Yama Rising

Chapter 115: Hell\'s Enforcement (2)

“You… what in the world are you?” It was only after a long time that he spoke with trembling in his voice.

Shaa… He softly landed on the ground and glanced about his surroundings before responding soullessly, “What am I?”

“Anitya Hellguard of the Black and White?” Li Jiankang’s shaky voice faded into the background. He leaned heavily against the wall, and his breath grew ragged. Then, he suddenly turned around and ran backwards. The sound of a loud thud, was quickly followed by a loud metallic clang and cringeworthy sounds of chains.

The houses along Tianxi Fourth Street were all incredibly old, and it had never been considered part of the downtown until recent years, following the development of Mount Tai City. Prior to that, this locality used to be a farming region, and it was not uncommon to find the existence of such underground storage cellars.

The room was filled with the musty stench of fish. The row of weak lights led to a small iron door at the end of the room. This was where Li Jiankang had earlier escaped through. It was remarkable that a seemingly ordinary human being like Li Jiankang hadn’t been scared stiff when he first saw the arrival of Qin Ye in his otherworldly Hell’s Emissary state.

There was a long, narrow corridor just behind the iron door that could at best fit two people side-by-side. A weak electric light was similarly installed overhead at every five meter interval. This should’ve been used as a bunker or air-raid shelter of sorts before it was repurposed. Qin Ye chuckled coldly and transformed into a powerful nethergale as he swooped straight down the corridor.

Such a thing stands no chance in the face of a genuine Emissary of Hell.

Whoosh… The nethergale swirled around and converged to reconstitute Qin Ye’s physical form. Arthis muttered, “He’s getting desperate. The jig is up, and he’s now prepared to make a last stand right here.”

Qin Ye didn’t respond. He held his demonhead saber horizontally in front of him. The eerie jade-green flame burned brightly, illuminating an area one meter in radius around him. Just then, a sudden hissing roar echoed from the end of the corridor.

This was a pitch-black corridor.

And he could hear wild, frantic howls.

It was the sound of a heavy iron object being dragged across the ground, followed by the soft tremors of an object landing on the ground. And these sounds appeared to be rushing straight towards him in the dark corridor like a fearsome tidal wave!

The figure’s speed was not quick, but the manner in which it approached Qin Ye was incredibly peculiar. Both feet sprang from the ground at the same time, and each leap of his feet sent it bouncing approximately one foot high. The figure also held out its hands in front of it, and it constantly appeared to be grasping at the air. It was almost as though it wanted so much to traverse the remaining distance in an instant, grab hold of Qin Ye and drink his blood dry in one fell swoop.

The joints across the vampire’s entire body were incredibly stiff, and it was unable to bend any part of it at all. Yet it was precisely also because of this that the vampires possessed a physical body that was incredibly tough and practically impenetrable. There were still secret techniques for nurturing and refining vampires being passed down in Westbrook and its surrounding regions.

“Blood… flesh… so hungry… so hungry!!!” The blood-curdling murmur continued to echo endlessly throughout the dark and narrow corridor. Unfortunately, this amount of darkness was nothing to Qin Ye, because Qin Ye already had his eyes fixed on the person approaching him.

It wore a t-shirt that had been shredded in many places, and you could see that its skin beneath was covered in black hairs that looked almost like steel needles. Its eyes were completely white throughout, and the black nails on its hands were two inches long. There was a piece of talisman paper stuck to its forehead.

And what greeted it was a radiant beam of intense blade light.

“Not dead?” However, Qin Ye was the one who found himself astonished. He quickly glanced at the saber in his hand as though he had swung the wrong weapon.

Instead… it was almost as though there were another source of Hunter-class might that had forcibly dispelled a part of his earlier strike.

There, in the depths of the corridor, the vampire sprung forward once more and clashed fearlessly against Qin Ye. It was still waving its hands haphazardly in the air in a ridiculous attempt to grab hold of Qin Ye. That said, it managed to block Qin Ye’s powerful attack with its Operative-class body once more!

“That’s right. Under such circumstances, the System of Records and Classifications for Yin Spirits terms this phenomenon as atavism. As soon as a ghost of the Great Intergenerational Heredity is allowed to grow and develop, its threat level would become completely unfathomable. It is considered an A-grade threat across the entire System of Records and Classifications. In fact, their existence itself is such a grave threat that there was even a standing order to search and destroy it at all costs, even if it means breaking the immutable rule that Hell was not to interfere with the affairs of the mortal realm. Its threat level is only a single step away from the highest grade in the system. You’re lucky that the atavist ghost you’ve encountered is only one that is Operative-class, otherwise… hehehe…”

Arthis responded placidly, “Cathay has been in existence for thousands of years and seen through eras of warfare and bloodshed. Do you really think that there are ghosts that Cathay hasn’t seen before? Threats that are above A-grade… I’m afraid they appear only once every five hundred years or so. Even I haven’t seen such existences before. As far as I’m aware, there are only three ghosts that are classified as such, and the appearance of any of these would herald a reign of terror in the mortal realm. That said, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see their appearance again, especially given how peaceful society is right now. There’s no need to know about these things for now… Besides, are you really in the mood to discuss these things? Shouldn’t you be thinking of a way to dispose of the problem in front of you?”

Shk!!

The vampire that was darting towards Qin Ye suddenly paused in its steps.

“Now you’ve really done it… An operative-class evil ghost has forced me to resort to my blade release.” Qin Ye’s hair fluttered about menacingly in the scarlet mist, mildly resembling the approach of a ghostly monarch.

Seconds later, a one-inch tall figure rose from the edge of Qin Ye’s demonhead saber. Simultaneously, his surroundings began to snap and crackle as cracks began to surface on the walls. Within mere seconds, the entire walls of the corridors were covered with a massive web of cracks!

“Don’t worry. I’ll let you have an opportunity to reunite with your family.” Qin Ye smiled as he swung his sword down!

Violent Yin energy ripped through the entire corridor with such force that it was no different from a small earthquake! On the ground, not far away, the two agents drew a breath of cold air in unison and stood up abruptly.

It had suddenly collapsed without any warning. Sand and gravel scattered everywhere, and a loud, startling sound reverberated across the otherwise silent night sky. They froze for two seconds, and then dashed straight towards the site at full speed.

“What a deep hole… is this… a former air-raid shelter? It’s so deep. No wonder our instruments had never been able to detect its existence before.” One of the agents remarked aloud.

“Should we inform the boss?”

Rumble… The epicenter of the latter tremor evidently came from underground. Both agents exchanged a look of admiration with each other.

With such strength… it’s no wonder he would dare to challenge this C-grade hunting zone…

“Boss… S9527 might have discovered the method to breaching hunting zone no. X-7. A fierce battle is going on right now. Do you… want to come and take a look?”

Qin Ye was oblivious to all of these things. Right now, he was simply filled with the desire to bring Li Jiankang to justice.

He stood in the center of the collapsing corridor. The vampire’s shrill shriek in utter terror echoed some distance away. His last attack hadn’t been aimed at the vampire itself. After all, air-raid shelters generally consisted of a complex network of corridors and rooms, and Qin Ye didn’t want to waste his time searching through each path for the exact location of his targets.

He had caused a ruckus precisely because he wanted to alarm his enemies.