Yama Rising

Right at this moment, the entire ship shuddered once again, and at this point, even the other people on the ship could sense that something was amiss.

"What was that?" On the deck, Rick was staring out at the surface of the sea with a bewildered expression. Having spent so much of his life out at sea, he was far too familiar with the fickle maiden that was the ocean, and these abnormal tremors immediately tipped him off to the fact that something was wrong.

"Captain..." The first mate and the second mate gathered beside him. There was no point in their actions, they were merely instinctively approaching their captain in order to assuage their unease. The entire crew on the ship, consisting of several dozen sailors, were all staring intently at the surface of the sea just as they were.

Something's wrong...

They had been too complacent prior to this. How could they not be complacent when accompanied by escort fleets? However, they had finally discovered that there seemed to be a problem with this route.

It was too quiet.

There was not a single seabird in the sky, nor any signs of Yin beasts on the surface of the sea. It was the ocean, but it more so resembled a completely still and stagnant pond at this moment.

Furthermore, the seawater was supposed to be blue, but it was completely inky-black, almost as if there were a terrifying beast lurking beneath the surface, blocking out all of the reflected light.

At this point, the other two ships had also realized that something was amiss, and more and more people began to emerge onto the decks as a loud commotion broke out.

Rick was looking intently at the sea, and he felt as if there were countless evil ghosts looking right back at him. Several seconds later, he abruptly swiveled around and yelled, "The Liberty requests communication! The Liberty requests communication!"

"The Bald Eagle requests communication! Damn it, what the hell is going on?!"

"The Moonlight Goddess requests communication!"

However, there was no response.

The two escort fleets didn't seem to have heard them at all, and right as their voices began to ring out, the Yin soldiers standing on either side of the cabins of the escort fleets' ships suddenly made their way into the cabin one after another. All of the Yin spirits on the three ships looked on with slack-jawed expressions as the sails of the two escort fleets quickly fell, and a series of Yin runes began to glow all over the bodies of the ships. Immediately thereafter, the ships of the escort fleets sank into the sea like dead weights!

This turn of events was far too abrupt, and everyone could only look on in astonishment. The entire sinking process lasted less than 30 seconds, but it could be seen that the two escort fleets were traveling at full speed right back to Xolotl's Screen beneath the surface of the sea!

Rick faltered slightly upon seeing this before frantically yelling, "Turn the ship around!! Hurry!! What are you waiting for?! Catch up to them!!"

The sudden departure of the two escorts fleets had instilled an overwhelming sense of horror and panic into his heart. This area of the sea seemed to have transformed into the mouth of a giant death god that was about to devour everything.

Qin Ye was pacing back and forth incessantly inside his cabin, listening to the sound of the panicked footsteps and the horrified voices ringing out up above. At this point, it was already clear to everyone that they had been led into a trap by the two escort fleets.

"Fuck..." He viciously massaged his own temples, but he didn't panic. It wouldn't do any good for him to panic at this moment, No more than 10 kilometers up ahead, three death gods were facing off against one of the six kings, and if a battle were to erupt, there was no way that these three ships would be able to escape! The shockwaves from their clash alone would sweep over this entire area of the sea, and no Yin spirits would be able to survive here.

"I can only hope now that the four beings are too busy facing off against one another to notice these three ships. All we need to do is get 15,000 meters, no, 20,000 meters away, and we'll be completely safe! The question is, why have the escort fleets done this?"

His mind was racing as he analyzed the situation. Had Dalton gone insane? How would he benefit from inexplicably sending three civilian ships to their deaths?

Amid the deathly silence, Qin Ye massaged his own glabella as he murmured to himself, "There's no benefit that he could possibly derive from this, so why has he done this? Could it be that he's discovered me or is at least suspecting my presence on this ship? This is the only possible reason he could be doing something like this! That must be it... It was already rather unexpected for a warlord like him to search The Liberty in person. If he was somehow alerted to my presence by some type of divine artifact in advance, then this would all make sense."

Qin Ye gently rested his fingers on the window, looking out at the eerily calm sea through narrowed eyes. Before every storm was always an oppressive pause.

He knew that there was going to be a devastating storm unfolding imminently, and the waiting process was like dying by 1,000 cuts, making for an extremely tense and torturous experience.

"So why is he doing this? Does he want me to die during the battle between the four death gods? No, there's no way that he can be certain a battle would actually break out between the four of them. In that case, is he trying to force me to reveal myself? That makes sense... Looking at things from his perspective, just because he failed to discover me doesn't mean that other Yama-Kings would also fail. There are a total of four death gods up ahead, and if I'm discovered, there's a very good chance that all four of them could instantly direct their attention toward me. After all, my emergence would completely shatter the balance. Perhaps he's even hoping that I would be able to scare away whichever one of the six kings the three death gods are facing off against."

Having figured out everything, Qin Ye heaved a faint sigh of relief.

It had to be said that this was a very innovative plan, but he had failed to account for one thing, which was that Qin Ye wasn't an ordinary Yama-King.

He was the ruler of a nation, and one of the most powerful nations in the world, at that. If he wanted to remain unseen, it would be very difficult for the four death gods to discover him. Even if they had some type of detection divine artifact at their disposal, they would only be able to vaguely sense his presence, and he was fairly confident that an auxiliary divine artifact of that nature wouldn't appear on a battlefield featuring three death gods and one of the six kings.

Having made sense of the situation, he even had the spare capacity to take a look at his own outrageously handsome reflection in the glass window.

I shouldn't be allowing myself to get so stressed. It would be a tragedy for the entire world if I were to develop wrinkles from excessive stress!

Just a moment ago, he had thought that he was in a very perilous situation, but looking at this current situation, it was very likely that he would be able to get away. As long as he was quick, there should be no way for the four death gods to notice him.

What? You want me to tackle the situation head-on? My apologies, but there's no way that the wise and mighty Yanluo Qin would pursue such an option unless absolutely necessary!

Thinking back, the only Yin spirit on the same level as himself that he had ever engaged in a serious battle with was Honda Tadakatsu. On other occasions, he was either fighting evil ghosts of the same or lower cultivation rank or backing out of battles before things turned serious, just like in the case of his battle against Apollonios during the Russian Underworld forbidden arts incident. Most of the time, he preferred to let others do his fighting for him, such as Zhao Yun, Qin Changxin, Arakshasa... In any case, there was no way he would willingly engage anyone in battle unless he was at least a major cultivation rank above them!

What was the point of engaging in a battle that he couldn't flex in?

The surface of the sea was still very calm.

The three ships were retreating as quickly as they could, while the escort fleets, which were also rapidly retreating, were already over a kilometer away. It was as if the countdown timer to death had already begun ticking down, and the five ships were frantically racing one another, getting further and further away from their original location. 3,000 meters... 5,000 meters... 10,000 meters!

Qin Ye was calmly watching the scene unfolding around him. At this point, the ship had most likely already reached top speed, yet Rick's desperate roars could still be heard ringing out incessantly, urging his crew to accelerate the ship even further. Even from his position, he could see the massive waves rising up beside the ship. They were getting further and further away from the eerily calm area of the sea, and upon reaching over 15,000 meters away, he finally heaved a faint sigh of relief.

Even if this were one of the six kings, this position would be very close to its tail. If, for example, this were Naga, then she would definitely be facing the three death gods with her head, and the same applied to the likes of Behemoth and Leviathan.

This was the combined pressure of three death gods, nothing would dare to face that with its backside!

Furthermore, there was immense drag from the seawater in the sea, and if the member of the six kings wanted to engage in a battle, it would have to consider this factor, which would most likely make it have second thoughts about fighting fire with fire.

Thus, Qin Ye heaved a relaxed sigh, then crossed his legs and laid down on his bed, preparing to take a good rest. However, right at this moment, the entire surface of the sea suddenly began to quake violently.

Qin Ye faltered slightly upon sensing this, then immediately jumped to his feet before casting a bewildered gaze out the window.

Through the window, he could see the sea churning violently in all directions, and tsunamis over 20 meters tall were raised all around the ship in a doomsday-like scene.

One wave rose up after another, instantly forming a basin, except the basin was constructed entirely from seawater! The three ships were like three fragile leaves sitting in the middle of a giant's palm, and Qin Ye withdrew his gaze with an incredulous expression. Only after several seconds did he murmur to himself, "Why?"

How could it have decided to lash out under such unfavorable circumstances?

He was certain that no one had managed to detect his presence, and according to legends, all of the six kings were extremely massive, which would make them encounter enormous resistance when moving through the sea, so why had this sea monster suddenly lashed out?

This was completely outside of his projections!

"How did this happen?" He shook his head in a frustrated manner. However, there was no benefit in dwelling on negative emotions. In the next instant, his Yin energy rapidly converged, and he released his consciousness, which quickly passed through the corridor before arriving on the deck, then focused on the distance.

There on the distant horizon, the sea was churning like an enraged beast. The two escort fleets were in a complete panic, and Qin Ye could tell that they were desperately trying to retreat, but in the face of the ocean's fury, they were like powerless infants. Right in front of them, a pair of giant vortexes was rapidly taking shape amid the crashing waves.

It's about to appear! Which monarch beast is it? Qin Ye looked on with tightly furrowed brows as he quickly considered his own options.

Should he go on the attack?

That wouldn't work. Setting aside whether he could even defeat this monarch beast or not, if he were to be exposed, then it would become far too difficult to obtain Xu Fu's notes.

If it were to be discovered that the Cathayan Underworld's King Yanluo had traveled to the new continent in person just to get his hands on those notes, then everyone would try and obtain those notes, even if they didn't know what they were.

But if he didn't attack, then the situation was only going to continue to deteriorate.

Right as his mind was racing, two pillars of seawater erupted violently into the sky, following which a pair of gigantic tentacles broke through the surface of the sea, churning up the entire ocean in a frenzy!

The two escort fleets only came into slight contact with the tentacles before being completely destroyed, and countless underworld emissaries screamed in horror as they fell into the sea, but not even a single splash could be seen.

"My god..." Rick fell to his knees on the deck as he stared blankly at the tentacles, which were several hundred meters thick. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he abruptly yelled, "Run!!!"

This was one of the six kings! Why was it here?!

All of the people on the three ships were completely rooted to the spot. Never did they think that they would encounter one of the six kings here. However, before they had a chance to ponder the situation, countless more tentacles erupted from the water in all directions, instantly forming a lethal forest that would not be out of place in a horrific nightmare!

An earth-shattering roar rang out across the entire sea, and tsunamis were swept up to over 50 meters tall! At the same time, several hundred eyes lit up in unison beneath the waves, staring intently at these unwelcome guests.

"Fuck!!" Qin Ye couldn't help but swear out loud.

He finally understood why this member of the six kings wasn't wary of the resistance of seawater.

It was because this was Kraken!

In the instant that he saw those tentacles, he immediately identified this sea monster to be the North Sea Monster, Kraken! The damn thing didn't even have a tail, so there was no need for it to turn around!

Its mere existence was the embodiment of destruction and devastation in the sea!