Chapter 671: An Ancient Tale
Chapter 671: An Ancient Tale
Qin Ye’s jaws dropped slightly as he stared right up to the roof of the Grand Hall of Ancestors. The legendary ruler of the Alkebulan Underworlds had finally revealed his true form.
His terrifying Yin energy instantly erupted from his body and came bearing down heavily onto Qin Ye’s body at once. But, even then, he wasn’t able to hide the fact that it wasn’t in a good state.
There must be a reason for this… Qin Ye didn’t let his guard down in the slightest bit. Instead, he only grew more stern and somber, “What is this…?”
“Drop your guard, please. I’ve got a request to make of you… No, rather, I’ve got a request to make of Hell. This is why I’ve been waiting patiently for your arrival all this while.”
“This is Soul-Grafting Seed. Every Mythic Spirit I have awakened has a seed planted in their bodies. Where necessary, I can move between their bodies instantly, all according to my will, and regardless of how far away they might be. But this doesn’t cause them to die. As soon as I leave, they will regain consciousness once more.”
He didn’t let his guard down in the slightest. The Plumed Serpent God didn’t continue to make demands of him either. Instead, he sighed and continued, “Time is of the essence. I can’t maintain this state for long, so, let me start from the beginning…”
“Mythologies and underworlds… There’s an interesting point of correlation as far as the development of an underworld is concerned.” Quetzalcoatl turned back to look at his own sculpture as he murmured, “The longer a civilization remains primitive and undeveloped, the more robust their mythological system would be. And this was exactly the case for the New World. It wasn’t until the great age of discovery from about the 15th century, when the aborigines of the New World were faced with the firearms and cannons of foreign invaders, that they were forced to shed their primitive civilizations in order to keep with the times. Naturally, they were only second to the Alkebulan Underworlds when it came to the depths of their mythological systems.”
“The Mayans had a god of death known as Ah Puch, and the Incans had a god of death called Mictlantecutli. I belonged to the Aztec civilization. Unfortunately… there wasn’t a god of death back then.”
Despite the passage of time since then, Qin Ye could sense the endless hatred lingering in his voice. He could even hear Quetzalcoatl gnashing his teeth.
Qin Ye nodded, “And so you decided to awaken the Mythic Spirits and use them as your pawns to launch a mighty counterattack against the New World?”
The white mist appeared almost sentient, slowly rising from the ground, before receding once more like an ebbing tide.
That’s right, power.
It was somewhat akin to the feeling he got when interacting with the Second King Yanluo of Hell.
He turned back and looked Qin Ye in the eye, “I hunkered down and slowly amassed my forces here in the Alkebulan Underworlds. From time to time, I would peek out just to keep abreast of the developments in the New World. Unfortunately, given the distance separating us, and the fact that my identity was far too prominent, I can’t say that I was very well-apprised of international affairs. Then, when we finally awakened the 17th Mythic Spirit here in the Alkebulan Underworlds… something big happened…”
Quetzalcoatl nodded softly.
The Plumed Serpent God smiled, “Each of the four major underworlds houses more than 13 Yama-Kings each, but the underworlds of the New World weren’t too weak either. Each of them had five Yama-class powerhouses on their side. I wanted to conquer the New World by swallowing up all three underworlds in one fell swoop, and not help the Itzamna God’s family conquer the world.”
Just then, he turned back to Qin Ye, “Have you ever wondered why the Alkebulan Underworlds have never been unified?”
“That’s right.” Plumed Serpent God smiled grimly, “In order to awaken these Mythic Spirits, they needed to pay a corresponding price. Therefore, what I’d taken from each of them was a portion of their ambition.”
So, that’s how it is.
That said, Qin Ye could somewhat empathize with Quetzalcoatl. At the very least, he would have done the same had he been in Quetzalcoatl’s shoes.
“I don’t have much time.” Plumed Serpent God went on with a deep voice, “Your guess is right. It was all because of the great war triggered by the Argosian Underworld that my plans were all shattered.”
A deadly gaze appeared on Quetzalcoatl’s face, “With their Forbidden Art, they struck out at the Alkebulan Underworld, widening the East Alkebulan Rift even further! At that time, I had only two choices.”
“Two, block their Forbidden Art.”
Nobody said a word. It was obvious that Quetzalcoatl chose the latter.
“Unfortunately… the Forbidden Arts were far too devastating…” He sighed, “Truth be told, it’s not entirely true that my Mythic Spirits would be unable to block their deployment of Forbidden Arts. But if they were to be able to do that, their power would need to be supplemented with the right Yin artifacts and formation arrays. But I was exiled from the New World! Where was I supposed to get something like that?”
“And that was to… to put it in a way that Hell would understand, merge with the Dao. Neither the New World nor the Alkebulan Underworlds have a good explanation for this phenomenon.”
As he spoke, the white mist all around the room immediately stirred up and began swirling like a vortex aimed straight at the Plumed Serpent God. The surroundings immediately turned pale white in colour.
His voice carried a thick sense of resignation, “In recent years, we’ve seen the closure of a chapter, and the turn of a page to something brand new. I would never have thought that the three major civilizations that have stood so long in the New World would collapse from the mortal realm!”
“History has proven that the netherworld is closely interlinked to the occurrences of the mortal realm. When a particular civilization ceases to exist, their corresponding underworld would also be hit equally hard! As things stand, the death gods of the New World are still around, and they’re still Yama-class Yin spirits in that regard, but they’ve all been weakened to an incredible extent!”
Qin Ye gasped in horror.
Furthermore, he finally understood why the Plumed Serpent God was in such a weakened state.
It was because the disappearance of the three great ancient civilizations had likewise dealt him a deadly blow! And to make matters worse, he was slowly being swallowed up by the Heavenly Dao!
1. Do take these with a pinch of salt, because having read wiki, I think the author is changing some of these references in order to suit his storyline.