Yama Rising

The two of them took a deep breath, then cast their eyes toward the center of the stone platform. In order to perform a Heavenly Inquiry, they had to first be in contact with something related to Lishan Laomu.

However, if they were to touch this Qimen Dunjia, they had no idea what was going to happen here.

Zhao Yun jumped up slightly, then immediately landed back down onto the ground. "There's a flight restriction."

Qin Ye shook his head in response. "I'll do it."

Before Zhao Yun had a chance to reply, several Soul Shackles flew upward, then tied themselves around one of the infernal demon sealing chains with a loud clang. Immediately thereafter, Qin Ye tugged on the Soul Shackles, pulling himself up into the air before landing on the chain.

Right as this happened, a sharp sense of peril suddenly speared into his mind, and all of the surrounding lotus flowers swiveled around in unison to aim themselves directly at Qin Ye.

Qin Ye immediately crouched down like a leopard on the chain, and amid the silence, a faint buzzing sound was beginning to ring out.

In the beginning, the sound was very faint, but within the span of just two seconds, it was audibly echoing throughout the entire cave.

Zhao Yun faltered slightly upon hearing this before his expression changed drastically. "There are more soul devouring beetles!"

Even without that reminder from Zhao Yun, Qin Ye had already spotted them.

A series of thumb-sized white eggs were floating to the surface from the bottom of the black pond, and they were writhing and struggling frantically, as if they were trying to break free. In fact, many of the larvae had already emerged from the eggs, and a series of golden eyes could be seen opening up within the pond.

In the blink of an eye, the entire pond was illuminated by golden light, resembling a black diamond with gold embedded into it, creating a beautiful scene to behold, but also one that was fraught with lethal peril.

The entire process took no more than five seconds, and immediately after that, countless arrows of water shot out of the pond before hurtling directly toward Qin Ye.

It was as if the entire pond had sprung to life, and Zhao Yun drew a sharp breath before instinctively rushing toward Qin Ye. However, before he had a chance to reach Qin Ye, he stopped cold in his tracks and looked on with an astonished expression as what appeared to be rain suddenly began to fall from the sky.

All of the soul devouring beetles had stopped in unison.

Every single drop of water encompassed an awakened soul devouring beetle, and due to the momentum that was created, it looked as if countless arrows of water had shot out of the pond. However, now that the soul devouring beetles had suddenly stopped moving, the water lost its momentum, and it naturally fell back down.

Amid the shower, the soul devouring beetles flew around aimlessly, buzzing around like headless flies above the pond. Several seconds later, all of them plunged back down into the pond, and everything fell still and silent again.

Zhao Yun turned to Qin Ye with a shocked expression.

Once a soul devouring beetle chose a target, that target wouldn't be able to escape even if they were to flee to the corners of the world, so why had they suddenly seem to have lost track of Qin Ye from such close range?

Standing on the chain, Qin Ye dabbed at the cold sweat that had beaded up on his forehead. If it weren't for that inspired idea that had suddenly occurred to him, both of them would've most likely already been inundated by that swarm of soul devouring beetles by now.

"King Yanluo's Seal saved us," he explained as he took a deep breath.

Zhao Yun's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.

King Yanluo's Seal was able to feign true energy.

Soul devouring beetles devoured Yin energy for sustenance, and these soul devouring beetles were very strange in that they didn't seem to be able to leave this pond for long, so once their target disappeared, they would naturally return to the pond.

It sounded simple, but Qin Ye was teetering on a chain just now, making it impossible for him to take evasive measures, and it was extremely impressive that he was able to think of that on the fly in such a dire situation.

At the very least, Zhao Yun didn't think that he would've been able to do that in the same situation.

"This is a prison prepared for a soul," Qin Ye said. "I don't know who was buried here, but they were buried here alive without resources, and all they could do was wait for death. After they died, if their soul dared to step out of here, then it would be devoured by countless soul devouring beetles. Thus, they're destined to be trapped for eternity on that stone platform."

With the combination of infernal demon sealing chains and soul devouring beetles here, it was virtually impossible to free whoever had been trapped here.

Having weathered that storm, the rest of the process was much simpler. Using his Soul Shackles, Qin Ye was able to quickly pull himself to the center of the stone platform, which was less than three meters in size.

An image of the Yellow Emperor was engraved onto the ground, and a part of it had already been pressed down to reveal a hole that was around a meter in size at the center of the stone platform, within which sat a black coffin.

It was clear that arts had been used here, as evidenced by the fact that half of the stone pillar had been charred black, and there were several clear finger indentations on the ground. It was clear that the inner demon was responsible for this.

Seeing as the inner demon had already set the example, all Qin Ye had to do was follow the same process, and thus, he gently pressed his palm against the ground.

The sound of operating mechanical parts rang out, and the entire stone platform began to tremble slightly as the black coffin slowly rose up.

A deep rumbling sound then swept through the entire cave, and right as the coffin emerged, a burst of Yin energy that was as dark as inky slowly seeped out of the gaps alongside streams of blood.

A wary look immediately appeared on Qin Ye's face as he jumped onto one of the chains without any hesitation, observing the rising coffin with an intense, unblinking gaze.

This was one of the major pieces of the puzzle that was Yuncheng. The secret in this city had convinced the inner demon to take a massive risk, so it was certainly not to be taken lightly.

Right now, this secret was about to be uncovered.

As the coffin rose up higher and higher, it was stained entirely red by the Yin energy and blood that was gushing out of it. Close to 20 seconds later, the entire coffin had already appeared on the stone platform, while the platform had transformed into a gushing fountain with blood flowing down all around it before sinking to the bottom of the pond.

A Soul Shackle abruptly shot out of Qin Ye's sleeve before piercing directly into the coffin, and at the exact same moment, a burst of powerful Yin energy erupted out of the coffin, accompanied by a resentful hissing sound that gradually subsided.

The Yin energy was so powerful that it formed a substantial shockwave, causing all of the surrounding lotus flowers to rear back. Even Qin Ye's robes were flapping incessantly, yet in the face of this abrupt storm, he remained as still and resolute as an immovable mountain, then tugged on his Soul Shackle firmly.

A resounding boom rang out as the lid of the coffin was pulled off, then fell into the water below with a dull thump, thereby finally revealing the face of the demon.

Inside the coffin was a boundless expanse of reddish-black Yin energy, within which laid the shriveled up body of a monkey.

It wasn't entirely accurate to call it a monkey. The corpse was around two meters tall, and it had to be curled up in order to fit in the coffin. It had a bald spot, but there was sparse white fur growing on its head, extending to over a meter in length, virtually filling the entire bottom of the coffin. Furthermore, they seemed to be alive, and upon encountering light, they began to twist and curl slightly.

The "monkey" had three eyes, six ears, and a forked tail. Its arms were incredibly long and encircled around itself, and each hand only had four fingers, but those fingers were over a foot in length, resembling sharp blades.

It had clearly already been dead for a very long time, but its body hadn't decayed at all. Instead, it had only become dried and shriveled like a mummy, and blood was gushing out of all of its orifices like a fountain, presenting a harrowing sight to behold.

Qin Ye was certain that he had never seen or heard of any creature like this before, and he reflexively turned toward Zhao Yun with a dumbstruck expression.

However, Zhao Yun was just as befuddled as he was, and he shook his head in response.

"I've never heard of a being like this before, but one thing is for certain: this is a demon. If it were alive, we would refer to it as a demonic immortal. It's definitely a Yama-King level being. Even after its death, its Yin energy refuses to dissipate, and the blood gushing out of the coffin is a result of its excessively powerful Yin energy mutating the surrounding environment. I presume its soul was taken by the inner demon, and we can refer to its soul as a demonic ghostly immortal."

Qin Ye's brows furrowed tightly as he inspected the surrounding area with a grim expression.

Why had this thing been sealed here by Lishan Laomu?

All was going to be revealed soon.

"General Zhao!" Qin Ye called out, then ducked slightly to the side, and Zhao Yun immediately plunged his Courage of Dragons Silver Spear through the entire coffin. From the tail-end of the spear, a Soul Shackle fell into Zhao Yun's grasp, following which an almighty voice rang out, chanting the treasured decree of Lishan Laomu.

Initially, the voice was quite faint, but it quickly grew louder and louder until even the walls of the cave were trembling dramatically.

In the beginning, one could still clearly tell that it was Zhao Yun's voice, but a few seconds later, it was as if there were countless voices calling out at once.

The entire pond erupted into a frenzy as the chanting grew louder and louder, and the water in the pond formed inky-black beads that slowly rose up into the air.

Several minutes later, Zhao Yun abruptly clasped his hands together, and a burst of dazzling golden light erupted from his palms. At the same time, all of the water droplets hanging in the air converged at once, forming a huge screen of water while ripples surged through the air.

Inside the screen, layers of white clouds were quickly receding into the distance, following which a resplendent golden palace appeared.

The image was zooming in rapidly, and all of the female servants in the palace turned around with stunned expressions. At the center of the palace was an elegant and regal woman seated with her eyes closed on a phoenix throne.

The image continued to zoom in further and further, and upon reaching within 20 meters of the woman, she finally opened her eyes.

Her eyes were golden in color, and her pupils were in the shape of nine-petaled lotus flowers in full bloom. Her expression was aloof and indifferent, and she asked in an authoritative voice, "Who is seeking me out?"

However, in the next instant, she abruptly raised her head, and a stunned look appeared on her face as she exclaimed, "Is that Zhuolu? That's a divine battleground from several thousand years ago! How did you get in there?"