Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 110: Yellow Heaven Above

"These evil spirits have stopped moving..."

Chen Huangpi gazed at the ever-growing crowd of evil spirits and realized, "This is where they forge their gods."

There were many processions of evil spirits.

Not all of them carried Soul-Restoring Jade.

Most were hauling gray earth—enormous slabs of it—transporting it here.

As for the yellow mud used in god-forging.

Chen Huangpi hadn't seen any of it.

He silently speculated that perhaps, since the Yellow Springs had mutated and become corrupted by evil, the yellow mud traditionally used for god-forging could no longer be used either.

Or perhaps, in the mortal world, yellow mud was used to forge gods.

But in the Yellow Springs and Yin Lands, they forged Yin Gods—and that required Yin earth instead.Regardless of the explanation.

When a block of Yin earth the height of a man was placed before Chen Huangpi, he still felt an indescribable bewilderment.

"Me? I'm supposed to forge a Yin God?"

The evil spirit gave him a look of genuine surprise.

As though it couldn't fathom why this fellow evil spirit would ask such a strange question.

Watching the evil spirits around him spring into action one by one.

Chen Huangpi stood there at a complete loss.

He had absolutely no idea how to forge one.

He had witnessed Xu Qingshan forge a god before and remembered the process.

But Xu Qingshan had been an immortal.

A single thought was all it took.

Chen Huangpi had tried focusing his mind several times, but the Yin earth refused to obey him.

Left with no choice...

Chen Huangpi simply crouched down and watched how the evil spirits did it.

Their method, however, was frustratingly crude.

Each one merely produced a crane-beak pickaxe and hacked away at the Yin earth.

Then the Yin earth immediately went soft and pliable.

After that, the evil spirits displayed a level of craftsmanship that left Chen Huangpi utterly in the dust.

The crane-beak pickaxes—tools made for mining.

In the hands of these evil spirits, they became as delicate as embroidery needles. The spirits were actually sculpting the softened Yin earth with them.

The difficulty was comparable to embroidering on tofu.

Chen Huangpi watched for a while.

Then shook his head in resignation. Swinging a pickaxe to mine ore was one thing—this level of precision work was simply beyond him.

The evil spirits, however, didn't pressure Chen Huangpi to work.

As though having him or not made no difference whatsoever.

The only problem was that Chen Huangpi couldn't leave.

Evil spirits hemmed him in on all sides—there was simply nowhere to go.

And so.

Chen Huangpi decided he might as well treat it as entertainment.

And sure enough, once he adopted that mindset, he found himself watching with genuine fascination.

Crunch...

Crunch...

An evil spirit deeply focused on its god-forging work seemed to be startled by the sound. It followed the noise to its source—and then leapt up as though someone had stepped on a cat's tail.

Crunch...

Crunch...

More and more evil spirits turned to look.

One after another, shocked and horrified gazes landed squarely on Chen Huangpi.

"Why are you all looking at me?"

Chen Huangpi gnawed on the Soul-Restoring Jade, now whittled down to the size of a fist, and spoke between bites. "I don't know how to forge gods. You go ahead—once I figure out how it's done, I'll get to work."

The evil spirits couldn't speak.

They simply fixed Chen Huangpi with eerie, unblinking stares—aimed directly at the Soul-Restoring Jade in his hand.

Seeing this.

Chen Huangpi whispered, "Huang Er, am I chewing too loudly? Did I bother them?"

"Obviously. You smack your lips when you eat. Who wouldn't be annoyed?"

"Fine, I'll keep it down."

Chen Huangpi carefully nibbled off another bite, then clamped his mouth shut and chewed with exaggerated care.

The crunching sounds immediately ceased.

The evil spirits watched this scene, unable to settle themselves for a long, long time.

Still, they didn't do anything to Chen Huangpi. They simply bowed their heads and resumed their meticulous work on the Yin earth.

After roughly the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

The blocks of Yin earth had been shaped into crude humanoid forms.

They were uneven in size—a dent here, a lump there.

Ugly beyond description.

Seeing this, Chen Huangpi couldn't help but snicker. "Huang Er, I thought these evil spirits had some real skill, using those pickaxes to carve out god-statues. Had I known it'd turn out like this, I could've done it myself."

The Brass Oil Lamp added its own mockery. "You? Even I could piss on the ground right now, mix it up, and sculpt something better-looking than what these evil spirits have made."

Of course, this exchange between boy and lamp took place entirely in their minds.

Neither of them dared say it aloud in front of the evil spirits.

Once the clay figures were complete.

The evil spirits each produced a brush from within their black robes and began inscribing strange characters across the figures' surfaces.

"Chen Huangpi, what are they writing?"

"Let me see."

Chen Huangpi took a glance and said, "It's netherworld script. It says something like 'Yellow Heaven above, we pray for divine blessing...' Huh, they really are forging Yin Gods. This one is numbered seven million, nine hundred and twenty thousand, and the one beside it is seven million, nine hundred and twenty thousand and one."

The Brass Oil Lamp snorted dismissively. "These Yin Lands evil spirits really have no culture. 'Yellow Heaven above?' The proper phrase is 'Azure Heaven above.'"

Chen Huangpi teased, "Maybe 'Yellow Heaven' refers to the Yellow Springs. After all, the Yellow Springs has 'yellow' in the name too."

The Brass Oil Lamp sneered. "I've also got 'yellow' in my name. Maybe it's referring to me."

"Then what about me?"

"Your surname isn't Huang. But we're in the same family, you and I—both got 'yellow' in our names. I'll let you ride the coattails, barely."

"No, I'm the Dog-Rearing Master..."

Chen Huangpi grinned impishly. "I don't want to be Yellow Heaven."

And just then.

The evil spirits suddenly produced their Soul-Restoring Jades.

The Brass Oil Lamp remarked, "You actually guessed right. The Soul-Restoring Jade really is used for forging gods."

"Laughable."

Chen Huangpi said disdainfully. "Their Soul-Restoring Jade pieces are tiny—fingernail-sized scraps that wouldn't even fill the gaps between my teeth. Look at mine—I've been gnawing on it for ages and it's still fist-sized. And there's a head-sized one in the Soul-Hooking Manual too. One of mine is worth a hundred of theirs."

With that, he took another bite of the Soul-Restoring Jade in his hand. Crunch...

This time, however, the evil spirits didn't look back at Chen Huangpi.

Instead, each one solemnly placed its fingernail-sized—or even smaller—Soul-Restoring Jade into the clay figures that Chen Huangpi and the Brass Oil Lamp had just been mocking.

In the next instant.

The translucent Soul-Restoring Jade sank into the clay figures.

Immediately, the ritual-like netherworld script inscribed across the figures' bodies reacted as though something had been ignited, emanating an aura of cold solemnity.

Chen Huangpi munched on his Soul-Restoring Jade and watched curiously.

Then his expression shifted to one of utter disbelief.

Because, as the netherworld script transformed, the clay figures began to move.

One by one.

Their clay bodies stretched and elongated to extreme proportions.

Trembling, they rose to their feet.

Their bodies took on the pallor of corpses—white, cold, and rigid.

They looked almost identical to the slender evil entities' bodies.

Only without the hollow voids.

And the clay figures were all cast from the same mold—perfectly identical. Once the netherworld script had faded into their bodies, it became impossible to tell them apart by their numbers at all.

At this point.

Some evil spirits produced wide-brimmed bamboo hats and black robes and handed them over.

And those clay figures...

No—to be precise, Yin Gods.

These Yin Gods donned the black robes and put on the hats.

They looked no different from the evil spirits.

Chen Huangpi's eyes widened in sudden understanding. "Now I get it—Yi Qingzhou's corpse had stolen these Yin Gods' clothing and hats."

"Wait—these things are actually Yin Gods?"

The Brass Oil Lamp shrieked. "No wonder they were giving you such strange looks! You've been eating their kin!"

A single fingernail-sized piece of Soul-Restoring Jade combined with Yin earth was enough to create a Yin God.

And Chen Huangpi had been gnawing on his Soul-Restoring Jade like a snack.

And that was just the piece in his hand.

Back on Desolation Mountain, all the smaller Soul-Restoring Jade pieces had already gone into his stomach.

"Chen Huangpi, you're so cruel!"

"Huang Er, that's ridiculous."

Chen Huangpi's face flushed scarlet. The Soul-Restoring Jade in his hand suddenly didn't smell so appealing anymore.

Evil as these Yin Gods might be.

Each one was still a life...

"No, wait—I was eating Soul-Restoring Jade, not Yin Gods!"

Chen Huangpi protested. "It's just like eggs! If I eat an egg, does that mean I ate a chicken? At most, it'd count as a chick!"

"Doesn't that make you even crueler?"

"Huang Er, if you keep this up, I'm going to invoke the Dog Rearing Scripture!"

"Heh heh..."

The Brass Oil Lamp let out a cold laugh.

It knew Chen Huangpi's personality all too well.

This was nothing but a tongue-tied defense.

But a question remained—why had these Yin Gods come to life without being consecrated?

That shouldn't have been possible...

The moment this thought formed, the Yin Gods' next actions provided the answer.

Every Yin God wearing a black robe and bamboo hat—including all the evil spirits who had been forging them—now fell to their knees before the golden gate.

As though performing some kind of ritual.

"Yellow Heaven above, we pray for divine blessing..."

The Brass Oil Lamp exclaimed, "These Yin Gods aren't complete! They're praying to Yellow Heaven, begging for Yellow Heaven's blessing to consecrate them—to transform them into true Yin Gods."

"Is Yellow Heaven inside the golden gate?"

Chen Huangpi stared tensely at the golden gate.

This had originally been the site of the Yama Hall.

But for reasons unknown, the Yama Hall had vanished, the Yama had been beheaded, and its head hung above the gates of the Town of Wrongful Death.

The golden gate was called a gate.

In reality, it was only a doorframe.

The center was empty—you could see straight through to the other side.

Yet the gate was immense. The width of the frame alone was as wide as two Yin Gods lying head to head.

The Yin Gods continued to kneel.

As the ancient rite dictated—three genuflections and nine prostrations.

With each kneel, the Yin Gods bowed their heads to the golden gate three times.

After three kneels and nine prostrations.

Every Yin God raised its head and gazed at the golden gate with eyes full of supplication.

Chen Huangpi noticed that the evil spirits' attention was entirely fixed on the golden gate.

He realized this was the perfect chance to escape.

He was just about to send a mental message to the Brass Oil Lamp.

But before he could act.

Dazzling golden light burst forth in magnificent splendor.

Everything—everything—was swallowed by the golden radiance.

The Yin Gods, and even Chen Huangpi himself, were bathed in gold.

"Good thinking, Huang Er! I hadn't even said anything and you already knew what I wanted!"

Chen Huangpi couldn't help but laugh. But mid-laugh, the laughter died in his throat. "Huang Er, why is your Singular Divine Light only shining without actually moving us..."

"Yeah, why isn't it working? Wait—I didn't use the Singular Divine Light at all..."

The Brass Oil Lamp shrieked, "It's the golden gate! The golden gate is the one emitting light!"

Chen Huangpi looked toward the golden gate.

Sure enough, brilliant golden light was streaming from its center.

Then a voice rang out—cold, utterly devoid of emotion, almost mechanical in its rigidity. "Dao Calendar Year Seventeen Thousand, Four Hundred. Today, seven million, nine hundred and eighty-one thousand, four hundred and twenty-three Yin Gods petition Yellow Heaven for consecration. However, Yellow Heaven has not yet been born, and the Dao Lord has not arrived. Therefore, the petition is denied."

"Next."

The Yin Gods stared blankly at the golden gate.

What next? There was no next.

"Right, where is the next one?"

Chen Huangpi looked around but couldn't find whoever—or whatever—"next" referred to.

Until the Yin Gods' gazes drifted to the block of Yin earth sitting in front of him—and then it finally dawned on him.

Ah. The next one was right here.