Chapter 1: The Ancestor's Way, Zhang Jue.

Snowy night, Caoyan County railway station.

A young girl helped an elderly man out of the reception house:

"Grandpa, are you really okay? I should call Mom and ask her to send a car to take us to Jiangbei City. We don’t have to rush this train."

The old man, with a sickly face, showed a stubborn look: "I’m fine, no need to call your mom..."

As he spoke, his voice suddenly cut off without warning.

The girl turned back in confusion and saw that the grandfather, who had been stern yet kind, seemed to have changed into someone else.

His face was expressionless, and his eyes had lost all human emotion, as if he were dead. She touched his hand, which had instantly turned icy cold and stiff. Moreover, he was making strange 'gugu' sounds from his mouth.

"Ah, Grandpa, what’s wrong with you?"

The girl was startled, looking at her suddenly bizarre grandfather and instinctively took a few steps back.

The old man, as if not hearing her, began to walk aimlessly in the snow, his stiff limbs moving awkwardly, looking more like a zombie than a human.

"Grandpa, what’s wrong with you?"

The girl was both anxious and afraid. It was already midnight, and there was no one on the road. Although they were near the railway station, Caoyan County had a small population, and few people took the night train to Jiangbei. The road was empty and eerily quiet, and she was truly scared.

"No, I have to go get a doctor... Ah, a ghost."

The girl muttered and took out her phone to call, but when she turned back, she saw a man in black standing quietly behind her in the snowy night.

"Shh, don’t make a fuss."

The man in black said indifferently, not even looking at the girl.

The girl collapsed in the snow, terrified.

But seeing that the man in black was still breathing, she felt a bit more at ease. Observing him more closely, she saw that he was a young man with an ordinary face and a slender build, wearing a black windbreaker and carrying a suitcase, seemingly also on his way to catch the train.

The man in black looked at the bizarre old man with a faint interest: "Rare, very rare, to encounter someone with a rare case of a last burst of vitality."

The girl didn’t understand what the man in black was saying, but she mustered the courage to ask: "Can you, can you help me take my grandpa to the hospital?"

The man in black ignored her and continued to watch the old man walking in circles in the snow. Suddenly, a glint appeared in his right eye. After a moment, he sighed:

"I can’t help you save him. He’s getting his comeuppance."

"Huh?"

The girl was confused, not understanding what the man in black meant.

The man in black continued: "Is this your grandfather? He might have done evil deeds in his youth, which is why he’s plagued by strange illnesses in his old age. I never get involved in such karmic matters, so I can’t save him."

As he spoke, the man in black paused, a sudden thought flashing through his mind. Why not get a bit involved in his karma?

The girl, no longer as scared as before, felt a bit angry at the man in black’s words. "You’re the one who did evil deeds, you’re the one getting your comeuppance. What strange talk."

Just as she was about to protest, she saw the man in black step through the snow toward her grandfather.

The old man was still making 'gugu' sounds, but as the man in black approached, the sounds grew weaker. It was as if he had met his natural enemy. He now dared not even breathe, standing in the snow, trembling. The girl could see that her grandfather was terrified.

The man in black watched the old man for a while, then took out seven silver needles from his bag and, without hesitation, pierced them through the thick clothing into the old man’s heart. Finally, he said:

"Do what you can, and leave the rest to fate. I’ll only get a bit involved in your karma, keeping you alive but not saving you. Your life will be left to the will of heaven. You must take care of yourself."

With that, the man in black turned and walked away.

The old man remained in place, still expressionless, but tears streamed down his face. After a while, he fell backward into the snow, the bizarre expression gone, replaced by a long, peaceful breath and a serene face. But the girl couldn’t wake him up no matter what.

The girl, realizing what had happened, was extremely shocked. She turned back and saw that the man in black was already far away. She hurriedly chased after him and shouted:

"What’s your name?"

In the flying snow, a distant voice replied:

"The Ancestor's Way, Zhang Jue!"

"..."

Boarding the train to Jiangbei City, Zhang Jue watched the desolate night scenery of the countryside pass by the window. He couldn’t help but sigh, thinking about the manual left by his master. Decades ago, his first stop was also Jiangbei. He was finally following the path of history.

The Ancestor's Way, whose origins are unknown, has always had only forty-nine disciples. These forty-nine disciples spend their entire lives striving for one goal: to cultivate the Divine Eye. Whoever cultivates the Divine Eye can leave the mountain to travel and never return to the Ancestor's Mountain.

Cultivating the Divine Eye is extremely difficult, but once achieved, it is incredibly powerful. The left eye can see ghosts, revealing their lifetime of good and evil deeds, while the right eye can recognize people, discerning their life, aging, illness, and death. Therefore, every disciple of the Ancestor's Way is almost a reserve for the underworld, destined to become a judge in the afterlife.

However, getting to that position is not easy. Cultivating the Divine Eye only grants the qualification; the true standard is to accumulate merit points.

Thus, every generation of disciples who cultivate the Divine Eye goes down the mountain to travel, clearing away evil in the world and accumulating merit points. When the merit points are full, they will ascend to the underworld and immediately take up the position of judge.

However, Zhang Jue did not intend to cultivate merit points just for the sake of merit points. He also wanted to build connections. After reading the records left by previous judges, Zhang Jue discovered a shocking secret.

In the underworld, there are also various factions, and the size of the factions depends on the abilities of the souls under the jurisdiction of the judges. The greater the influence the souls had in their lifetimes, the more help they can provide to the judges.

Therefore, Zhang Jue took a different path from previous disciples of the Ancestor's Way—building connections in advance.

He wanted to cultivate merit points while building connections with various heroes in the human world. This way, when they died and went to the underworld, they could report to him, and he could easily incorporate them into his faction. This was undoubtedly a clever strategy.

'Clank, clank'

The train made a series of sounds, and Zhang Jue, with a smile, watched the scenery outside the window, which was now bright with the dawn. The outline of the city in the distance was faintly visible. Jiangbei City had arrived.

This trip to Jiangbei had a reason. When Zhang Jue first left the mountain, he was entrusted by the mountain guard to help an old friend in Jiangbei. Thinking that he had nowhere to stay when he first entered the human world, he took the contact information and rushed to Jiangbei.

Seeing the forest of steel and concrete for the first time, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t moved.

Zhang Jue was also a bit excited, smiling as he watched the bustling railway station platform, thinking to himself: As a reserve for the underworld, I will start my journey from this city.

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