The entire city fell completely silent in this instant.
As the inner demon looked on at the scene unfolding before it, it understood everything.
Bai Liangping had been nothing more than a delectable bait, and in the instant that the inner demon took the bait, someone opened the tomb of Lishan Laomu.
For Hell, this was the only chance they would have to trap the inner demon, so they were striking despite the verbal agreement that had only recently been formed between Qin Ye and the inner demon.
Only one side was going to leave this city alive.
In the face of this unavoidable crisis, the inner demon was able to keep its cool as it said, “Two Yama-Kings and a being above the Yama-King level… What a formidable lineup this is. Where is your King Yanluo? Surely he wouldn’t be absent from such a grand occasion. In fact, I would feel a little insulted if he isn’t here.”
As soon as his voice trailed off, a humanoid figure slowly stood up atop the Harken’s head, then slowly raised a hand before gently thrusting it downward.
Black and white spiraled beneath the feet of all of the Yin soldiers present, and countless indistinct golden runes drifted through the air as all of the Yin soldiers yelled in unison, “By Hell’s Dictum, all rabble shall disperse!”
The collective voices of hundreds of thousands of Yin soldiers created powerful soundwaves that surged through the city, and the entire city seemed to ripple slightly before returning to its original state.
Upon hearing this, all of the Yin spirits in Yuncheng, the wandering ghosts that still hadn’t made it into the underworld yet, fell to their knees and kowtowed to the ground as they trembled incessantly.
Qin Ye and the inner demon’s eyes met from across the army of hundreds of thousands of Yin soldiers. Even though they were standing so far away from one another, the killing intent in the air was virtually palpable.
“We finally meet again, inner demon,” Qin Ye said in a cold voice.
“Indeed,” the inner demon replied. “It’s been 100 years since our last meeting… I shouldn’t have let you go last time.”
This was an arena where only one side would emerge alive, yet the two of them were chatting casually as if they were old friends. However, no one was growing complacent as a result of this. Even an idiot could sense the killing intent hidden behind their words.
This was only the calm before the storm, and the more placid this period was, the more terrifying the storm was going to be.
“If you dared to come after me back then, you would’ve spared me a lot of trouble,” Qin Ye scoffed.
If the inner demon had insisted on hunting down Qin Ye back then, then the second King Yanluo would’ve put an end to its life there and then!
“Your little guardian angel won’t save you on this occasion,” the inner demon chuckled. “The world’s gate needs him, so he can’t come here. I didn’t think that you would come after me again so quickly. It’s clear that neither of us have made sufficient preparations, so why are you in such a hurry?”
“I think it should come as no surprise to you that I want you dead as soon as possible,” Qin Ye replied with a faint smile. “Are you ready to accept your fate now?”
Seeing as he had already made up his mind and Zhao Yun had also adapted perfectly to the situation, there really was no reason not to take a gamble.
On this very day, the outcome of the battle between Hell and the inner demon was going to be decided.
With 570,000 Yin soldiers, four Yama-Kings, and 50,000 Divine Heavenly Guardians at Hell’s disposal, Qin Ye was confident in their chances.
Before the inner demon had a chance to reply, he had already raised his hand, and the melodious sound of a long horn rang out behind him.
At the forefront of the army of Yin soldiers, all of the cavaliers riding atop skeletal warhorses lowered their visors in unison while raising their spears. The warhorses lowered their center of gravity in preparation for a forward charge, and the killing intent in the air was virtually palpable.
Behind the cavaliers, rows of Yin soldiers also raised their spears, waiting for the order to charge.
Time seemed to have fallen completely still in this moment, and in the next instant, Qin Ye brought his hand down in a single, decisive motion.
The silence was instantly shattered by the sound of the galloping hooves of countless horses, immediately followed by the rumbling of war drums. The army had set off, and it was threatening to destroy everything in its wake. The battle had well and truly begun!
The inner demon’s pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this, and the oncoming army was reflected within its eyes. Even though it was a being above the Yama-King level, witnessing an army of over 500,000 Yin soldiers, led by four Yama-Kings, was still a sight that shocked him to the core.
This was the power of the new Hell!
The inner demon took a deep breath, following which a cold smile appeared on its face. “It won’t be that easy to capture my head!”
The inner demon’s forte was its untraceable nature, but having lived for so long, it knew that if it couldn’t retreat, then the only option would be to advance with full force!
If it could weather this storm, then it would survive. If it couldn’t, then it would be laid to rest here alongside Lishan Laomu!
In the face of the enormous wave of Yin energy, Bai Liangping suddenly plunged his hand into his own chest. His brows furrowed slightly as he did so, and he quickly pulled out a shard of some sort.
It was a piece of bone.
It was impossible to tell how old the bone was, but it was yellow with age and riddled with bloodstains.
In the instant that the shard of bone appeared, Zhao Yun’s pupils immediately contracted slightly, and he launched himself through the air, transforming into a river of crimson above the Yin soldiers.
At the end of the river was his silver spear, which was flying directly toward the inner demon’s throat with incredible speed.
Zhao Yun had already reached the peak of his speed, and his Yin energy had been completely released.
He had sprung into action so quickly that even the other three Yama-Kings didn’t have a chance to react, and he knew that he had to prevent the inner demon from activating that shard!
However, the inner demon was even faster. After all, it was more powerful than Zhao Yun, and the two of them were separated by a vast distance.
In the face of Zhao Yun’s devastating attack, the inner demon smiled.
At the same time, it tightened its grip around the bone shard, then injected its Yin energy into it in a frenzy. A resounding boom instantly rang out, and right as Zhao Yun reached within 100 meters of the inner demon, a white tide erupted up from the ground, forcibly separating the two.
A violent crashing sound rang out as Zhao Yun’s spear plunged firmly into the white tide, but the tide remained intact!
“I’ll remember this, Yanluo Qin, and I’ll be sure to repay the favor by a hundredfold in the future!” The inner demon’s cold voice rang out from behind the wall.
As soon as its voice trailed off, it vanished on the spot.
It was still in Yuncheng.
At this moment, Yuncheng was encompassed within the Southern Purple Palace 10-sided Array, so no one could escape.
Zhao Yun withdrew his spear with a grim expression, and at this point, Qin Ye had already arrived beside him. Qin Ye extended a hand and laid it against the white tide, upon which he discovered that it was a white skeletal wall that was as tall as the heavens!
It had split the entirety of Yuncheng into two.
On one side was Qin Ye and his army, while the inner demon was on the other side.
“You can’t break through this wall?” Qin Ye asked with a surprised expression.
Zhao Yun shook his head in response. “This is a wall formed by the remains of a being of fortune and worship. No one will be able to break through it.”
Before Qin Ye had a chance to ask, Zhao Yun continued, “There’s only one way to get through it: we have to use blight vermin! With their ability to devour all things, only they can break through this wall.”
This was a name that Qin Ye hadn’t heard in a very long time.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he asked, “Are there any blight vermin left in Fengdu?”
“There should be. Fengdu is a massive place, and you’ve seen their speed before. They had already been devouring each other for over a century before you first saw them, and there were still quite a large number of them back then, so there should at least still be a small portion left.”
Qin Ye nodded in response and was just about to order Arthis to fetch the blight vermin when Zhao Yun raised a hand to stop him.
“Your Excellency, we have to think about this carefully before we make a decision!” Zhao Yun cautioned with a grim expression. “Have you considered whose remains were used to activate this wall? Throughout the history of Cathay, there are only two people who are beings of fortune and worship!”
Qin Ye faltered slightly upon hearing this, and the questions that he had already set aside in his mind quickly resurfaced.
Why had the inner demon chosen to stay here for so long?
Why was the tomb of Lishan Laomu here?
Why was it that four Yama-Kings that he had never seen had suddenly appeared here as well?
“Who were they?” he asked in a grim voice.
“They were the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou,” Zhao Yun replied. “They are both beings of fortune, and the two of them shared the power of worship of the entire nation. Whichever one of them who had won in the end would’ve been able to create an era for themselves, and in the end, it was the Yellow Emperor who came out on top.”
Qin Ye clasped his hands behind his back as he paced from side to side in an agitated manner. “There’s no way the remains came from the Yellow Emperor, so they have to belong to Chiyou, but Chiyou has no grave! If I recall correctly, Chiyou’s body was dismembered by the Yellow Emperor, and the two pieces were dragged in two different directions by two longma that never rested and were perpetually in motion. The two parts of its body are the head and the body… Could it be that the inner demon stayed in Yuncheng for so long because it discovered one of the longma that was dragging along a part of Chiyou’s body?”
“That’s definitely not the case!” Zhao Yun shook his head in response. “Your Excellency, I’m assuming you’ve never seen a longma before. In fact, the number of longma witnessed by the Yama-Kings of the 10 Palaces and the Sixfold Ghost Kings combined wouldn’t exceed three. I had the fortune of seeing one in the past, and there’s no way that these creatures can ever be captured. They have a unique property, which is that whatever distance they’re away from someone when they’re first seen, they’ll forever maintain that distance between themselves and the beholder. They are invisible to mortals, and they can traverse freely through the three realms as they please. Even the second King Yanluo most likely won’t be able to capture a longma, let alone the inner demon!”
Qin Ye didn’t reply, and his brows were tightly furrowed.
He couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
The only being that the bone shard could belong to was Chiyou, but Chiyou had nothing to do with Yuncheng! How had the inner demon obtained that bone hard, and why had it stayed here for so long?
Qin Ye could sense that he was getting closer to the answer, but it remained just out of reach.
“There must be some things that we don’t know about hiding in Yuncheng, and those things are what the inner demong is targeting. Perhaps they could even be its trump card! I presume that the emergence of the four Yama-Kings is also closely related to this. My suggestion is that we refrain from unleashing an all-out assault right away,” Zhao Yun said. “While the blight vermin are being brought over to Yuncheng, I think it’s necessary for us to try and get a grasp on what they’re doing. In a world with power systems and cultivation, there are too many secrets, and even a single misstep could result in catastrophic circumstances. We have already reached the final stage of our battle against the inner demon, and we can’t afford to risk any lapses in judgment!”
