The Netherworld King and his Lover

Prologue

On a busy street.

A scholar with a comely appearance was squatting down in the crowd while looking at the corpse beside his feet, sighing in despair.

The face of the corpse was too horrible to look at due to the strong hit. There were two trails of blood flowing out from his eyes and another two under his nose. The body's eyes were wildly open like the eyes of a dead fish, which looked scary but also a bit funny.

"It's such a bummer that you have to walk in the middle of the street. Look what has happened! You were hit and killed by a coach! And dying with such a scary look, if someone you know sees your face, you might really want to come back to life right away."

The scholar criticised the corpse on the ground for being so disappointing. Then he started to sigh again.

"Alas, you can only blame your own foolishness. Why did you walk into their trap and go to steal that Phoenix Jade Pendant? They didn't catch you but you were still killed by a coach! How unfortunate is that!"

The scholar, eyes open wide, kept ignoring others in the crowd and added, "Even I feel ashamed for you!"

Right at this moment, a bunch of yamen runners ran toward this place. The crowd dispersed quickly in a bustle...

When the scholar saw the yamen runners, he made off right away like a rat seeing a cat.

That was his conditioned response over these years. And he had already gotten used to escaping.

After he had run to an empty alley with his black boots, he couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief seeing there was no officer following him.

"Great! Looks like it hasn't got around. And those officers didn't come here to catch me. But... Ha ha..."

Having let out a meaningful and weird laughter, the scholar threw out his chest.

"This is the best. Now that someone who looks exactly like me can be my scapegoat, those people must assume that I was already dead. Then they won't send so many people to catch me. God loves me so much!"

"I can't believe how lucky I am. I was hit by the coach and then came back to life! I wonder if I would die and be brought back to life again if that coach hits me again?"

The scholar muttered to himself with joy. However, he didn't realise that the valley in which he stood began to twist like it was alive.

"No, you won't. Because you are already dead."

All of a sudden, an icy cold voice sounded by the scholar's ear, so cold like it would drain all the warmth from one's soul.

The scholar turned around immediately. Then a man in white with coldness all over his body jumped into the scholar's clear eyes.

It was very obvious that the man in white had no expression on his face. There was a small bell being tied to the white canvas in his right hand. Right now, the bell was shaking violently while letting out loud clinks, as if it was pressing one's soul!

The scholar, having looked around, pointed to himself, "You were talking to me?"

"I'm pointing to whoever is pointed at by the bell!" The man in white still wore that poker face. However, if someone looked closely, he would find that the man in white was trying hard to hide the impatience in his icy eyes.

The scholar didn't understand the man's words. So he started to observe carefully at the bell. Then he found the bell a bit strange indeed. The mouth of the bell now faced toward him in an oblique angle. Although no one was shaking it, the bell was still shaking itself fiercely. As the scholar looked at the bell for so long, he even felt himself being attracted to it while getting dizzy and unable to concentrate.

"What do you call me for?" the scholar asked that with his pretty eyebrows raised.

"Take your soul!"

The man in white suddenly stared at the scholar's eyes while saying those words in a fierce voice. The only white part in his eyes was eroded by the black colour. He seemed like a dead man, with two hollow and terrified eyes.

The bell shook more and more violently along with the man's movement as if it was about to break someone's soul!

Then, the scholar only felt everything going black in front of his eyes. Before he closed his eyes, he saw the twisted face of the man in white as if he had owed the man money!

And the only thing the scholar wanted to say was, "I didn't owe you a penny!"

(aye..I'm back lmao)