleaded, her voice desperate.
She had seen death many times, but even she feared what lay in the hands of this man.
"Meng Po!" The King of Hell's pale face turned ghastly white.
"Stop speaking nonsense! Milord, please do not heed her words. She is merely trying to save me!"
Kirin didn't even spare the King of Hell another glance.
With a flick of his wrist, a saber flashed, severing the lower half of the King of Hell's jaw.
"Uuungghhh—!" The King of Hell clutched his face as blood gushed down his chest, his muffled screams echoing in the silent underworld.
Kirin turned to Meng Po, his gaze like the edge of a blade. "Speak. If your words are false, I shall grant you an eternity of suffering."
Meng Po's entire body stiffened, she was scared to death when she saw the King of Hell's jaw fall to the ground, but she forced herself to respond.
"I-it is only speculation, Milord, but we invited Immortal King Divine Feather... even he could not locate the soul."
Kirin's eyes narrowed.
Immortal King Divine Feather was indeed amongst the most reliable in the art of divination.
If even he had failed, then few beings in existence could succeed.
"Continue."
Meng Po hesitated before speaking. "He implied that the soul may have already transmigrated."
The air grew even heavier.
Meng Po lied. Empyrean Divine Feather said no such thing.
But if they wanted to survive this ordeal, they needed to give the man a direction, a reason to shift his focus elsewhere.
'Although I don't know the exact identity of this Lord, even he wouldn't be able to scour the millions worlds within the Mortal Realm. If he can't find it, then it's not our fault.' she thought to herself.
Kirin fell silent, his piercing gaze boring into her as if peeling back the layers of her soul. He did not trust her words entirely, yet the possibility alone was enough to warrant consideration.
The King of Hell, still kneeling on the ground, his eyes wide with disbelief, internally cursed Meng Po with all his might.
'You reckless old hag! Do you know what you've just done?!'
By uttering those words, she was basically telling this lord to spend countless eons searching for a single person within the millions of mortal worlds.
If this lord found out they lied to him… not just the two of them, but their entire lineages could be erased from existence.
'You absolute fool!'
If he had a jaw left to speak, he would have roared at her right there and then.
But now, all he could do was wait in silence as the silver-haired man made his decision.
"Use all the underworld's resources to search for my son in the Mortal Realm. If you don't find him within a million years, then all nine generations of your kin will be damned in the 18th Level of Hell to suffer for all eternity." Kirin said with a somber expression.
Without hesitation, he vanished. He didn't know exactly where Gray was, but he could sense his general direction.
The King of Hell and Meng Po felt as though they had been dragged from the very gates of death, collapsing in relief as the suffocating pressure of Kirin's presence disappeared.
The King of Hell's expression twisted in rage as he glared at Meng Po and jabbed a finger at her face,
"Yhhou—! Yhhhuu—! Hhhrrrhh drrrhh yhhhuu!" but without a lower jaw, his words were muffled and slurred.
Meng Po looked at the King of Hell in fear as her eye twitched.
She wanted to say the silver-haired man's strength was jaw-dropping… but at this rate, it might be her own jaw dropping to the ground in the next second.