Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 109: The Town of Wrongful Death — The Beheaded Yama

The Yin Lands stretched vast and boundless.

A thousand li without a trace of life. Ten thousand li without a shred of vitality.

Chen Huangpi didn't know whether the Evil Corruptions of the Underworld Yellow Spring followed the same pattern as those in the mortal world — dormant by day, active by night.

All he knew.

Was that four two-hour periods remained until nightfall.

And the Evil Corruption column behind him refused to be shaken.

No matter how the Brass Oil Lamp maneuvered its Escape Light — spiraling upward, veering left, whipping right — nothing worked.

Not only couldn't they lose them.

The moment something was even slightly off.

The column would forcefully redirect Chen Huangpi.Ensuring their "leader" stayed on the correct path at all times.

"This lamp has never suffered such indignity."

The Brass Oil Lamp said in despair. "Chen Huangpi, if it comes to it, just kneel down and kowtow to them. I'm already down to half my lamp oil. They won't even say how much farther it is. Are they really going to ride me like a donkey until I'm wrung dry?"

"You think I'm not suffering here?"

Chen Huangpi said miserably. "At the Pure Immortal Temple, in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the worst thing I ever had to eat growing up was that sticky gruel. And even then, Master would buy me candied hawthorn sticks."

"But now, in this Underworld Yellow Spring."

"These Evil Corruptions have me doing unpaid labor, forced labor, corvée!"

"Didn't the Yin Emperor pass any laws before it died? Something banning child labor?"

"Give it up. The Yin Emperor is long gone."

The Brass Oil Lamp looked back at the seemingly endless column of Evil Corruptions with an aggrieved expression beyond words.

These Evil Corruptions were absolutely revolting.

Fight them? Over ten thousand strong.

That was a fight they genuinely could not win.

Worst of all, their strength was completely unreadable.

Curse them out? The creatures never talked back.

Curse however you like.

The Brass Oil Lamp had already exhausted every profanity it had ever known in its entire existence. A thorough and comprehensive verbal annihilation. Yet the Evil Corruptions hadn't so much as grunted.

Until finally, it had run out of words entirely.

And the most maddening part — the Brass Oil Lamp didn't dare slow down.

Because these Evil Corruptions had plainly designated Chen Huangpi as their leader.

They assumed, as a matter of course, that he would take the Soul-Restoring Jade to wherever gods were being created — Yin Gods.

Whether there would be an opportunity to slip away once they arrived remained unknown.

But if they didn't move at full speed and darkness fell first, then all hope truly was lost.

"Chen Huangpi, I need to save some lamp oil for emergencies. Give me some of your energy."

Hearing this.

Chen Huangpi quickly channeled the vital essence cycling day and night within his liver — the force forging his Liver Temple — into the Brass Oil Lamp.

The Magic Tree's power was formidable.

But deeply incompatible with the Brass Oil Lamp.

The same went for the black smoke. Though both forces originated either directly or indirectly from Chen Huangpi, they were fundamentally different from vital essence.

Vital essence came from the five viscera: kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, spleen.

The black smoke originated from the Kidney Temple. The Magic Tree's power was likewise from there.

Only vital essence was perfectly attuned to the Brass Oil Lamp.

As if vital essence was yang, and every other power was yin.

And right then.

Perhaps because Chen Huangpi had drifted off course again, an Evil Corruption grabbed his shoulder and adjusted his heading slightly to the left.

The golden orb streaked forward.

And up ahead loomed another Mount Luopo.

Chen Huangpi looked up. This one was even more massive than the last, and an Evil Corruption column was already descending from its slopes.

That column had even more members.

Close to twenty thousand.

When they spotted Chen Huangpi's column, they waved in greeting.

Feeling the weight of the gazes behind him.

And watching this new Evil Corruption column merge into his formation.

Chen Huangpi was so angry he actually laughed. Through gritted teeth, he snarled, "Fine, fine, fine — so that's how you're going to play! Normally you walk everywhere, but now that you've found me — found this express train — you all want to hop aboard? This is outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!"

He was still a boy.

And boys were hot-blooded, prone to losing their tempers.

Compounded by the fact that cultivating the Liver Temple.

Made his liver fire flare like a furnace.

The two forces combined, and the dam burst.

In that instant, Chen Huangpi was incandescent with rage. He reached for the Void-Piercing Sword, ready to fight to the death.

Fortunately, the Brass Oil Lamp seized his hand. "It's not worth it! Really not worth it! Bear with it — endure the moment, and calm seas await!"

"Patience in small things prevents ruin of great plans!"

The Brass Oil Lamp pleaded. "The Great Qian Immortal Dynasty, the Underworld Yellow Spring, and the Pure Immortal Temple are all waiting for you to inherit them."

"Besides, so what if they're treating you like a fast-car driver? They're not even paying, so just pretend it isn't happening. And anyway, the Escape Light isn't even—"

It stopped mid-sentence. Then fury exploded. "Son of a — wait a minute! When you think about it, I'm the one getting used for free here! This is outrageous! Outrageous to a lamp!"

"I'm going to fight them! Chen Huangpi, don't hold me back!"

"I'm not holding you back."

"Oh..."

The Brass Oil Lamp immediately composed itself. "You know, the scenery in this Underworld Yellow Spring isn't half bad. Look up ahead — there's actually an ancient city. Must be ruins from before the Heaven and Earth Mutation. If we get the chance to explore it, that'd be quite the educational experience!"

"We're probably about to get educated right now."

Chen Huangpi said dryly. "See those little black dots at the city gate? Those are obviously more Evil Corruption columns. They're filing inside."

The moment the words left his mouth, the Soul-Hooking Manual flared with a cold aura.

The Life-reaping Ghost said excitedly, "Master, this is the Town of Wrongful Death, under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Hall Yama! I told you before — the Soul-Hooking Manual is incomplete. If we can get into the Yama Hall, I can retrieve the other volume."

The Soul-Hooking Manual's full name was the Ledger of Life, Death, and Reincarnation.

There were ten volumes in total.

One for each of the Ten Yama Kings.

While not exactly a formidable treasure — it served mostly as a roster. But for Chen Huangpi, it was more than enough.

And right then.

Golden Horn also erupted with excitement. "Huangpi Dad! I can sense it — this godforsaken place has a path back to the mortal world!"

"Impossible."

Chen Huangpi said bitterly. "If my luck were that good, I wouldn't be in this mess."

"Huangpi Dad, trust me!"

Golden Horn said urgently. "I swear on Silver Horn's life — I really do sense a path to the mortal world here. It's deeply hidden, but I'm a Son of Diting. The Yin Lands are my stepfather. It wouldn't lie to me."

"All right, I believe you..."

If Chen Huangpi couldn't trust Golden Horn, who could he trust?

Surely not his own luck.

Still, a strange, nagging feeling tugged at something deep inside him.

These Evil Corruptions were coming to the Town of Wrongful Death to create gods. But this place didn't look like it contained anything capable of consecrating a deity.

And the Life-reaping Ghost said the other volume of the Soul-Hooking Manual was in the Yama Hall.

Golden Horn had sensed a path back to the mortal world.

Could that path also be in the Yama Hall?

But where was the Yama Hall?

Chen Huangpi still hadn't seen any structure that could plausibly be the Yama Hall, even as his feet touched the ground outside the city gate.

The Town of Wrongful Death was enormous.

Chen Huangpi raised his head. The gate alone soared nearly a thousand meters high. The walls were even more staggering — at least three times taller.

Atop the battlements hung a plaque.

Written in underworld script were three great characters: Town of Wrongful Death.

And blood was dripping from it.

Because suspended above the plaque was a colossal severed head. Larger than even the Deity of Broad Sight's entire body, the head was square-jawed, green-faced, and fanged. Its eyes bulged with rage, twin pools of green seething with cruelty and malice. It wore a tasseled imperial crown.

Yet unlike the Yin Emperor's nine-pearl, twelve-string crown, this one bore only the number nine times nine.

Even reduced to a mere head.

It still radiated an aura of unspeakable terror.

Chen Huangpi locked eyes with it for only an instant — and found, with a chill, that he could not look away. His mouth wouldn't move. His body was frozen.

The head's eyes were like twin black holes.

Trying to siphon his very soul away.

Not trying — actually doing it.

The Yin God, gorged on Soul-Restoring Jade until it had practically passed out, suddenly sensed lethal danger and began thrashing wildly.

Boom.

Something detonated inside Chen Huangpi's mind.

Characters akin to depictions of flowers, birds, fish, and insects — gold and black — burst forth.

They were the full text of the Yin-Yang Harmonization and Spirit Transformation Art.

The moment these characters appeared.

The eerie suction vanished utterly.

"That's sinister. Utterly sinister!"

Chen Huangpi said, still shaken. "Whose head is that? It's like that Evil Buddha's head — you can't even look at it, or you're done for."

"It's the Seventh Hall Yama..."

The Life-reaping Ghost's voice trembled. "It wasn't burned to ash... Wait — it became an Evil Corruption? And someone cut off its head and hung it on the gate of the Town of Wrongful Death?"

In the Underworld Yellow Spring, the Yin Emperor stood in a class of its own.

Below that were the Ten Yama Kings.

The Yin Emperor was the supreme sovereign and rarely showed itself.

Therefore, the Ten Yama Kings were the most powerful beings in the Underworld Yellow Spring on the surface.

More powerful than immortals.

"You don't think the Guanzhu did this, do you?"

The Brass Oil Lamp said incredulously. "The Guanzhu loves chopping off heads and hanging them over gates. Maybe the Guanzhu visited the Underworld Yellow Spring once, this Yama came looking for a fight, and the Guanzhu just lopped its head off."

"I doubt it was Master."

Chen Huangpi shook his head. "Besides, Master doesn't kill Evil Corruptions. He just tosses them into the Old Temple."

Evil Corruptions were the same as evil spirits — the Underworld Yellow Spring and the mortal world simply used different terms.

Hearing this.

The Brass Oil Lamp fell silent.

In truth, the Guanzhu wasn't incapable of killing Evil Corruptions.

It was just that later, after going mad, the Guanzhu stopped patrolling the mountains.

Before the madness, the Guanzhu did kill them on occasion — just rarely.

And even before going mad, the Guanzhu didn't patrol every day. Only during the daytime would the Guanzhu occasionally step out for a brief round, then hurry back — because Chen Huangpi had been very small then, and if he couldn't see Master, he would cry.

And once he started crying, nothing could soothe him.

The Guanzhu was essentially a nursemaid. The instant Chen Huangpi bawled, the Guanzhu would rush back.

Moreover, the Guanzhu couldn't leave the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Otherwise, the Brass Oil Lamp would have tried to lure Chen Huangpi away long ago.

However.

The Evil Corruption columns appeared completely unsurprised by the Yama's head hanging from the gate.

As though the Town of Wrongful Death had looked like this for a very, very long time.

Chen Huangpi was pushed and jostled by the Evil Corruption columns through the city gates.

He passed through nine successive gates.

Only then did he reach the inner city proper.

Looking around, massive, crumbling structures rose everywhere. But at the very heart of the Town of Wrongful Death, the ground was barren — empty except for a single colossal golden door, standing alone on level earth.

The Town of Wrongful Death was uniformly dark and gloomy in color.

Like the sky of the Underworld Yellow Spring itself, it exuded an aura of ominous, bone-crawling dread.

Yet this golden door was resplendent and opulent, utterly at odds with everything around it — as though it had materialized out of thin air.

The Life-reaping Ghost said in bewilderment, "Master, the Yama Hall was supposed to be right here..."