Chapter 984: Arthis’s Transformation
The arrival of Qin Ye with the Harken on his shoulder didn"t attract any attention, and neither of them turned their attention toward the city that was just beginning to be established. Instead, both of them cast their gaze into the six paths of reincarnation.
"Is that... Arthis?" Qin Ye asked in a surprised voice as he raised an eyebrow.
"It seems like it..." The Harken was also quite taken aback. "But how did this happen? Her Yin energy has increased by 1% in just a few months! This rate of growth is incredible!"
What on earth is going on?!
High-grade underworld emissaries could no longer achieve cultivation progression through h.e.l.l"s Record. If they wanted to reach the Yama-King level, there would only be two options available to them.
The first option was to do so through a grand script of death. They would have to establish their own mythology in the mortal realm, then acc.u.mulate followers over the course of centuries until they could finally complete their metamorphosis.
The second option was to constantly acc.u.mulate more accolades in order to progress through h.e.l.l"s administrative system. High-grade underworld emissaries were different from their low-grade counterparts in that many belonging to the latter category only had official t.i.tles but no actual administrative power. In contrast, virtually all high-grade underworld emissaries had substantial administrative power, and if they could make a breakthrough, they would be perfectly deserving and justified Yama-Kings.
However, these accolades couldn"t just be acc.u.mulated quietly, they had to be reported to the higher-ups as well and be seen by King Yanluo.
Presentations had to be made, and these accolades were built up over the course of lengthy political careers!
Thus, never had there been an instance like this one, where an underworld emissary had rapidly improved their powers in silence!
Qin Ye and the Harken exchanged a glance before both of them swept directly toward the core of the six paths of reincarnation as a gust of Yin wind.
Within the ma.s.sive mountain of fire, one pa.s.sageway after another was split up by the karmic flames. In contrast with how empty the six paths of reincarnation had been several months ago, there were countless Yin spirits that had come down from the mortal realm here, and through a constant process of selection, hundreds of underworld emissaries were quickly selected to fill the various roles in the six paths of reincarnation. At this point, the six paths of reincarnation were already bustling with activity with low-grade underworld emissaries regularly entering and exiting the premises.
Qin Ye and the Harken were intentionally concealing themselves, so no one could sense their arrival. They had witnessed the creation of the six paths of reincarnation in person, so they weren"t unfamiliar with the pa.s.sageways within it. Soon, they pa.s.sed through an area with densely packed office buildings and arrived behind the area.
There, they were greeted by the sight of a ma.s.sive Ksitigarbha statue with golden Buddhist lanterns hanging all over its body. Behind the statue was a tightly shut black wooden door, upon which was engraved a piece of artwork depicting Zhong Kui capturing ghosts. [Zhong Kui is a deity in Chinese mythology that is said to protect homes and ward off evil.] Bursts of Yin energy were surging out from the gaps around the door, and in the blink of an eye, Qin Ye and the Harken had already pa.s.sed through the door.
Beyond the door was a ma.s.sive path that was 200 meters wide and over a kilometer in length.
There were giant red pillars situated at intervals of 100 meters on either side of the path, upon which were engraved reliefs of all h.e.l.l"s Abyssal Prefects and Yama-Kings. These pillars were connected by angular beams, and strings of lit lanterns trailing down by about 30 to 40 meters were hanging at 10-meter intervals along these beams, burning with green netherflames.
It was as if these giant pillars had formed a boundary, and beyond these pillars was a sea of Yin spirits, all of whom had died terrible deaths. Some of them were missing limbs, some of them were missing heads, some of them only had half their bodies intact, and they were wearing attire from all eras. It was like witnessing a sea of agony, and all of the Yin spirits were frantically trying to pa.s.s through the boundary formed by the giant pillars with all their might, yet none of them were able to succeed.
"Looks like Arthis has really done her homework." Qin Ye was quite impressed.
However, the Harken shook its head with disapproval as it said, "There"s no originality or creativity at all. This is the renowned "Inner Demon Path" of Fengdu, and she"s copied it to a tee. On this path, one would be scrutinized by countless agonized Yin spirits, and no matter how brave or brazen they are, they"ll be sure to be struck by a sense of fear. All those who are put onto this path were extremely controversial or heinous figures during their lifetimes. These people are unable to be judged by the Department of Prudence and can only be sent here to be judged by the warden in person."
It pointed its chin forward, and right at the end of the path, a bright red gate swung open. The gate was also extremely ma.s.sive in size, and one could just barely make out the outlines of a palace beyond the gate. Even though there wasn"t a single person in sight, the gate still struck the beholder with an instinctive sense of awe and fear.
"Can you feel it?" the Harken asked as it cast its gaze toward the palace through narrowed eyes.
Qin Ye nodded in response with a solemn expression. "I can sense a very strange type of power that definitely doesn"t belong to Arthis herself."
Furthermore, Arthis"s Yin energy was becoming more and more powerful by the second!
It wasn"t just her Yin energy, there was another type of indescribable power involved, as if something were being smelted and fused as one with her spiritual body.
This was extremely strange. It was exceedingly difficult to become a Yama-King. Otherwise, the Cathayan Underworld would"ve produced more than just 20 or so Yama-Kings during its history of several thousand years. However, at this rate, Arthis was definitely going to be able to become a Yama-King within the next century or so!
"Something"s definitely gone wrong..." the Harken mused as it swept its gaze around the completely deserted path. "This is the core of the entire six paths of reincarnation, so there should be guards everywhere here, yet not a single guard is present."
"There"s only one possibility," Qin Ye a.n.a.lyzed. "Arthis knows that something"s gone wrong with her, so she sent the guards away before they could get hurt."
What exactly is going on?
The two of them exchanged a wary glance, then rushed directly toward the gate as a streak of black light.
The black mist up ahead gradually began to clear up as if they were pa.s.sing through a tunnel of black mist, and right as the black mist completely faded, both Qin Ye and the Harken were stunned by what they saw.
Inside the main palace, Arthis had already reverted back to her true form, which was the head of a gorgeous woman with Yin energy surging out of all of its orifices. The head was several dozen meters in size with a pair of bright red eyes, and it was hanging in mid-air like a miniature sun. The hair on the head was spread in all directions like silken threads, extending into the sea of Yin spirits beyond the rows of pillars before pulling back bright white b.a.l.l.s of light that were frantically stuffed into Arthis"s mouth.
The intricately designed warden"s office around her had been completely demolished with the desk, screens, tables, and chairs all smashed into countless sc.r.a.ps of broken wood. The sound of chewing could be heard alongside the anguished howls of countless Yin spirits, and Arthis"s teeth were chomping down incessantly as Yin energy and threads of white light erupted forth in a frenzy. Arthis"s eyes were completely bloodshot from starvation, and it was as if she couldn"t stuff the b.a.l.l.s of light into her own mouth quickly enough.
"I"m so hungry!!" She had also seen Qin Ye and the Harken, but she was too busy eating to talk. Each time she opened and clothed her mouth, hundreds of b.a.l.l.s of light were devoured, and it seemed that she had already been doing this for quite a while.
"That"s light of worship!" Qin Ye exclaimed in an incredulous manner. He was far too familiar with these b.a.l.l.s of light!
Light of worship would only appear from a religion, and he was certainly no stranger to this as he had just landed a ma.s.sive bounty of worship in the new continent!
The quant.i.ty of light of worship that Arthis was devouring couldn"t compare with that stemming from the grand script of death, but the power of light of worship was determined by the faith of a religion"s followers. Qin Ye had been able to progress to the mid Yama-King level off the back of the worship and faith from Dax"s hundreds of thousands of followers, but where was this light of worship coming from in the six paths of reincarnation?
Was it coming from the sinful Yin spirits here?
"Have you ever seen something like this before?" Qin Ye asked as he stared at the ravenous Arthis in a slack-jawed manner.
The Harken was also completely rooted to the spot as it shook its head in response. "Never..."
Right at this moment, slight tremors ran through Qin Ye"s chest, and before he had a chance to react, Xu Fu"s notepad flew out of his chest without any warning before flying rapidly toward the center of the hall as fast as a bolt of lightning!
This was a very abrupt development, but Qin Ye and the Harken also reacted extremely quickly.
Right as the notepad flew out of Qin Ye"s chest, a chain erupted out of his sleeve like a venomous viper, shooting directly toward the notepad. However, in the instant the chain came into contact with the notepad, a clear clang rang out, and the chain was unable to wrap itself around the notepad!
At the same time, an indistinct layer of scarlet light had already arisen from the surface of the notepad, and the light was rapidly becoming brighter and brighter before finally imploding into a cloud of red mist that transformed into countless complex runes.
"What"s going on?" All of the Harken"s fur had stood up on end as it stared at the notepad with a stunned expression before swinging around to face Qin Ye. "You can"t grab it with your chain?"
Qin Ye looked down at his own hand with a shocked expression. In the instant that the chain had come into the notepad, he had felt an extremely strong burst of recoil power that was definitely not below the Yama-King level!
However, this wasn"t the time to be pondering that. This notepad was far too significant, and his top priority was to recover it. With that in mind, he instantly swept a sleeve through the air, and hundreds of chins shot forth like lightning in unison. At the same time, the Harken opened its mouth to expel a streak of golden light that surged toward the notepad like a golden serpent.
They definitely couldn"t allow any mishaps to take place when it came to this notepad!
The chains and the streak of light surged rapidly through the air, yet right at this moment, a burst of golden light suddenly appeared up ahead to intercept both of them. Immediately thereafter, a tall figure emerged in front of the notepad.
It was Zhao Yun.
"It"s alright, my Lord," Zhao Yun said as he scrutinized the notepad intently. "This is a very good thing!"
Qin Ye was very relieved and rea.s.sured to see Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun was also aware of just how important this notepad was, and he definitely wouldn"t make jokes on such an important matter.
Meanwhile, more and more runes were rising up into the air from the notepad, and as more runes appeared, the color of the notepad also began to gradually lighten. At the same time, Qin Ye noticed with lation that the cover of the notepad was beginning to gently vibrate!
It was as if a film that had been in place for a long time was about to come off!
"What"s going on?" Qin Ye asked as he turned to Zhao Yun. "What"s happened to Arthis, and what is happening to Xu Fu"s notepad? Xu Fu has cast a bloodline restriction on the notepad, making it very difficult to access, so why..."
A hint of disbelief appeared on his face as the vibration of the notepad"s surface became more and more p.r.o.nounced, and some of the pages were even beginning to bulge upward.
Was it being affected by power that was about the Yama-King level?
A smile appeared on Zhao Yun"s face as he replied, "Indeed, Xu Fu has placed a bloodline restriction on the notepad, making it impossible to access for anyone aside from himself. Even I would struggle greatly to undo the restriction. However, just because I can"t do it doesn"t mean that the six paths of reincarnation are also incapable of such a feat. Don"t forget that our six paths of reincarnation are the most special areas of life and death in this world."
Qin Ye"s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this. "What about the six paths of reincarnation make them..."
His voice suddenly cut off as a thought abruptly occurred to him.
What he had forgotten was that they hadn"t constructed the six paths of reincarnation exclusively by themselves. Instead, it also contained not only the body of the ancient G.o.d, Yu Kiang, but also the Chalice of Preiddeu Annwn!