Yama Rising

Qin Ye gasped.

That’s absolutely ridiculous!

Doesn’t this mean that her abilities are orders of magnitudes higher than that of the Spatial Spirit or the Porter Spirit?!

What’s terrifying isn’t the fact that she possesses a domain ability, but the nature of this ability of hers! I mean… what’s with the increasing resistance with every half the distance covered?! Isn’t that too overpowered?!

But now…

Qin Ye blinked his eyes and glanced about at the three-way deadlock he was trapped in.

Just then, the Second King Yanluo spoke, “I hadn’t expected such a unique special Yin spirit to have spawned in Daehan by chance. Nevertheless, why don’t I put you to a further test…”

Qin Ye coughed softly at once, “Spelling Bee?”

Abrupt silence.

A split second later, waves of murderous intent permeated the four corners of the captain’s cabin, almost as though it were hell bent on putting him out of his misery.

“You know… it just felt like that statement of yours was missing a little something… if you know what I mean…” Qin Ye sniffled slightly.

“What’s it missing?” An icy cold voice resounded in the room, “Conscience? Well, what are you still waiting for?! Do you think I’m here to do all the work for you?!”

The Second King Yanluo is really getting out of hand these days… Qin Ye muttered softly under his breath as he tightened his grip around Fate once more and glanced about at the three-way deadlock.

He was currently at the edge of the Avernus Spirit’s absolute domain, and so was Mukov. Things were much easier now that he knew exactly what the Avernus Spirit’s abilities were. The Second King Yanluo’s so-called ‘test’ had been completely unnecessary.

Qin Ye raised his hand and swiftly brought Fate down, cleanly slicing off the left hand of Mukov’s soul, causing copious amounts of Yin energy to spurt out from its wound at once. Meanwhile, as soon as Qin Ye did that, the Second King Yanluo’s voice vanished completely, and everything began to flow into action once more.

Since it was impossible to enter the Avernus Spirit’s absolute domain, then the next best thing to do would be to cut off what was outside of the field!

“Ungh… AHHHH!!!” Mukov suddenly screamed in pain. The mother-daughter duo froze and turned to Mukov at once, only to realize that they had already lost control of Mukov, and their target of vengeance was now already in Qin Ye’s hands. At once, they shrieked at the top of their voice.

Their hair immediately swept over like a rushing tide. However, it was already too late. Qin Ye allowed Fate to secure his position, while he promptly poured his own Yin energy into Mukov’s soul.

Plans were nothing more than words. Execution had to go hand in hand with adaptation. And as soon as he knew the truth about the Spirit of Avernus, he immediately developed a crazy idea to deal with the exigency at hand.

This was an idea developed from having gained a greater understanding of the script of death. In fact, the trip to Daehan was already worth it given his current level of understanding of the script of death.

“There are simply too many things to consider and guard against when preparing the script of death. What’s important is to assemble a team for this purpose. Otherwise, something like this is only going to happen again, and the situation could potentially get out of hand.” His consciousness soon entered a dark space, surrounded by illusory screens of light. These were Mukov’s memories. With another wave of his hands, countless chains surged out from his sleeves and plunged straight into the heart of each image.

There was everything - from Mukov’s death, to his possession of the clergyman, to his acceptance of the Tsar’s orders and then to the orchestration of the MV Sewol tragedy. Everything was there, including the exact people he’d gotten in touch with, and how he’d executed each part of the plans. Everything was finally falling into place.

“Fortunately, it’s only because unforeseen circumstances have arisen that I can take advantage of the situation now…” Qin Ye muttered softly as he sorted through his thoughts, “Truth be told, I was already on the verge of passing up the opportunity to intercept Liu Yu’s harvest of faith. After all, there’s simply no chance that they wouldn’t be aware of something amiss given the MV Sewol’s disappearance for the last 20 minutes. However…”

Whoosh… The screens slowly began to arrange themselves, presenting themselves in order of his deployment to Daehan, and then the MV Sewol incident, and finally his act of taking over Ahn Somi’s role pertaining to the living dead. He nodded softly, “Even the Second King Yanluo might have neglected something of great importance…”

He tightened his grip, causing all of Mukov’s memories to explode at once, leaving innumerable specks of white light in the empty consciousness. His figure slowly faded, “And that is none other than what the Spirit of Avernus is doing here?”

“We’re far from the third tunnel of Pusan.”

Qin Ye opened his eyes to the decrepit captain’s cabin once more. The mournful shrieks of the mother-daughter duo echoed endlessly around him.

He calmly looked away. Fate had already transformed into a golden curtain of light that kept away any attacks at his life. Outside, the pregnant lady and the little girl assaulted the golden curtain of light furiously with deafening noises, leaving handprints stained with black blood all over the surface of the curtain of light, yet to no avail. They leaned in with their hideous expressions, revealing their blackened teeth as they stared menacingly at Qin Ye.

“You deserve to die… you deserve to die!!!”

“I’ll never let you off… I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!”

“Tsk…” Qin Ye walked up to the curtain of light and gently ran his finger along their faces on the other side of the curtain, “Now, now, don’t be angry. You’ll get wrinkles at this rate~~”

Bang! As he spoke, the little girl madly gnawed at the curtain of light, causing Qin Ye to retract his hand in shock.

Moments later, he wrapped his hand tightly around Fate.

He slowly poured Mukov’s memories into Fate. A split second later, Fate chirped softly, and then began to draft up an outline.

Whoosh… Another screen of light soon appeared in the air, playing out snippets of Mukov’s memories in chronological order.

“Henceforth, you shall take over Ahn Somi’s works.” “This is her job description. You’ll need to transport the last batch of the living dead to this location.” “The MV Sewol will have to be sent there. There are probably about 100,000 living dead in Pusan. We’ll depart in one week’s time.” “Place Ouroboros under the Jukseong Dream Cathedral and protect it well. That’s the source and core of the living dead.”

At once, the mother-daughter duo who were hammering frantically against the curtain of light paused.

They were no longer human, and they moved in accordance with the endless resentment and deep-seated grievances in their hearts. However, it was precisely so that certain obsessions of theirs were far stronger than that possessed by any other human being.

And their obsession in this case was naturally how the living dead first came to be.

How did I die and end up in this horrible place?

Their attention was immediately seized at the mention of the living dead. At once, they turned their heads stiffly and looked at the screen of light.

Nobody spoke. The captain’s cabin was completely silent. They watched intently as Mukov entered the Jukseong Dream Cathedral, summoned the living dead, the wreckage in Pusan, and then finally, Rumyantsev conveying his orders to Mukov.

In other words, they saw the main director behind the grand script of death!

Whoosh… At once, the blood pouring out from their seven apertures immediately retracted back to where they had come from. Their expressions still looked hideous, but at least they were no longer twisted and vile.

At least they knew the reason for their death now.

“See?” Qin Ye persuaded, “Had Mukov died, would you have known these things?”

“Do you… know who your real target of vengeance should be now?”

No response.

Everything looked calm. However, a wave of deeper, more resentful wave of Yin energy far colder than any before immediately began to converge from all directions and swirl into a pitch-black vortex.

Whoosh… As the pregnant lady and the little girl blinked, their black skeleton glowed faintly from beneath their skin. They were now back in their original state, but they appeared not to have lost any resentment. Rather, it appeared as though the fury and resentment in their hearts had only deepened and consumed their entire being.

Why…

Why did we have to be the sacrifice for your plans?

My husband… my father… the child in my belly who hasn’t even seen the world fell together with us in the third tunnel of Pusan.

Why… WHY?!!

Whoosh… The Yin energy in the room slowly converged into a massive curtain of Yin energy, enveloping the two ghosts as they shrieked and wailed from within.

“I resent…”

“I resent it all!!!”

“I’m just an ordinary person, trying to live an ordinary life… I just wanted to live normally…”

“I hate it so much… Mum… Dad… AARRRGHHHH!!!”

BOOM! The curtain of Yin energy suddenly erupted. However, the mother-daughter duo was no longer there. Instead, there was in their place now a naked, pasty-skinned baby overflowing with nascent Judge-class Yin energy.

He was lying on the ground, howling and bawling, while scarlet veins ran like snakes throughout his meridians. Qin Ye got goosebumps as soon as he saw the baby. He could even sense the Spatial Spirit and the Porter Spirit of his Dusk Legionnaire shrieking and retreating in panic and fear.

This was the nascent form of a Yama-class existence!

It was the true form of the Spirit of Avernus.

The aversion didn’t mean hatred. Rather, it stemmed from a confluence of overflowing longing and desire that was met with the despondence of failure. It was a transformation of fervor into aversion - an aversion and abhorrence for everything even as he was still an infant in his mother’s womb. He hated the fact that he fell before he could even see the world.

“Haa--...” Qin Ye sighed softly, walked over and squatted down beside the toddler, “Do you want revenge?”

The Spirit of Avernus suddenly opened his eyes. There were no eyeballs in his eye sockets, only gaping holes. He reached up with his scarlet hands and opened his mouth, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth as he responded with great determination, “Yes!”

Buzz… The entire space within the cabin buzzed and vibrated slightly.

Qin Ye nodded and continued patiently, “I’ve got a few questions. Firstly, did you use your Yin energy to conceal the MV Sewol itself? Is this the space you’ve created? In other words, do you have other abilities besides your untouchable absolute domain?”

“Yes…” The Avernus Spirit gritted his teeth and continued with vileness in his voice, “I bear a little bit of bloodline from every country, including Cathay, Daehan, and other nations around. It’s almost as though… I’m a ghost not bound by the rules of any nation. The untouchable absolute domain is my greatest ability. But beyond that, I do possess other lesser abilities as well.”

“For instance, I can expand the 10-meter range to a 1,000-meter range and create my own rift between the netherworld and the mortal realm. Within this space, unless I die, nobody will be allowed to enter or leave. But when I employ this ability of mine, then my untouchable absolute domain would naturally weaken substantially.”

Qin Ye gasped.

What can I say?

Some people are just born with a silver spoon in their mouths. People like me have to work so hard just to barely get to the ranks of an Infernal Judge, and yet some people are just blessed by the gods…

“Second question. How did you suddenly get here? It’s unlikely that we’re in the third tunnel to Pusan. After all, your presence is far too conspicuous, and Rumyantsev must have known that your existence lay outside the script of death. The MV Sewol’s path of travel must naturally have avoided the third tunnel to Pusan. That’s a restricted zone across all of Daehan.”

The Terror Toddler bit his lips, “That’s my third ability, which is more accurately described as an offshoot of my second ability. So long as a rift is created between the mortal realm and the netherworld and then forcibly stopped - just like how you’d forcibly dragged the MV Sewol right out of the Yin Yang Mezzanine, I’ll immediately be aware of it. And then… I’ll be able to intercept the rift and bridge the gap by creating a wormhole that allows me to appear at the other end of the rift instantly!”

Instantaneous ability? Teleportation?

Qin Ye nodded softly. This wasn’t unexpected. After all, no matter how powerful a Yin spirit was, it would only weaken gradually if it went on for a long time without consuming any food. However, the Spirit of Avernus clearly didn’t weaken in the slightest. This meant that… it must have fed in some way or other over the last few years.

This was a means of predation that was unique to it as an earthbound spirit. To that end, the Avernus Spirit must have detected the tear in the rift when the MV Sewol was forcibly ripped out from the Yin Yang Mezzanine. Then, having sensed the thick stench of the living dead, the Avernus Spirit must have rushed over at once without hesitation.

“Last question.” Qin Ye smiled faintly, “Why do you trust me? So much so that you were even willing to tell me about the trump cards hidden up your sleeves?”

“Because… you seem trustworthy.” The infant chuckled softly with a vicious expression, “People can sometimes be more terrifying than ghosts. Over the last few years, I’ve seen far too many humans aboard the trains that have passed through the third tunnel… And human nature is… pfft…”

“Regardless, I can tell that you weren’t lying to me. After so many years, you’re the first one who has actually told me the truth. I want revenge! Revenge for every single person who shouldn’t have died on that train! Revenge for all the blood that shouldn’t have been spilt! I want to tear the mastermind to shreds with my own two hands!!!”

“Take me to them, and I promise to give you everything I have and never let you down!”

“Do you... have a way?”

Qin Ye took a deep breath and slowly got to his feet.

The Spatial Spirit and the Porter Spirit stood behind him, each of whom were tethered to his fingers with a single thread of Yin energy.

“I do. But… it all depends on whether you’re willing or not.”