Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 128: The Imperial Envoys Come Calling

As evening approached.

Deep within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, four masked figures in black robes streaked through the air at tremendous speed.

These four were the imperial envoys dispatched from the capital by the Da Kang Emperor, following Wang Taiyu's memorial to the throne, tasked with apprehending Song Tiangang.

Earlier, the four had pursued Song Tiangang into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

But Song Tiangang's bag of tricks ran deep.

Despite their relentless chase, they had lost him.

"Chen Five."

One spoke in a low voice. "Night is falling. The Hundred Thousand Mountains are no place for us to linger. Stay or go — your call."

The one called Chen Five was a burly man. The mask he wore bore faint dragon-scale patterns.

Dragon of the Zodiac, ranked fifth.Hence — Chen Five.

Chen Five said flatly, "His Majesty commanded us to investigate the matter of Xu Province's tax irregularities. The investigation is complete — now we are to apprehend Song Tiangang. The man has fled into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Whether he's alive or dead, we need an answer."

They did need an answer.

His Majesty had given the order. They dared not be negligent.

Leave, they could — but not empty-handed.

One said thoughtfully, "Earlier, I saw a black sun streak across the sky. Song Tiangang used some technique to chase after it."

"We're not cultivators, after all. That's where we lost him."

"If we can find that black sun, we might find Song Tiangang."

At the mention of the black sun.

Even Chen Five's voice grew heavy. "That black sun was deeply unsettling. The moment it appeared, I felt an impulse rising within me — a desire to seize it, to claim it."

"And when the black sun passed over Song Tiangang's head, it seemed to speak."

"Wei Three, Xu Seven, You Eleven — did any of you hear it?"

"No."

The other three shook their heads.

All four had been focused solely on hunting Song Tiangang. Who had the attention to spare for a black sun?

If even Chen Five hadn't heard it clearly, they certainly hadn't.

"Never mind."

Chen Five shook his head and continued flying as he spoke. "There are remnants living in these Hundred Thousand Mountains. After nightfall, those remnants will shine like torches in our sight. If we can learn from them where the black sun went, there may still be a chance of finding Song Tiangang."

"And if we don't find him?"

"Then so much the better. Fleeing from justice — that only adds to his charges."

"Song Tiangang may have escaped, but the Song family cannot. His Majesty merely needs an answer."

"Then can we..."

"Duty first. There'll be plenty of opportunities in Xuzhou City."

...

Meanwhile.

Inside the Pure Immortal Temple.

Chen Huangpi spread the Dispelling Darkness and Restoring Sight Powder onto a strip of cloth, then wound it around both eyes and tied it firmly behind his head.

"Pretty sturdy."

Chen Huangpi gave a satisfied nod. "With this poultice on, my eyes should recover in two days at most. Then I'll go check on Second Master in the Old Temple, and then there's A Gui — he sacrificed himself for me. I can't let him down."

Song Tiangang was dead.

But his soul had inexplicably vanished.

Without souls to nourish it, the Life-reaping Ghost inside the Soul-Hooking Manual could not awaken.

This troubled Chen Huangpi enormously.

The Brass Oil Lamp drawled lazily, "What's there to worry about? Aren't there remnants living all over the Hundred Thousand Mountains? As the saying goes — harsh land breeds wicked folk. Just slaughter the lot and feed them to A Gui."

"Absolutely not."

Chen Huangpi shook his head. "Master's Primordial Spirit became the sun and moon — which makes him the Heaven Dao of the Hundred Thousand Mountains."

"Master said all the good things are saved for me."

"The Hundred Thousand Mountains are mine. The remnants are mine too."

With that, Chen Huangpi put one hand on his hip, pointed skyward with the other, and declared: "The sun and moon are the law — the law is the Heavenly Mandate — the Heavenly Mandate is my master. I have received the Mandate of Heaven; may my life and reign be eternal. How could I slaughter my own subjects?"

"Your Majesty, why not seek counsel from the wise?"

"And where might these wise advisors be?"

"Far away at the edge of the sky — yet right before your eyes."

The Fox Mountain God grinned. "I have heard that every wise ruler is surrounded by worthy ministers. And since Your Majesty holds the Mandate of Heaven, you are naturally a sovereign of the highest order. Those at your side are, therefore, your worthy ministers."

By now, the Fox Mountain God had begun to grasp how to deal with Chen Huangpi.

The trick was to ignore right and wrong.

Ignore logic.

Chen Huangpi's mind worked differently from normal people — so just take his lead on everything.

Go along with whatever he said.

Seeing Chen Huangpi beam with delight.

The Fox Mountain God knew that if it now suggested leaving the Hundred Thousand Mountains to go massacre cultivators in the outside world.

It would certainly make a favorable impression.

The Hundred Thousand Mountains were crawling with evil spirits. The Pure Immortal Temple was sinister beyond description. This was no place to stay.

The outside world was the real paradise.

But the Fox Mountain God had overlooked one thing.

Though the Brass Oil Lamp also wanted to leave the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

And they shared the same goal.

The Fox Mountain God trying to curry favor with Chen Huangpi right in front of it? The Brass Oil Lamp would not tolerate that.

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!"

The Brass Oil Lamp hollered. "The treacherous minister has revealed himself — and it's the Fox Mountain God!"

"Nonsense!"

The Fox Mountain God cried in shock and fury. "I am loyal to the bone! How could I be a treacherous minister?"

The Brass Oil Lamp snarled, "You just rephrased what this lamp already said and passed it off as your own! If you're not a treacherous minister, who is?"

"Next, you were going to say there are plenty of cultivators beyond the Hundred Thousand Mountains."

"That those cultivators are all scum — they drink human blood, devour human flesh, murder and plunder, commit every evil imaginable, no better than thugs and hoodlums. Every last one deserves to die. All Chen Huangpi has to do is go out there and kill them all — not only will it cleanse the world, it'll awaken A Gui too."

"Go ahead — deny that's exactly what you were about to say!"

"You... you..."

The Fox Mountain God sputtered, unable to form a response.

"What — cat got your tongue now that this lamp's exposed you?"

The Brass Oil Lamp held its head high, proud as a rooster that had won the fight.

"Treacherous minister! Treacherous minister! You are a treacherous minister!"

"Fine — I'm the treacherous minister. You're the loyal one."

The Fox Mountain God shook with anger, but then laughed despite itself. "Well then, let's hear it — what brilliant plan do you have?" Though it didn't know why the Brass Oil Lamp had suddenly turned on it.

If the lamp couldn't produce something better.

Then today, right here in front of Chen Huangpi, the Fox Mountain God would debate this lamp into the ground.

Foxes were the best at reading people and silver-tongued debate.

The Brass Oil Lamp said with contempt, "Everything you said was stolen from this lamp. Your plan was this lamp's plan. You plagiarized this lamp's ideas, and now you expect this lamp to come up with something new? You're nearly as shameless as this lamp—"

The words died in mid-sentence.

The Brass Oil Lamp suddenly went rigid.

And Chen Huangpi, sensing something at the same moment, turned to face a particular direction.

...

At the foot of Mount Yuqiong.

Chen Five and his three companions ascended the stone steps.

They had already visited several remnant settlements, all without result.

The black sun seemed to have vanished entirely after entering the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

And in fact, it truly had vanished.

Because the black sun was the Divine Light of Escape unleashed by the Brass Oil Lamp after its transformation.

Once inside the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

The Brass Oil Lamp had fully degenerated into an evil spirit — a fanged, snarling, horrifying black lantern of malice.

Finding it would have been like searching for a needle in the ocean.

Now, Mount Yuqiong was their last stop.

They arrived at the Pure Immortal Temple's mountain gate.

"Interesting. Truly interesting."

You Eleven shook his head. "The remnants at the foot of the mountain called this place the Pure Immortal Temple, yet the sign on the gate reads 'Suppress Immortal Temple.'"

"Pure Immortal and Suppress Immortal."

"Truly—"

"Truly what?"

A youthful voice came unexpectedly from behind the gate.

The four looked up. A young Daoist of about twelve or thirteen years of age walked toward them, clad in a Daoist robe.

Bandages were wound around his eyes.

In one hand he held a tarnished oil lamp.

A fox trailed behind him.

The boy carried an unmistakable aura of cultivation, yet with their abilities, they could not discern his precise level.

The fox was even stranger.

It looked like a god, yet it gave off not a trace of incense.

Chen Five couldn't quite get a read on anything, but he knew the Hundred Thousand Mountains were an unpredictable place where anything could happen.

So he cupped his fists and said, "My fourth brother has always been loose-lipped. He was simply taken by the name of your esteemed temple and spoke out of turn. Please don't take offense, young brother."

"It's fine — cultivators who came before said the same thing."

"Would that have been a middle-aged cultivator in gray robes?"

When Song Tiangang had fled, he'd been wearing gray.

But he hadn't even made it past the mountain gate before Chen Huangpi had killed him, so he'd certainly never said any such thing.

Chen Huangpi shook his head. "No. It was a group of cultivators in black robes — several dozen of them."

Hearing this, the four envoys felt no disappointment.

Song Tiangang had the golden seal's empowerment, making his strength comparable to a provincial City God.

If he'd wanted to hide, he could have stood right in front of a cultivator, and even with their eyes wide open and spiritual senses fully deployed, they wouldn't have detected a thing.

So Chen Five asked, "Young brother, during the day, a black sun streaked across the sky. Did you happen to see it?"

"I can't see anything."

Chen Huangpi pointed at his bandaged eyes with a look of dejection.

"Well..."

Chen Five's brow furrowed. The boy really was blind.

The other three felt equally helpless.

They had assumed the bandages were merely decorative, given that the boy was a cultivator.

After all, for a cultivator.

Blindness was hardly a serious matter. Unless one was inherently sightless, there were plenty of methods to restore vision.

Most crucially, cultivators possessed ways to detect lies.

Though the four envoys were not cultivators themselves, they could tell at a glance that Chen Huangpi was not lying.

"Is there an elder at your temple?"

"There is, but my master has lost his mind. He comes and goes without warning — I don't know if he's even in the temple right now."

Chen Huangpi's words settled in the air.

The four envoys grew more disappointed still.

A blind boy and a madman.

It seemed this place would yield no useful information.

At that moment, You Eleven spoke up. "There are four more double-hours before dawn. We should leave quickly."

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination.

But ever since this blind young man had appeared, he'd felt a pair of eyes watching him — ceaselessly, from some unseen vantage.

And the temple's incense was almost nonexistent.

Yet no evil spirits lurked anywhere nearby. Everything about this place felt wrong.

In truth, Chen Five had no desire to linger either.

Mount Yuqiong had been their last stop. If Song Tiangang couldn't be found, His Majesty wouldn't blame them.

Besides, even if they did find him.

His Majesty would probably prefer that Song Tiangang remain a fugitive indefinitely.

And right at that moment.

Chen Huangpi furrowed his brow. "It's already dark. The Hundred Thousand Mountains are full of evil spirits. No matter how strong your cultivation is, the moment you encounter even one evil spirit, every evil spirit within a hundred-li radius will know exactly where you are. When that happens, you won't be able to run."

He was genuinely warning them out of goodwill.

Because these four cultivators, while a bit lacking in manners, didn't seem like bad people.

Yet Chen Five merely cupped his fists. "Young brother, we still have official duties to attend to. We'll take our leave here."

With that, the four truly dusted themselves off and departed.

As though they were nothing but dutiful government officials going about their business.

Chen Huangpi looked utterly baffled.

He murmured, "Those four were strange. They clearly bore no gods within them, yet they chose to leave under cover of night. Could it be that they aren't afraid of evil spirits?"

The Brass Oil Lamp said quietly, "That's because they are evil spirits."