Yama Rising

"What on earth are you all doing?!" In the Yunzhao Province situated in the southernmost region of the Cathayan Underworld, an enraged commander was standing beside a giant hole that was over 10 kilometers wide. In front of him were a group of Yin soldiers lying inside the hole and chatting with one another.

"Commander..." The Yin soldiers were all given a massive fright, and they hurriedly rose to their feet with guilty expressions. "We're sorry... We know that entering the hole is against orders, and we, we only do it very occasionally..."

"Cut the chit-chat!!" the commander yelled in an urgent voice as Yin energy erupted from his body. "Get up here! Hurry!! Otherwise, you'll be dead before you know it!!"

The Yin soldiers were rather perplexed by his strong reaction, and they were rooted to the spot as they exchanged a few dumbstruck glances.

These idiots! 

The commander spread open the notice that he was holding in his hands and read the contents out loud. "By the decree of King Yanluo, the Yellow Springs will be released at 10 AM this morning into the 17 dragon gates situated in Yunzhao, Bod, Yuzhou, Wuwei, Shaanxi, Yizhou...! All armies stationed at the dragon gates must retreat to at least 50 meters away from the bank! You hear that? Now hurry up and get up here!"

The Yin soldiers faltered slightly upon hearing this.

Dragon gate? Yellow Springs? Wait... Hold on... This is the riverbank, which means that they're currently on the riverbed, and it's currently... 9:30 AM... 

Alarm bells were immediately set off in their minds as they connected the dots, and all of the Yin soldiers rushed toward the riverbank like madmen. Right at this moment, Yin energy began to converge from all directions in a frenzy toward the area between the pair of giant King Yanluo statues, which were identical to the ones in the Province of Bod. Shortly thereafter, an enormous Yin energy black hole that was over 10 kilometers in size was formed!

Whoosh... Countless red spider lily petals were swept up from the ground, interspersed with innumerable specks of netherfire. It was as if countless stars had suddenly appeared in the night sky, like an infernal constellation.

Rumble!! The black hole was like a raging force of nature, and all of the Yin soldiers, including the commander, looked up at the sky with stunned expressions.

The commander's lips had turned slightly blue as he said in a raspy voice. "Holy shit... Is this what the Yellow Springs is supposed to be?"

…………………………………………………..

Everburn, third basement floor of the North Yin Pavilion.

All of the Cathayan Underworld's provincial officials, amounting to a total of close to 200 people, were currently all gathered here. The provincial governors, magistrates, and procurators that could normally only be seen on newspapers were all present, as well as the directors of government departments, and they all had their attention focused directly up ahead with grim looks on their faces.

This underground chamber was constructed entirely from Yin spirit stones, but it most definitely wasn't a naturally forming chamber, as evidenced by the fact that every single piece of Yin spirit stone had clearly been carved into desirable shapes. The ground was paved evenly with ashlar, and in each of the room's four corners was a 10-meter-tall statue of one of Hell's four divine beasts, namely the Harken, the Xiezhi Unicorn, the Pixiu Chimera, and the Aurogon. The walls and the floor were of a translucent black color, and countless shimmering blue Yin runes were inscribed upon them, each and every one of which was extremely profound.

Four continuous streaks of yellow light were pouring out of the mouths of the four divine beast statues, and the light was shining upon a fist-sized seal at the center of the room.

It was the complete King Yanluo's Seal!

All of the cracks on the seal's surface had already disappeared, and after around half a month of nurturing, it had absorbed a large quantity of Yin energy and returned to normal. Qin Ye was standing right in front of the seal, and he extended a finger forward. A drop of blood flowed out of his fingertip, falling silently down onto the seal.

A layer of red instantly began to slowly spread from the spot where Qin Ye's blood had landed on the seal, giving it the appearance of a piece of legendary blood jade. At the same time, the seal began to radiate a burst of dreamy red light.

The light wasn't a bright red color like blood. Instead, it was like rouge, presenting a type of delicate and translucent beauty. As the red light continued to spread, Yin energy began to arise from an unknown source like a sea of smoke. The Yin energy that rose up was so enormous that the space around it was slowly beginning to tremble.

"Is this how things are supposed to go?" Qin Ye asked in a faint voice as he took a few steps backward. This was a very strong reaction, and having never witnessed the unsealing of a divine artifact before, he couldn't help but feel a little concerned.

"This is perfectly normal." Zhao Yun was standing right beside him, and the surrounding Yin energy in the underground chamber had already converged to form a rapidly revolving Yin energy cloud. Zhao Yun explained, "King Yanluo's Seal is an artifact that possesses intelligence, and not just anyone can use their blood to make it accept them as its owner. For the seal, this actually isn't even a process of accepting an owner anymore. Instead, it's a recording process. It has allowed you to use it, and it's recording the information present in your blood. King Yanluo's Seal will only record one owner at a time, and unless you die or pass the seal onto someone else, no one aside from you will be able to use it."

Boom!! As soon as Zhao Yun's voice trailed, a resounding boom rang out, and a pillar of golden light erupted directly upward from the center of the underground chamber. Violent tremors spread from the underground chamber throughout the entirety of Everburn, then the Insignia Province. It was like the heart of this entire province, and the province was trembling in the wake of return.

In this instant, countless netherworldly citizens in Everburn were casting astonished eyes toward the top of the North Yin Pavilion, where a pillar of resplendent golden light was extending directly upward, piercing through the heavens to infinity and beyond!

"What is that?"

"My god... What was that just now?"

"Was that the sun? Was it a god? Did someone achieve ascension?"

"Did the government release any information about this? Who has a copy of today's newspaper?"

Right in front of everyone's astonished eyes, the Yin energy in the heavens began to revolve, forming an enormous vortex that was at least several hundred kilometers in size. Behind the vortex were rays of radiant golden light, and it was truly a marvelous spectacle to behold.

"This is a divine miracle..." A netherworldly citizen was staring up at the sky with a slack-jawed expression. Whatever it was, it had pierced through the Yin cloud layer!

Where was it going to fly to?

The entire sky seemed to be rapidly revolving, and one minute passed by, then two, then five... All of a sudden, sunlight shone down upon all 35 provinces in the nation, illuminating eleven million six hundred thousand square kilometers of land.

Rays of gentle sunlight filtered through the clouds, illuminating all things like a blessing from the heavens.

Dead silence.

The entire nation fell completely silent.

All of the Yin spirit looked down at their hands with dumbstruck expressions, then up at the sky, then all around them. Several seconds later, the deathly silence gave way to a thunderous commotion that rang out across the whole nation!

"Is this sunlight?! Do my eyes deceive me?!" In the Hell of Yanjing, an elderly man rushed out of his room with his uncombed hair flying all around him. "Is this really sunlight?! I can't believe I'm seeing sunlight in the underworld!"

In Lotus City, countless flabbergasted Yin spirits stuck their heads out of their windows, and what was quite surprising was that the streets were completely silent. Every single Yin spirit outside was silently staring up at the spectacle unfolding in the sky with no exceptions.

This was truly light in the depths of hell.

Three seconds later, a raucous commotion erupted throughout the entire street!

"I can't fucking believe this!!! It's sunlight! It really is sunlight!"

"How is this possible?! How could there be sunlight in the underworld?!"

"I don't know how this happened, and I don't care! This is amazing!"

"Indeed, the days with no divide between day and night are finally over... Was the sun just released from our capital city? This is incredible!"

"How did they do it? How did they get the sun to rise in the underworld? I've never been so happy before! It's... It's so warm that I could cry!"

No sun could be seen in the sky, but countless rays of warm sunlight were raining down from the heavens.

In Shaanxi, the Pearl Delta, the three eastern provinces... All of the netherworldly citizens across all of the continents were looking up with reverence at the divine miracle taking place right above them.

This was a miracle that was comparable with the discovery of fire and Cangjie's creation of the Cathayan language.

This was a legend that ranked alongside the likes of Nüwa mending the heavens and Pangu creating the world.

This was a day that would forever be remembered in the Cathayan Underworld!

Qin Ye and the others had also made their way onto the top floor of the North Yin Pavilion, and Qin Ye looked up at the sky with an awestruck expression. "I didn't think that King Yanluo's Seal would transform sunlight and clouds... This is incredible! No, what I should be marveling at is the process of creation itself."

Zhao Yun was also looking up with a reverent expression as he murmured, "The underworld once had light. The Aurogon once held a lamp, and when it opened its eyes, day would arrive, and when it closed its eyes, night would fall. I had thought that it would take a very, very long time to recover that lamp. It's said that the lamp resides in a spatial rift at the end of the world... Never did I think that this day would come so soon..."

Celebrations were taking place across the entire nation!

However, this wasn't the only thing for them to celebrate. 10 minutes later, the Book of Life and Death suddenly let loose a ringing sound as it rushed into the heavens from the Hell's Gates of Ashmound! It shot up into the sky as a streak of dazzling silver light, stirring up the cloud layer that had just been illuminated by the golden sunlight. The pillar of light expanded further and further, reaching 10 meters in size, then 50 meters, then 100 meters, then 1,000, then 10,000!

Soon, the pillar of light had encompassed the entirety of Everburn, but there wasn't anything eerie about it.

The Yin energy was already so concentrated that it was impossible to breathe, but the pillar of light was imbued with a holy aura, a sense of authoritative righteousness.

Heaven and earth resonated with one another as the silver radiance abruptly faded, and at the same time, the celebrations that had only just subsided in Everburn immediately erupted in full force once again.

Nighttime. 

Night had cast a veil of darkness over the sky.

Of course, the sky of the underworld in the past had also been completely dark, but this darkness was different.

In the past, the sky of the underworld had been as black as ink and completely opaque. However, the night sky on this occasion was clear and translucent, like a thin veil rather than a suffocating curtain. It was an extremely beautiful and poetic sight to behold, particularly for the Yin spirits who hadn't seen a proper night sky ever since they had arrived in the underworld.

The sight of water rippling under the light of stars, the sound of the gentle breeze and chirping cicadas... This was a true night!

Everyone across the eleven million six hundred thousand kilometers of the Cathayan Underworld was reveling in this spectacle! Regardless of which city, county, province, township, or village it was, all of its netherworldly citizens were screaming and cheering as they celebrated on the streets. Even the most reclusive netherworldly citizens couldn't help but rush onto the street to enjoy their first moonlight shower after death.

"Would you like to take a look, my Lord?" Zhao Yun asked as he turned to Qin Ye with a smile.

"How do we do that?"

When Zhao Yun wasn't busy killing people, he was very much a handsome and refined gentleman. A warm smile appeared on his face as he said, "After breaking through past the Yama-King level, I was able to see the Heavenly Dao more clearly, and at the same time, many restrictions that were previously inhibiting me were lifted, while many other restrictions were placed on me... It's very difficult to describe exactly what my breakthrough has entailed, but in my current form, I'm capable of taking you on a spiritual trip."

"Alright, let's do it!"

Thus, Zhao Yun grabbed onto Qin Ye's hand before giving it a gentle tug. All of a sudden, Qin Ye found himself rising up into the sky at an astounding rate, and the entirety of Everburn quickly became visible to him beneath his feet.

Fierce Yin winds were blowing all around him, but they were unable to make contact with his body at all, and Zhao Yun said, "Recently, I've been doing a lot of reflection and self-assessment, and I would say I'm currently at the Yin Soul stage. A person's three finer spirits and six baser instincts can be categorized under Yin and Yang, and at the same time, there are two gates in the human body, namely the crown and the dantian. Upon passing away, one's soul typically leaves their body through the dantian, which is also known as the earthly gate. In contrast, when the spirit emerges from the crown, it becomes known as the Yin Soul, and the process is called opening the heavenly gate."

He paused momentarily here before continuing, "That's all I've been able to figure out thus far, and there are most definitely still other levels above the Yin Soul Stage. I can sense that I'm still very far away from the heights reached by the second King Yanluo, and I need more time to reach that level."

Qin Ye nodded in response. In contrast with Zhao Yun, he didn't have as strong a yearning for power. After all, he was the King Yanluo, and he wouldn't have to go into battle in person on a battlefield anyway.

Right at this moment, they rushed through a layer of cloud and mist, and upon emerging on the other side, they were greeted by a burst of dazzling light.

Even though Qin Ye was already mentally prepared for this, he was still utterly astonished by the scene that was presented before his eyes.

Above them was a vast expanse of blackish-azure chaos. Zhao Yun pointed upward and said, "If we go up further, we'll reach the boundaries of the underworld."

Qin Ye nodded in response before casting his gaze toward another direction, where a seal hung in the sky like a sun, radiating light that illuminated all things.

It was an incredibly massive seal, one that was most likely close to half of the size of the Cathayan Underworld, and words couldn't describe the aura that it was giving off. Standing in front of it, Qin Ye paled completely into insignificance, and it was truly a stunning sight to behold.

On one side of King Yanluo's Seal was the Book of Life and Death, which was around a fifth of the seal's size, and it was currently orbiting around the seal.

The divine artifacts had returned to their rightful places, simulating the sun and the moon!