All Chapters of Apocalypse Temple: I Rebuilt the Underworld with Incense: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The first drumbeat came from under the morgue floor.Then another.Then another.Slow.Ceremonial.Hungry.Ava stared at the red paper in my mother's coffin.Her recovered vow fragment glowed under her skin, fighting the sound."No," she whispered.Judge Xue's face did not change.The next trouble came through the side door, where bad news usually entered. In Saint Agnes and the morgue, symbols had weight. It stained sleeves, cracked floors, moved through crowds, and made ordinary people choose sides before they understood the question. The cold incense smoke pressed against every window while wet footsteps marked the next turn of the case. Nothing about the Hospital Gate felt clean. It felt like another emergency arriving before the last one had been wiped off the stones."The corrupted corpse marriage remains attached to the threshold vow. Daniel Hart used witness status to claim groom status after death.""Daniel didn't use anything," Ava snapped. "Something used him.""That is pos

Zhao Feng stepped in front of me."I object."Judge Xue turned slightly."On what grounds?""I don't like him.""Noted. Overruled.""Worth trying."Daniel dragged himself fully from the floor.Water streamed off him, but the morgue did not flood.It waited around his feet like obedient darkness.The next trouble arrived with dirt under its nails. In Saint Agnes and the morgue, symbols had weight. It stained sleeves, cracked floors, moved through crowds, and made ordinary people choose sides before they understood the question. The blue altar fire pressed against every window while a court tablet striking wood marked the next turn of the case. Nothing about the Hospital Gate felt clean. It felt like another emergency arriving before the last one had been wiped off the stones.He looked at Ava as if no one else existed.For a second, grief softened his face.Then the red stitches pulled his mouth wider."They told me you would be cold when you returned."Ava lifted her chin."Who told y

Seeing my shadow without me was indecent.It stood beside the filing cabinet like a witness called by the wrong side.Tall.Silent.Mine in outline.Not mine in obedience.My shoulder throbbed.Ava's shoulder throbbed with it.She saw the shadow and went very still.The next trouble came through the side door, where bad news usually entered. In Saint Agnes and the morgue, symbols had weight. It stained sleeves, cracked floors, moved through crowds, and made ordinary people choose sides before they understood the question. The ash-light pressed against every window while a dead radio marked the next turn of the case. Nothing about the Hospital Gate felt clean. It felt like another emergency arriving before the last one had been wiped off the stones."That came from you?""Unfortunately.""Can you take it back?"The shadow turned its head.The air around it tasted like morgue frost and unanswered prayers."I don't think it wants to be taken."[Lost shadow detected.][Current custody: Be

Ava did not flinch."I am not keeping him," she said.She stepped away from me even though the Bride Law punished both of us with a lash of pain.Her knees nearly buckled.She stayed standing."And he is not keeping me."The court listened.That was the first useful thing it had done.The next trouble arrived with dirt under its nails. In Saint Agnes and the morgue, symbols had weight. It stained sleeves, cracked floors, moved through crowds, and made ordinary people choose sides before they understood the question. The freeway dust pressed against every window while paper wings marked the next turn of the case. Nothing about the Hospital Gate felt clean. It felt like another emergency arriving before the last one had been wiped off the stones.Daniel knelt on the flooded tiles, red thread spilling from his back like veins.Without the shadow pressing him down, his face looked younger."I did love you," he said to Ava.Her expression broke for half a second.Then she rebuilt it."I kn

My mother's face hovered in the gold fire.Not the projection.Not the administrator warning.A face.A borrowed remnant the Morgue Queen had kept hidden under all the others.My father tried to sit up."Mei."The next trouble came through the side door, where bad news usually entered. In Saint Agnes and the morgue, symbols had weight. It stained sleeves, cracked floors, moved through crowds, and made ordinary people choose sides before they understood the question. The black rain pressed against every window while a temple bell marked the next turn of the case. Nothing about the Hospital Gate felt clean. It felt like another emergency arriving before the last one had been wiped off the stones.The face turned toward him.For one unbearable second, her eyes softened.Then red system text cut across her skin.[Administrator fragment detected.][Integrity: 12%.][Message pending.]I could not move.Ava did.The immediate problem was a gate-rule that sounded merciful until someone read t