Yama Rising

If an underworld were to be completely erased, there was no way that the native religion could be allowed to remain.

Aside from the Shinto religion, either one of Taoism or Buddhism could support the Nipponese Underworld, so the existence of the Shinto religion was completely inconsequential.

The important thing was that both Taoism and Buddhism belonged to the Cathayan Underworld.

In that case, what was to become of the deities that had arisen from the Shinto religion?

Absorbing them into the Cathayan Underworld would be the equivalent of taking in potential time bombs, so it was better to just destroy them, and the Harken was more than willing to act as the executioner.

Fearsome suction force drew everything in the surrounding area toward the black hole in a frenzy. The ground was already riddled with cracks, and chunks of earth were torn up before flying up into the sky as if gravity had disappeared, then sucked toward the black hole as well. Upon reaching 10 meters of the black hole, everything was completely pulverized by some type of invisible force, and even the Yin energy and clothing of the yokai were being directly forward.

In the instant that their surrender was rejected, all of the yokai immediately raised their heads to stare at the Harken with incredulous expressions.

Yama-Kings and death gods were all legendary entities, the crown jewels culminating from the underworld's extensive history.

Every single death god was vastly renowned and revered in the mortal realm, and any one of them was capable of destroying an entire nation on their own. They were living legends, the witnesses of human history!

All death gods were cold and aloof, but they never stooped to bullying the weak, so it was completely unexpected to everyone that the Harken would refuse to accept their surrender.

Deathly silence descended upon the entire battlefield for a few seconds, immediately following which Futakuchi-onna let loose a horrified scream and fled the scene.

I have to get away from here! If they're not accepting surrender, then their intention is to destroy this nation! The entire religion of the Nipponese Underworld is about to be purged!

Her panicked scream rang out across the entire battlefield, and all of the yokai were snapped out of their stunned reverie before fleeing as quickly as they could.

They didn't even try to resist as there was simply no point in doing so in the face of a Yama-King.

The Nipponese Underworld's forces receded like the tide. Yuki-onna transformed into countless snowflakes, while Aobōzu fled atop a gust of Yin wind, not even daring to retrieve his staff in his haste to escape. The Kunitsukami were worshiped as gods in the Nipponese Underworld, but in the face of a true death god, they couldn't even muster up any urge to resist.

In the next instant, the black hole that the Harken had conjured up exploded violently.

Violent tremors ran through the entire town of Hasami, as if an invisible, giant hand had swept over the earth, and the entire world seemed to be blur momentarily before returning to clarity again.

In the next instant, a burst of pure white light exploded over Hasami like the sun rising from the darkness of the night, devouring all of the Nipponese Underworld's forces that were too slow to escape.

"Why did you hold back?" Qin Changxin asked with a perplexed expression as he watched the dazzling white light rise up into the sky.

The Harken was lying lazily on the cushion as it replied, "Mr. Qin, if I recall correctly, you still haven't directly interacted with the rulers of the three pillars, right?"

"That's right."

"In that case, you wouldn't know just how cunning and tenacious they are," the Harken said with a cold expression. "If we want them to withdraw their troops, we can't engage them in direct clashes. The only thing that can intimidate them will be the explosion of the second-generation forbidden art in the Nipponese Underworld, but the explosion wouldn't be very impactful if it didn't wipe out some powerful yokai, wouldn't you agree?"

Finally, the dazzling white radiance in the town of Hasami began to fade.

Countless Yin spirits had been destroyed, and the Cathayan Underworld's army advanced in an orderly fashion, claiming one city after another and executing all those who dared to resist.

Despite the resounding victory, Qin Changxin was feeling a chill run down his spine. Even he was quite alarmed by how ruthless the Harken was. Was the Cathayan Underworld preparing to decimate all of the Nipponese Underworld's yokai and deities?

Izanami and Susanoo-no-Mikoto weren't enough, and the Harken hadn't even bothered to finish off Yamata no Orochi. Were they planning to gather all of the Nipponese Underworld's most powerful yokai in one place before destroying them in one fell swoop along with all of the native gods?!

Only after a long while did he manage to calm himself down, following which he cast his gaze toward the north. "I wonder if Amanozako, the Mitsubishi Consortium, and the daimyos have also begun to move. Our fleets should already be on the way to Hokkaido…"

They had never taken the Nipponese Underworld seriously.

Conquering the Nipponese Underworld was the easy part, the true battle was against the three pillars and the rest of the world. It was imperative that they figured out how to silence the rest of the world and keep them content.

………………………………………

"Your Excellency!" Several underworld emissaries rushed into a conference hall in Amano-Iwato, and one of them yelled, "I have terrible news!"

Izanami, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, and all of the most powerful yokai of the Nipponese Underworld were present in the conference hall, and they had been in here the entire time ever since the invasion had begun.

A snowy white tail shot forth and wrapped up the group of underworld emissaries before pulling them to the round table at the center of the room. Tamamo-no-Mae was wearing a fox mask that revealed only the bottom half of her face, and she asked through gritted teeth, "What happened? Calm down and tell us clearly!"

The underworld emissary gulped nervously, and he was on the verge of tears as he reported, "Nagasaki has been conquered!"

"What?! How is that possible?!"

"It's only been less than two hours! How could Nagasaki have fallen so quickly?!"

"What happened to Yamata no Orochi? Wasn't he there in person?!"

"What about Ashikaga Yoshiaki? We gave him an army of 200,000 Yin soldiers and close to a million Kunitsukami! How dare he allow Nagasaki to fall so quickly?!"

All of the yokai instantly rose to their feet, releasing boundless Yin energy in a fit of shock and rage, and the group of low-grade underworld emissaries almost fell unconscious from the stifling pressure.

"Don't panic!" Izanami slammed a palm heavily down onto the table as she said in a cold voice, "Sit back down! They haven't made it to Amano-Iwato yet! We can't afford to panic at a time like this!"

Only then did the yokai withdraw their Yin energy before sitting back down with grim expressions. Izanami turned toward the underworld emissaries before asking, "What happened?"

The underworld emissary replied in a trembling voice, "Your Excellency, General Ashikaga Yoshiaki has fallen in battle, and 300,000 of the Kunitsukami were decimated! The town of Hasami was reported to have fallen an hour ago, and during the half-hour after that, the Cathayan Underworld's army swept through Nagasaki with none of the Kunitsukami able to offer up any resistance!"

Izanami's eyelids twitched violently upon hearing this, but she knew that she couldn't allow her emotions to get the better of herself, especially at a time like this.

"With the inter-realm mirrors in the way, the Cathayan Underworld can only send through several hundred soldiers at a time. In an hour, they would've only been able to send through less than 100,000 troops at most. How were they able to overwhelm close to a million Kunitsukami and 200,000 Yin soldiers?" she asked as she stared intently at the underworld emissary.

The underworld emissary replied in a strained voice, "The Harken of the Cathayan Underworld descended upon the battlefield…"

The entire hall instantly fell deathly silent in the face of this revelation.

"Command all forces to retreat," Izanami sighed as she looked up at the sky with a despairing expression. "All forces are to retreat to Chubu and defend Chubu and Kansai with their lives. Susanoo-no-Mikoto, why has the Coalition of Underworlds still not responded?!"

Just a single Yama-King was enough to destroy a nation like the Nipponese Underworld!

If the Coalition of Underworlds didn't step in, then it would be completely over for the Nipponese Underworld!

"They've already been notified, but they still haven't made a final decision yet," Susanoo-no-Mikoto replied through gritted teeth.

In the face of the Cathayan Underworld's invasion of the Nipponese Underworld, even the three pillars had to carefully consider what stance to adopt.

All-out war wasn't an option, considering the Cathayan Underworld was protected by the Array of the Nine Gods.

In that case, the only thing they could do was intercept the Cathayan Underworld's forces, but how were they supposed to do that, and to what extent were they supposed to oppose the Cathayan Underworld's army? What if they went too far and kicked off the next world war?

Right at this moment, the doors were pushed open again, and another underworld emissary rushed in before extending a deep bow. "Your Excellency, just now, Mistress Erinys has set off for the Strait of Tsushima with her Golden Fleet!"

A collective sigh of relief instantly rang out, but that wasn't the extent of the good news.

"The Hindustani Underworld will be holding a press conference in 30 minutes! At the same time, the Naga Fleet will be setting off to rendezvous with the Golden Fleet in the South Cathay Sea. At the same time, Death God Osiris of the Aegyptian Underworld and several of the Aegyptian Underworld's elders will also be boarding their fleet!"

……………………………………

At the Argosian Underworld.

Hypnos was lying on the golden bed at the center of the Temple of Hades with his chin resting on his hand. On either side of him were palatial maidens playing all types of different musical instruments, and there was a path before him that was lined with red spider lily flowers.

The life of a death god was plentiful from a materialistic perspective, but it was also very boring.

As a ruler death god, he could literally work constantly and still forever have more tasks to complete, even though some of the duties were being shared by Thanatos.

However, he didn't want to do that.

Aside from occasionally lending Thanatos a hand, he spent most of his time pursuing the arts. He was an immortal entity who would continue to exist so long as he was still worshiped by humans, so why would he toil away his entire existence?

Amid the peaceful environment, a butterfly formed by light flew over to Hypnos before landing on his shoulder, and Thanatos's voice rang out from within it. "Come to the Courtyard of Truth right away. All of the death gods have already arrived."

"What's going on?" Hypnos asked in a displeased voice as his brows furrowed slightly.

"I don't care what you're doing, I need you to come and see me right now!" Thanatos's voice was extremely serious, and the discontent on Hypnos's face was also replaced by a serious expression. The last time Thanatos had spoken to him like this was when the seven underworlds had launched their invasion of the Cathayan Underworld.

"Tell me what's going on!"

The butterfly was silent for a moment before replying, "Half an hour ago, the Cathayan Underworld deployed its troops to the Nipponese Underworld, and at this point, Nagasaki and several islands have already fallen."

Hypnos instantly rose to his feet as an incredulous look appeared on his face. "Have they gone insane?!"

"I don't know the answer to that, but what I do know is that the Nipponese Underworld has already sent out five requests for reinforcements during the past half-hour, so we have to respond," Thanatos said in a cold voice. "The state of the world hinges on whether we can appropriately deal with this situation. I'm sure you understand just how serious things are here."

Hypnos didn't say anything further as he transformed into a gust of Yin wind and swept directly toward the Temple of Hades.

Even on the way there, he was still struggling to believe what he had just heard.

While it was true that the Cathayan Underworld had been displaying plenty of animosity toward the Nipponese Underworld lately, never did he think that they would actually take the final step and launch an invasion!

They were completely disregarding the rest of the world!