Yama Rising

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"Wasn't there supposed to be a recording?" Lee Jung-sook turned around as she instructed, "Get your lackey to come out. Hearing a message directly is completely different from hearing a relayed message; perhaps we'll be able to notice some details that he neglected."

Qin Ye nodded in response before curling a finger, and a bloodstained phone immediately appeared in his grasp. Strangely enough, the phone was still functional...

He checked through the files on the phone in sequential order, and he quickly discovered a newly recorded audio file that was only around 30 seconds in length.

He immediately pressed the play button without any hesitation.

It was very silent, eerily so, making the listener feel as if they had entered a morgue.

Qin Ye's brows furrowed slightly as he exchanged a glance with Lee Jung-sook. What was going on here?

The recording was very quiet, but it wasn't absolutely silent. It was as if this phone were connected to an unknown abyss, and through it, one could hear what appeared to be the sound of breathing. The breathing was faint at times, heavy at others, and clear at times, but muffled at others.

The suspense was so overwhelming that it made the listener feel as if their heart had been caught in a vice. Finally, after a full minute had passed, some sound finally rang out.

"Waaah..."

A burst of eerie sobbing rang out from the phone, but it was impossible to tell the gender of the voice's owner. In this pitch-black night, the sound made the listener feel as if a cat were raking its claws back and forth over their heart. The sound was very quiet, but it was extremely penetrative, and Qin Ye could feel the fine hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end.

At the same time, he was struck by a potent sense of foreboding!

This sensation was more unsettling than what he had felt from any other Yin spirit in the past, including even Dong Zhuo!

Before he had a chance to ponder the matter any further, the sobbing coming from the phone suddenly grew louder and louder! The sound was extremely guttural and desperate, and it was fading intermittently, as if these were the panicked cries of someone being choked to death.

Just the mere sound of it was enough to raise goosebumps all over Qin Ye's entire body.

He immediately pressed the pause button, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then raised his hand and curled a finger again.

Kwon Kyung-ho instantly appeared behind him at his behest. "My Lord."

"Is this what you heard just now?" Qin Ye pressed the play button again, 

After listening for only three seconds, Kwon Kyung-ho shook his head with a surprised expression. "That's not what I heard! I swear she said a lot more in the recording that I heard. I have no idea how this happened."

Is the boundary between the two realms beginning to blur? Qin Ye cast a meaningful gaze toward the earthen building, then turned to Lee Jung-sook, whose face was slightly pale. "I'll be going into the Huang Clan's earthen building tomorrow morning."

Instead of trying to dissuade him, Lee Jung-sook merely pursed her lips and asked, "Are you sure? Places like this that can evoke such a strong sense of peril among people like us are definitely not places you want to go. After all, there aren't many things in this world that can scare us."

Qin Ye nodded in response. "That's why I need you to do me a favor."

"I'll have to think about it first," Lee Jung-sook replied with a faint smile, "Right now, I'm starting to feel like it would be best to just abandon this project. My time is very precious, and I don't want to waste it here."

Qin Ye ignored what she was saying and continued, "I need your help gathering information on the history of this earthen building. I need a detailed timeline of events since its construction, as well as all of the records you can find on Anjing Village!"

Lee Jung-sook rolled her eyes in response. "And what do I get for my troubles?"

Qin Ye cleared his throat in a slightly awkward manner. "Do you think I would suffice as compensation?"

Lee Jung-sook: "???"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm saying I'll be your compensation!"

"... I think your definitions of compensation and liability are a little mixed up there..."

…………………………………………………..

7 AM the next day.

Night arrived very early in winter, while daylight arrived quite late. Qin Ye didn't alert anyone as he slung a backpack onto his shoulders before making his way toward the Huang Clan's earthen building.

He passed over the wire fence that was littered with talismans, and right as he stepped into the area beyond the fence, a gust of bone-chilling wind suddenly blew forth out of nowhere, pressing all of the grass in the area tightly against the ground. At the same time, countless anguished howls and enraged voices rang out beside his ears at the same time.

There was the sobbing of women, the roars of men, the cries of children... All of these sounds were ringing out incessantly in this forsaken land, and it was as if there were thousands of years of hatred and resentment accumulated here, all waiting to be let out.

"My Lord!" By the time he returned to his senses, he discovered that Kwon Kyung-ho and Ryu Changmin had already appeared beside him.

He then made a few hand seals, only to discover that they yielded no effect whatsoever!

However, the members of the Dusk Legionnaire didn't seem to have been impacted at all. Even though Ryu Changmin and Kwon Kyung-ho had appeared, they were able to step into this area and use their innate abilities.

So this is a forsaken land... Qin Ye inspected his surroundings through narrowed eyes. There were no Yin talismans here, nor could he sense any Yin energy. Furthermore, this area was rejecting all beings that possessed Yin energy and Yin talismans. In addition to that, there was no barrier to entry, and if it weren't for the fact that he was on high alert, there was no way he would've been able to sense that instant of Yin energy fluctuations.

He couldn't sense any Yin energy right now, which meant that if an evil ghost were to possess a living human and approach him, there would be no way for him to tell.

"The voices that I heard just now were speaking Cantonese..." he mused as he made his way toward the Huang Clan's earthen building, "On top of that, it's modern Cantonese. The pronunciation of modern Cantonese is different from that of ancient Cantonese. In the past, Cantonese was spoken by the Baiyue ethnic group residing outside of the sphere of civilization at the time. Later on, South Yue King Zhao Tuo of the Qin Nation conquered Baiyue and made it a part of Cathay. After that, the Cantonese dialect gradually changed and developed until the tail-end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the republic era. The pronunciation I heard just now came from at least the republic era, and it's virtually identical to current modern Cantonese. That means if something has truly happened here, then it wouldn't have happened too long ago. On top of that, this period of history has been preserved quite well, so I'm sure that Lee Jung-sook would have no trouble digging up the relevant information."

Thankfully, he had learned some Cantonese during his days in the Pearl Delta. It had to be said that knowledge was a fantastic thing, and it could often help you at unexpected times...

Soon, they covered the distance of several hundred meters from the fence to the earthen building. The round earthen building only had three entrances, forming a triangular formation. The exits weren't very large, standing at only around three meters wide and five meters tall each. Relative to the massive earthen building, these entrances were downright diminutive.

Seated in front of one of the entrances was an elderly woman with a head of white hair, wearing a heavy black smock. There was a table beside her, on top of which sat a book. The woman was holding a cane upright in front of her with both hands, and her wizened and wrinkly head was resting on the backs of her hands as she stared into the distance in a wooden manner.

It was as if she were a statue, and even when Qin Ye, Ryu Changmin, and Kwon Kyung-ho arrived right in front of her, she still didn't seem to be able to see them.

Qin Ye stared at her for 30 seconds before finally gently knocking on the table as he asked in a polite manner, "Auntie, is this the entrance to the Huang Clan's earthen building?"

The woman's cloudy eyes finally moved as she cast her gaze toward Qin Ye before putting on an extremely unsettling smile, revealing many gaps in her teeth as she did so.

"So we've got more people coming here to throw their lives away..." the elderly woman mused in a raspy voice. She was displaying any fear toward Kwon Kyung-ho and Ryu Changmin, and it seemed that she had nothing to live for. She pointed her chin toward the table and said, "Register your names; only then will you be able to enter."

At this point, Qin Ye was all but certain that he had been screwed over by the Harken. With that in mind, he carefully picked up the pen and was just about to write his name onto the book when he suddenly raised his head. "These names..."

The book was filled with names, the earliest of which dated all the way back to the early days of the republic era! However, all of the names had been crossed out.

"Those names belonged to tourists, of course." The elderly woman's smile was becoming increasingly more unsettling, and as she tilted her head to the side, her smile grew so wide that she was almost literally grinning from ear to ear. "However, they all died; not a single one of them made it back out. Are you sure you still want to continue? Maybe you'll be next tonight. After all, it's been a long time since anyone new has come to the Huang Clan's village."

Qin Ye merely shrugged in response before writing down his name.

A hint of melancholy flashed through the elderly woman's eyes, and she heaved a long sigh, but didn't try to dissuade Qin Ye any further. Instead, she changed the subject. "You can go in now, but remember this..."

She looked directly into Qin Ye's eyes and said in a serious manner, "You'll only be able to leave this place at the stroke of midnight each day, and you're forbidden to leave at any other time. When I say leave, I mean to return to Anjing Village. The electricity is cut off at 11:30 PM every night, and due to an extended period of non-renovation, the second and third floors are off-limits."

Qin Ye smiled and nodded before picking up his backpack and pushing open the old wooden doors.

The door opened with a cringe-inducing creak, and in the instant that it swung open, countless enraged roars and shrill screeches surged out alongside gusts of freezing Yin winds. The fierce winds swept up the fallen leaves, quickly blowing them out of the building, and the wind seemed to be able to blow directly into one's blood and flesh, chilling one to the bone.

This was the evil ghosts' welcome extended toward their new guest!

The elderly woman heaved a faint sight behind him before murmuring to herself in a voice audible only to her. "What a strapping young lad... Why is he in such a hurry to die?"

Qin Ye naturally couldn't hear her, and he began to carefully examine this forsaken land.

The first thing that he caught sight of was a tall locust tree.

The earthen building had a total of four levels, and the locust tree stretched all the way to the third level. It wasn't very tall, but it was extremely thick, and its canopy stretched for hundreds of meters in all directions, blocking out virtually all of the natural light.

Thus, there were many lit lanterns positioned below the locust tree.

The lanterns were of a pristine white color, and they were all situated on the first floor, which was still inhabited by residents. The chilling Yin winds blew past, causing the lanterns to sway from side to side, and even though both Ryu Changmin and Kwon Kyung-ho were also evil ghosts, they couldn't help but furrow their brows in discomfort.

They couldn't pinpoint exactly where they were experiencing discomfort; their entire being simply felt uncomfortable here. There was an indescribably oppressive air in the building, as if they had just entered a viscous swamp.

Right at this moment, the sound of a piece of melancholy Cantonese opera music rang out from within the building.

"... Only the moon knows my sorrow, separations are always so long while reunions are so short..."

The singer had an exquisite voice and was also extremely skilled in their craft. In the instant that Qin Ye heard this piece of Cantonese opera music, he abruptly shuddered before looking around in a bewildered manner.

Three seconds later, he drew a sharp breath as he cast his gaze toward the fourth floor.

Just like in the photograph provided by Lee Jung-sook, the fourth, third, and second levels of the building each had a massive crack. At this moment, a figure of indistinguishable gender was standing in front of the crack under the moonlight. The figure was wearing a dark azure robe, and they had a head of long hair that covered their entire face and trailed all the way down to their waist.

"My Lord?" Ryu Changmin turned to Qin Ye with a surprised expression. He could see that Qin Ye's hands were trembling, and that was a shocking sight to him.

"My Lord, are you alright? Have you met this person before?" Kwon Kyung-ho was also quite alarmed. As the Yanluo of Cathay, Qin Ye had met a whole host of Yama-Kings and Abyssal Prefects in the past; who could possibly root him to the spot like this?

Three seconds later, Qin Ye lowered his gaze, and his voice was slightly raspy as he asked, "Have you seen any Cathayan movies?"

The two ghosts shook their heads in unison.

A wry smile appeared on Qin Ye's face as he sighed, "I've seen her before. This song is far too familiar to me. The song is called 'Selling One's Body to Feed an Orphan', and what gave the song so much renown was its singer."

He raised his head and cast his gaze toward the crack again, but there was already no one to be seen there. A grim look appeared on his face as he continued, "She is the nightmare of countless people, the wicked ghost, Chu Renmei... I didn't think that she truly existed! Her story is the most terrifying supernatural legend of the south coast in the modern era; I can't believe she's right here!"

[This is a reference to the horror film, A Wicked Ghost, which basically traumatized an entire generation. I had the misfortune of being shown the film by my older cousin as a child, and I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I was so scared after watching the film that I barely got any sleep for a few nights thereafter LOL. Of course, my 10-year-old brain was then quickly distracted by something else, and I forgot all about it, but the deep-rooted trauma still remains. I'm assuming Qin Ye also saw this movie as a child, and that's why he's so shaken here. He may have witnessed countless terrifying ghosts in the past, but I’m sure nothing can compare with seeing the embodiment of your childhood trauma LOL.]