Yama Rising

A heavy storm was pouring down. Inside a lounge in Yuncheng's municipal government building, a young man looked up at the sky, then lowered his head as his brows furrowed slightly.

"What's going on? It was bright and sunny not long ago, but it's absolutely pouring now."

There were several other young men and women in the lounge, some of which were smoking, some of which were drinking tea, and they were all taking the time to relax.

A man who appeared to be in his late twenties lit a cigarette before taking a deep draw. "It is quite strange, isn't it? It's like those clouds were suddenly summoned out of nowhere. Are the supernatural disasters back?"

"Don't say that!"

"We finally managed to endure that nightmare and return to the right track! If it happens again... I don't even dare to think about that..."

"That is not funny at all. At the time, I was still in high school, and quite a few of my fellow students died during those supernatural disasters..."

Right at this moment, the phone of a young, bespectacled man suddenly began to ring. He took a glance at the phone, then immediately rose to his feet with a smile as he said, "Please excuse me, I need to take a call."

He closed the door before making his way to a familiar quiet place, then looked around cautiously before carefully accepting the call. "Hello."

"Hello, Secretary Zhang." A slightly sycophantic voice rang out from the other end of the line. "Is Mayor Bai there?"

Secretary Zhang replied in a low voice, "Mayor Bai is currently holding a development area overhaul meeting. As I'm sure you're aware, an accident took place at the development area not long ago, and people were sent down from the provincial government to investigate."

"May I ask how much longer he'll be in the meeting?"

Secretary Zhang thought about this for a moment before replying, "The meeting has only just begun, so it'll be about two hours. You've called at a rather unfortunate time, I'm afraid."

Inside an office building in Yuncheng, a thin middle-aged man was holding his phone as he spoke into it with a fawning expression. "I'm calling because I have an interest in taking over the Mount Tianmu development project, but I'm a little short on funds at the moment. The price that you've stated is a little too..."

"I'm sorry, Manager Li, but I have no say on the prices of the project," Secretary Zhang interjected. "That is Mayor Bai's job, and also, please allow me to remind you that this price is already comparable with market standards. We haven't charged any additional fees for the initial investment."

Fuck off!

Manager Li almost threw his phone across the room upon hearing this.

While it was true that the price was comparable with market standards and no additional fees had been charged, the initial work that had already been done on the project was downright abysmal!

At the very most, other construction companies would only dare to skip one bolt per frame junction, but they were missing two! There were two fewer steel beams per frame junction than what should've been installed, and that was only one of a whole host of problems.

There were issues everywhere, yet they still dared to sell off the project at market standard prices! How could they be so shameless?!

However, Manager Li naturally wasn't going to verbalize these complaints.

Instead, he continued in a fawning voice, "I understand. We are definitely more than willing to support Mayor Bai in his work, but the price really is too high for us to accept."

He could sense Secretary Zhang's impatience, and he immediately continued, "However, I have a cousin who's coming over from Hong Kong to visit me, and he has the wealth required to take on this project!"

Secretary Zhang was just about to end the call, but his finger paused right above the button on his phone, and a smile appeared on his face. "Go on."

"I told him about the Mount Tianmu project, and he's very interested! He'll only be staying for one day, so please inform Mayor Bai as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence!"

Secretary Zhang's smile gradually faded upon hearing this.

This was no longer the 90's or the 00's, where even high-ranking government officials had to suck up to investors.

Nowadays, the investment environment in Cathay had improved significantly, and knowing Mayor Bai's personality, he knew that there was no way he would be willing to drop everything that he was doing and take time out of his busy schedule to visit a Hong Kong investor in person.

"I'm sorry, but..."

"1.2 billion USD!"

The two voices rang out almost at the exact same time, and Secretary Zhang faltered slightly upon hearing this before suddenly standing bolt upright.

Manager Li quickly continued, "My cousin has decided to invest 1.2 billion USD into the project! He's flying back to Hong Kong tonight, so please..."

"I'll inform Mayor Bai right away!"

The call was abruptly cut off, and Manager Li heaved a long sigh of relief, then pulled out a silken handkerchief to dab at the cold sweat on his forehead. After that, he turned around like a well-trained dog with his hands folded together.

This was a large office, and the wooden desk in the office was over two meters wide, with an intricately crafted, gold-plated model of a ship sitting on it.

Behind the desk was a soft leather sofa, and behind that was a row of bookshelves. There was also a corner sofa in an antiquated Cathayan style hugging the corner of the room against the wall. At this moment, there were five men and women seated on the leather sofa, which was over three meters long. Their leader was a middle-aged man, while the rest of the group were all in their twenties.

They were wearing crisp, professional suits, and their eyes were as sharp as hawks. They wore on their chests an uncommon emblem, which consisted of a golden shield and a pair of crossed swords on a circular red background. All those who were familiar with the legal system knew that this was the emblem of the Disciplinary Committee of the Cathayan Communist Party!

Generally speaking, a visit from them was never good news.

Manager Li's voice was trembling as he said, "I've already told you everything, so please lighten my sentence..."

Everyone ignored him, and they were all changing their clothes, taking off their professional suits before putting on luxury clothing, as well as expensive perfumes and colognes.

Their leader quickly combed his own hair, then adjusted his tie as he asked, "Has all of the information been recorded?"

"Yes!"

"What about the documents?"

"They've all been prepared as well."

"Do you all remember your lines?"

"Yes!"

The middle-aged man adjusted his tie one final time, then finally cast his gaze toward Manager Li, whose legs were about to give out from under him at this point.

He then said in a convincing Southern Fujian accent, "From now on, I am your cousin, understood?"

"Yes..." Manager Li frantically dabbed at the cold sweat pouring down his face as he bit tightly down onto his own lower lip.

The middle-aged man took a glance at his watch, then said, "We still have four and a half hours left until the next mission will be issued to us."

It won't be easy to get Bai Liangping to take the bait.

He had already embezzled a massive amount of funds as the mayor of Yuncheng, and he was very adept at distinguishing between true corporations and scam artists. In the sale of this project, what he was most worried about wasn't whether the buyer would have sufficient funds. Instead, it was the powers behind the buyers.

Naturally, the disciplinary committee had already prepared a convincing package to lure Bai Liangping in.

"Let's go!" the middle-aged man instructed.

At this point, everyone had already completed their makeovers, but after making his way over to the door, the middle-aged man turned around before asking, "Where's Li Lianshun?"

"Captain, his legs are trembling too much for him to walk."

The middle-aged man returned to Li Lianshun's side, then looked him straight in the eye as he said, "We have four and a half hours left. We'll have to get to the municipal government building from here, then invite Bai Liangping to a restaurant for a meal before beginning negotiations. All of that will take at least one and a half hours, so the negotiations must be complete within three hours. You only have one chance."

……………………………………

On the street, the line of cars had already stretched to several dozen meters in length. Amid the vehicles, the hearse that Qin Ye was in was completely eye-catching. Under normal circumstances, all of the cars would be making way for the hearse, but the road closure meant that there was nowhere for those cars to go to make way.

The windows of the hearse were covered by drawn curtains, and the windscreen was made from one-way glass, preventing those outside from seeing into the vehicle. Every single inspector in the hearse was quickly typing on their laptops.

"We've already connected to Yuncheng's Special Investigations Department branch through the backend." A female "mourner" was gently pressing her earpiece as she said, "Strangely enough, they've denied access to their supernatural perimeter activation facilities to everyone."

That's no surprise at all. Seven top-tier darkfeathers have already fallen in this city, which indicates that this place must be crawling with the inner demon's spies...

Qin Ye's eyes were closed, and he was gently massaging his beaded bracelet as he laid in the coffin. However, his eyes sprang open once every few seconds, and he had to forcibly repress the urge to constantly check his watch.

Two and a half hours had already passed by, which meant that the Yin Yang Mezzanines of Yucheng were going to close in less than 10 hours. That was definitely enough time for four Yama-Kings and a being above the Yama-King level to wipe away all of the traces here.

With each passing second, Qin Ye was becoming more and more agitated.

What was the mortal realm doing? Why hadn't the government made a move yet? Had their people really already been deployed? If they still weren't here in the next few hours, would he have to send his Yin soldiers to directly attack Yuncheng?

Qin Ye rejected that idea almost as soon as it crossed his mind.

The inner demon still hadn't left, and it was clearly waiting to see whether Hell would expose itself. If he were to launch an all-out attack on Yuncheng, he would perhaps be able to find out what the inner demon was up to, but that would confirm to the inner demon that it had indeed been tracked down, and the detriment simply outweighed the reward.

A conversation quickly began in the hearse. "There's a massive traffic jam at Azure Dragon Mountain, and a road accident has been cited as the reason. I requested the satellite images of the site, and there are no road accidents there. Once every five minutes, a burst of Yin energy belonging to a being at or above the Abyssal Prefect level would sweep over this road, so it's extremely tightly guarded."

Another male investigator zoomed into the image with a grim expression as he said, "Behind Azure Dragon Mountain is a plot of barren land referred to by the locals as Barren Rock Bank. The area spans an area of roughly 20 square kilometers, and the only way to Barren Rock Bank is to travel over Azure Dragon Mountain. According to the data we've gathered, there has been a powerful eruption of Yin energy on Barren Rock Bank, but it has been very carefully contained."

"How powerful are we talking?" Qin Ye suddenly asked.

The investigator faltered momentarily, then quickly typed something on his keyboard before replying, "It's at least at the Prefect-level, but we're unsure of whether it's at the Yama-King level. There's no way to pin down the opposition's whereabouts, and his opponent is an Infernal Judge. Looking at the data we have on file, it seems to be the current master of Mount Longhu, Taoist Master Zhang."

As soon as his voice trailed off, a burst of violent tremors ran through the ground, and it was so violent that all of the cars in the area jumped up slightly in unison.

A woman was checking her phone in a red sedan, and she was given a massive fright by this. She immediately looked up from her phone, and her first reaction was that someone had to have crashed into her car.

However, in the instant that she looked up, the enraged look on her face instantly congealed, then transitioned from anger to shock.

Two seconds later, she removed her sunglasses, then opened the door of her car, getting out onto the street with her hand covering her own mouth in shock.

She wasn't the only one. Countless drivers on this road had emerged from their cars, then turned their attention toward Yuncheng with incredulous expressions.

The clouds in the sky had sprung to life!

They were surging and churning as if someone were manipulating them, and this phenomenon was taking place over such a massive area that there was no end to it in sight!

A female driver was sipping on a beverage, and it fell out of her hand and onto the ground, but she was completely oblivious to that. There was an astonished expression on her face as she exclaimed, "Are those... some type of characters?! Have any of you ever seen them before?"

She didn't know who she was asking, nor was she expecting any response.

This scene was completely beyond the limits of her comprehension, and she didn't know how to respond.

After a long while, a dazed voice rang out in response. "I've never seen anything like this... What the hell is going on?!"

The clouds in the sky had formed a series of enormous characters!

It was the Heavenly Teacher Seal at work!