Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 120: Master Has Awakened

The moment they entered the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Chen Huangpi immediately felt the difference.

Though his eyes could no longer see — everything before him was nothing but blinding afterimages — he could somehow distinctly sense the contrast between the inside and outside of the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

When they had been outside.

He had felt uneasy no matter what.

As though he were staying in someone else's home.

Returning to the Hundred Thousand Mountains brought an inexplicable sense of peace.

Deep down.

He could even feel Huang Er carrying him in the direction of the Pure Immortal Temple.

"Huang Er, you really do have my back."Chen Huangpi said with genuine emotion. "Even though you've become an evil spirit, you're still guiding me home. Good thing I never released the Dog Rearing Scripture. I've decided — from now on, you can be my dog in peace. I won't lock you inside the Five Viscera Temple."

But the Nine Nether God Lantern only howled savagely: "Kill, kill, kill! Eat, eat, eat!"

It had already become a malevolent spirit.

How could it possibly bicker with Chen Huangpi the way it used to?

In its eyes right now, Chen Huangpi was a grand feast.

It wanted nothing more than to swallow him alive in one gulp.

And right at that moment.

At the entrance gate of the Pure Immortal Temple on Mount Yuqiong.

A fox standing waist-high was pacing back and forth.

"Why hasn't Chen Huangpi come back yet?"

"I can't stand this temple for a single day more! I'm just a fox — no, I'm just a fox molded from mud! Why is my life so miserable? Maybe I should just run away. But if Chen Huangpi doesn't come back, running is pointless no matter where I go!"

Originally, the Fox Mountain God had been inside the main hall, keeping watch over the Guanzhu who was pinned to the wall.

But now it had fled to the entrance gate.

Because the temple had become uninhabitable.

It was terrified...

Suddenly, the Fox Mountain God sensed something. It whipped its head around and spotted a terrifying evil spirit streaking toward the Pure Immortal Temple from the distant horizon.

"How dare you!"

The Fox Mountain God erupted in fury. "This is the Pure Immortal Temple—"

The instant those words were spoken, the evil spirit lurched to a halt, hovering overhead.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!"

The evil spirit roared. Black drool dripped from its maw.

Where the black saliva struck the ground, it crackled and popped. Its aura alone was enough to leave the Fox Mountain God paralyzed with dread.

This was an evil spirit more terrifying than a Calamity.

This had to be a Disaster-class entity at the very least.

Had the evil spirits of the Hundred Thousand Mountains learned of the Guanzhu's condition and come to run amok?

But the very next second.

Chen Huangpi's voice rang out from atop the evil spirit: "Fox Mountain God, is that you talking?"

"Chen Huangpi!"

The Fox Mountain God exclaimed in shock. "You've turned into an evil spirit?!"

"I haven't."

Chen Huangpi lowered his head, facing the direction of the Fox Mountain God's voice. "It's Huang Er. He's become an evil spirit. This should be the entrance gate, right? Why aren't you inside the main hall watching my master? What are you doing out here?"

"The Guanzhu rose from the dead."

The Fox Mountain God wailed miserably. "Not long after you left, something happened — I don't know what — but every so often, the Guanzhu's body would start shaking violently. And his third head has already grown out."

"What?!"

Chen Huangpi blurted in alarm. "Then hurry and take me inside! I've got the Soul-Restoring Jade — once I feed it to Master, everything will be fine."

At these words.

The Fox Mountain God finally noticed that Chen Huangpi's eyes were vacant and empty — as though he had gone blind.

"Your eyes..."

"I stared at the sun too long. It's nothing — I'll write myself a prescription and fix it."

"But..."

The Fox Mountain God was at a loss. It looked at the Nine Nether God Lantern that had become an evil spirit, then at Chen Huangpi, and then thought of the Guanzhu sitting inside the main hall. It steeled its nerves and said through gritted teeth, "Fine — I'll lead the way!"

With that, the Fox Mountain God leaped forward.

And then, before its horrified eyes, the Nine Nether God Lantern opened its cavernous maw, bristling with razor-sharp fangs.

Worse still, an eerie suction force emanated from within that gaping mouth.

The Fox Mountain God felt an irresistible compulsion to crawl straight inside.

Fortunately, a tree branch materialized out of thin air, coiled around the Fox Mountain God's body, and wrenched it away by force. Otherwise, that leap would have delivered it right into the Nine Nether God Lantern's gullet as an appetizer.

"Huang Er, it's me! I'm the little fox! We used to make fun of Golden Horn together, remember..."

The Fox Mountain God was still trembling with fright.

It had no idea that if Chen Huangpi hadn't boiled his master in the iron pot that one time — the spiritual qi released during that process having been absorbed by the Fox Mountain God, subtly transforming its foundation — it would have already thrown itself into the Nine Nether God Lantern's belly in a frenzy.

"Fly up!"

The Fox Mountain God pointed toward the Pure Immortal Temple's direction. "I didn't come out here on purpose! The temple is like nighttime in there right now — pitch-black, can't see a thing! It's like a demon's lair."

"Oh, right — I forgot. You can't see right now."

"Where's my master?"

"I shut the main hall's doors before I left. The Guanzhu shouldn't be able to get out."

Hearing this.

Chen Huangpi was so exasperated he actually laughed. Though he knew the Fox Mountain God couldn't have done much else, he couldn't help but scold: "That's my master! Sure, he's risen from the dead and is waiting for me to save him, but do you have any idea how powerful my master is?"

"Those doors can't even keep me in — you think they'd stop my master?"

"Then what was I supposed to do?"

"You should have found two planks and nailed the door shut from the outside!"

Chen Huangpi sighed helplessly. "There's a latch bar behind that door — one pull and it swings open. You can only seal it from the outside. But you did nothing, so after Master rose, he obviously walked right out."

His master was a Dao Lord.

Omnipotent. Within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, he could decide life and death with a single thought.

And the Fox Mountain God had tried to contain him by closing a door.

The worst part was — fine, so the master left. But couldn't it have at least scattered some nails on the floor? The moment Master opened the door, there'd be nothing stopping him from going wherever he pleased.

Once inside the Pure Immortal Temple.

Chen Huangpi wrapped both arms around the Nine Nether God Lantern, while one tree branch was tied around the Fox Mountain God's neck and the other end lashed to his own waist.

"Are we at the main hall yet?"

"Yes." "Is the door open?"

"Yes."

"I knew it. Master's definitely gone. I can't see right now, so I don't even know if I can find him."

"No — the Guanzhu hasn't left."

The Fox Mountain God swallowed hard, then prostrated itself before the figure seated with its back to them inside the great hall.

The Guanzhu wore a triple-colored Daoist robe of purple, white, and cyan.

He had three heads.

And three different radiances cast their glow across the hall, painting the space with an atmosphere that was at once transcendently ethereal and indescribably eerie.

"Guan... Guanzhu..."

The Nine Nether God Lantern — now fully transformed into an evil spirit — had eyes that were savage and deranged. But in an instant, they turned crystalline with clarity.

As if some terror ingrained in the very marrow of its being.

Had forced upon it a single fleeting moment of lucidity.

But that clarity came fast and left faster.

The very next moment, the Nine Nether God Lantern shrieked wildly: "The Guanzhu looks tasty! Tasty!"

Thwack!

Without a second's hesitation, Chen Huangpi drove his fist straight into the Nine Nether God Lantern's mouth.

He put everything he had into that punch.

Hit so hard his own liver ached.

Hit so hard the Nine Nether God Lantern only grew more enraged: "Eat! Eat! Eat! The Guanzhu looks tasty!"

"Huang Er, do you really want to be smelted down?"

Chen Huangpi snarled, furious and alarmed. "Don't forget — Master may be dead, but he hasn't finished dying! And you dare say things like that? You're done for. Truly done for. I will not intercede on your behalf."

The words sounded contradictory.

But that was the actual situation.

Master was dead — his corpse was stiff and cold — but in reality, it was the Third Master pulling strings.

The Third Master wanted to emerge from the Old Temple.

When that happened, only the First Master and Second Master would truly die.

Therefore, the master was dead — yet also not dead.

The Nine Nether God Lantern, however, continued to screech and thrash, struggling frantically to break free from Chen Huangpi's grip so it could swallow the Guanzhu whole.

"You've truly lost your mind."

Chen Huangpi channeled every last drop of power in his body into the Dog Rearing Scripture.

Yet even so, he was barely able to restrain Huang Er.

'I can't delay any longer!'

Chen Huangpi gritted his teeth, then hauled the Nine Nether God Lantern along — dragging the utterly terrified Fox Mountain God behind them — and strode into the great hall.

"Third Master?"

He called out once.

No answer. Only then did he allow himself to relax.

It seemed the Third Master's head had grown out, but the Third Master's consciousness was still inside the Old Temple.

Which meant he hadn't returned too late after all.

Buoyed by this thought, Chen Huangpi approached his master with excitement. He pinned the Nine Nether God Lantern down with one hand and, with the other, retrieved from the Soul-Hooking Manual a piece of Soul-Restoring Jade the size of a human head — crystalline and translucent.

The peak of Desolation Mountain had Soul-Restoring Jade.

This was the largest piece Chen Huangpi had excavated. He'd eaten all the rest himself.

"Huang Er, stop making trouble."

Chen Huangpi said irritably. "I need to feed Master the Soul-Restoring Jade."

The Soul-Restoring Jade was truly extraordinary.

Even if a person had died and their soul had scattered, it could reconstitute the soul from nothing.

Though his master hadn't explained how to use the jade.

Eating it probably did the trick.

After all, it had gone down quite pleasantly when he'd eaten it himself.

The only problem was...

"Master has three heads now. Which one do I feed it to?"

Chen Huangpi was stumped. "Fox Mountain God, what do you think?"

"I don't dare say."

The Fox Mountain God whimpered in terror. "Don't ask me — that's your master! Do whatever you want. It has nothing to do with me."

But after saying that, it couldn't resist adding one more remark: "Still, even though there are three heads, there's only one body. No matter which one you feed, it'll all end up in the same stomach, right?"

"If all else fails, you could just feed all three?"

"You make a fair point."

Chen Huangpi was overjoyed. He immediately stuffed the Soul-Restoring Jade into the mouth of his master's leftmost head.

But his master's body was stiff.

It couldn't chew.

Chen Huangpi had no choice but to grab his master's lower jaw and force it up and down with all his strength.

Crunch, crunch...

The Soul-Restoring Jade was bitten into pieces.

Chen Huangpi even sprouted a tree branch, and — worried his master might choke — poked and prodded the fragments deeper down the throat.

Then the rightmost head.

And finally the middle one.

But this time, the moment Chen Huangpi pressed the Soul-Restoring Jade to his master's lips — before he'd even gripped the jaw — the crunching sounds began on their own.

This delighted Chen Huangpi beyond measure.

He thought to himself, 'I can't believe the Soul-Restoring Jade works this fast. Master just swallowed some and he's already responding. Looks like Master wasn't lying — he really has been eating more often lately, which improved his digestion.'

With that thought, Chen Huangpi couldn't help but whisper, "First Master, Second Master — are you awake?"

But his master said nothing.

Instead, a soft rustling sound arose — as if flesh were squirming.

The Fox Mountain God said in horror, "Chen Huangpi — the Guanzhu's three heads have merged into one."

"Then he's awake."

Chen Huangpi beamed. "Three heads becoming one means Master came back to life — I saved him. I just don't know whether it's the First Master or the Second Master who woke up."

"Silly disciple — you don't have a First Master or a Second Master. You only have one master."

"And that would be me — your Third Master."