The pillars of mystic gold light falling from the Nine Heavens, carrying a terrifying pressure that tore through the void, smashed directly into the entrance of the Netherworld.

  Auspicious clouds rolled, and thousands of streaks of auspicious aura appeared. Accompanied by a grand and ethereal symphony of immortal music, the Celestial Court's "Lower Realm Special Inspection Group" officially descended.

  The pageantry of this team was flamboyant to the extreme.

  The two leading Golden-Armored Heavenly Gods—the Heaven-Patrolling Commander and the Demon-Suppressing Heavenly General—were a full three *zhang* (thirty feet) tall. They wore "Radiant Sun Bright Armor" forged from stellar cores. Blinding golden runes flowed across the armor's surface, illuminating a radius of several miles as bright as day, even in a place like the Netherworld that hadn't seen the sun all year round.

  The soles of their feet did not touch the ground, but stepped on two golden auspicious clouds condensed from pure immortal energy, floating three feet in the air. Because in their eyes, the soil of the Netherworld was filled with filth and death energy; if it stained their Cloud-Ascending Boots, it would simply be a blasphemy against the majesty of the Celestial Court.

  Behind them followed exactly five hundred silver-armored Heavenly Soldiers, holding "Silence and Evade" placards carved with heavenly laws and decrees, Demon-Binding Ropes, and torture instruments from the Immortal Execution Terrace.

  "A foul atmosphere, completely improper!"

  The Heaven-Patrolling Commander waved the jade whisk in his hand with disgust, attempting to disperse the smell in the air—a mixture of machine oil, sulfur, and high-frequency static electricity.

  "Transmit my general's dharma decree! Order the Ten Kings of Yama to immediately come out of the city and kneel in welcome, and clearly explain the origin of that heretical energy!"

  The Demon-Suppressing Heavenly General let out a full-bodied shout. The sound wave, mixed with divine might, swept toward the direction of the Ghost Gate like rolling muffled thunder.

  However, three seconds passed.

  There was no terrified kneeling welcome, no apology from King Yama, not even a traditional guiding imp coming out to announce them.

  The two Heavenly Gods frowned. This was not what was written in their script.

  They dispelled the auspicious clouds and arrogantly pushed forward, arriving in front of the Ghost Gate.

  Then, their brains experienced their first "overload crash" of the lower realm inspection.

  The originally gloomy and terrifying bronze archway, hung with skulls and carved with the four bloody characters "Netherworld," was gone.

  In its place was a massive cyberpunk-style security checkpoint cast entirely from black alloy. Above the door hung an extremely blinding red and blue neon sign, with a holographic projection scrolling a few large characters:

  [New Netherworld Comprehensive Hub · Ghost Gate (Automated Customs Station)]

  The Demon-Suppressing Heavenly General was stunned. He rubbed his eyes and pointed at the rows of pitch-black metal tubes on the city wall:

  "What... what are those? When did the Netherworld's city defense magical artifacts turn into such a state?"

  As if sensing the approach of high-energy divine units, the servo motors of those rows of M134 Vulcan Miniguns (DOOM Modded Version) emitted faint "zzzt" sounds. The barrels slowly rotated, and red infrared locking lasers intertwined instantly like a dense net over the inspection group.

  [Beep—Unregistered high-energy entities detected. Please show your customs jade tablet or scan the QR code to register, otherwise the firepower expulsion protocol will be activated.]

  A cold, synthesized electronic voice came from the loudspeakers on the city wall.

  "Insolent!"

  The Heaven-Patrolling Commander flew into a rage. A mere Netherworld actually dared to point these unknown "iron tubes" with absolutely no spiritual energy fluctuations at orthodox gods of the Celestial Court? And they wanted them to scan some code?

  Just as he was about to wave his magical artifact to smash these iron lumps, the silver-armored Heavenly Soldiers behind him suddenly let out a cry of alarm.

  "Lord Commander! Look to the left quickly!"

  Following the direction of the Heavenly Soldier's finger, they saw the "Yellow Springs Road" that used to be muddy, infested with evil ghosts, and could peel a layer of skin off anyone who walked it once.

  Now, there was a superconducting maglev track emitting a faint blue magnetic glow.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  *Whoosh——————!!!*

  A streamlined train, a mixture of white bone and mysterious iron, fully loaded with ghosts, whizzed past the Heavenly Gods' cheeks at a terrifying speed of 600 kilometers per hour.

  The violent airflow whipped up by the train directly blew the five hundred silver-armored Heavenly Soldiers off balance, even blowing the red tassel on the Heaven-Patrolling Commander's helmet into a messy bird's nest.

  "This... what kind of demonic beast is this metal centipede?!" The Demon-Suppressing Heavenly General gasped, the long halberd in his hand trembling madly.

  No one answered them.

  The special inspection group could only suppress the dizzying sensation of their worldviews collapsing and force themselves to push further inside. Since the key high-level personnel (King Yama, Singularity) were all in the control room at the bottom layer of the Abyss, they had to start inspecting from the first layer of the Netherworld all the way down.

  When they arrived at the former Hall of King Yama, their brain overload index reached a critical point.

  The legendary indestructible black iron doors had vanished into thin air, replaced by two cheap automatic sliding glass doors.

  "Ding-dong—Welcome to the Yama Hall Comprehensive Office Lobby."

  Inside the hall, there was no majestic court session, no terrifying torture instruments.

  There were only dozens of low-level Ghost Messenger engineers wearing Black and White Impermanence uniforms, anti-blue light glasses, and dark circles under their eyes like pandas. They were slumped in ergonomic chairs, frantically typing code on the Heavenly Dao Tablets in front of them, muttering in despair:

  "The progress bar is stuck at 99%... The protocols for the Abyss interface are conflicting again... If I work another overtime shift, my soul is really going to scatter..."

  The Heaven-Patrolling Commander slammed his staff heavily on the ground, attempting to awe these mortal ghosts with his divine might: "Insolent! The Celestial Court Special Inspection Group is here! Where is King Qinguang?!"

  A Ghost Messenger engineer closest to him, sporting messy hair like dry grass, looked up with extreme impatience, his bloodshot eyes staring dead at this Golden-Armored Heavenly God.

  "Can't you see we're rushing a deadline? If the interface to the Abyss disconnects, Lord Singularity will stuff us into a centrifuge and juice us! If you want to find King Yama, go down to negative level eighteen yourself! Don't block my WiFi signal here!"

  After speaking, the engineer directly pulled down a soundproof partition and continued frantically typing on the keyboard, completely ignoring this group of glittering Heavenly Gods.

  "You—!"

  The Heaven-Patrolling Commander trembled all over with anger, nearly spurting a mouthful of divine blood.

  "Rebellion! Total rebellion! Not only are the buildings in this Netherworld illegal, but even the laws and social order have completely collapsed!"

  "Let's go! To the Eighteenth Layer of Hell! I want to see exactly what they are up to down there!"

  The special inspection group rushed exasperatedly toward the entrance of Hell behind the main hall.

  When they arrived at the first layer (formerly the Hell of Tongue Ripping).

  They stopped in their tracks.

  Five hundred Heavenly Soldiers, two Heavenly Gods, all fell into a deathly silence.

  Before them, there were no layers upon layers of torture chambers, no complex labyrinths.

  There was only a "vertical shaft" ten meters in diameter, with edges as smooth as a mirror, going straight down, bottomless.

  This shaft had been forcefully "burned" out using an extremely violent, pure destructive energy (BFG), directly penetrating the physical structure and spatial laws of the Netherworld.

  Along the edges of the shaft, densely packed cooling pipes, fiber optic cables, and data transmission lines were laid out.

  "This... what kind of mighty power is this..." The Demon-Suppressing Heavenly General's voice trembled. Feeling the residual, though faint, yet outrageously pure violent aura on the cave walls, even the divine weapon in his hand hummed in fear.

  "Did they... punch through the foundation of the Netherworld? Skewering the Eighteen Layers of Hell into a tanghulu (candied hawthorn stick)?!"

  ...

  Abyss Outpost, Portal Vault.

  That mystic golden rift had expanded to a size large enough to allow several people to pass through side by side.

  The Celestial Court's nauseating, high-and-mighty "immortal aura" was continuously pouring into the scorched earth of the Abyss.

  The Slayer still stood on that suspended stone slab.

  His body had not a single superfluous movement, like a statue cast from killing intent.

  But if one got closer, one could hear the "Abyss Demon Dragon · Praetor Suit" on his body making extremely dangerous "clack clack" sounds.

  That was the sound of extremely expanding muscles, tense to the absolute limit, causing friction against the high-strength armor.

  The dark black dragon scales on the surface of the armor were now completely standing on end, the edges of every scale burning with volatile Hellfire.

  In his left iron gauntlet, for some unknown time, he had been gripping a hard Abyss Magic Crystal.

  *Crunch——poof.*

  Without using any weapons, purely relying on grip strength, that magic crystal capable of withstanding armor-piercing rounds was forcefully crushed into extremely fine powder in his palm, falling rustling down through his fingers.

  Anger.

  Pure anger without any impurities.

  There was no why, no need for a reason. As long as that hypocritical light dared to shine on his face, as long as that aura calling itself a "God" dared to invade his hunting ground.

  Kill.

  The Slayer's arm muscles suddenly tensed, slowly raising the modded Super Shotgun. The muzzle, with an absolutely steady posture, locked dead onto that mystic golden rift.

  He was waiting.

  Waiting for the instant the prey poked its head out.

  ...

  Netherworld, Negative Eighteenth Layer, Control Center.

  Daoist Singularity slumped in his chair, looking at the surveillance screens.

  The left screen showed the Celestial Court special inspection group—blindly glittering like headless flies—preparing to descend along that "BFG Vertical Shaft."

  The right screen showed the Slayer—already entered a state of absolute berserk rage, muzzle charged to the limit, ready to blast a huge hole in the sky at any moment.

  And in the bottom right corner of the tablet in front of Singularity, that [Celestial Court Debt Collection Text Message] was still stubbornly flashing.

  "It's over..."

  Singularity covered his face, his voice filled with a sense of powerlessness toward the impending destruction.

  "Next Chapter: The Slayer's Instinct."

  "These high lords of the Celestial Court think they are imperial envoys inspecting their territory. But they have absolutely no idea that at the end of this vertical shaft, at the entrance of the Abyss..."

  "What they are facing is not some subordinate who embezzled public funds at all."

  "But a... living natural disaster... who is just worrying about having no monsters to kill and absolutely hates being disturbed."