Yama Rising

Chapter 439: Breaching the Mythic Palace of Reflections (1)

A wave of terror instantly filled the attendant’s heart. He wanted to run, only to discover to his despair that Lai Junchen was grabbing tightly onto him.

“No… I’m not… my lord! Y-you’ve misunderstood!”

Whoosh… A ripple instantly spread across the surface of the mirror, followed closely by line after line of ancient talismans. It was almost as though someone were slowly drawing these talismans, one sheet at a time.

“Hohoho… HAHAHAHA!!!”

Do you think that’s all the Mythic Palace of Reflections is capable of?!

As Lai Junchen continued making his hand seals, Qin Ye soon discovered that the swarm of skeletal puppets all around him suddenly flew straight up in an instant.

However, he knew better to linger on these thoughts. After all, victory was just around the corner. As long as they could seize control of the Mythic Palace of Reflections, then Qufu… would become a part of the new Hell! Hell would gain a massive plot of land to supplement its dismal state of affairs right now!

Thus, he shelved all thoughts about what Lai Junchen was doing. He didn’t even have the luxury of time to lament the sacrifice of the Yin soldiers who had perished just moments ago. Wrapped up in the defences of the faux Book of Life and Death, he took the lead once more and hurtled forward like a fearless meteorite.

The Judgment Pen in his hand began to draw in the Yin energy around, expanding profusely until… it finally transformed into a silver spear.

Now was hardly the time to be observing these changes. Nevertheless, he was still pleased with the changes, because a spear was far easier to manipulate than a brush. He jabbed the spear forward without much further thought. Bang! Yin energy far greater than any he had mustered before instantly converged into a foot-sized orb of Yin energy and exploded where he had jabbed!

Qin Ye felt as though something within his body had just snapped.

But now… he could sense something more welling up from deep within him. It was an almost physical change that gave rise to a renewed confidence in his ability to defeat Arthis.

They were at the final stretch of this long, arduous journey of theirs!

SSS!!! The monstrous bird hissed as it ruffled its own feathers, displaying the flourishing spots of netherflames that danced about. A split second later, it spread its wings and tilted its ferocious feathers straight down towards Hell’s forces!

Qin Ye’s eyes narrowed. Over a hundred thousand skeletal puppets had combined forces to transform into a Judge-class colossal bird!

Pshk, pshk, pshk! A rain of feathers pelted down in an instant, plunging straight through Hell’s Yin soldiers and killing at least two thousand of them in the blink of an eye. But before Qin Ye could even turn back to assess the damage, Yang Yanzhao’s fiery voice trembled in his ears, “Lord Qin, don’t look back.”

“Continue the charge…” He stared intently at the peak of the altar with a fiery gaze, “Take the peak of the altar so that their deaths won’t be in vain! Given the number of Yin artifacts in his possession and control, the Yin spirit up there must be one of Kong Mo’s most trusted aides. You can do it!”

Simultaneously, he jabbed towards the monstrous bird’s chest ferociously with his spear.

BOOM!!

“Hahaha!” Back at the peak of the altar. Lai Junchen was now immeasurably withered and dry as a bone. But, even then, he tossed his head up into the air and cackled madly, “Die… DIE! I’m content to drag so many people down to the abysses of Hell with me…”

Dead silence.

Thud… Like a lifeless ragdoll, he collapsed onto his knees at the peak of the altar. Seconds later, he trembled profusely as he craned his neck out once more and peered down below.

All Yin spirits were destined to be instakilled by an Emissary of Hell of the same cultivation level.

He’s trying to kill me… This man is after my life!

“AHHHHHHHH!!!” Every bit of Yin energy that remained in his body was instantly sucked into the mirror, and Lai Junchen couldn’t help but scream miserably.

“AHHHH!” He screamed desperately as he fought hard to pull his hand back from the Mythic Palace of Reflections. Unfortunately, that hand had already vanished completely. As he gasped desperately for air, he continued to glance about with a manic look replete with a bizarre smile on his face. And then, he began to draw up a complicated Yin talisman on the ground.

“Victory to Hell!!!”

We’re only over a hundred meters away… Once we close the gap, we’ll be home free!

“Charge!!!” Their hearts were palpitating with great excitement. Qin Ye led the charge like a valiant general, cutting down every obstacle in their way. But, just then, they suddenly saw… countless flowers blooming in the void above them.

“Paramita of the Yellow Springs, Blossom of the Millennia Flower… haa… haa…” Lai Junchen chuckled hoarsely as he sat limply in front of the mirror, “Curse of the Spirits, Withered Boat of the Dead… This is the final Yin artifact that Lord Kong Mo has entrusted to me. If you can overcome this… I’ll concede defeat!”

No gimmicks. It was a full-on confrontation of strength against strength.

Just then, the sea of flowers suddenly trembled, sending rings of ripples sweeping across the air and revealing… an immeasurably deep abyss below the canopy of flowers.

The skeleton was pale white in colour, and its joints were covered in scarlet tendons and veins. Two large eyeballs filled the sockets of its eyes, and a massive clump of netherflame burned from its chest. As soon as it appeared, it appeared to draw a deep breath, causing its chest cavity to expand in an exaggerated fashion. Then, in the next second, it opened its mouth abruptly, only to spew out a shower of meteoric flames!

Perhaps beauty and death were two sides of the same coin.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! A crimson waterfall of flames instantly poured down from the peak of the Mythic Palace of Reflections, felling countless Yin soldiers of Hell without even giving them the chance to respond to the situation. It was but a dozen or so seconds since the attack was unleashed, and yet there was already over 8,000 casualties among Hell’s latest deployment of 20,000!

None of them wanted to stymie Hell’s chances at seizing the Mythic Palace of Reflections.

This was their only shot at survival.

As soon as he began to show even the slightest signs of slowing down, the throng of Yin soldiers around him immediately yelled at him, “My Lord! You cannot!” “My Lord! Onwards! Ignore us!” “My Lord… It’s our honour to die for Hell’s glory! We have no regrets!” “Lord Qin, it’s all up to you! We’re useless against such spells! Everything… is all up to you!” “Please don’t let our deaths be in vain!!”

But they died smiling.

Qin Ye gritted his teeth and turned back to the front, staring intently at the peak of the altar with the scarlet flames in his eyes blazing with passion. He held his spear up and mustered all of his strength, before thrusting it out with full force!

And as soon as he did, the situation became patently clear to him.

The spear surged forward a hundred meters, while Qin Ye allowed himself to be dragged along with the momentum of the spear. In an instant, he closed the remaining distance to the top of the altar.

Lai Junchen’s pupils shrank yet even more. It was now immeasurably close to fizzling out.

However, Lai Junchen was also laughing.

Shk!

It was the sound of a bowstring’s release.