Chapter 1036: The Gate to the New Era (1)
Chapter 1036: The Gate to the New Era (1)
Thus, in
this wilderness in the middle of nowhere, the Cathayan Underworld"s King
Yanluo and a flower engaged in extensive negotiations, which concluded
in an impasse.
Ksitigarbha discovered that this shameless piece of
shit really was capable of taking a piss on the flower, while Qin Ye
discovered that he hadn"t drunk evenou water before coming here...
"Let"s
stop attacking each other like this. We"re comrades fighting in the
same trench, and I really do have an urgent request for you. Otherwise, I
wouldn"t be bothering you at a time like this."
Ksitigarbha"s
face resembled that of the sunflower in Plants Vs Zombies, and he
finally nodded in response. He was also aware that Qin Ye was telling
the truth.
The development of the new energy resource had sapped
away the time and energy of all of Hell"s high-ranking officials, so
there really was no spare capacity for them to address the opening of
the gates of Heaven. However, he was still furious at the fact that he
had been shunned and ignored like this.
His good intentions had
fallen upon a cold and heartless subject, and for this, his peers in
Heaven had ridiculed him for years! Now that Qin Ye was finally here to
see him, he naturally had to get Qin Ye back for this.
However, in the face of truly important matters, these trivial squabbles had to be set aside.
"Are
you ready?" Ksitigarbha asked before heaving a forlorn sigh. "Never has
there been such a low-key opening of the gates of Heaven before..."
As
soon as his voice trailed off, a pillar of golden light erupted
straight into the heavens from the center of the lotus flower before
plunging into the dense clouds of the underworld. Immediately
thereafter, the inky-black clouds began to rapidly revolve as if they
were being churned and stirred, forming a Yin energy vortex that was
hundreds of meters in radius.
Inside the vortex, the golden light
fanned out silently, forming a light screen that was several dozen
meters wide. The screen depicted one antiquated Cathayan-style building
after another, all of which were hovering among the clouds like abodes
for the gods. Streaks of light were dancing near these heavenly abodes
like fireflies flying around a fire on a summer"s night, further
contributing a sense of mystique and majesty to this already
awe-inspiring scene.
"Is this Heaven?" Qin Ye"s eyes narrowed
slightly as he took a closer look, and he discovered that those streaks
of light were flying carriages, some of which were drawn by azure birds,
while others were drawn by qilins, resembling asteroid belts revolving
around planets.
These heavenly abodes weren"t the only things
depicted on the light screens, there were also trees that extended up
into the heavens through the sea of clouds. The trees were riddled with
vines and burls, and a series of vibrant vermillion birds were perched
upon them. Colorful auspicious clouds were drifting around the trees,
and it was impossible to tell their age. Under the light of the sun, the
canopies of these giant trees, the sea of clouds, and the heavenly
abodes created such a beautiful sight to behold that it scarcely seemed
real.
There were also mountains hovering above the clouds, some of
which were situated around the heavenly abodes. Occasionally, a giant
beast would rise up, scattering the clouds around it, and only then
would one realize that these mountains were being carried on the backs
of these giant beasts.
"It"s so beautiful," Qin Ye couldn"t help but remark.
A faint smile appeared on Ksitigarbha"s face as he replied, "Of course. After all, this is the final home to all gods."
As
soon as his voice trailed off, the golden light screen abruptly
converged toward the center, and several dozen figures scattered
themselves onto the earth like a cluster of stars.
At the very center of the group was a man wearing a monk robe.
It
was impossible to tell his age. If you were to call him young, he had a
pair of eyes that seemed to have witnessed the entire passage of
history, and they simply didn"t belong on a young man. However, if you
were to call him old, there wasn"t a single wrinkle on his face, and his
back wasn"t hunched over in the slightest, so there didn"t seem to be
anything elderly or wizened about him.
He was wearing an extremely
ordinary yellow monk robe, and he joined his palms together with a
faint smile. A nine-ringed monk staff was resting at the bend of one of
his arms, and a rootless lotus flower was in a process of constantly
withering away before blooming again beneath his feet. Behind his head
was an indistinct golden wheel of light, and he looked directly into Qin
Ye"s eyes as he said, "I hope that you"ve been well, Yanluo Qin?"
It was Ksitigarbha!
Qin
Ye had thought that there would be countless things that he wanted to
say when he finally had the chance to meet one of the former rulers of
Hell, but in the presence of Ksitigarbha, he suddenly discovered that
nothing needed to be said, nor did he want to say anything.
"Likewise," he replied with a smile as he also joined his own palms together.
From
obtaining the fragments of King Yanluo"s Seal in Clear Creek County, to
being pursued by Dong Zhuo"s Assassins of the Underworld, to entering
the Special Investigations Department, to the battles of Tsushima,
Daehan, Alkebulan... He had endured countless hardships and tribulations
to reach his current position.
Whether he had been willing to
accept the fragments of King Yanluo"s Seal or not, all of the people
that had featured in his life, all of the people and things that he had
been attached to in the past... In the wake of a complete change in his
mental stage, were those things really still important?
At the very least, he had already grown accustomed to and was enjoying this lifestyle.
Right
at this moment, the dozens of heavenly soldiers behind Ksitigarbha fell
to one knee in unison as they said in a respectful manner, "We pay our
respects to the ruler of Hell!"
Only then did Qin Ye cast his gaze toward them. "No need for formalities."
All
of them were wearing antiquated attire that had clearly been carefully
selected. They were all handsome individuals wearing tight-fitting white
robes, upon which were embroidered intricate designs depicting flowers
or birds. On their heads were white jade crowns with a golden hairpin to
keep their hair in place, and just like Ksitigarbha, all of them were
giving off faint wisps of immortal energy.
Furthermore, they were all at the Soul Hunter level!
"This is quite a grand welcome," Qin Ye said as he turned back toward Ksitigarbha. "Should we take a walk?"
It
was clear that they wanted to speak to one another, and all of the
heavenly soldiers immediately took that as their cue to leave. Thus, all
of them dispersed into the surrounding area, and not a single one of
them approached the altar. The two Yama-Kings casually strolled along
for a while before Qin Ye finally broke the silence. "I was thinking
about something just now. Back on Kunlun Mountain, you said that the
powers of Heaven and Hell stem from the same source, and that the only
difference lies in the form of expression."
Ksitigarbha nodded in response. "The Aurogon asked me to relay that message to you. Is there something wrong?"
"We"ve encountered a bottleneck in our research, and we"re currently facing a dilemma," Qin Ye replied with furrowed brows.
A serious look appeared on his face as he turned toward Ksitigarbha before asking, "Do you know of string theory?"
"I"ve heard of it."
"The
basic form in which matter in the underworld is constructed is based on
string theory. As I"m sure you"re already aware, what our Cathayan
Underworld is currently developing is something that will have an
unimaginably massive impact on the entire world, it"s something that
will usher in a new era! We"re already standing in front of the gate
leading to the new era, but there are no more steps ahead of us."
KKsitigarbha nodded in response. He knew how it felt for something to be so close, yet so far away at the same time.
"We
have one final theory, and if that theory doesn"t work, then we"ll most
likely have to extend the duration of our research by at least two
years, even up to three to five years. However..."
"It"s very unpredictable," Ksitigarbha completed his sentence for him with a faint sigh.
Qin
Ye nodded as he continued, "Our final choice is to use immortal energy
to form the required membrane just as Xu Fu did in the past. As such, I
have two questions that I hope you can answer. Firstly, how do you
explain the statement that the powers of Heaven and Hell stem from the
same source?"
Ksitigarbha thought about this for a few seconds
before replying, "It means exactly what it says. Firstly, you have to
know that the mortal realm was the first realm to come into existence,
and Heaven and Hell only emerged after it. The mortal realm may be the
weakest of the three realms, but it"s the foundation of both Heaven and
Hell. Seeing as the mortal realm is the first realm to exist, it was
also the first place where the power system was developed. "Power" is
nothing more than a way to gather and use the surrounding particles or
strings. Of course, I"m not an expert in this field, but I"m sure you
can understand what I"m saying."
Qin Ye nodded in response, and
Ksitigarbha continued, "Hence, the powers of Heaven and Hell are both
essentially different ways to use true energy. With true energy as the
basis, if you go up infinitely high, then you"ll have immortal energy,
and if you go down infinitely low, then you"ll have Yin energy. However,
if true energy, immortal energy, and Yin energy are to be viewed as
three lines, then they were all the same line initially, and they only
split up into three separate things later on. This is what I mean when I
say that they stem from the same source, do you understand what I"m
saying?"
It was clear that Ksitigarbha wasn"t well versed with
scientific vocabulary, but he was sufficiently familiar with Yin energy,
so this was an explanation that could be understood.
"It"s said
that if one can return Yin energy, true energy, and immortal energy to
their initial origin point, then they would attain a type of power known
as chaos, and throughout all of history, only a single person in the
three realms have mastered this type of power."
"You mean the second King Yanluo?" Qin Ye asked with a stunned expression.
Ksitigarbha
nodded in confirmation with a faint smile. "Those who attain this type
of power are said to have gone beyond the Yama-King level. However, the
second King Yanluo has clearly traveled extremely far down this path and
reached an even higher level than that."
Qin Ye was just about to nod in response when a thought suddenly occurred to him.
He was already well aware of just how overpowered the second King Yanluo was.
What exactly could be lurking behind the world"s gate in Australis that would require even someone like him to guard?
This
was something that had triggered the unrest on the new continent,
released a grand script of death into the world, and had to be guarded
by the second King Yanluo in person...
Not only that, even the three saints had to be there as well!
However,
this wasn"t the time to be considering that. After taking a moment to
arrange his own thoughts, he asked, "Are you saying that if we use
immortal energy as a membrane, the new energy resource won"t be
affected?"
"Theoretically speaking, that should definitely be the case," Ksitigarbha replied in a confident manner.
Qin Ye heaved a long sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Now, all they needed was to test whether the failed Genesis experiment would be a success with the inclusion of this membrane.
The
failure of an experiment could be caused by several different factors,
and even though they didn"t know the final answer yet, at the very
least, they were on the right track!
Qin Ye forcibly repressed the
urge to return to the laboratory right away as he asked, "What about
the costs? If this works, then this will be the model for the new energy
resource. In order to create the new energy resource, immortal energy
will have to be used. How much will that cost?"
Ksitigarbha"s
brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and only after pondering the
question for a long time did he reply, "The three realms are said to be
unable to interact with one another, but in reality, they have always
been tied together throughout the course of history. Do you know where
immortal energy comes from?"
Qin Ye shook his head in response.
Ksitigarbha
continued, "As the gates of Heaven were opened, I"m sure you saw the
sea of clouds up above. That sea of clouds has a name, it"s known as the
heavenly river! It comes from the creation-grade divine artifact of
Heaven, the Fortune Jade Plate, and its ability is the same as that of
King Yanluo"s Seal in that the Fortune Jade Plate attracts the heavenly
river, while the heavenly river attracts immortal energy. Essentially,
if you want to use immortal energy, then you"ll have to permanently
station a massive amount of manpower in Heaven and also prepare large
batches of immortal energy storage equipment."
Qin Ye"s heart sank slightly upon hearing this.
This was what he was most afraid of. There was no way that they could handle the costs involved in this plan!
The
new energy resource was only a stepping stone, the main objective that
Qin Ye wanted to achieve was to propel the dragon jade to international
supremacy using a new energy resource that could be distributed to the
entire world.
It was a spear, but the spear wasn"t worthy of fear, it was the soldier holding the spear!
According
to what Ksitigarbha had just described, the costs involved would be so
high that the new energy resource would only be able to satisfy domestic
demand at the very most, which meant that there was no way it could be
released to the entire world. In that case, what was the point in
working so hard for it? All of the political maneuvers that Qin Ye had
prepared were going to fail anyway!
"However..." Right at this moment, Ksitigarbha"s brows suddenly furrowed slightly as he said, "Perhaps there"s another way."
Can you not finish what you"re saying in one go?!
Qin Ye glared at Ksitigarbha and was struck by the urge to take a piss on him!
After
a long pause, Ksitigarbha finally continued, "I"ll tell you about it
later. All you need to know is that the entirety of the heavenly river
comes from the heavenly waterfall, which is the place where immortal
energy is most abundant and most rich. Coincidentally, the heavenly
soldiers that have come here on this occasion..."
A slightly
awkward look appeared on his face as his voice trailed off before he
cleared his throat. "You"ll know when the time comes. That may be a
plausible path for you to pursue."
All of a sudden, a contemplative look appeared on Qin Ye"s face as he looked up at the sky.
Ksitigarbha
was rather perplexed by the sudden change in Qin Ye"s demeanor, and
after a long while, Qin Ye suddenly asked, "Do you remember the other
message that the Aurogon asked you to relay to me during our meeting on
Kunlun Mountain?"
Before Ksitigarbha had a chance to reply, he
answered his own question. "The message was "go against the flow"! You
just mentioned a heavenly waterfall, right?"
Ksitigarbha slightly
upon hearing this, and several seconds later, his eyes lit with
enlightenment as he also looked up at the sky. "I see! The foresight of
the Aurogon is truly incredible!"