Yama Rising

In the instant that Sword Master Xuanyuan's voice trailed off, Qin Ye was surprised to discover that the statue of Ksitigarbha had opened its eyes. Immediately thereafter, its stone mouth began to move as well as it said in a gentle voice, "We meet again."

Sword Master Xuanyuan was astonished to see this.

This was one of the four legendary bodhisattvas!

Meanwhile, a faint smile appeared on Qin Ye's face as he replied, "Long time no see. In what form are you speaking to me at the moment?"

The stone statue replied in a calm voice, "The gates of Heaven haven't officially opened yet, so I can only project myself into this statue."

It then turned to Sword Master Xuanyuan and asked, "You must be the guardian for this generation, right?"

Guardian?

Qin Ye turned to Sword Master Xuanyuan with a perplexed expression, but Sword Master Xuanyuan himself was just as befuddled as he asked, "May I ask what that means, Your Excellency?"

"Have you forgotten?" A smile appeared on the stone statue's face, and in the next instant, it suddenly sprang to life as all of the snow it was buried under began to slowly fall away. "Do you know how the title of sword master came into existence?"

Sword Master Xuanyuan shook his head in response.

The stone statue explained, "Beneath Kunlun Mountain was a vast supply of red gold with color resembling fire. It was said that the Yellow Emperor once stationed his troops here after vanquishing Chi You's army, and they dug deep into the mountain in search of the red gold, but they encountered nothing but copper ore. Nevertheless, a sword was forged from the ore that had been unearthed, and it was named Xuanyuan. On one side of the sword was engraved the sun, the moon, and the stars, while on the other side was engraved mountains, rivers, valleys, and forests. Eventually, the sword was lost, but unbeknownst to the world, the sword had been bestowed upon the Goddess Earth Mother. The Yellow Emperor and the Goddess Earth Mother were husband and wife, and they had 25 children, one of whom buried the Goddess Earth Mother following her demise. That child's name was Chen. Is that also your surname?"

Sword Master Xuanyuan nodded in response.

The stone statue continued, "After burying the Goddess Earth Mother, Chen and his direct lineal descendants were tasked with safekeeping the Xuanyuan Sword. However, it's been several thousand years since then, and you seem to have forgotten this tale."

Silence.

Qin Ye was rather surprised to hear that the title of Sword Master Xuanyuan had such a rich history, and Sword Master Xuanyuan himself was clearly oblivious to this as well. After several seconds of stunned silence, he asked, "Is that true?"

"It is," the stone statue replied. "I have never deceived anyone. If it isn't for this piece of history, why have the past generations of Sword Master Xuanyuan all resided here? This stone statue of mine is a beacon of Heaven, and it's also the place where underworld emissaries normally come to ascend to Heaven. If you weren't a descendant of the Goddess Earth Mother, you wouldn't have been tasked with protecting this place. That's enough of that story, I projected myself into this stone statue on this occasion because I have something to discuss with Yanluo Qin."

Sword Master Xuanyuan took that as his cue to leave, and thus, Qin Ye and the stone statue were the only ones left on the mountain peak. The stone statue said, "I really didn't think that you would be able to contend with those three old monsters and bring the Cathayan Underworld back to the world stage."

"Well, you threw me into the deep end, didn't you? It was either sink or swim from there," Qin Ye replied with a smile.

At this point, he was already well past the point of wanting to resign from his role. In fact, he had become accustomed to serving as the Cathayan Underworld's King Yanluo.

The stone statue sighed, "You make it sound so simple, but there aren't many people in the world who could've done what you have."

"You didn't come here just to chat with me, did you? I'm really busy at the moment," Qin Ye said as he habitually swept a sleeve through the air. However,he wasn't wearing his dragon robe, so that gesture was made to look rather awkward.

A faint smile appeared on the stone statue's face, but it was quickly replaced by a serious expression as it said, "If I didn't have anything important to tell you, I would've waited until the opening of the gates of Heaven in a few months to descend, but now, there's something that you must know."

As soon as its voice trailed off, a petal slowly detached itself from the lotus flower sitting on the stone statue's palms, and the petal quickly swelled in size. By the time it landed in Qin Ye's hand, it had already transformed into a jade tablet.

The tablet was warm to the touch, and upon coming into contact with it, Qin Ye immediately felt a type of power that he had never felt before surge into his hand. It wasn't cold nor warm, and it couldn't be described with words. It was the power of... emotions!

In the instant that he closed his hand around the jade tablet, a series of emotions immediately welled up in his heart. Qin Ye quickly repressed those emotions as he asked, "Is this the power of Heaven? What is it called?"

"This power is known as immortal energy," the stone statue replied. "All of us, including you and I, are a part of faith. Heaven and Hell represent Yin and Yang, while the mortal realm is the balancing line between Yin and Yang. The power of Heaven and Hell come from the same source, the only difference lies in the form of expression."

Qin Ye nodded in response, and he suddenly recalled what Zhao Yun had once said to him. He had said that the power of Heaven was capable of connecting with all three realms. As it turned out, that power stemmed from the same source as the power of the underworld.

He wasn't going to ask for the reason for this. After all, he had never been interested in cultivation to begin with. Instead, he attempted to draw upon the immortal energy within the jade tablet, and it willingly obeyed. As a result, the jade tablet was slowly opened, revealing line upon line of golden text etched onto its surface.

After just a single glance, Qin Ye found himself completely unable to look away!

"Western Jin Dynasty, reign of Xianhe, Year 327, immortal energy rose up from the eastern coastline of Cathay... What is this?"

"These are the ascension archives," the stone statue replied. "All living beings who have ascended are recorded in these archives."

Qin Ye continued reading.

"... It was suspected that a living being had transcended a tribulation there. Following an inspection conducted by heavenly inspectors, it was discovered that 300 nautical miles away from the eastern coastline, a giant turtle had incurred a lightning tribulation in an attempt to ascend to Heaven. It was verified that this turtle was the divine beast, Gui Xu."

Qin Ye's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this, and he was completely engrossed in his reading at this point.

"However, Gui Xu failed to transcend the tribulation, and thus, it was denied ascension to Heaven. Following its demise, Gui Xu's body was going to transform into a blessed paradise. Several days later, a land-dwelling Yama-King, suspected to be the wanderer among the clouds from the Qin Dynasty, arrived at the scene. Thereafter, the whereabouts of Gui Xu's body became a mystery..."

Dead silence.

Qin Ye was staring intently at the jade tablet as countless pieces of information began to surface in his mind. He realized that there was something missing in the Cathayan Underworld's research into the new energy resource!

There was only a short passage inscribed on the jade tablet, and closed the jade tablet before beginning to pace back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back. After a long while, he suddenly turned around and asked, "Who asked you to give this to me?"

"It was the Aurogon," the stone statue replied. "The Aurogon was the most special Yama-King in the entire underworld as its gaze is capable of piercing through all three realms. Due to this ability, it possesses an extremely potent sense of precognition. This type of precognition isn't the same as the vague intuition for danger that underworld emissaries can sense after reaching a certain level. Instead, it's far more concrete and intense. Aside from this jade tablet, it also asked me to relay a message to you: 'go against the flow'."

Go against the flow?

Qin Ye's brows furrowed tightly upon hearing this. During these past eight months, they had been trying to separate Xu Fu's energy resource into its underworld and mortal realm constituent parts. That way, they would be able to observe what materials Xu Fu used from the mortal realm to create the energy resource, thereby giving them an idea of what could possibly be used from the underworld to replicate the same effect.

After all, everything they had told the world had been a lie thus far. Not only had they not yet discovered electron Yin runes, they hadn't even discovered proton Yin runes yet!

The research and development team was currently split up into three sections, one of which was responsible for establishing mathematical and physical models.

Another section had been tasked with running experiments on creating friction between all types of different materials to see if a new energy resource similar to electricity could be generated, and most of the materials used were magnetic ore.

The final section's job was to use King Yanluo's Seal to break down the fundamental runes on the first level of Archimedes's Yin Rune Wheel. This was a lengthy process, and with so many fundamental Yin runes in existence, it could take an extremely long time to find the right ones through trial and error.

In short, it was a project that struck one with a sense of despair.

At this moment, they were indeed struggling against the flow of the river of despair, but was this what the Aurogon meant by going against the flow?

"No, that doesn't seem correct..." He turned to the stone statue in a slightly agitated manner as he asked, "Can you tell me exactly what this precognition ability entails? We're all friends here, can't you give me some clues?"

The stone statue was rather taken aback by Qin Ye's suddenly transition into his shameless mode, and only after a few seconds of silence did it reply, "I don't want to be so cryptic, either, it's just that precognition is something that concerns the Heavenly Dao, and it's not something that can be clearly described. Precognition is something that allows you to see an outcome that could arise in the form of an indistinct image. However, that's only the outcome, the process could be altered by anything and everything. For example, the Heavenly Dao could play a role. If I describe those images to you in detail, the Heavenly Dao will definitely sense our conversation, and there would be no telling what mishaps could arise. I've heard that the Heavenly Dao possesses sentience, and I can sense the aura of the Heavenly Dao on you, which tells me that you've come into close contact with it in the past."

Qin Ye was rather taken aback to hear this.

Heaven doesn't know the true name of the Heavenly Dao? They don't know about the existence of Nothingness?

As expected of the second King Yanluo to withhold such information from Heaven. Qin Ye had no idea how the first King Yanluo had convinced him to take his place, but a man like the second King Yanluo simply didn't belong on a throne. Instead, he should've been exploring the universe like an almighty Kun Peng!

"Is that it? You can't even give me any clues?" Qin Ye asked.

The stone statue shook its head in response. "I'm afraid not. When it's time for you to understand, you'll understand, these things can't be forced. Also, please take this lotus flower with you. The gates of Heaven will be opened wherever this lotus flower is. Seeing as Sword Master Xuanyuan has already forgotten his duty, there's no need for this lotus flower to remain in the mortal realm."

Does this mean I can communicate with Heaven whenever I want from here onward?

Qin Ye certainly wasn't opposed to that.

He had only come to Kongur Tagh to see this old acquaintance from the underworld. He was extremely busy at the moment, as were the Harken, Zhao Yun, and Arakshasa, and they certainly didn't have the time to throw a big welcoming party for the opening of the gates of Heaven.

If the gates of Heaven could be opened near the Yin Mountains, then that would be ideal as it saved both time and effort. Thus, he didn't refuse the offer, and with a gentle wave of his hand, the lotus flower drifted into his hand, immediately following which the stone statue fell completely still and lifeless again.

After that, he made his way down the mountain without bothering to inform Sword Master Xuanyuan of his departure.

The frosty wind was blowing violently, but it was nowhere near as cold as Hell. He left no footprints in the snow in his wake, and after walking for several hundred meters, he was greeted by the sight of a series of Taoist temples and antiquated buildings. Several dozen cultivators were yelling with vigor as they practiced their sword techniques in the snow.

It was a good feeling to be back in the mortal realm, and a faint smile appeared on Qin Ye's face. All of a sudden, his eyes lit up as he murmured to himself, "I see, so this is what the Aurogon meant. Has all of our research thus far been conducted in the wrong direction? The Aurogon could see that we were going down the wrong path, so it had to send me a message. Having said that, what exactly is 'against the flow' supposed to mean?"