Yama Rising

Right as his hand came into contact with the eyeball, the entire body of the fifth sun god shuddered slightly, immediately following which circles of dazzling Yin runes began to appear on its massive head!

One circle of Yin runes after another expanded outward, starting from the eyeball, and they were so complex that Qin Ye was certain that they were at least from the eighth circle. More and more Yin runes began to appear, and they were becoming brighter and brighter. The Yin runes quickly spread over the entire head, and a few seconds later, a string of mechanical sounds rang out from the head!

Qin Ye looked on with a complex expression as he heaved a faint sigh. The two ruler death gods of the new continent had done the same thing as he had, transforming the body of a god into a biomechanical creature.

Right at this moment, the skull of the fifth sun god completely opened up amid the mechanical sounds, and if one were to look closely, they would be able to see some faint separation lines on its skull. One intricately crafted golden mechanical arm after another extended out from behind the sections of the skull, and the entire skull shifted downward slightly, lowering the eye as a result, thereby allowing the people standing on the palm to be able to easily see into the translucent eyeball.

With a faint click, the head of the fifth sun god finally stopped moving, and a series of netherfire symbols were ignited on the golden patterns within the giant eyeball. There were countless netherfire symbols inside the eyeball, and standing in front of it, Qin Ye felt as if he were being scrutinized by the sun, or being gazed at by countless Yin spirits in space. It was... a truly indescribable feeling.

Qin Ye stood on the spot with a dazed look on his face, and a thought that even he found to be incredible had already surfaced in his mind. He gently laid a hand onto the eyeball, but as opposed to touching the pupil, he laid his hand onto the circle just beyond the pupil.

He gently pulled his hand downward, and to his surprise, the golden circle followed the movement of his hand! More mechanical sounds began to ring out, and as the golden circle revolved, the image of space within the pupil was constantly changing!

As Qin Ye's hand drew to a halt, a planet appeared within the pupil!

It was very far away from them, so Qin Ye was only just barely able to make out the planet's appearance, but in this instant, a fine layer of goosebumps appeared all over his body as he finally understood what this thing was.

It was a telescope, one that had been constructed from the fifth sun god's body!

The pupil at the center of the eye was the optical tube, while the circle just outside of it was the finderscope. In that case, the other circles had to be the star diagonal, and the teleconverter.

They had created an unprecedented super telescope inside the brain of the fifth sun god using its unique divine eye. This was a vast and grand project, the scope of which was truly unfathomable!

Through the telescope, one would be able to observe space and supercritical tides, and it was no wonder that it was called the Heavenly Platform.

Even Qin Ye couldn't help but be awestruck by this astonishing sight, and his gaze slowly roamed over the sophisticated mechanical arms, the black optical tube, and the glowing Yin runes. Only after a long while did he break his silence. "The mechanical arms are constructed from Flowing Fire Crystals, an S-grade ore."

As King Yanluo, perhaps he didn't know the functions of all S-grade ore, but he had to be able to recognize them.

"The optical tube is constructed from Dark Wicked Rock, another S-grade ore. Just these things alone would push the telescope's production costs into the tens of billions... Is this the price that must be paid in order to catch a glimpse of space?"

Secret didn't reply. He knew when it was appropriate for him to offer explanations, and when it was suitable for him to remain silent.

Qin Ye withdrew his hand, but he was staring at the giant telescope in front of him this entire time. After a long while, a wry smile appeared on his face, and a myriad of emotions surfaced in his heart.

Was he stunned?

He was, but this wasn't enough to astonish him to the point that he lost his composure. All capable rulers had a good deal of self-restraint, and revealing too much emotion was heavily frowned upon.

He wasn't astonished. Instead, he could sense some type of deep-rooted conviction in his heart crumbling away.

He had lived in the mortal realm for too long. Just as the second King Yanluo had said, he was trying to apply everything in the mortal realm to the underworld, essentially trying to jam a square block into a triangular hole.

The technology of the mortal realm simply wasn't the technology of the underworld.

True underworld technology was like what he was seeing right now. The materials used could only be found in the underworld, and Yin runes were used to power the entire system. Through this combination, even the body of a god could be modified!

This was no longer scientific technology. Instead, it was Yin energy technology, fantasy science! Whatever it was, it was completely different from the technology in the mortal realm!

This was what underworld technology should've been like.

In this world, there weren't any aircrafts with sleek lines or rockets blasting off into space.

Instead, what could be found in this world were the things that one would expect to find in fantasy movies and animated shows! It was a combination of unfathomable power and resources that could only be found in the underworld!

This was true planar technology, and it was the path that truly belonged in the underworld.

Only by doing this could one reach space from the underworld.

"I was wrong." An epiphany dawned on Qin Ye as an enlightened look appeared in his eyes. "I was wrong from the very beginning. I was only lucky to have developed the new energy resource, but returning to simplicity is required to produce truly cutting-edge technology in the underworld."

Yin runes and Yin energy were the foundation of the underworld!

Things like nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, computers, internet... These things simply had nothing to do with the underworld.

They could do some things and make the lives of Yin spirits more convenient, but never would they be capable of producing the most cutting-edge technology in the underworld.

In short, he had chosen the wrong path.

Yin energy and Yin runes should've always been prioritized in the development of the underworld! The right path wasn't to replicate the models established by the mortal realm and trying to find things to replace Yin energy and Yin runes.

"What is it called?" he finally asked.

"Ometeotl, the name of the god of creation," Secret replied.

"That's a good name." Qin Ye nodded as he asked, "Is this the Eye of the Stars?"

"No, this is the Heavenly Platform," Secret replied as he extended another respectful bow. "The heavens can be viewed through here, and it was personally named by Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa. The entire project to construct the only telescope in the underworld took 15 years to complete. Through the superimposition of Yin runes, it's able to pierce through the supercritical tide and truly see space. The specific details pertaining to the technology used are strictly confidential, and I only have an extremely surface-level understanding of it."

Qin Ye nodded in response, and his curiosity toward the new continent was growing further and further.

Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa had deceived the entire world and built something truly extraordinary here!

If this is the Heavenly Platform, then what is the Eye of the Stars going to be like?

He inspected his surroundings to find that there weren't any workers, nor any signs to indicate that work had been recently conducted here. This indicated that this place was no longer the main focus, and people would only come here when they needed to use the telescope for something.

In order to make space exploration a reality, one had to first understand what space was like, and constructing a telescope was always the first step to this process.

"So it seems that the new continent has already progressed beyond this first stage," Qin Ye murmured to himself. "Just this observation alone makes this trip worthwhile. They haven't kept the first step of their research a secret from me, and by doing this, they're luring me in while also fulfilling their promise to the second King Yanluo. I knew that no one would dare to go back on a promise made to that bully!"

Several seconds later, he turned to Secret and instructed, "Take me to the Eye of the Stars."

"As you wish," Secret replied as he pulled out a golden seal, then gently crushed it.

The resulting golden powder from the crushed seal instantly surged into the eyeball of the fifth sun god's body as if it had a mind of its own.

In the blink of an eye, all of the netherfire Yin runes around the eyeball turned a golden color, and immediately thereafter, a burst of pure white light erupted out of the pupil of the eyeball to completely encompass both of them.

Is this a new method of teleportation? By doing it this way, it's impossible for the subject being teleported to discern which direction they're being teleported in... Qin Ye's eyes narrowed slightly as he fell into deep thought. The more significant the project, the more it was able to improve an underworld's overall expertise in Yin runes. Just this teleportation method alone would be able to earn the new continent considerable sums of patent fees if it were released to the rest of the world.

Three seconds later, the light completely faded, and the surrounding scene gradually transitioned from pure white to inky darkness. In the instant that Qin Ye found himself able to see his surroundings again, two voices rang out in unison. "Welcome to the Eye of the Stars, the site at which the second stage of our space exploration project is being conducted."

Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa were standing right in front of Qin Ye, but he was looking beyond them into the distance.

It was dark, very much so.

The ground was covered in surging Yin energy, and dark Yin clouds reached all the way up to Qin Ye's knees. He could see thousands of underworld emissaries busy at work in this area.

This was a gigantic construction site that had been separated into several major areas in an orderly fashion, and the sound of tools being used could be clearly heard. Instead of watching the underworld emissaries to see how they were working, Qin Ye cast his gaze upward.

Up above, Yin clouds were surging and churning incessantly, filling the entire space, and there was a vast vortex over 20 meters above his head.

At a rough visual estimate, the vortex was over 200 meters in size, and within it was a vast starry sky.

Planets and planes were flashing through the vortex like fishing swimming in the ocean, and they were all giving off different types of light that differed in color, shade, and brightness. However, no matter how he looked at it, the scene simply seemed surreal to him.

"This is a simulated space created according to the eye of the fifth sun god." Mictlantecutli and Mictetikasiwa were standing beside Qin Ye, and Mictlantecutli said, "We created this simulation by referencing the footage captured by our most advanced image capture crystals, then reversed the footage through the use of Yin runes. Finally, we output the image through some machinery. It's a pity that we weren't able to participate in your new energy resource plan as many of these processes could be powered by the new energy resource."

Qin Ye nodded in response. "What are they doing over there?"

Truth be told, the Eye of the Stars was a slight disappointment to him.

He had been astonished by the Heavenly Platform, yet he felt nothing toward the Eye of the Stars.

Mictetikasiwa replied, "They're constructing the flying palace, of course. Through our observations, we determined that we'll be able to withstand the force of the supercritical tide, but there are some types of immeasurable energy interspersed through it, and we can't afford to take any risks. Hence..."

Right at this moment, a plane began to slowly make its way through the image presented in the giant vortex, and half of the image was soon taken up by the plane.

Qin Ye inspected the image through narrowed eyes, then suddenly drew a sharp breath as he took a couple of involuntary steps backward. However, his eyes remained firmly fixed on the plane, and his pupils had contracted drastically.

There was a clear sound of something being devoured coming from behind the plane, as if something were nibbling away at the plane...

Within the starry sky, there was something that was devouring the plane!

Qin Ye looked on with rapt focus as the image of the plane became clearer and clearer, and he finally caught sight of the gargantuan creature sitting on the back of the plane.

At the same time, several hundred bright red eyes turned toward him in unison.

"Hence, we did everything in our power to construct this fortress, this infallible floating city!" Mictetikasiwa declared in an excited voice that echoed throughout the entire space. "This is Omeyocan, the divine city! It is a masterpiece created using the most advanced Yin runes and technology of the underworld, and it will be the vessel that we use to leave this world!"