Yama Rising

“Are things always going to be like this in future?” Qin Ye gritted his teeth.

“No… Once the communications hall has been built, they will manufacture a type of specialty talisman that can be pasted on the Yin spirit’s head when Emissaries of Hell are reaping souls. That way, the Yin spirits that arrive in Hell won’t be able to remember anything from their past lives.” Arthis continued placidly, “But rather than caring about the future, you might perhaps want to look at the issue before you right now.”

“These people… carry an immense amount of fear and apprehension in their hearts. And if you give them a response that’s beyond what they can bear… Aren’t you afraid of being a Yama-King for only a day?”

Qin Ye looked at the gathering of Yin spirits below with a throbbing headache. What do I do? What should I do now?

There isn’t any holding place for these Yin spirits in Hell. And this is only the first batch of Yin spirits to boot!

“There are a thousand things in Hell that are waiting to be done right now. All incoming Yin spirits must participate in the construction works of Hell. But fret not, as soon as these construction works are done, everyone will be duly rewarded for their labour and time.”

None of the Yin spirits below spoke in the meantime. This was a good omen. Qin Ye heaved a silent sigh of relief, “By rewards, I’m not talking about Hell’s notes. Rather, I’m talking about tangible benefits that belong uniquely to the ghost citizens who have rebuilt hell. For instance, the right to choose your own residence on the newly constructed avenues. And for instance, priority access to governmental departments for the purposes of assessment…”

“Sigh…” Arthis sighed and sat up.

Qin Ye continued to dangle benefit after benefit in front of the Yin spirits. However, the more he said, the colder his gaze grew.

It was because the Yin spirits below hardly revealed any look of gratitude in their eyes at all. In fact, whenever their eyes met, he could see a look of disbelief undergirding their respective gazes.

“... Hell is facing a complete overhaul, and there are buildings of every kind that need to be built…” He continued with a deep voice, but he was already questioning himself in his heart - Did I say something wrong? Where did I go wrong?

“My lord.” Before he could finish speaking, the bespectacled middle-aged man stood up and asked respectfully, “Does every door leading to Hell need to be rebuilt?”

“Yes.” Qin Ye didn’t see any reason to lie. He simply needed manpower.

“... Then… What about the other officers? Are they not going to chip in?” The bespectacled middle-aged man revealed an ever more respectful smile, “I used to be a civil servant from East Garden City. So what you’re saying absolutely rings a bell in my heart.”

Qin Ye’s lips quivered. He had neither been a part of the government, nor managed people before. He was new to the job, and he could only imitate what he had seen others do.

Although he had a wealth of life experiences under his belt, the gap between seeing and actually doing was nevertheless something that couldn’t be bridged so easily.

“There’s only one official of Hell remaining at Hell’s Gate. I’m the one in charge of everything.”

“So, there’s only you…” The burly man from earlier stood up with a menacing smile on his face, “Bloody hell! I’d still been worried about the six paths and the Eighteen Abysses and what-not. Screw it all!”

Qin Ye’s gaze flickered, and his grip around the handrail tightened subconsciously.

As the burly man spoke, over a hundred others immediately stood up together with the man. The gazes of the other Yin spirits gleamed brightly, but they were still somewhat hesitant.

“In other words, the Hell that I’ve been so afraid of is nothing more than an empty shell right now, isn’t it?” The burly man licked his lips menacingly, “Old ghost, there are plenty of seats beside you right now… Doesn’t this mean we can simply sit on those seats and flaunt our authority just like you?”

“Perhaps we might even do better than him and get promoted even more quickly.” A youth with golden-dyed hair gazed at the palace hall with excitement as he rubbed his hands together with glee.

Crack… crack… An unbelievably muscular man stood up and cracked his neck, “Hell’s quite different from what I’d expected. When I first arrived, I was still immensely afraid of death. Who would’ve thought that Hell is a hundred times better than expected. Bloody hell, you guys had even prepared chairs for us.”

“What are we all still waiting for?!” The burly man with a menacing expression pointed at the palace hall and yelled, “Don’t you see? There’s nobody else in Hell right now! Take your seat, everybody! We are the fabled Anitya Hellguard of the Black and White that we often see on television! What are we afraid of?!!”

“That’s right! There are over a thousand of us and only one of him! What’s there to fear?!!” “The empty chairs are all waiting for us! Open the doors!!” “Get out of the way! Let me through!!”

The entire scene immediately turned chaotic.

There were hundreds of people who stood up and rushed towards the palace hall with bloodshot eyes. Qin Ye closed his eyes and sighed wistfully, “Where did I go wrong?”

“You were too soft.” Arthis bent her beautiful, slender silicone legs and gently rubbed them against the roof rafters, “You have no grasp of the minds of these Yin spirits. But that’s fine. This is a situation that almost all Emissaries of Hell have gone through before.”

“They come down from the mortal realm with fear and apprehension in their hearts, only to learn that Hell is quite different from what they had expected. In fact, it is a place devoid of rules and regulations. There is no law, no police, no government, and the only thing lying within the palace halls are sculptures and statues. And they are also surrounded by desolate plains. The desires and ambitions in their hearts naturally broaden and swell up, fuelled all the more by their conventional thought that the law would make an exception if the public acted together. Thus, all it takes is for one person to shout, and the thousand Yin spirits would instantly riot.”

“This is considered a Yin spirit riot. This is still considered one that is relatively small-scaled. One on a larger scale would be considered a Yin spirit rebellion. And one that is yet on a larger scale than that is called a Yin spirit insurgency. There have only been two insurgencies and five rebellions across the entire history of Hell. Riots occur approximately once every hundred years. You can’t afford to rest on your laurels right now… after all, what you’re doing is seizing time from the Yin spirits right now. As soon as you’re unable to contain the riots, then… your time as a Yama-King would naturally have come to an end.”

“Don’t forget that this is only a prelude. An appetizer to the main course that will be served when the Yin spirits residing all across Cathay sense the reestablishment of Hell. If your rickety frame of Hell still can’t withstand things at that time… something really big might just happen…”

Boom!!!

There were currently approximately seven hundred Yin spirits who had already made their move. All of them had bloodshot eyes and vicious, menacing expressions. But just as they arrived at the entrance of the palace hall, the miserable gleam of a pale white barrier of light appeared, sealing off the main entrance with strings of illegible ancient text.

“Open up!! Let us in!!!” “There’s no one in there anyway! Why don’t you let us help you?!” “Open up! Release us! Aren’t you afraid we’ll report your abusive ways to your superiors?!!” “You’re irresponsible, and you’ve failed to satisfy our requests. You’ll be removed from office in no time!! Open up!”

Qin Ye saw rows and rows of twisted faces and expressions. The crowd of Yin spirits were so tightly packed that their bodies could barely even be seen. Despite that, Qin Ye could see a look of burning desire for power on the face of the middle-aged man; a look of wild ecstasy on the face of the burly man; a penchant for violence painted across the face of the muscular man; and a look of unrestrained release on the looks of the old people around.

“The disappearance of both fear and law have caused the tightrope of tension in their hearts to snap completely.” Qin Ye murmured and nodded his head thoughtfully, “I’ll remember this lesson.”

“Don’t worry. Hell’s Gate is the face of Hell, and there’s no way it would be breached without the impact of a million Yin spirits. As the founder of the new Hell, you have control over every single building constructed in this area. What are you going to do now?” Arthis spoke with interest and curiosity.

Qin Ye smiled faintly and snapped his finger. With a loud snap, the barrier of white light immediately vanished without a trace.

Yin spirits immediately poured into the palace hall as soon as the resistive barrier was removed. But in the very next moment, the Yin spirits who were leading the charge immediately cried out in fear and scrambled to retreat. The back lines continued pushing forward, while the front lines moved back. All of the Yin spirits clogged themselves up in just an instant.

The screaming, shouting and clamoring quickly faded away into a pin drop silence. And then, everyone slowly began to retreat in fear.

It was because Qin Ye was standing in front of them all, and he had now drawn his demonhead saber.

The miserably pale blade was immolating with gloomy netherfire. He slapped on the table and leapt to the front of the partition railings.

“What do we do now?” Qin Ye smiled faintly, “You’ve thoroughly brought me to my senses…”

“I’ve been far too… soft on you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately swept the demonhead saber horizontally in front of him.

Whoosh!! The effects now were vastly different from when he used it in the mortal realm. The casual sweep of his saber had caused the entire realm to echo with a soft buzzing sound, while countless Yin spirits were immediately drawn into the demonhead saber like a tsunami of Yin energy. A jet black blade light that was well over ten-meters tall had just shot out from Hell’s Gate and rushed straight towards the entrance of the palace hall.

CRASH!! The gravel on the ground scattered everywhere, leaving a massive chasm that was several meters deep in its wake. Countless Yin spirits were sent flying from the impact of the strike, while the ones who were struck dead on by the impact were completely vaporized.

At least one hundred Yin spirits had perished with that one single strike.

“Oh?” Arthis played with her hair, “When did you realize this?”

“Early on.” Qin Ye smiled as he walked out. Wherever he passed, the remaining Yin spirits would all give him a look of abject incredulity and disbelief, before turning their attention to the deep, dark, gaping hole in the ground. Their eyes widened, and they would gasp as they parted ways to make passage for him.

Dead silence.

There was not a single peep of sound right now.

Ghosts retreated everywhere he went. Just like that, he slowly made his way forward until he stood in front of the four-pronged cauldron.

“Haven’t you always been saying that Yin spirits would retain the memories of their past life unless Emissaries of Hell escort them to Hell? But… aren’t I the only remaining Emissary of Hell in this place?” Qin Ye rested the saber on his shoulder and scanned the scene. Not a single Yin spirit dared to look him in the eye right now. Wherever his gaze went, the corresponding Yin spirits would immediately lower their eyes.

Arthis flew out from the palace halls. Some of the Yin spirits around noticed the movements of the peculiar silicone doll, yet nobody dared to even smile right now.

“Remember, Hell… is a realm of its own. You’ve established Hell, so you can naturally say that you’re the creator of an entire realm.”

“The essence of your life has already begun to undergo a qualitative transformation. That said, a realm could be either weak or strong. Where your life ends up is entirely dependent on how far you can push the development of Hell.”

“If you’re capable, you might even be able to wage divine war against the other netherworlds and subjugate all underworlds under your Hell. At that time, you might even become comparable with the true gods of legends, Jesus, or Pangu.”

“In this place, you are god. The one and only god of the realm. Nobody can hurt you here.”

Qin Ye nodded. He already understood everything.

That’s right. ‘Nobody can hurt you’ was not synonymous with ‘you are the ruler of this realm’.

The number of Yin spirits who bore each their own ways of thinking was only going to grow. If there comes a point where their numbers grew quicker than the rate at which Qin Ye could purge them, they might very well organize their own government. At that time, who would be considered the ruler of Hell?

Who would be in charge of Hell?!

“I’ve still got lots to learn, huh…” He slowly walked forward and made a grasping motion with his hand. The bespectacled man flew over and landed on his knees in front of Qin Ye.

“You… what are you going to do…” His voice trembled, “I… I’ll make a complaint! W-we are currently already considered the ghost citizens of Hell… W-we have our rights as well…”

Qin Ye laughed.

And then he swung his blade.

Fwoosh… The saber passed through the man’s body without any sign of resistance.

The bespectacled man’s body dissipated quickly like a clear breeze. A spot of soulfire drifted up and floated towards the main palace hall and lit up one of the ancient lamps held by a Rakshasa sculpture.

“Anyone else?” He slowly turned around and slowly swept his gaze across the entire crowd. Everyone, including the burly man with the menacing expression and the muscular man, had trembling lips at this moment.

Thud, thud thud… Over the next five seconds, a series of countless muffled thuds rang out, and the remaining nine hundred Yin spirits knelt down and placed their forehead to the ground with a  posture of complete submission. Not a single word was spoken.

“Whoever told you that you could haggle with an official of Hell?”