"Dad, now you can tell me what happened!"
In the stretched RV, Yao Yao rested her little head on her small, soft hand, speaking softly.
Just now at the banquet, her dad didn't want to worry the family, so she obediently didn't ask.
Now that it was just the two of them in the car, to solve the problem, she naturally had to know what happened.
Gu Xuesong's face looked a bit grim at this moment. He said in a deep voice, "Something happened in Chúdong..."
Chúdong District was an area vigorously developed by the government in recent years. The Gu family, as a prominent family in the Imperial Capital, naturally wouldn't miss out on this "fat meat" and invested in many projects.
Among them was high-end residential communities like Jinxiu Huayuan.
Because the construction had been completed for some time, many residents had already moved into the buildings.
However, the bodyguard just now reported that all the residents in the entire Huayuan had disappeared.
Even the security guards patrolling the entrance were gone.
If it were just one or two households, it would be understandable, after all, working overtime out of town was no longer a rare occurrence in the Imperial Capital.
The problem was that there was no one in every household.
But the lights were on in the rooms, hot food was on the tables, and some TVs were even still on...
These people seemed to be doing normal things, yet they vanished into thin air, without any prior warning.
Huayuan was a high-end community, and property management staff regularly visited to give gifts. This time, they stumbled upon this situation and were almost scared to death.
Such a major incident was beyond the property management's capacity to bear, so they dared not conceal it and quickly reported it. This chain of messages eventually reached Gu Xuesong.
"This matter is probably not man-made!"
This was Gu Xuesong's first reaction upon learning of it.
And this was also why he called his daughter out with him. After all, if it truly involved ghosts and gods, coming alone wouldn't be effective at all.
"Everyone, vanished into thin air?" Yao Yao's expression also became serious after hearing her father's account.
One must know that ordinary fierce ghosts typically only harmed one or two people at most. Such large-scale disappearances of everyone were not something conventional methods could achieve.
"Things are a bit troublesome now. Yao Yao can't give you an answer yet, Dad. We'll have to see once we get there!"
Yao Yao didn't dare to speak too absolutely. After all, she had never encountered such a situation before, and without seeing it with her own eyes, she couldn't make a definitive judgment.
"Hmm, no rush. We'll just do our best."
Gu Xuesong nodded. He originally had no intention of forcing anything. Bringing his daughter along was just to see if there was any way.
...
The car drove quickly, reaching its destination half an hour later.
Yao Yao got out of the car. What met her eyes was a stone gate standing outside the community, with four large, gleaming golden characters "Jinxiu Huayuan" written on it in a flowing, serpentine script.
The sky was dark. Streaks of pale moonlight fell, reflecting on the pristine white snow, giving off an indescribable sense of coldness.
"General Gu, you... you've finally arrived!"
At this moment, a man in a military green overcoat, plump and round like a zongzi, ran over.
Clearly, he was the property manager of this villa area. He was also the first to discover the anomaly here.
"Mmm, tell me first, what's the specific situation? Be detailed."
Gu Xuesong nodded at the man. The information he had received was only a partial account, which was the nature of relayed messages.
Now that he was here, he naturally had to first inquire about the details of the matter clearly, so that he could also uncover useful specifics.
"Alright, General Gu, it all started when I began delivering gifts to each household..."
The property manager clearly knew he was facing a big boss, so he dared not conceal anything, pouring out everything he knew like beans.
The overall situation was naturally the same as what Gu Xuesong had initially heard. The detail was that there was a small advertisement pasted on the door of each household.
"What kind of advertisement? Do you have it with you?"
At such a crucial point, Gu Xuesong naturally knew what to ask. He frowned and asked.
"I have it..." The property manager nodded.
Then, he took out a red card from his pocket and handed it over.
Gu Xuesong reached out to take it, but was suddenly interrupted by his daughter beside him.
"Uncle, give it to me!"
"This..." The property manager was somewhat surprised by this little child who had suddenly spoken. He looked over, a little hesitant.
Gu Xuesong chuckled, "Give it to her. This is my daughter. She came with me. Whether this matter can be resolved depends on her!"
He didn't care about boosting his daughter's reputation and introduced her openly.
This left the property manager a bit speechless, but he cleverly asked no questions, transferring the card to the little girl before him.
Yao Yao pinched the card in her palm and found that it felt less like paper and more like metal.
She frowned. Her fingertips twirled with spiritual energy, then she wiped it over the card, and saw that the card actually began to fade.
A few breaths later, a yellow-backed card with red characters, a "Geng Tie," was revealed. These red characters intertwined like dragons and snakes, forming three large characters in small seal script: "King of Hell's Decree."
"This... this is?"
The property manager's eyes widened, clearly overwhelmed by this miraculous display of skill.
However, he didn't recognize the small seal script and couldn't understand its meaning, leaving him scratching his head.
Gu Xuesong, however, had a foundation in calligraphy. When he saw the characters on it, his eyelids twitched fiercely.
"Yao Yao, is this matter that serious?"
As someone with Chinese ancestry, the legend of the King of Hell was familiar to everyone.
If this was real, then he and his daughter could just go home, wash up, and go to sleep right now.
Gu Xuesong quickly realized something was wrong. These residents were ordinary people. How could they have provoked such a mighty figure as the King of Hell?
And his conjecture was quickly confirmed when he heard his daughter speak crisply.
"Dad, this is a fake King of Hell!"
As soon as she said this, Gu Xuesong was stunned. Could there be a "real" and "fake" King of Hell?
Yao Yao's eyes also sparkled. In fact, calling him a "fake King of Hell" was giving him too much credit.
The King of Hell, as a righteous deity of heaven and earth, wielded authority over the Yama Palace. Naturally, there was only one.
But there wasn't necessarily only one underworld. If a great ghost died with bitter resentment, coupled with a special environment, it could form the spectacle of an "upside-down underworld."
The "underworld" formed in this way was also called a "small underworld."
That great ghost, at the center of the resentment, might presumptuously call itself a "fake King of Hell," and thus possess a so-called "King of Hell's Decree."
If it was an upside-down underworld, then the sudden disappearance of the people in the community could be explained.
Because within the scope of the small underworld, it was equivalent to a separate ghost realm, independent of the mortal world. Outsiders would naturally not be able to see them.
This was what Yao Yao had deduced from this Geng Tie. As for whether it was truly the case?
That was easy to say. She would know once she went in and verified it.
If she were merely a Xuan Master, venturing alone into an upside-down underworld, she might still face some danger.
But she wasn't just one identity. The Jade Tablet of the Underworld was enough to allow her to suppress that "fake King of Hell."
If it truly dared to wield the authority of the underworld, Yao Yao's lips curved into a playful smirk.
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