Yama Rising

The scene was very quiet, so quiet that chills were running down Qin Ye's spine.

There were dozens of children standing in front of him with their heads twisted to a virtually horizontal position. All of them were in a fetal position with their arms hugging their legs to their chests, and powerful Yin energy was emanating out of the holes that had replaced their facial features. Their mouths were opened wide as if in silent screams, and they were staring directly at Qin Ye in an eerie and wordless manner.

"Ahem..." Qin Ye cleared his throat before giving the children a wave. "How are you?"

Before he even had a chance to finish his greeting, all of the children before him vanished amid a gust of Yin wind, and the area around him cleared up again, returning to the usual oppressive emptiness.

That was not a good omen... 

Qin Ye didn't relax in the slightest. Instead, the fine hairs on the back of his neck had stood up on end. This place was giving him the same feeling that he had gotten when facing Chu Renmei. 

There was another Prefect-level evil ghost on this floor!

He hadn't even made it to the top floor of the Huang Clan's earthen building, yet there were already two Prefect-level evil ghosts!

"I can see why none of the visitors left alive..." He pursed his lips as he inspected his surroundings.

He discovered that he was currently situated in what appeared to be the classroom of a school.

The classroom was quite large, and it seemed that it consisted of many connected rooms with the walls between them knocked down to form a single room. The tables and chairs in the classroom were very neat and orderly, but they were covered in thick layers of dust. Furthermore, the walls of this classroom were also riddled with talismans!

In fact, there were far more talismans in this classroom than there were on the second floor, and walls were entirely covered in these talismans.

"The talismans here are identical to the ones on the second floor, but there are more of them. On top of that, their true energy has completely faded, which means that they've been plastered here for a longer time." He gently laid a hand onto one of the talismans, and in the instant that he did so, the frail talisman disintegrated into dust that dispersed through the air.

The disintegration of that one talisman seemed to have triggered a domino effect, and the remaining talismans fell away into dust as well. In the blink of an eye, all of the talismans had disappeared, revealing countless lines of text inscribed upon the walls!

The earthen building was constructed from earthen and wooden materials, and most of the walls were made from wood. At the foot of these wooden walls sat one tablet after another, upon which were inscribed dense passages of text.

"Reign of Zhiyuan, Year 19, Month 4, 3,000 troops were transferred from Yangzhou to defend Quanzhou."

"That same year, the imperial court recruited professors, scholars, and academicians from all provinces, cities, and counties. From Fujian, the imperial court recruited 55 professors, 26 scholars, 47 academicians, 7 instructors, and 27 scribes."

"... The Fulin province was renamed the Fulin Pass, and eight roads were constructed between Fuzhou, Jianning, Quanzhou, Xinghua, Shaowu, Yanping, Tingzhou, and Zhangzhou... "

These are more local records... Qin Ye made his way over to a certain tablet and began to carefully inspect it. Perhaps these things were completely useless, but no one knew what piece of information could allow him to string all of the puzzle pieces together into a cohesive story, so he couldn't afford to neglect any potential leads.

Thankfully, the contents of the tablets weren't very extensive, so just a quick glance was enough for him to tell whether it contained information that he wanted to see. After making his way past several tablets, he suddenly drew to a halt.

"Reign of Zhiyuan, Year 12, a major famine struck the Fujian Province. Cannibalism became a common practice, and lost souls became a common sight. Zombies were discovered in the earthen building. If these zombies could be eradicated, then peace and prosperity will return to the land."

Qin Ye gently stroked his hand across the lines of text, and a grim look appeared on his face.

There didn't appear to be anything amiss about this, but during that era of famine, who was going to eradicate those zombies for them? Who would have the money to hire a legitimate cultivator?

Also, how did they know that eradicating the zombies would restore peace and prosperity to the land? Was this simply wishful thinking or was there a basis to this statement?

There was too much information crammed into these passages. However, this wasn't the time for him to be thinking about such matters in depth, so he continued reading.

"Reign of Zhongtong, Year 2, Winter. Imperial Teacher Drogön Chögyal Phagpa arrived at the Huang Clan's village, accompanied by seven Tantric Buddhist Monks, and they awarded the village an inscription of 'Weng Ge Ge Le Ah Ye Jia Na Se De Niu'."

That was it... The information that Qin Ye wanted to see wasn't inscribed on the tablet. In reality, even he didn't know exactly what information he wanted. He felt as if he were holding a bunch of pearls in his hands, but he was missing the string that would connect all of the pearls into a necklace, and to further compound his woes, he didn't even know what the string looked like.

He heaved a faint sigh and was just about to continue onward when a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he immediately returned to that tablet before staring intently at it.

"Reign of Zhongtong, Year Two..." His thoughts were racing as he murmured to himself, "That's the first era title of the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire. According to this tablet, Phagpa arrived at the Huang Clan's village during the second year of the Reign of Zhongtong, which means that the fifth khagan-emperor had only recently been crowned at the time. It would've taken him presumably at least a year to firmly establish himself as the ruler of the Mongol Empire. Why was he in such a hurry to send Phagpa to this insignificant earthen building right after he stabilized his own political standing as emperor."

There was only one answer that Qin Ye could think of: it was for the medicine of immortality!

According to the documents that Lee Jung-sook had given him, many top-secret organizations in history such as the Imperial City Division and Department Six had all visited this village. Standing behind all of these organizations was the National Divine Guardian Division, which was the current Special Investigations Department!

Lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub... His heart rate was beginning to climb, and his complexion had also become a little flushed from excitement. An abstract line was slowly beginning to take shape within his mind, and he immediately pounced on this glimmer of inspiration as his thoughts began to flow. He directed his gaze back to the inscription of "Weng Ge Ge Le Ah Ye Jia Na Se De Niu".

"This is the long-life mantra of Tantric Buddhism..." His mind began to race faster and faster as he quickly paced back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back while murmuring to himself, "In other words, this village was also recognized as a long-life village in the Yuan Dynasty. However, according to my knowledge, there's only one type of medicine of immortality that can attract attention from so many emperors and drive so many top-secret departments wild!"

His Adam's apple shuddered, and even his hands were trembling slightly as he murmured to himself in a raspy voice, "The Taisui fungus, the number one medicine of immortality in history!"

In the instant that the words "Taisui fungus" were uttered by Qin Ye, countless howls and hateful cries of grief rang out from the crack between the third and fourth floors. At the same time, the air temperature in the surrounding area plummeted rapidly, and black Yin energy that was visible to the naked eye converged toward the gap between the two floors, forming a giant black hole.

It was as if this entire building was sensitive to the words "Taisui fungus".

Qin Ye took a glance at the black hole, and he could sense that it was where the Prefect-level evil ghost was situated. Furthermore, that evil ghost was at least on par with Chu Renmei in power.

However, the evil ghost hadn't attacked Qin Ye, and it was clear that they were wary of him as well. After all, all living beings had at least instincts, even if they didn't possess sentience and intelligence. Having said that, Qin Ye was willing to bet that if he were to recklessly go up to the fourth floor, the evil ghost would definitely attack him at all costs.

At the moment, there was no need for him to incur the wrath of another Prefect-level evil ghost. With that in mind, Qin Ye turned and departed in silence.

The Taisui fungus was something that had changed his entire life, and he was well aware of just how terrifying it was. However, if the Taisui fungus really were present in this place, then there would be even more mysteries that couldn't be explained.

"The Imperial City Division, Department Six, the Sticky Rod Division, and now, there's Phagpa as well. All of the emperors of each dynasty have sent people here. I can't think of anything else other than the Taisui fungus that can attract such interest. However, after all these years, has the Taisui fungus still not been completely harvested? If an emperor had discovered the fungus, what reason would they have not to take it away? Are they leaving it for someone else? Emperors across three dynasties have all awarded this place with the title of the long-life village, and top-secret organizations have constantly been coming here, which means that if there really is Taisui fungus here, then it hasn't been completely harvested yet! That's the first problem."

He quickly paced back and forth as he murmured to himself, "Secondly, Huang Jiansen said that he lived for over 1,200 years, which means that he would've been alive when the earthen building was first constructed. If he really has eaten the Taisui fungus, then how did he die? Those who have eaten the Taisui fungus are immortal and will never age, so how did he even manage to die?"

The mystery was getting more and more convoluted.

A thread seemed to have emerged for Qin Ye to latch onto, but in reality, this thread just led to another chaotic ball of yarn. He needed an answer, one that would allow him to see through the shroud of mystery and make sense of everything.

He needed a pair of all-seeing eyes that could grant him omniscience.

The truth behind the Huang Clan's earthen building seemed to have nothing to do with the irredeemably heinous soul, but judging from the puzzle pieces that Qin Ye had already collected, he could see that the irredeemably heinous soul was the crucial piece. Once he found out the identity of that soul, the entire mystery would instantly unravel!

Only then would he be able to learn the true nature of the Huang Clan's earthen building, as well as what role the residents played and what their objective was.

There was only one person who could shed light on the truth.

"Ryu Changmin." He leaped down onto the second floor. Throughout this entire time, the Prefect-level evil ghost on the third floor had refrained from attacking him.

"I'm here, My Lord."

"Get out of here right away," Qin Ye instructed. "Send a messenger bird to contact Ghost King Zhao, and get him to ask Phagpa's soul why he visited the Huang Clan's village all those years ago. Tell him to give me a response before midnight tonight."

"Yes!"

…………………………………………………

Everything was unexpectedly peaceful.

By the time Qin Ye returned to the first floor, it was already 4 PM. The eight hours between 4 PM and midnight were so peaceful that it was slightly unsettling, like the calm before the storm, and Chu Renmei didn't appear.

Right on the stroke of midnight, Qin Ye opened his eyes as he laid on his bed.

It was the final 24 hours left until the Cold Suit Festival, when all the ghosts would come out to roam, and even he didn't dare to stay in the Huang Clan's earthen building during that festival. Furthermore, following the passing of the festival, it would become virtually impossible to capture that irredeemably heinous soul.

As such, he couldn't afford to waste even a single minute today!

With that in mind, he immediately got out of bed. He encountered no obstruction as he left the Huang Clan's earthen building, and as soon as he arrived at Anjing Village, he was immediately invited into a rented room by Lee Jung-sook's bodyguards.

With enough money at her disposal, there wasn't any place that she couldn't rent. The room that she had rented was rather crude and shabby, but it was very tidy and clean. There were a few couches and tables in the room, and as soon as Qin Ye arrived, Wu Daozi, who had already been waiting for quite some time, immediately rose to his feet. "My Lord, I have the information you requested."

"Take a seat." Time was of the essence, and Qin Ye had no intention of making small talk. All he wanted was to hear the answer right now. As soon as he sat back down, Wu Daozi pulled out a sheet of paper. The sheet of paper was completely identical to the talisman that Qin Ye had previously taken a photograph of. 

He explained, "This talisman is called the Azure Emperor Coiled Dragon Talisman. It's one of the core talismans of Tantric Buddhism, and it's exceedingly rare to see it circulating in the outside world. The talisman can only be found in Tantric Buddhist Temples of the branches of Lamaism and Hinayana. It can only be created by a cultivator of at least the Infernal Judge level, and it's one of the highest caliber talismans in existence."

"Please take a look here," Wu Daozi continued as he pressed two fingers against the paper. "The font is long and slender, seemingly influenced by the Manchu language of the Qing Dynasty. The function of this talisman isn't to seal something away. Instead, it's to ensure equilibrium."

"Equilibrium?" Qin Ye stroked his own chin with a contemplative expression. "Equilibrium in what regard?"

"Equilibrium on a mental front," Wu Daozi replied. "Any living being will slowly lose their sanity under the effect of exposure to Yin energy that's outside of their tolerance range. This is a result of excessive Yin energy ruining their Yin-Yang equilibrium."

He gently tapped the talisman as he continued, "This talisman is able to enhance the Yang energy of a certain place, allowing its inhabitants to retain their sanity and maintain a shred of mental clarity at the very least."

Qin Ye was immediately enlightened upon hearing this. These talismans were there to maintain mental equilibrium!

This revelation was like a beam of light that pierced straight through the shroud of mystery surrounding the entirety of the Huang Clan's earthen building!

However, beyond this shroud of mystery wasn't paradise or nirvana. Instead, it was an extremely terrifying answer. Qin Ye's thoughts were like budding seedlings about to break out of the soil, and there was only one thin layer of figurative soil standing between him and the truth.

"What about General Zhao's response?" He was holding onto the armrests of his chair with a white-knuckled grip. This response could be the final burst of driving force that he needed to break through the soil!