From the Start as Zhong Kui: I Want to Become the King of the Underworld

A thousand years ago, Cui Xuan was still human, a refined and scholarly young man on his way to the capital to take the imperial examinations. A Taoist priest tricked him, and he was killed to serve as a sacrifice in a ghost marriage.

His resentment never faded. Over the next several decades, he became a vengeful ghost and slaughtered everyone in the village who had taken part in the ghost marriage. In the chaos, he even killed Zhong Kui.

When the King of Hell learned of this, he imprisoned Cui Xuan in the underworld for a thousand years.

A thousand years later, Cui Xuan cultivated into a demon, broke through the underworld's barriers, and returned to the human world. To escape the King of Hell's pursuit, he hid with his memories intact inside the body of a boy named Jiang He and was reborn. After his rebirth, Cui Xuan took the name Jiang Yuan.

With no one in the underworld to control the evil spirits, they began fleeing to the human world. The King of Hell was at a loss, so he captured the soul of the real Jiang Yuan in Cui Xuan's place and ordered Cui Xuan to take on the form of Zhong Kui, ruling over all the evil spirits in the world.

Cui Xuan thought it was a blessing in disguise. How could he turn down such a good deal? But if he was going to do it, he might as well go all the way. So he secretly altered the underworld's register and simply became the King of the Underworld.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.