Old Ancestor Su was utterly bewildered. “What’s going on? What happened? Is it our turn to be reincarnated?”
“What’s going on? Look at what your fine descendants have done!” Yama’s anger made every ghost in the Netherworld tremble with fear.
The already chilly Netherworld now radiated an overwhelming pressure.
The Su Family ancestors, upon seeing Yama, huddled in a corner trembling like the ghosts they were.
Yama projected a scene: a little child was lighting incense, preparing to worship them.
“That child looks so familiar… I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before…”
“Wait, isn’t that Qing Jie! The Little Judge who’s not even knee-high! Aaaah!!” The Middle Ancestor of the Su Family recognized Qing Bao immediately, covering his face and screaming.
He was the one who’d had two holes poked in his knees by Qing Bao’s Judge’s Brush, and he’d once told everyone in the Netherworld:
“Joke around all you want, but don’t you dare mess with Qing Jie!”
The Youngest Ancestor of the Su Family was also horrified: “Holy crap, it’s true that Qing Jie is my great-granddaughter, but how can she worship me! I don’t deserve this!”
The three Su Family ancestors were frantic with anxiety.
“What would happen to us if Qing Jie bowed to us?” Old Ancestor Su hurriedly asked.
“If your accumulated virtue over a hundred years isn’t enough to offset it, you’ll have to wait another hundred years to be reincarnated,” Yama said angrily.
After speaking, he ordered Ox-Head and Horse-Face to give each of them a lash with a whip.
He was furious. The good baby he had raised in the Netherworld for ten years was actually being bullied by the descendants of these three old fools.
“I’m giving you one chance to return to the mortal world now. If you dare let my good baby suffer any grievances, beware—I’ll send you to the eighteenth level, where you’ll work as beasts of burden for all eternity!”
The three Su Family ancestors were nearly scared out of their wits!
Work for all eternity?
Isn’t being Ox-Head and Horse-Face bad enough? Now we have to be beasts of burden too?
This is literally the most terrifying thing a ghost could experience!
The Su Family ancestors kowtowed frantically, begging Yama to send them back immediately.
Finally, the three ancestors returned to their spirit tablets, bruised and battered.
They arrived just in time to see Qing Bao about to kneel!
“Stop! No! Hold your legs! Hold your legs!!!” The Middle Ancestor screamed desperately.
Because Qing Bao had already raised the incense above her head.
Such a person, they generally called a “juren” (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations)!
The next moment.
A yin wind blew through, straightening Qing Bao’s small body stiffly upright, leaving the little one utterly bewildered.
Huh? Those three old fools moved so fast?
“What are you standing there for? Don’t tell me you don’t want to kneel!” Su Xiao urged.
Beside him, Su Mengmeng said with eager eyes, “Qing Bao Jie, those are our ancestors. Even if you don’t want to kneel, you have to. You can’t be willful.”
Clan Leader: “If you don’t kneel now, I’ll remove you from the family registry!”
At the same time.
Su Xiao, who had just taken a step forward, was immediately swept away by a yin wind and slammed into a pillar.
The Clan Leader’s face was slapped with a loud “smack,” though no one knew who did it.
Su Mengmeng didn’t fare any better—she was kicked and forced to her knees, her knees bruised and swollen.
With such strange occurrences suddenly happening in the ancestral hall, the Clan Leader was enraged. “Who was it? Who did this? Show yourself!!!”
The next instant.
The spirits of the three ancestors slowly materialized before everyone.
The Old Middle Ancestor angrily shouted, “I did it. So what? Do you want to come down here and find me?”
As soon as these words were spoken.
The Clan Leader raised his head to look and was instantly so terrified his legs went weak, his soul nearly fleeing his body. “Great-grandfather! Great-grandfather has manifested!!!”
The crowd, already thoroughly frightened, glanced at the appearances of the three ancestors, then at the portraits, and promptly knelt down, shouting that the ancestors had manifested.
Even the blind man was startled. How had three generations of ancestors suddenly appeared out of nowhere?
“All of you, stay on your knees! Not a single one of you is allowed to get up!” The middle-generation ancestor had a fiery temper.
He drifted past each clansman one by one, delivering a crisp slap to each.
He gave Su Xiao two slaps.
Finally, he unleashed the “Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms” on the Clan Leader!
He beat the Clan Leader until his face was bruised and swollen, making him look exactly like them.
“Great-grandfather, why are you hitting us?” a clansman asked, full of grievance.
The Clan Leader, covering his face, added, “What did we do wrong? Su Xiao has returned with military honors, bringing glory to our ancestors!”
“You still have the nerve to ask!” The Su ancestor pointed to the injuries on his own face. “You, look up at my face!”
The Clan Leader looked and saw that all three ancestors had bruised and swollen faces!
“Who did this! Who dared to beat you in the underworld? We won’t let them get away with it!” The Clan Leader had intended to flatter them.
Instead, he was kicked to the ground by the middle-generation Su ancestor, unable to even flip over.
Su Xiao looked utterly bewildered. “Grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, what’s going on?”
“Hmph? What’s going on?” Su Xiao’s grandfather, the youngest-generation Su ancestor, snorted coldly, drifted over, and grabbed Su Xiao by the hair, forcing him to turn and look at Qing Bao.
Qing Bao, tiny as she was, stood right in front of the three ancestors.
“She’s your daughter, right?” the youngest Su ancestor asked.
Su Xiao, still dazed, nodded. “Yes, so what?”
“And you forced her to kneel and worship us, right?”
“Yes, so what?”
“I’m beating you for that, you useless fool! You think you’re hot stuff just because you earned some military honors? How dare you force your own daughter to kneel? Do you even know that Qing Bao is—”
At this point, the youngest Su ancestor abruptly shut his mouth.
Before coming up, Yama had warned them not to reveal Qing Jie’s identity, or they’d be beaten too.
“Do you even know that by forcing Qing Bao to kneel, you’ve brought disaster upon us?”
The youngest and middle-generation Su ancestors took turns beating Su Xiao in a mixed doubles assault.
Su Xiao howled in agony.
The clansmen present were stunned, and some of the more timid ones were even scared to tears.
“What in the world is going on? Why would Qing Bao kneeling bring disaster upon you?” the Clan Leader sobbed, asking through tears.
He was currently being held down by the eldest Su ancestor, who was banging his head against the altar with loud thuds.
“Qing Bao is blessed with immense fortune. We can’t bear her worship! And you lot actually forced her to kneel? Do you want us to be beaten to death down below?”
The eldest Su ancestor cursed in fury.
They were living peacefully until suddenly someone showed up and beat them up. Who would be happy about that?
And it was so close!
They were this close to losing three generations’ worth of accumulated merits!
It was truly terrifying!!!
“Qing Bao, quickly explain to the ancestors that you did it voluntarily, that we didn’t force you to kneel!” Su Xiao was almost crying from the pain.
It wasn’t just physical pain—it was the agony of his soul being dragged out and whipped by the ancestors, leaving him trembling and terrified.
Qing Bao tossed the incense in her hand aside and planted her hands on her little belly.
Her chubby face was full of impatience: “Didn’t you say you’d take responsibility if anything happened? Why are you trying to blame me again?”
She certainly wouldn’t take the blame for others.
She had repeatedly said she couldn’t bow, yet they still forced her to do so.
Since they couldn’t understand human language, perhaps they should listen to ghostly words instead.
The little one lifted her round face and looked toward the three ancestors of the Su Family.
The three ancestors trembled all over in fear, hastily retreating several steps, afraid that Qing Bao would poke their knees.
Ancestor Su shuddered and cautiously asked:
“Qing… Qing Jie… Is there something you need to instruct?”