Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 108: The Man Who Climbed the Mountain, the Gods Who Descended

That was the Yin Emperor.

Chen Huangpi needed only one glance to know — that was the very being born from the Underworld Yellow Spring, the sovereign who ruled all four directions and established the Ten Halls of Yama.

The master of the Underworld Yellow Spring.

The Life-reaping Ghost spoke with a complex edge. "Master, the dark clouds are blocking my view. I..."

It knew the Yama had perished alongside the Yin Emperor.

Yet it desperately wanted to see for itself.

But the words caught in its throat and took a different path.

"No. Don't go looking."

The Life-reaping Ghost gritted its teeth. "The Yin Emperor is dead. It was born from the Underworld Yellow Spring, and both have become Evil Corruptions. Its corpse surely hasn't been spared. If we disturb it, there could be catastrophic consequences."

"A Gui, you don't have to hold back."Chen Huangpi said. "Those Evil Corruptions earlier had their upper halves above the clouds the whole time. They've definitely seen the Yin Emperor. I'll be careful. Nothing will happen."

With that.

Chen Huangpi plunged his head back into the cloud layer.

That colossal face — vast as the firmament — filled his eyes once more.

This time, Chen Huangpi stared hard.

The Yin Emperor's full appearance became perfectly clear.

It was the visage of a middle-aged man.

Expression blank. Devoid of all life.

Fine strands of hair cascaded down toward the distant horizon.

Upon its head sat a crown of nine pearls and twelve tasseled strings.

The sun blazed in the center of the Yin Emperor's brow.

How long it had burned, no one could say — yet all those years had failed to consume its flesh, bone, or skin. The sun remained firmly embedded, never falling.

"Huang Er, your eyes are sharper than mine. Help A Gui take a look."

"A Gui, don't worry. Let the great lamp personally examine where that Yama — the one with whom you share merely a 'trivial blood connection' — might be."

The Brass Oil Lamp widened its eyes.

Its gaze swept back and forth across the Yin Emperor's face.

Finally, it settled on the sun.

Faintly, the Brass Oil Lamp thought it could make out tiny black specks. But the sun, despite appearing close, was — together with the Yin Emperor's face — impossibly far away.

"A Gui, I can't make it out."

The Brass Oil Lamp strained until its vision blurred, but still couldn't discern what those specks were. It could only say, "Your father was a Yama King. He couldn't have been as powerful as the Yin Emperor. The Yin Emperor died and its body still remains, but your old man was probably burned to ashes by the sun long ago."

"Who knows — the very air we're breathing might contain part of your father."

"If you really miss him, just take a few extra deep breaths."

Hearing this, Chen Huangpi immediately spat out the air in his lungs, saying as he exhaled, "A Gui, I'm sorry! I didn't do it on purpose."

"..."

The Life-reaping Ghost said darkly, "Master, even if he turned to ash, it would've settled on the ground and become part of the Yin Lands. You wouldn't have breathed it in."

"Blood relation doesn't mean anything. When you think about it, every creature born from the Underworld Yellow Spring is related by blood."

"Even the Yin Emperor."

The Life-reaping Ghost's tongue wasn't as foul as Golden Horn's.

But it was every bit as stubborn.

No matter what anyone said, it refused to admit it was the Yama's child.

Chen Huangpi didn't understand why the ghost was so awkward about it.

His relationship with Master was wonderful.

He wanted things, he said so. He said what was on his mind.

Once, he remembered plucking out Master's beard because he wanted to use it as a zither string. Master hadn't even gotten angry.

Instead, he'd smiled, hung Chen Huangpi from a tree, and given him a good thrashing.

Said he was treating the boy's "itch problem."

Still, the Life-reaping Ghost's words set Chen Huangpi's mind wandering.

He began to mutter privately, 'That Ferryman said I'm also a part of the Underworld Yellow Spring. Doesn't that mean the Yin Emperor and I are blood relatives?'

'I was already an egg before the Heaven and Earth Mutation.'

'Perhaps the Yin Emperor and I are cousins.'

'The saying goes: when the elder brother dies, the crown passes to the next. Claiming this kinship wouldn't exactly be a losing proposition.'

With that thought, Chen Huangpi gazed at the sky-spanning face of the Yin Emperor and said with grand emotion in his heart, 'Cousin, rest easy. From now on, I shall govern the Underworld Yellow Spring in your stead. Oh — nearly forgot. You, too, are a part of the Underworld Yellow Spring. Which means you rightfully should also submit to—'

Mid-thought.

Chen Huangpi froze.

He rubbed his eyes frantically. His clear, black-and-white pupils were full of doubt.

"Chen Huangpi, what's wrong?"

The Brass Oil Lamp asked, puzzled. "Did you get something in your eye?"

"No."

Chen Huangpi frowned. "I'm not sure if I was seeing things, but I think the Yin Emperor's eyelid just trembled."

"You were definitely seeing things."

The Brass Oil Lamp said dismissively. "It's been dead for ages. Is it going to spring back to life? Even if it became an Evil Corruption, that sun is suppressing it. It can't pull anything."

The sun and the moon represented the rules of heaven and earth.

Where this particular sun had come from before it fell into the Underworld Yellow Spring — that was anyone's guess.

But a sun was a sun.

No matter how powerful the Yin Emperor, it could never contend with the fundamental rules.

Powerful beings were many.

But one who was Near-Dao could only ever be one.

Unless the Guanzhu achieved Union with the Dao, no other being — however mighty — could take even one more step toward that pinnacle.

As if to prove its point to Chen Huangpi.

The Brass Oil Lamp gestured at the sun. "That sun killed the Yin Emperor. It's like a nail — as long as the nail stays driven in, the Yin Emperor can't move."

"You know what, it really does look like a nail."

Chen Huangpi tilted his head. "But those black specks inside the sun — they look even more like nails to me."

"What's so strange about that?"

The Brass Oil Lamp said casually. "People have big heads and small heads. Nails come in big nails and little nails. The specks are nails. The sun is also a nail."

Looking back below, the Evil Corruptions were growing visibly agitated.

One by one, they fixed their gazes on him in silent urgency.

These creatures differed from the Slender Evil Spirit. They didn't seem to be formed from corpses — they were hard and rigid, as though carved from stone — and like the Slender Evil Spirit, they couldn't speak. Their gazes seemed to be their only means of communication.

Chen Huangpi didn't know what these Evil Corruptions wanted.

But getting to this Mount Luopo alone had consumed most of a two-hour period.

Then he'd been drafted into labor. Three entire periods had slipped away.

Five periods remained before nightfall.

He couldn't afford to waste much more time. He needed to leave sufficient margin for Golden Horn to find the route back to the mortal world.

Thinking this. Chen Huangpi hesitated no more. He swung the pickaxe and began cracking open stones one by one.

Not every stone contained Soul-Restoring Jade.

But with this many stones to break open, the yield was far from small.

"This one's too tiny."

"This one's even smaller."

"This one's big. I'll keep it."

"Oh — this one's bigger still."

Chen Huangpi ate only the small pieces. The large ones were for Master.

Before long.

The mound of rubble shrank and shrank.

Until it was nothing but a scattering of broken rock on the ground.

Under the terrified stares of the Evil Corruptions, Chen Huangpi stood holding a head-sized Soul-Restoring Jade in one hand and a palm-sized piece in the other.

"This one's for Master. This one's for me."

With a thought.

The head-sized jade vanished into the Soul-Hooking Manual.

The palm-sized piece he held to his mouth and began nibbling, bite by bite.

As for the smaller pieces he'd found earlier — those were long gone, already in his stomach.

In truth, it wasn't Chen Huangpi doing the eating.

It was the Yin God.

And it was already stuffed.

Chen Huangpi felt lightheaded, his skull swimming. If the jade hadn't smelled so irresistible, he wouldn't be taking these dainty little bites — he would have swallowed it whole.

Crunch... crunch...

Nibbling on the Soul-Restoring Jade, Chen Huangpi prodded the Evil Corruptions. "Why aren't you moving yet?"

He had followed them up.

He would naturally follow them back down.

Otherwise, Mount Luopo — already angry after he'd punched a hole through it — would certainly not let him leave peacefully.

And without this column of Evil Corruptions.

The surface beneath Chen Huangpi's feet would be nothing but near-vertical cliff face, not those waist-high steps.

The Evil Corruptions shook their heads.

The one nearest Chen Huangpi thought for a moment, then grabbed his shoulders with both hands and turned him to face a different direction.

The other Evil Corruptions immediately fell into line behind him.

The Brass Oil Lamp marveled. "These things are truly bizarre. Going up, you were at the back. Going down, you're in front. Could it be that unless you lead the way, they simply can't leave?"

Chen Huangpi glanced at his feet and realized the ground had shifted without his noticing.

The hard stone was now a staircase.

Step after step after step, stretching all the way down to the foot of Mount Luopo.

"Looks like I'm the leader now."

Chen Huangpi took a step forward. Behind him, every one of the ten thousand Evil Corruptions stepped in unison.

Going up was slow. Coming down was fast.

Chen Huangpi's feet barely touched the steps as he hurtled downward.

He didn't need to walk at all — he simply jumped from step to step. The Evil Corruptions behind him did exactly the same.

If anyone had been standing at the base of Mount Luopo looking up.

They would have been scared out of their wits.

Because one after another, tall and spindly figures — roughly three meters each, clad in black robes and bamboo hats — were bouncing and leaping down the mountainside at breakneck speed.

The figure in the lead was unmistakably young.

But the younger the build, the more nimble the movement.

In the blink of an eye, a cloud of dust erupted.

Boom.

Chen Huangpi leaped from the final step, landing at the mountain's base.

Then he spun around, smiled at the Evil Corruptions, and gave a little wave. "Thank you. You're all good Evil Corruptions. I'll remember you."

At the same time, he screamed internally. "Huang Er!"

"Escape Light!"

The Brass Oil Lamp had been holding the Escape Light at the ready, just waiting for this moment.

In a flash.

Golden radiance erupted from within Chen Huangpi's robe — like a sun had been hiding against his chest.

Now, that sun was hidden no longer.

It blazed to full brilliance, engulfing Chen Huangpi entirely.

Then it shot away as a streak of golden light.

Across the Yin Lands, a golden comet blazed overhead.

The Brass Oil Lamp laughed triumphantly. "Chen Huangpi — how fast is my Escape Light?"

"Fast! Even faster would be better!"

"This is already the maximum!"

"Then we're doomed."

Chen Huangpi looked down with a bitter expression.

Beneath his feet, step after step still stretched onward. The Evil Corruption column was still right behind him.

The Escape Light hadn't shaken them at all.

And right then, a long, spindly arm reached into the golden light.

The Brass Oil Lamp's eyes nearly popped out of its head.

"WHAT?!"

There they were — ten thousand Evil Corruptions in formation, trailing behind Chen Huangpi. However fast the Escape Light flew, the column matched it exactly.

And that intruding hand seized Chen Huangpi's shoulder, spinning him around to face a new direction.

Chen Huangpi looked over his shoulder.

He found himself staring directly into the face of the Evil Corruption behind him.

Its gaze was full of reproach, as if to say: What kind of navigation is this? We need to go that way.

However...

That was the direction the Evil Corruption column wanted to go.

Not Chen Huangpi's destination. If these creatures had mined the Soul-Restoring Jade for god-creation, and the mining was done, then their destination must be wherever the gods were being made.

Chen Huangpi smiled awkwardly. "The thing is... I want to go the other way."

Ten thousand gazes fell upon him — impassive, absolute, brooking no argument. As if to say:

No. You're going this way.