Yama Rising

Nippon, Osaka.

Osaka was a natural port, and it was a city that one would have to pass through in order to reach Nara prior to the advent of air travel.

This wasn't a very lavish city, and due to the geographic constraints of Nippon, the roads weren't very wide. There also weren't many cars and tall buildings, and during the day, the streets were very quiet. However, after work, the city would welcome a peak where countless people emerged from the office buildings, and only from that time onward would the city truly be alive.

Osaka Port was one of Nippon's five major ports, and tourists would arrive at the southern port of Osaka, while the rest of the port was primarily used for shipping containers. However, unbeknownst to everyone, a section of the port that had never been used had been opened in secret on this day.

It was 12 AM, midnight.

There was a passageway in Osaka Port, at the end of which was the sea and a coral reef. On either side of the passageway was a statue of Sea God Watatsumi, and they were attached together by a thick shimenawa rope. This type of rope would usually be found strung up in front of a shinto shrine, but for some reason, it was present here.

It was said that crossing over a length of shimenawa rope would take one to another world, and the shimenawa rope here was red, which was completely different from its white counterpart that was normally found in front of shinto shrines.

White paper human cutouts were adhered all over the length of the rope, and they were rustling in the sea breeze, presenting an extremely harrowing sight to behold.

This passageway was very long, and with the incessantly rustling of the paper cutouts and crashing of the waves, anyone walking along the passageway in the dead of night would constantly feel as if there were some type of sinister presence blowing down the back of their neck.

There wasn't even a single street lamp along this entire passageway.

It was a transport passageway with a length of over 1,200 meters, yet there were no street lamps, and at night, this place was like a ghostly abyss. Even the security guards who were on duty didn't dare to venture deep into it.

Just like every other night, there was no one present here.

However, a series of lanterns suddenly lit up in a place invisible to the human eye, and they stretched for over a kilometer on either side of the passageway!

The lanterns were arranged in a very orderly fashion, and from within the darkness beyond the light of the lanterns, a series of hands slowly emerged, followed by a woman in a lavish kimono. She was wearing a silver fox mask with cherry blossom designs etched on the forehead and a pair of high wooden sandals.

Her skin was deathly pale, and her figure seemed to be more illusion than substance. Her lower body simply disappeared into the darkness of the light, and all of a sudden, an extremely tall and broad figure appeared at the center of the passageway. The figure was followed by a Nipponese-style sedan chair, which was being carried by four three-meter tall giants.

The giants were extremely emaciated in appearance, virtually just sacks of skin and bones. Their bodies were identical in proportion to those of normal humans, but their hands and feet were over three times longer than they should've been, making for a very strange sight to behold. In addition to that, there were yellow talismans adhered to their foreheads, and one would be very wise to run as fast as they could in the other direction if they were to ever see these creatures in the night.

It was still extremely quiet.

The giant figure was wearing a suit of Nipponese style armor, and was standing in excess of 10 meters tall. On his shoulder was perched a frog that was half a meter tall, and he was wearing a black veiled hat and a white kariginu while holding a hand fan.

"We're almost there," the giant figure suddenly said in a voice that resembled rumbling thunder.

The frog on his shoulder hesitated momentarily before asking, "Aren't you angry that they abducted your son?"

"Of course I am! I'm so enraged that I want nothing more than to tear them to shreds with my bare hands," the giant figure spat through gritted teeth. "But I can't do that. Even though the Cathayan Underworld may have just suffered a significant decline, it's still far too powerful for the Nipponese Underworld to contend with. However..."

Two balls of blue netherfire were ignited in the eyes of the giant figure as he stared intently at the surface of the sea. "Someone will exact my revenge in my stead. In the meantime, I'll wait! No one knows exactly what's happened to the Cathayan Underworld during the past century, but all of the signs point to it having suffered a significant decline. However, there is still no definite answer. Hence, I'm going to unveil this answer. I'm going to watch them with every fiber of my being and slowly unravel the unsavory truth that they've been trying to hide! I'm certain that the Cathayan Underworld is weaker than it's virtually ever been right now. The fact that they haven't demanded offerings from the Nipponese Underworld is already a massive sign of weakness!"

The frog opened its mouth to say something, but decided against it in the end.

The pain of losing his son had made the giant figure lose his sense of rationality, but what could it say to snap him out of this state of mind?

"What are you going to be able to see?" it murmured to itself.

Its voice wasn't very loud at all, but the giant figure managed to hear it, and a cold smile appeared on his face as he said, "The number of representatives and the displays of power and wealth are enough to reflect many things about the state of the nation. We're dealing with the third King Yanluo of Hell, how much confidence does he have? How does he do things compared with his previous two predecessors? These are all very telling signs. I don't have to necessarily sit with them at the same negotiation table to uncover the things that I want to see."

Right at this moment, a burst of light suddenly appeared on the surface of the sea.

It's here! 

The netherflames in the eyes of the giant figure burned even brighter than before, and he looked on as a vast expanse of blue netherfire appeared on the surface of the sea. Furthermore, there seemed to be something approaching them from within the netherfire.

"Is that..." He inspected the approaching object carefully for several seconds, and as the light drew closer and closer, he suddenly exclaimed, "Is that a city?"

Indeed, there was a city within the netherflames.

To be more accurate, it was a fortress.

It was like Osaka Castle, a tall fortress with countless swaying bright red lanterns. The fortress was floating on the surface of the sea and coming directly toward them!

Magnificent, intimidating, resplendent, vast... In that instant, countless adjectives flashed through the giant figure's mind. The fortress was easily 10,000 square kilometers in area, and it resembled an island more than a moving fortress!

This was an invincible warship, a city on the sea!

"The Cathayan Underworld still had this up its sleeve?" The frog's eyes were bulging as it exclaimed, "No underworld has ever made such an extravagant entrance!"

Even the ghostly female servants who had undergone rigorous training were staring at the approaching floating palace with incredulous expressions, let alone the frog, and they were too stunned to even speak.

Who would bring along a floating palace just for a conference? Wasn't this way too extravagant?

The giant figure was also watching, and he was looking deeper than everyone else.

The second King Yanluo had never had any need for extravagant entrances, and the entrance of the first King Yanluo had always been at a level that was appropriate and befitting the status of the Cathayan Underworld.

The Cathayan Underworld had never made any overly extravagant entrances on the world stage, and the giant figure was praying with all his might that the representative team of the Cathayan Underworld would make a lackluster entrance, thereby harming their reputation and all but confirming that the Cathayan Underworld really had fallen from grace.

However, not only was the entrance made by the Cathayan Underworld not lackluster in the slightest, it was far more resplendent than he could've ever imagined, and it was a resounding statement of confidence!

Right as all of the Yin spirits were looking on in astonishment, the floating palace had already reached the end of the passageway, sending a vast amount of sea water flying up into the sky before crashing down in a torrential downpour. All of the Yin spirits finally returned to their senses, and the two rows of ghostly female servants immediately fell to their knees and kowtowed as they yelled, "We welcome the esteemed representative team of the Cathayan Underworld to Osaka!"

The giant figure was still watching the palace in silence, and from close quarters, he discovered that it was built upon a vast expanse of Yin clouds. The palace was extraordinarily lavish and magnificent, looking as if it were something that could only possibly belong in the heavens.

The sound of a long horn rang out, and the palace gates were opened, following which a red carpet flew out, paving the way from the floating palace to the passageway. Immediately thereafter, a procession of people emerged from within.

The giant figure was staring intently at the city gates, and he could clearly see that the group that had just emerged from the floating palace was a young man. It was none other than a grown-up version of the young man in the photograph that Izanami had given him.

He watched Qin Ye with an intense, unblinking gaze, as if he were trying to brand the image of Qin Ye deep into his own mind.

This was the man who had killed his son!

However, from the instant that he saw the golden dragon robe that the young man was wearing, he knew that directly attacking him would not be a feasible option, and that wasn't even taking into account the vast yet restrained Yin energy within the young man's body.

He had to continue to bide his time.

With that in mind, he took a deep breath as he forced a smile onto his own face, and the shadows around him dissipated as he stepped forward and cupped his fist in a respectful salute. "Susanoo-no-Mikoto pays his respects to the esteemed King Yanluo." 

Qin Ye didn't bother to reply. Having stepped onto foreign territory, he had to put on a high and mighty display.

He quickly sized up Susanoo-no-Mikoto. This legendary ghost king of Nipponese legends was wearing a black and red suit of ō-yoroi, and he was a true giant.

His entire suit of armor was riddled with pristine white bone spikes, and his face looked as if it had been assembled out of stone blocks. He was an intermediate Abyssal Prefect.

In contrast with those other strange-looking Yin spirits, he was already relatively normal.

"Are you Susa Boy's father?" Qin Ye asked with a smile.

Susanoo-no-Mikoto's head also sprang up upon hearing this, and the netherfire in his eyes erupted for an instant before immediately settling once again. Unbeknownst to everyone, his hands were currently clutched together so tightly that they were bulging with veins.

I'm going to kill you!! I'm going to tear you to shreds, then throw your soul into the depths of the abyss to feed maggots! 

The frog on his shoulder had also knelt down, and it hurriedly urged in a trembling voice, "My Lord, you must rein in your anger! This is a Yama-King, if you dare to do anything to him, you'll be killed in an instant! Even Mistress Izanami won't be able to save you!"

Susanoo-no-Mikoto was only silent for two seconds before standing up as he asked with a smile. "Have you met that rascal son of mine, Yanluo Qin?"

Qin Ye also smiled as he nodded in response. "I have, and he really is a rascal."

Yin energy instantly seeped out of Susanoo-no-Mikoto's entire body, but he still had to pretend to be oblivious.

He had sent Susa Boy to the Cathayan Underworld in secret without securing Hell's approval, so he had trespassed on the territory of the Cathayan Underworld! The fact that an underworld emissary of his caliber had entered the territory of another underworld without express approval could be seen as a declaration of war, so he couldn't say anything even if the Cathayan Underworld had executed Susa Boy on the spot.

Before Susanoo-no-Mikoto had a chance to say anything, Qin Ye continued, "I seem to have seen his name on some report in the past. I can go and check for you once I get back."

It took all of Susanoo-no-Mikoto's mental fortitude to repress his own fury as he cupped his fist in a respectful salute. "Then I'll be thanking you in advance, Yanluo Qin. Please enter the carriage, and we'll go to Tōdai-ji right away. The carriage is very comfortable, and I'm sure it'll be to your liking."

Qin Ye made his way over to the carriage, and the four giant stick-insect-like carriage carriers had already set down the carriage and were currently waiting beside it while maintaining a bowing gesture of the utmost respect.

Right as Qin Ye was about to enter the carriage, he turned around and asked, "What about you?"

"I'll be right there with you. Please go on ahead, Your Excellency," Susanoo-no-Mikoto replied with a smile.

Qin Ye nodded in response before stepping onto the carriage, and all of the other Emissaries of Hell were also provided with their own modes of transportation. Close to 20 minutes later, their procession began to travel quickly toward the city of Nara.

Only after the procession was over a kilometer away did Susanoo-no-Mikoto finally erupt into a thunderous rage. "Bastard!! Scum!!"

"That's my son! My only son!!" He cracked his knuckles loudly as he spat through gritted teeth. "Listen to his audacity! 'I seem to have seen his name on some report in the past'? He's pretending like a foreign Abyssal Prefect is so insignificant in his eyes that he can't even be bothered to remember them! How insolent!"

After venting his fury with that thunderous rant, he suddenly completely calmed down. 

"Just you wait, all of the people who want you dead are just as, if not more powerful than you!"

Qin Ye was naturally obvious to all of this. The carriage was very large and spacious, and the padding inside was very soft.

It had a wooden floor that was covered in a thick and soft fur carpet, and snacks and beverages had been placed on the table in the carriage. It was like a mobile luxury suite, and Qin Ye didn't know what type of Yin spirits the carriage carriers were, but they were able to travel extremely quickly while making it feel as if the carriage wasn't moving at all.

Right as he had stepped into the carriage, Zhao Yun's voice had rung out beside his ears. "Something's not right, my Lord. There have been far too many strange occurrences on the way here, so please be on your guard at all times!"