Yama Rising

Whoosh!

The perspective of the image rose rapidly upward, passing through the underworld and reaching Limbo. Right at this moment, Qin Ye abruptly withdrew all of his Yin energy, and by the time all of the Yin energy dissipated, he had already vanished from the silent meditation chamber.

……………………………………

Mexico.

To the east of Mexico was the renowned Gulf of Mexico, which produced an abundance of seafood, including the Mexican dwarf crayfish. Furthermore, this was a gulf used by both Usonia and Mexico, and there was almost no clear border.

Traveling further east out of the Gulf of Mexico, one would enter the Caribbean Sea, which was filled with countless islands, and was also home to all types of seafood, including the rock lobster of the Bahamas, the lobster of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the land crabs of Antigua. Countless types of delicious seafood were hauled out of this legendary region of the sea every year, and understandably, the fishing industry here was booming.

It wasn't just Usonia and Mexico, there were also other nations like Columbia and Venezuela that were also heavily involved in the fishing industry here. As a result, all of the islands in the Caribbean Sea were rife with fisheries and seafood restaurants.

However, at some point, all of the shipyards and fisheries on these islands began to hang black flags on their buildings.

The bottom half of the flag depicted the sea, while the top half depicted the stars, and at the very top was the word "Death" written in dark blue letters.

Even in the modern world, venturing out to sea was still a very risky prospect, so one would think that none of the fisheries here would be willing to put up such ominous flags, but on the contrary, these flags were everywhere!

In addition to that, several Gothic-style Sea God Pavilions had been established during the past 10 years, and there were full-time oracles working at these pavilions, conducting prayer sessions at set intervals and preaching the gospel to the people.

Outside a beautiful Sea God Pavilion, an oracle joined his palms together as he smiled and asked, "Are you a follower of Dax as well?"

Qin Ye was standing in front of the oracle, and he looked up at the Sea God Pavilion with a complex look in his eyes. In contrast with the white dome roofs typical of Catholic churches, the roof of the Sea God Pavilion was in the shape of a pyramid, and its surface was riddled with engraved reliefs, depicting the epic battle between Sea God Dax and the sea monster.

Not long ago, Dax had only been an urban legend, but at this point, the legend of Dax had already well and truly taken root in the Caribbean Sea.

Dax was Qin Ye's alternate identity, so he was able to receive all of the prayers from the Caribbean Sea. These prayers would appear in his consciousness as white balls of light, and upon injecting his consciousness into a certain ball of light, he would be able to grant a prayer, crossing through space and time to assist the one who had made the prayer.

This was a divine duty.

The sea could provide hope, but it had also been the demise of countless sailors. The legend of Dax had first been established, and there was some overlap between Dax and his identity as King Yanluo as both were death gods. Thus, it wasn't very difficult for him to control this alternate identity. In fact, due to the fact that Dax wasn't a legitimate deity and had only been in existence for a very short time, he could even separate himself from Dax's divine duty and have that taken care of by a specialized team.

This was exactly what he had done.

The divine duty of Dax was overseen by a confidential department of the Cathayan Underworld, the Marine Worship Department. In order to keep the legend of Dax alive and well, he had specially chosen several hundred underworld emissaries, who had been assigned the duty of sifting through the prayers of Dax's followers and deciding which ones to grant.

Over the course of 10 years, Dax had gathered a huge number of followers. Most of these followers were only casual believers, and most of them were people who depended on the sea for their livelihoods.

Qin Ye withdrew his gaze as he asked with a smile, "Does Dax actually exist?"

"Our god is not to be doubted." The oracle was an elderly man wearing a black and white robe, and he said with a reverent expression, "The honorable Dax is the only god to have performed a divine miracle in recent history. He is revered and worshiped by at least several thousand seamen, and there are tens of thousands more fringe followers. We are an official religion, one that has been acknowledged by and registered in the government. We are not a cult."

Qin Ye put on an intrigued expression as he said, "I heard that Dax performed a divine miracle 10 years ago."

"Please refer to Him as the honorable Dax." Even though they were standing right in front of the pavilion's entrance, the elderly man didn't invite Qin Ye into the pavilion. Instead, he said with a serious expression, "That is true. Only the higher-ups of our religion have copies of the footage of the divine miracle, and one of the conditions that the government raised in exchange for officially acknowledging our religions is that the footage must not be leaked to the outside world. If you revere and worship the honorable Dax, you'll also be able to see the divine miracle that He once performed."

"Have you seen it?"

"I have."

"Then do you revere and worship Dax?"

"I do," the elderly man replied with a serious expression.

Qin Ye smiled as he said, "That's quite a surprise! You bear the mark of Mictlantecutli, which means that you were once an Eagle Warrior, yet you've chosen to believe in another god now?"

A stunned look instantly appeared in the elderly man's eyes upon hearing this, and he exclaimed, "Who are you?!"

In the instant that his voice trailed off, the elderly man was suddenly struck by the feeling that everything had vanished around him.

The wind had fallen silent, and the sound of the rustling leaves of the tall palm trees on either side of the street couldn't be heard anymore, either. The sound of the cars on the street, the clamor of conversation between the people nearby… All of that had suddenly faded into nothingness!

How powerful did one have to be in order to be able to do this?

The elderly man began to tremble involuntarily, and sweat began to pour down from his forehead as his mouth gaped open slightly. In this instant, he felt as if he were standing in front of a rift leading to a bottomless abyss, and the fearsome Yin wind blowing out of the rift was causing his robes and beard to flap and sway incessantly.

This man has to be above the Marquess level! But how did he enter the Usonian Underworld?! Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa set up the Seal of the Five Suns, and no news has come from Xolotl's Screen, either, so how has he made his way here?!

However, this wasn't the time to be pondering these questions. The color was being drained out of the world in front of his eyes, reducing it to pure black and white. As for the young man standing in front of him, he had become completely enveloped in countless gusts of Yin wind, making it impossible to see him clearly.

The elderly man had a feeling that if he insisted on looking deeper, he would catch sight of a terrifying monster!

All of the illusions instantly faded, and the elderly man shuddered as patches of discoloration from livor mortis suddenly began to emerge on his skin. He frantically covered up the discoloration of his skin with his robes, then proceeded to kneel down in front of Qin Ye.

However, he found himself physically unable to kneel down.

An indescribable type of power had prevented him from kneeling down as he intended.

"No need for formalities," Qin Ye said in an indifferent voice. "Take me to the nearest Yin Yang Mezzanine, and don't mention what happened here to anyone. Otherwise, you'll have Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa to answer to."

"Yes…" The elderly man gritted his teeth as he strode forward while trembling uncontrollably. "Please come with me…"

……………………………………

Two hours later, Qin Ye was wearing a black cloak, completely absorbed in his own thoughts as he stared at the vast pyramid before him.

Aegypt wasn't the only place that had pyramids, Usonia had them as well. There was even a seabed pyramid that had been built over 10,000 years ago outside the Formosa Strait, but pyramids were different in appearance depending on different regions.

The Aegyptian pyramids had flat surfaces, with each side presented as an equilateral triangle. However, the Usonian pyramids were different. Most of Usonia's pyramids were situated in Mexico. After all, Mexico was the origin of the Aztec religion.

The pyramids of Usonia also had equilateral triangular sides, but they were split up into levels. At this moment, Qin Ye was situated in the largest city in the Usonian Underworld, Chichenhagen, and the pyramid standing before him was a massive one that took up over 400 square kilometers of area!

The entire city of Chichenhagen was inside this pyramid!

On each level of the pyramid were many small communities that were packed tightly together, and there were countless shacks that resembled mushrooms from a distance, filling up all available space on the pyramid.

One Yin beast after another was traversing along the wide streets on the pyramid, carrying all types of different cargo, and each level of the pyramid could even be divided into two rings. Giant candles were lit on the edges of the levels, and these candles burned non-stop day and night. Regardless of whether one surveyed the pyramid up close or from afar, it was still a truly awe-inspiring sight, and Qin Ye found it to be more of a spectacle than any city he had ever seen!

He cast his gaze toward the top of the pyramid, which was completely concealed behind the clouds in the sky.

"What's up there?" he asked in a casual manner.

The elderly man was standing beside him with his palms joined together, and he replied in a respectful voice, "Up there is the palace of the almighty Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa, and no one else can enter the pyramid without a summons."

"Has that always been the case?" Qin Ye asked as he continued to look up at the clouds.

"No," the elderly man replied. "Several decades ago, Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa sensed that their lives were about to come to an end, and they began to construct a tomb on the top of the pyramid. Since then, the top two levels of Chichenhagen had been completely shut off to everyone else."

Qin Ye nodded in response before waving a dismissive hand. "You can go now."

He was certain that Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa would've already sensed him, and that their messengers would be arriving soon.

The elderly man departed, and Qin Ye looked up once again, using the hood of his cloak to shield his eyes from the sun as he carefully inspected this unique city.

The clouds up above concealed everything at the top of the pyramid, and after a long while, he murmured to himself, "I hope you won't disappoint me. I have a good feeling that you won't disappoint me."

He stared intently at the gigantic pyramid as he mused to himself, "Several decades ago, Usonia sent the first group of humans to the moon in the mortal realm, and that ignited the flame of hope in your hearts. You then sealed off the top two levels of Chichenhagen, under the excuse that you're constructing a tomb up there…"

Qin Ye was almost certain that those top two levels were Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa's aviation base!

His gaze roamed over Chichenhagen, and on every level, he could see countless Eagle Warriors standing on guard. "There's no way that anyone would be able to discover the aviation base here, and I'm certain that you're not actually insane, you're only pretending to be insane! If you had actually gone deranged, then Chichenhagen wouldn't be anywhere near as orderly and well-maintained as it is now! If you had actually gone insane, then the first place to be razed to the ground would've been this city! This place is home to the new continent's most powerful underworld emissaries and a diverse range of skilled personnel! You managed to convince the rest of the world that you're desperately consuming Yin energy in order to break through the Yama-King level, but if that were true, then this city would be completely dead already, yet that's clearly not the case! Is this why you deployed soldiers to bolster Xolotl's Screen and even set up underworld restrictions? The only three remaining death gods under you, Xolotl, Supay, and Ah Puch have most likely also already sensed that something isn't quite right, but there's no incentive for them to expose the situation here. If they were to do that, then all of the world's nations would intervene right away. Instead, what they want is for all of the nations to intervene only after the demise or departure of Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa. Thus, your objectives are the same, so you worked together to deceive the entire world."

If it weren't for the fact that Qin Ye had consumed the Taisui fungus, thereby allowing him to ignore all restrictions, there was no way that he would've been able to make it here.

During the two-hour journey that he had taken to get to this place, he had sensed dozens of restrictions sweeping over his body.

"Show me the answer." He closed his eyes and gently clasped his hands together. At this point, he could already hear a carriage galloping toward him from nearby. "Show me if you're actually working toward space exploration, and if so, let me see how far you've gone!"