Yama Rising

The sound of hissing and screeching rang out throughout the entire abyss, and tens of thousands of Qin Ye sank their fangs into Qin Ye's body in unison.

There were far too many of them to count, and seawater was still gushing down incessantly from the opening up above. The abyss was enormous, but at this point, a shallow black wave had already accumulated at its bottom.

Millions of snakes were flooding into the abyss, writhing and squirming incessantly, presenting a nightmarish sight for any sufferer of trypophobia. As soon as the snakes landed on the ground, they would immediately coil slightly before shooting up toward the ball of snakes in the sky like speeding arrows, making the ball larger and larger. In the span of no more than a minute, the ball had already expanded from over 50 meters in size to over 100 meters!

It was like a black sun that was constantly absorbing the surrounding sunlight, and at the center of the ball of snakes, a series of rings lit up all over their bodies as the azure netherfire ignited in their eyes. Immediately thereafter, a resounding boom rang out, and the enormous ball of snakes transformed into a massive ball of netherfire that was hanging in mid-air like an azure sun!

There was no higher thought governing their actions, only an instinctive urge to devour.

Everything in their wake had to be devoured, and they were the final guardians of this prison.

After burning for about five seconds, an earth-shattering boom suddenly erupted from the center of the scorching azure sun, followed by a chorus of sharp screeches as two humanoid figures shot out like lightning. Behind them, countless snakes were sent flying in all directions.

"These things really are monsters..." Qin Ye gritted his teeth tightly as he flew through the air, and his dragon robe was riddled with holes from the fangs of the satan snakes.

Kwon Kyung-ho was seated on his shoulder with a stunned expression. "What are those things? Even my ability isn't able to keep them at bay for long!"

Kwon Kyung-ho's special ability was Untouchable Love, which was able to keep all living beings from entering a 10-meter radius of him unless those living beings were more powerful than him, and at this point, he was only one step away from becoming an Abyssal Prefect.

Qin Ye cast an intense, unblinking gaze directly up ahead. He could already see the end of the darkness, where there was a massive mountain of pale flesh. That was Medes fleeing into the distance.

These satan snakes were clearly designed specifically for Medes, and Qin Ye couldn't help but be amazed by the ingenuity of the ancient gods of the past. These things would be extremely difficult for Medes to deal with. They were nothing more than mere ants for Medes, but with enough ants, even an elephant could be felled. However, Qin Ye wasn't as large and cumbersome as Medes, and he had his Dusk Legionnaire up his sleeve, so he was better equipped to deal with these snakes.

The only problem was that even Kwon Kyung-ho's special ability couldn't last very long against these things. It hadn't even been two minutes, and half of his array had already been devoured. These satan snakes were capable of devouring all things, and if Qin Ye hadn't done everything in his power to free himself from that massive ball of snakes, once Kwon Kyung-ho's array was completely worn down, he would most likely have to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

Right as he was rushing toward the passageway as quickly as she could, a loud crack suddenly rang out right beside him.

He immediately turned with an incredulous expression to look behind him.

The ceiling above the abyss, which was the floor of the hall up above, was finally unable to withstand the terrifying pressure, and it collapsed violently right in front of Qin Ye's astonished eyes.

As a result, countless more satan snakes flooded down into the abyss.

They were squirming and screeching as they instantly took up the entire abyss, frantically raising their heads as if they were trying to sense something.

"Fuck!" Qin Ye swore to himself before instantly fleeing without any hesitation.

It was also at this moment that everything behind him suddenly fell silent.

There were hundreds of millions of satan snakes behind him, and as soon as he sprang into action, all of them immediately turned toward him with their crimson eyes.

Almost immediately thereafter, Qin Ye felt a burst of incessant rumbling behind him, and he didn't even have to look to know that it was the sound of the countless satan snakes setting off in pursuit.

There was no time to turn around and look. Qin Ye had no idea where these things had come from, and they only possessed Netherworld Operative level power, but they were frighteningly fast.

Furthermore, Qin Ye's eruption of Yin energy had repelled all of the surrounding snakes, but not even a single one of them had been killed.

They were no different from the indestructible monsters from myths and legends, and their appetites were incredible! On top of that, they were extremely determined and refused to give up on any prey that they discovered.

They were the most terrifying and efficient killers that Qin Ye had ever seen.

Fierce wind was blowing past Qin Ye's ears as he followed Medes down the passageway like lightning.

The abyss was massive, and it resembled a beehive with countless branches and passageways. Without Medes leading the way, Qin Ye would have no idea where he was supposed to go. However, what was very strange to him was that Medes had stopped moving quite a while ago.

There was no time for him to consider why Medes had stopped moving. Within the short span of just half a minute, he had already blown right past Medes. In this situation, anyone who was lagging behind would be the ultimate victim. There was no need for him to outrun the snakes, he just had to outrun Medes in order to not fall prey to the snakes.

Right as he was passing by Medes, he took a quick glance at it, upon which his pupils instantly contracted slightly.

What he was looking at was indeed Medes.

Its giant body took up virtually the entire passageway. However, it was only a slough!

The giant eye had split open down the center, transforming into a bizarre eye-mouth, which was lined with sharp teeth.

The eyeball was no longer displaying any signs of life, and it had turned a deathly white color. However, Qin Ye had no idea where the thing inside it had gone.

Qin Ye took a deep breath before abruptly raising a hand. Right in front of the slough was a huge hole that was around 20 meters in size. His first instinct was to destroy this slough, yet right as he was about to unleash his Yin energy to do so, he suddenly paused momentarily, then flipped a palm over to send a chain plunging into the slough.

Immediately thereafter, he hurled the massive slough backward with violent force, sending it flying into the oncoming sea of satan snakes.

A bone-chilling chorus of crunching instantly rang out, while Qin Ye rushed into the hole without a single backward glance.

The hole was the only path ahead, so there was no way that he would be thrown off Medes's trail. Two minutes later, he found another slough.

This was a completely humanoid skeleton that was around 15 to 16 meters in height, and its entire body was riddled with bone spikes. While it was humanoid in form, every single bone was slightly different from human bones, and that culminated into something that bore no resemblance to a human skeleton at all.

In particular, the bone spikes on the back were so dense that they resembled a giant crystal cluster, each of which was seven to eight meters in length. Furthermore, its chest cavity had been torn wide open, and only bones were left.

It was constantly evolving, and evolution required time, so it didn't have any spare capacity to set up traps within the passageway.

Qin Ye took a deep breath before rushing deeper into the abyss as quickly as he could.

He was unable to travel at full speed within the passageway, and after 10 minutes, he could already hear the sound of faint screeching ringing out behind him. Thankfully, the sloughs that Medes had left behind were the perfect distractions for the satan snakes. After another 10 minutes passed by, Qin Ye finally caught sight of a speck of white light in the distance.

The exit was right up ahead!

Qin Ye felt as if he had been presented with a beacon with hope in the darkness of despair, and he immediately sped up. Three minutes later, he was able to identify the source of light as a gate that was wide open.

Mictlantecutli was engraved on the left side of the gate, while Mictetikasiwa was carved onto the right, and the gate was slowly closing.

At this point, the sea of satan snakes was still at least 500 meters behind him, and he would be safe as soon as he entered this gate.

He knew this because the satan snakes clearly couldn't devour rock. Otherwise, instead of chasing after him, they would be frantically devouring the abyss itself.

He rushed through the gate like lightning as a gust of Yin wind, and it was also in this instant that he caught sight of what lied beyond the gate.

He was greeted by the sight of countless skeletal crows that were hovering in mid-air, all of which were directly facing the gate, and in the instant that Qin Ye rushed through, all of them shot forth toward him in unison!

The countless crows obscured the entire sky, and the sound of them whistling through the air rang out incessantly. There wasn't any time to think at all as Qin Ye brandished Fate, and the tip of the pen opened up layer upon layer while expanding at the same time, transforming into a silver umbrella that was around three meters in size and completely shielded him behind it.

In the next instant, one crow after another flew headfirst into the umbrella in rapid succession, and the impact was so powerful that Fate was almost jerked out of Qin Ye's hand. What was even more concerning to him was that the continuous impact was creating a burst of powerful propulsion force that was slowly pushing him back toward the gate!

If he were pushed out of the gate, then he would meet certain doom in the form of the sea of satan snakes. In this dire situation, countless chains flew out of his sleeves, forming a dense net in front of him.

However, time was required to form the net, and there was no way for Qin Ye to inject all of his Yin energy into his Heavenly Dragnet in such a short time. Thus, a clear crack rang out as the Soul Shackles that he released shattered into clouds of Yin energy.

The storm of crows continued, and he was like a small raft in a tsunami, barely managing to keep itself afloat. However, the Heavenly Dragnet hadn't been completely ineffective as the crows also had to expend a sizable amount of Yin energy to burst through it. On this occasion, Qin Ye's body was shaking violently, but he was rooted firmly to the spot.

The gate was slowly closing, and time seemed to be passing by at an extremely sluggish pace. Qin Ye's mind was virtually completely blank, and his body was being governed by his survival instincts rather than his thoughts.

He knew that retreat wasn't an option, and that the only way was forward! He could already hear the hissing of the satan snakes coming from behind him!

The sea of snakes was definitely no more than 100 meters away from him at this point, and he didn't even dare to turn around to check how close the gate was to completely closing.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally heard a dull thump ring out from behind him, and he felt as if his heart had been released from a vice.

He heaved a long sigh of relief, and only now did he realize that his clothes were already drenched in sweat.

At the same time, the countless skeletal crows vanished in an instant.

His heart was still thumping violently, and he dabbed at the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve. He didn't need a mirror to know that this was definitely far from his best look.

With a flick of his wrist, Fate reverted back to its pen form, then flew into his sleeve, and he leaned back against the gate in a weary manner as he panted heavily.

He had come within inches of certain doom.

If he hadn't managed to withstand Medes's attack, he would've been pushed back outside of the gate.

Indeed, he was certain that he had been attacked. Having had a moment to collect his thoughts, he had already figured out everything that had just happened.

The stone gate was constructed from baleful soul rock, which was a type of A-grade material. It was very thick and had been enhanced by Yin runes, but for a Yama-King, it would only take less than half a minute to break through it.

Medes didn't close the stone gate before he had entered through it as it was concerned that Qin Ye would break through the stone gate in his desperation to get away from the satan snakes. If that had happened, then the gate wouldn't have been able to keep out the satan snakes, and both of them would die.

Thus, the best opportunity to strike was right when Qin Ye entered the gate. If Medes had managed to push Qin Ye out of the gate, then he wouldn't have had enough time to break through it before he was inundated by the sea of satan snakes. Furthermore, upon entering the gate, one would automatically be struck by a sense of complacency, thereby further helping Medes's cause.

This also served as a warning to Qin Ye, telling him that it was still a Yama-King, even though it had been sealed in this place for thousands of years, and that it didn't fear Qin Ye in battle.

"As expected, all Yama-Kings are sly old dogs!" His voice was a little hoarse, but there was no time to address that. He rose to his feet, and his top priority at this moment was to find out where he was.

As he inspected his surroundings, his pupils abruptly contracted slightly as he caught sight of a sword.

This was a sword that he had seen before, and it was only visible through the eye of the sun god.

An incredulous look appeared on his face as he murmured to himself, "Could this be... the origin site of the supercritical tide?!"