Yama Rising

Thud thud thud! Thud thud thud! 

The sound was coming rapidly from all directions like a torrential downpour, and it was relentless, creating spine-tingling tremors that made Lee Jung-sook feel as if her head were about to explode!

She forcibly repressed her discomfort as she cast her gaze out the window, only to discover that the passing scenery had already become completely blurred and indistinguishable. It was as if they were traveling along the passageway between Hell and the mortal realm, and everything was warped and abstract.

She was scared, but she wasn't terrified. She had already endured the Hungry Ghost Festival, and in contrast with that horrific experience, this was nothing.

The driver's head was twisted around at an impossible angle, and the muscles on his face seemed to have completely stiffened. Only after maintaining that hideous smile for several seconds did he speak again. "I don't know what you're talking about."

An amused smile appeared on Qin Ye's face. "Have you heard of Su Daji? She was the true ruler of the Pearl Delta, and all of you used to serve under her." 

"I haven't," the driver replied with his stiff smile.

As they were speaking, the hole that Qin Ye had just burned into the car had already caught fire, and the fire was burning more and more fiercely, but it wasn't producing any smoke.

Qin Ye casually snuffed out the cigarette as he said, "I'll give you a chance. Tell me why you're here, and I can grant you a quick death."

The driver's smile became even more pronounced.

His facial muscles remained stiff and unmoving, but the corners of his lips were curving upward, presenting an extremely unsettling sight to behold. In the next instant, a pair of deathly pale hands that were stained with blood shot out of his chest, reaching directly for Qin Ye's throat!

Qin Ye remained completely still, but just as those hands were about to come into contact with him, they suddenly burst into white netherflames. The driver screamed as he slammed into the car door, then transformed into what appeared to be a flower formed entirely by countless hands. The hands then dispersed and shot forth toward Qin Ye as countless ghostly claws.

However, the outcome was the same. Before they even had a chance to reach Qin Ye, all of the ghostly claws erupted into white flames, and the flames were quite small, but they were enough to make the driver howl with agony. He didn't hesitate any longer as he smashed the car door off its hinges before shooting back in retreat.

During his retreat, his body had already transformed into a ghost with a head of extremely long hair. Furthermore, he had put on a long black robe, and when viewed from the front, he was nothing more than a mass of hands. His body was hovering in mid-air as if it were capable of defying gravity, and it flew back in retreat as it screeched with horror and alarm. At the same time, Qin Ye rushed out of the car as well, and an oil paper umbrella had already appeared in his grasp as he chuckled, "To think that a mere Anitya Hellguard would dare to attack an Abyssal Prefect."

Immediately thereafter, Kwon Kyung-ho shot forth amid a sharp screech at his behest, and the sound of an undulating tide rang out in the surrounding area as a sea of blood poured out of the ground alongside countless waving ghostly hands, which grabbed onto the evil ghost.

In the blink of an eye, the oil paper umbrella had already pierced through the evil ghost's shoulder.

ARRRGH!!! A blood-curdling howl rang out as all of the hands abruptly pulled back, transforming into a thin man with a head of long and unkempt hair.

He desperately grabbed onto his injured shoulder, and his mouth had already gaped open to over a foot wide, revealing rows of sharp white teeth. There was a look of extreme agony on his face, and Qin Ye exerted a bit more force, thrusting the tip of the umbrella forward slightly further as he said in an indifferent voice, "Do you know what Hell's dictum is now?"

The only response that he received was another gut-wrenching howl.

"Tell me!" Qin Ye slowly twisted the oil paper umbrella around as he interrogated, "Who instructed you to come here?"

The evil ghost was in too much pain to speak, and only after panting for three seconds did he cast his bloodshot eyes toward Qin Ye. At this point, his facial features had already become quite twisted, and he panted, "Someone... doesn't want you to continue this investigation... If you do... then you'll all die!"

Before he had a chance to finish, he transformed into a paper figure that drifted down onto the ground, then spontaneously combusted into netherflames and was incinerated into nothingness in the blink of an eye.

Qin Ye withdrew his umbrella as he leaned down with furrowed brows before picking up some of the ashes between his fingers.

"Is he dead?" Lee Jung-sook emerged from the car, and only then did she discover that they had diverged off the main road. Currently, they were on a small path that was lined with dense pine and poplar trees. The cold wind of the night was howling through the area, sending chills running down one's spine. The lights of the city seemed to be impossibly far away from them, and it was as if they had entered a ghost cave.

Qin Ye nodded in response. "Where do we go from here?"

"I'll drive." Lee Jung-sook took out her phone before taking a glance at it. "We're currently still 80 kilometers away from Anjing Village, and I don't think you have a driver's license."

Qin Ye nodded in response before getting into the back of the car, and soon, they were off and running again.

The scenery on either side of the car quickly flashed past the window, and Qin Ye looked out in an absentminded manner as he fell into deep thought.

What had just transpired had come far too abruptly, and there was a lot of information to process. Firstly, that evil ghost didn't know about Hell's dictum or Su Daji, so there was only one possibility.

"He must've come from 'inside'," Qin Ye murmured to himself as he watched the trees flash past through narrowed eyes. "He comes from the evil ghost paradise that's completely devoid of Yin energy and separate from this world. But how did he get out? Both the Harken and Brother Zhao said that those on the inside can't come out, so what's going on here?"

Qin Ye pondered the matter for a long while, but was unable to arrive at any definitive conclusions. There were too many possibilities, the likeliest of which was that the supernatural disaster 10 years ago may have affected the forsaken land. However, the world of the Yin spirits was always unpredictable and volatile, so he couldn't be sure of whether this was actually the case.

The Huang Clan's earthen building was like a yarn ball of mysteries, and the first loose thread had been found, but he was unable to achieve anything by pulling on it.

The journey was a silent one, and the car soon arrived at Anjing Village.

The village wasn't very big, nor was it very sophisticated. It was just like countless other villages in Cathay, with the rich fragrance of farmland in the air and the occasional dog bark ringing out nearby.

As soon as the two of them emerged from the car, several men in black suits quickly approached them before bowing in unison. "Madam Lee."

Lee Jung-sook didn't say anything as she cast her gaze toward the man at the very forefront of the group. Without a response from her, none of the men dared to stand up straight again. The man at the front of the group was a refined figure who appeared to be around 30 years of age. He was wearing a set of golden-rimmed glasses, and a drop of cold sweat was slowly flowing down his forehead. Right at this moment, Lee Jung-sook leaned down slightly and asked, "Were you the one who arranged the driver?"

"Yes..." A sense of foreboding welled up in the man's heart as he gulped nervously before asking, "May I ask what happened?"

Lee Jung-sook smiled, and declared, "You're fired."

The man immediately raised his head to stare at Lee Jung-sook with an incredulous expression, only to be met by a cold response. "You can't even verify the identities of the people you hire, so you're not fit to continue in this role."

She didn't even wait for a reply from him as she strode forward and asked, "Where is he?"

"Ah... Yes, Madam Lee, please come with me." Having made an example out of the man who had just been fired, all of the people present became even more respectful. A man in his early forties emerged, and he was practically doubled over the entire time as he led the way, and soon, they arrived at a warehouse.

This was a warehouse for storing seafood, and even through the door, they could smell the rank odor of the seafood inside. Lee Jung-sook's brows furrowed slightly, yet before she had a chance to say anything, the middle-aged man informed in a low voice, "He's... in a rather bad condition. He's a resident of the Huang Clan's earthen building, and his name is Huang Yunqing. He's currently 26 years of age and unmarried. He left to ply his trade elsewhere in the country, but he'll return at around late October every year to pay his respects to his ancestors. The local investigative service is currently still unaware of this, but ever since his return, some things have happened..."

"Spit it out!" Lee Jung-sook urged in an impatient manner.

Everyone immediately fell silent, and the atmosphere became a little strange as the middle-aged man gulped nervously, yet just as he was about to speak, Qin Ye suddenly mused, "Judging from this smell, I can already tell what's happened to him. Open the door. It's quite remarkable that he was even able to live this long."

The middle-aged man was rather taken aback as he turned toward Qin Ye, yet before he had a chance to ask any questions, Lee Jung-sook instructed, "Open the door."

"Madam Lee..." The man was rather hesitant to follow the instruction. It wasn't that he didn't want to open the door, but all of them were normal people, and the sight that lay beyond the doors of this warehouse was already beyond the imagination of normal people like them.

"I said open the door," Lee Jung-sook repeated. "Don't worry, I won't be in any danger with him accompanying me. Keep a lookout and don't let anyone else come in."

"Yes..." The middle-aged man took a deep breath. "We've already tied him up. Do be careful, Madam Lee..."

The man then gritted his teeth before opening the door, and Qin Ye stepped in first, followed by Lee Jung-sook before the door swung shut.

The pungent odor of seafood immediately wafted toward them, and Lee Jung-sook furrowed her brows slightly as she pulled out a handkerchief to cover her mouth and nose with. The entire warehouse was lit by old round light bulbs connected by extremely long wires. Under the dim yellow light, a series of seafood boxes and water tanks could be seen. At the very center of the warehouse stood a chair, and a series of ropes could be seen tied around the chair, but there was no one sitting on it!

"Where is he?" Lee Jung-sook looked around with a surprised expression as she loosened her grip on her handkerchief slightly. "Isn't he supposed to be tied up here?"

Qin Ye offered no response. Ever since they had entered Anjing Village, he had discovered that he was virtually unable to sense any Yin energy. However, he could hear something.

He could hear the sound of flowing waves and the tortured sound of panting.

The panting was very short and ragged, like the dying breaths of a man about to be inundated by the waves, and the sound was coming directly from...

Whoosh... He pulled out his King Yama's Seal and opened his oil paper umbrella without any warning. At the same time, a sharp howl rang out overhead, and something seemed to have grabbed onto the surface of the umbrella. Immediately thereafter, the sharp howl transformed into a blood-curdling cry which quickly traveled away from Qin Ye.

"If you're dead, then be a good ghost. Don't come out and try to frighten people." Qin Ye closed the umbrella, and Lee Jung-sook immediately cast her gaze toward the source of the sound, upon which she instantly shuddered by the sight that greeted her.

She didn't even know if what she was looking at could be referred to as a human anymore.

The man's entire body was rotten, and a series of fist-sized deathly pale human faces were protruding out of the rotten gashes, presenting an extremely disturbing sight to behold. It was as if the man's body were entirely made up of human faces, and the rank odor wasn't just coming from seafood, but also the smell of rotting human flesh!

The man was writhing as his entire body wrapped itself around the wires connecting the lights, seemingly as if he had no bones. Wisps of Yin energy were slowly flowing out of his wounds, and under the dim yellow light, countless black eyes all over its body were staring directly at Qin Ye and Lee Jung-sook, presenting a nightmarish sight that was enough to raise goosebumps on anyone's skin.

It was as if they were staring directly into the abyss.

Despite everything that she had already been through, Lee Jung-sook couldn't help but dry retch a few times at the sight of this disgusting creature, and she involuntarily sidled up closer to Qin Ye.

Qin Ye: "..."

"Why are you getting so close to me?"

Lee Jung-sook: "..."

"What the hell is your problem?" she spat through gritted teeth.

"If you're too close to me, it could greatly hinder my performance," Qin Ye replied in a justified manner.

Lee Jung-sook wrung her handkerchief viciously with both hands in a death grip, imagining it to be Qin Ye's neck. You only have yourself to thank for your single status, you clueless bastard!

She didn't want to discuss this type of topic with a clueless guy like Qin Ye, so she changed the subject. "What is that thing?"

There was a very complex look in Qin Ye's eyes as he replied, "There are three ghost festivals in Cathay, but all of them are different from one another. There is the Qingming Festival, the Shangyuan Festival, and the Hungry Ghost Festival. However, in the northern parts of Cathay, they are referred to as the Qingming Festival, the Hungry Ghost Festival, and the Cold Suit Festival."

He seemed to be entirely unconcerned by the snake-like monstrosity wrapped around the wires as he continued in a slow voice, "The Cold Suit Festival falls on the 1st of October on the lunar calendar every year, which corresponds to around late October on the western calendar. On this day, pre-cut paper burial suits will be burned for one's deceased ancestors, and that's what gives the festival its name. In ancient times, there was some poetry denoting the events that transpired during the Cold Suit Festival. On this day, countless ghosts come out to roam the night. The gates of Hell are opened around mid-October before closing after the Cold Suit Festival. However..."

He turned to the horrific creature with a cold smile, and declared, "I never ordered for the opening of the gates of Hell today!"

So where exactly had this monster come from? It was clearly an evil ghost, so why was it able to live among humans?

One twisted human face after another appraised Qin Ye's duo, and right at this moment, the creature suddenly spoke in a voice that bore only the barest of resemblances to Huang Yunqing's voice. "Die... All of you... will die!! All those who dare to enter the Huang Clan's village... will die... Hehehehe!"