Yama Rising

Clatter clatter… A large amount of gravel, dirt and sand rolled down into the pit below. Li Jiankang stood in the center of the pit, staring at the ceiling with a jaw-dropping expression on his face.

“You… what in the world are you?” It was only after a long time that he spoke with trembling in his voice.

Qin Ye slowly descended and floated to the ground below.

Shaa… He softly landed on the ground and glanced about his surroundings before responding soullessly, “What am I?”

“I’m the one who’s here to reap your soul.”

“Anitya Hellguard of the Black and White?” Li Jiankang’s shaky voice faded into the background. He leaned heavily against the wall, and his breath grew ragged. Then, he suddenly turned around and ran backwards. The sound of a loud thud, was quickly followed by a loud metallic clang and cringeworthy sounds of chains.

Qin Ye ignored him. As far as he could see, the pit that he had just entered was an underground storage room.

The houses along Tianxi Fourth Street were all incredibly old, and it had never been considered part of the downtown until recent years, following the development of Mount Tai City. Prior to that, this locality used to be a farming region, and it was not uncommon to find the existence of such underground storage cellars.

A row of weak electric lights were installed along the taupe-coloured walls, and there were many large freezers sitting all around the room. Each of these freezers were larger than the ones located on the second floor of Li Jiankang’s home. However, all of them were empty.

The room was filled with the musty stench of fish. The row of weak lights led to a small iron door at the end of the room. This was where Li Jiankang had earlier escaped through. It was remarkable that a seemingly ordinary human being like Li Jiankang hadn’t been scared stiff when he first saw the arrival of Qin Ye in his otherworldly Hell’s Emissary state.

“Should I say that you possess great mental fortitude… or should I simply say that you’ve already grown used to such sights?” Qin Ye picked up his sword and swung it forcefully. A crisp clang resounded, and the lock fell to the ground.

There was a long, narrow corridor just behind the iron door that could at best fit two people side-by-side. A weak electric light was similarly installed overhead at every five meter interval. This should’ve been used as a bunker or air-raid shelter of sorts before it was repurposed. Qin Ye chuckled coldly and transformed into a powerful nethergale as he swooped straight down the corridor.

Ghost?

Such a thing stands no chance in the face of a genuine Emissary of Hell.

Boom!! The nethergale was darker than darkness itself. Yet as soon as his entire body entered the corridor, the iron gate behind him immediately shut itself, and the hanging overhead lights instantly extinguished all at once.

Whoosh… The nethergale swirled around and converged to reconstitute Qin Ye’s physical form. Arthis muttered, “He’s getting desperate. The jig is up, and he’s now prepared to make a last stand right here.”

“You’d best be careful. Ghosts of the Great Intergenerational Heredity… aren’t that easy to deal with.”

Qin Ye didn’t respond. He held his demonhead saber horizontally in front of him. The eerie jade-green flame burned brightly, illuminating an area one meter in radius around him. Just then, a sudden hissing roar echoed from the end of the corridor.

“Blood… meat… let me go… I’m hungry… so hungry…”

This was a pitch-black corridor.

The narrowness was so stifling that they appeared to be closing in on him menacingly.

And he could hear wild, frantic howls.

There was even a cacophony of scattered sounds in the background, as though a rat were scuttling by or gravel was rolling down the corridor. Then, in the very next moment, Qin Ye heard a soft thud on the ground, followed quickly by several more thuds. Thud! Thud thud thud! Clatter!

It was the sound of a heavy iron object being dragged across the ground, followed by the soft tremors of an object landing on the ground. And these sounds appeared to be rushing straight towards him in the dark corridor like a fearsome tidal wave!

Any ordinary person caught in such a situation would have screamed and scrambled to look for something to lean on for support, like a wall for instance. However, Qin Ye remained stoic and unwavering in the face of such threats. Moments later, Qin Ye finally made out the shape of a figure with the aid of the faint illumination from his netherfire from his saber.

The figure’s speed was not quick, but the manner in which it approached Qin Ye was incredibly peculiar. Both feet sprang from the ground at the same time, and each leap of his feet sent it bouncing approximately one foot high. The figure also held out its hands in front of it, and it constantly appeared to be grasping at the air. It was almost as though it wanted so much to traverse the remaining distance in an instant, grab hold of Qin Ye and drink his blood dry in one fell swoop.

Vampire.

The joints across the vampire’s entire body were incredibly stiff, and it was unable to bend any part of it at all. Yet it was precisely also because of this that the vampires possessed a physical body that was incredibly tough and practically impenetrable. There were still secret techniques for nurturing and refining vampires being passed down in Westbrook and its surrounding regions.

Naturally, their impenetrability was limited to those who possessed abilities at the same level as them.

“Blood… flesh… so hungry… so hungry!!!” The blood-curdling murmur continued to echo endlessly throughout the dark and narrow corridor. Unfortunately, this amount of darkness was nothing to Qin Ye, because Qin Ye already had his eyes fixed on the person approaching him.

It was a young man of modest height. Its shoulder-length hair was disheveled, and its skin was no longer of the usual beige colour. Rather, its skin had turned completely iron black.

It wore a t-shirt that had been shredded in many places, and you could see that its skin beneath was covered in black hairs that looked almost like steel needles. Its eyes were completely white throughout, and the black nails on its hands were two inches long. There was a piece of talisman paper stuck to its forehead.

It stared at Qin Ye with an expression of greed, almost as though it were staring at a piece of delicious pork chop. Saliva dangled and dribbled from its lips disgustingly. Then, just as it entered a five meter radius from Qin Ye, it suddenly let loose a miserable shriek and closed the remaining distance with a powerful leap! At the same time, it opened its mouth a foot wide and bared its sharp blade-like fangs as it pounced straight towards Qin Ye!

And what greeted it was a radiant beam of intense blade light.

The saber swung powerfully with the weight of a thousand catties. An intense sea of netherfire burst forth from the blade, extending swiftly along the walls and transforming the otherwise dank and desolate corridor into a projection of Hell. With a miserable cry, the vampire was instantly knocked back several meters.

“Not dead?” However, Qin Ye was the one who found himself astonished. He quickly glanced at the saber in his hand as though he had swung the wrong weapon.

His opponent’s Yin energy was so faint that it hardly extended beyond a one meter radius from its body. It was clearly an Operative-class vengeful apparition. So why couldn’t he cut down this vampire?

Instead… it was almost as though there were another source of Hunter-class might that had forcibly dispelled a part of his earlier strike.

“Then let’s see just how many strikes you can take, shall we?” He chuckled coldly as a powerful nethergale wrapped around his body, and he shot into the darkness once more.

There, in the depths of the corridor, the vampire sprung forward once more and clashed fearlessly against Qin Ye. It was still waving its hands haphazardly in the air in a ridiculous attempt to grab hold of Qin Ye. That said, it managed to block Qin Ye’s powerful attack with its Operative-class body once more!

Clang… With a loud metallic sound, both sides were knocked back a distance away. None of them appeared to have gained an edge over the other in this last clash. Qin Ye stared at the vampire in disbelief as he murmured, “This is the ghost of the Great Intergenerational Heredity?”

“That’s right. Under such circumstances, the System of Records and Classifications for Yin Spirits terms this phenomenon as atavism. As soon as a ghost of the Great Intergenerational Heredity is allowed to grow and develop, its threat level would become completely unfathomable. It is considered an A-grade threat across the entire System of Records and Classifications. In fact, their existence itself is such a grave threat that there was even a standing order to search and destroy it at all costs, even if it means breaking the immutable rule that Hell was not to interfere with the affairs of the mortal realm. Its threat level is only a single step away from the highest grade in the system. You’re lucky that the atavist ghost you’ve encountered is only one that is Operative-class, otherwise… hehehe…”

Qin Ye raised his eyebrows quizzically, “It’s so tyrannical… and yet it’s only A-grade? Then what’s above A-grade? What other threats are there?”

Arthis responded placidly, “Cathay has been in existence for thousands of years and seen through eras of warfare and bloodshed. Do you really think that there are ghosts that Cathay hasn’t seen before? Threats that are above A-grade… I’m afraid they appear only once every five hundred years or so. Even I haven’t seen such existences before. As far as I’m aware, there are only three ghosts that are classified as such, and the appearance of any of these would herald a reign of terror in the mortal realm. That said, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see their appearance again, especially given how peaceful society is right now. There’s no need to know about these things for now… Besides, are you really in the mood to discuss these things? Shouldn’t you be thinking of a way to dispose of the problem in front of you?”

Qin Ye looked up to see the vampire prancing towards him again. He drew a deep breath and dragged the blade of his saber across his arm.

Shk!!

The crimson pearls of blood instantly scattered in the air and vaporized into a bloody mist that permeated the surroundings.

The vampire that was darting towards Qin Ye suddenly paused in its steps.

Despite its modest intelligence, it could sense the approach of an impending extreme danger.

“Now you’ve really done it… An operative-class evil ghost has forced me to resort to my blade release.” Qin Ye’s hair fluttered about menacingly in the scarlet mist, mildly resembling the approach of a ghostly monarch.

A ghastly nethergale picked up within the sealed corridor, causing Qin Ye’s robes to flutter wildly. The grisly scarlet mist gleamed ominously as it began to swirl faster and fiercer!

Seconds later, a one-inch tall figure rose from the edge of Qin Ye’s demonhead saber. Simultaneously, his surroundings began to snap and crackle as cracks began to surface on the walls. Within mere seconds, the entire walls of the corridors were covered with a massive web of cracks!

“Hooo…. Sss… dad… help… help me!!” The vampire immediately turned around and screamed as it fled deeper into the corridor.

“Don’t worry. I’ll let you have an opportunity to reunite with your family.” Qin Ye smiled as he swung his sword down!

BOOM!!!

Violent Yin energy ripped through the entire corridor with such force that it was no different from a small earthquake! On the ground, not far away, the two agents drew a breath of cold air in unison and stood up abruptly.

Li Jiankang’s home had just collapsed right in front of their eyes.

It had suddenly collapsed without any warning. Sand and gravel scattered everywhere, and a loud, startling sound reverberated across the otherwise silent night sky. They froze for two seconds, and then dashed straight towards the site at full speed.

As soon as they arrived, they immediately saw a reasonably-sized cavern laying over ten meters below ground level just beneath their feet!

“What a deep hole… is this… a former air-raid shelter? It’s so deep. No wonder our instruments had never been able to detect its existence before.” One of the agents remarked aloud.

“Is this the time to be concerned about those things?” The other agent’s eyes gleamed brightly as he added, “What a powerful tremor… S9527 has found it… he must have found a way of breaching this hunting zone!”

“Should we inform the boss?”

“No need...this is SRC’s research project. It’s not our part to interfere…” Before the agent could finish speaking, a powerful tremor rocked the earth again, and the remaining walls which hadn’t collapsed earlier crumbled down to the ground completely with a loud rumble! A plume of dust scattered into the air.

Rumble… The epicenter of the latter tremor evidently came from underground. Both agents exchanged a look of admiration with each other.

What powerful true energy…

With such strength… it’s no wonder he would dare to challenge this C-grade hunting zone…

Gritting his teeth, one of the agents opened the Momo app and sent a voice message to Sea of Forests and Plains of Snow.

“Boss… S9527 might have discovered the method to breaching hunting zone no. X-7. A fierce battle is going on right now. Do you… want to come and take a look?”

“What?” Although it was already three or four in the morning, Sea of Forests and Plains of Snow responded within a minute, “Immediately mobilize the surrounding police officers to cordon off and secure the area. I’ll be right there!”

Qin Ye was oblivious to all of these things. Right now, he was simply filled with the desire to bring Li Jiankang to justice.

This was his law, his verdict, and his justice.

He stood in the center of the collapsing corridor. The vampire’s shrill shriek in utter terror echoed some distance away. His last attack hadn’t been aimed at the vampire itself. After all, air-raid shelters generally consisted of a complex network of corridors and rooms, and Qin Ye didn’t want to waste his time searching through each path for the exact location of his targets.

He had caused a ruckus precisely because he wanted to alarm his enemies.