I Was a Ghost Officer, but Now I Only Want a Promotion

I wield the Register of the Underworld as a ghost officer, commanding the power to seize souls. Everyone says the King of Hell is the supreme ruler of the netherworld, but to me, he is merely a stepping stone. The underworld is vast, and the Nine Hells are deep. Is that really the limit of my ambition? I want to break the Nine Hells’ shackles, shatter the chains between yin and yang, ascend to the realm of the Great Emperor, and rule the netherworlds of all realms. Only then will my lifelong wish be fulfilled. Now, in plain language: Beneath the underworld, beside the Yellow Springs, I was nothing more than a wage slave. By a stroke of luck, I entered the Bureau of Yin Affairs and became a ghost officer in the netherworld. I thought collecting souls would be a cool job, where all I had to do was follow the book and take spirits into custody. But while other ghost officers collect souls with a breezy “Heaven and Earth, hear my call,” and go through the motions with ease, I wanted to lie flat and slack off. But when it was my turn, I always got evil cultivators or vengeful ghosts, flying stiff corpses or painted-skin demons. Every assignment was a different kind of nightmare. Even my boss’s boss openly mocked me, saying I drew a ghost officer’s salary but did the work of a Netherworld General or an Underworld Marshal. Eventually, I came to understand: the only way to avoid all these petty hassles was to climb all the way to the top. From then on, King Yama was just the starting point. Emperor Fengdu became my ultimate goal. Years later, I held the Great Seal of Fengdu. Wherever I went, ghosts wailed and howled. The once-arrogant Ghost Kings and Ghost Immortals could only tremble before me. The evil forces that sought to disrupt the order of yin and yang would all be crushed by my hand. Emperor Fengdu is here! This is a declaration to all ghosts, and a vow to uphold order in the netherworld. All ghosts will bow and submit! From then on, I could travel freely between the worlds of yin and yang. All ghosts and demons were under my command.