Yama Rising

A burst of violent rumbling rang out, and the clouds rapidly parted in all directions, revealing a massive vortex at the center. At the heart of the vortex was a pure golden eye that was entirely formed by runes, and it was in the process of slowly opening.

As the eye opened, the entire world was trembling and quaking. Qin Ye could feel himself rising up higher and higher, drifting into the sky, as light as a feather, as if that eye were producing immense suction force. After just a few minutes, he found himself hovering right in front of the eye.

Aside from the eye, everything else seemed to be completely illusory, and it was as if the color of the surrounding clouds were slowly fading away.

The eye was the only thing that was clear and in focus, and Qin Ye found himself physically unable to look away from it.

"This is… the Heavenly Dao," he murmured to himself with an awestruck expression. He recalled that the second King Yanluo had told him that the peace treaty had been signed with the Heavenly Dao acting as witness.

So the Heavenly Dao has been keeping an eye on this place this entire time…

It was also because of this that he was immediately noticed by the Heavenly Dao as soon as he opened the peace treaty. In fact, it was earlier than that. He could sense that something had already been scrutinizing him even before he opened the peace treaty.

The giant eye continued to stare at Qin Ye in silence, and after a long while, Qin Ye's soul suddenly shuddered. It was as if he had woken up from a dream, and he finally awakened from that illusion.

He discovered that he was still standing on the platform, facing the peace treaty.

Throughout this entire process, he hadn't moved a single step.

"I see," Qin Ye mused to himself. "The second King Yanluo said that this was the place where the foundation for the current underworld was established. In that case, above this place must be the pyramids of Teotihuacán. This world itself most likely isn't even real, and only this arena truly exists."

At the same time, a plan was already beginning to take shape in his mind, a plan that would allow him to kill Medes.

However, he still had to gather some more evidence.

He departed from the platform, then flew toward the opposite direction that Medes was situated in. On this occasion, he flew out of the boundaries of the arena, flying over the tall mountains behind it. As he did so, an incredible scene was presented to him.

He was greeted by the sight of boundless chaos!

It was as if a mountain range and valley had been dug out of the ground, then hurled into space. There was no land connected to the mountain range. Instead,it was simply hovering in mid-air!

The mountain range was surrounded by boundless darkness, within which the occasional asteroid could be seen flying past. There was no light here, nor was there any life.

"So I was right," he murmured to himself as an excited look appeared in his eyes. "This isolated world is situated inside a rift of the real world, and it can only connect itself with the real world through certain special avenues. In other words, this is an arena designed for Medes and me!"

Neither of them would be able to escape this place, and only one of them would be able to survive.

Qin Ye transformed into a gust of Yin wind once again, then returned to the tall platform in silence.

"Brother Xu mentioned that there was a defensive measure set up here, one that even he was extremely impressed by," Qin Ye murmured to himself as he gently stroked the stone platform. "Something that can impress even someone like him must be extremely powerful. This is the most special place in the entire arena, and it's the only place inaccessible to Medes."

Upon arriving here, one would come under the notice of the Heavenly Dao, and this was the main weapon that he could use to his advantage!

If he were to directly engage Medes in battle and fight fire with fire, the outcome would be very difficult to predict. However, he had at least two superior alternatives now.

The first alternative was to find that defensive measure, which would ensure that he would at least never be defeated by Medes. If that didn't work, then he could simply retreat to this platform. Messenger birds wouldn't be able to fly through the chaos that surrounded this place, but his prolonged absence would definitely be noticed by Zhao Yun, who would then set off to search for him.

If he couldn't find Qin Ye, then he would notify the second King Yanluo, and the second King Yanluo would definitely be able to find him.

Thus, he was in an infallible position!

"Actually, I have one last trick up my sleeve," he mused. "The Heavenly Dao is observing me, and Medes is a god from another plane. If I engage an extraterrestrial god in battle, the Heavenly Dao would immediately detect their existence. In order to track down the grand script of death of the three Caribbean death gods, They even went as far to send a manifestation of Themself into the world. That manifestation was able to abduct Brother Zhao against his will, and They would've succeeded had it not been for Brother Xu's intervention. In that case, They would easily have enough power to destroy Medes. However, this will be a little risky."

This was a final resort that he would only turn to if he had no other alternatives. He had met the Heavenly Dao before, so he knew just how cold and forbidding that They could be. Thus, it was not a good idea to rely on Them. With that in mind, he set aside that train of thought for now before turning toward the treaty again.

This treaty, which was thousands of years old, was the most special thing here.

Time passed by slowly, and after a full hour, Qin Ye raised his head with a puzzled look on his face.

He couldn't find anything amiss about the treaty.

The text on the scroll was written from left to right, and it contained all of the terms and clauses of the treaty, of which there weren't all that many. Below that were the signatures of all of the death gods.

"Could it be that it's not here?" His brows furrowed tightly as he fell into deep thought, and five minutes later, he shook his head in a decisive manner.

This place was constantly under the surveillance of the Heavenly Dao, and that was already the best defensive measure possible, so it would be redundant to set up any other defensive measures here.

Hold on…

A thought suddenly occurred to him, and his eyes immediately lit up.

Several seconds later, an enlightened look appeared on his face as he murmured to himself, "I see…"

As soon as his voice trailed off, Fate appeared in his grasp with a flick of his wrist, and immediately thereafter, he swiped it toward the peace treaty in an abrupt and violent motion.

At the exact same moment, an indescribable and implacable force obstructed his arm, locking it firmly into place. The tip of Fate was only a centimeter away from the scroll, but it was unable to descend any further.

In the next instant, a resounding boom rang out in the heavens, and the clouds rapidly parted, following which a massive eye consisting entirely of runes emerged.

However, it wasn't an illusion on this occasion. It was truly the eye of the Heavenly Dao!

At the same time, a burst of deafening rumbling rang out from the entire arena, and the entire floor erupted in all directions, revealing nothing but inky-black chaos down below.

The main platform was the only thing that truly existed.

"I knew it…" Qin Ye murmured to himself as he looked around with a triumphant expression.

What had the defensive measures been set up for? They were implemented to protect the treaty, of course! There were no traps here, and the only being surveying the place was the Heavenly Dao. Thus, the Heavenly Dao was the only defensive measure here, and in order to trigger this defensive measure, the treaty had to come under threat.

If he hadn't broken down everything and thought about it in reverse, he would've most likely never been able to figure out what this so-called defensive measure was.

Never did he think that the enforcer of this defensive measure would be the Heavenly Dao Themself!

Right as these thoughts were flashing through his mind, a chart of the 28 constellations had appeared in the space above the platform. At this moment, all of the constellations were giving off dazzling light that radiated directly into the heavens, illuminating the massive eye of runes in the sky.

This was divine descent, and it was being performed by the paramount god of this world, one that could even be referred to as the god of creation!

A sea of white light inundated the entire arena, and within the white light was an indistinct figure that was slowly descending from above with boundless light beneath their feet, and a pair of pristine white wings on their back.

It was impossible to describe this being with words. Even though Qin Ye was the ruler of the Cathayan Underworld, he was still struck by a sense of boundless pressure in the face of this figure.

It was impossible to tell the gender of this figure.

Their cloak was flapping incessantly in the breeze, and it was impossible to glean their appearance.

Their exposed hands were so fair and pristine that they seemed to be translucent.

On one side was boundless, all-encompassing darkness, while on the other side was radiant, pure light.

They were light, but also darkness. They were creation, but also destruction. They were the enforcer of the world, and also the one who established the laws to be enforced.

A pair of pure golden eyes lit up beneath the hood of the cloak, then settled themselves onto Qin Ye. "It's you."

It was impossible to discern the figure's gender from their voice. In fact, it didn't even sound like human speech. Instead, it was like the cries of countless animals, the whistling of the wind, the crashing of the sea's waves.

"Indeed," Qin Ye replied with a smile as he cupped his fist in a salute. "We meet again, Nothingness."

This was a true divine descent, one that was completely different from what the Plumed Serpent God had performed in the past, and the entire world was bowing in reverence. A pillar of light that was thousands of meters thick had encompassed the center of the arena, and Nothingness's pristine, white wings were glowing with faint golden radiance that resembled stars in the night sky with the inky-black chaos acting as a backdrop.

After a brief silence, Nothingness asked in an emotionless voice, "Are you trying to destroy the foundation of the underworld?"

"That is not my intention at all," Qin Ye replied with a bow. "I've tracked down the source of the grand script of death used by the Caribbean death gods."

Nothingness remained completely still, but Their head turned toward the direction that Medes was situated in with unerring accuracy. Nothingness then raised a hand, and an entire mountain in that direction instantly vanished!

Qin Ye shuddered as he cast an incredulous gaze toward the mountain.

There was no display of power, nor any extravagant flashes or bangs. That mountain, along with the entire mountain range that it belonged to, had simply been erased out of existence!

As a result, two figures were revealed beneath the mountain range, one of which was the Death Star, and he was looking up at the almighty Heavenly Dao with his mouth gaped open in astonishment.

The other figure was a completely nude man.

He possessed a humanoid appearance, but at the center of his head was a massive eye, and he was standing at around three meters tall. Furthermore, it looked as if he had been completely skinned, and all of his tendons, bones, and muscles were bared to the world. His entire body was riddled with bone spikes, and his single, golden eye was also staring up at Nothingness with incredulity.

"Are you… a manifestation of this plane's will?" he asked as he gulped nervously.

Why had a manifestation of this plane's will appeared here?

He had thought that he had finally escaped from the prison that had trapped him for thousands of years, only to find that he had actually walked right into the slaughterhouse.

"Maggot!" For the first time, a hint of human emotion crept into Nothingness's voice, and it was disdain.

In the next instant, the sky behind Them over a span in excess of 100 kilometers suddenly began to warp and twist, following which countless swords of light erupted out of thin air in a torrential storm.

It was impossible to tell how many swords there were in total, and they formed a gorgeous river of light between Nothingness and Medes. However, behind the captivating beauty of this scene was lethal killing intent.

Medes's anguished roar rang out across the entire land, and 10 seconds later, the river of light abruptly vanished. The cloak that Nothingness was wearing descended all around Them like goose feathers, and the place where Medes had been standing earlier had already been reduced to a plot of flat land that was as smooth and unblemished as a mirror.

A series of pages were picked up by the breeze before flying toward Qin Ye, who reflexively reached out for them. There were many of these pages, and they fluttered into his hands like butterflies. After just a single glance at them, he couldn't help but heave a long sigh of relief.

This was the information pertaining to the Omeyocan plan!

He had finally achieved the main objective for this trip to the new continent.

However, right as he set down those pages, he caught sight of a hand.

It was Nothingness's hand.

It was no more than a meter away from him, and it was an inky-black hand with its five fingers completely spread apart. At the center of the palm was a bright, blue eye, which was fixed intently on him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Qin Ye asked as he narrowed his eyes in a wary manner.

A gust of fierce wind suddenly swept up, seemingly out of nowhere, picking up Nothingness's cloak, revealing, in the process, that there was no body beneath the cloak.

"It's your turn now."