Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 139: I Am a True Immortal

Within the Old Temple, beneath the crimson moon.

A temple made of living flesh was expanding at an alarming rate.

It resembled an inflating ball.

But its roof suddenly bulged upward — as though something impossibly sharp was stabbing through from inside, forcing its way out.

No...

Not "as though."

Something really was breaking through.

With a wet rip.

An extremely sharp, withered tree branch pierced the temple.

It shot skyward.Its base was immensely thick, splitting the entire temple wide open from within.

It was a tree.

A Magic Tree — as colossal as the legendary Primordial Firmament Tree.

It had once dwelt within this Old Temple for untold ages.

And now, it had returned in a different form.

Chen Huangpi had channeled the Magic Tree's power, manifesting its spectral image.

This was not the Magic Tree's true body — that was still locked inside the Kidney Temple.

And even the true body wouldn't have been a match for Chi Xie.

The Magic Tree was being nourished by its black smoke, gradually evolving toward a Misfortune-class entity.

Chi Xie was still a notch above even a Misfortune.

But it didn't matter.

Because in this moment, every trunk, every branch of the Magic Tree was crawling with dark cyan eyes.

Rustle, rustle...

Dry branches intertwined and coiled into an enormous cocoon.

The cocoon was raised aloft, cradled to the very crown of the tree.

The cocoon opened.

Inside was a boy of about thirteen, clad in Daoist robes.

His eyes were closed tight.

Yet from his brow, his cheeks, his arms, and all across his body — dark cyan eyes had sprouted.

And below.

With the flesh temple torn open.

It contracted rapidly.

From within it emerged a figure draped in a scarlet mantle, wreathed in blood-red flames.

It was Chi Xie.

Its expression was deeply ugly.

It was absolutely certain — Chen Huangpi had fallen to madness.

A fragile Dao heart. A mind choked with stray thoughts.

A few words was all it took.

And what was even more terrifying was that it had no way to counter those dark cyan eyes.

A single eye? It could dismiss that.

But these eyes were profoundly sinister.

The instant they appeared, they flooded out like a breached dam — endless, boundless. Even Chi Xie's natal fire seed was being influenced by them.

All it could do was watch helplessly as Chen Huangpi summoned the Magic Tree and erupted skyward.

Now that they were no longer inside the temple.

The crimson moon was watching.

Chi Xie no longer dared lift a hand against Chen Huangpi within the Old Temple.

As if sensing Chi Xie's thoughts.

Chen Huangpi stomped once on the Magic Tree's crown below his feet.

The colossal canopy began expanding wildly.

Blotting out the sky, swallowing the light.

The entire Old Temple was plunged into darkness.

The next instant.

The Magic Tree's branches drooped low, and from its quivering leaves, one human fruit after another was spawned.

But what was truly eerie.

Every single human fruit bore Chen Huangpi's face.

Cold, emotionless. Not a trace of feeling.

And yet.

Chi Xie could see that in the eyes of every last one burned an insane, boundless killing intent.

"You've fallen to madness!"

Chi Xie cried, caught between shock and fury. "Chen Huangpi, stop this! You've already been consumed by the power of those evil eyes. That is not your true strength. If you keep going, there will be no coming back!"

It was scared.

Truly scared.

In a certain sense, Chen Huangpi really was a waste.

Because he had been born a stillborn.

Coming to life from death.

Every step would naturally be unbearably difficult.

But if Chen Huangpi stopped moving forward — if he turned and ran backwards.

Then things would go catastrophically wrong.

And now, entrapped in his own madness, consumed by obsession, there was no telling what he might do with that killing fixation driving him.

Crack...

Crack...

Countless Chen Huangpi human fruits twisted their necks, then reached upward with open palms. Sword-like tree branches snapped free of their own accord and fell into their hands.

Then — in perfect unison — every one of them assumed a sword-drawing stance.

The next instant.

Ominous. Evil.

Innumerable arcs of sword qi, crackling with deranged killing intent, hurtled toward Chi Xie.

Kill, kill, kill. Slay, slay, slay.

It was the Grand Sui Demon-Slaying sword qi.

Because it was the only sword technique Chen Huangpi knew.

"Bring it on!!"

Chi Xie roared. The blood-red flames beneath its feet erupted into a boil.

The fire congealed into a wall.

The countless arcs of sword qi slammed into the wall — unable to break through.

Chi Xie was simply too powerful.

It merely had no answer for Chen Huangpi's evil eyes.

That didn't mean it was weaker than Chen Huangpi.

But then.

The human-fruit Chen Huangpi copies seemed to arrive at the same thought. Every one of them drew a deep breath.

There were so many of them.

A dense, teeming horde — millions at least.

When millions of human fruits inhaled simultaneously, a violent gale tore through the Old Temple.

"HUUUUUUH!!!!!"

The human fruits exhaled as one. But what came out was not wind.

It was fire.

A piercing, spectral cold-fire.

The flame of the Nine Nether God Lantern.

Fire that burned the true form itself.

"Fighting fire with fire?"

Chi Xie laughed mockingly. "I am the progenitor of all fire!"

With that, it slammed both hands together in a seal.

The blood-red flames at its feet instantly formed a ring of fire. The ring multiplied — splitting into countless copies.

"Absorb!!!!"

As the word left its mouth.

The tidal wave of oncoming spectral fire was drawn in by an invisible force. Before it even reached Chi Xie, the flames split apart and poured obediently into the fire rings.

Chi Xie was a fire essence.

Its fire could ignite thoughts, could warp the minds of mortals.

But to Chi Xie, fire also had its own thoughts.

And spectral fire was still fire!

"Watch closely — this is what fighting fire with fire really looks like!"

Chi Xie grinned savagely and formed another seal. "Return to sender!"

Countless fire rings spun.

The captured spectral fire, now under Chi Xie's command, blasted toward the Magic Tree.

A rain of fire points plummeted like a meteor shower.

But to Chi Xie's disbelief.

The human-fruit Chen Huangpi copies showed no panic whatsoever. Instead, they formed a seal that was jarringly familiar.

Icy, spectral rings of fire materialized from thin air.

"Absorb!!!"

The very spectral fire Chi Xie had hijacked now flowed obediently into these new rings.

"This... this..."

Chi Xie's scalp crawled. "You looked at it once — once! — and you can replicate my technique?"

The human-fruit copies formed another seal, their faces blank.

But this time, Chi Xie couldn't decipher it.

It looked similar to its own method.

Yet something was fundamentally wrong.

Because the spectral fire within those rings didn't fly toward Chi Xie. Instead, it compressed violently inward, condensing into a single black point.

"KILL!!!"

Countless voices, dripping with killing intent, rang out in unison.

And the black points within the fire rings suddenly unfurled.

Massive pillars of black light erupted from them, raining down upon Chi Xie.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Countless black pillars — from every direction, along every trajectory — hammered into Chi Xie's body.

Dust billowed. Shattered stone flew.

The earth shook without cease.

The black pillars blasted a bottomless crater hundreds of meters across.

At the very bottom of that abyss.

Chi Xie lay riddled with gaping holes, staring up in disbelief at the millions of Chen Huangpi human fruits dangling from the Magic Tree's branches.

"How can you so casually alter my technique?"

As the former Lord of the Small Scarlet Heaven.

It had never imagined a day when someone could learn its methods with a single glance, use them better than Chi Xie itself could, and then apply them in ways that defied imagination.

"I'm an evil spirit."

Chi Xie snarled through clenched teeth. "If the Old Temple hadn't devoured all my immortal qi, how could you humiliate me like this?"

It wasn't like Yi Qingzhou.

Yi Qingzhou had only been an immortal. But after becoming an evil spirit, his immortal qi hadn't vanished.

That was why Yi Qingzhou had naturally been far more powerful than Chi Xie.

All the techniques Chi Xie could currently use.

Were based purely on its fundamental essence — its fire.

But Chi Xie no longer dared employ any techniques.

Because it knew — with those evil eyes watching, it could never kill Chen Huangpi.

Chen Huangpi, on the other hand, could learn any technique with a single glance.

And then immediately use it against Chi Xie.

At this rate, there was no need to wait for Chen Huangpi to turn and run backwards — it might genuinely be killed.

Escape...

It had to escape!

Chi Xie's survival instinct kicked in.

But before it could act, it watched in despair as countless branches descended from the Magic Tree's canopy.

The tree was enormous.

Those branches were staggeringly thick — each one the size of a hilltop — sealing every inch of the space beneath the canopy.

But the branches weren't the real threat.

The countless evil eyes covering every branch were.

It didn't dare fight. It couldn't kill him.

And pushing him too far was the worst option of all.

Chi Xie had never felt so utterly trapped.

"Chen Huangpi, I was wrong!"

"I shouldn't have targeted you. I shouldn't have tricked you. And I should never have called you a waste."

"You are a genius. A true genius."

Chi Xie dropped to its knees and swore to the heavens. "If you spare my life today, I will serve you as my master. I am immensely powerful, and look — I have my faculties intact. Take me into your service, and I will be a tremendous asset."

But Chen Huangpi wasn't listening.

Because he truly had fallen to madness.

The millions of human-fruit copies were still forming seals.

The seal was profoundly strange.

Chi Xie took one look, and its face drained of color. "The Life-Slaying Sword Formula?"

The very sword art that Chen Huangpi had never been able to wield before.

Now, in his madness, it came to him as naturally as breathing.

The human-fruit copies spoke in unison: "Soul Slaying!"

The words fell.

Chi Xie could hear nothing more.

Everything around it plunged into an eerie, dead silence.

The Life-Slaying Sword Formula was a technique of the Pure Immortal Temple.

But Chen Huangpi had not learned the full art from the evil spirit assembled from Xu Qingshan's severed arm. All he knew was the Soul Slaying technique.

Soul Slaying — it was designed to annihilate the soul.

Chi Xie stood frozen.

Its body collapsed with a dull boom, dissolving into a mass of blood-colored flame.

As though its soul had been obliterated.

Rustle, rustle...

The Magic Tree's branches shivered.

The human-fruit copies tumbled to the ground and decayed in moments.

Then they dissolved into wisps of vital essence that seeped back into the Magic Tree's trunk.

The branches that had sealed off the area likewise retracted.

Atop the crown.

The Nine Nether God Lantern — controlled by a single evil eye — hovered nearby, its aura feeble and fading.

Chen Huangpi raised his head and gazed at the crimson moon above.

The evil eyes across his body blinked, one by one.

Within each eye, golden-black characters — shaped like flowers, birds, fish, and insects — were surfacing.

The characters flowed and shifted.

The Nine Nether God Lantern had no idea what they meant.

All it knew was that Chen Huangpi, in this moment, seemed to be thinking.

Contemplating something it could not comprehend.

"I am a True Immortal!"

Chen Huangpi declared, cold and devoid of emotion. "I will kill every god. Kill every cultivator. Kill every mortal. Kill every evil spirit. I will kill them all!"

"You're no True Immortal right now."

The Nine Nether God Lantern said in despair. "You're nothing but a kill-crazed evil spirit..."