Yama Rising

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If a Yama-King level being wanted to approach an inferior Emissary of Hell without being caught, then there was no way they would be detected. Less than 20 seconds later, Qin Ye was already situated at the back of the line with a cold expression, yet the Yin spirits at the back were completely unable to see him.

Qin Ye's eyes narrowed slightly as a hint of bloodlust appeared on his face. At such close range, he could clearly see that these Yin spirits were wearing suits of black armor beneath their cloaks.

Those were suits of armor crafted from the carapaces of blight vermin!

This type of armor was unique to the Cathayan Underworld, only the fall of Hell could bring about a plague of blight vermin! In other words, these Yin spirits were all Emissaries of Hell!

As the ruler of the Cathayan Underworld, he was completely unaware of the fact that such a group of merchants existed!

A subordinate who had done something wrong would still be capable of redemption in the eyes of a ruler, but treason was completely intolerable!

A howling flame of fury had been ignited in Qin Ye's heart. All it would take would be a snap of his fingers to completely wipe these traitorous Emissaries of Hell out of existence, but it still wasn't time to do that.

He swept his gaze over the crates on the skeletal camels' backs. Each camel was carrying two crates, and sealing talismans were plastered all over the surface of the crates. However, those talismans were completely ineffective against a Yama-King, and Qin Ye was able to clearly inspect the contents of the crates with just a single glance.

It was Yin jade...

These crates were filled to the brim with neatly packed Yin jade!

Each piece was around the size of a human fist, rectangular in shape with a thickness of half an inch. A "Qin" character was carved onto the front of each piece of Yin jade, while the words "Made in Ashmound during the third year of the new Hell" were inscribed on their backs.

This was the first batch of Yin jade forged in the Cathayan Underworld, and it was superior to HLs when it came to its ability to draw upon Yin energy. It was equivalent to gold in the mortal realm, a universal currency used across the entire Cathayan Underworld. A vicious smile immediately appeared on Qin Ye's face upon determining the contents of the crates.

The Yin jade was being smuggled out of the Cathayan Underworld.

Never did he think that he would stumble upon a group of smugglers during this trip to the seabed.

How long had Hell been established for? Less than three years, and there were already Yin spirits smuggling precious resources out of the border! These dozens of skeletal camels were carrying at least hundreds of kilograms of Yin jade on their backs! Even more importantly, who was this Yin jade being smuggled to? Who was on the other side?

Due to the rift in the Array of the Nine Gods, he had come all the way here to investigate the truth, only to discover that there were Emissaries of Hell smuggling resources out of his nation right under his nose!

"I guess the negative traits in human nature will forever remain." He slowly raised a hand, and the last Yin spirit in the line seemed to have sensed something as he looked around with a dumbstruck expression. However, in the next instant, before he even had a chance to cry out, Yin energy rippled gently around him. It was like a very slight ripple in the surrounding seawater, and no one else up ahead noticed anything, but that Emissary of Hell had already disappeared.

In this long procession of Yin spirits and skeletal camels, the disappearance of a single Yin spirit wasn't enough to attract any attention.

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Wang Zhao felt a tremor run through his mind, and his surroundings began to quickly revolve. Specks of netherfire emerged from the ground around him, and an indescribable sense of horror descended upon him. In this instant, he was more terrified than he had ever been before, and he began to tremble uncontrollably.

He felt as if he were being scrutinized by a transcendent being, and he immediately began to panic. He wanted to call out to his companions for help, but he discovered that he was unable to make a single sound and could only look on helplessly as the procession of camels traveled further and further away.

There was something here, something extremely terrifying. He gripped the hilt of the blade hanging from his waist tightly with a trembling hand, and right as he turned around, he suddenly discovered that there was someone beside him.

It was a very familiar figure. He had never witnessed this figure in person, but everyone in the entire Cathayan Underworld was aware of what he looked like.

"Y, Y, Y, Yanluo Qin..." His voice was trembling in shock and horror. Qin Ye glanced at the blade he was holding, and his hand immediately shuddered as the blade clattered to the ground.

He didn't dare to use the blade given to him by Hell against the ruler of Hell.

How is this possible? How could he be here? He's a godlike being in the Cathayan Underworld, how could he be here?! 

Wang Zhao's mind had gone completely blank, and he fell heavily to his knees.

"P, p, p, please spare me, my Lord! Spare me!!" he howled with all his might. "I didn't want to do it... I really didn't want to! I was forced..."

Before he had a chance to finish, netherfire erupted out of his entire body, igniting him into a fiery pillar. Blood-curdling howls instantly rang out, and Qin Ye looked on calmly as the Yin spirit was incinerated into nothingness right before his eyes, leaving behind only a pale soul.

"You thought there was a chance I could let you live? You committed treason, a crime punishable by a thousand deaths!"

He swept a sleeve through the air, and the soul phased into his glabella, following which countless images instantly surfaced in his mind.

He inspected the memories calmly, and only after a full two minutes had passed did he reopen his eyes.

The nation had only just been founded, and he and all of the Emissaries of Hell were working diligently to better the underworld, yet there was large-scale smuggling taking place on the border right in Ashmound!

Qin Ye didn't know where this Yin jade was going. At the very least, this Emissary of Hell didn't know. He was ranked too low on the pecking order, and he hadn't even seen the masterminds behind this operation. There was only a superior telling him what to do, and he didn't know anything else.

However, there was one valuable piece of information that Qin Ye had gleaned from his memories, which was that this type of smuggling took place once per month, and it had been going on for over a year!

Furthermore, the resources were being transported out of the array toward the palaces on that giant beast's back!

In Wang Zhao's memories, his team had never been followed before. They were keeping their origins a secret, and that was the only remaining trace of loyalty they had toward the Cathayan Underworld. However, Qin Ye knew that this was completely useless! These idiots weren't even Netherworld Operatives, how were they supposed to notice if anyone were following them?

"So you're betraying your nation for personal gain." Qin Ye forcibly repressed his fury as he calmly adjusted his hair, but even his fingers were trembling with rage.

These Emissaries of Hell were already aware of the existence of that giant beast, yet instead of informing him about this, they had chosen to smuggle resources to the power on the giant beast's back in secret!

Of course, these smugglers were most likely receiving exceptional compensation, but they had no idea what they were selling! They were selling the lifeblood of the Cathayan Underworld!

Whoosh! Qin Ye vanished as a gust of Yin wind once again, and by the time he reappeared, he had already adopted Wang Zhao's appearance and was walking along at the back of the procession as if nothing had ever happened.

They were all going to the same place anyway, so why not have these traitors lead him to his destination? He wanted to see exactly what the power on the giant beast's back could offer that was so irresistibly alluring to the Emissaries of Hell.

"Not a single one of you is going to live past today..."

He was like a death god prowling the seabed, slowly vanishing into the distance with this procession of camels.

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The seabed route was very long, and even though the camels were traveling quite quickly, it still took them four to five hours to reach the bright blue Array of the Nine Gods.

The Array of the Nine Gods was present in all three realms, encompassing the entirety of the Cathayan Underworld's territory. Otherwise, powerful emissaries from foreign underworlds would enter Limbo through a Yin Yang Mezzanine, then find a way into the Cathayan Underworld from there. Only by casting the array over all three realms could absolute safety be ensured. However, the concerning thing now was that the same giant rift in the array was also present in all three realms!

The rift in the mortal realm was around the same size as the one in the underworld. Qin Ye tugged his cloak tighter around him as he continued onward. All of the smugglers in this group were wearing masks, and they had remained silent throughout the whole trip. It seemed that no one was aware of anyone else's identity, and that made it easier for Qin Ye to conceal himself.

The group made their way through the rift, and an altar appeared up ahead!

The deep sea altar wasn't very large, only around 10 meters in size. The railings and stairs around it were virtually completely unadorned and teeming with seaweed. However, the center of the altar was extremely intricately crafted with complex patterns all over its surface. A statue of a dragon's head was situated at the very center, and the leader of the smugglers placed a piece of Yin jade into the dragon's mouth. Immediately thereafter, streaks of bright blue Yin energy began to surge through the patterns inscribed on the altar, and soon, the entire altar was enshrouded in a bright blue glow.

That's a teleportation formation! Qin Ye's heart sank slightly upon seeing this.

Hell hadn't managed to develop such a thing yet. In order to create a teleportation formation, Yin rune arrays of extremely high calibers were required. The first ones to have developed such a thing was the Argosian Underworld. It was capable of teleporting things and beings from one point to another, using Yin runes to construct the required coordinates.

The fact that there was a teleportation formation here meant that emissaries from foreign underworlds had definitely been here before!

The altar was situated right in front of the giant rift, and in order to make the smuggling more convenient, even something as advanced as a teleportation formation had been set up here!

Furthermore, it was his own Emissaries of Hell who had drawn them here!

Who was on the other side?!

Qin Ye was so furious that he was beginning to see red. Was it the Nipponese Underworld or perhaps another underworld? Could it be one of the three pillars?

He didn't know.

All he knew was that he had to make haste. He had to develop and expand the nation rapidly at all costs. Everything that he had thought had been hidden securely all this time had most likely already been revealed, and time was truly running out for him.

"We're going up in reverse order." This was the first piece of verbal communication throughout this entire trip. Qin Ye was at the back of the line, so he stepped onto the teleportation formation first. Bright blue light immediately illuminated the seabed like eerie blue flames, and Qin Ye was struck by a slight rush of dizziness. By the time he reappeared, he found himself in a completely different setting.

This was a massive seabed graveyard. 

The carcasses and bones of massive sea creatures were strewn all around the area.

There were some creatures among them that Qin Ye had never seen before, and they had clearly all perished long ago, as evidenced by the fact that their skeletons were teeming with seaweed and all types of marine animals. In fact, some of them had been here for so long that they had formed artificial coral reefs, which were both home and paradise to countless species of marine life forms.

There were sea stars, seaweed, and fish of all types of colors and descriptions. However, what truly drew Qin Ye's attention were the lights that stretched as far as the eyes could see among the rocks.

The lights stretched on for at least several dozen kilometers, and there was no end to them in sight!

This was a seabed city!

The city was concealed between the rocks on the seabed, and countless carcasses were littered all over the seabed around the city like Yin soldiers acting as the city's guardians.

"Is it your first time here?" Right at this moment, a voice rang out beside him, and a female skeleton wearing an antiquated Europa palatial dress emerged from behind a rock while fanning herself with a hand fan.

She extended an elegant curtsey, and fish were swimming in and out of her empty eye sockets as she said, "I know what you're feeling, anyone would be shocked to see this city for the very first time. This is the first seabed city in the entire world, regardless of whether it's in the mortal realm or the underworld. I am the recording official, Teana, and I welcome you to the largest city of the Peach Blossom Spring, Mirage City!"