Yama Rising

"No matter how important your announcement is, that has nothing to do with your actions here! You are coercing us!" a ruler death god spat through gritted teeth. "Undo this array right now or our underworlds will be eternal enemies of the four pillars!"

Thump!

Qin Ye slammed a palm down onto the table with such force that the table trembled violently. A menacing look appeared in his eyes as he cast his gaze toward the ruler death god who had just spoken. "Eternal enemies of the four pillars? Let me remind you all that I still haven't signed the agreement to include Death God in the treaty on the non-proliferation of forbidden arts!"

The entire hall instantly fell silent.

Behind him, the ruler death gods of the three pillars were looking on with mixed emotions in their eyes. No more than a few decades ago, the Cathayan Underworld had been forced to restart from scratch, but now, it had the power to intimidate the entire world!

"You're using forbidden arts to blackmail us!" Hela protested through gritted teeth. She had thought that she would receive special treatment due to the fact that the five Northern Europa nations were close allies with the Cathayan Underworld, but that was not the case. "You are provoking the order of the entire world! This is completely inhumane behavior that is unbefitting of the four pillars!"

"That's not true. On the contrary, we decided to hold this conference precisely on the basis of humanitarian considerations." Qin Ye's expression remained unchanged, and he made a grabbing motion, upon which a series of contracts flew into the hands of all of the ruler death gods present. "I hope you'll all change your minds once you read through these contracts."

Pillars of golden light had formed a cage around the entire venue, and the ruler death gods didn't dare to resist. Mythic Spirit Black Mamba gave a cold harrumph, then grabbed the contract before beginning to read it.

The entire venue fell into silence, yet no more than 30 seconds later, all of the ruler death gods were staring back up at the rulers of the four pillars with incredulous expressions.

"Keep reading," Qin Ye said in a calm voice. "On behalf of the four pillars, I assure you that this is not a joke."

Anko recovered from her stunned stupor and continued to read through the document. The more she read, the more astonished she became, and by the end, she was feeling a little numb.

Finally, upon reaching the part of the document detailing how the planar walls were going to open up in a century, she couldn't help but exclaim, "How is this possible?! Is this why the four pillars have existed all along?!"

It was no wonder that the four pillars never made their annual expenditure information publicly available. Every single year, a good portion of their expenses were attributed to the world's gate!

No wonder the other three pillars never tried to obstruct the Cathayan Underworld's space exploration plan. This was a necessary step that had to be taken!

It was also no wonder that the Australis Underworld had always been a forbidden region, and that many vastly renowned figures in history, such as Confucius and Mencius of Cathay, had never been seen in the underworld!

Anko's words seemed to have triggered a chain reaction, and all of the ruler death gods in the venue quickly erupted into raucous discussion.

"I never thought that we would have an enemy outside of this plane!"

"The canter underworld has three beings above the Yama-King level and a space station! They have a significant advantage over us already!"

"So we only have 100 years left?"

The ruler death gods of the four pillars didn't say anything, and the commotion quickly died down. However, one could clearly sense that the atmosphere had become incredibly tense, and the only sound that could be heard in the hall was the flipping of pages.

Only after a full half-hour had passed did all of the death gods raise their heads, and their anger had already abated significantly, but they were still feeling rather indignant. "Is this why the ruler death gods of the four pillars have imprisoned us here?"

"No," Qin Ye replied in a calm voice. "This is not the reason. Instead, it's only the prelude."

He swept an authoritative gaze over all of the ruler death gods present, then continued, "I will be revealing the reason for all of this now. In order to prepare for the upcoming interplanar war, we will be officially initiating the Genesis plan."

Even though Qin Ye was already mentally prepared for this moment, his heart was still thumping violently.

He knew that what he was about to say next was going to tip the entire history of the underworld on its head!

He cleared his throat, then continued in a serious voice, "The first clause of the Genesis plan states that all of the four pillars will make all of their technologies available to the entire world in a year, and all patent fees will be canceled in order to establish full worldwide technological transparency. That includes forbidden arts."

Everyone drew a sharp breath upon hearing this.

Theoretically speaking, they should've been extremely excited to hear that forbidden arts technology was going to be made available to everyone, but no one was feeling excited at this moment.

The fact that the four pillars were comfortable with releasing forbidden arts technology to the entire underworld meant that they were confident that the rest of the world wouldn't be able to overtake them, even if everyone had access to forbidden arts, and that was definitely not good news to the nations outside of the four pillars.

"The specific clauses will be released to everyone later, including a list of all of the patents and technologies that will be made publicly available, as well as locations where centralized training will be conducted. The second clause is that in three months, the four pillars will implement an international no borders plan. Borders no longer need to exist between nations! All Yin spirits can go to any underworld to work and join the military. No visas will be required for traveling between underworlds."

Deathly silence.

Everyone could see just how determined the four pillars were. This was an operation of unprecedented proportions, and not even the European Union of the mortal realm could hold a candle to this!

"Now for the third clause." Unbeknownst to everyone, Qin Ye was pressing his fingers into the table with such force as he spoke that the color had drained out of all of his fingertips. The ruler death gods of the three pillars also wore solemn expressions, and Thanatos was already prepared to activate the Pandora Array of Death at any moment.

They were all aware of the fact that the first two clauses were only setting up for the third clause.

Three seconds of silence came next, during which all of the ruler death gods involuntarily sat up straighter. They were beginning to realize that a bombshell was about to be dropped onto them.

Qin Ye took a deep breath before finally revealing what the third clause was. "From this day forth, the four pillars will be implementing a system of eight alliances. All underworlds will be declared defunct, and all nations must become part of one of the eight alliances! The eight alliances are the Asian Alliance, the Southern Alliance, the Middle Eastern Alliance, the Europa Alliance, the Northern Alliance, the Mythic Spirit Alliance, the Southern New Continent Alliance, and the Northern New Continent Alliance!"

Before he had even finished, the entire venue had already erupted into a frenzy.

All underworlds were going to be abolished, replaced by the eight alliances! That would entail a complete reshuffling of all of the forces in the entire underworld!

All of those underworlds with extensive histories, such as the five Northern Europa nations, the Indonesian Underworld, and the Red Moon Federation were all going to disappear, with the eight alliances all that remained in their stead!

Once again, Qin Ye had to release his Yin energy throughout the entire conference hall in a formidable wave to silence the commotion, and only then did he continue, "Allow me to finish. The Asian Alliance will be overseen by the Cathayan Underworld. The Southern Alliance will be overseen by the Red Moon Federation. The Middle Eastern Alliance will be overseen by the Argosian Underworld. The Europa Alliance, which includes the five Northern Europa nations, will be overseen by the Argosian Underworld. The Northern Alliance, which includes the Celtic Underworld and the Russian Underworld, will be overseen by the Russian Underworld. The Mythic Spirit Alliance will be overseen by a chieftain selected by the Alkebulan Underworlds' Mythic Spirits. The breaking-in period for this change could take five years, 10 years, or even 20 years, but it must be done!"

To his surprise, none of the ruler death gods said anything. Instead, they began to listen carefully.

Qin Ye was quite encouraged by this, and he continued, "Over 20 military bases and sanctuaries are to be constructed in each of the alliances. Also, resources, information, and skilled personnel will all be shared in the eight alliances! These alliances will exist until we secure victory in the interplanar war. Any questions?"

This was far too astonishing a revelation.

No one could've anticipated that the four pillars would be so determined as to abolish all underworlds to arrange them into alliances.

They also finally understood why the Pandora Array of Death had been set up here. There was no way that everyone would agree to this arrangement unless their lives were under threat, as was the case right now.

"I have a question." As soon as Qin Ye's voice trailed off, Anko rose to her feet before asking, "What is the purpose of these alliances? Why do they need to exist?"

Qin Ye nodded in response. "Perhaps you're still all unaware of this, but the Cathayan Underworld and the new continent have already developed super astronomical telescopes. The remains of Yama-King level beings must be used as a foundation for this type of telescopes, and through our observation of space using these telescopes, we discovered signs of the nine stars beginning to align. We are separated from the canter underworld by four of five planes, and the canter underworld has a lead of at least 300 years over us when it comes to space exploration technology. They possess sufficient power to transform those planes into military bases, so when the planar walls open up, the first battle that we have to face will be one to protect our plane. I don't care what size your underworld is or how much power it possesses, if it's conquered by the enemy, then that'll become their first foothold on our plane, and we definitely don't want to see that happen! However, do you think you'll all be capable of defending your underworlds? Only the four pillars can directly oppose the enemy plane. If we don't unite as one and share all of our resources, we won't be able to save you! This is not a joke, everyone! In the face of the enemy's forces, your underworlds most likely won't be able to last even a week! Once your underworld is conquered, they'll be able to set up interplanar teleportation arrays on our plane to forcibly invade. If that happens, you'll be indirectly contributing to the downfall of the entire plane! Only by adopting this eight-alliance system and working as one will we have a chance in the upcoming interplanar war. Any other questions?"

Anko sat down, but another death god asked in a cold voice, "What if we don't agree?"

Qin Ye turned toward that direction with an indifferent expression before replying, "This is not a request. The interplanar war will decide the fate of our plane, and there's no place for human rights here. This is not some primitive opponent, it's an enemy that can cross over several planes to attack us, and they have the power to completely destroy us! In addition to that, they're also standing in our way, preventing us from venturing into space. If you refuse to cooperate, then I'm afraid we won't be able to allow you to leave Formosa for now."

This was the benefit of a power system.

Under special circumstances, those with superior power could simply enforce their will upon others.

In this situation, the ruler death gods of the underworld essentially had no choice in the matter.