Yama Rising

"It's about time you left," the muscular man said as he stood in front of Heilonggou.

The Many-faced God finally rose to his feet before heaving a faint sigh of relief. "Looks like I was overthinking things."

From the bottom of Heilonggou, countless Yin souls were wailing as they rose up toward the sky, and countless specks of netherfire were emerging from the depths, making it appear as if a galaxy of stars were rising up from the abyss.

The Many-faced God's brows furrowed slightly as he said, "I just can't shake this feeling of unease... I've had this feeling ever since I returned from the Land of Origins."

The muscular man didn't say anything. He knew that at their level, a premonition of danger was something that couldn't be ignored, and that it could often save them from lethal danger.

"There's no need to worry anymore," he said as he peered deep into the abyss. "Even now, no further darkfeathers have appeared, and that's enough to prove that you haven't been tracked down. The darkfeathers that appeared before this only came here by chance."

The Many-faced God nodded in response before heaving a faint sigh. "It's a pity that after I leave, it'll most likely be decades before I can return to this place. The closing of the Yin Yang Mezzanines will definitely alert Hell to the fact that something's happening here."

"We can afford to wait for a few decades," the muscular man said in an indifferent voice.

The Many-faced God didn't say anything further, and his body abruptly disintegrated into Yin energy before vanishing on the spot.

Unbeknownst to him, right after his departure, the muscular man heaved a sigh of relief before spreading open his palm to take a look, upon which it was revealed that his hands were already clammy with cold sweat.

"Where did this old monster come from?" He cast a fearful gaze toward the direction that the inner demon had just departed in. "He's so familiar with our past, to the point that he was able to retell our story to a tee! That would be impossible unless he's lived thousands of years! It's most likely lived even longer than we have!"

All of a sudden, his pupils contracted slightly.

He could sense that the Many-faced God's Yin energy had faltered slightly in mid-air, as if it were... hesitating?

At this moment, he was situated right above the center of Yuncheng.

In the next instant, the Yin energy abruptly descended from above!

"What the hell is going on?" The muscular man was completely astonished by this turn of events.

What could've possibly convinced a being of the Many-faced God's caliber to stay?

……………………………………

"It's a pleasure working with you." In the cafe of the Crown Hotel, Bai Liangping raised his coffee cup before touching it to Li Zhengkai's cup.

Not only had he completely offloaded the Mount Tianmu project, he was going to receive 15% of 1.2 billion USD, which equated to 180 million USD in customs clearance fees!

If it were only 180 million renminbi, that wouldn't have been enough to tempt him as the risk and reward simply didn't match up. However, even if his political career were to end at this very moment, 180 million USD would be enough to ensure a life of luxury.

He had to admit that Li Zhengkai was very well prepared and knew how to present a compelling case. If it weren't for the fact that he had to return to Hong Kong soon, Bai Liangping would've continued the negotiations longer so that he could figure out what this Li Zhengkai was all about, but this was a great outcome as well.

There was no written contract, only a verbal agreement. Even if the deal were to fall through or Li Zhengkai refused to acknowledge that an agreement had ever been made, Bai Liangping wouldn't lose anything.

There was no way that a money-laundering corporation based in Hong Kong would be able to do anything to a mayor of Cathay!

"I must say that I'm quite surprised by how decisive you are, Mayor Bai," Li Zhengkai said. "I was already prepared for the negotiations to fail, so this was actually a rather unexpected, albeit pleasant, outcome. I was invited to Yuncheng by my cousin, and I was originally planning to launder this sum of money in Hong Kong."

Bai Liangping turned to Li Lianshun with a smile, and he suddenly felt like Li Lianshun wasn't so detestable after all.

"Isn't this going to cause any trouble for you, Mayor Bai?"

"There will be some trouble, but I have it under control," Bai Liangping replied. "The central government encourages some people to pursue wealth, so this abides by national policy."

"Well said, Mayor Bai. Let's drink to national policy."

The two coffee cups came together once again, and it was also right at this moment that the entire sky above the hotel suddenly fell dark.

"The weather is a fickle mistress, it can change at the drop of a hat," Li Zhengkai remarked. "It was bright and sunny not long, then all that mist descended upon the city, and now..."

Before he had a chance to finish, the entire hotel began to tremble violently as if it were experiencing an earthquake.

A panicked commotion immediately rang out, and at the same time, all the light fixtures were snuffed out in unison!

…………………………

Bai Liangping awoke with a splitting headache. The earthquake had arrived too abruptly, and he had lost his footing. As he fell down, his forehead had banged into the armrest of the sofa.

He gently massaged his throbbing forehead, and he couldn't help but lament his own misfortune. Aside from Li Zhengkai, who had sprung up out of the blue to take the Mount Tianmu project off his hands, the entire day had been haunted by bad luck.

His hands were frantically roaming over the ground in search of his glasses, and the surrounding area was completely silent. The darkness was so absolute that he couldn't even see his own hands, and he was feeling quite uneasy as he could sense that something seemed to be right beside him.

After a few seconds of searching, he finally found his glasses, but in the instant that he put them on, his entire body shuddered, following which he cast his gaze forward with an incredulous expression.

No more than half a meter in front of him, he could see another figure who was identical to him!

He knew that he had to be looking quite disheveled at this moment. His hair was ruffled, and his clothes were also in slight disarray, but the mirror image of himself was completely impeccable in both hair and attire. Furthermore, the figure was smiling at him with a sinister expression!

"Arrrrgh!" Bai Liangping screamed as he sprang up to his feet, then frantically backtracked as he looked at the mirror image of himself with a horrified expression. "Who are you?! What do you want from me?!"

The Bai Liangping across from him offered no reply, and his body began to slowly slither along the ground like a snake. As he advanced along the ground, his body began to rot, and by the time he had covered a meter of ground, all 10 of his fingers had already fallen off!

"Arrrrgh!" Bai Liangping buried his fingers into his own hair before grabbing at their roots, and his face was twisted with horror as he screamed with all his might, "Secretary Zhang!! Li Lianshun!! Where are you?!"

However, there was no reply.

His voice echoed through the darkness, and that was the only sound that he could hear.

The "Bai Liangping" in front of him was still slithering forward, and he was also continuing to rot rapidly. At this point, his entire body had already melted like a candle, and his eyeballs had fallen onto the ground.

Only his mouth remained intact, and it was still maintaining the same sinister smile.

"Such delicious desire... I've lived for thousands of years and traveled to countless places, but the only one I can think of who had desire comparable with yours was He Shen from the Qing Dynasty... I can't pass up such a rare delicacy... Look at the desires in your heart! They're rejoicing, welcoming me!"

As soon as his voice trailed off, countless mirrors suddenly appeared in the darkness.

They were countless windows that were connected together, and a black and white photograph was depicted within them.

Bai Liangping was seated at the center of the photograph, wearing a shroud, and there were several figures identical to him gathered beside him! All of them had blood flowing out of all of their orifices, and behind the Bai Liangping in the shroud, another Bai Liangping whose head had twisted to ninety degrees and was melting away like wax had his arms around Bai Liangping's neck in a gruesome embrace!

"ARRRGH!!!"

………………………………………………

Inside the hotel, Li Zhengkai and the others had all fallen to the ground due to the earthquake that had just taken place, and right at this moment, a sharp screeching sound rang out from their watches in unison.

Li Zhengkai pulled back his sleeve to take a look, then hurriedly cast his gaze forward to find Bai Liangping with his head raised and his mouth gaped open, staring into empty space while trembling uncontrollably.

It was as if he were looking at an extremely terrifying being!

"It's here!" Li Zhengkai roared, then immediately sprang to his feet before hiding behind the counter without any hesitation.

It was also at this exact same moment that boundless Yin energy emerged out of thin air before gushing into Bai Liangping's seven orifices in a frenzy, quickly swelling up his entire body like a balloon.

All of the buildings within a radius of roughly a kilometer around the Crown Hotel all began to tremble violently!

What kind of monster is this?!

Li Zhengkai gritted his teeth tightly as he pressed a button on his watch.

Meanwhile, four men and women raised their heads in unison in Yuncheng, among which were the long-haired man and the muscular man.

They were all staring in a certain direction with astonished expressions, and only after a long while did they return to their senses.

"What incredible power... He's even more powerful than our king was at his peak!"

"What on earth is he supposed to be?! Why have we never heard of him?!"

At the same time, Qin Ye, who was still enveloped within countless paper figures, abruptly raised his head before turning to his watch with a stunned expression.

A red dot was buzzing incessantly on his watch, and a row of purple numbers was flashing rapidly.

One billion... Two billion... Three billion!

The rate of increase showed no signs of slowing down, as if it would increase infinitely!

"The inner demon is performing a diving descent!" he exclaimed.

He had thought that everything was under his control, but now that this was actually happening, he was at a slight loss for what to do.

The mortal realm really had succeeded!

He didn't know what they had done or who they had used to tempt the inner demon, but they really had managed to attract the interest of the inner demon and convince it to possess a new host!

Given how cautious the inner demon was, there was no way that it would voluntarily release its Yin energy, so the fact that its Yin energy was being released so violently now indicated that there was a very good chance it was unable to control its own Yin energy from spreading during a possession.

Furthermore, it seemed that a process was required for the inner demon to possess someone, and this process was not instantaneous.

These were useful pieces of information, but this wasn't the time to be thinking about things like this!

The inner demon still hadn't left the city, and Qin Ye was torn as to whether he should strike or not.

He cast his gaze forward, toward the array that the Harken had activated. He had been told that the array could encompass a radius of 10 kilometers, which would be enough to cover the entire main urban area of any major city.

However, he had only just entered the outskirts of the city, so he was definitely more than 10 kilometers away from the inner demon right now!

If the Harken were to unleash its array, would he be able to get there before the inner demon completed its possession?

Furthermore, even if they really did manage to trap the inner demon, would they be capable of killing it?

Qin Ye didn't know what decision to make.