Yama Rising

All of the commanders departed, and just as the three Yama-Kings were also about to leave, Qin Ye suddenly said, "Ghost King Zhao, please stay behind."

Soon, Zhao Yun and Qin Ye were the only ones left in the tent, and the servants quickly brought on two cups of tea for them. Qin Ye picked up his teacup, but didn't drink from it, and not only did he not appear to be more relaxed, his brows were furrowed even tighter than before.

The atmosphere was very tense and gloomy, and Zhao Yun decided to try and lighten the mood. "Your Excellency, you made the right decision. There's no way that the inner demon could've anticipated that the tomb of Lishan Laomu would suddenly open, and that the Southern Purple Palace Array would seal the entire city. There must be some useful leads in the ruins of those construction sites."

Qin Ye shook his head in response. It was clear that Zhao Yun was just trying to console him.

With Yuncheng split up into two, the inner demon had definitely claimed the most advantageous side for itself, while the side that Qin Ye and the others were on was the one that the inner demon had abandoned.

"Whose remains could they be?" he suddenly said as he looked into Zhao Yun's eyes with a grim expression. "This is the key to solving this mystery."

He revealed his theory to Zhao Yun, including his suspected involvement of the extraterrestrial gods, then said, "There were over 1,000 ancient corpses buried here, and their bodies were destroyed, but not their souls. Over the past several thousand years, some of them have already become Yama-Kings. This indicates that an extremely fearsome battle must've taken place in Yuncheng in the past, and these corpses were all left behind from that battle. Who could they be?"

Zhao Yun pursed his lips, and only after a long while did he heave a faint sigh. "That's what I'm perplexed about as well. There are only several instances in the historical records detailing large outbreaks of powerful evil ghosts, some of which have even included Abyssal Prefects and Yama-Kings, but none of those instances took place anywhere near Yuncheng! The battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou took place in Hebei Province, so if there are remains, that should be where they're found."

Right as he was about to continue, Qin Ye suddenly interjected, "The bone shard that the inner demon brought out belonged to a being of fortune and faith, but perhaps there were more of them than just the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou. Perhaps Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, could also count as one?"

"I don't think so," Zhao Yun replied with a shake of his head. "At the very most, Liu Xiu only extended the bloodline of a dynasty and created an ethnic group, which is still far from enough from making him worthy of being referred to as a being of fortune and faith. From my knowledge, the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou were the only two beings worthy of that title, and whoever came out on top between them would be the pioneer of the new era."

In that case, it could only be Chiyou.

However, the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou took place in Hebei, which was far away from Yuncheng! Furthermore, according to historical records, after Chiyou was slain, his head and body relentlessly tried to join back together again, and that was why the Yellow Emperor used longmas to separate the two parts of his body, ensuring that they would never meet again.

Silence descended upon the tent.

All of a sudden, Zhao Yun said, "Perhaps we should ask Lishan Laomu directly."

Qin Ye's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this, but then quickly dimmed once again.

That was indeed the best way to proceed. Now that Chiyou's remains had resurfaced, perhaps Heaven would make an exception, and Qin Ye was prepared to visit the retirement home that Lishan Laomo was staying in, but there wasn't enough time!

"The Southern Purple Palace Array will only last four days," he sighed with a shake of his head.

"Perhaps there's another way…" A contemplative look appeared on Zhao Yun's face as he said, "Your Excellency, interaction between Heaven and the underworld is impossible due to the fact that the mortal realm is sandwiched between them. However, that doesn't mean that we won't be able to communicate with Heaven. In the past, Ksitigarbha has visited the underworld, even though that was only a projection. I've only just thought of this, but there are two ways for Heaven to interact with the underworld, the first of which would be through a projection like the one used by Ksitigarbha. That can only be initiated by someone in Heaven, so we're unable to make it happen. The second way would be to find something closely related to the one you want to get into contact with, then use the Heavenly Inquiry art!"

Qin Ye's eyes lit up once again, only to dim again a few seconds later.

This was indeed a good idea, but they needed something extremely closely related to Lishan Laomu, and he didn't have that!

This was indeed the tomb of Lishan Laomu, but it was only something erected by her descendants to commemorate her!

Perhaps Lishan Laomu had pointed out this city to be the place of her origin, but she wouldn't have left behind anything related to her here. Even though she had set up an array here, arrays were formed by runes, so it couldn't be counted as an item.

Lishan Laomu could perhaps project herself here if she wished to do so, but Qin Ye didn't have anything through which he could directly contact Lishan Laomu using Heavenly Inquiry.

Zhao Yun also realized this shortly thereafter, and he heaved a forlorn sigh. "It seems that fate is stacked against us."

"It's alright." Qin Ye quickly recovered from his disappointment, then rose to his feet as he said in a cold voice, "If we can't think of anything, then we'll just have to make something happen through our actions."

Just as Zhao Yun had said, there was no way that the inner demon would've anticipated the opening of the tomb of Lishan Laomu. The skeletal wall allowed the inner demon to keep the most advantageous side of the city to itself, but even though this part of the city was no longer useful to it, there had to be many leads left behind.

Zhao Yun rose to his feet before cupping his fist in a solemn salute. "Be careful, Your Excellency."

He had a feeling that whatever was buried under this city was more terrifying than they could imagine!

……………………………………

A stone pillar was shattered by a vicious punch, and Envy's face was twisted with fury as he turned to the inner demon with tightly gritted teeth. "So this was your plan? You've trapped all of us here! What do we do now?"

The four Yama-Kings had surrounded the inner demon, and outside of them were countless evil ghosts, including several Abyssal Prefects, the 73 immortals, and several hundred Anitya Hellguards and Soul Hunters.

No one could've anticipated that there was such a massive number of evil ghosts buried beneath Yuncheng.

The inner demon didn't say anything, and before it could speak, the muscular man said, "If you didn't promise us that you could resurrect our king, there's no way we would've decided to ally ourselves with you! I told you to leave this place, but you insisted on staying, and we're all trapped here now!"

"Are you doubting me?" The inner demon asked in a cold voice. It was still using Bai Liangping's body as it said, "Don't forget who was the one that dug all of you up from underground!"

Its Yin energy swept through the entire area, and under its immense pressure, none of the evil ghosts present were able to say anything. Bai Liangping swept a cold gaze around him as he said in a frosty voice, "If it isn't for me, you would still be buried right now! If your king were here, he would have the right to speak to me as equals, but who do you think you are?!"

His voice was like rumbling thunder, and in response to it, the 73 immortals slowly opened their eyes, making no attempt to conceal their Yin energy as they slowly hovered up into the sky like 73 black suns.

Deathly silence ensued.

Menacing Yin energy was surging incessantly, and pairs of crimson eyes that looked as if they belonged to a pack of fierce wolves emerged in the surrounding area. Envy's hands balled up into tight fists as a bloodthirsty smile appeared on his face, and his inky-black nails were drawing blood from his own palms, but he paid that no heed.

Right beside him, Resentment, who had possessed a short and chubby elderly man, slowly raised his hands, and a series of white bone spikes had already pierced through his clothes as they extended out of his body.

The inner demon leaned forward slightly as a menacing smile appeared on his face. "What? You feel insulted? Do you think this is several thousand years ago, back when you were still the rulers of the human race? Are you enraged that even someone like me would dare to speak to you like this?"

His Yin energy surged through the area like a tsunami, transforming the entire place into an inky-black abyss as he continued, "Why don't you try me then? If you really dare to attack me, I'll send you all back to hell in seconds!"

The atmosphere was extremely tense, and it seemed that a physical altercation was inevitable.

Amid the oppressive silence, Resentment suddenly smiled, and in the next instant, his arm elongated to over 10 meters in length, spearing directly toward the inner demon's chest like lightning!

The attack was so fast that only a faint shadow could be seen flying through the air, and the anguished howls of vengeful spirits rang out in all directions.

In the face of this rapid attack, the inner demon was completely unimpressed, and a derisive smirk appeared on his face. However, before he even had a chance to retaliate, a wave of inky-black hair erupted from behind Resentment like a den of countless snakes, wrapping around Resentment's arm and stopping it cold in its tracks!

At this point, Resentment's hand was no more than a foot away from the inner demon, yet Bai Liangping's chest, which had been normal and whole just a moment ago, had already transformed into a mouth that was gaped wide open! Within it were several dozen tentacles and rows upon rows of sharp, scalpel-like fangs, just waiting for Resentment's hand to enter.

"What are you doing, Lust?" Resentment slowly turned around.

A woman wearing a dirty white dress had appeared behind them out of the blue.

Her feet were bare, and her dress was originally a pristine white color, but it was grimy and stained with blotches of blood. Her long, black hair draped down around her face like dead seaweed, and through her hair, one could only see a single crimson eye.

"Having an altercation here isn't going to help anything," Lust said, and her voice was as cringe-inducing as the sound of metal scraping over a blackboard.

Her body remained completely still, yet her head was turning toward the inner demon like the head of a broken doll.

"I have one question for you: will you still be able to fulfill your agreement with us?"

"I can't offer you any guarantees, but I assure you that I have no intention of dying here," the inner demon replied.

"I see." Lust nodded in response. "What do you plan to do now?"

"I'm going to Fenglingdu!" the inner demon replied without any hesitation. "They won't be able to bypass the Thousand Tribulation Walls. Even if they manage to do that, all I have to do is bury the remains of your king at Fenglingdu, and that'll be enough for us to weather this storm."

Envy's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this. "You're going to activate the Myriad Soul Pagoda? That wasn't part of our agreement! The Myriad Soul Pagoda is the last thing we can count on for the return of our king. If you active it, but we fail on this occasion, we'll have to wait for countless years for the next opportunity!"

A cold smile appeared on the inner demon's face as it said, "The Myriad Soul Pagoda will only be a last resort. If I recall correctly, the Southern Purple Palace Array will only be able to last for four days before it dissipates. During that time, they won't even be able to bypass the Thousand Tribulation Walls! Even if they somehow manage to bypass that and force me to activate the Myriad Soul Pagoda, there's no way they'll be able to set foot into the pagoda. By the time four days pass by, my reinforcements will already be waiting outside the array!"