Yama Rising

Then, he continued to preside over the negotiations as though nothing had happened.

At once, the Yin soldiers standing guard around Qin Ye immediately got down on one knee and shouted in unison, “Farewell, Your Excellency!”

As soon as they appeared, Qin Ye tossed out a feather and sent it straight into Zhao Yun’s hand, “Do you recognize this thing?” Zhao Yun glanced at it once, and then immediately furrowed his brows.

Qin Ye glared daggers at him - What the hell are you talking about? Haven’t you seen my dear Brother Zhao? How could a Pikachu possibly be so good-looking?

Zhao Yun ignored Wang Chenghao’s comment and continued to inspect the feather for the next minute or so, before finally tossing it into the air, “A god of death that is in the process of melding with the Heavenly Dao… Judging by the Yin energy, I’d say that this is… the Plumed Serpent God? It looks like the Second King Yanluo was right…”

Almost as though he could sense the questions in Qin Ye’s mind, Zhao Yun pondered for a moment, and then began to explain the situation, “Several centuries ago, the Argosian Underworld marched through Europa, conquering its underworld, before unleashing the first instance of Forbidden Art in the netherworld against the Alkebulan Underworlds. Nobody knows what happened to the Plumed Serpent God after that incident. The Second King Yanluo speculated that the Plumed Serpent God had no choice but to take the Forbidden Art head on, and it must have sustained serious injuries. By his calculations, the Plumed Serpent God wouldn’t emerge from his state of recuperation for the next 500 years.”

He paused for a moment, almost as though he was choosing his words carefully. Five seconds later, Zhao Yun continued, “To properly breakdown this problem, we’ll first have to address the elephant in the room, and that is… what is the Heavenly Dao?”

After all, not even the Second King Yanluo was able to resist the force of its repulsion, and it was for that reason that he had no choice but to depart from the Three Realms. Furthermore, Qin Ye was often told that the Heavenly Dao undergirded everything, and no god of death was above the Heavenly Dao. Was this a philosophy? A way of life? Or was it a science or an order of the world?

Qin Ye nodded. In other words, the sword doesn’t wish to be mastered by any particular entity. Once mastered, it would naturally reject the one who has attained such mastery. And the mode of repulsion can only mean one of two things - complete destruction of the sword, or a release by the one who has attained mastery.

Rather than call it a repulsion or rejection, it might well be more accurate to call it a compromise of sorts. The Heavenly Dao was prepared to be broken rather than submit, but the Second King Yanluo didn’t want to destroy the Three Realms as he knew it, so he chose to leave instead.

Zhao Yun continued, “All Yama-Kings will gain the ability to sense the Heavenly Dao and even communicate with it to a certain extent. However, the Heavenly Dao is both cold and heartless, yet loving and wise. It would never engage in direct communication with you, but it would make its will known through actions. And that’s the first trait of the Heavenly Dao.”

But, on the other hand, the Heavenly Dao can also be said to be loving and wise because it was the very basis upon which the Three Realms was created. In a way, it could be said to be the source of all life, as well as the environment as the world knew it.

“In other words, there’s always hope.” Zhao Yun looked Qin Ye right in the eyes, “Even if the Plumed Serpent God was seriously injured, and even near death, he’s not entirely without a way out. And as we both know, the choice that he eventually went with was to merge with the Heavenly Dao.”

Zhao Yun waved his hand gently, and a complex rune of Yin Talismans drifted up into the air, emanating wisps of golden threads in an illusory and almost surreal fashion.

He pointed to the golden rune in the air, “But unlike the base material of the world, the smaller the Yin Talismans, the more complex it is, and the more difficult it would be to splice it into its sub-constituents. And to that end, the smallest radical rune of Yin Talisman was discovered in Hell just a hundred years ago, and the Second King Yanluo personally named it--...”

Something had just occurred to him.

The essence of Forbidden Arts was essentially to splice Yin Talismans as much as possible, before reorganizing them in the most efficient manner. Naturally, the smaller the runes, the more combinations were possible. And now that Zhao Yun had broken through the realms of a Yama-King, wouldn’t he be able to access far more runes that weren’t within reach before?

Zhao Yun nodded, “Now, since we now understand the traits and qualities of the Heavenly Dao, we can go on to discuss the Plumed Serpent God’s current state. And to that end, my guess is that he must have split himself into the most fundamental Yin Talismans, and blended right into the Heavenly Dao to recover his energy. This is probably the glimmer of hope that he recognized in those dire straits of his. But that’s not the point. The point to note is its current state of existence.”

Qin Ye rubbed his temples and looked up at the ceiling. There were a multitude of thoughts in his mind right now.

Know what?

Minutes later, Qin Ye finally retracted his gaze and turned back to Zhao Yun, “General Zhao, you probably haven’t heard anything about my trip to the Alkebulan Underworlds, right?” Qin Ye went on to recount everything that had happened in his encounter with the Plumed Serpent God without missing out any details.

Of course not.

“Course not.” Qin Ye looked up, just in time to lock eyes with Zhao Yun. A brief moment later, both men spoke in unison, “He’s getting anxious.”

Hang on a minute… How did you even find such an incisive angle to shower me with compliments?

In truth, we were just too weak to make contact back then, so I’ve had no choice but to wait for the right opportunity to arise…

“Perhaps…” Zhao Yun’s eyes narrowed as he gazed out of the windows, “Or perhaps… he might just be doing all these things in order to curry favour with you. My Lord, you might not be familiar with these old gods of death, but I’ve tangled with them for thousands of years on end now, and I know their methods all too well.”

The stakes had been set. Given the Plumed Serpent God’s current state right now, he no longer had any capital to hedge his bets elsewhere. Thus, he had no choice but to place all of his eggs in one basket and do everything he can in the hope that Qin Ye can ascend the throne of Hell. And given that he hadn’t heard a thing from Qin Ye over the last two months, he couldn’t help but send him a further indication of his sincerity, as well as… probe at Qin Ye’s thoughts.

Qin Ye smiled and tapped on the table, “You’d somehow managed to get yourself tangled up with the big boss of Hell in the end…”

“Certainly.”

Party?

Forming a private party in Hell was considered a treasonous act!

“Private parties are strictly forbidden in Hell.” Zhao Yun glared coldly at Wang Chenghao, “Offenders shall be purged summarily without trial.”

Unfortunately, Qin Ye only continued to heap burning coal on top of his head, “What’s the matter? Why don’t you have your own party after such a long time? You should take a leaf out of Qin Hui’s book. Otherwise, there might just come a time when you wouldn’t even be free to respond to my summons.”

“Then you should go personally.” Qin Ye picked up his teacup, “Tell Nadia to be ready tomorrow night at 10.00 p.m. I’ll send someone to pick her up.”

“Remember, discretion is key.” He waved his hand, and the feather flew back into his coat, “Merging with the Heavenly Dao is akin to courting death, yet this old snake has been able to remain alive and kicking all this while. Who knows if it’s been able to glean a thing or two about matters that should remain secret to the netherworld all this while?”