Yama Rising

Decisions to invade other nations were never taken lightly, no matter how small the target nation was.

At the root of all wars were conflicts of interest. If there were no benefits to be reaped from a war, then it would become entirely pointless.

Prior to lashing out at the Nipponese Underworld, the Cathayan Underworld had to consider how to conduct its invasion, as well as which parts to conquer and which parts to relinquish. This involved a series of decisions that had been made over the course of several years of meticulous planning and inspection. However, once the decisions were made and things were set into motion, everything would quickly escalate into an all-consuming tsunami.

At this moment, none of the death gods in the underworld had realized exactly what was on the horizon. Thus, no one paid much attention to this incident. After all, it was far more important for them to look after their own nation's domestic affairs.

Similarly, Izanami and Susanoo-no-Mikoto were also not overly concerned. They slowly made their way into the room, and a servant immediately closed the door behind them.

A middle-aged man with a long beard was seated on a tatami mat with his side facing them, and he didn't even bother to turn around to face them directly.

He was quite thin with a jaded look in his eyes, and he wasn't very tall, roughly 178 centimeters in height. He was wearing an antiquated Cathayan robe, and he was holding a wine cup in his callous-covered hand. He didn't even raise his head as he asked, "What do you want this time?"

Izanami didn't reply. Instead, she inspected her surroundings with a reminiscent look in her eyes, and only after a long while did she break her silence. "Truth be told, I really do admire you very much. Once again, the doors of the Nipponese Underworld are open to you at any time. If you decide to join us, you'll be treated with the utmost reverence and respect."

A faint smile appeared on Yue Fei's face. After the passage of over 1,000 years, he had developed a graceful and refined disposition.

He gently set down his cup as he said, "You've already been telling that joke for over 1,000 years. Haven't you gotten bored of it yet?"

Izanami remained unfazed as she countered in a calm voice, "You've been staying in this room for over 1,000 years. Don't you feel miserable?"

She heaved a faint sigh, then continued in a gentle voice, "You've already been here for over 1,000 years. During that time, you haven't set foot outside of this room even once. Do you know how much the Cathayan Underworld has changed? Don't you want to go back to take a look?"

Yue Fei finally turned around with a smile on his face.

The right half of his body, from his neck to his chest, had completely disappeared, and the wound was riddled with countless teeth marks!

The wound was impossible to heal, and Yin energy was slowly pouring out of it, giving him an extremely ghastly appearance. However, Yue Fei didn't seem to be able to feel anything as he asked, "You want me to go back like this?"

Izanami and Susanoo-no-Mikoto's expressions changed slightly upon seeing this, yet before they had a chance to say anything, Yue Fei pressed his hands against the table and supported himself up into a standing position with great effort, then panted, "You are not the true ruler of the Nipponese Underworld! There was a death god here before you, and you didn't create the Nipponese Underworld! You are plagued by Their blood maggots, constantly leaving you on the brink of death, and only by devouring my flesh can your symptoms be alleviated. Then again, I don't need to tell you all that, do I?"

Indeed, according to Nipponese legends, the Nipponese Underworld wasn't created by Izanami. She had entered the Nipponese Underworld and eaten the food there, thereby rendering her unable to ever return to the mortal realm. Furthermore, in her attempt to escape, she was beset by the curse of blood maggots.

In other words, she had never attained the acknowledgment of the Nipponese Underworld. The Nipponese Underworld only wanted to retain a god so that it would be able to operate as normal.

So who was the one that had created the Nipponese Underworld?

Izanami didn't say anything, but Yue Fei wasn't done yet. "First comes a nation, then comes the legends and religions, and that gives rise to death gods. Prior to your emergence, there was only one Nipponese emperor, and that was Emperor Jimmu, the one known as the son of the gods. Do you really not know who Emperor Jimmu is?"

He suddenly burst into raucous laughter before continuing, "If you didn't know, then you wouldn't have pursued my soul so desperately! For that cause, all of the first generation of great yokai lost their lives, and only Tamamo-no-Mae and Shuten-doji remain! Even the likes of Nurarihyon and Tsuchigumo all perished in that battle in Nanjing! Only the Yin energy of the Cathayan Underworld can suppress the blood maggots because that is a curse from our Cathayan Underworld. Throughout all of history, you've been nothing more than the spokesperson of the Cathayan Underworld in the province of Nippon! This underworld was created by Xu Fu! There's no way that a lowly Abyssal Prefect such as yourself would've been able to create all of this!"

In the instant that Yue Fei's voice trailed off, a vicious slap landed on his face, and there was such force behind the slap that his head was flung to the side. Immediately thereafter, countless strands of black hair wound themselves around him like a pit of snakes, constricting him viciously from all directions.

"Insolence!" Izanami said in a cold voice. "I respect you, but that doesn't mean you can say whatever you please. Seeing as you don't want to live, I'll take you one step closer to death!"

As soon as her voice trailed off, her head abruptly expanded in size, and Yin energy permeated throughout the entire room before transforming into an inky-black vortex. From within the Yin energy, countless bright red maggots emerged from beneath her skin like demonic spawn, while she opened her mouth up wide.

Yue Fei was bound by her hair, rendering him completely unable to evade, so he could only allow her to sink her teeth into his wound.

A string of chewing noises rang out incessantly, and even though Yue Fei was having his soul devoured alive, he didn't even so much as wince in pain. Only after a meal that lasted a full 10 minutes did Izanami withdraw her Yin energy and return to her original form.

She pulled out her handkerchief and gently dabbed at her own mouth, then said with a disdainful expression, "I've given you many chances in the past, but you've never cherished them! All you can do now is run your mouth, you can't even recover your cultivation rank! I've passed the curse of the blood maggots onto you as well, and your cultivation rank has plummeted to only the Soul Hunter level. Aside from serving as a food source to relieve my pain, you're nothing but a useless piece of trash! If you had been more obedient, you would've spared yourself a lot of torment."

After that, she departed from the room. Susanoo-no-Mikoto had remained silent this entire time, and he also departed, closing the door behind him as he did so.

After leaving the room, Izanami stopped in her tracks and raised her head to look up at the sky. Only after a long while did she break her silence. "He's right. Once I realized that the blood maggot curse didn't originate from Nippon, I searched for its origins all over the world. The first place that I searched was the Nipponese Underworld, and I was very fortunate to have been able to trace it back to Xu Fu. However, I couldn't tell him that I had been afflicted by his curse as that would only put me at his mercy. Hence, I needed the soul of a high-grade Emissary of Hell to alleviate my pain."

She heaved a forlorn sign as she slowly strolled forward. "He was once an Abyssal Prefect, but he's only a Soul Hunter now. At the very most, his soul will only be able to last 100 more years. Do you think I can let him go back now? If I did that, the Cathayan Underworld would most likely immediately declare war against us in a fit of rage!"

Susanoo-no-Mikoto heaved a long sigh.

If the Cathayan Underworld really were doing this to recover Yue Fei's soul, then this was a problem with no solution!

Izanami continued to walk along as she said, "Contact the Hindustani Underworld, the Aegyptian Underworld, and the Russian Underworld. Tell them that they have my permission to station their troops in our Nipponese Underworld and even establish military bases here. Also, do everything in our power to express our good faith to the Cathayan Underworld and prevent them from escalating the situation."

Susanoo-no-Mikoto opened his mouth to say something, but only heaved a faint sigh in the end.

The sound of wooden clogs on floorboards rang out along the entire corridor as Toyotomi Hideyoshi quickly rushed along, followed by several servants.

At the conclusion of the corridor was a door, and as soon as Toyotomi Hideyoshi entered through the door, the servants behind him immediately closed it before habitually standing on lookout in front of it.

Beyond the door was a spacious guest room where Tokugawa Ieyasu and Honda Tadakatsu were already present.

They were all bound by Heavenly Dao vows, so there was no way that they could reveal what they were doing to anyone else. Furthermore, the fewer people involved, the fewer people they would have to share the spoils with, so even if they weren't bound by their vows, they most likely wouldn't have divulged this information to anyone, anyway.

"It's about to begin." Toyotomi Hideyoshi took a seat, and he didn't even touch his tea before immediately beginning to speak. "The Cathayan Underworld's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already publicly denounced the Nipponese Underworld, and the wording they've used is extremely severe. All of this is clearly leading up to a declaration of war. By my estimates, it won't be more than a month before Hell's army is officially deployed from Everburn!"

The netherfire in the eyes of the three underworld emissaries flickered violently upon hearing this. They couldn't help but be overcome by excitement on the cusp of the event that was going to usher in a new era.

"Are you all ready, everyone?" Tokugawa Ieyasu asked after taking a deep breath.

"Of course!" Honda Tadakatsu replied with a bloodthirsty smile. "I have 3,000 cavaliers and 5,000 foot soldiers constantly at the ready. I'm dying to see who in the Nipponese Underworld is a match for my Tonbokiri!"

"I have 1,000 artillery troops and 11,000 foot soldiers raring to go," Toyotomi Hideyoshi chimed in. "Rest assured, the other daimyos are all going to follow my lead, and the total number of troops that we can draw upon will be around 60,000!"

Tokugawa Ieyasu took a deep breath, then pulled out a letter. "This is an order from Izanami, instructing me to apply for entry to the Cathayan Underworld on an official basis as a business trip. She's undoubtedly hoping that I can mediate the situation somehow. This could be the last time we meet with the Cathayan Underworld prior to the start of the war. Who wants to go?"

"I'll go." Honda Tadakatsu rose to his feet before cupping his fist in a salute. "Prior to the commencement of the war, we still need to communicate with Amanozako. She doesn't have many troops under her command, but her powers are almost comparable with those of Susanoo-no-Mikoto! Once the war begins, Izanami will definitely travel to the front lines. She's still under the delusion that peace negotiations are possible. Once that happens, Shizuoka will be left unguarded, and Amanozako will be able to wreak havoc as she pleases there. All we need to do is break through the defenses between Aokigahara and the coastline to allow the Cathayan army to enter the sea, and everything will be as good as over!"