Yama Rising

Just like how it was instinct for birds to take to the skies and for fish to breathe underwater, the attack unleashed by Qin Ye had also been born from pure, irrepressible instinct.

His fury had exceeded a certain threshold, and his mind was entirely dominated by the urge to kill the being standing before him. As a result, his body acted on its own, perfectly executing his desire, filling it with pure, unadulterated power.

Qin Ye's body was like a blinding white beacon that rose up into the dark sky, piercing directly toward the giant eyeball up above. The surrounding gusts of Yin wind followed closely along behind him in his ascent, enveloping his body to create a juxtaposition between black and white, making it appear as if his spear were piercing through Yin and Yang at once.

This spear strike was already no less powerful than the one Zhao Yun had unleashed to tame Arthis.

It was an attack that he had poured all of his emotions into, and it exceeded the upper limit of his power. At the same time, the three divine artifacts in Hell began to glow with dazzling light in unison.

Above the Nine Yin Pavilion, King Yanluo's Seal, the Book of Life and Death, and the Judgment Pen released a burst of buzzing at the same time, then shot forth like bolts of white lightning toward a certain direction.

Meanwhile, night and day were rapidly interchanging back and forth between one another in the entire Cathayan Underworld!

The Harken was in the process of inscribing the six paths of reincarnation when it looked up at the sky with a dumbstruck expression. "Is this… divine artifact resonance? Only King Yanluo can evoke resonance within the three divine artifacts! This means that Yanluo Qin is attacking something with all his might! What's happening?"

Who in this world could be worthy of such an attack from King Yanluo himself?

It would only take a single order from him to summon both the Harken and Zhao Yun to his side, yet instead of doing that, he had chosen to go into battle himself. Why was this the case?

Before the Harken could think about this any further, a gust of Yin wind arrived beside it, and Zhao Yun materialized from the Yin wind with a grim look on his face. "Do you know where Yanluo Qin has gone?"

The Harken shook its head in response, and both of them looked up at the sky with concerned expressions.

Regardless of where he had gone, he definitely had to be facing an extremely formidable foe!

…………………………

Inside the trial of inner demons, the massive eye in the sky contracted violently.

Qin Ye's emotions were extremely pure at this moment. He couldn't sense this himself, but the inner demon could see it clearly. Right in front of it, boundless Yin wind was rising up into the sky alongside dazzling white light, and it was as if a sun had emerged in the pitch-black night.

At the center of the sun, Qin Ye's robes were flapping incessantly, and his spear strike was filled with incredible might and unstoppable intent.

Furthermore, Qin Ye's body was rapidly transforming, turning into a skeleton that was wearing a golden crown, a golden dragon robe, and a white jade belt around its waist. Black hair was growing directly out of the skeleton's skull, but somehow, that didn't look strange at all. At the same time, a burst of peerless divine might shook the entire underworld.

Three streaks of light shot forth toward Qin Ye, seemingly out of nowhere, then landed in his grasp. An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the silver spear was suddenly enshrouded within a shower of red spider lily petals, transforming it into a scarlet longsword!

Even the inner demon was struck by a hint of fear in the face of this spear strike.

"This is his true death god form!" it exclaimed with an incredulous expression.

It couldn't believe that the Cathayan Underworld's King Yanluo would go this far to strike down the inner demon, which had extremely deep connections with the 18 abysses of punishment and the six paths of reincarnation!

Has he gone insane?! He's doing all this, just for a mere human! He's the leader of one of the four pillars, yet he's turning on a god for the sake of a human!

The attack arrived in the blink of an eye, and a gentle puncturing sound rang out as the sword pierced directly into the eye.

An earth-shattering roar of agony rang out across the entire world, and heaven and earth began to quake and tremble violently.

Amid the thunderous roar, streaks of dazzling white light descended from the heavens, piercing through the darkness in a grand and astonishing scene, much like the descent of angels into a world of darkness.

Did I kill it?

The blood-curdling howl and the collapsing world around him finally jerked Qin Ye out of his emotional state, and as he looked up at the giant eyeball above his head, he suddenly realized just how rash and unwise his actions had been.

A wry smile appeared on his face as this realization dawned on him.

However, if he were given a second chance, he would do the exact same thing.

He wasn't a hot-blooded individual driven by emotions. Perhaps he would be saddened if the likes of Zhao Yun, the Harken, or Wang Chenghao were to perish someday, but Qin Zhongguo was the only one who could drive him to such emotional extremes that he was willing to attack a being with all his might, even though that being was clearly far more powerful than him.

"How dare you?!" The entire illusion was quaking violently, and more and more beams of white light were piercing through the darkness, as if the eggshell of chaos were being broken, allowing light to filter into the world. It was also at this moment that hundreds of eyes suddenly sprang open across the entire sky.

They were all golden eyes as well, while the eye that Qin Ye had pierced his spear into had already turned a dead, gray color. As for the other eyes, they were transitioning into a crimson color from intense fury.

"I'm going to kill you!!!"

The inner demon's furious voice rang out across the entire sky, and in the next instant, dazzling beams of light erupted out of all of the eyes in unison, forming a vast, impenetrable net of light that spanned for tens of thousands of kilometers.

There was no way to evade this attack…

Qin Ye's heart completely sank, but a faint smile of acceptance had appeared on his face.

It was time to pay for his rash actions. Despite this, he didn't regret what he had done in the slightest. He was only a little disappointed that he wasn't able to slay the inner demon, after all.

All of the mountains and rivers in the illusion began to collapse, unable to withstand the devastating power of the inner demon's wrath. The entire surrounding scene was disintegrating into Yin energy.

Is this the true power of a being above the Yama-King level?

Amid the scintillating light and devastating power, Qin Ye raised Fate in a final act of defiance.

He would just have to die again.

He had already made preparations for a situation like this, so it would only be a minor inconvenience to him. It was just a pity that even after 100 years and becoming a mid Yama-King, he was still unable to reunite himself with Qin Zhongguo.

Heaven and earth itself seemed to have turned on Qin Ye, and he slowly closed his eyes as he accepted his own fate.

Right at this moment, a calm voice suddenly rang out. "What do we have here?"

The voice was casual and nonchalant, but it seemed to be imbued with the power of countless laws, and the collapsing world was stabilized, just like that!

Qin Ye's eyes abruptly sprang open. He was familiar with this voice!

He immediately turned around with an incredulous expression to stare at the figure making his way up the mountain path, as if he were taking a stroll in the park. In the face of his presence, not only had the collapsing world stabilized, it was slowly beginning to return to its original state!

Just his voice alone was imbued with the power of laws! This was something that even beings above the Yama-King level weren't capable of!

Deathly silence instantly descended upon the entire world.

The sky was healing, and darkness rose up into the heavens once again, mending the rifts through which white light was filtering into this world. The mountains, lakes, and rivers that had been razed to the ground were being restored like footage being played in reverse, and order was rapidly being restored right in front of Qin Ye's astonished eyes.

"Brother Xu?!" Qin Ye exclaimed with an incredulous expression.

Indeed, it was the second King Yanluo!

He also entered the trial of inner demons? Is he here to help me?

Right at this moment, the hundreds of massive eyes in the sky seemed to have witnessed something terrifying, and they immediately fled the scene as a giant shadow that was filled with unbridled hatred, not even hesitating in the slightest!

However, the mandrill was still hovering in the sky.

It stood against the backdrop of the boundless Yin clouds, staring at the second King Yanluo with a wary expression. "Who are you?"

Qin Ye instantly turned back to look at the mandrill, and in that instant, everything became clear to him.

The inner demon had indeed descended into this illusion in its true form, but in the instant that it caught sight of the second King Yanluo, it immediately fled.

In the wake of its departure, the only thing that was left was the inner demon of the past, from the time where this memory was unfolding. Judging from the question that it had just raised, the mandrill had clearly never met the second King Yanluo before.

This was the first meeting between the two monsters, and the second King Yanluo wasn't here in his present form, either.

However, this was the trial of inner demons, and all of the events unfolding within it had already taken place in the past.

This meant that… the second King Yanluo had visited this place all the way back then!

Qin Ye was astonished by this revelation!

Did this mean that they had almost met as far back as a century ago?

The second King Yanluo was wearing a crisp suit, which was extremely rare back then. His leather shoes were so brightly polished that they were practically sparkling, and he was wearing a pair of sunglasses. He inspected the surrounding area, then turned to the mandrill again. "Have I been keeping too low a profile? How do you not know me?"

The mandrill didn't respond. It could instinctively sense life-threatening danger from this man.

It had a feeling that if it were to lash out recklessly, there was a very good chance that it would perish here.

But how was that possible? Even the Heavenly Dao hadn't struck him with a feeling like this before! Where had this human come from?

The second King Yanluo paid no heed to what the mandrill was thinking as he said, "The Taisui fungus emerges at the tomb of a saint once every 1,000 years, and it just so happens to be the turn of Jiang Shang's tomb this time. His grandfather was unlucky, so I have no problem with you devouring him, but don't even think about touching that child. He's mine, do you understand?"

The mandrill remained silent.

It was aware of just how much of an underlying threat it was to allow someone who had attained immortality from consuming the Taisui fungus to live, but it didn't dare to do anything!

"What's your name?" it finally asked.

The second King Yanluo smiled in response. "Come ask my name when you transcend beyond this plane someday."

The mandrill was silent for a moment longer before replying, "Fine, I'll spare his life, and that'll be the end of that, what do you think?"

"Sure."

In the instant that the second King Yanluo's voice trailed off, the entire world disintegrated into Yin energy.

Qin Ye had failed the trial yet again, but he wasn't disheartened in the slightest. Instead, he was feeling extremely excited.

He had finally uncovered the truth! He finally knew what had happened during the time that he had been unconscious all those years ago!

The inner demon wanted to kill him, but the second King Yanluo had intervened and saved him, thereby leading to the events that had just unfolded.

Only now did he realize that it wasn't a coincidence that Granny Meng had found him all those years ago.

He heaved a forlorn sigh.

There were so many people in Cathay. Was Lee Jung-sook not a suitable candidate? Was Xu Fu not sufficiently cunning and powerful? Why had he been chosen over them?

As it turned out, the second King Yanluo had come into his life as early as over a century ago.

What he wanted was a diamond in the rough. He didn't know whether Qin Ye had the innate talents required to succeed in the future, but even for an idiot, staying in the mortal realm for a century would turn them into a far wiser person.

In contrast, Lee Jung-sook and Xu Fu were no longer blank slates, so their potential for growth was severely limited, and that was why they hadn't caught the second King Yanluo's eye.

As it turned out, the candidate for the third King Yanluo had already been decided long ago.