Yama Rising

The sounds of shouting and cursing was quickly followed by the sounds of the kitchen knife being plunged straight into flesh. Then, there were miserable screams amidst the sickening sounds of blood splatter. The bloody and depraved scene appeared to be being reenacted all around Qin Ye right now. Any person in his right mind would find such an incident completely abhorrent.

The depression, madness and bloodshed were all being revisited in an otherwise empty house.

“Send my ass! I’ll cut you down!!”

“Dare you care more, huh?! Who told you to interfere with what I’m doing?! Screw you, mother!!”

The young man’s voice, however, went from bellows of rage, to manic cries, until it finally became cracked and hoarse.

Qin Ye’s expressions were incredibly pale, not because of fear, but because of the sheer disgust at the images that had surfaced in his mind.

Perhaps there was a little bit of both, and the truth was somewhere in the middle.

For the very first time, Qin Ye felt an intense wave of nausea sweep across his heart.

“Hehehe… hahahaha!!!” Like a demon that had broken free from its shackles, he laughed maniacally, “Nobody’s going to care anymore… Finally, nobody’s going to care about me anymore!”

“Pfft!”

He knew it was the sound of Li Cheng spitting his cigarette butt onto his mother’s corpse.

“Oh.” Arthis responded stiffly.

“As long as you breach this bottom line, you’re not considered a human anymore.”

He tidied his robes, “Since this is something that had slipped through the cracks of the mortal realm’s laws, I’ll take it upon myself to handle this case!”

The Li family clearly lacked planning. Despite the sheer amount of space in their house, they nevertheless chose to use these spaces for multiple purposes. Take the kitchen for instance. The sink in the kitchen was generally meant for washing dishes, yet there was also a dusty toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste placed next to it. There was even a grimy mirror placed right in front of the sink.

But… as soon as he drew closer to the sink, the rusty faucet… suddenly twisted slightly, causing a scarlet liquid to pour out!

Then, as he straightened his back once more, he suddenly saw the figure of another person standing right behind him!

The head was mangled, and the face was covered in knife wounds. Blood dripped from the mutilated face. This person was just standing in the dark, looking straight at him!

He searched around the house, and eventually found his way to Li Cheng’s bedroom. He picked up the picture frame placed on Li Cheng’s bedside table.

Li Jiankang, Li Cheng, and Song Jiafang were all smiling faintly. Unfortunately, the picture was also covered in a thick layer of dust.

They were simply large but empty freezers.

“You’re an Emissary of Hell, and a Soul Hunter at that. No matter how peculiar it is, it’s only an Operative-class vengeful apparition at the end of the day. With the dual suppression of both your rank and your bloodline, it definitely won’t show itself while you’re around.”

“Of course there are. You were right earlier. Avoid any fights you’re not prepared for. When it comes to the Great Intergenerational Heredity, there are some things you’ll have to prepare beforehand. Besides…” The paper crane spun around on its shoulder, “Something tells me that there’s more than meets the eye to this incident…”

As he left, a telescope slowly retracted from an abandoned house in the distance.

The man tapped on ‘contacts’, tapped on the ‘Mount Tai City Special Investigations Department’ group, and promptly sent a text message to one of the administrators.

The other party’s ID was ‘Sea of Forests and Plains of Snow’. He quickly responded, “Are you sure there weren’t any traces of a fight? That doesn’t seem quite right. That ghost appears to be incredibly murderous and bloodthirsty, and it doesn’t seem likely to pass up on any potential food that walks through the door.”

Sea of Forests and Plains of Snow didn’t respond any longer.

“Hmm?”

“That word is… ‘volition’.”

Arthis caught his drift, “Are you saying that the project is none other than the vengeful apparition resultant from the matricide?”

“Incidentally, following these lines of investigations is probably where the missing points are to be found. It’s also precisely because these topics are investigated by the SRC that the government hadn’t enlisted the aid of Hellguard-class experts, for fear that they would simply level the entire hunting zones.”

With a sigh, Qin Ye switched on his phone and glanced at the list of instructors in the group community. Zhou Xianlong hadn’t posted any updates, which means everyone’s teaching credits had remained approximately at the same level.

“There’s no meaning.” He switched off his phone and swept his fringe to the side, “It’s simply because I’m feeling suffocated and uneasy in my heart that I’m looking for something to talk about.”

There was a rare trace of determination in his deep, booming voice, “I think… that when the first King Yanluo founded Hell, these must have been the thoughts in his mind. He must have seen far too many such images and scenes, and that must have triggered his desire to establish Hell. The good weren’t rewarded, while the evil continued to amass wealth… In fact, he must’ve seen and witnessed far more than I have…”

“Good and evil must be repaid. This has been one of the immutable principles undergirding the Heavenly Dao of reincarnation. The first King Yanluo… it’s been thousands of years… Life back then was far more miserable than it is right now. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that people ate off the bones of their children… I, too, think that the first King Yanluo must have been someone of humble beginnings. And it might precisely have been a result of his humble beginnings that led to the founding of the Fengdu Necropolis that eventually stood for thousands of years.”

The paper crane immediately turned around. If it had eyes, it would most definitely have given Qin Ye a death stare, “Are you saying that you’re essentially no different from the first ever King Yanluo who founded Hell? With all due respect, you’re comparing a horse and a bull.”

Arthis sneered, “If you’ve got the time and energy, then rather than thinking about such things, why don’t you consider instead how you should succeed the mantle of the first King Yanluo?! Quickly reestablish Hell! People like Li Cheng should experience the full course of the Eighteen Abysses of Punishment before being subjected to ten cycles of the path of the beast to atone for their sins.”

“Where are the six paths of reincarnation, huh?”

“Ahem…” Just as Qin Ye arrived at the end of Tianxi Fourth Street, the door to a black car parked by the side of the road suddenly opened, and a fat middle-aged man walked out of it. After glancing fearfully at the dark street behind Qin Ye, he smiled faintly and handed Qin Ye a name card, “Hello, sir. Can I ask if you’re from the Special Investigations Department?”

The fat man smiled amiably, “Let me introduce myself. I’m from the Soaring Dragon Developers, one of the largest property developers across all of Insignia Province. We’re quite reputable, even among the five surrounding provinces. My name is Sun Kangliang, and I’m a chief project manager in charge of…”

“This is a government project, yet it has been forcibly halted for some reasons which I’m sure you’re already aware of. A failure to execute any form of construction works within a six month period of time constitutes a breach of contract. I’m so flustered by the current situation that I’m practically losing all of my hair. The engineering team has already been held in abeyance for months now, and we’re already at the end of our road… I’d just heard from my people that someone has entered and exited the haunted house, and so I immediately rushed down to take a look for myself. If you’ve got the time… could you allow me to be a good host and invite you to supper?”

Sun Kangliang coughed awkwardly, and then whispered, “Not entirely…”

“That alone justifies my invitation to you to supper tonight.”