Qin Ye was flying through the air like a shooting star. The entirety of Yuncheng had been inundated in a sea of white mist, and in the city were at least four Yama-Kings, as well as the inner demon, which was above the Yama-King level. One of the Yama-Kings was facing Taoist Master Zhang in battle, while two of them were closing the Yin Yang Mezzanines in the city as quickly as they could.
All plans had to have an intended goal and a fundamental threshold, but strictly speaking here, the intended goal for Qin Ye's current operation wasn't very clear.
What exactly was he trying to do?
He was trying to track down the inner demon and find out what it was trying to do by closing the Yin Yang Mezzanines. These were only targets that had sprung into Qin Ye's mind after he became aware of the fact that the Yin Yang Mezzanines were closing. This indicated that at least four Yama-Kings had appeared in Yuncheng, which was comparable to the top-end power of Hell, and he simply couldn't allow himself to rest unless he saw for himself what was happening.
However, he had a safer way to do this as well, and that was the threshold.
That would involve waiting until everything was over, then sending out darkfeathers to investigate.
The problem was that by that time, all of the traces would've most likely already been hidden. Given how cautious the inner demon was, it would be extremely unlikely that it would leave anything behind for the darkfeathers to be able to capitalize on. Having said that, it wouldn't be a completely hopeless task. After all, he wasn't the only one who wanted the inner demon dead.
Just because Hell couldn't find any traces didn't mean that the Heavenly Dao would be in the same boat!
In that case, why was Qin Ye insisting on traveling to Yuncheng now? That was because he knew what this plan could potentially escalate into given the right circumstances!
No one knew that the Heavenly Dao was also targeting the inner demon, and there was no way that the inner demon would've guessed that the Heavenly Dao would've left Their mark in Qin Zhongguo's soul, nor would it have been able to anticipate that there were already tens of thousands of Yin soldier's gathered beneath the four Yin Yang Mezzanines. Furthermore, Qin Changxin, Qin Xinzhong, and all of the Cathayan Underworld's provincial governors were in the process of deploying hundreds of thousands of troops along with the Wumu military formation to the site as well.
The four Yama-Kings all had their attention focused on Yuncheng, and given the right opportunity, the Harken would immediately be able to perform a divine descent to arrive at Yuncheng, thereby sealing off the entire city. In that case, the plan would become a true hit job with the four Yama-Kings and three divine artifacts of Hell against the inner demon!
This was the maximal potential of the plan, and the chances of this actually eventuating were most likely no more than 1%, but if they could succeed, then the inner demon would be struck down once and for all! Thus, even though the opportunity was an extremely slim one, he was still willing to take a gamble.
He was flying through the air like a speeding arrow, covering vast distances in the blink of an eye. Amid the all-encompassing sea of mist, Qin Ye could just barely make out the city of Yuncheng up ahead. As for the stockade and living corpses blocking the road, they had already been blown far away by the fierce wind generated by the Heavenly Teacher Seal.
Qin Ye took a deep breath as he rushed directly toward the toll station, and right at this moment, he habitually checked his watch.
It was 3:30 PM, and there were still eight and a half hours left until the closing of the Yin Yang Mezzanines.
He had to go faster!
He couldn't fully unleash his Yin energy. Even though all of the Yama-Kings in the city had their attention drawn to Taoist Master Zhang, they definitely wouldn't be distracted for long. Taoist Master Zhang was only an Infernal Judge, even though he was forcing himself to use a Yama-King level divine artifact, there was no way he would be a match for a true Yama-King.
In fact, he would be lucky to survive the battle, and 10 minutes had already passed by since the battle's commencement, so perhaps he had already been defeated.
Qin Ye was traveling as quickly as he dared, and he was drawing closer and closer to Yuncheng. The closer he drew to the city, the more his heartbeat began to accelerate. Once he set foot into the city, he would've stepped into the center of this mystery.
After taking a deep breath, he made one final charge for the toll station. However, no more than half a second after he had rushed through the toll station, his expression abruptly stiffened, and he suddenly exploded into Yin energy before his body reformed again some distance away.
He cast an incredulous gaze toward the mist up ahead, then extended a finger forward, and a Soul Shackle shot forth before quickly returning with a strand of something wrapped around its tip.
It was a thread of interwoven hair.
Qin Ye gently flicked the thread, and it produced a sound similar to the string of a zither. The string was woven from countless threads of hair, and it was extremely resolute. Qin Ye had a feeling that even if he were to unleash all of his Yin energy, it would not be an easy task to sever the thread.
He raised his head with a surprised expression and cast his gaze forward, upon which he discovered that these threads were littered all throughout the outskirts of Yuncheng! It was like a laser net from a spy film!
There were far too many of these threads to count, and they were constantly changing positions rapidly!
They were concealed within the mist, making them extremely difficult to notice, and if any Yin spirit were to dare to charge through it, they would instantly be dismembered on the spot.
"What on earth is this stuff?" He cast an incredulous gaze forward.
Could it be that the inner demon was responsible for this?
No, that didn't make sense. Without the sea of mist to support them, these threads didn't pose much of a potent threat, and the mist came from Taoist Master Zhang's Heavenly Teacher Seal. Surely the inner demon wouldn't have anticipated the attack from Taoist Master Zhang.
Furthermore, these things weren't here before. It was as if the emergence of the sea of mist had triggered some type of chain reaction.
In addition to that...
He cast his gaze forward with a grim expression, and right in front of his eyes, the shadow of a massive building had appeared behind the toll station!
He couldn't see exactly what it was. This was a phenomenon triggered by the heavenly teacher seal, which automatically kept out detection from all power systems. All he could see was a shadowy figure that was as vast as a mountain, and right in front of it was what appeared to be a statue of a woman.
The statue had free-flowing clothes and was holding a long flute, but he couldn't see anything beyond that.
When had this thing appeared?
Was this illusion or reality?
However, this wasn't the time to be looking at things like this. There was no way that Taoist Master Zhang would be a match for a Yama-King, so time was of the essence for Qin Ye.
After taking a deep breath, he abruptly sprang up like a butterfly in the wind, advancing as he traversed through the tiny gaps between the threads.
It was as if he were dancing on a knife’s edge or charging through a storm.
On many occasions,he was almost grazed by the threads in his way, but he was always able to just barely avoid them by the skin of his teeth. The further he advanced, the clearer his mind became. Whoever had set this up had to have been at least a Yama-King. Otherwise, this wouldn't have posed such a severe obstacle even to him.
This passageway that was filled with threads stretched on for around 3 km, and right after he passed through the first kilometer, all of the fine hairs all over his entire body suddenly stood up on end. An extreme sense of peril abruptly welled up in his heart, and he immediately ducked his head to the side without any hesitation. Immediately thereafter, a crisp clang rang out and a white mark appeared on his cheek.
Qin Ye immediately drew to a halt, and gusts of Yin wind revolved around him as he inspected the surrounding threads with a cautious expression.
They seem to be extending out of heaven and earth, with no origin, nor any end Insight. This was a natural forest, and as was the case with forests, there were often some terrifying killers lurking within them.
His gaze fell upon the threads up ahead, and he discovered that a series of paper cutout figures had appeared on them.
The paper figures were very simple in design, with round heads and square hands and feet. The only thing remarkable about them were the specks of soulfire burning at their heads.
Furthermore, all of them were holding paper swords.
The entire area was completely silent, and there were thousands of these paper figures present, littered all over the path ahead of Qin Ye like snow. One of them had just left that mark on his cheek, so he certainly wasn't going to ignore them.
What exactly was hiding in the city of Yuncheng?
Qin Ye was watching these paper figures in silence while countless thoughts were flashing through his mind.
Why was the inner demon staying in Yuncheng?
Why was it that Yuncheng, which was far from a renowned city, had suddenly become the gathering place for four Yama-Kings?
Why was it that these threads had appeared upon the activation of the Heavenly Teacher Seal?
He couldn't make sense of this situation, and this wasn't the time to be thinking about things like this. He could already sense a burst of Yin energy drawing closer and closer at an incredible speed, making no attempt to conceal itself at all.
The Yin energy belonged to a Yama-King, and they were going to arrive here within two minutes!
If they were to discover him here, there would be no way for him to advance any further!
Thus, he had to bypass the obstacles up ahead in the next one and a half minutes at most.
He took a deep breath, then released his Yin energy ever so slightly. "Pardon my intrusion."
As soon as his voice trailed off, he rose up into the air like a crane, then shot forth rapidly through the air. At the same time, all of the paper figures flew up in unison before forming a military formation that was several hundred meters in size, then rushed toward Qin Ye at the same time with their swords raised!
Neither side was going to back down.
In the instant that the two sides clashed, a dull thump rang out, and hundreds of paper figures were sent flying backward. Directly ahead of them was Qin Ye, who had a rippling vortex of dark Yin energy around him, which was preventing the paper figures from getting within 10 meters of him.
This was Ryu Changmin's special ability, Untouchable Love!
In a one-on-one battle against a high-grade underworld emissary, this special ability could only be used sparingly as a surprise tactic, but in the face of a large number of low-level opponents, it was a crushing ability.
The paper figures formed a long stream that extended for over three hundred meters, but Qin Ye was able to fly through it without any impediment. Countless shreds of paper were flying through the air in front of him, and the sound of swords whistling through the air was ringing out incessantly around him.
All of a sudden, a sharp scream rang out, and all of the paper figures that had been sent flying converged in unison, quickly forming a snowy white ball. The surface of the ball was constantly undulating, and countless paper figures were piercing their swords into it in a frenzy, producing a string of clangs that rang out in rapid succession.
Qin Ye was continuing to advance rapidly. These paper figures didn't pose much of an obstacle for him, but they clung onto him tenaciously like glue.
It was impossible to incinerate them using netherfire, and his Heavenly Dragnet was completely ineffective as well. During the short span of half a minute, he tried all of the tricks at his disposal, but was unable to inflict any harm upon these paper figures!
This was definitely not a good sign, and he could sense that the Yama-King he had detected earlier was less than 20 kilometers away from him, which meant that a confrontation was going to take place in half a minute more at most.
These paper figures were like a neon sign that he couldn't rid himself of, constantly signaling his location to the enemy!
Over three hours had already passed, so the inner demon had most likely already left. Even if it hadn't, the Harken could only encompass an area of a certain size with its spatial seal.
If the inner demon weren't in that area, then the spatial seal would be futile, and would only startle the inner demon and make it even more cautious.
What do I do? Should I risk it?
The Yin Yang Mezzanines were going to close in less than eight hours!
Qin Ye was flying through the air like a shooting star. The entirety of Yuncheng had been inundated in a sea of white mist, and in the city were at least four Yama-Kings, as well as the inner demon, which was above the Yama-King level. One of the Yama-Kings was facing Taoist Master Zhang in battle, while two of them were closing the Yin Yang Mezzanines in the city as quickly as they could.
All plans had to have an intended goal and a fundamental threshold, but strictly speaking here, the intended goal for Qin Ye's current operation wasn't very clear.
What exactly was he trying to do?
He was trying to track down the inner demon and find out what it was trying to do by closing the Yin Yang Mezzanines. These were only targets that had sprung into Qin Ye's mind after he became aware of the fact that the Yin Yang Mezzanines were closing. This indicated that at least four Yama-Kings had appeared in Yuncheng, which was comparable to the top-end power of Hell, and he simply couldn't allow himself to rest unless he saw for himself what was happening.
However, he had a safer way to do this as well, and that was the threshold.
That would involve waiting until everything was over, then sending out darkfeathers to investigate.
The problem was that by that time, all of the traces would've most likely already been hidden. Given how cautious the inner demon was, it would be extremely unlikely that it would leave anything behind for the darkfeathers to be able to capitalize on. Having said that, it wouldn't be a completely hopeless task. After all, he wasn't the only one who wanted the inner demon dead.
Just because Hell couldn't find any traces didn't mean that the Heavenly Dao would be in the same boat!
In that case, why was Qin Ye insisting on traveling to Yuncheng now? That was because he knew what this plan could potentially escalate into given the right circumstances!
No one knew that the Heavenly Dao was also targeting the inner demon, and there was no way that the inner demon would've guessed that the Heavenly Dao would've left Their mark in Qin Zhongguo's soul, nor would it have been able to anticipate that there were already tens of thousands of Yin soldier's gathered beneath the four Yin Yang Mezzanines. Furthermore, Qin Changxin, Qin Xinzhong, and all of the Cathayan Underworld's provincial governors were in the process of deploying hundreds of thousands of troops along with the Wumu military formation to the site as well.
The four Yama-Kings all had their attention focused on Yuncheng, and given the right opportunity, the Harken would immediately be able to perform a divine descent to arrive at Yuncheng, thereby sealing off the entire city. In that case, the plan would become a true hit job with the four Yama-Kings and three divine artifacts of Hell against the inner demon!
This was the maximal potential of the plan, and the chances of this actually eventuating were most likely no more than 1%, but if they could succeed, then the inner demon would be struck down once and for all! Thus, even though the opportunity was an extremely slim one, he was still willing to take a gamble.
He was flying through the air like a speeding arrow, covering vast distances in the blink of an eye. Amid the all-encompassing sea of mist, Qin Ye could just barely make out the city of Yuncheng up ahead. As for the stockade and living corpses blocking the road, they had already been blown far away by the fierce wind generated by the Heavenly Teacher Seal.
Qin Ye took a deep breath as he rushed directly toward the toll station, and right at this moment, he habitually checked his watch.
It was 3:30 PM, and there were still eight and a half hours left until the closing of the Yin Yang Mezzanines.
He had to go faster!
He couldn't fully unleash his Yin energy. Even though all of the Yama-Kings in the city had their attention drawn to Taoist Master Zhang, they definitely wouldn't be distracted for long. Taoist Master Zhang was only an Infernal Judge, even though he was forcing himself to use a Yama-King level divine artifact, there was no way he would be a match for a true Yama-King.
In fact, he would be lucky to survive the battle, and 10 minutes had already passed by since the battle's commencement, so perhaps he had already been defeated.
Qin Ye was traveling as quickly as he dared, and he was drawing closer and closer to Yuncheng. The closer he drew to the city, the more his heartbeat began to accelerate. Once he set foot into the city, he would've stepped into the center of this mystery.
After taking a deep breath, he made one final charge for the toll station. However, no more than half a second after he had rushed through the toll station, his expression abruptly stiffened, and he suddenly exploded into Yin energy before his body reformed again some distance away.
He cast an incredulous gaze toward the mist up ahead, then extended a finger forward, and a Soul Shackle shot forth before quickly returning with a strand of something wrapped around its tip.
It was a thread of interwoven hair.
Qin Ye gently flicked the thread, and it produced a sound similar to the string of a zither. The string was woven from countless threads of hair, and it was extremely resolute. Qin Ye had a feeling that even if he were to unleash all of his Yin energy, it would not be an easy task to sever the thread.
He raised his head with a surprised expression and cast his gaze forward, upon which he discovered that these threads were littered all throughout the outskirts of Yuncheng! It was like a laser net from a spy film!
There were far too many of these threads to count, and they were constantly changing positions rapidly!
They were concealed within the mist, making them extremely difficult to notice, and if any Yin spirit were to dare to charge through it, they would instantly be dismembered on the spot.
"What on earth is this stuff?" He cast an incredulous gaze forward.
Could it be that the inner demon was responsible for this?
No, that didn't make sense. Without the sea of mist to support them, these threads didn't pose much of a potent threat, and the mist came from Taoist Master Zhang's Heavenly Teacher Seal. Surely the inner demon wouldn't have anticipated the attack from Taoist Master Zhang.
Furthermore, these things weren't here before. It was as if the emergence of the sea of mist had triggered some type of chain reaction.
In addition to that...
He cast his gaze forward with a grim expression, and right in front of his eyes, the shadow of a massive building had appeared behind the toll station!
He couldn't see exactly what it was. This was a phenomenon triggered by the heavenly teacher seal, which automatically kept out detection from all power systems. All he could see was a shadowy figure that was as vast as a mountain, and right in front of it was what appeared to be a statue of a woman.
The statue had free-flowing clothes and was holding a long flute, but he couldn't see anything beyond that.
When had this thing appeared?
Was this illusion or reality?
However, this wasn't the time to be looking at things like this. There was no way that Taoist Master Zhang would be a match for a Yama-King, so time was of the essence for Qin Ye.
After taking a deep breath, he abruptly sprang up like a butterfly in the wind, advancing as he traversed through the tiny gaps between the threads.
It was as if he were dancing on a knife’s edge or charging through a storm.
On many occasions,he was almost grazed by the threads in his way, but he was always able to just barely avoid them by the skin of his teeth. The further he advanced, the clearer his mind became. Whoever had set this up had to have been at least a Yama-King. Otherwise, this wouldn't have posed such a severe obstacle even to him.
This passageway that was filled with threads stretched on for around 3 km, and right after he passed through the first kilometer, all of the fine hairs all over his entire body suddenly stood up on end. An extreme sense of peril abruptly welled up in his heart, and he immediately ducked his head to the side without any hesitation. Immediately thereafter, a crisp clang rang out and a white mark appeared on his cheek.
Qin Ye immediately drew to a halt, and gusts of Yin wind revolved around him as he inspected the surrounding threads with a cautious expression.
They seem to be extending out of heaven and earth, with no origin, nor any end Insight. This was a natural forest, and as was the case with forests, there were often some terrifying killers lurking within them.
His gaze fell upon the threads up ahead, and he discovered that a series of paper cutout figures had appeared on them.
The paper figures were very simple in design, with round heads and square hands and feet. The only thing remarkable about them were the specks of soulfire burning at their heads.
Furthermore, all of them were holding paper swords.
The entire area was completely silent, and there were thousands of these paper figures present, littered all over the path ahead of Qin Ye like snow. One of them had just left that mark on his cheek, so he certainly wasn't going to ignore them.
What exactly was hiding in the city of Yuncheng?
Qin Ye was watching these paper figures in silence while countless thoughts were flashing through his mind.
Why was the inner demon staying in Yuncheng?
Why was it that Yuncheng, which was far from a renowned city, had suddenly become the gathering place for four Yama-Kings?
Why was it that these threads had appeared upon the activation of the Heavenly Teacher Seal?
He couldn't make sense of this situation, and this wasn't the time to be thinking about things like this. He could already sense a burst of Yin energy drawing closer and closer at an incredible speed, making no attempt to conceal itself at all.
The Yin energy belonged to a Yama-King, and they were going to arrive here within two minutes!
If they were to discover him here, there would be no way for him to advance any further!
Thus, he had to bypass the obstacles up ahead in the next one and a half minutes at most.
He took a deep breath, then released his Yin energy ever so slightly. "Pardon my intrusion."
As soon as his voice trailed off, he rose up into the air like a crane, then shot forth rapidly through the air. At the same time, all of the paper figures flew up in unison before forming a military formation that was several hundred meters in size, then rushed toward Qin Ye at the same time with their swords raised!
Neither side was going to back down.
In the instant that the two sides clashed, a dull thump rang out, and hundreds of paper figures were sent flying backward. Directly ahead of them was Qin Ye, who had a rippling vortex of dark Yin energy around him, which was preventing the paper figures from getting within 10 meters of him.
This was Ryu Changmin's special ability, Untouchable Love!
In a one-on-one battle against a high-grade underworld emissary, this special ability could only be used sparingly as a surprise tactic, but in the face of a large number of low-level opponents, it was a crushing ability.
The paper figures formed a long stream that extended for over three hundred meters, but Qin Ye was able to fly through it without any impediment. Countless shreds of paper were flying through the air in front of him, and the sound of swords whistling through the air was ringing out incessantly around him.
All of a sudden, a sharp scream rang out, and all of the paper figures that had been sent flying converged in unison, quickly forming a snowy white ball. The surface of the ball was constantly undulating, and countless paper figures were piercing their swords into it in a frenzy, producing a string of clangs that rang out in rapid succession.
Qin Ye was continuing to advance rapidly. These paper figures didn't pose much of an obstacle for him, but they clung onto him tenaciously like glue.
It was impossible to incinerate them using netherfire, and his Heavenly Dragnet was completely ineffective as well. During the short span of half a minute, he tried all of the tricks at his disposal, but was unable to inflict any harm upon these paper figures!
This was definitely not a good sign, and he could sense that the Yama-King he had detected earlier was less than 20 kilometers away from him, which meant that a confrontation was going to take place in half a minute more at most.
These paper figures were like a neon sign that he couldn't rid himself of, constantly signaling his location to the enemy!
Over three hours had already passed, so the inner demon had most likely already left. Even if it hadn't, the Harken could only encompass an area of a certain size with its spatial seal.
If the inner demon weren't in that area, then the spatial seal would be futile, and would only startle the inner demon and make it even more cautious.
What do I do? Should I risk it?
The Yin Yang Mezzanines were going to close in less than eight hours!
