Yama Rising

"Take a look; what do you think of this get-up?" In Ashmound, a middle-aged man was showing off his new clothes to his neighbors. It was a navy blue Tang suit, upon which were embroidered gorgeous golden chrysanthemums. The craftsmanship was excellent, and the Tang suit was split up into two layers: the outer layer was comprised of a thin and tight-fitting navy blue veil, while the inner layer formed the actual substance of the piece of clothing.

"It's not bad at all," an elderly woman praised with a smile as she inspected the item of clothing. "Did you buy it from the Tang suit store on the corner of the street? I also bought one from there, and if it isn't for the special occasion today, it would be far too precious to wear."

The man heaved a faint sigh as he inspected his surroundings, and only after a long pause did he continue, "Our lives are getting better and better..."

The streets were packed with netherworldly citizens, all of whom were wearing Tang suits and traditional Han robes. Ever since it was announced that the Qin Dynasty was going for an antiquated aesthetic, modern clothing such as suits, t-shirts, and jeans quickly disappeared from all of the major clothing stores. They were replaced by elegant traditional clothing that was very elegant and also relatively inexpensive.

Looking at this prosperous scene, who could guess that there was virtually no clothing at all to be seen in the Cathayan Underworld several years ago.

It still wasn't much, but at the very least, everyone now had a few new sets of clothes to wear. In addition to that, all types of accessories such as hairpins, jade belts, and traditional sachets were gradually becoming more and more commonplace.

In particular, everyone had dressed up in their best clothes for this day.

It was the 25th of September.

The founding ceremony was taking place in a few days, and the newspapers had already been hyping up the event for a long time. All netherworldly citizens capable of making the trip had already set off for Everburn, and as the first city to have benefitted from the nation's policies, Ashmound's citizens were currently the wealthiest in the entire country, so they were naturally participating in the festivities as well.

Many of the city's netherworldly citizens had already set off for Everburn starting from 20th September. At the beginning of the month, the Reflection Palace building officially became the city hall of Ashmound, while all national-level departments and officials had begun to move to Everburn. Apparently, extensive construction had taken place in the city. One traditional pavilion after another had been constructed, and it was said that they now had even more lodging and office buildings than Ashmound.

"Let's go, Old Man Wu. The Yin beast is about to set off; if we don't go now, then we'll have to wait for the next one in an hour." An elderly man emerged from the room and together with the duo from before, the three made their way toward the intersection.

In contrast with several years ago, most of the major intersections in Ashmound now had their own street signs. The station was constructed in an elegant and antiquated style, resembling an elongated pergola. By the time they arrived, a horse-drawn carriage with multiple doors that was over six meters in length was already waiting for them.

Each carriage was being drawn by two elephant-like skeletal Yin beasts with hooked spikes all over its body and saddles strapped to their backs, while a row of small food troughs was positioned up ahead. Everburn and Ashmound were currently the only cities with complete transit systems, and it was said that other cities, particularly those that had been liberated later on, only had crude transport systems between districts, cities, and counties.

Old Man Wu sat down onto the soft padded seat in the carriage, and he couldn't help but heave a satisfied sigh. A few years ago, no one could've imagined that life would become so good for the netherworldly citizens.

It was still a far cry from the living conditions of the mortal realm, but they had been shown the light of hope.

He cast an expectant gaze out of the window as he murmured to himself, "I look forward to seeing Everburn City. I've never been there before; I wonder what it's like and how many netherworldly citizens it has..."

The Yin beasts were very fast, but this was a journey across several provinces, so it was still bound to take a long time. In the beginning, everyone on the carriage could chat with one another, but soon, they were all growing quite drowsy.

After sleeping for an indeterminate length of time, Old Man Wu was suddenly roused from his nap by a cry of surprise?

"What happened? Have we arrived?" He rubbed his bleary eyes as he prepared to look out the window, but he immediately sensed that something wasn't right.

The earth was trembling as if countless horses were galloping along nearby. He hurriedly looked out the window, and he was shocked to discover that there really were countless horses galloping across the nearby landscape!

 On the major road around them were countless Yin beasts of all different descriptions, drawing carriages just like their own. The carriages were racing along, and all of them were traveling in the same direction.

Far away on the horizon, the outlines of a massive city had already become visible. Under the illumination of netherflames, the tall city walls were giving off a cold gleam, as if they were constructed from iron and steel, and they were being patrolled by countless Yin Soldiers.

We've arrived... Excitement and anticipation surfaced in the eyes of everyone in the carriage.

They had arrived at Everburn, the legendary capital of the Qin Dynasty. It was said that this was the first city under Hell's administration, and that it was the foundation upon which the shrewd and mighty Yanluo Qin had built his empire.

All of the netherworldly citizens on this carriage were from Ashmound were firmly of the opinion that Ashmound was currently the most advanced city in the Qin Dynasty. As such, they weren't actually very interested in the construction of Everburn. However, this was an important landmark that had a mystical and awe-inspiring quality to it, just like the Chang'an of the mortal realm. It was the capital of their dynasty, and it was like the roots of a tree, symbolizing a type of heritage.

However, not all of the carriages had come from Ashmound.

Many of the netherworldly citizens on the other carriages had never seen an advanced city before, and at this moment, there were countless curious faces pressed against the window panes of the carriages, and everyone was discussing what they were seeing in a spirited manner.

"So this is Everburn..."

"It's so majestic! Is this our capital?"

"I heard that this is the city where Yanluo Qin's army set off from on their conquest of Ashmound. We've come a long way since then, but this is still the motherland of the Qin Dynasty..."

"I really want to see the city gates! Those are the gates of the Qin Dynasty's first-ever city; they must be a spectacular sight to behold! This is the root of this dynasty's political power..."

Thus, one carriage after another passed through the fabled gates of Everburn amid bursts of excited discussion. At this point, Everburn City was a far cry from the dilapidated city six years ago. The city had walls that were over 30 meters tall, and on each wall were five bright red gates, through which countless carriages and throngs of people were entering and exiting the city incessantly. Despite the enormous volume of traffic, everything was proceeding in a very orderly fashion. Peering in through the gates, one would be able to just barely make out countless ornate and elegant pavilions and buildings in the distance.

The city currently spanned an area of around three hundred square kilometers, and it was the product of three years of blood, sweat, and tears from all of the Cathayan Underworld's construction teams. In total, that amounted to around 100,000 construction workers, and only two months ago was the expansion officially announced to have been completed.

The carriages from all of the provinces traveled into the city, and they were greeted by countless Yin energy screens hanging up in the sky. There were countless screens above all of the major roads and streets, and the same number was being depicted on each screen.

132:54.16.

Furthermore, this number was constantly decreasing in perfect synchronicity across all of the screens.

This was the final countdown until the founding ceremony.

Countless curious and excited eyes were examining the capital city of the Qin Dynasty. The city had been planned very well with organized streets and buildings, as well as long stretches of lush greenery. A string of red lanterns was hanging from each corner of the pavilions in the city, but none of them had been lit.

Traversing through the elegant and antiquated clusters of buildings, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that they had transmigrated back to the Han or Tang Dynasty. The construction style of Everburn was different from that of Ashmound in that it was more grand and majestic. However, despite the antiquated construction style, it was easy to see the modern elements that had been incorporated into the city's design. There were carriage stations, public transport, pubs, recreation centers... It was all of the luxuries of modern society present in a setting that was reminiscent of a long-gone era. Banners that read "Let Us Welcome the Founding Ceremony Together" were visible all throughout the city, and in conjunction with the Yin energy screens in the sky, they were creating an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation.

Countless Yin spirits had arrived at this city in the past few years, and each Yin spirit was like a drop of blood, finally transforming Everburn into the heart of this entire nation.

This heart was still quite tender and frail. It couldn't even begin to compare with the old Fengdu in terms of area, population, popularity, and technological advancement. However, it had witnessed the rise of the new Hell from nothing, and it was of vast symbolic importance.

Only five days left.

The entire Qin Dynasty was going to remember this glorious event.

……………………………………

The days passed by very quickly, and five days flew by in the blink of an eye.

Countless netherworldly citizens had gathered in Everburn, and even with the city's recent expansion, it was beginning to struggle in terms of accommodation. The government had underestimated the influence of the founding ceremony. On 30th September, the netherworldly citizens gathered in the city had already reached as high as fifty million!

Around 5% of all of the nation's netherworldly citizens had gathered here!

The government had thought that a short span of three years wouldn't be enough for the netherworldly citizens to develop a sufficient sense of belonging to the Qin Dynasty. As such, they had only prepared for an influx of fifteen million netherworldly citizens at the very most. The population of Everburn City was 25 million, so the government had only anticipated a maximum of forty million netherworldly citizens gathering in the city for the founding ceremony; never did they think that the actual number would exceed their maximal projections by a further ten million!

What they had failed to consider was that even with an insufficient sense of belonging, this was still a once-in-a-lifetime event. They had failed to consider the hardships that the netherworldly citizens had faced prior to being liberated by Hell, and how many Yin spirits had been forced to hide every day in the hollows of trees and in dank caves just to avoid those ever-present Yin beasts. They had also failed to consider just how heavy an impact the improved quality of life would have on all of the netherworldly citizens. The citizens had seen the rise of one government project after another, and their lives were changing every single day. Just the fact that they no longer had to fear attacks from Yin Beasts was already something that made them extremely thankful.

A complete and utter transformation had taken place in three years, advancing the nation from a primitive society to a feudal society. Perhaps there still wasn't a particularly strong sense of belonging, but at the very least, the majority of the netherworldly citizens had accepted this new administration, which was why they were happy to witness its official founding.

30th September, 12:30 AM.

There was still half an hour until the commencement of the founding ceremony. Qin Ye, the Harken, Arakshasa, Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobutada, Gu Qing, and several other military commanders that had made significant contributions were all gathered in the rear palace.

No one was saying anything, but they could all sense the tension in the air. An indescribable sense of anxiety had found its way into the hearts of everyone present, and even the Harken was no exception to this.

Outside, the secretaries and assistants were busy at work, but they were operating in a very orderly fashion. The occasional hushed voice could be heard, immediately followed by the sound of shuffling feet as someone departed to take care of the task they had just been assigned. The constant sounds of activity outside created a stark contrast with the deathly silence inside the room, further exacerbating the tense atmosphere.

"Don't be so nervous," the Harken finally said after taking a deep breath, "Your speech isn't very long; it's just going to be a few sentences."

Qin Ye didn't reply.

He was also aware that it was just a few sentences; he also knew that it wasn't a long speech, but this was the founding of a nation!

Zhao Yun had already primed himself into the best possible condition. In half an hour, the scenes unfolding in Everburn City would be witnessed by the entire Cathayan Underworld of over a billion Yin spirits! How was he supposed to not be nervous?

Currently, there was cold sweat pouring out of his palms, and this was something that he was very accustomed to doing, but in this moment, he felt as if his heart were about to leap out of his chest.

"My Lord!" Right at this moment, the doors were suddenly opened, and Wang Chenghao rushed into the room. "Please make your way to the second floor. General Zhao has informed me that his preparations are complete, so it's time for us to adopt our positions in the final 20 minutes."

Is it finally about to happen? 

Qin Ye pressed a hand over his own chest as he took several deep breaths in succession. He then quickly rose to his feet, but his legs felt like jelly.

Not only was he struggling to stand up, even the Harken had to take two attempts before successfully standing up from its chair.

Oda Nobunaga and Oda Nobutada were also in the same boat. Their faces were bright red, and as Oda Nobutada stood up, his hands were holding onto the armrests of his chair in a white-knuckled grip.

It's finally about to happen... This is the return of the Cathayan Underworld from the ashes and ruins of its predecessor...

They were going to accompany one another and bear witness to this historic moment.

They were going to go down in the history books as the most important figures featuring in this grand event!