Yama Rising

Some of the fragmented notions that had been brewing at the back of his mind had finally been pieced together to form a cohesive train of thought. After spending the next dozen or so minutes sorting through his thoughts, he finally calmed himself down and turned to Arthis, “Arti, don’t interrupt me, and let me break it down for you.”

“Their thoughts are centered around one main purpose, and that is to prevent themselves from being captured by Hell and being imprisoned under the six paths of reincarnation again. Thus, they split up and set up shop at three different localities. That said, I’m willing to bet that they must have some form of agreement with each other that as long as one isn’t able to hold out any longer, the others would immediately come to their rescue.”

“But have you ever properly considered the territorial map of the vicinity?” Qin Ye’s eyes glistened brightly, “The Middle East has an underworld with a longstanding legacy, and it is located just west of Cathay. Hindustan sits atop one of the most powerful underworlds in the world, and is located southwest of Cathay. The Central Plains of Cathay sit right smack in the middle of the entire country, and that’s a region that used to be most heavily fortified by the old Hell. Think about it, if you were the three daolords, and you managed to escape from Hell, where would you run to?”

It seems like… the safest place would be the region that borders Rus, or the coastal regions of Cathay.

As for the three western provinces, although the tension between the various powers in the region was somewhat complicated, the upside to it all was the fact that everyone used to be under the wings of the same master. Besides, they wouldn’t be sharing the same border as the Middle East in any event.

She turned towards Qin Ye with a glint in her eyes. This man… has a frighteningly acute grasp of matters of psychology… To think that he could accurately reverse engineer the thought processes of the three daolords with a few simple pieces of information. Not even ghosts are able to elude his keen senses…

Arthis didn’t immediately catch what Qin Ye was getting at. Thus, she went on, “The feudal officials are tasked with oversight of the fiefdoms of Hell, and they are required to pay tribute to Hell with every fifty years that passes. In turn… Hell would provide the feudal officials with the resources it needs, and even grant them a 30% discount on the special produce of Hell. This was a practice that had been established since the time of the old feudal dynasties, when none of the tributaries would ever return empty-handed. This was to signify the might and prosperity of their governing state… Hang on… are you saying…”

Even if the old Hell had collapsed, was there still the possibility that the markets of the old Hell would still be around? If it were, then the special produce of Hell would naturally be there as well! This was the special produce that had been aggregated from 9.6 million square kilometers which the old Hell had occupied! How could the feudal officials simply swallow their pride and allow the daolords to seal off their path to potentially immense riches?!

“Perhaps… the three daolords hadn’t even considered the existence of the twelve envoys to begin with. There’s a real possibility that it was only after they settled down in the various regions in Cathay that they soon discovered that they had essentially blocked off all of the twelve envoys’ access routes to the old Hell. The three daolords naturally knew of the collapse of the old Hell. Upon further consideration, they would soon realize that their serendipitous positioning allowed them to obstruct the twelve envoys from seizing the old Hell’s resources and legacy! And if that was the case, why would they ever allow the twelve envoys to increase in strength?”

“The tension between factions has lasted for a hundred years or so. The fact that three powerful Abyssal Prefects armed with the knowledge that Hell has collapsed had of their own volition refrained from waging war on the mortal realm is an aberration to the true nature of Yin spirits altogether. There was something more to it… And this is the key - the mortal realm wasn’t the only faction resisting their advances, the twelve envoys had also been keeping the hands of the daolords tied down completely! They’re practically surrounded on all sides. If not for the fact that they detected the energy signature of the Book of Life and Death from the battle at the Strait of Tsushima this time, they would probably have prioritized dealing with the twelve envoys before finally turning against the mortal realm.”

Arthis nodded deeply, “That means we’ve got far more time to plan our moves… What’s with that gaze of yours? Why do I get the feeling that the look in your eyes is filled with diminishing amounts of respect for me?”

Arthis shook her head in bewilderment.

What opportunity?

Qin Ye signed with great resentment. Daft! Seriously daft! Why isn’t there a single person around me who can discuss such matters with me as equals? It’s truly lonely up here…

Arthis still couldn’t understand where Qin Ye was getting at, “By waging war with each other?”

Unfortunately, Arthis merely blinked blankly.

Qin Ye rubbed his waist and pouted vexatiously. Ruffled… She’s completely ruffled… Even her lioness mane is flaring up. I’ll bet she’s completely embarrassed now, isn’t she…

Such an arrogant Judge… How could she even think of doing such a thing to the King Yanluo of Hell… Doesn’t this constitute an uprising…

“Weapons.” Arthis replied. And as soon as she did, her entire body shuddered, almost as though she had just jumped straight into a clear spring in summer.

I finally get it!

“Being an arms dealer is one of the easiest ways of prospering.” Qin Ye smiled faintly as he dusted his clothes, “Do you remember Iwasaki Kyouya? Mitsubishi? Are you aware that Mitsubishi has an arm called the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries? And do you know what they specialize in? Things such as aircrafts, artillery, ships and guns that were used in World War II… Do you know how much money they made from all of that? In the end, the integrated conglomerate grew so big that the Nipponese government ordered their dissolution. Yet, even to date, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is still one of the top six major corporations in Nippon.”

Arthis glared fiercely at him, before promptly relenting. Qin Ye was akin to a gem hidden in the rough. The fact that he could identify such opportunities amidst a crisis sent chills down her spine.

Qin Ye cleared his throat, “A war… can lead to great prosperity. Including the three areas of conflict between Hell and the daolords, we’re talking about a total of fifteen battlefronts. Don’t you think… Hell will be able to soar on wings by capitalizing on all of this?”

But before Arthis was done speaking, Qin Ye had already begun to wag his finger at her, “No, no, no.”

Arthis fervently suppressed the desire to tear Qin Ye to pieces as Qin Ye continued, “Hell should never allow such weapons to leave its borders of Hell, right?”

“And it should also flow that the places in which these weapons are stored are difficult to breach, isn’t it?”

Qin Ye smiled faintly, “What I mean is… not even the blight vermin can breach the defenses of these storage facilities, can they?”

Arthis reeled back as though she were just struck by lightning. Her lips trembled slightly, “What kind of a devil are you…”

Weapons of mass destruction should never fall into the hands of foreign lands - not even if they were the twelve envoys. In fact, the old Hell would never allow even the raw materials to end up in the possession of foreign entities. In other words, in the absence of such technological prowess, the battlefronts between the twelve envoys and the three daolords were bound to be fought through the simplest of melees.

And to that end…

Naturally, it wouldn’t be much if this was all.

His initial foray into the arms market would generate sufficient wealth in order to sustain the new markets of Hell. And then, that would cause the other underworlds to view the new Hell in the same light as the old Hell, wouldn’t it?

It didn’t matter that the new Hell was already in possession of the legacy of the old Hell that had been seized from the Yin barracks, including the design drawings and blueprints of the old Hell’s latest technology. Qin Ye had already planned to channel the first fruits from the arms market into the development of Yin Talismanology. Furthermore, there were still the prospects that the old Hell’s weapons of mass destruction were still intact in the secure storage facilities of the old Hell! Even if they weren’t, the advent of Yin Talismanology would mean that they would still be able to reconstruct their first weapon of mass destruction from the blueprints available to them right now!

You want to instigate an uprising? You want to wage war?

This is… simply outrageous… It’s too much… Arthis was completely flabbergasted.

Where the hell has all your benevolence gone?!

1. Taiwan