Chapter 1274: Conditions and a Deal

"King Yama..."

Black Fox, who had an unusual relationship with Black Snake, suddenly felt aggrieved and sympathized with him upon seeing how the man ended up. She even thought: Would the King save me if I was the one who stayed on the 1st hidden island?

She wasn't the only one who thought so, the other 17 people also asked themselves. Their conclusion, nevertheless, sent a chill down their spines.

King Yama's gaze swept across the faces of Black Fox and the rest of his 18 underlings. He then slowly said, "The 18 of you are my most loyal people. You've been following me in the campaigns everywhere that finally gave us a territory to rule in the Nine Nether Underworld. But Black Snake is a different story altogether. Although he did choose to follow me, it was much later than you all, so he can't be compared to you. I'll surely do everything I can to rescue any of you if you were in his shoes."

Suddenly, the 18 people felt ashamed for having such a thought. They trusted the King, and such trust was developed after countless years of fighting together in the campaign. So much so that they wouldn't hesitate to die for the King. They believed that if such a moment came, the King himself would do everything to save them.

"But I'm still vexed, King Yama." Black Fox clenched her teeth with hatred and continued in a deep voice, "Are we going to hole up on Yama Island just like this? Are we going to let these Great Tang Empire people impose shit on our heads?"

King Yama frowned and asked, "What do you think we should do aside from holing up here?"

Black Fox's eyes flickered with a cold light and she replied in a deep voice, "Open the portal to the Nine Nether Underworld and pull those fierce vengeful spirits. If anything, the vengeful spirits of Nine Nether Underworld will never reincarnate, to begin with. Rather than letting them survive in the Nine Nether's darkness, we might as well make them wield the blades and spears to fight for us on this battlefield."

King Yama was silent for a moment before he shook his head and said, "Have you ever thought what kind of situation we're going to face once we release all those vengeful spirits in the Nine Nether Underworld? Will those Nine Orthodox Ghost Officials who control the Nine Hells just sit still and let us disrupt the order of the world?"

"It's still nothing but an episode in a war," Black Fox replied. "At most, it will only cause confusion in the Underworld and they won't be aware of what happened. Even if any Ghost Official comes from above to investigate, the war definitely would've ended by then. We can just go into hiding regardless of whether we lose or win the war. The Netherworld Authority will never be able to find us, and we can come again after some time."

"What about you guys? What do you think?" King Yama shifted to the rest and asked.

"I concur!"

"Agree!"

"I'm fine with it."

"..."

The other 17 people nodded as the killing aura radiating from them got more intense.

King Yama weighed the pros and cons in his mind before he finally accepted Black Fox's suggestion. Then, he slowly stated, "Since all of you have agreed, then let's make this one a big move. Even if we don't win the final battle, we will give heavy blows to this Great Tang Empire. But the most important thing is, I hate those damned officials in the Netherworld. The more troubles we can give them, the better and the happier it will be to us. Black Fox, you're responsible for bringing back all the members of our organization around the world. Activate the arrays of the 9th hidden island and gather them there. Additionally, I need 3 days to arrange the array. Once the portal to the Nine Nether Underworld is opened, unending streams of vengeful spirits will appear on the 9th hidden island."

"Understood!"

Everyone nodded and an exciting look overflowed in their eyes. As a group of lawless and wicked beings whose physical state was that of ghosts that practiced the ghost cultivation system, they were long used to a life full of death after cultivating it for millennia. Lives were nothing to them and they never batted an eye even if the number of deaths amounted to one or ten billion souls.

Further, their cultivation system required souls as supplements. Their strength may be able to improve rapidly and reach a higher level if they could devour a large number of souls.

****

On the 1st hidden island.

Tang Ahlang looked at Black Snake who had just regained his senses and spoke to him with a light smile, "You thought that King Yama would come back to save you, yet he just gave you up directly. It's funny, isn't it? Are you feeling disappointed and furious now?"

Black Snake looked up with a fierce expression and said, "Disappointed and furious you say? Absolutely. But I hate you more than I hate him. I know you got something you wanna ask me since you captured me alive. But you won't get anything from me."

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, you are not a human, are you?" Tang Ahlang chuckled.

Black Snake hummed coldly. "Hmph, I'm a Ghostkin warlord, a subordinate of King Yama... FUCK IT! Why should I tell you?"

Tang Ahlang shook his head and smilingly said, "Well, well. I never thought that Ghostkin would appear in the human world. The most shocking thing to me is that you guys even established an organization here. This is interesting, really. Then, how about making a deal with me?"

"Heh, what deal?" Black Snake coldly hummed.

"You tell me what I wanna know, and I'll fulfill three of your wishes," Tang Ahlang said. "Of course, one wish must be to kill the one you've given your allegiance to, that King Yama whatever. As for the other two wishes, you can tell me later."

Black Snake narrowed his eyes. He always liked schemes and tricks, so his mind quickly moved when he heard Tang Ahlang's words, thinking about how to rid himself of the predicament and how to get more benefits for himself.

His hatred for King Yama was sky-high, indeed. He knew that he had been abandoned given what had transpired in the previous battle. He recalled how loyal he was to him, treating the man as his most important person, yet he didn't expect to be just a pawn in his eyes.

"What do you want to know," Black Snake calmly asked.

"Where's the nest of this King Yama whatever, and where's the den of the Darkwind, exactly?" asked Tang Ahlang with a smile.

Black Snake was silent for a few minutes before he tilted his head up and shouted fiercely, "YAMA, don't blame me for paying back what you did to me. You're the one who abandoned me and my brothers first!"

After roaring, he immediately tilted down his head to look at Tang Ahlang and said in a deep voice, "The central command of the Darkwind is only 200 nautical miles away. But the place doesn't exist on the satellite map since the entire Yama Island is fully covered by arrays and no outsiders can find it."

"So, who's this King Yama, exactly? And how many experts are there in the Darkwind organization?" Tang Ahlang immediately asked again.

"Yama is not from this world, and he's not the only one. His 18 underlings and I are not from this world, either," Black Snake explained. "We're from the Nine Nether Underworld, a place for vengeful spirits that can never enter the six paths of reincarnation. Yama has an honorable status in the Nine Nether as one of the three leaders in the Underworld. We accidentally discovered a space crack, so we built a secret passage. However, it was easy to come out but very difficult to go back in. Of course, there's a way to work around it, albeit the cost that must be paid is quite great. Not to mention that we all like this place, so none of us is willing to go back unless it is a last resort. As for how many experts there are in the Darkwind, aside from Yama whose cultivation is unfathomable, there are his 18 henchmen and hundreds of ghost Ghostkin cultivators cultivated by Yama himself."

Tang Ahlang narrowed his eyes and thoughts kept popping out in his mind. The matter involved two worlds, so he felt that he must report it to his Master.

Immediately after, he grabbed a communicator and dialed Tang Xiu's communicator number.

"It's me, Ah Lang." Quickly, Tang Xiu's low and deep voice came out from the phone.

"There's an unexpected development here, Master," said Tang Ahlang respectfully. "The leader of the Darkwind is a man called King Yama and he's not a human on Earth, but from the Nine Nether Underworld. We got this information from one of his men we've captured."

"Send me your coordinates. Don't act rashly for the time being. I'll catch up with you immediately," Tang Xiu said.

"Order received!" Tang Ahlang replied. After he sent his position coordinates, he looked back at Black Snake and asked, "Is this Yama guy you just mentioned really strong?"

"He can become one of the leaders in the Nine Nether, so he naturally has an unfathomable cultivation level." Black Snake nodded. "Further, he excels at array formation and has deep attainments on this aspect. He was the one who arranged the arrays around the 1st hidden island. Although I have no idea how you cracked this array, I think you understand his adeptness on this aspect."

Tang Ahlang nodded in response and said, "You've told me what I wanna know, so tell me the remaining two conditions!"

Black Snake thought for a while and then said, "Spare my life and take me to the place Yama will meet his demise. This is... the conditions I want."

"Hahaha, you seem to really hate that King Yama whatever." Tang An couldn't help but laugh. "Well, it's no surprise to me, though. You were loyal to him, yet he regarded you like trash and threw you away. That's something painful to bear and will cause deep hatred no matter who the person is. If anything, you're truly really pitiful, you know."

Me? Pitiful?

Black Snake closed his eyes with a pained heart, but the killing intent radiating from him became stronger.

Tang Ahlang didn't bother to pay attention to him again. He turned to look at Tang Jin's group of five and said in a deep voice, "Pass my order to the others to rest and recuperate well. Order the recon team to go immediately and survey 200 nautical miles in all directions. Tell them to look for something particular and abnormal. Keep in mind to return immediately and report to me once you've found a suspicious spot."

"Understood!"

Tang Jin's group of five nodded and went to execute the order quickly.

After half a day, hundreds of scouts returned and Tang Ahlang figured out the exact position of Yama Island. However, as Black Snake mentioned, the location was covered by arrays. If the scouts didn't have powerful strength and formidable escaping techniques, they would have been stranded and trapped in that location.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A figure flickered and moved lightning-fast from a distance. As Tang Xiu came to the 1st hidden island, he stood in front of Tang Ahlang and said in a deep voice, "Brief me the specific situation."

"Understood!" Tang Ahlang replied respectfully.