Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 125: The Scallion-People Are Quite Interesting

Thwack.

Blood erupted in a geyser.

The crane-beak pickaxe punched through the True Fire of the Human Dao and through Song Tiangang's skull.

Chen Huangpi's raw strength was already immense.

His Kidney Temple was fully forged, and the Liver Temple was beginning to take shape.

Add the Magic Tree's power on top of that.

Even though the crane-beak pickaxe's sole virtue was its hardness.

It was more than enough to end Song Tiangang's life.

With the golden seal's empowerment, he was the equal of a provincial City God.

But no amount of equivalence could change the fact that at his core, he was merely a Nascent Soul cultivator.His body was not a divine body.

"I refuse to accept this..."

The pickaxe had gouged a massive cavity in Song Tiangang's skull, blood pouring out in rivulets. Even his Nascent Soul had been cracked open, wisps of refined essence leaking away.

Moreover, his head had been driven clean down into his chest cavity.

The proud scion of the Song family of Qinghe, the esteemed Provincial Governor of Xu Province under the Da Kang dynasty — now he looked like nothing more than a turtle with its head retracted.

"I hate this. I hate this so much."

Song Tiangang's eyes were shot through with blood. One eyeball had popped free of its socket.

His consciousness was fading to static.

Without his control, the True Fire of the Human Dao instantly retreated back into the golden seal.

Thud.

Song Tiangang's broken body crashed to the ground. Red and white matter spilled from the cavity atop his skull.

His arms flailed, grasping at anything, at nothing.

"Immortal... become Immortal."

"I want to become an Immortal..."

Song Tiangang kept clawing at the air, babbling in delirium: "I learned to read at three. Began cultivating qi at five. Established my Foundation at twelve. Three more years to Golden Core. By eighteen, I was a Nascent Soul Sovereign."

"But the path of cultivation was severed. At eighteen, I had already walked to the end of my life."

"I refuse to accept this."

"Which great family doesn't have thousands of Immortal cultivation manuals stashed away?"

"I will become an Immortal too!"

"Ah — I've caught it! I've caught it!"

Song Tiangang's hands closed around two fistfuls of yellow dirt. He laughed like a maniac: "The Immortal Dao! I've seized the Immortal Dao! I'm going to become an Immortal! I'm going to become—"

THWACK!!!!

Chen Huangpi brought the pickaxe down again.

Song Tiangang's head was instantly pulverized.

His legs gave one final kick, and then he was still.

"You thought you could become an Immortal?"

Chen Huangpi said with derision. "My master was a True Immortal at twelve. You were only Nascent Soul at eighteen — you couldn't even match me. You think I'd let you ascend before me?"

"Exactly, exactly."

The Brass Oil Lamp floated over. Seeing Song Tiangang's miserable state, it couldn't resist gloating. "Ambition higher than the heavens, life thinner than paper. If this Song Tiangang hadn't coveted more than he could stomach, he wouldn't have come to such an end."

"Still, one should respect the dead. It wouldn't do to just leave his corpse out in the open."

With that, the Brass Oil Lamp turned to the Fox Mountain God. "Toss this fellow's body out to the vegetable patch on the back hill. Once he grows into a scallion-person, chop him up with the rest of the Song Qiuyue batch — they'll make a fine filling for dumplings."

"Right away!"

The Fox Mountain God scampered over eagerly.

The corpses of Song Qiuyue and the other cultivators had been dumped on the back hill earlier, buried in the scallion-people patch.

By now, they were probably as tall as a person.

Adding Song Tiangang to the mix was practically a family reunion.

And right at that moment.

Chen Huangpi suddenly tilted his head. "Wait. His soul didn't enter the Soul-Hooking Manual."

"He might not be dead."

"Not dead?"

The Brass Oil Lamp blinked, then spat out a bolt of true fire.

The fire pierced through Song Tiangang's chest like a blade.

"How is he not thoroughly dead now?"

The Brass Oil Lamp said in confusion. "Could the old bastard still have some trick up his sleeve?"

"That shouldn't be possible..."

The Fox Mountain God flicked its tail. "This Song fellow is definitely dead. Sure, he might've had some death-cheating treasure, but his body is right here and his Nascent Soul didn't escape. Could his soul be hiding inside the golden seal?"

With that, the Fox Mountain God picked up the golden seal.

The small, square seal wasn't large.

Dense human qi churned within it.

Cultivators use human qi for cultivation.

Gods consume human qi as sustenance.

Cultivators simply called it "spiritual qi," while gods called it "incense."

The Fox Mountain God used to feed on incense.

But after absorbing the spiritual qi released when Chen Huangpi had boiled the Guanzhu in the iron pot — and after taking three lashes from the bamboo switch today — the human qi that had once smelled so deliciously sweet, so irresistibly tempting, now held far less allure.

It could still eat it. It wanted to eat it.

But it didn't dare.

Because the purple-robed First Guanzhu was still around.

And that one loved nothing more than sucking the human qi out of gods.

"Let me see."

Chen Huangpi took the golden seal from the Fox Mountain God. Though he couldn't see, he hadn't dismissed the towering Magic Tree projection behind him, so the ability to perceive everything within its canopy remained active.

Eight characters were engraved on the golden seal:

"Governor of Xu Province — Acting Under Imperial Authority."

The Brass Oil Lamp teased, "Chen Huangpi, now that you've got this golden seal, by your own logic, doesn't that make you the new Governor of Xu Province?"

"Huang Er, stop fooling around." Chen Huangpi shook his head. "I killed Song Tiangang and took his golden seal, but I can't go parading around Xuzhou City with it. That would only invite trouble. Besides, Emperor Chen Huang of the Great Qian Immortal Dynasty is my uncle, and the Underworld Yellow Spring is my family estate. With a status this extraordinary, how could I stoop to being the governor of a single province?"

"Also — the golden seal doesn't contain Song Tiangang's soul either."

"Then where on earth did his soul go?"

At these words.

Chen Huangpi, the Brass Oil Lamp, and the Fox Mountain God all crowded around Song Tiangang's corpse, studying it with puzzled expressions.

The body was still warm.

But the heart had long stopped beating, and the skull had been driven into the chest cavity.

The Nascent Soul's essence was dissipating continuously.

By every measure, he was dead beyond dead.

"Huang Er, you don't think he's going to rise from the dead, do you?"

"Impossible. The old bastard had a few tricks, sure, but this is the Pure Immortal Temple. You think we'd let him come back to life here?"

"Then maybe we should burn him to ash?"

The Fox Mountain God thought about it. "Ever since the Guanzhu rose from the dead, I've been thinking about how to handle this sort of thing. Cremation is the simplest and most effective approach."

"Besides, there are too many scallion-people in the back hill plot already."

"We might as well use his ashes as fertilizer."

...

Behind the Pure Immortal Temple lay a small vegetable garden.

The garden wasn't particularly large.

Perhaps a fifth of an acre at most.

It was divided into several scattered plots.

Some grew wheat, others grew melons and fruits, and others still grew various seasonings.

But the most luxuriant of all was the scallion patch.

The Fox Mountain God carried a jar and ambled over to the assembled scallion-people.

Every one of them stood as tall as a human.

The moment they saw the Fox Mountain God, they began rustling and quivering.

One scallion-person hollered, "You foul fox — what are you doing back here?! Where's Chen Huangpi? Why didn't he come? This scallion lodges a formal protest! The plot was small enough to begin with, and now you've crammed in dozens more scallion-people. It's so crowded and noisy — how's a scallion supposed to live?!"

The scallion patch truly was tiny.

With all the scallion-people packed together, there wasn't even room to stretch.

Just then, a slender scallion-person wriggled its way to the front.

"Bring Chen Huangpi here! Bring him now! These common scallions are so crude! This scallion was grown from Song Qiuyue's remains — a noble scallion-lady of distinguished lineage! Get these common scallions away from me! Otherwise this scallion's virtue will be ruined!"

"Shameless wench! Mouthing off again, are you? Brothers, we're the local scallions here — no need to show these outsider scallions any courtesy. Block their sunlight, suck the nutrients dry from the soil — they can't compete with us."

"Right you are! Let's start with this noble scallion-lady."

"Let this scallion go first! This scallion was grown from one of those servant cultivators — this scallion will turn the tables and put her in her place!"

The scallion-people clamored as they dragged the noble scallion-lady into the thick of the scallion crowd.

Watching this, the Fox Mountain God marveled in secret.

Though the Hundred Thousand Mountains had many places where scallion-people grew.

Those scallion-people couldn't talk. The ones in the Pure Immortal Temple's garden were far more entertaining.

But the Fox Mountain God had no intention of lingering.

It sprinkled the ashes from the jar across the scallion field, then turned and left.

Back at the Pure Immortal Temple.

The Fox Mountain God found Chen Huangpi in the alchemy chamber.

At that moment.

Chen Huangpi was directing the Brass Oil Lamp to retrieve a medical compendium from the shelf.

"Huang Er, open to page twenty-six. There's a prescription called Dispelling Darkness and Restoring Sight Powder."

"Found it."

The Brass Oil Lamp read the prescription and couldn't help but comment: "Quickite, fresh ginger, thousand-century grass, wood ash, plus fritillary, bellflower, and honey mixed together — can you actually ingest this?"

"Of course not."

Chen Huangpi explained, "Medicines are divided into internal and external use. My eyes were blinded by staring at the sun — that's an external injury. So naturally, the Dispelling Darkness and Restoring Sight Powder needs to be applied topically."

"Wait — Chen Huangpi, you're seriously going to treat yourself?"

The Fox Mountain God clicked its tongue. "They say a physician cannot heal himself. Why don't I write you a prescription instead?"

To be fair, when it came to treating illness and saving lives.

The Fox Mountain God did have expertise. Its remnant followers were all ordinary mortals — who among them didn't fall ill now and then?

In fact, most of the medical texts and prescriptions circulating among those remnant villages had been written by the Fox Mountain God itself.

But.

The moment those words left its mouth.

Chen Huangpi's expression darkened instantly.

"Fox Mountain God, you're offering to write me a prescription?"

"Yes..."

The Fox Mountain God said, "I'm well-versed in medicine too. Writing a prescription is easy."

"Heh."

Chen Huangpi sneered. "I am an expert in pharmacology. I've studied every medical text there is. Even I wouldn't dare write prescriptions recklessly for others — and you want to write one for me? Are you saying you know more than I do?"

"I certainly don't know more than you."

The Fox Mountain God said in a small voice, "How about we wait for the Guanzhu to come back and have him heal your eyes? I figure if the Guanzhu won't treat you when he's lucid, he'll probably do it when he's mad, right?"

"What nonsense!"

Chen Huangpi snapped. "Master has lost his mind, but I haven't. You want the mad master to treat the sane me — are you the one who's gone mad, or am I?"

"Yes, yes..."

The Fox Mountain God blurted out, "It's the Guanzhu who's gone mad."

"Is that so?"

"It's... it's the First Guanzhu?"

The Fox Mountain God's fur instantly bristled. It spun around — and there stood the Guanzhu in his purple robes, having appeared behind it at some unknowable moment. Drool was trickling from the corner of his mouth as he beamed at the Fox Mountain God and cooed, "Little fox, were you talking about this poor Daoist again..."

Chen Huangpi grumbled, "First Master, what took you so long? It's almost dark."

The purple-robed old Daoist scratched his head. "Your master went to interrogate the sun. The sun was about to set, and your master didn't want to go into the Old Temple to see your Second Master — afraid he'd pull the same dirty tricks as the Third. So he hurried back before nightfall."