Yama Rising

Qin Ye had to admire the foresight of the first King Yanluo. Not only had he seen extremely far into the future, his foresight had been extremely clear. Refining these things into Yin artifacts essentially produced peerless treasures that could be passed down from one administration to the next. Even if Hell were to be destroyed one day, there would be hope for a resurgence as long as these things continued to exist.

"Here, Yin artifacts can be mass-produced as long as sufficient amounts of materials are supplied." Li Chun couldn't help but heave a sigh of admiration here. "The wisdom and courage of the first King Yanluo were truly unmatched. Even now, I struggle to fathom how he had managed to create these things during such a chaotic era where gods and devils freely roamed the land. Out of these six buildings, the Myriad Treasure Pond is undisputedly the most valuable one."

He paused momentarily here before adding, "My Lord, these six buildings are collectively known as the Hua Xia Six Origins Diagram, and also as the Six Origin Buildings. The most important one of these buildings is undoubtedly the Aurogon's Eye, which is capable of seeing through all things. However, the Myriad Treasure Pond was the first one to have been constructed. During the past several thousand years, countless underworlds have requested to purchase the blueprints for the Six Origin Buildings, and I recall that the final one of those occasions was right before the collapse of Hell, during the International Underworlds' Trade Convention. At the time, the Hindustani Underworld had offered five trillion Yin spirit stones to purchase the blueprints for the Myriad Treasure Pond, the Pixiu Chimera Building, and the Faint Earth Building, but their offer was refused by Hell. There was also a time when three nations had pooled together their resources to offer eight trillion Yin spirit stones in exchange for the blueprint of the Aurogon's Eye."

"I'm assuming they were also turned down," Qin Ye said with a smile.

"Of course," Lu Ban replied as a smile also appeared on his face. "Those blueprints are cherished treasures of our Cathayan Underworld, and there's no way they'll ever be sold. On top of that, the abilities of these buildings can only be maximized when coupled with King Yanluo's Seal. Regardless of which underworld manages to get their hands on the blueprints, without King Yanluo's Seals, their Yin energy won't reach a sufficient level to support the buildings, and they won't be able to manifest the required Yin runes anyway."

Without being able to manifest the Yin runes, the programming language would be incorrect, so it wouldn't matter no matter how good of a CPU they had.

"What a truly breathtaking spectacle..." Qin Ye sighed. Judging from the blueprints left to him by Granny Meng, some of the things she had said in the past, and the signs of Hell's expansion, it was clear that these buildings were definitely extraordinary artifacts, but never did he think that they would be this incredible!

"Then, can this building act as the artifact vault for the entire Cathayan Underworld?" Qin Ye asked with an intense look in his eyes.

"In theory, yes."

"Why only in theory?" Qin Ye asked as his brows furrowed slightly.

Li Chun extended a slight bow as he replied, "Ultimately, the size of the Myriad Treasure Pond is limited, and manual labor is required for deduction. In order to create an Infernal Judge level Yin artifact, it would take at least a year. For Abyssal Prefect level Yin artifacts, that time would stretch to at least 10 years, and for Yama-King level Yin artifacts, the time taken would be over a century, and that's only provided there are no calculation errors during the process."

Qin Ye understood the obstacle now. The issue lied in production capacity.

"How was this issue resolved by the past Hell?" He stroked his own chin as he began to slowly pace back and forth while appraising the two golden toad statues situated in front of the Myriad Treasure Pond. "If I recall correctly, every single Emissary of Hell possessed a Yin Artifact, and the soldiers of Hell's army were also all equipped with Yin artifacts. The old Hell had tens of millions of emissaries, and there would've surely been Yin artifacts that were damaged or lost, there would've had to have been more than Yin artifacts produced for each Emissary of Hell. That seems like far more than what the Myriad Treasure Pond can produce within 3,000 years."

Indeed, even 100 Myriad Treasure Ponds wouldn't be able to keep up with such a high level of demand!

On this occasion, it was Lu Ban who answered his question. "What the old Hell did was employ a hierarchy system. Aside from the Aurogon's Eye, of which there is only one in the entire nation, all five of the other buildings have replicas in all of the provinces, cities, and counties. The regional buildings are classified as A grade, the provincial buildings are classified as B grade, the city-level buildings are classified as C grade, the county-level buildings are classified as D grade, and no replicas were built in areas below the D grade. At the time, there were a total of 34 provinces, 320 cities, and 1,330 counties across the entire nation. In total, there were five sets of A grade Five Origin Buildings distributed across the major regions, and 34 sets of B grade Five Origin Buildings constructed in the capital cities of the provinces. As for C grade sets of Five Origin Buildings, there were 320 in total, as well as 1,330 sets of D grade Five Origin Buildings. Each set of buildings was also constructed based on the original Six Origins Blueprint, and the only difference is the materials used. When inferior materials are used, some more rigorous Yin runes would be unable to be transmitted through Yin energy, and thus, the commands that they carried would be unable to be executed. For A grade sets of Five Origin Buildings, they were only capable of producing Yin artifacts at or below the intermediate Abyssal Prefect level."

An enlightened look appeared in Qin Ye's eyes upon hearing this. "I see, so the materials used for each level differ in quality, and even the scale of the buildings begins to decrease at the lower levels. After all, only an Infernal Judge is required to defend a province, so C grade buildings will only need to be able to produce Yin artifacts at or below the Infernal Judge level, is that right?"

"Your wisdom is truly unmatched, my Lord."

Qin Ye continued, "Seeing as the lowest grade is the D grade, which applies to counties, emissaries from townships and villages who wish to obtain Yin artifacts must go to the county. This also prevents rural villages and townships from hoarding Yin artifacts in secret."

"Indeed, my Lord," Lu Ban replied with a smile.

Qin Ye nodded in response. It had to be said that this was a great way to do things. Otherwise, where was Hell supposed to get Yin artifacts for all tens of millions of its emissaries?

Some ignorant netherworldly citizens could be of the opinion that Emissaries of Hell would be able to easily kill evil ghosts at the same cultivation level, so there was no need for Yin artifacts.

However, what they had forgotten was that back when the Cathayan Underworld was open to the rest of the world, there were countless foreign darkfeathers lurking in the shadows, as well as the possibility of all types of Yin spirits undergoing mutations at any time. In addition to that, there were also Yin beasts that had concealed themselves. With so many potential enemies, one had to be equipped with a Yin artifact to stand a chance.

Having a Yin artifact could quite possibly save one's life. If Hell refused to grant these benefits to its public servants, then no one would be willing to complete the duties that were delegated to them by Hell.

Another major consumer base for these Yin artifacts was the army.

The armor and weapons carried by Yin soldiers had to all be Yin artifacts. At the time, the Cathayan Underworld had gathered trillions of Yin spirits, and its army comprised of tens of millions of troops. Without creating these replicas of the Five Origin Buildings, there would be no way to arm all of the nation's troops.

"What a stroke of genius this was..." he couldn't help but praise. "Such glorious buildings could've only been constructed by Hell, there's no way that the other underworlds would've even been able to conceive the idea..."

All of a sudden, everyone fell silent, and it was an extremely awkward silence...

Several seconds later, Li Chun cleared his throat and said, "Well... That's not exactly true, My Lord. Some foreign underworlds have similar constructions as well. For example, the Elysian Fields of the Argosian Underworld are a parallel defensive circle linked to the Hourglass of Time. Those below the Abyssal Prefect level who enter the Elysian Fields would be unable to even leave, let alone reach the Three Judges of the Argosian Underworld. Another example is the Twin Sala Gardens of the Hindustani Underworld. Each and every plant in the gardens is a surveying eye, and the gardens are connected to the Hindustani Underworld's Heavenly Eye Buddhist Temple. However, most of them copied our Cathayan Underworld in their constructions. The concept is the same, but the progress they've made can't compare with our system, which has been in place for thousands of years."

Are you saying... they plagiarised us?! Did they purchase the relevant intellectual rights before they did this?!

How could they just plagiarise something that had taken the Cathayan Underworld thousands of years to establish? Had they no shame?

Qin Ye repressed the indignation in his heart as he roughly familiarized himself with the operation method of the entire Six Origins Diagram. He then turned to another building. "The Hall of Tremors..."

He still recalled that the Hall of Tremors was where research on Yin runes was conducted and where military supplies were produced.

At this moment, the Hall of Tremors was already completely open. Its gates were wide open, and its name was inscribed in free-flowing text upon a plaque that hung above its gates. Yin energy was revolving around the building, and rays of light radiating from Yin runes could be seen coming from inside, giving the entire building a mystical quality.

Li Chun immediately said, "The Hall of Tremors was constructed during the tail-end of the first King Yanluo's reign, and it took 472 years to complete. Those who participated in the project included 35 scholars specializing in construction, several hundred academicians, and countless Yin rune masters from the military. It was the fourth of the Six Origin Buildings to have been constructed."

Qin Ye made his way over to the building's entrance with a contemplative expression, and the scholars and Oda Nobutada immediately followed along. All of a sudden, Qin Ye asked, "Won't this building be in conflict with other buildings? One of its abilities is to develop Yin runes... Isn't that what the Aurogon's Eye is best at? Its other ability is to produce military supplies, doesn't that overlap with the role of the Myriad Treasure Pond?"

Li Chun replied, "There's actually no conflict there, my Lord. Firstly, the Aurogon's Eye only covers research in the overall makeup, production, method of inscription, and final effect of Yin runes. In contrast, the Hall of Tremors is responsible for assessing what practical applications the Yin runes developed by the Aurogon's Eye have in a military context."

Qin Ye was enlightened upon hearing this. Essentially, the Yin rule section of the Hall of Tremors was a subsidiary unit to the Aurogon's Eye, and the Aurogon's Eye was still in charge in this field.

"On top of that, it's important to remember that military supplies aren't just restricted to the weapons and armor carried by the Yin soldiers. Put it this way, weaponry and armor form the foundation of army supplies, but there's no way they can play a decisive role in battle. In reality, the weaponry and armor of all nations is currently on roughly the same level with our Cathayan Underworld only slightly ahead of the pack. What truly sets us apart are our tools, namely our siege weaponry! The underworld and the mortal realm are connected, so concepts and ideas from the mortal realm will extend into the underworld. This is why many people adopt similar roles after they pass away from their roles during their living days. It's also because of this that our Cathayan Underworld possesses the most diverse range of siege weaponry out of any nation! This is all thanks to our long history of battle that has spanned over the course of several thousand years!"

Li Chun was starting to grow quite excited here, and his voice became louder and louder as he spoke. "During the course of history, our fortes in battle have been in the areas of siege and counter-siege, and this has determined that siege weaponry will be the most important feature in our warring history! For example, we have the Soul-Launching Coffin, the 12 Zodiacs Karmic Fire Tower, the Arrow Tower... There's not a single nation with as diverse a range of siege weaponry as us. In some places where war has been ongoing for long periods of time, such as the Australis Underworld, they issue import orders of close to a trillion Yin spirit stones to us every year, and all of this is solely spent on siege weaponry."

I see, so the Cathayan Underworld is also the number one arms dealer in the world?

An intrigued look appeared on Qin Ye's face as he said, "Hold on... If all of these things have to do with Yin runes, then why is it that I've heard that the Argosian Underworld's Yin runes are the most powerful ones in the world."

"It depends on the perspective that you look at it from," Li Chun replied as his excitement died down a little. "Their power stems from their round table meetings. All those who attended those meetings were incredible individuals during their living days. In fact, some of them played pivotal roles in the development of science in the mortal realm before they passed away, and their forte lies in innovation, such as in the area of forbidden arts. Forbidden art Yin runes are the most fearsome and most grand products of innovation. We didn't think that the Argosian Underworld would be capable of developing such terrifying things. However, we also have our own advantage in that we produce the largest number of new Yin runes out of any nation, and sufficient quantity can result in fundamental qualitative changes."

At this point, the group had already made their way to the building situated at the very center.

The words "Aurogon's Eye" were inscribed in large scarlet characters on the plaque, and the entire building also had a scarlet color scheme. The carving of a giant dragon was concealed within the building, and at its highest point, the dragon's head emerged with scintillating light radiating from its eyes.

Qin Ye didn't continue to pursue this subject as he already understood the situation. With the Cathayan Underworld's nationwide enhanced Yin energy, it was able to produce more Yin runes than any other nation, but the Argosian Underworld was the world leader when it came to forbidden art Yin runes. On paper, it seemed that the two were roughly evenly matched when it came to their capacity for Yin rune development, but in reality, the Cathayan Underworld was slightly inferior in this regard.

There was no helping this. Mathematics in the mortal realm had begun its evolution in ancient Argosia, and mathematics was the father of science. In the mortal realm, Cathay didn't have an advantage in the field of mathematics, so it was inevitably going to fall behind.

"What is the function of this building?"

Li Chun and Lu Ban replied in unison with extremely excited voices, "It possesses the ability to see the future and see the truth! It's able to conduct comprehensive analysis on Yin runes, and this is already an amazing function, but the most incredible thing about it is that it's the only key to linking the past and opening up the future!"