Yama Rising

Chapter 720: Ashmound Port

Forget it… I guess this is what happens when older women meet the idol of their dreams. This is a price I’ve got to pay for having Zhao Yun around… But before Qin Ye could even go on in that train of thought, Arthis began to march down the aisle towards Zhao Yun, just like she was waltzing down the catwalk, twisting her waist and striking elegant poses.

He searched through his mind - Who’s this supposed to be? My record is rather clean. After all, I’d only been intimately engaged with the same few women in the past, so… who exactly is this?!

Qin Ye watched coldly as a certain silicone doll began to make her play.

At once, Arthis fell right straight into his embrace, and she clutched tightly at his bulging biceps and nestled her head into his muscular bosom, revealing a look of great contentment, “It’s fine if you don’t remember me… but there weren’t many survivors back then, and to the best of my memory, I was the only female Emissary of Hell around…”

Sister, you’re playing a dangerous game over here…

But before he could even go on, he was promptly interrupted with Arthis’ soft voice, “Please, have some tea.” At some point, she had already made a cup of tea, and was now personally offering it up to Zhao Yun with great elegance, “This is a specialty tea from Ashmound City. You must be tired after walking for such a long time.”

Qin Ye’s eyes widened. He could’ve sworn that he saw her mouth the words “do not disturb” to him earlier.

“Do you know…” Arthis continued to stare intently at Zhao Yun, bringing her gaze from ZHao Yun’s eyes, to his shoulders, then down to his chest, his naval, and then… as soon as she heard Qin Ye’s question, she chuckled bitterly, “Do you know how hard things have been over these last few months?”

Qin Ye paused for a moment, and then stared at Arthis.

How did this silicone woman actually know about economic indicators such as the Purchasing Managers’ Indices? I can’t accept this. Oh, and hang on, she doesn’t even have the looks of her silicone doll right now…

Ignoring Qin Ye’s look of disdain, she put on a pair of black-framed glasses, completing the look of a competent intellectual as she explained, “The manufacturing industry continues to underperform. The scholars believe that we’ll soon be entering a harsh period of winter for the manufacturing industry, but this is only expected to rebound and take a turn for the better in due course. If we stay the course now, we can expect the manufacturing industry and the light industry to both show a significant upturn in the trends, either at the second half of next year, or the start of the year after. But for now, we’re still stuck in the investment period, where firms are largely focused on construction, infrastructure, talent-scouting, market research and other ground work. In other words, it’s not quite time for the harvest just yet.”

“The Construction Corps have already ventured out into the Eastmount Province, but their search for raw materials isn’t something that can be completed in just a few months. The list of raw materials that have already been found have been placed on your desk. You’ll have to go through these lists and allocate the resources accordingly, as well as make arrangements of the exact volume to be excavated over a period of time, as well as build the necessary processing plants. These are all things that will need your approval.”

Qin Ye could sense his hair standing on end as he heard Arthis explain everything in an uncharacteristic fashion.

But Arthis couldn’t be bothered with the matter that her King Yanluo was currently preoccupied with. Instead, she simply pointed to another document on the desk, “The rate of loan takeups is also languishing. Our central bank has already issued the first batch of its low-interest loans, but the number of Yin spirits who have taken up our offer amounts to less than a thousand. To that end, we’ve done a brief check on our census, and we’ve discovered that there are a grand total of 30,000 people who used to be part of the management of large or medium sized enterprises back while they were still alive. The fact that we have such low loan takeup rates indicates that they simply lack confidence in the prospects of Ashmound City’s manufacturing and other light industries.”

With that, she stood to the side and gave Qin Ye space to mull over his own thoughts. Like a typical secretary, she bowed deeply and then muttered softly, “Please give us your guidance, esteemed King Yanluo.”

Qin Ye picked up the dockets of information and began to read through their contents. That said, he couldn’t help but quip to the Harken on the side, “What’s the matter with her? Did Zhao Yun’s presence trigger her too much? This isn’t like her at all! I’m not used to how she is right now…”

The Harken leapt right up to his shoulder and then lifted his chin towards Zhao Yun, who was reading other documents on the sofa some distance away, “Perhaps the arrival of her idol might have unlocked her latent intelligence. After all, is there anyone who doesn’t like a competent and attractive woman? Tsk… Why didn’t I notice this side of her before?”

He was just about to address Qin Ye as Brother Qin when he noticed Zhao Yun seated on the sofa. At once, he changed tacts, “Yanluo Qin, the Daolord of the Asura and the Daolord of the Hungry Ghost humbly requests an audience with you.”

“Kong Mo has been taken down.” Wang Chenghao bowed, “Additionally, they have urgent business for which they’re seeking an audience with Your Excellency. They are currently located in Ashmound Port right now.”

At once, the frustrations in his heart vanished in a flash, and he asked with a somber tone of voice, “How’s the construction of the port coming along?”

For instance, he had asked for a variety of ores, plastics, as well as other forms of production-line related resources. Perhaps the first shipment might not be able to satiate the demand in Eastmount Province, but so long as he could satisfy the pent-up demand in Ashmound City, that would be sufficient!

And as for the rest of the underworld, that would all depend on the rate at which Hell could reclaim all of its lost territory, as well as how smooth his negotiations with the mortal realm would go.

Qin Ye frowned slightly, “Didn’t I tell you that the bigger the port, the better? This is going to be the new Hell’s first port, and the face that other underworlds are going to recognize us by. We simply can’t afford to give people the wrong impression!”

“Do you really think that the construction of a port is just like the construction of any other building in Hell? Wrong! Those were modelled directly after the buildings in the old Fengdu Necropolis, and we just happened to have the blueprints on hand. Let me put it in simpler terms. Let’s say you can use magic to suspend a huge stone in the air and cut it up into bricks of equal sizes. Do you think you’ll be able to construct an arena right away?”

Tap, tap… Qin Ye gently tapped his fingers on the table. Seconds later, he stood up, “Brother Zhao, Mr Harken, come. Let’s go take a look.”

Not a single one of them objected.

Originally, this should have been a boundless beach - almost a travel destination of sorts. But now, everything was built over with rows of piers lined up and waiting for the arrival of merchant ships. To that end, there were easily at least 50 piers!

Had it been someone else, the design of the docks would have been far inferior to this. After all, there were too many things to be considered, including the location of aisles, the cargo channels, the size of the ships, the width of the roads, the load-bearing factor of the paths, the overall aesthetics, the warehouse areas, the floor of traffic, accommodation, and so on and so forth. Without the experience of someone adept at designing a small city, it would be impossible to design a harbour worthy of Hell’s name like this.

He would’ve forgotten about their existence by now, if not for the fact that he saw them today.

………………………………………………………..

Merit… We’re on the cusp of a great merit! How could we not personally come to claim this credit for ourselves?

What a familiar voice…

“This is…” Su Daji’s eyes twitched at the corners. Then, two seconds later, she shuddered all over, and immediately lay prostrate on the ground, screaming at the top of her voice, “Great sinner, Su Daji, humbly greets the esteemed Ghost King Zhao!!!”

That’s right… I remember him…

Qin Hui’s hands trembled violently, and the scroll in his hand fell to the ground as well. Sixfold Ghost King… They were the ones who had captured us and dragged us back to Hell in the first place! The terror was engraved so deeply in his soul that his mind instantly went blank, and he instinctively flopped to the ground just like Su Daji, “G-g-g-great sinner, Qin Hui, humbly greets the esteemed Ghost King Zhao!!”