Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 107: The Yin Emperor

The moment the words "god-creation" left his mouth.

And looking at those Evil Corruptions swinging their pickaxes with gusto, mining away like laborers...

Chen Huangpi felt increasingly certain something wasn't right.

Yi Qingzhou had told him that his physical body had drifted through the Underworld Yellow Spring for a long time.

He had witnessed with his own eyes something creating gods down here.

Day and night, without end.

That had been thousands of years ago. By the time Chen Huangpi entered the Underworld Yellow Spring, who knew how much more time had passed?

The scene before him now.

How could he not connect the two?

"A Gui, can the Soul-Restoring Jade be used for god-creation?""I don't know..."

"Not knowing doesn't mean it can't."

Chen Huangpi murmured, "Yellow mud — yellow mud is used for creating gods. But when Xu Qingshan crafted the Fox Mountain God and the Yellow Peril, he chose a special stone as the primary material. The yellow mud only granted them the ability to transform."

"The Soul-Restoring Jade might also be used for god-creation."

Earlier, Chen Huangpi had wanted the Deity of Broad Sight to accompany him to the Underworld Yellow Spring.

But it had refused.

Because the Deity of Broad Sight was a god of the mortal world. The moment it entered the Underworld Yellow Spring, the Infinite Karmic Fire would burn it to death.

Gods created from yellow mud, however, would suffer no such fate.

Because the yellow mud originated from the Underworld Yellow Spring.

Of course, the Underworld Yellow Spring also had its own native deities, known as Yin Gods.

"What would these Evil Corruptions use to create gods?"

The Brass Oil Lamp shook its head. "Even if the Soul-Restoring Jade can be used for god-creation, and the Underworld Yellow Spring naturally produces yellow mud, without Huang Yi's consecration, whatever they create would just be lifeless clay-and-wood statues."

"Don't forget — Huang Yi is still hanging inside the world within the Flying Immortal Painting."

Hearing this.

Chen Huangpi had to admit it made some sense.

But he still felt something was off.

The Golden Top Heavenly Lamp — Huang Yi — was indeed inside the world within the Flying Immortal Painting.

After the Flying Immortal Painting vanished.

Huang Yi had never reappeared. At least not in the Pure Immortal Temple during Chen Huangpi's lifetime.

But Yi Qingzhou's words couldn't be false.

Because Chen Huangpi was the Guanzhu's disciple, and Yi Qingzhou even knew he had been an egg. In every meaningful sense, they were family.

Why would family deceive each other?

Thinking this, Chen Huangpi frowned. "Huang Er, do you think Huang Yi might possibly..."

"Impossible."

The Brass Oil Lamp sneered. "Huang Yi and I came from the same forge. We're blood brothers. If it were anywhere in the Underworld Yellow Spring, how could I not sense it?"

"Besides, its mind is rigid. No one but the Guanzhu can command it."

The Brass Oil Lamp detested Huang Yi above all things.

Yet it had to concede that Huang Yi was genuinely powerful.

It had simply exhausted its potential.

Unlike itself — now there was a treasure with a limitless future.

"Huang Er, that's not what I meant."

Chen Huangpi clarified. "I mean, aside from Huang Yi, is there anything else that could consecrate a statue into a god?"

"Such as?"

"Such as you. You're the Nine Nether God Lantern. Can't you consecrate gods?"

"Huh? Me?"

The Brass Oil Lamp blinked in astonishment. "I have that ability? Was that why the Guanzhu created me — and here I thought it was because there were too many leftover scraps and he figured why let them go to waste?"

"Could the Guanzhu have had a deeper purpose in creating me?"

"Could my potential truly rival Huang Yi's?!"

At this, the Brass Oil Lamp erupted with elation, practically dancing with glee.

"So what if it's the Golden Top Heavenly Lamp! I, the Nine Nether God Lantern, can stand as its equal!"

"So — can you actually consecrate gods?"

"..."

One sentence from Chen Huangpi, and the Brass Oil Lamp was struck dumb.

Right...

Could it actually consecrate gods?

The Brass Oil Lamp racked its brain, combing through every memory of its entire existence.

Then, crestfallen, it said, "No. I don't have that ability."

If it could consecrate gods.

It would have been lording it over every other treasure in the Pure Immortal Temple years ago.

The Brass Oil Lamp said resignedly, "Even if I could, I've been with you the whole time. How could I possibly have snuck off to the Underworld Yellow Spring to create Yin Gods?"

Chen Huangpi was about to continue.

When, without warning, a chorus of irritated glares snapped in his direction.

Those stares carried a flicker of anger.

As if to say: We're all working. Why are you the only one slacking off?

Chen Huangpi winced. He didn't dare get distracted again.

Immediately, he swung the pickaxe with everything he had.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

He had no idea what the pickaxe was made of.

It looked blunt and crude, but when it struck Mount Luopo's stone, the rock parted like butter — one swing, and the stone shattered.

At the same time, a tortured wail surged through the pickaxe and into Chen Huangpi's mind.

The wail was almost corporeal.

It immediately wracked him with agony.

"It's the mountain. Mount Luopo is screaming."

Chen Huangpi gritted his teeth. "Serves you right. If not for you, would I be here doing hard labor? No pay, no breaks — today I'm going to dig a hole straight through you, or I'll never have peace."

He loathed this mountain.

So he swung the pickaxe with even more fury.

As he hacked away with reckless abandon.

In the blink of an eye, a massive pit had been gouged into the mountain's hard surface.

The Evil Corruptions looked on with surprise and approval in their eyes.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Chen Huangpi swung the pickaxe.

His entire body was sinking at a visible pace.

Mount Luopo's screams came in wave after wave.

Unceasing, like a demonic cacophony boring into his skull.

Chen Huangpi was tormented.

And right then.

As though sensing his suffering, the Yin God — dormant in his mind since they'd entered the Underworld Yellow Spring, as if dead to the world — suddenly pulsed once.

The next second.

A cold yet gentle force flowed from between his brows.

Chen Huangpi felt as though he had plunged into an ice cellar.

The agonizing noise vanished in an instant.

But pain doesn't disappear. It only transfers.

Chen Huangpi could no longer feel the agony.

He was consumed with one purpose: digging a crater straight through this mountain as payback.

Yet inside his body, within the Kidney Temple.

A different, far more wretched shriek rang out.

The Magic Tree was screaming.

Louder even than Mount Luopo.

Only Chen Huangpi couldn't hear a thing. "Strange — why does it feel like I'm getting stronger?"

Chen Huangpi said in bewilderment. "Could it be because I've been watering the Magic Tree so diligently lately? Maybe it's like me — sentimental, loyal — and has decided to submit to me out of gratitude?"

Ever since the Magic Tree had taken up residence in the Kidney Temple.

Unless he watered it, it refused to release even a drop of power.

It resisted the black smoke's extraction with every fiber of its being.

After all, it was the god of the Kidney Temple.

But now, Chen Huangpi noticed the Magic Tree's power flooding out like a dam bursting.

Where the Magic Tree had previously given him perhaps ten percent of its power each day.

That amount had already doubled.

"Good tree!"

Chen Huangpi said, deeply moved. "It's easy to add icing to the cake. It's hard to send charcoal in the snow. Here I am, doing forced labor, at the mercy of Evil Corruptions, and the Magic Tree steps up like this. I can't mistreat it from now on. I'll water it day and night in return."

Watering was simple enough.

The Soul-Hooking Manual contained plenty of water. Chen Huangpi watered the tree whenever he remembered.

Though, since entering the God-Burying Mound and coming to the Underworld Yellow Spring, he had forgotten entirely.

Now, with a thought.

Water from the Soul-Hooking Manual poured into the Kidney Temple.

It splashed across the Magic Tree — bound by countless chains forged from black smoke.

"Fifty percent!"

Chen Huangpi surged with excitement. The power was coming so fast.

Tree branches even sprouted from his ears.

But he didn't care. His eyes were fixed on this mountain and nothing else.

"Sixty percent!"

"Seventy percent!"

And right then.

A long, spindly arm seized his shoulder and hauled him straight up.

"Let go of me!"

Chen Huangpi snapped. "You dragged me here for corvée labor. Forced labor! Now I'm busting my back and you won't even let me work?"

The Evil Corruptions tilted their heads and pointed at the hole in the ground.

It was roughly three meters across.

Looking down, it was staggeringly deep — this wasn't a pit anymore; it was a shaft.

And outside the mine shaft, the excavated stone and earth had piled into a small mountain.

Only then did Chen Huangpi notice that each Evil Corruption held a transparent stone of varying sizes.

"Master, those are Soul-Restoring Jades."

The Life-reaping Ghost said excitedly. "They really are mining Soul-Restoring Jade."

"Then why didn't I find any?"

Chen Huangpi stared blankly at the heap he'd dug out.

The pile was massive — its upper half disappeared into the dark clouds.

The Evil Corruptions looked at Chen Huangpi with puzzlement.

Then, as if remembering something, one walked over to the pile carrying its pickaxe. It picked up a stone and cracked it open.

Clang.

The stone split apart.

Nothing inside.

Undeterred, the creature chose another stone and cracked that one open too.

This time, Chen Huangpi saw a piece of Soul-Restoring Jade no bigger than a fingernail.

The Evil Corruption handed it to him.

The moment Chen Huangpi took it, the Yin God in his mind jolted fiercely.

"It smells incredible..."

Chen Huangpi swallowed hard, his eyes locked on the tiny jade in his palm.

The Soul-Restoring Jade was unremarkable in appearance.

Just a transparent stone. If he hadn't known what it was, he'd have ignored it lying on a roadside.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

Chen Huangpi's stomach growled.

More precisely, the Yin God's stomach growled.

The Yin-Yang Harmonization and Spirit Transformation Art cultivated the divine soul — the hun and po.

The Yin God was Chen Huangpi's hun — soul.

The Yang God was Chen Huangpi's po — spirit.

When yin and yang were harmonized, the primordial spirit would form on its own.

Hunger. Overwhelming, consuming hunger.

Chen Huangpi had never felt this ravenous in his life. Without thinking, he popped the Soul-Restoring Jade into his mouth and swallowed.

The next second.

Every pair of shocked eyes locked onto him.

The Evil Corruptions stumbled backward in unison.

As though they had just witnessed something truly monstrous.

"Melts in the mouth. Very smooth. A little sweet, actually."

Chen Huangpi smacked his lips, then looked at the Evil Corruptions. They too held Soul-Restoring Jade.

Those smelled delicious as well...

Seeing his gaze, the Evil Corruptions immediately stuffed their jade pieces into their black robes.

The tantalizing scent vanished at once.

"How stingy."

Chen Huangpi pouted, then turned to the mountain of rubble he himself had excavated. He said to no one in particular, "Well, do it yourself and you'll never go hungry. After eating that, my Yin God feels like it's coming alive. How strange — was it dead before?"

Even as he spoke, Chen Huangpi was scrambling up the mound, pickaxe in hand.

The Brass Oil Lamp said nervously, "Chen Huangpi, don't go crazy. The Soul-Restoring Jade is meant to save the Guanzhu. If you eat it all, what happens to him?"

"Don't worry. I'll save the biggest piece for Master."

"This isn't about size! Are you even sure this stuff is meant to be eaten?"

"I'm not human, remember?"

"You can be."

"Then let me be the judge!"

The heap Chen Huangpi had excavated rose high enough to vanish into the dark clouds above.

Black stone and dark earth piled into a mound.

Down below, the Evil Corruptions formed a ring around its base, exchanging glances with one another. Beneath their bamboo hats, their eyes were deeply unsettled.

As though they had never once seen one of their own treat the Soul-Restoring Jade as food.

And then.

Chen Huangpi had already clambered to the top. The cloud layer was right above his head.

His plan was to start from the very top, cracking stones open and eating his way down.

"Here I come!"

Chen Huangpi gleefully thrust his head up into the dark clouds.

Then, just as quickly, he yanked it back down.

"Coming back down now!"

Chen Huangpi's face was flushed scarlet, his heart hammering wildly.

He had seen a sun. A sun that was burning, embedded — hammered — into the space between the brows of a face so vast it defied all description.

The face's eyes were shut. It had been dead for a very long time.

Dark, cryptic characters covered its skin — the underworld script of the Underworld Yellow Spring.

The face was so unimaginably large it had no edges. It spanned the entire sky of the Underworld Yellow Spring, as if it were the heavens themselves.

It was the Yin Emperor.