Yama Rising

The world seemed to be constantly changing, but also seemed to be unchanging at the same time.

In the Yin Mountains Research Center, Secretary Jiang strode into the room while holding a stack of newspapers in a respectful manner as he said, "Your Excellency, these are the latest international newspapers."

Qin Ye nodded in response before picking up one of the newspapers as he asked, "How long have these newspapers been delayed for?"

"There's a half-day delay," Secretary Jiang replied. "The International Daily is unable to reach the Cathayan Underworld due to the existence of the Array of the Nine Gods, but there's a receiving point in Daehan, and Mr. Liu Yu personally set up a passageway from Hanyang to the three eastern provinces of our Cathayan Underworld. After that, Mr. Qin Hui sends the newspapers to our research center via Yin beasts, and there's a delay of around 10 hours."

Qin Ye was just about to open the newspaper when he suddenly paused momentarily and asked, "How is everything going in Daehan?"

"Mr. Liu Yu submitted his offerings during the first half of this year, and they're all extremely precious items."

"What about their GDP? Has that gone into our national treasury yet?" Qin Ye asked.

The offerings didn't matter to him at all.

Secretary Jiang shook his head in response. "We've received no news of that thus far."

Qin Ye chuckled to himself upon hearing this.

It was clear that Liu Yu wanted to approach the Cathayan Underworld but didn't dare to do so. He had most likely established relations with the Nipponese Underworld or the Russian Underworld. Otherwise, what reason did he have for not submitting Daehan's GDP to the Cathayan Underworld's treasury?

Was he under the opinion that the offerings alone would be enough to placate the Cathayan Underworld? He was trying to appease both sides, and the inevitable final outcome would be a failure to appease either side.

The 12 envoys had been like a tumor back then, and in contrast, Liu Yu was nothing more than a rash.

Qin Ye rustled the newspaper in his hands as he mused, "It's already been a month since I returned to the Cathayan Underworld. I've given you many opportunities, Liu Yu. When the time is right, I'll have you executed to set an example for the 12 envoys."

He had shunned the 12 envoys all this time, but that didn't mean that he hadn't been keeping tabs on them. After all, all of them were vastly renowned figures in history.

At this moment, Zhou Yu was serving as a secretary in the North Yin Pavilion, Ma Fubo had been assigned an insignificant job under Qian Duolai, Guo Ziyi was guarding the southwestern border, and as for the others, they had also been given insignificant roles. It wasn't that he didn't want to use these people for more appropriate roles, this simply wasn't the right time.

He had to give them some time to cool down and witness the development of Hell. Only after developing confidence in the new administration would they be content to serve it.

At the end of that process, he was going to show them the fate that awaited treasonous individuals.

After setting aside that train of thought, Qin Ye cast his gaze toward the newspaper, and after taking only a brief glance, he immediately raised an eyebrow as he murmured to himself, "As expected, it's happening, after all."

There were currently three major newspaper companies in the world, one of which was the The Times, published by the five Northern Europa underworlds, as well as the Icelandic Underworld, another one was the Pan-Europa Monthly, published by Central Europa and Southern Europa, and the final one was the Two Rivers Monthly, published by the Hindustani Underworld and the Aegyptian Underworld.

In the underworld, there were no daily or even weekly newspapers.

All netherworldly citizens had extremely long lifespans, so they didn't scrutinize the passage of time as intently.

The newspaper that Qin Ye was holding was the Two Rivers Monthly, and the headline on the front page read: "The Prometheus Plan Has Been Established! The Three Pillars Display Their Determination to Compete With the New Energy Resource Plan!"

The entire front page was dedicated to praising the contents of the Prometheus plan, including the dollar amount being invested, the scale of the government officials involved, the government research and development departments that were getting involved, the manpower and resources that were going to be used, and of course, it was capped off by an important address from Archimedes.

Secretary Jiang left the room to give Qin Ye some privacy, and Qin Ye read through the newspaper several times before an amused smile appeared on his face.

"An initial investment of fifty billion, involvement from seven leading national research centers, and the plan is to be overseen by the national energy resource departments and national ministries of technology... It sounds like a big deal, but it's only putting on a show for normal netherworldly citizens."

He leaned back casually against his chair as he held his teacup with one hand while gently skimming the index finger of his other hand over the newspaper. "Only the initial investment sum has been stated, but nothing has been said about the current progress of the project. On top of that, the participating parties are a joke! It makes sense that there are mathematicians participating in the plan. The Argosian Underworld is home to some of the best mathematicians in the entire world, as is the entire continent of Europa. These brilliant minds pass down directly from the mortal realm, and even the second King Yanluo can't do anything about that."

However, the best mathematicians in the world were the members of the Argosian Underworld's round table, were they not? In that case, what was the point in involving all of these other mathematicians that no one had ever even heard of? Were they just there to fill up a list of names and make the newspaper article look better?

Setting aside the mathematicians for now, what was going on with these chemists and medical scientists?

"This indicates that the main scientists driving the development of the new energy resource, the physicists, haven't sided with them." He smiled as he set down the newspaper. "Of course, I can understand why they're doing this. They can't just allow the Cathayan Underworld to develop the energy resource, so even though they have no physicists on their side, they still have to take a stand. They know that their initial and subsequent investments are most likely all going to waste, but they have to make those investments regardless."

However, the fact of the matter was that their plan was destined to fail from the very beginning, while the Cathayan Underworld's new energy resource plan was firmly on the right track.

Only at this point was Qin Ye truly confident that he had the new energy resource plan in the bag.

The three pillars knew that the Cathayan Underworld had an advantage in the development of the new energy resource. Their objective had been to win the support of all of the world's leading physicists so that they would have a chance of catching up to and exceeding the Cathayan Underworld.

However, they failed to realize why the scientists had been willing to stand with them. In other words, the fact that this had always been the case for the past several centuries made them take the support of the scientists for granted, and they had never considered why they had the support of all of the scientists in the first place.

Without any money up for grabs, no one was going to stand by them!

Thus, as soon as Qin Ye offered that lucrative deal to all of the scientists at the conference, he was able to easily win them over.

Even though the three pillars had lost all support and were aware that they were far behind in this race, they still had to bite the bullet and place all of their eggs in this basket anyway. Otherwise, if they didn't take a stand before the Cathayan Underworld completed its new energy resource, then all of their netherworldly citizens would rise up in revolt!

Qin Ye stood up from his chair and quickly made his way over to the main laboratory.

While it was true that the Cathayan Underworld had already seized the initiative and the upper hand during the previous exchanges, there was still a possibility that the three pillars could come from behind to seize the final victory.

The chances of this were very slim, but he had to make sure that they were completely snuffed out, and the best way to do that was obviously to increase the rate of progress in their own new energy resource!

……………………………………………………

Time passed by one day after another, and in the blink of an eye, two years had flown past.

These two years had passed by very peacefully without any significant events taking place. Of course, the entire world was still waiting to see when Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa were going to meet their demise. Aside from that, there were two massive invisible vortexes lurking beneath the surface.

The east and the west had formed two opposing fronts of a battlefield. If an analogy had to be made, then it would be as if two forbidden arts were brewing, and all of the world's Yin energy was rapidly converging toward those two places.

During the past two years, the Argosian Underworld had released 13 reports on the new energy resource, averaging one report per two months, giving off the image that the development of their new energy resource was progressing far faster than expected.

These reports were placed on all of the major monthly publications, and Qin Ye had naturally seen them. He wasn't the only one, the entire Yin Mountains Research Center had seen the reports as well. However, no one had lost any confidence.

The three pillars had an extremely strong foundation. Even without the physicists joining them, the mathematicians were still a force to be reckoned with, and their research was progressing very quickly, but not unexpectedly so.

However, due to the hype that they were creating, all of the netherworldly citizens in the entire world, aside from those in the Cathayan Underworld, which was still isolated from the rest of the world, had come to understand that the three pillars were competing with the Cathayan Underworld to develop a new energy resource. The winner of this race could be the ruler of the next era!

This was currently the hottest topic in the entire underworld. Whenever the hype was about to die down, it would immediately spike up again with the release of a new report.

By generating hype and drawing attention, the three pillars were able to attract more scientists to join their plan. However, the researchers of the Yin Mountains Research Center weren't distracted or disheartened by these reports at all. Instead, the reports only served to reassure them that they definitely held a massive lead!

In the words of Lu Ban: "If frequent reports need to be released to generate attention for a monumental project like this one, then that clearly indicates that they don't have enough talent working on the project and are hoping to attract more skilled personnel."

Similarly, Zu Chongzhi only took a brief look at the reports before setting them aside.

"They're still stuck on what we were working on two and a half years ago. This entire report is still revolving around voidsilver, which we had no choice but to reveal during the Great Revelation Debate, but that doesn't matter anyway."

In contrast with the scorching atmosphere in the west, the Cathayan Underworld was as peaceful as a tranquil lake. Unbeknownst to all of its netherworldly citizens, Qian Duolai had already armed the entirety of the Yin Mountains to the teeth. There were outposts set up five kilometers away from the mountain range, and any outsiders sighted at these outposts would be executed on the spot with no exceptions!

Even at night, the entirety of the Yin Mountains was always brightly lit.

As the research and development continued, the veil concealing the new energy resource was being slowly peeled away. The new laboratories that had been set up could no longer be contained in the original mountain range, and many external laboratories had to be built into the mountains as a result. Late at night, the brightly lit laboratories presented a dazzling sight to behold.

Secretary Jiang made his way into the temporary King Yanluo's office and reported, "Your Excellency, today is New Year's Eve. Should we give everyone a two-day break to celebrate the new year?"

Qin Ye was reading through documents at his desk, and he immediately looked up upon hearing this.

Was it already the new year?

Come to think of it, this is already my fourth year in the Yin Mountains...

A smile appeared on his face as he said, "That's a great idea. If they're unwilling to take a break, tell me I'll cut off all Yin jade supplies so their research can't continue. They've been working far too hard lately, and they must take a break! Also, pick out the best offerings that have come in from all over the nation and get them to send those offerings here from Everburn..."

Before he had a chance to finish, the door of the office was violently flung open, and a researcher with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes rushed into the room. The netherfire in his eyes had sprung up to two meters in height, and even his soul was wavering unsteadily as he panted heavily.

"Who the hell are you?!" Secretary Jiang was given a massive fright as he reflexively shielded Qin Ye with his own body. "Get out of here right now or you'll be executed on the spot!!"

The researcher didn't seem to have heard him at all, and he fell to his knees with a dull thump as he stared intently at Qin Ye.

In that instant, Qin Ye was struck by a sudden epiphany.

Is it today? Is today going to be the day? Is the completion of the new energy resource going to fall right on the new year?

Time seemed to have fallen completely still, and he raised his head with a slightly dazed expression to look up at the clock hanging on his wall.

It was 11:59:58 PM.

In the next instant, a bell chime rang out, indicating the arrival of the new year and shattering the silence in the room.

"Yanluo Qin, we've done it!!" the researcher sobbed. "We found it! We've finally found the proton Yin rune that corresponds with the electron Yin rune!!"