Yama Rising

All of a sudden, Qin Ye vanished on the spot, and by the time he reappeared, it was already 30 minutes later.

He had arrived at the plaza of the Six Origin Diagrams, and as soon as he emerged, he was rather taken aback by the sight that he was greeted by.

It had only been a year since his last visit to the plaza, yet it was already completely different from that time!

The Aurogon's Eye at the very center was completely open, and the entire building seemed to have sprung to life with all types of faint light radiating from within it, while the other five buildings stood around it like stars around the moon.

On the ground below, the Harken had already conjured up countless Yin runes during the past year. Countless Yin runes were present on the ground in an orderly fashion over the length of several dozen kilometers, and their size and the amount of distance separating each Yin rune were all completely identical, the only thing different was the form of the Yin runes themselves. Every single Yin rune was giving off silver radiance, and even Qin Ye couldn't help but be stunned by this marvelous spectacle.

Furthermore, it wasn't just the ground that was riddled with Yin runes, the entire surrounding space had also been enveloped by vast expanses of Yin runes, which had formed walls around the area. Looking up into the heavens, one would be struck by the feeling that they had stepped into a galaxy of stars, and it was truly a breathtaking sight to behold.

Wisps of indistinct Yin energy were seeping out from the gaps in the bluestone, then rising up into the sky before falling as white paper money. All of the Yin soldiers were standing outside the Yin rune boundaries, and it was impossible to see exactly where the Harken was from where Qin Ye was standing.

At the sight of Qin Ye's arrival, all of the Yin soldiers immediately dropped to one knee as they greeted in unison, "Welcome, Yanluo Qin."

It was a very insignificant moment, but Qin Ye couldn't help but marvel at the sight of countless Yin soldiers bowing to him under the vast sky that was filled with Yin runes.

"No need for formalities." He raised his hand as he searched for the Harken's Yin energy, then vanished on the spot in a flash. By the time he reappeared, he had already entered the Yin rune barrier and arrived beside the Harken, where he hovered in mid-air.

After watching for close to 20 minutes, he asked, "Are these the six paths of reincarnation?"

The Harken didn't even raise its head as it wagged its tail in response.

The six paths of reincarnation were functional, but they only possessed the most basic reincarnation function. There was no way to assign exactly which path Yin spirits were supposed to go to, and the Harken had always been the one working on making this happen.

"Is it one of the six paths?"

The Harken's tail didn't even move on this occasion.

"Is it the path of the hungry ghost?" Qin Ye continued asking.

The Harken gave no response.

"Is it the path of gods?"

The Harken faltered slightly.

"Is it the... Wait! What the hell are you doing?! Stop! Help! There's an assassin here!! This rabid dog is trying to harm your King Yanluo!!"

Qin Ye fled for his life as the Harken galloped along behind him, gnashing its fangs together as it did so. "Come on then! Let's see if anyone's going to be brave enough to stop me! I'm in the process of drawing the most difficult Yin rune of the lot, yet you're yapping nonstop behind me! Can you shut the fuck up?! I'm not letting you get away today until I bite off your third leg!! Woof!!"

10 minutes later, Qin Ye wore a dark expression with the Harken biting onto him, attached to his arm like a magnet that couldn't even be shaken off.

"The world is such a beautiful place, why are you so violent and angry?" After finally prying open the Harken's mouth with great difficulty, Qin Ye inspected his own arm with a pained expression as he said, "You've even left a bruise! Have you been using a teething stick lately? Ow! Fuck!!"

As soon as his voice trailed off, the Harken had already bitten onto his back, and the look in its eyes told Qin Ye that one of them had to die here today!

Teething stick my arse!! I'm the goddamn Harken, not some pet puppy!

Several minutes later, Qin Ye finally managed to get the Harken off him, and he panted heavily as he asked, "So which path is it?"

The Harken turned around with a grumpy expression as it pointed its tail at Qin Ye like a sword. "I admire your dedication to making my job as difficult as possible. Seeing as you're asking so nicely, my kind and generous self will answer your question. This is the path of Yin and Yang, and I'm just about finished with it. With only a single Yama-King working on this task, there would be no way to complete the six paths of reincarnation and the 18 abysses of punishment without at least 100 years of work. Would you like to take my place?"

As soon as its voice trailed off, Qin Ye had already arrived at the very center of the plaza. The Harken pursed its lips as it gently stomped onto the ground with one of its small paws, and in the blink of an eye, all of the surrounding Yin runes seemed to have sprung to life as they began to slowly revolve around the plaza.

An astonished look appeared on Qin Ye's face. It was as if a galaxy had awakened around him with the Yin runes glowing like dazzling stars. An extremely profound feeling made its way into his glabella, and he couldn't help but close his eyes to experience it.

In the instant that he closed his eyes, a mental image of a path appeared in his mind. It was extremely wide, roughly a kilometer in width, and it was so long that there was no end in sight. Only a tall gate could be seen at the conclusion of the path.

Red spider lilies were in full bloom on either side of the path, and countless specks of netherfire were hovering in the sky. The color scheme of the entire image consisted of only black, white, and red, and occasionally, some gigantic shadows would flash past.

Qin Ye carefully inspected the image. These were the most memorable experiences of the first King Yanluo, the second King Yanluo, and himself, such as the battle of the Strait of Tsushima, the battle of Ashmound, international conferences, and much more.

Only after close to half an hour had passed did he reopen his eyes, then nodded with a pleased expression. "Not bad."

"Not bad?! That's it?!" The Harken's voice immediately sprang up a few octaves, and the threatening look in its eyes said: "I'll give you three seconds to think of some better adjectives!"

"... Splendid! Fantastic!"

The Harken was finally satisfied, and it lowered its head as it continued to move along the plaza while drawing Yin runes with its small paws. "Seeing as you already know how important my work is, get out if you have nothing else to say! Don't stand there like an idiot! Oi, someone, put up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign!"

A period of silence ensued, and only after working for another 10 minutes did the Harken raise its head and allow itself to take a moment to relax. Right as it was about to lower its head again, its eyelids suddenly twitched slightly, and an angry look appeared on its face. "Why are you still here?!"

Qin Ye rubbed his own chin in silence for a few seconds before replying, "You're a Yama-King, right? I wanna ask you something."

The tone of Qin Ye's voice said "I've got no one else to ask, so I might as well ask you even though you're useless", and all of the Harken's fur immediately stood up on end upon hearing this.

These King Yanluos are just getting worse and worse generation after generation... Have they even lost their basic respect for me?

Qin Ye was naturally oblivious to what the Harken was thinking, and his smile faded as a serious look appeared on his face. "I'm about to set off for Dubai."

"I see," the Harken replied in an emotionless voice. "Are you going to that energy resource conference?"

It then heaved a faint sigh as it continued, "You've dropped a bombshell onto the entire world, and the three pillars must react. During the past year, the Cathayan Underworld hasn't held any academic press conferences, nor released any progress reports. If you're going to Dubai, then you're most likely going to have to face the wrath of the entire world. A year of silence is more than enough to completely whittle down all of the patience that the scientists have."

It turned around and habitually jumped onto Qin Ye's shoulder, where it lied down and made itself comfortable. "Given the current stage that our research and development is at, there's naturally no way we can reveal the truth to the world. You're going to have to face the collective wrath of the entire world, and with the three pillars stirring things up, all of the scientists and even the consortiums could side with them. I don't like your chances during the upcoming conference. What's your plan?"

A cold look appeared on Qin Ye's face as he replied, "I'm going to this conference with the sole purpose of displaying the Cathayan Underworld's attitude to everyone! These are the internal affairs of our Cathayan Underworld! If you want to know what's going on, you have to wait until we feel like showing you! If we don't want to show you, then you can't do anything other than shut up and wait!"

"We're on the exact same page here!" the Harken said with a cold smile. "The Cathayan Underworld has never bowed its head to anyone! In the past, you were lacking in power, so you had to put on an amicable display for everyone. However, once we develop the new energy resource, the Cathayan Underworld will be rapidly propelled to unprecedented heights, so there's no need to act all meek and docile any longer! If you want to know what's going on, then wait. If you don't, then piss off! The Cathayan Underworld doesn't need a weak, sniveling yes-man for a King Yanluo!"

Qin Ye nodded in response. However, he also knew that being aggressive and unyielding didn't equate to being foolish and rash. During this upcoming conference, there was something that he had to get his hands on.

With that in mind, he raised a hand, and a document appeared in mid-air.

The Harken took a glance at it before asking, "What's this?"

"This is something that we must obtain, and they'll definitely be at the conference!" Qin Ye replied in a cold voice. "I've prepared extensively for this, but I'm still missing one final thing. I need an extremely binding type of contract, the type that can allow me to enforce my will on the opposing party and can never be altered!"

Do you really think I would come here just to bid you farewell?

"What you want is a Heavenly Dao Contract," the Harken immediately replied. "That is the paramount contract of the three realms, one that no one can revoke. The method of usage is also very simple, all you need to do is use Yin runes to spell out the Heavenly Dao's name, and that's something that all Yama-Kings can do."

It paused momentarily before a sly smile appeared on its face. "There's only a single person in this world who knows the true name of the Heavenly Dao, and because he knows it, all of the Yama-Kings of the Cathayan Underworld also know it!"

Qin Ye faltered slightly upon hearing this, following which his eyes immediately lit up.

He also knew the Heavenly Dao's true name! It was Nothingness!

This was the name that the second King Yanluo had referred to the Heavenly Dao with in person back on the new continent, so it was definitely the Heavenly Dao's true name.

"Use the Yin energy of both parties to write out this name, and that'll create a binding contract that no one would dare to betray, not even an advanced Yama-King wielding a creation-grade divine artifact! These are the rules of the Heavenly Dao!"

………………………………………………..

Dubai.

In the underworld, this city was known as the city of bones. It was just as luxurious as Dubai in the mortal realm, standing like a jewel in the desert, but all of its buildings, roads, and other infrastructure were constructed entirely from bones!

This was an extremely lavish place, and all of the bones had been twisted to build one outrageously imaginative modern building after another. This city had been built by Death God Osiris in person, and due to the fact that Dubai in the mortal realm was connected to many energy resource nations, it also received the same status in the underworld. As a result, all conferences concerning energy resources were held here.

Dubai's largest hotel was the Skeletal Sailboat.

Not only was this the largest hotel in Dubai, it was also the best one, and it belonged to the Index Consortium. Only the bottom 30 floors were operating, while the five floors above the 30th floor had been reserved for the international teams that were going to participate in the upcoming conference. At this point, there were already many Yin spirits gathered in these five designated floors.

"Are you sure?" Benjamin Franklin was seated in his room, looking out at the city of Dubai through the floor-to-ceiling window as he asked, "Are you certain that they'll come?"

"I am," the scientist behind him replied. "I've caught a clear glimpse of their room, and it's a presidential suite."

So the Cathayan Underworld's King Yanluo is coming in person...

However, the next thing that the scientist had to say immediately made him stand up from his chair in astonishment.

"However, there are only two rooms."

Two presidential suites? Does that mean two Yama-Kings are coming?

This was already a formidable two-man lineup, but the problem was...

"Where is their research and development team?!" Franklin asked in an incredulous voice. "Is there not a single researcher that's going to be coming from the Cathayan Underworld?! Why are they only sending two Yama-Kings?! What are they trying to do?!"

A surge of fury immediately welled up in his heart.

This was an energy resource conference, why were two Yama-Kings coming in the place of the Cathayan Underworld's research and development team?! Did they think all of the other conference attendees were idiots?!