Yama Rising

In the instant that the sword pierced through the monster's body, its mouth abruptly sprang open, and it let loose an earth-shattering shriek.

The shriek was truly audible throughout the entire Yin Star System, and it was far louder than the one it had let loose when its arm had been destroyed. In the next instant, the monster suddenly disintegrated!

Is it dead?

Qin Ye was watching the unfolding scene with an intense, unblinking gaze. He didn't think that the monster would die so easily. Being enormous in size had both benefits and disadvantages. The larger something was, the slower it would become because it would take too long to transmit signals from the brain to the rest of the body. However, increases in size also improved one's ability to take hits.

Surely it wouldn't die that easily…

Qin Ye's eyes narrowed slightly, and just as he expected, right after the monster disintegrated into Yin energy, the flood of Yin energy instantly surged away in a frenzy, heading toward the Scar of the Sun.

The sea of Yin energy quickly vanished into the rift, and in the blink of an eye, the entire Yin Star System returned to peace and quiet once again. All of the planes were glowing with dazzling light, and it was as if nothing had ever happened.

Aside from a select group of people, no one was aware of the terrifying battle that had just taken place.

Silence.

Only after a full five minutes did Qin Ye finally find his voice again. "What was that thing?"

"I don't know…" Mictlantecutli shook his head in a dazed manner. "I've never seen it before… I've never seen anything that massive before!"

"It's a Yin spirit," Mictetikasiwa said in a grim voice. "I'm certain that at its core, that thing is a Yin spirit."

No shit! Yin energy is the only energy that exists in the Yin Space River, so only Yin spirits can survive there!

Qin Ye rolled his eyes in a discreet manner before falling into deep thought.

Time slowly passed by, and all three of the ruler death gods were absorbed in their own thoughts. The more Qin Ye thought about the situation, the more solemn his expression became, and he turned toward Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa before asking, "This is your second time observing a supercritical tide, right?"

The answer to that was obvious. Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa had only chosen to pursue space exploration after Usonia had sent humans to space for the first time in the mortal realm, and that was only around 50 to 60 years ago, so this could only have been the second time.

"Are you sure that was only one eye that opened up at the Scar of the Sun on the first occasion?" Qin Ye asked.

"We're certain of that. In fact, we have footage stored in image capture crystals," Mictetikasiwa replied. "Also, there's something that I have to tell you: the last supercritical tide was 30 years ago."

30 years ago?

Qin Ye was very surprised to hear this. There was no way that the second King Yanluo would misremember such an important detail, and he had definitely said 50 years, not 30 years.

"Does this mean the intervals between the supercritical tides are shrinking?" Qin Ye murmured to himself.

Indeed, that had to be the case. After all, Usonia had only reached the moon less than 60 years ago, how could Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa possibly have already witnessed two supercritical tides during that time if they were spaced 50 years apart?

In order to create all of this, it would've taken at least 10 years. Thus, if the intervals between the supercritical tides weren't growing shorter and shorter, then there would be a bug in the timeline.

Mictlantecutli nodded in response. "Have you thought of something?"

Qin Ye had indeed thought of something, and it was quite a terrifying prospect.

The more he thought about his own theory, the heavier his heart became, and only after a long while did he reply, "If the intervals between supercritical tides really have shortened to only 30 years, then I'm sure you'd want to go to space during the next supercritical tide. If we assume that there are other intelligent civilizations in the Yin Space River, and that they also want to go to space at the same time, what do you think will happen?"

The netherfire in the eyes of Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa flickered violently upon hearing this. "Are you saying that our flying fortress will run into their flying fortress?"

A cold smile appeared on Qin Ye's face as he gently stroked the eye of the sun god. "We've already run into one, haven't we?"

"What do you mean?" Mictlantecutli reflexively asked, but a thought then immediately occurred to him, and he swung around to look at Qin Ye with a bewildered expression.

He had just realized that what Qin Ye was saying was that the spatial giant they had just seen was the flying fortress of another civilization!

The giant was the flying fortress itself, and the hundreds of thousands of Yin spirits around it were the Yin soldiers of that civilization!

It all makes sense…

Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa were completely rooted to the spot. They didn't even consider this possibility, and if that thing really were a flying fortress from another civilization, then the technology used would be completely different from theirs!

They were combining mechanical parts with Yin runes, yet that civilization had combined a living being with Yin runes to create a living fortress!

"It doesn't necessarily have to be alive," Qin Ye mused.

The second King Yanluo was definitely aware of this, but it was clear that he didn't want to tell Qin Ye.

The second King Yanlou was aware that space exploration was his objective, yet he had made no mention of this topic, so there would be no point in asking him about it.

"There's something in space that's trying to test us and examine our power," he murmured to himself as his eyes narrowed slightly. "I presume they only discovered our plane recently, perhaps only during the past century. If that's the case, then what were they observing last time?"

The netherfire in the eyes of Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa flickered violently once again.

Neither of them were idiots, and Qin Ye's words had evoked some thoughts within them, particularly thoughts surrounding the Dark Forest theory.

This theory stated that the universe was a massive dark forest, and that all civilizations were gun-wielding hunters. No one dared to reveal their own locations in fear of falling prey to all of the other hunters in the forest.

Once a plane discovered another plane, its first thought would definitely be to conquer that plane for its land, population, and technology.

However, prior to this, the power of the targeted civilization had to be determined first.

Thus, the other plane had been observing the underworld through the supercritical tide, which took place once every few decades.

"We have several leads that we can work with right now," Mictlantecutli said with tightly furrowed brows. "Firstly, that plane seems to only be able to appear in our Yin Star System during supercritical tides. Secondly, they don't possess an overwhelming advantage in power against us."

Qin Ye nodded in response.

The spatial giant had been defeated by a joint strike from all of the underworld's most powerful death gods, and even though this was only a single clash, it was enough to indicate that neither side held a crushing advantage over the other.

"In that case, what are they observing?" Mictlantecutli's eyes narrowed slightly as he analyzed, "Seeing as they don't have an overwhelming advantage in power over us, that indicates that their level of development is around on par with ours."

A cold smile appeared on Mictetikasiwa's face as she said, "If we assume that our civilizations are roughly at the same level of development, then there can only be one thing that they're trying to observe: they want to see if we've developed space exploration technology. During the last supercritical tide, they didn't discover any spatial fortresses of ours. Thus, on this occasion, they sent out an army to test us."

She turned to Mictlantecutli and Qin Ye as she asked, "What do you think they'll send our way next?"

The opposition was only going to become bolder and more aggressive. During the next supercritical tide, it was very likely that they would send out something even more fearsome!

They would keep doing this until they could ascertain what was required to break through the underworld's defenses, and only then would they deploy their troops in full force.

Prior to that, they would test the underworld over and over again, perhaps for the next few centuries to come.

There's no time to waste…

A sense of urgency welled up in Qin Ye's heart.

He turned toward the two ruler death gods of the new continent, and they were also looking back at him. Mictetikasiwa asked, "Are you going to give up on your plan?"

"Of course not!" Qin Ye immediately scoffed in response.

What reason was there to give up?

The opposition was already openly provoking the underworld! Not only was he not going to give up, he was going to accelerate the development of his space exploration plane, striving to ensure that the underworld would have spatial fortresses of its own by the time the opposition struck again!

Not only was this the duty of the Cathayan Underworld as one of the four pillars, it was a responsibility that had to be shouldered by all of the ruler death gods in the entire underworld!

"As expected, the Cathayan Underworld never produced cowards," Mictetikasiwa chuckled. "It's getting late now, so I'll get someone to take you back to your room. We'll send you the information that you want a bit later."

On one side was the new continent, which had deceived the entire underworld and was the only underworld that was aware of the existence of space, while on the other side was the Cathayan Underworld, which was making a resurgence and seeking allies.

Their goals aligned with one another, so there wasn't any need for extensive negotiation. Furthermore, it was clear that the new continent didn't care about what was to become of the rest of the underworld, so long as the two ruler death gods could leave this plane.

However, it was a different story for Qin Ye.

Ultimately, the alignment of their goals diverged at some point, so even though the three ruler death gods had a lot to speak to one another about, they didn't have any interest in an in-depth conversation. In their eyes, that brief exchange of thoughts earlier was already a conversation of sufficient depth.

Qin Ye naturally had no objections, and right after he returned to the ruler death god suite that he was staying in, the sound of door-knocking immediately rang out.

"Come in."

The door was opened, and a Yin spirit in a white cloak made his way into the room in a respectful manner.

He was carrying a box that was forged from gold and crafted in an extremely intricate fashion in the Aztec style. There were three large eyes on the Yin spirit's white cloak, and after extending a slight bow, he informed, "Yanluo Qin, this is the information that you want."

Qin Ye took a deep breath before dismissing the Yin spirit with a wave of his hand.

This was all of the experience in space exploration that the new continent had gathered during the past few decades.

In the wake of what he had just witnessed, Qin Ye couldn't wait to see this information for himself.

The box was constructed purely from gold with patterns all over its surface, and there was a golden key slotted into the keyhole at the top of the box.

Qin Ye twisted the key, and a string of mechanical sounds instantly rang out within the box, following which one Yin rune after another lit up on the surface of the box like a series of artworks.

As expected of the most confidential information in the new continent. The locking mechanism incorporates both mechanics and Yin runes, and these Yin runes have most likely been inscribed onto the box by Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa in person. Thus, even if someone obtains the box and the key, they wouldn't be able to open it without Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa's permission.

He gently stroked the golden box with his hand. He had found the right path ahead, and that was the greatest reward he had reaped during this trip to the new continent.

The Yin runes on the box were becoming brighter and brighter, yet Qin Ye's hand, which was gently stroking the box, abruptly stiffened.

An extreme sense of foreboding then suddenly welled up in his heart, and he quickly rose to his feet as he stared intently at the box while sensing the Yin energy on it.

"This Yin energy doesn't belong to Mictlantecutli or Mictetikasiwa!"

A chill instantly ran down his spine, and he rushed out of the room without any hesitation.

Right at this moment, an earth-shattering explosion erupted behind him.

BOOM!!!

In the instant that he rushed out through the door, the golden box had exploded!