Yama Rising

Chapter 285: Resource Centre

The willow branches appeared to have a mind of their own. Whenever they drew close to a blight vermin, they would nimbly avoid the blight vermin’s carapace and plunge straight into their bodies through the mouths or soft joints. And then, the blight vermin’s body would promptly shrivel up before they could even cry out in misery. There were innumerable blight vermin corpses in the wake of the samurai’s path of travel, yet he had proceeded so stealthily and silently that the blight vermin not in direct line of sight of the samurai remained completely oblivious to his presence.

“Such great commotion… Could he have encountered the same obstacles that I’m faced with?”

The Yin energy about it was so thick that it was practically on the verge of materializing. One could even see howling phantasms that drifted up from the ground, before promptly fading away once more.

No response.

Just then, an earth-shattering roar interrupted his monologue, and the roof of the temple promptly exploded as though a giant had just stomped on its roof. A shockwave of Yin energy, dust and debris rushed forward from the temple and completely levelled the main gate to the temple. With a loud bang, a massive blight vermin the size of twenty meters appeared right in front of Oda Nobunaga, staring him down with a row of bloodshot eyes and fetid saliva dripping down the sides of its mandibles.

“Too bad for you… I was just thinking of the exact same thing…” The massive scarecrow licked its scarlet lips. Then, to the blight vermin’s great horror, thousands of willow branches suddenly erupted from the scarecrow and plunged straight towards it in an instant!

……………………………………………………

How terrifying was the sudden impact caused by the collision of thousands of blight vermin all at once? The ground quaked violently, and the structural pillars on the ground floor of the Pavilion of Transcendence cracked and snapped in an instant. Qin Ye instinctively transformed his spirit streamer into a giant umbrella and took shelter underneath it.

Just like a gun salute, the first crackle was soon followed by others in quick succession - Crack, crack, crack, crack… Then, before Qin Ye could even mentally prepare himself for what was to come, there was an earth-shattering snap, and the entire Pavilion of Transcendence collapsed altogether!

The tremors felt no different from an earthquake of magnitude eight on the richter scale. Back on the second floor, Qin Ye fell sideways, and his head struck a pillar on the side with dull thud. Countless tables, chairs, vases and plants promptly slid along the slanted ground, striking the massive umbrella that was protecting him with a clatter of sounds.

The Pavilion of Transcendence was already tilting at a forty degree angle, and various instruments and implements of all shapes and sizes had slid across the floor and accumulated right at the bottom, including screens, desks, stationery, paper, and so on. Qin Ye gulped and cursed under his breath as he glanced at the entrance to the third floor that was now located directly over his head.

Eh, no, we’ve still got to consider the zombie apocalypse factor as well…

“The blight vermin haven’t come upstairs… Is this because they can’t detect my exact location, and they can only sense the presence of my Yin energy signature?” His eyes quivered slightly as he shifted the office furniture that had piled up all around him, “So you can detect my presence in the Pavilion of Transcendence, but you can’t determine my exact location?”

He swung the spirit streamer, and another bunch of furniture in front of him flew aside, revealing a noticeboard embedded in the wall in front of him that read - ‘Directory’. He immediately rushed over.

With that, he completely transformed into a nethergale and began to rush straight up to the twenty-eight floor.

There was a ten-meter large door right in front of his eyes. Despite being tilted forty degrees to the side right now, Qin Ye could still see the traces of runic symbols all over the door. Yet everything paled in comparison to the imposing images of the two previous King Yanluos that had been etched on the surface of the door. It gave the landing to the twenty-eighth floor an air of sobriety. A half-meter lock shaped in the image of the Harken hung high in the center of the door.

Kkkkrrrrrrr… The massive stone doors opened up slowly, revealing a completely dark chamber within. Qin Ye took a deep breath, and was just about to charge in when he suddenly paused and doubled back to the front of the door. Then, he took a closer look at the lock itself.

It was modeled after the Harken’s head, and there was a bar made out of a dark composite metal running through its ears. That said… the bar had clearly been pulled out of the locking mechanism itself.

“This definitely wasn’t caused by the blight vermin.” He murmured softly to himself as he scanned the depths of the dark chambers ahead with great vigilance, “If it were the blight vermin, they would’ve consumed the entire door by now.”

Kkkrrrr…. Just then, the stone doors finally opened fully. The darkness within appeared to creep out with a soft nethergale, while the shadows within appeared to flicker about menacingly, as though something were looking right back at him.

He didn’t know whether it was a person or a ghost, or something else altogether that had entered this place before him. Furthermore… he didn’t know whether that entity was still around right now.

There were silver-coloured pouches everywhere!

“These are the Qiankun Pouches?” Qin Ye’s heart burned with passion, yet his mind remained completely calm and considered. The room on the twenty-eighth floor was massive. It spanned the entire floor, and there were countless cabinets everywhere. Everything stored in this place was undoubtedly the most valuable of resources in Hell, and the order in the ostensibly chaotic manner it was stored naturally proved to be the best hiding place for these resources.

There were no clandestine strikes or foreign entities hiding in the shadows. The only sound that could be heard in the entire room was the soft creaking sound of the wooden floorboards as he walked slowly across the room. The stifling silence resembled that of a morgue, where even the slightest of breaths was deafening to those around. Yet for some strange reason, Qin Ye couldn’t shake off the feeling that… something was watching him in the darkness. It was a creepy sensation, almost as though his own shadow would rise from the ground in the very next moment.

And he was one who had never trusted intuition to begin with.

He maintained his vigilance about him as he bent over and picked up a bag. But as soon as he touched the bag, he abruptly straightened his back once more and called out indifferently, “Come out. I’ve already discovered your presence.”

Qin Ye stood in silence for a moment, and then bent down again. This time, he actually picked up the Qiankun Pouch.

“Interesting.” He smiled faintly, tossed the bag up, and then swung his spirit streamer right at it with full force.

Qin Ye smiled.

Tak, tak, tak! The talismans flew straight into the pile of wooden cabinets. Unfortunately, the wooden cabinets appeared to be made with an unknown material that was impervious to the attacks of mere Hellguards. Nevertheless, a cloud of Yin energy soon erupted from behind the pile of cabinets, and a shadowy figure promptly dashed out from behind and rushed straight back towards the entrance to the room.

The figure may be quick, but Qin Ye was quicker! With a loud clattering sound, the chain wrapped itself accurately around the shadowy figure’s waist. Then, Qin Ye tugged hard at the chain and promptly stopped the man’s approach, causing him to fly back towards him. In the next moment, Qin Ye held the spirit streamer tightly over his head and smashed it straight down onto the shadowy figure’s head.

Boom! A resounding bang reverberated through the corners of the room. The shadowy figure had managed to block Qin Ye’s powerful strike with a white bone fan. Unfortunately, it was evident that this opponent was no match for Qin Ye. With a muffled grunt, the shadowy figure flew back several meters, revealing his true form for the very first time.