Yama Rising

Qin Ye listened intently. He would soon have to step into the international arena after unifying Hell, and the more he knew, the better.

“This was a matter of top secret, and not a single other person was involved. Come to think of it, I would think it was also because the Second King Yanluo had already begun to feel rejection from the Heavenly Dao that he began to undertake such a course of action, laying the groundwork for the future…”

Zhao Yun thought about it for a moment, “Firstly, to advance to such a realm requires a certain measure of luck and fortune. After all, one of the prerequisites is to devour an evil ghost that carries with him a fragment of Heavenly Dao. To that end, the founding father of any dynasty can be said to be the executor of the Heavenly Dao of their dynasty, and that would mean he is in part the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao as well. But that also means that there are only a handful of Yin spirits who would allow one to fulfill these conditions. This is an opportunity that is hard to come by.”

“Furthermore, I can sense that the Heavenly Dao has already detected my presence and begun to target me. However, since it hasn’t outrightly rejected my will, I probably wouldn’t be forced to ascend in the near future.”

Zhao Yun gazed into the distance with some measure of reminiscence, “Come to think of it, I think the Second King Yanluo must have detected that the Heavenly Dao was beginning to outrightly reject his existence back then, and that was what inspired him to commence works on the initiation module of the second generation Forbidden Arts. After all, that would no doubt become the key to completing the Forbidden Arts. Thus, he summoned me to Zhenhai City in the Mongol Empire, saying that there’s a location that is blanketed with the aura of the Heavenly Dao, and filled with roiling, dense YIn energy, and asked me to investigate it further.”

He took a deep breath, and his voice grew stern and somber, “But what was most surprising about it all was the fact that Temujin’s Tomb was constructed atop a bed of Resentment Crystals!”

Qin Ye leaned back into his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “Did your secret memorial bear the emblem of a six-petaled lotus flower by any chance?”

Qin Ye shook his head lightly, and then sighed with exasperation.

Everything was coming full circle.

Instead, it was intercepted by the Confucian Family, one of the Eight Great Clans of Hell!

“Yes.” Zhao Yun nodded, “The six-petaled lotus flower is the key to the seal on the door to Temujin’s Tomb, and this emblem was formed by the condensation of the arrangement of Yin Talismans drawn from Temujin’s Tomb into a simpler image. But if one reversed the technique used to condense it and blew it up once more, it would reveal the image of Tengri holding onto a lotus flower that I had found in the tomb. In other words, I was conveying two messages in this secret memorial of mine. On the one hand, it was to tell the Second King Yanluo of my discovery, and on the other hand, it’s also a request for the Second King Yanluo to personally take action to decipher this set of Yin Talismans.”

And the second thing they would’ve realized was the existence of Resentment Crystals - and a lot of it at that! In fact, this is easily the largest Resentment Crystals mine in the world!

And thus, they acted on their desires.

“Yes.”

Qin Ye tapped gently on the table - Zhao Yun must have returned and personally reported back to the Second King Yanluo. That’s the only way the Second King Yanluo would’ve learnt that the secret memorial was actually intercepted and wrongfully retained by one of the Eight Great Clans. This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, and in his fit of anger, he made up his mind to raze everything to the ground so that things could start afresh.

So, when the Second King Yanluo finally responded to Zhao Yun, he set out clearly the means used to activate the initiation module of the second generation Forbidden Art. Naturally, he thought to give the Eight Great Clans one final chance, so he’d sent it back by way of another secret memorial. Unfortunately, it was still stopped by the Confucian Family, and eventually passed on to Kong Mo.

Having finally pieced the fragmented puzzles together, another query came to his mind, and he looked up at Zhao Yun once more, “Brother Zhao, didn’t you earlier mention that Genghis Khan’s Tomb was originally located under Zhenhai City? Doesn’t that mean that the person who shifted his tomb through a series of subterranean passageways and into the land of Cathay… was actually you?”

“That said, Temujin’s Tomb wasn’t located in Zhenhai City. Rather, it was in Khuree. His tomb was incredibly large, with eight entrances in total, which represented the eight tribal patriarchs. In Tengrism, this would be represented by eight totems. Back then, when I discovered the main chamber where his tomb was located, I summoned everyone who was buried together with Genghis Khan and forced them to create an underground massage hundreds of kilometers long.”

As expected…

After all, Tantric Buddhism had only surfaced publicly in the latter parts of the Yuan Dynasty, when it became more proliferated among the nobles of the Yuan Dynasty. Furthermore, Temujin had never managed to claim the lands of Cathay in his time. Rather, it was his descendant, Kublai Khan, who officially founded the Yuan Dynasty. Tantric Buddhism should never have been even part of the consideration for Temujin when he first passed on!

Truth be told, Qin Ye had initially thought that these had been contributed in part by Phagpa, who arranged for various additions to be made in order to boast of his own merits, particularly when they arranged for Phagpa to be buried with Genghis Khan in death. This would explain the elements of Tantric Buddhism and Tengrism.

Would Phagpa truly dare to alter Temujin’s Tomb? Was he not afraid that Kublai Khan would act ruthlessly against everything he had tirelessly worked to build up? Or was he so bold as to think that he could conceal these things from Kublai Khan’s watchful gaze?

Because this tomb wasn’t built by the Mongols at all. No. In fact, Qin Ye had never set foot in Temujin’s Tomb! What they entered was the tomb of the descendants built by Zhao Zilong with the aid of the souls contained in Temujin’s original tomb!

However, there was one question that remained.

“It was determined by the Second King Yanluo.” Zhao Yun responded truthfully, “Back then, his secret memorial in response was accompanied by an oracle as well.”

Silly child… Do you know how badly you’ve been tripped up? I can’t even say that the Dark Lord has favoured you…

Why Northriver Province of all places?

In other words, it was to unite Temujin’s soul with the rest of his successors!

“Yes.” Zhao Yun cupped his hands respectfully, “The Resentment Crystals are an important commodity of the nation. Naturally, I couldn’t afford to leave them in the Mongol Empire. But, in my haste, and in my desire not to alert other underworlds to what I was trying to do, I might have missed out on some of the Resentment Crystals. Coincidentally, Temujin’s Tomb is the first great tomb to have been constructed directly above a bed of Resentment Crystals. There’s never been something like that before, and we naturally don’t know what kind of changes have already occurred to his body. In order to preserve the status quo, I’ve had no choice but to preserve the manner in which he was originally buried as well.”

Cause and effect. Everything made complete sense.

Qin Ye closed his eyes softly and hesitated for a moment, “Let me hazard a guess… Could it be that, approximately 100 years later, you received the Second King Yanluo’s instructions to guard the ancient tomb until the Third King Yanluo appeared?”

“And then, after travelling the world for a bit, you returned to the Yin Mountains, only to be ambushed by a dozen Yuan Emperors, the two Imperial Preceptors, and Temujin’s soul. Thus, you used the Red Lotus of the Purgatory to seal off the entire Chonggu County?”

How ruthless… Qin Ye chuckled bitterly to himself - The Second King Yanluo is truly ruthless.

That way, it would be a toss up as to who would come out on top. Either Zhao Yun advanced, or the Mongol Empire regained its footing in the world. However… the Second King Yanluo knew all too well what kind of person Zhao Yun was.

The Second King Yanluo had even calculated that the main battlefield would take place atop the Yin Mountains, and not Temujin’s Tomb. Thus, he had chosen to hide the initiation module of the second generation Forbidden Art in the tomb itself.

Would I… one day become like the Second King Yanluo as well?

After all, while I can sympathize with Brother Zhao’s innocence… I’d also say that the Second King Yanluo wasn’t wrong in what he did.