Yama Rising

So desu ne…

He was restarting Hell from scratch, and there were a multitude of things to be done. How many merit points were there up for grabs?

“But why is it only this little?” He was still displeased. He had done quite a lot for Hell to date, hadn’t he? So why wasn’t it already in the millions?

Five--... five million?!

If… everything within these boxes contains Yin Padmas, then even if they were only Golden Lotuses of a Thousand Virtues each, ten of them would give me ten thousand merit points; a hundred would give me a hundred thousand merit points; and two hundred--...

An Infernal Judge… Qin Ye was practically trembling with excitement, because he would no longer have to be subject to the abuse of the female devil next to him right now! He could finally stiffen his neck, hold his hand up high and say ‘no’ to her!

Arthis could practically read his mind by now, and she glanced placidly at him, “A nascent Judge like you… is still going to feel pain when I slap you around.”

However, Arthis simply looked to the ceiling with a profound glint in her eyes, “Someone like you who has neither inherited the full legacy of Hell’s Arts nor practices magic actively… you might just turn out to be the embarrassment of all Infernal Judges out there…”

And this was only a part of the great harvest from the imperial court meeting. He couldn’t wait to hear what else the newly-filled treasury had in store for him!

“......” Wang Chenghao wanted to retort so badly, but immediately handled his urge with restraint after considering Qin Ye’s cantankerous behaviour coupled with the level of stimulation of his mind right now. Thus, he swept Qin Ye’s abrasive comments to the corner of his mind.

Qin Ye had already begun to fantasize about being the third-in-command of the entire Special Investigations Department. He raised his chin arrogantly and glanced at Arthis, before booming with a deep, commanding voice, “Translator.”

Forget it… endure... endure! If we kill him right now, we won’t be able to find a suitable replacement for him… As expected, the present King Yanluo of Hell would revert back to his whimsical self as soon as his official business was done and dusted. In fact, he was so impetuous and unbridled that he wouldn’t even bother with maintaining his self-image.

“Judges are able to fly for approximately thirty minutes or so. It’s only when one attains the ranks of an Abyssal Prefect that they can break away from the rules of gravity of the Heavenly Dao and finally travel through the air freely without restraint. That said, to put things into perspective, the old Hell only had a hundred to two hundred Prefects among its entire population of ten billion Yin spirits, and each Prefect is an esteemed lord or chief or governor in his own right. So, where does that leave the rest?” She ran her finger gently across the scroll, “They’ll have no choice but to rely on these Yin beasts.”

Qin Ye was just about to blurt out those words when he cautiously looked up at Arthis, before probing with a more sensible response, “Freight? Train service?”

The imperial court meeting was over, but there were still a multitude of things to be done in Hell. To that end, the most important thing was naturally the establishment of the new port city for foreign trade.

That was something that naturally couldn’t be done with just mere Yin spirits alone. It was a problem that had been niggling at the back of his mind for some time now, and he was apprehensive of the prospects of having to place the burden of transport on Arthis’ shoulder. But even that wasn’t going to be a long-term solution in any event. Fortunately, Yu Qian’s gift in this regard had resolved every bit of this conundrum of his!

“Then, what about planes and cars? Are there equivalent Yin beasts?”

There’s seriously something like that?

See if I don’t try with your head!!!

You piece of trash!!!

“The rest aren’t all too important.” Arthis glanced at the rest, “We can’t expect every single item here to be as precious or useful as the other in any event. Rather than spend so much time going through Lord Yu’s tribute, why don’t we… turn our attention to Lord Yang’s tribute instead?”

That said, the only difference was that, apart from the trunks of secret virtues and Yin spirit stones, the rest of the tributes from the Luzon underworld had been packed into huge boxes that looked hefty and full.

Both were loyal servants of Hell, so… there should be parity in the usefulness of their tributes, right?

Everything inside these boxes were thumb-sized, black… fruits.

Qin Ye was somewhat confused, and he began to reach into the box to dig about for something different. Fruits… and more fruits!

That’s not right!!

“What the hell is this?”

Seeds?

Maize, coconuts, mangoes, grapes… All of Luzon’s special products were actually seeds! No… and there were even close to a hundred boxes that contained fabrics and cloths!

When the penultimate box was opened, Arthis immediately darted over like lightning and picked up a piece of the fabric. She waved it gently, and the fabric instantly flowed with ripples like waters in a tranquil lake. The texture was no different from that of satin, and the material was practically translucent. From a distance, it looked no different from a puff of smoke. It was well evident that this was a top-quality fabric.

Arthis glanced at the final box, within which lay thousands of snow-white Black Death Butterfly chrysalis.

“Excellent stuff!” The previous look of dismay had gone with the wind, and he grabbed a handful of golden seeds with a glint of joy in his eyes, “This is the charm of establishing sea trade routes… Arakshasa, what were you saying earlier? Please continue.”

The effluxion of time didn’t mean the diminishing of one’s pursuit for greater quality of life. On the contrary, one’s need for such luxuries would only increase precisely due to the increase in their lifespan. A single source of entertainment would only satiate one’s thirst for a period of time, but it would take much more for a person to feel fulfilled in life.

Qin Ye didn’t know about other countries, but Cathay was a land that placed a huge emphasis on its culinary pursuits! The pursuit of taste was something that was better satisfied sooner rather than later. Besides… wasn’t it great to be presented the opportunity to unlock the agricultural skill tree right off the cuff?

Are you sure these seeds wouldn’t grow into strange things like bleeding fruits and other similarly strange things?

1. I.e., Brazil/Brazilian.

2. One of the Nine Courts in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and it used to manage grain storage, warehouse management and the supply of rice for the officials.