Chapter 706: 7-Year Shackles

All were silent.

Thus, after a protracted pause, a middle-aged cultivator spoke with some tremor in his voice, “You… how do you prove this?”

They had dreamt of leaving this place for far too long.

“On what basis are you asking me to prove my own identity?” Qin Ye responded placidly, “But I suppose there’s no harm in proving my identity just to give you some measure of assurance, lest you forget something.”

“That’s the best proof of my identity right now.”

That’s right… We’re still alive.

“Will we… really be able to leave this place?” A younger cultivator began to choke up.

Everyone turned to the most reliable man in their midst, who bit down long and hard on his lower lips, before finally nodding deeply, “Alright. We’ll… tell you everything…”

“No need for introductions. You’ll all have no choice but to report to me in another 100 years or so anyway. Get straight to the point.” Qin Ye waved his hands dismissively. After witnessing the passing of so many people in his lifetime, Qin Ye could hardly be bothered to make acquaintances with these sojourners in his life.

He pointed towards a young cultivator, and Qin Ye immediately nodded, “Do you have a screen name called One Sword One Mind?”

His gaze grew deep and abstruse, “Back then, that brother was very good to me, unlike what we see right now.”

Qin Ye hung his head low, and a bright gleam flickered across his mind, “Then when did he start showing signs of change?”

With that, One Sword One Mind fell silent, almost as if he was trawling through his memory for the exact details. Qin Ye waited patiently, and the surroundings were completely silent. One minute later, One Sword One Mind looked up with a frown, “If memory serves me well, it would be 25 August.”

He shuddered, “The one who came out appeared to be him, but wasn’t him altogether! I got the feeling that he was a completely different person! And he actually looked at me and smiled!”

He clutched tightly to his chest as he continued, “He was murmuring to himself about being too soft-hearted to keep the Han Cathayan alive… That’s right! Those were his exact words! I can still remember his demeanor back then - the kind that was high and lofty, and filled with noble contempt. It was an indescribable sensation of dignity, and a far cry from how the man usually behaved.”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Let me take over.” Old Li coughed twice and stood up. They were given the opportunity to accrue virtue for themselves! Who wouldn’t want to take up such a prime opportunity like this?

“For instance, we know a thing or two about the drum beats of the mountain gods, as well as the charging armies below.”

He couldn’t afford to pass up even the slightest of details, especially when anything could potentially hold the key to unlocking the mystery enshrouding Ghost King Zhao.

He then pointed to the edge of the cliff, “Do you see the precipice over there? At the start, they weren’t even able to make their way to the edge of the precipice. But they’ve been gaining ground with each day that passes. We don’t know what exactly lies within the rolling fog around us, but it’s definitely something with a spiritual body and might just like the Yin spirits that we know of. And to that end, the drum beats of the mountain gods that we’ve been speaking of are incidentally also the drumming of war drums.”

“And the identity of the ones who are charging up…” He paused for a moment, “Are none other than Mongols!”

Zhao Yun suppresses the soul of Genghis Khan… the charge of the Mongol cavalry… and the collapse of the Mongol Empire’s Tengrism…

“Are you certain?” Qin Ye asked, seemingly placidly.

“There’s more!” A cloaked lady built upon the words that had been said thus far, “The 25th of every month is when his body is at its weakest. At the very least, he’s able to stay awake all day until midnight at night. Incidentally, that’s also the day when the Mongol cavalry in the fog is advancing with the most fervor. It almost feels like… they’re trying to share the pressure on the alter-ego attempting to take over the man’s body… At least, t-that’s my guess.”

Credit where it was due, having experienced life in this space for such a long time, the survivors had actually managed to grasp some of the laws of this domain by now. After two full hours, he finally nodded, “Thanks for the information. Now, go get some rest. This matter is well beyond your means. Your intelligence has been very helpful to us.”

After all, their experience of the earlier exchange had changed their perspective completely, and they knew full well that they would only be reduced to ashes if they even got anywhere remotely close to Ghost King Zhao.

The Harken nodded in concurrence, and both spoke at the same time, “Temujin’s soul.”

Qin Ye’s eyes flickered, “So, Temujin’s soul is attempting to take control of Brother Zhao’s body? But that’s not too realistic either, is it? He’s only a quasi Yama-King. Even if Brother Zhao is no longer benefiting from his official title from the old Hell, he still isn’t an existence that Temujin’s soul can defeat.”

“But since it’s merely a wild speculation, it makes no sense to talk about it.”

The Harken glared at him fiercely, before finally relenting, “Where do you think those Mongol cavalry have come from?”

“Because… they’re none other than the Mongol Empire’s renowned Iron Stupa! They are the invincible army that had ravaged all enemy territories wherever they rode, expanding the state of the Mongol Empire to unprecedented reaches!” The Harken continued, “They belong to Hell, and not the Mongol Underworld, because they had perished in Cathayan territory! This is the cavalry of the Golden Horde that took down the Song Dynasty! It’s the elite of the elites, even among the Mongol Empire’s Iron Stupa!”

Qin Ye frowned, searching through the words of the survivors for a clue as to what the answer might be. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he glanced back at the Harken with a look of great disbelief, “They… are trying to defend Tengrism?!”

“Furthermore, Genghis Khan’s soul has never been through the gates of Hell, and it’s never been branded by the mark of any underworld either! His soul is as suitable as it gets. That said, Temujin’s soul has been sealed for a long time, and its current strength makes it unable to sustain the might of a god’s existence. Thus, Temujin needs to breakthrough his current bottleneck and become a true Yama-King! This is why he has no choice but to confront a Yama-King! Of course, these are all but speculations on my part, but… I’m convinced that I’ve just about grasped the heart of the situation here!”

The Harken shook its head, “It’s not the same.”

“Apart from that, there’s also a qualitative difference between the existence of a true god of a system of faith and that of a regular Yin spirit. Not even a regular Abyssal Prefect is able to sustain the manifestation of a true god in their bodies. Foreign underworlds call this phenomenon a divine descent. Here, in Hell, we call it arrogation.”

The Harken’s voice drifted off, and it took the Harken some time before he reluctantly nodded its head.

“The dreg among the gods of death.”