Yama Rising

As soon as the insects reached Qin Ye, he was stunned to discover that his emissary aura wasn't able to keep them out! The insects were rapidly devouring his emissary aura!

At the same time, a burst of scarlet flames swept through the entire cave, and the fire was so fierce that it illuminated everything in the cave aside from Qin Ye bright red. The flames then erupted out of the hole, forming a massive torch that extended all the way up into the heavens!

Zhao Yun had sprung into action!

Only after a full 30 seconds had passed did the pillar of fire gradually subside, and the walls of the hole had already been set alight, illuminating the entire hole so that it was as bright as day.

Zhao Yun slowly spread open his hand to reveal several charred insects lying at the center of the palm. Much to Qin Ye's astonishment, they were still alive and struggling doggedly to shake off the charred ashes all over their bodies.

Zhao Yun closed his hand firmly around the insects, then turned to Qin Ye with a grim expression as he asked, "Do you know what these are, Your Excellency?"

Qin Ye shook his head in response.

"You may not have seen these insects in this infantile form, but you've definitely seen the mature insects at Fengdu."

A thought occurred to Qin Ye upon hearing this, and he asked in an incredulous voice, "Are these blight vermin?"

"That's right." Zhao Yun cast his gaze downward, and at this point, the entire bottom of the hole had already been revealed to them. "The larvae of blight vermin are known as soul devouring beetles, and they grow from devouring Yin spirits."

Qin Ye nodded in response before casting his gaze downward.

Who had been buried in this place?

Not only had they been buried near the tomb of Lishan Laomu, the jailers of this place were larval blight vermin! It was clear that whatever was buried here was not supposed to ever come out!

The mystery was only becoming more and more complex, and he shook his head before rushing straight to the bottom of the hole as a gust of Yin wind.

There was no point in guessing, and there was only one way to find out.

Several seconds later, the two of them landed on solid ground, and Zhao Yun instantly used his Yin energy to envelope both Qin Ye and himself, then swept his Yin energy through the surrounding area to clear away all of the reddish-black Yin energy, thereby revealing the true appearance of this bottomless hole.

A stunned look appeared on his face as he stared at what stood in front of them.

It was a bronze gate that was over five meters tall.

Two oil lamps were lit on either side of the gate, but the lamps weren't burning with red flames. Instead, it was white netherfire!

Around a dozen human skeletons were resting against the door, dressed in clothing from all types of different eras. Their hands were all placed against the gate as if their dying wish had been to open the gate and see what lied beyond it.

Qin Ye heaved a forlorn sigh at the sight of these unfortunate individuals, then made his way over to the gate to scrutinize it more closely.

The gate was riddled with complex carved designs, and these designs resembled some type of text!

"This text has to be at least 4,000 years old," Qin Ye murmured as he gently stroked the gate. "The earliest recorded text in Cathayan history is cuneiform, but cuneiform already has the structure of orthodox text, and there are even some elements of early Cathayan that could be identified in it, but this text..."

He paused momentarily, then continued in an incredulous voice, "It's even older than cuneiform!"

The text on the bronze gate was extremely complex. In fact, they were more like simplified artworks than text. Many of the "characters" were clearly modeled after different types of flora and fauna, such as fish or flowers.

"Cuneiform originated from the Shang Dynasty, and that was already over 3,600 years ago. Does this mean that this gate is at least 3,600 years old?" Zhao Yun speculated with furrowed brows.

Qin Ye shook his head in response. "It has to at least be 4,000 years old. The evolution of a language was an extremely lengthy process back then. Historians have never managed to actually verify the existence of the Xia Dynasty, but perhaps this gate would be concrete evidence of that."

The 5,000-year-long history of Cathay began from the Xia Dynasty. Without the Xia Dynasty, the nation's history would be reduced to only around 3,600 years, which was roughly 60% of Aegypt's history.

Zhao Yun nodded in response, then turned his attention toward the netherfire on either side of the gate. "To think that these two lamps are still lit even after all this time... I can sense the power of an Abyssal Prefect within them, but it's already very feeble, and it'll most likely completely run out after a month."

Only the soulfire formed by the soul of a high-grade underworld emissary could burn for so long.

Just how noble did the figure behind the gate have to be for the soulfire of a high-grade underworld emissary to be used just to light the lamps in front of this gate?

After taking several deep breaths, Qin Ye placed his palm against the gate, then released his Yin energy, and the gate finally slowly swung open with an agonizing groan.

This was the truth that no living human would ever be able to uncover. Only the dead could enter this place!

After the gate was completely opened, everything inside was revealed to Qin Ye and Zhao Yun. Even though he already had an idea of what to expect, Qin Ye still couldn't help but gasp as his mouth gaped open slightly.

This was a cave that wasn't large, nor small.

It was around 100 meters in size, and down below was a pool of inky-black water that was opaque, making it impossible to see the bottom.

A series of lotus flowers were growing out of the water, and it was incredible to see them here considering the complete lack of sunlight. Furthermore, there wasn't even a single lotus leaf in the entire pond.

At the center of the lotus flowers was a stone platform, which was completely empty.

However, four chains were nailed firmly to the stone platform, and each chain led toward a different direction.

After just a single glance, Zhao Yun said, "Those are infernal demon sealing chains, constructed from the premium ore 'Nightmare', which has already run out long ago."

That name struck a chord with Qin Ye, and his brows furrowed slightly before his eyes suddenly lit up. "Is this the same Nightmare that can only be used by Yama-Kings?"

He involuntarily took a step forward, only for Zhao Yun to hold him back with a firm shake of his head.

"Look at what shape that stone platform is in."

"It's round. What does that mean?" Qin Ye asked.

"I've heard of this setup before." Zhao Yun squatted down slightly like a leopard about to pounce, then continued, "If I'm not mistaken, there are a total of 4,320 lotus flowers here!"

Qin Ye carefully counted all of the lotus flowers in the pond. This was not a very large number for the consciousness of a Yama-King, shortly thereafter, he turned to Zhao Yun with a stunned expression. "4,320... How did you know that?"

Zhao Yun didn't say anything, but he took a few steps backward in a cautious manner, and only then did he reply, "This is the so-called 'Qimen'."

He pointed toward the center of the platform, then said, "There is something there, but we can't see it. The eight trigrams lie in the center, while 4,320 objects are situated around it, and that forms the Qimen Dunjia!"

Qimen Dunjia?

Qin Ye turned toward the lotus flowers with a perplexed expression as he said, "Is this really the Qimen Dunjia? I've read about the Qimen Dunjia before, and I recall that it only required 18 objects!"

"That's only the current Qimen Dunjia," Zhao Yun replied. "Back when the Qimen Dunjia first appeared, it required 4,320 objects. After some refinement, that number was reduced to 1,080, and during the Zhou Dynasty, Jiang Shang compressed it further down to 72 in order to fit the requirements of his marching army. During the Han Dynasty, Huang Shigong passed the Qimen Dunjia down to Zhang Liang, who reformed it once again, making it into its current form, which requires only 18 objects. What we're seeing here is the most primitive version of the Qimen Dunjia. The first field where the Qimen Dunjia was applied was in the military. You can interpret the Qimen as an army, while the Dunjia are the troops within the army. The Qimen's purpose is to conceal the troops, and it's able to do that so perfectly that even when the thing it's concealing is right in front of it, we're unable to see it, nor are we able to sense any Yin energy."

He paused momentarily before turning to Qin Ye, then asked, "Do you know what the original name of the Qimen Dunjia was?"

Qin Ye shook his head in response.

His ignorance was being put on full display here!

"It was originally called Eight Directions Eight Winds."

This name struck another chord in Qin Ye's mind, and he immediately exclaimed, "Lishan Laomu's Eight Directions Eight Winds?!"

Of course! The creator of the Qimen Dunjia is none other than Lishan Laomu!

"This array was set up by Lishan Laomu in person," Zhao Yun said. "In fact, all of the seals within this bottomless hole were most likely set up by her... But why?"

There was no explanation.

Amid the silence, Zhao Yun heaved a faint sigh. "Let's go. Unless Lishan Laomu is here in person, no one will be able to resolve the original version of the Qimen Dunjia, and any misstep could result in life-threatening danger. There's no way for us to see what's on that stone platform, so there's no longer any point in staying here."

Right as he was about to depart, Qin Ye suddenly grabbed onto his sleeve.

"Your Excellency?" Zhao Yun turned to him with a perplexed expression.

"You said this was set up by Lishan Laomu herself, right?" Qin Ye asked as he stared intently at the stone platform.

"That's right." Zhao Yun didn't know what Qin Ye was thinking, but he still explained, "Only a Yama-King would be able to forge infernal demon sealing chains, and only Lishan Laomu herself can create the original version of the Qimen Dunjia, so this place could only have been created by her."

Qin Ye's heart was thumping in his chest, and he took a deep breath before asking, "Then why don't we invite Lishan Laomu to come here in person to take a look?"

Zhao Yun turned to Qin Ye with a puzzled expression.

Invite Lishan Laomu here? How are we supposed to do that?

However, in the next instant, his eyes abruptly lit up, and he slapped a palm to his own forehead as he exclaimed, "You're suggesting we perform a Heavenly Inquiry?"

He had forgotten all about that possibility!

There was most likely no other place in the mortal realm or the underworld where an object closely related to Lishan Laomu could be found, but such an object was sitting in front of them at this very moment!

The Qimen Dunjia had definitely been set up by Lishan Laomu, and there was a very good chance that the infernal demon sealing chains had also been created by her!

As long as she was willing to answer their questions, all of the mysteries surrounding Yuncheng would be unraveled!