Yama Rising

Just like during the war between Nippon and Cathay in the mortal realm, with each place that was conquered, a faux government had to be established in order to maintain control over the territory.

Qin Changxin said in a fervent voice, "The Nipponese Underworld isn't a large nation, but its hierarchy is completely different from our Cathayan Underworld. Instead of a linear system, theirs is more like a triangular system with Izanami at the top of the triangle. There are three powers vying with one another, and not all of them are in support of Izanami's reign. In fact, there are even some among them with pro-Cathayan sentiments."

Qin Ye raised his head and took a meaningful look at Qin Changxin upon hearing this, but didn't say anything. With a gentle wave of his hand, the documents on the table flew over to him, and he began to carefully inspect them.

Qin Changxin opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but remained silent in the end and sat back down.

His eagerness had gotten the better of him.

He knew what mistake he had made. He had been yearning for this for several centuries, and due to his excessive eagerness, he had missed some things.

For example, Izanami wasn't the only Abyssal Prefect in the Nipponese Underworld. She was the only one who could be considered to be half a step away from the Yama-King level, but in terms of Abyssal Prefects, there were actually nine in total in the Nipponese Underworld.

There was Yamata no Orochi of Kyushu, Susa Boy of Chugoku, Susanoo-no-Mikoto of Kansai, Izanami of Chubu, Hato of Kanto, Emperor Sutoku of Tohoku, and Tamamo-no-Mae of Hokkaido.

Each Abyssal Prefect was overseeing a region. Izanami knew that she wasn't powerful enough to force all of the Abyssal Prefects to submit to her, so she very wisely chose to adopt an authoritarian system. The number of troops in each region wouldn't exceed 300,000, and the rest were all gathered in Kanto or Chubu.

This information should've been disclosed to Qin Ye from the get-go, but in his haste to proceed, Qin Changxin had neglected to do so. It was as if he wanted to convince Qin Ye that attacking the Nipponese Underworld was a trivial matter that he didn't need to personally attend to, and that all he had to do was give his approval.

If Qin Ye were a mediocre ruler, he would've most likely allowed Qin Changxin to do as he pleased. However, as a conscientious ruler who ruled with an iron fist, the more information that Qin Changxin revealed, the more he was struck by the feeling that things were creeping out of his control. This was why Qin Ye had chosen to silence Qin Changxin for now, and it was also a silent reprimand, warning him not to get ahead of himself in these crucial moments.

A wry smile appeared on Qin Changxin's face as he clenched his fists tightly.

I thought I'd be able to face all of this calmly, but we've only just begun the planning process and I've already completely lost control over my own emotions. How pitiful...

Time slowly passed by, and the only sound that could be heard in the hall was the rustling of pages. The displeasure in Qin Ye's heart had already faded, and he was completely absorbed by the information that he was reading.

Just as Qin Changxin had said, aside from demons and deities of the Nipponese Underworld, there were two more prominent powers, the first of which was the warring states.

Almost every Nipponese warring state had a Daimyo assigned by Izanami, and the heart of each area was the tenshu pavilion of the Daimyo, while the caves of the nine ghostly monarchs were situated at the center of each region.

The Nipponese Underworld had a total of 54 tenshu pavilions, which was identical to the number of warring states during the Nipponese sengoku period.

The forces of the warring states weren't included in the four million Kunitsukami, and the number of troops under each Daimyo was forbidden from crossing 10,000. Even so, that would amount to a total of 540,000 additional Yin soldiers.

The second of those aforementioned forces were the consortiums.

In contrast with the consortiums of the mortal realm, the consortiums of the underworld had the right to assemble private armies!

According to Liu Yu's records, the dealings that took place between the Hanyang Underworld and the Nipponese Underworld had always been facilitated by the Hongan-ji Consortium. This was a consortium with ties to the government, and it was the self-proclaimed second consortium of the Nipponese Underworld. However, Liu Yu didn't know the names of the other consortiums.

Qin Ye's brows furrowed slightly as he asked, "What is Hongan-ji?"

Qin Changxin had been carefully observing Qin Ye this entire time, waiting for an opportunity to redeem himself, and he immediately explained, "Your Excellency, the Hongan-ji is the head temple of Nippon's Jōdo Shinshū religion. Saint Shinran founded the Jōdo Shinshū religion in 1272 during the Kamakura period. In 1465, the head temple was burned down. In 1483, the eighth Monshu, Rennyo, constructed a new head temple in the Yamashina Ward of Kyoto. In 1535, the temple was burned down again by Daimyo Rokkaku Yoshikata and the Tiantai Sect. In 1542, the 10th Monshu, Shōnyo, constructed the head temple once again in Ishiyama of Settsu Province. In 1580, the temple was burned down by me, and that was how I received my title as enemy of the Buddha."

His voice was moderate in volume, just loud enough for everyone to listen to, but not loud enough to disrupt one's thoughts.

Qin Ye gave a slight nod in response, and Qin Changxin continued, "Prior to the sengoku period in Nippon, the temples were undoubtedly one of the wealthiest powers. The Jōdo Shinshū religion's heritage has already stretched for over 600 years, and during that time, it's most definitely built up a strong foundation. There is an eternal rule in the underworld, which is first come, first serve. Even the six major consortiums, which were incredibly powerful entities in Nippon in the mortal realm during the 1980s, once they enter the underworld, they'll have to face the established, existing consortiums, and it'll be extremely difficult for them to outdo such stern competition. The modern shareholding system makes it so that they're unable to be buried with large amounts of wealth after they die, unlike the eight major clans of the Cathayan Underworld. The Hongan-ji Consortium would definitely take measures to prevent the likes of Liu Yu from coming into contact with other consortiums, so it's no surprise that he doesn't know the names of any of the other consortiums."

Qin Ye nodded in response.

Qin Changxin was a seasoned politician, and he immediately caught on to where he had gone wrong before quickly making adjustments, but instead of being encouraged by this information, Qin Ye's brows were tightly furrowed.

The Hongan-ji Consortium was the self-proclaimed number two consortium of the Nipponese Underworld, so the number one consortium was undoubtedly the Sacred Treasure Consortium, one of the world's top 10 consortiums. However, he didn't want to collaborate with the Sacred Treasure Consortium.

For an entity as powerful as the Sacred Treasure Consortium, it didn't matter to them whether the Nipponese Underworld fell or not. If he were to collaborate with them, a situation could potentially arise where they would compete with the Cathayan Underworld for the initiative, and that was not something he wanted to see.

He shifted his gaze toward the Kanto and Chubu regions. Only with a map and this information as reference did he slowly begin to discover some issues that he had previously completely failed to notice.

Several minutes later, he tapped the table as he raised his head and said, "I can see that everyone has predicted that the armies of the three pillars will be passing through the Strait of Tsushima, and the suggestion is that we intercept them at the Ryukyu Islands. I have no objections to that, but can we go into further detail here?"

The Ryukyu Islands connected Formosa and the Nipponese Underworld. If they could claim those islands, then they would be able to cut off a major avenue through which reinforcements could be provided to the Nipponese Underworld. The only alternative would be to go through the Russian Underworld, but that was completely implausible. Unless the nameless god of death had turned into an idiot overnight, there was no way that he would allow millions of foreign Yin soldiers to pass through his nation.

"Of course." The academician was rather perplexed by the lack of response from Qin Changxin, but he immediately took over nonetheless. "Similar to the situation in the mortal realm, there are some territorial disputes taking place in the Ryukyu Islands in the underworld as well. However, they wouldn't dare to say anything if we took over the islands by force. At the very most, all they would be able to do would be to complain to the Coalition of Underworld, but if our Cathayan Underworld is willing to make a compromise of even a single decimal point on the new energy resource, I'm sure no other underworld would support the Nipponese Underworld. Once we take over the Ryukyu Islands, we'll be able to turn it into a stronghold on the front lines during the next few years to contend with the threat from the three pillars. The Kraken will have to be present in order to oppose the Argosian Underworld's Golden Fleet and the Naga Fleet, and the Ryukyu Islands will serve as the perfect supply station."

Qin Ye nodded in response. "Alright, so if we manage to stop the three pillars' forces at the Ryukyu Islands, we must ensure that on the other end, we can force all of the Nipponese Underworld's troops into one place as quickly as possible. Due to the limitations of the inter-realm mirrors, we won't be able to deploy a large number of troops at once. Thus, in order to achieve this objective, we must accumulate troops in Hokkaido before deploying them in a single wave. However, the map clearly states that the three most powerful arrays in Nippon in the mortal realm are all situated in the Kanto and Chubu regions. Even once our troops descend into the Nipponese Underworld, they'll arrive in Kanto and Chubu, which are both a long way away from Hokkaido."

He looked up at all of the underworld emissaries present with a grim expression as he continued, "Hence, we need an insider, a puppet that will work with us from within the Nipponese Underworld. We can grant a certain corporation a monopoly in the Nipponese Underworld in the future, and we can even elevate their leader to become an Abyssal Prefect. However, if we don't have such a puppet, our army will be unable to go all the way from Chubu to Hokkaido. It's not like we're unable to force all of the Nipponese Underworld's Yin soldiers to Chubu if we don't conquer Hokkaido, but it'll take far longer to achieve that objective. I'm sure everyone is aware of our nation's true power at the moment, and it's certainly not wise for us to expend our forces in the Nipponese Underworld. The whole point of this war is for us to set an example to the rest of the world by crushing the Nipponese Underworld with our second-generation forbidden arts."

Thus, a problem arose: who was going to approach the suitable clan, corporation, or perhaps even daimyo in the Nipponese Underworld?

This was the downside of an isolated nation. The only viable candidate was Qin Changxin, but as an Abyssal Prefect, there was a very good chance that he would be discovered. Sending darkfeathers would also be inappropriate. This was an extremely important matter, and if the darkfeathers were to be captured by emissaries of the Nipponese Underworld, it would only take a simple soul search to expose the entire plan.

No one among the Harken, Zhao Yun, or Arthis had any connections in the Nipponese Underworld, so there was no one that could take on this role!

After a long silence, Qin Ye finally decided, "I'll make a trip to the Nipponese Underworld myself."

"Where do you plan to strike from, Your Excellency?" Qin Changxin asked.

"I'm going after the three great yokai of the mortal realm," Qin Ye replied. "If I can't establish a connection through them, I'll have them killed and conjure up false evidence to pin the blame on another death god. That's something that an Abyssal Prefect cannot accomplish."

Among all of the death gods present, the Harken was constructing the 18 abysses of punishment, while Zhao Yun had to oversee the daily operation of Hell in Qin Ye's absence, and Arthis certainly couldn't leave the six paths of reincarnation.

"It's decided then." Qin Ye wasn't one to waste time with unnecessary deliberation, and he rose to his feet as he said, "Flesh out the plan further prior to my return, and devise two plans, one for if my trip to the Nipponese Underworld proves to be successful, and the second one in case of failure. I'll give all of you an answer within the next two months."

"Yes!"