Yama Rising

On some matters, scientists were complete idiots. They had no idea just how significant Zhao Yun's announcement was.

Archimedes and Aristotle exchanged a glance, and they could see their own astonishment mirrored in one another's eyes.

However, there was no time to waste, and they had to speak up!

"Yanluo Qin." Aristotle finally stood up as he asked, "Are you certain that the energy resource is going to be exclusively used domestically?"

"That's right," Zhao Yun replied in Qin Ye's stead. "However, let me remind you again that we are willing to export the energy resource to other nations that need it, which means that other nations can apply for it. Once an application is submitted, we'll review it and decide whether or not to release our energy resource to that nation based on a series of criteria."

Silence quickly descended over the entire venue.

No one had anticipated this turn of events. In their eyes, the only possible point of contention here would be whether the Cathayan Underworld released a report during the conference or not, but no one could've predicted that the Cathayan Underworld would decide to place its own energy resource under lockdown!

The scientists didn't know what to do, and they turned to Archimedes in unison for guidance.

Archimedes was gnashing his teeth together tightly. That declaration from Zhao Yun changed absolutely everything!

After a long silence, he finally said, "As the president of the World Energy Resource Research Organization, I hereby announce an adjournment of this conference. The conference will recommence in 30 minutes, please take a rest during that time. Also, I would like to invite the four secretaries of the World Energy Resource Research Organization to come with me for a discussion in the adjacent conference hall."

After that, he didn't wait for a response from anyone before vanishing on the spot as a gust of Yin wind.

At the same time, Röntgen, Franklin, Planck, and Schrodinger also vanished from their seats at the same time.

"As expected, they have no countermeasures against this," Zhao Yun said as he sat back down with a smile. "Your wisdom is unmatched, Yanluo Qin."

"It has nothing to do with me," Qin Ye replied. "Full credit goes to the panel of advisors. Even I failed to consider this possibility. However..."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he swept his gaze over the scientists who were beginning to exit the hall, and he said, "This is still far from over. Don't forget that the worst-case scenario that we anticipated is for the World Energy Resource Research Organization to immediately levy sanctions against us, and looking at things now, there's a very good chance that the outcome of a vote would be in favor of sanctions. Take a look, all of the scientists are fuming!"

……………………………………

In the neighboring conference hall, no one was saying anything. Planck was holding the handle of his coffee cup so tightly that it was cracking audibly, and he was fuming in complete silence.

Not only was the Cathayan Underworld not fulfilling its duty, even though it held the new energy resource, it was openly provoking all scientists during the energy resource convention! How could they be so selfish?!

This wasn't the way that one of the four pillars was supposed to handle itself! Did they think that all the four pillars did was receive benefits from the rest of the world without giving back anything?

Archimedes swept his gaze over all of the scientists in the room. Every single one of them could be counted as the cream of the crop even among Nobel Prize recipients in the mortal realm. All of them were vastly renowned figures that were worshiped and revered in the scientific world, yet they were being treated like fools by the Cathayan Underworld! Archimedes was quickly considering what to say next, as well as everyone's possible reactions, and only after a long while did he break the silence. "Everyone..."

Before he had a chance to say anything else, Planck erupted into a furious outburst. "How could he do this?! He's completely disregarding the entire world! What is he trying to do? Is he trying to return to the Cathayan Underworld's old ways? Has he not learned his lesson from looking back over the history of the past 1,000 years? I thought this third King Yanluo would be different, but he's no different at all from the second King Yanluo!"

He took a hateful chug of coffee before slamming the coffee cup down onto the table as he continued, "A man like him has no right to be the leader of one of the four pillars! He's nothing more than a shameless bastard!"

"Max, I hate to break it to you, but they really are entitled to do this," Aristotle sighed.

"How?!"

"What are you saying? According to international regulations, they must release the data from the first stage of their new energy resource plan! They've already brought out a prototype unit, which means they're already at least at the fifth or sixth stage! What gives them the right to refuse to perform their duties?!"

"Are you siding with them now?! Don't tell me there's some type of unspoken alliance between the four pillars!"

A loud commotion instantly erupted, and Archimedes massaged his own glabella with a wry smile as he said, "Please listen to me, everyone. Ghost King Zhao just said that their energy resource is going to be used exclusively domestically. Do you still not understand what this entails? Something that can impact the entire world has to be made available to the entire world first. According to international trade regulations, international laws can only be enforced on something that's been distributed to the entire world. This applies to the majority of things in the world with only rare exceptions such as forbidden arts. If they choose to withhold the new energy resource from the international market and don't even submit an application to do this, then we can't adjudge this new energy resource as an internationally distributed item!"

This was the main issue at play here!

The Cathayan Underworld was taking advantage of a loophole in the international regulations!

In reality, these two laws were contradictory to one another. According to the laws of the Coalition of Underworlds, details pertaining to all things capable of affecting the entire world and shaping an era had to be released to the entire world for supervision and collaborative purposes.

However, international trade regulations stated that something had to enter the international market first and be recognized by the entire world before being falling under the scope of international regulations. This was a law that had been created for the convenience of the energy resource and the futures trading markets.

Prior to today, no one had imagined that a nation would keep something that could impact the entire world, the key to ushering in the next era, exclusively within their own borders without releasing it to the rest of the world!

Were they mentally impaired?!

For the sake of their nation's interests and their status in the underworld, as well as speaking rights in the world and political aspirations, there was no way that any ruler of any nation would make a decision like this! Anyone who made this type of discovery would immediately present it to the rest of the world in order to attract investment and secure patent usage rights, as well as assistance from all of the world's major research laboratories. These were all extremely beneficial things to have.

However, the Cathayan Underworld had made it clear that they were keeping the new energy resource to themselves and refusing to release it to the rest of the world!

Archimedes had immediately realized the impact of this announcement upon hearing it. After all, as the president of the World Energy Resource Research Organization, he was well versed with all international trade regulations pertaining to the energy resource market. As such, he was absolutely appalled by just the sheer shamelessness of the Cathayan Underworld!

"Are they really not going to release their energy resource to the rest of the world?" At this point, Schrodinger had also realized the implications behind this, and he turned to Archimedes with a dazed expression. "Have they gone insane? This is enough for the Cathayan Underworld's name to be etched in the history of the underworld for the rest of eternity! How could they just pass up this opportunity to go down in the history books like this?!"

No ruler with any shred of intelligence left would do something like this!

The other secretaries also wanted to say something, but they discovered that the case being made by the Cathayan Underworld was completely irrefutable!

All of the scientists across the entire world were eagerly awaiting the rise of this new sun in the underworld, yet they were being told that the sun was only going to shine on the Cathayan Underworld and no one else!

After a long while, Röntgen finally said in an enraged voice, "They're completely renouncing their duties to contribute to the advancement of the rest of the world!"

Regardless of whether it was in the mortal realm or the underworld, in cases of contradictory laws, the first instance the contradiction was presented almost always concluded in a "not guilty" verdict.

A bucket of cold water had been poured all over their hope and anticipation, but they couldn't even refute anything!

"That's not all." Franklin pursed his lips tightly, causing the wrinkles around his mouth to deepen significantly. "If you think that's the extent of it, then you're severely underestimating the Cathayan Underworld."

"That's right," Aristotle said with a cold expression. "Don't forget that the Cathayan Underworld didn't just say that the energy resource would be kept to themselves without any room for compromise. If other nations applied for it, the energy resource could still be made available to them..."

There wasn't any need to elaborate any further.

This was an extremely sly and unscrupulous tactic!

Once the new energy resource appeared, who wasn't going to apply for it? Which death god could withstand the pressure of their entire nation and simply refuse to apply for the new energy resource?

Perhaps they could simply keep the existence of the Cathayan Underworld's new energy resource strictly confidential to their own people, but that was only a bandaid fix.

The Cathayan Underworld shared borders with the Hindustani Underworld and the Aegyptian Underworld. One day, on what should've been a pitch-black night, the netherworldly citizens residing on the borders of the two latter underworlds would see lights appear in the Cathayan Underworld across the border! How could the new energy resource continue to be kept a secret then?

Once it became revealed to the entire world that the Cathayan Underworld's new energy resource had been kept a secret from them, worldwide protests would most likely follow!

The Cathayan Underworld and the Hindustani Underworld had never expanded their borders, so their political systems were authoritarian in nature. However, the other two pillars, the Argosian Underworld and the Aegyptian Underworld, both had democratic political systems!

They had conquered too many other nations, resulting in a myriad of political parties. For example, Osiris belonged to the Spiritual Faith Party founded by Queen Cleopatra the Seventh. These death gods were subordinates to the ruler death god of the Aegyptian Underworld, but they certainly wouldn't mind taking advantage of suitable opportunities to create chaos and seize the throne for themselves!

"When that time comes, both the Aegyptian Underworld and the Argosian Underworld will suffer severe implications! At the very least, there will be mass strikes, and even civil wars wouldn't be out of the question!" Aristotle ran his fingers through his own white hair, and a slightly twisted look appeared on his face as he clawed at his own scalp.

This was an extremely unscrupulous move from the Cathayan Underworld!

"Even that's not the extent of it. I must say, the Cathayan Underworld's current panel of advisors are extremely competent," Archimedes sighed. "Think about it: what do we care about the most right now?"

A slightly befuddled look appeared on Aristotle's face as he cast his gaze toward Archimedes, but a thought then immediately occurred to him, and the netherfire in his eyes sprang up significantly as he exclaimed, "We want to know the current state of the Cathayan Underworld!"

Archimedes nodded firmly in response.

Indeed, what was the current state of the Cathayan Underworld? Why was it that Qin Ye refused to open up the nation's borders even after taking over as the third King Yanluo?

"If they refuse to release their energy resource to the world, then our hands would be completely tied. If we go to them, then the entire world would get to see the Cathayan Underworld's new energy resource, but if we don't go to them, we'll never know exactly what the current state of the Cathayan Underworld is like! As expected of the Cathayan Underworld, they've never excelled in the scientific fields, but their guile and cunningness are unmatched..."

Due to the contradictory laws at play here, the best way for them to proceed would be to keep all information pertaining to the Cathayan Underworld's new energy resource strictly confidential while also accelerating research into their own new energy resource.

However, if they were to enter the Cathayan Underworld, countless journalists would undoubtedly follow. Once the bright lights and the energy-resource-driven new industries of the Cathayan Underworld were revealed to the entire world, all of the other three pillars would face a ferocious storm of civil unrest.

Essentially, the Cathayan Underworld had earned itself several dozen years of peace!

With that in mind, Archimedes knew that he couldn't let this drag on any longer. He took a deep breath to compose himself, then turned toward all of the scientists present and said, "Everyone, I've said this in the past: the Cathayan Underworld is not to be trusted! Do you believe me now?"

No one offered a response.

This was an extremely effective tactic from the Cathayan Underworld, but there was one consequence that they had failed to take into account.

Actually, perhaps they were aware of this consequence, but the benefits derived from this tactic outweighed the drawbacks in their eyes, so they were willing to accept the consequences.

What Archimedes was thinking of here was the attitude of the scientific world!

After a long while, Franklin finally asked in a grim voice, "What do you suggest?"

"I suggest we don't delay this any longer and immediately declare the Prometheus plan!" Archimedes stood up as a grim tone also crept into his voice. "The Cathayan Underworld is playing with the entire world! They don't have any respect or consideration for anyone else! We can't just passively allow them to dictate terms like this any longer! If we miss this opportunity, the next chance we get to hold a gathering like this will be another 10 years from now! We must act now and tell all of our peers that we can no longer depend on the Cathayan Underworld's new energy resource any longer! Only by holding the sword in our own hands can we ensure that we won't be harmed by it! Come, everyone, come to my side! The energy resource conference will run for three days, which is more than enough time! Let's show the Cathayan Underworld the consequences of disregarding international laws and disrespecting the entire world!"