Yama Rising

“Lead the way.” Qin Ye nodded at her. Nohime took a few steps back, turned around, and then walked straight back into the temple. Her two rows of maidservants turned around at exactly the same time.

These were all maidservants who had accompanied Oda Nobunaga in death.

The wind rose, and the shifting shadows made the surroundings look darker than ever. In that instant, Qin Ye found himself standing in the heart of a sea of threatening jade-green netherflames, almost as though a pack of hungry wolves were laying in wait for the slightest slip up on his part. Any ordinary person in his shoes would have screamed in fear by now.

This was Honnoji.

Qin Ye nodded and drew a deep breath to steady his heart. Then, he stepped on the ground that was covered with paper money as he walked straight towards Honnoji.

The inside of the temple was constructed just like a traditional Nipponese hostel. The aisles were narrow, and the wooden floor was stained so much with dried blood that it had an unusual maroon hue. The sliding doors on the side were decorated with ukiyo-e art. As Qin Ye passed by, he could hear heated discussions going on behind the sliding doors. In fact, the doors were slightly translucent, and he could vaguely make out the silhouettes of several persons clad in armor arguing fiercely over something.

As soon as he did, the figures behind the sliding door immediately reacted as though they had detected his presence, and the hair on their heads began to scatter about and grow wildly. In an instant, their silhouettes transformed into the shape of a werewolf. Qin Ye could even tell that they now had hair growing out of every corner of their bodies.

“What tomfoolery.” Qin Ye snorted and abruptly opened the door.

It was a shabby room inside. The tatami mats were covered in dust, and the walls were practically concealed by the cobwebs. There was an oil lamp burning with a jade-green flame that flickered softly on the table in the room. Two sets of skeletons sat at the table, one on each side.

It was also right at that moment that the two rows of lantern-toting maidservants bowed respectfully, and then drifted back into the illusory world within the ukiyo-e paintings.

Qin Ye took a closer look at the paintings. The ukiyo-e paintings appeared to depict Oda Nobunaga’s great conquests, just like many of the Cathayan paintings of their great generals’ conquests. The maidservants had already become one with these paintings again. As Qin Ye walked on along the corridor, he could sense the maidservants in the paintings turning their heads, staring intently at Qin Ye with a faint green glow in their eyes.

“Is this the way Mr Oda treats his guests?” Qin Ye had now arrived at the end of the corridor. There was a screen at the end of the corridor with a pot of plum blossoms. The leaves had already withered away eons ago, and a grim white skull hung eerily from the branches.

With that, Qin Ye went around the screen, and he found himself in a decently-sized room.

The extravagance of the room was befitting of an ancient Nipponese daimyo. There were stalks of withered flowers extending right out of gold-lacquered vases on both sides of the room, and a bamboo blind hung down halfway from the ceiling. A man dressed in black feather weave sat silently behind the blinds, patiently waiting for Qin Ye’s arrival.

“You’ve got a lot of guts to come looking for me right in the heart of my territory.” A husky voice called out from behind the blinds, “We’ve met before.”

“Enough.” A gilded fan reached out from behind the bamboo blinds. Qin Ye’s eyes narrowed. He could tell that the hand holding the fan was covered in spots of livor mortis, and it was also burnt beyond recognition.

“I’ve allowed you to enter only on account of Lord Ming. I give you my word that I won’t hurt you. And we can let bygones be bygones. I’m not suicidal enough to stir the wrath of the Cathayan underworld. But you should quickly get to the point and tell me what business you have with me. I don’t quite like the stench of the living on you very much.”

Qin Ye shut his eyes and took a deep breath. The most crucial tabletop battle was just about to begin. Everything would turn on whether he could persuade the four hundred years old demon king to pledge his allegiance to Hell.

He quickly ran through his angle of attack, drew a deep breath, and steeled his nerves. Then, he looked up once more and stared straight into the bamboo blinds, “Mr Oda, what are your thoughts on the Cathayan underworld?”

“I’ve never had the intention to provoke Cathay.” Qin Ye could even detect sincerity in his voice, “So, if you’re here on behalf of Lord Justice Bao, please convey this message of mine to his.”

Before coming here, Qin Ye had already prepared his best angle of attack under a particular set of working assumptions, and he was already confident that he could take down the distinguished Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. But Nobunaga’s response to his introductory query caused him to raise his estimated success rate from 60% to a whopping 90%!

In other words, he didn’t know about the great upheaval that has occurred within Hell.

It was precisely because he was still harbouring the hopes of striking back at Nippon one day.

He had shown deference to Hell because he still wanted to conquer Nippon. He didn’t want to find himself duking it out with the Nipponese underworld, only to find the armies of the Cathayan underworld hot on his tail. After all, it wasn’t as though Cathay had never interfered with the internal politics of a nation before.

Oda Nobunaga finally stirred behind the bamboo blinds. His gaze burned so brightly that it seemed to penetrate the opaque blinds in front him. He chuckled, “The Nipponese underworld.”

Without missing a beat, Qin Ye continued, “They possess all the famous talents of the Warring States era, including Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, your former ally Tokugawa Ieyasu. Even Azai Nagamasa and Akechi Mitsuhide are there.”

There seemed to be no reaction.

“They’re all serving under Izanami right now.” Qin Ye lowered his heads and licked his lips, “In other words, so long as you’re still bent on taking back Nippon, you’ll have to face all of the daimyos from the entire Warring States era back then.”

“To give up on your dreams of conquest?”

“Are you willing to give up on the chance to seek vengeance against Akechi Mitsuhide for the arrow in the back at Honnoji?”

Oda Nobunaga was lost for words. He couldn’t hide his feelings any longer.

“What message are you trying to convey exactly?” Oda Nobunaga finally responded after several moments of silence, “Is this your message, or is this Lord Justice Bao’s message to me?”

Are they trying to invest in me?

The prospects of such thoughts caused his heart to stir greatly.

Preoccupation was his greatest ally right now. How could Oda Nobunaga bring himself to simply let go of a centuries-old long-cherished wish? These festering thoughts have already become more than a mere obsession by now.

The folding fan snapped softly in the midst of Qin Ye’s statement.

But he had by his conduct undoubtedly responded to Qin Ye’s question.

“If you can’t accept then, then it begs the question whether you possess the ability to oppose Izanami and all of the great daimyos back then combined. With these two thousand soldiers of yours?”

Qin Ye leaned forward quietly, “Lord Nobunaga, times have changed.”