Yama Rising

Everburn.

Following the past six years of rapid development, Everburn had become the most materialistically advanced city in the nation. The city was full of buildings constructed in an antiquated style, and large batches of materials had been imported to produce clothing, accessories, shoes, socks, etc. Almost all of the netherworldly citizens in the city were wearing the most stylistically symbolic long robes of Cathay, and the city had become a perfect melting pot of modern elements combined with the aesthetic of the Song and Ming Dynasties. 

The North Yin Pavilion was the building situated at the very center of Everburn. It sat at the direct center of an area that was several kilometers in radius and surrounded by city walls. In front of the pavilion was a plaza, upon which stood a 20-meter-tall statue of the Goddess Earth Mother transforming into the six paths of reincarnation. Behind this statue were the statues of the three King Yanluos in ascending order, namely the first King Yanluo, Bo Yikao, the second King Yan Luo, Xu Yangyi, and the third King Yanluo, Qin Ye. Each statue had a dark obsidian plaque behind it, bearing a record of the notable deeds and feats.

The first King Yanluo: Tore through all opposition and founded Hell during the tail-end of an era where gods and devils freely roamed the land. The prestige of his achievements is immeasurable.

The second King Yanluo: The very definition of invincibility, rising up at a time during which all of the major underworlds were at war with one another. Through his power, he was able to cement the Cathayan Underworld as the undisputed number one underworld in all of the lands, and for that, his name shall forever be remembered.

The third King Yanluo: ... 

Perhaps it was just a figment of everyone's imagination, but even though the third King Yanluo had no achievements to date, all of the public servants that passed through this plaza couldn't help but feel as if his statue was slightly taller than those of his two predecessors...

After passing through the Earth Mother Plaza, one would reach the North Yin Pavilion, which bore a strong resemblance to the Yellow Crane Tower. The name of the building was derived from Fengdu's North Yin Emperor, who was said to be the paramount death god of Taoism. Of course, the reason why Taoism was unable to compete with Buddhism was due to the occupational issues among its gods. It was often the case that one god would take on multiple roles, receiving compensation for no work, accepting commissions, and doing things anonymously...

If the North Yin Emperor of Fengdu already existed, then what was the point in establishing a King Yanluo as well?

Thus, the wise and gallant third King Yanluo decisively abolished this terrible practice. The King Yanluo was the King Yanluo, there was no need to throw in other random titles to muddy the water. 

On the top floor, Secretary Jiang approached Wang Chenghao before asking in a quiet voice, "How is he? Is he looking any better?"

Wang Chenghao pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and shook his head in response. "I'm afraid not."

"I'm starting to grow a little concerned..." Secretary Jiang said with furrowed brows as he cast his gaze toward the door off to the side. "What could make King Yanluo look so glum? He's already been back for quite a while now."

Qin Ye was indeed looking quite glum. In fact, he appeared to be downright distraught.

Even now, when he closed his eyes, he could still imagine Lee Jung-sook roaring at him like an enraged lioness.

Truth be told, he really did deserve a severe dressing down. The queen of Samsung had accompanied him to the county's central business area in person in the middle of the night, and in return, he completely left her hanging. Only after drinking like an idiot until 4 AM did he recall her existence. Even if this was a normal woman, they would've most definitely broken up with him, and he could already count himself extremely fortunate that Lee Jung-sook was letting him off the hook so easily.

After the event, Qin Ye had painstakingly written a 500-word text of apology, and his hands had been trembling slightly as he sent the text message. Unsurprisingly, he received no response, and he didn't dare to bother her any further. If he were to call her now, his eardrums would most definitely be blown out of his head! A furious woman was no different from a ferocious lioness.

"That Local Bully is a terrible influence on me..." he sighed before knocking on the table, and Wang Chenghao was immediately pushed into the room by Secretary Jiang.

Hold on, is there some sort of workplace romance going on between the two of them? 

Wang Chenghao gave Secretary Jiang a vicious glance, but as he turned back to Qin Ye, he had already adopted a serious expression. "Welcome Back, King Yanluo. During the time you were away, I've arranged all of the documents that need to be signed by you into categories and placed them on the table. Please feel free to take a look at them when you're ready..."

Qin Ye was holding a cup of Yin tea, and after taking a small sip, he suddenly interjected. "Are you interested in taking on a stint as a city god?"

This abrupt change in subject naturally came as quite a surprise to Wang Chenghao, and he was stunned into silence for a full three seconds before responding. "What?"

Qin Ye set down his teacup before curling a finger, and the documents on the table immediately rose up to hover in mid-air. He examined the documents as he continued, "During my trip, I encountered Local Bu... Instructor Lin."

"Instructor Lin Han?" Wang Chenghao pushed his fake glasses further up the bridge of his nose as he asked, "He's still alive?"

Of course he's still alive! Not only is he alive, he even got married and has a kid! What an absolute scumbag! 

Qin Ye cleared his throat and said, "I'm offering you this opportunity to hone your skills. As I said in the past, as the King Yanluo, I need a circle of close and capable subordinates. The Harken, Arakshasa, and General Zhao are all in that circle, but that's not enough. As more and more people are incorporated into this circle, I'll set up a committee, and most matters in the future will be decided by vote. I need people with different skill sets and ideas that I can trust, but the King Yanluo's assistant is not someone who can be entrusted with important duties on an official basis."

"Why..."

Before Wang Chenghao had a chance to finish, Qin Ye continued, "It sounds a bit contradictory, right? I want to set up a committee in order to ensure fairness and democracy, yet I'm also establishing my own core circle, which makes it look like I'm trying to run a dictatorship. However, it's actually not contradictory at all."

With each passing day Qin Ye spent as the King Yanluo, he was constantly learning and developing new insights. "Currently, as the ruler of Hell, even I'm only making things up as I go. I don't have the foresight to say with absolute confidence that all of the decisions I've made are correct, so I need more people to help me in my decision-making. However, there are some matters where I have to stamp my foot down and allow for no compromise, such as in the development of forbidden techniques, particularly at a time like this, where most of our netherworldly citizens don't know much about all of the international underworlds."

What I'm saying is, I'm going to remain firm in the matters that I understand, but in the matters that I don't understand, I can allow other people to participate in running the nation with me. 

That is... truly a unique brand of democracy... 

"... I understand, I'll be sure to take on my new role as soon as possible."

"Alright. Inform General Zhao, the Harken, and all of the other departments to prepare for a meeting."

"Yes."

…………………………………………………..

Still in Everburn.

One monarch beast after another was racing along. Close to half a month later, high-ranking officials that could normally only be seen on newspapers, such as the governors, magistrates, and procurators of each province, had all gathered at Everburn. All of a sudden, Everburn had become a central hub for all of the most important figures in the nation.

Everburn's best restaurant was the Returning Swallow, and the most luxurious level of the restaurant was the Four Seasons Hall. Ever since five days ago, all of the booths in the hall had been fully booked by the secretaries and assistants of all of the high-ranking officials. Furthermore, the entire level would continue to be fully booked for the next half a month.

No one was willing to forego such a brilliant networking opportunity.

"Here's your candied Cathayan perch, please enjoy." The Four Seasons Hall had four booths, each of which was named after one of the four seasons, and each booth could hold 10 people. The server placed the dish down onto the table, then promptly departed, gently closing the door behind them.

With the massive influx of resources, all industries were developing rapidly. The city was still primarily dependent on imports, but at the very least, it was entering an era of prosperity. Even though this was only a restaurant, its construction and decor were truly resplendent. In each booth was an exquisite piece of embroidered underworld artwork that was several meters in length and around two meters tall. Intricately crafted lamps of all types of different descriptions were hanging from the walls, and hanging overhead from the ceiling was a palatial light that perfectly captured the Cathayan aesthetic. In each of the four corners of the booth was a gold-plated statue of a higan flower that was extremely life-like.

With sufficient resources at its disposal, the development of a society's culture could be extremely rapid.

Li Lanzhi was wearing a lavish black robe, and there was a green jade hairpin sticking out of her white hair, which had been arranged into a bun. She picked up her cup of wine, and a faint smile appeared on her face. Casting her gaze around the table, she saw Village Head Gu Changyou of the Gulong Village, Mayor Liao Handong of Fleetglance City, former Deputy Mayor Bai Zizhong of Shadowend City... All of the leaders of the cities that had been conquered during the six-year-long war of unification were currently gathered here.

Every time she thought back to the decision she had made, she would feel extremely blessed and fortunate. If it weren't for the unification of the Cathayan Underworld, she would still be stuck in Deadsend City, which may have already been wiped out by this point. Currently, she was a provincial governor, and above her were the ranks of provincial magistrate and procurator. This was a position that she would've never even dared to yearn for in the past.

She cast her gaze toward the candied mandarin Cathayan perch on the table.

Back in Deadsend City, she would've been able to have a dish every once in a blue moon if she were lucky. However, from what she had heard, the food in Deadsend City wasn't far off from the food in Everburn.

On a material level, everyone's quality of life was rapidly improving, and all of the netherworldly citizens had something to do. Currently, Hell's construction team was hiring from all over the nation. In order to build a strong nation, a period of one to two decades was a bare minimum. Nowadays, everyone had stable lives and materialistic prosperity, these conditions were the precursor for a flourishing era!

The only thing that she was worried about was the meeting that she had been summoned to attend, and with that in mind, she cast her gaze toward everyone else present.

Having already served under Yanluo Qin for several years, they were all aware of his attitude.

He only wanted capable and hard-working ghosts as his subordinates. Otherwise, it didn't matter what your identity was back in the mortal realm, it was off to the cycle of reincarnation for you.

Thus, she definitely wasn't going to take this meeting lightly. In particular, all of the high-ranking officials from all of the provinces across the nation had gathered here in Everburn, so this clearly wasn't just going to be some insignificant conference. Similarly, she had always treated all of the meetings held by Yanluo Qin with the utmost seriousness. Yanluo Qin wasn't the type of ruler to hold conferences for no good reason. He either had extremely important matters to discuss with everyone, or he would simply not hold any meetings at all, and there was no reason to think that this meeting would be any different.

"Everyone." She set down her cup with a smile as she said, "It's not every day that we get to sit at the same table like this. I must say, all of us were extremely fortunate and made the right decision to submit to Hell's administration."

"Indeed..." The former deputy mayor of Shadowend City sighed. "During the war of unification, our mayor was executed by beheading in front of the entire city. I told him to surrender, but he refused to listen. I don't know how he worked up the courage to resist even after seeing such a powerful army."

"It was the same for our city as well. Our mayor didn't even get to live a single day of the good life before he passed on..."

"They can only blame themselves for their stubbornness and foolishness. Did they not see how powerful the regular army of Hell was?"

Amid the flurry of chatter that broke out, Li Lanzhi heaved a faint sigh and said, "Let's all leave that in the past, everyone. Currently, all of us are officials serving under Yanluo Qin. What I really want to know is if any of you have heard about the subject of this conference."

Her words were instantly met with complete silence.

Their statuses were a little awkward in that they weren't local residents of Everburn, so they were inevitably slightly out of the loop at times. Several seconds later, a middle-aged male Yin spirit said, "I did actually hear some things. Apparently, prior to all of the officials across the nation being summoned here, Lord Qin, the Harken, and General Zhao had a small private meeting together."

Everyone was very intrigued to hear this.

The meeting involved only three people, but these three people were currently the most powerful beings in the entire Cathayan Underworld!

"Do you know what their meeting was about?"

"I'm afraid not," the middle-aged man replied with a wry smile. "There's no way people like us would be privy to information from such important meetings. I went through my entire list of contacts to see if they had any information, but no one knew anything."

Furthermore, there were no signs of a celebratory ceremony in the entire city.

This indicated that this meeting was either not very important, or it was so important that even the netherworldly citizens couldn't be notified about it in advance!