Yama Rising

Time passed by one day after another. In the prelude to era-defining changes, the leaders were always the ones that made the decision first, following which the rest of the system would be informed one section after another.

Qin Ye was patiently waiting for a decision from the other three pillars, and 15 days later, he finally received a call from them.

"Yanluo Qin," Chief Secretary Yuan approached him before reporting, "The ruler death gods of the three pillars have requested a video conference."

Qin Ye's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he immediately traveled to the conference hall.

The doors were locked, and inside the conference hall, Qin Ye sat on a chair in front of a wall as three screens were slowly lowered before him. After some brief flashing and flickering, the faces of Thanatos, Anubis, and Yamaraja appeared on the screens.

All of them wore serious expressions as they nodded at Qin Ye. They knew that the decision they were about to make was going to impact the entire underworld!

"Looks like all of you have already made your decisions," Qin Ye said in a serious voice. "I'm sure all of you have already thoroughly studied the Genesis plan. Before we arrive at a final verdict, there are some things that I have to say."

He rose to his feet with a serious expression as he looked directly at the three ruler death gods. "At the moment, our underworld is split up into too many different regions, so there's no way we can unify all forces. Everyone is developing on their own and looking out for themselves only. If things continue like this, I don't like our changes in the upcoming interplanar war in 100 years. Only by uniting everyone and drawing upon everyone's resources will we be able to overcome our opponents, who have a 500-year space exploration lead over us. We can't allow there to be too many voices. If you won't silence them, then I'll do it. I've already instructed Ghost King Zhao to return to the Cathayan Underworld from the current negotiations to add Death God to the treaty on the non-proliferation of forbidden arts."

This meant that the Cathayan Underworld was refusing to add Death God to the treaty!

This was an extremely severe matter, yet none of the three ruler death gods said anything. After a long silence, Anubis raised his cup and said in a calm voice, "I can understand that decision. You are even more determined than I imagined, Yanluo Qin."

A humanized smile appeared on his face as he said, "Now that you've shown us your resolve, allow me to be the first one to make my decision known."

The room fell silent, and even the very air seemed to have congealed.

Several seconds later, Anubis said in a decisive voice, "In light of the massive influence and scope of the Genesis plan, I think that it'll be able to completely transform the state of the entire world. Such a crucial plan cannot be implemented by just a single nation or two. Thus, on behalf of the Aegyptian Underworld, I hereby declare that the 50 million troops of my Desert Death God Army and their 34 military bases will all be dedicated to the Genesis plan!"

Qin Ye's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.

The Aegyptian Underworld had approved of the plan!

However, that still wasn't the end.

"Including myself, a total of 13 death gods, including Death Gods Osiris, Seth, Geb, Nephthys, Menes, Hathor, Khasekhemwy, Niqāb, and Cleopatra the Seventh, will all be supporting this decision."

That was all of the major death gods that the Aegyptian Underworld had to offer!

All of them were extremely renowned historical figures, and just hearing their names was like taking a trip through the history of Aegypt.

This was the power of one of the four pillars. At the moment, the Cathayan Underworld was still far behind them in terms of power and military prowess.

Right as Anubis's voice trailed off, Yamaraja remarked, "I'm quite surprised that you would approve of this. I had thought that you would initially refuse to agree to this plan and only change your mind when there are no other alternatives."

"I'm not as foolish as that," Anubis replied as he took a sip of wine.

Yamaraja nodded in response, then declared, "The Hindustani Underworld agrees to join the Genesis plan."

Thus, three of the four pillars had come together!

Qin Ye heaved a long sigh of relief internally.

With three of the four pillars united on one front, it was no longer important whether the Argosian Underworld agreed or not.

Yamaraja continued, "On behalf of the Hindustani Underworld, I hereby declare that the 68 million Yin soldiers and 42 military bases under my command will all be dedicated to the Genesis plan! Including myself, a total of 15 death gods, including Death Gods Durga, Garuda, Mahamayuri, and the Sky Serpent King, will all be supporting this decision."

Yamaraja's hood was flapping incessantly as he made this decision, and thus, the only one that was still yet to make their stance known was Thanatos.

A faint smile appeared on Thanatos's face as he said in a calm voice, "The Argosian Underworld certainly can't miss out on something as significant as this! On behalf of the Argosian Underworld, I hereby declare that the 49 million Yin soldiers and 35 military bases under the command of myself and my brother, Hypnos, will all be dedicated to the Genesis plan. Including myself, a total of 13 death gods, including Death Gods Tartarus, Erebus, Erinys, Nyx, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus, Minos, Aristotle, and Archimedes, will all be supporting this decision."

It was a unanimous result!

Qin Ye was a little taken aback by this. He knew very well just how astonishing the Genesis plan was, and he didn't think that the other three pillars would agree to join it unanimously, and that they would be pledging so much to the cause.

The four pillars had always been fierce in their competition with one another for resources, but they would always come together in the face of important events that would shape the entire plane.

"I'm very glad to see that we're all on the same page here. With the four pillars united as one, no one on Earth will be able to obstruct us," Qin Ye said with a serious expression. "Now that we've reached an agreement, I'm going to reveal the contents discussed during our previous meeting to the entire world, and on behalf of the Cathayan Underworld, I'll be inviting all ruler death gods to the island of Formosa."

That same afternoon, all of the ruler death gods across the entire world received official letters of invitation from the four pillars, headed by the Cathayan Underworld.

"They're going to reveal the contents of the last meeting between the four pillars' rulers in a month?!" At the Celtic Underworld, Death Goddess Anko had just received her letter of invitation, and she immediately sprang to her feet in surprise at what she was seeing.

What's going on? Why would they do that? Why would they reveal the contents of such an important meeting to the entire world? And why was this letter of invitation sent out by the four pillars together? Does this mean that the four pillars have joined forces? Why? What could possibly convince the four pillars to come together as one?

She could sense that a massive storm was brewing on the horizon. In fact, she wasn't the only one. All of the ruler death gods who had received the letters were struck by the exact same feeling.

Meanwhile, Jörmungandr was staring at his letter of invitation with a contemplative expression. "This is the first time in history that the contents of a meeting between the four pillars has ever been revealed to the world."

After a few minutes of silence, he looked up at Hela and Fenrir, who were just as silent, then asked, "What do you two think?"

"There's something massive going on," Fenrir replied without any hesitation. "It's something the scale of which we've never seen before, and it's most likely something only the ruler death gods of the four pillars know about. Otherwise, there's no way that the contents of a meeting between them could be released. The contents of those meetings have always been treated as the most confidential of information, and at no point has this ever happened."

"All we can do is wait and see," Hela said. "We all know Yanluo Qin quite well by now. He can be extremely patient, but when he does strike, he always makes it count, and he treats the Cathayan Underworld's allied nations quite well. However, he hasn't even given us any advance warning on this occasion, so there must be something extremely significant afoot. In any case, all we have to do is wait for a month, and everything will be revealed to us."

Amid this atmosphere of widespread uncertainty, a month slowly passed by, following which the island of Formosa was completely opened up to welcome all of the ruler death gods of the entire underworld.

All of the death gods duly arrived, and everyone was trying to find out more information about one another. However, not even the Cathayan Underworld's closest allies, including the Alkebulan Underworlds and the five Northern Europa nations, knew anything.

Finally, the chime of a bell rang out, signifying the official commencement of the conference. All of the ruler death gods quickly entered the newly built conference hall on the island of Formosa.

The conference hall was extremely tall and spacious. During meetings between ruler death gods, the rulers of the four pillars were always situated at the front of the venue. After all of the death gods entered the hall, Anko took a glance up ahead to find that the ruler death gods of the four pillars were absent, upon which she raised an eyebrow in befuddlement.

Why aren't they here? They invited us to this conference, yet they're not showing up!

All of a sudden, the gates of the hall swung shut, following which a golden light barrier abruptly rose up over the entire venue.

Countless extremely profound Argosian characters were drifting over the barrier while flashing incessantly, and the entire light barrier was giving off a sense of strong killing intent.

Hela faltered slightly upon seeing this before abruptly springing to her feet. "This is the Argosian Underworld's Pandora Array of Death! Why has it appeared here?!"

A string of questions instantly sprang into her mind.

Why weren't the ruler death gods of the four pillars here? Why had they chosen to gather all of the underworld's ruler death gods here? Why were they revealing the contents of their last meeting, something that had never been done before?

"Are they trying to kill all of the underworld's ruler death gods?!" Giltine drew a sharp breath, then immediately stood up in preparation to flee the venue.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Right at this moment, a calm voice rang out from the main stage. All of the panicked death gods had only just risen to their feet, and they immediately turned toward the direction that the voice had come from.

The ruler death gods of the four pillars had appeared on the stage, and they were led by none other than Qin Ye. He seemed to be unable to see the array as he sat down calmly, then nodded toward all of the death gods. "Greetings, everyone. I am the ruler death god of the Cathayan Underworld, Yanluo Qin."

"What is the meaning of this?!" Several ruler death gods immediately turned to him with enraged expressions.

"Are you trying to take over the whole world?! Why is the Pandora Array of Death here?! You are making severe breaches of a number of international laws!"

All of a sudden, a burst of vast Yin energy engulfed the entire venue. The ruler death gods of the four pillars had released their Yin energy in unison, and their advanced Yama-King level auras encompassed the entire hall, instantly reducing it to silence.

"You're overthinking things, everyone." Qin Ye was the one who had set all of this into motion, so it was only right that he played the bad guy here. "This world is spectacular precisely because of the existence of all of these cultures and civilizations. We have no intention of wiping out the most integral part of our underworld."

Anubis said, "With the era of space exploration right in front of our eyes, there's no need for us to continue to relegate ourselves to Earth. Once we venture into space, every underworld has the chance to rise to unprecedented heights. In the name of the four pillars, I swear to you all that we won't wipe out any civilizations without just cause."

However, this didn't reassure everyone very much at all.

No just cause? Was there a just cause when the Cathayan Underworld invaded the Nipponese Underworld?

If they were determined to wipe out a particular civilization, they could just manufacture a "just cause" out of nothing to justify their actions.

"What exactly is it that you want?" Hela asked through gritted teeth with a furious expression. "If you actually respect us and wish to reassure us, don't you think the best way to do that would be to undo this array?"

"My apologies," Qin Ye said in a calm voice. "If we can all stand on a unified front after all of you hear what I have to say, then I would be more than happy to undo the array and release you all."

He rose to his feet as he leaned forward lightly, sweeping a serious gaze across the entire venue as he said, "On behalf of the four pillars, I have something that I need to announce, something that'll transform our plane forever, or lead to its demise! This is something that only the ruler death gods of the four pillars have ever been aware of."