Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 119: Huang Er Becomes an Evil Spirit

The path leading back to the mortal world was indeed within the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror.

The black sun formed by the Nine Nether God Lantern.

As it shattered the mirror's surface, countless rays of black light surged along that path.

Chen Huangpi sat atop the Nine Nether God Lantern.

His face was flushed crimson, and he gasped for breath without stop.

All around him were fragments of shattered mirror, refracting light and shadow in every direction, but the headless Yama was nowhere to be seen.

"That headless Yama deserved to die!"

The Nine Nether God Lantern's voice was savage, murderous intent undisguised. "Your neck was bruised red from its grip. A moment later and it would've gone purple — then blue!"

"More like I was about to stop breathing."

Chen Huangpi had genuinely been on the verge of suffocation just now. All three of his eyes had rolled back in his skull. And he still didn't know what other tricks the headless Yama might have had in reserve. Thankfully, it was finally over."Back to the mortal world — hurry, back to the mortal world."

The Soul-Restoring Jade was already in hand.

There was naturally no reason to remain in this Underworld Yellow Spring any longer.

Ninety percent of the Nine Nether God Lantern's lamp body had turned black.

But it was still clinging to a sliver of lucidity.

Within the channel of shattered mirror fragments.

The black sun kept climbing upward.

As though the sun that had plunged into the Underworld Yellow Spring countless ages ago was rising once more, returning to the mortal world.

But the mortal world already had a sun.

Chen Huangpi gazed upward. Though everything in sight was bathed in pitch-black light.

His third eye blinked.

This dark cyan eye possessed a certain eerie power.

Though Chen Huangpi had forced its premature birth and it was still immature, born was born — at its core, it was every bit as terrifying as the black smoke.

At that very moment.

Within the dark cyan eye, phantom images flickered like bubbles of light — fragile, ethereal.

They were the fragmented scenes recorded by the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror over its countless years hanging in the Yama Hall.

Chen Huangpi saw the Yama Hall.

He also saw the Yama seated upon the dragon throne — head perfectly intact — and the rows of ghost officers.

It seemed like something from an age long past.

The entire hall was shaking.

The Yama upon the throne appeared to encounter something utterly terrifying.

Then, expression twisted with fury, it transformed into a streak of spectral light and charged outside. The ghost officers followed close behind. An unknown number of years passed.

The Yama returned to the great hall with its ghost officers.

But this time, the aura surrounding the Yama and every ghost officer had turned deeply sinister, exuding an ominous, murky malevolence.

They were in the process of mutating into evil spirits.

The Yama clung to the dragon throne with a death grip, its eyes burning with madness and struggle.

It raised its gaze upward.

Toward where the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror hung.

Yet even as mighty as the Mirror was, it still could not prevent this Yama from degenerating into an evil spirit.

Chen Huangpi murmured with pity, "You came back here hoping to borrow the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror's power. But it was forged by your own hands — so how could it possibly protect you?"

In the end, no one knew how long it took.

The struggle faded from the Yama's eyes.

It lowered its head, transformed into something else entirely.

As for the remaining ghost officers — the instant the Yama completed its transformation, every last one of them followed in its wake.

As though the Yama, even then, had been shielding them all along.

"With devotion like that, I refuse to believe you betrayed the Yin Emperor. You must have had no choice. Perhaps it was the sun that corrupted you."

The images in Chen Huangpi's eyes flickered once more.

This time, he saw an achingly familiar figure.

That figure wore a dark cyan Daoist robe, white-haired and white-bearded, carrying a horsetail whisk in hand. At its side hovered a Nine Nether God Lantern — but its flame was neither pitch-black nor ghastly green. It glowed with the warm, mellow light of an ordinary household oil lamp.

And within that lantern light.

There was an egg. A gold-and-black egg.

Under the lantern's glow, the egg appeared almost translucent. Chen Huangpi could faintly make out the silhouette of an infant curled up inside, emanating an ominous aura of death.

The Yama and ghost officers within the great hall seemed completely unaware of this.

Their faces were twisted and ferocious.

They charged toward the hall's entrance.

But that Daoist simply stood in the doorway, gave a casual flick of his whisk — and every last head on the Yama and its ghost officers vanished. They each returned silently to their original positions.

Having done this.

The Daoist turned to look at the egg behind him, and said softly, "Don't be impatient. These are all your Yin Uncle's trusted subordinates. Now that he's gone, it's only natural for your master to come help tidy things up. This way we give proper respect all around — and your master can accept the favor without guilt."

The egg trembled ever so slightly.

As if in response.

The Daoist smiled faintly and pointed at the Nine Nether God Lantern.

It immediately split off a clone, which hung itself at the entrance of the Yama Hall.

The egg seemed to sense something, and began vibrating rapidly.

The Daoist hastened to reassure it. "This is for Huang Er's own good. Otherwise, with its light shining on you day and night, it won't be long before you corrupt it. And then your cradle wouldn't be very comfortable to lie in either, would it?"

"Alright, let your master take you to get something good to eat."

With that, the Daoist departed with the egg in tow.

But just before leaving, as if remembering something, he turned back to address the Nine Nether God Lantern clone: "With the Heaven and Earth Mutation underway, this poor Daoist doesn't expect you to grow premium grain the way your elder brother does. Just tend some rough grain here."

The vision ended there.

Chen Huangpi was at a complete loss.

He spoke in a tone of utter disbelief: "Master really did bring me to the Underworld Yellow Spring. It's just that I was still inside the egg back then, so I couldn't remember."

"So the judge wasn't wrong about me after all. Maybe I really did drain the Yellow Spring dry and devour the Yin Lands."

"But what's this business about premium grain and rough grain..."

Premium grain was obviously the gods enlightened by the Golden Top Heavenly Lamp.

Rough grain...

Probably referred to the Yin Gods. But whether premium or rough.

Chen Huangpi couldn't recall ever eating any of it since he'd been old enough to form memories.

As a child, he'd eaten porridge and temple offerings.

After growing up, he'd eaten millet planted at the foot of the Pure Immortal Temple's mountain, along with some scallions.

'Master must have secretly eaten it all himself.'

Chen Huangpi grumbled inwardly. 'Master has lost his mind — he's the only one who goes around eating anything and everything. Last time, the Fox Mountain God nearly got devoured by him, and he said it was good for the kidneys!'

'I wonder what gods actually taste like. Then again, they surely can't taste as good as offerings.'

And just then.

Chen Huangpi suddenly felt warmth envelop his entire body.

As though he had been transported from one place to another in an instant.

The scenery around him transformed completely.

"The mortal world — Huang Er, we're back in the mortal world!"

Chen Huangpi raised his head with excitement.

Above him hung a brilliant sun, radiating dazzling, piercing light.

And it was getting brighter. Brighter and brighter.

So bright that Chen Huangpi's body began to heat up.

His eyes started to sting with pain.

It felt as though he were flying straight into the sun.

No — more accurately, they were flying toward the sun.

The sun that had been the size of a millstone a moment ago swelled to the size of a house in the blink of an eye. Chen Huangpi's heart leaped into his throat.

"Huang Er! Fly down, fly down!"

"It's pulling me in!"

The Nine Nether God Lantern howled in agony. "Down, down!!"

Hearing this.

Terror flooded Chen Huangpi's heart.

Why would the mortal world's sun try to pull Huang Er in?

Could the sun be alive?

The dark cyan eye on Chen Huangpi's cheek snapped wide open.

Ripples spread across its pupil, and eerie waves expanded outward.

"AHHH!!!"

Chen Huangpi let out a blood-curdling scream.

A single glance was all it took. Searing pain tore through his eye, as if he had been struck blind. Everything before him plunged into absolute darkness.

The dark cyan eye slammed shut instantly.

Both of Chen Huangpi's normal eyes lost all color as well.

Yet he screamed: "I saw it! I saw it!"

"I saw that the sun is alive! It's covered in fleshy nubs and tendrils. It looked like... like an eye. I can't describe it properly, but it really looked like an eye — like the Calamity Eye."

Chen Huangpi could no longer see. His third eye had vanished too.

But in that one fleeting glimpse.

He had truly seen that the sun was an illusion.

Its true form was a luminous eye, ringed with fleshy growths and tendrils, ceaselessly dripping blood as though it had been gouged from someone's skull by brute force. Yet the eye was not dead — it was very much alive.

And surrounding that sun, there remained the wreckage of what looked like flying vessels.

During the day, evil spirits rarely appeared.

Some cultivators believed evil spirits feared the sun, and so they had attempted to chase it — to approach it directly.

Chen Huangpi had read about these accounts in Song Qiuyue's memories. He'd never expected them to be true.

Unfortunately, those cultivators hadn't known the sun was alive. And so their endeavor had naturally failed.

"Huang Er, are you flying downward?"

Chen Huangpi asked uneasily. "I don't feel as hot anymore. Or did going blind mess up my senses too?"

"We're going down."

The Nine Nether God Lantern's tone was strange — evasive, wavering.

It had burned through nearly all its lamp oil just to break free of the sun's pull.

And that had left it ravenously hungry.

It desperately wanted to eat something.

"Huang Er," Chen Huangpi said, his voice tinged with sorrow, "you're underneath me, right? I'm blind now — I can't see anything. Have we made it back to the temple? I remember there's a prescription in the alchemy chamber for restoring eyesight. Take me there. I don't want to be blind."

His master was already getting on in years.

Already old. And he was the master's only disciple. If he went blind, his master would have to take care of him instead.

Chen Huangpi refused to accept that. He didn't want to be blind.

"Huang Er, why aren't you saying anything?"

"Because we're not in the Hundred Thousand Mountains. We're outside. It'll be a while before we get back to the temple."

"Then where are we now?"

"Not sure. But down below it's thriving — lots of people, lots of gods. They're all very..."

"Very what?"

"Very lively..."

Chen Huangpi said bitterly, "I love lively places, but I'm blind now and can't see any of it. Oh, Huang Er — why has your voice gotten so raspy?"

The Nine Nether God Lantern hastily lowered its voice. "The wind's too strong up here. It got into my throat."

"Then why are there so many bumps growing on you? Sitting on you isn't comfortable at all."

The Nine Nether God Lantern tried to change back to its original form, but to no avail. All it could offer was an excuse: "The sun was too hot. I don't have thick skin like you — my lamp body got scorched. A few bumps are perfectly normal."

"My head itches."

"We're flying too low. Mosquitoes are biting you."

The Nine Nether God Lantern opened its cavernous jaws and gnawed frantically at Chen Huangpi's head — yet no matter how hard it bit, it couldn't leave a single mark.

"Huang Er, you've turned into an evil spirit, haven't you?"

"I have not!"

Chen Huangpi listened to the grinding, crunching sounds and sighed helplessly. "Huang Er, don't forget — I'm the one who holds the leash."