novelraw Chapter 163: If Heaven Won't Take You, I Will
Chapter 163: If Heaven Won't Take You, I Will
The mutation of heaven and earth began with the muddling of day and night, lasting for six days and six nights as the start.
Afterwards, dark night and daytime would be redefined anew.
And the six days and six nights marked the Yin Extreme.
Last time, the phenomenon of the sun and moon sharing the sky appeared within the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
The Nine Nether God Lantern remembered it crystal clearly.
The Guanzhu told it that it represented the Yang Extreme, which would last for nine days and nine nights.
But the Yang Extreme inside the Hundred Thousand Mountains was an illusory manifestation. The Guanzhu disliked it, so he erased it.
Now, this Yang Extreme in the outside world had appeared because of Chen Huangpi.
Even though the Nine Nether God Lantern had become an evil spirit, it still realized what that represented.
It represented that regardless of what kind of thoughts Chen Huangpi harbored.As far as the heaven and earth of this outside world were concerned, he was the Yellow Heaven.
Beneath that Yang Extreme where the sun and moon shared the sky.
The entire world turned into an expanse of boundless white.
This was neither the daytime, nor the dark night.
Because the dark night and daytime had already muddled together.
Inside Xuzhou City, Song Yuzhang—who was just about to eat all those commoners completely—lifted his head in panic and terror. He wasn't the Nine Nether God Lantern, so naturally he didn't know that this sun and moon sharing the sky represented the Yang Extreme.
Because after the heaven and earth mutated.
The connection between the human realm and the Underworld Yellow Spring was severed.
The Great Qian Immortal Dynasty was sealed away, and there was furthermore no more news whatsoever from the Celestial Realm.
The ancient cultivators either transformed into evil spirits, or died because the spiritual qi vanished.
After seventeen thousand four hundred years passed.
Far too many things had disappeared.
Song Yuzhang only knew that the muddling of day and night signified the mutation of heaven and earth.
But the mutation of heaven and earth had already started long, long ago.
Why did it appear once again at this moment?
The Yin Extreme represented the beginning; the Yang Extreme represented the end.
Everything would become completely different.
The Yellow Heaven is born, and the Heaven Dao takes its rightful place.
A New Heaven replacing the Old Heaven.
All of all this, every single bit of it, Song Yuzhang was utterly ignorant.
He only knew that he was afraid.
Very afraid, very terrified.
He wanted to bring this Xuzhou City and escape into the dark night, escape into the daytime.
But how could there still be any daytime or dark night now? He couldn't leave.
He could only helplessly watch this all happen alongside this Xuzhou City.
In places further away.
All the cultivators within the borders of Da Kang, all the deities, and even all the commoners, every plant and tree, as well as that West Region Buddha Kingdom, and those numerous minor nations in this human realm, and even the living creatures inside the grotto-heavens surviving from before the heaven and earth mutation belonging to the previous era—all witnessed this scene.
The sun and moon sharing the sky, the day and night muddled.
Not everyone was as ignorant as Song Yuzhang.
No, it should be said, there were people who knew much more than Song Yuzhang did.
"Six for Yin, Nine for Yang."
"Yin is death, Yang is life."
"The Yin Extreme has already ended, the Yang Extreme has already begun."
"The moment the Yang Extreme also ends, the Yellow Heaven will be born."
"According to the surviving records of the ancient cultivators, at that time a new path of cultivation will emerge, and a new seat for a Dao Lord will also be vacated. Nine days and nine nights later, the gates of the Immortal Dao will open for the teeming masses. This old man shall become an immortal, this old man shall achieve Union with the Dao, and become the Dao Lord of that Yellow Heaven!"
Meanwhile, in the West Region Buddha Kingdom.
There was a mountain here, a massive mountain leading straight into the heavens.
At the foot of this mountain, countless monks were looking up at the bizarre phenomenon in the sky.
Normally, they worshipped here.
Because there was a Buddha on this mountain.
Merely, for countless years, that Buddha had never manifested any miraculous visions whatsoever.
Whenever all the monks came here, someone would tell them, the Buddha is in the heart.
And now, a voice rang out from the bottom of all their hearts.
That voice was incomparably grand.
Brimming with compassion and warmth.
"Nine days and nine nights later, the Yellow Heaven is born. All citizens of the Middle-earth Buddha Kingdom must fast and bathe, pointing the direction for the Lord Buddha."
Yet right at this moment, that voice abruptly paused.
"Has the eighteen thousand years arrived yet?"
It seemed as if it were inquiring of the teeming masses.
Yet also as if it were asking itself.
...
The Hundred Thousand Mountains were different from the outside world.
Here it was daytime.
The phenomenon of the sun and moon sharing the sky did not appear.
And within the grand main hall of the Pure Immortal Temple.
At this moment, there was exactly the figure of an old Daoist sitting cross-legged in the main hall.
That old Daoist wore a green Daoist robe.
His aged, wizened face was completely saturated with frantic madness.
"What dog-fart Yang Extreme!"
The green-robed old Daoist howled at the heavens. Even though his eyes were cloudy, they couldn't conceal that sky-piercing murderous intent.
"Sun and moon sharing the sky, day and night muddled—but what does this have to do with this Poor Daoist's Huangpi'er!?"
"He follows this Poor Daoist's surname Chen, not the surname Huang!"
"Heaven deserves to be killed, earth deserves to be killed!"
"Cultivators deserve to be killed, deities deserve to be killed! Evil spirits also deserve to be killed!"
"The Sun and Moon, even more so, deserve to be killed!"
"Huangpi'er, do not be afraid! As your Master, I will carve out a path to the heavens for you!"
The green-robed old Daoist's voice was incomparably ferocious.
And within this Pure Immortal Temple, the countless clones already burning entirely with black evil fire and influenced by the Nine Nether God Lantern were all vibrating incessantly at this moment.
Following closely, the entire Pure Immortal Temple plunged into darkness.
And within that darkness.
A frantic, unrestrained, ferocious laugh rang out.
Dong!!!!
The Nine Separation Bell was struck.
...
All these assorted events all happened within an instant.
As far as Chen Huangpi was concerned.
Time had only passed by a few breaths.
The mutation of heaven and earth arrived very quickly.
But he was in no mood to pay attention to it, because he sensed an extremely terrifying aura surface from within the Soul-Hooking Manual.
Sinking his mind and heart into it.
He then saw that very blackish-green Daoist robe of Master trembling lightly at this moment.
Following closely, that Daoist robe enlarged before Chen Huangpi's eyes.
Instantly arriving in the human realm from the Soul-Hooking Manual.
The moment this Daoist robe appeared.
It soared into the sky, simultaneously growing larger and larger, larger and larger.
Then it became the size of a blackish-green curtain of the sky.
Chen Huangpi cast his gaze as far as he could see, yet he fundamentally couldn't see its end.
However large the sky was, that was how large this Daoist robe was.
The phenomenon of the sun and moon sharing the sky was covered by this Daoist robe.
Day and night were no longer muddled.
Because everything turned black; not the slightest speck of light fell between that Daoist robe onto the human realm, onto Chen Huangpi.
Furthermore, that Daoist robe was continuing to shrink.
And then, Chen Huangpi saw a scene that left him incomparably shocked and awed.
The Sun and Moon were wrapped up by that Daoist robe.
The grand sun and the red moon struggled frantically, colliding frantically within the Daoist robe. It was as if that Daoist robe was a gigantic net covering the heavens, and the Sun and Moon were the fishes inside the net.
The fishes wanted to jump out of the fishing net.
But the fishing net was incessantly contracting.
Finally, that Daoist robe shrank back to its original size, tightly and securely locking up that Sun and Moon.
"Master didn't lie to me..."
Chen Huangpi murmured: "The sun blinded my eyes, so Master is venting his anger on my behalf. He wants to kill both the sun and the moon, because the sun and moon also hold malice towards me."
"But without the sun and moon, what will become of this human realm."
"There will be a new sun and moon."
The Nine Nether God Lantern's expression cleared up somewhat, murmuringly saying: "Those sun and moon are alive. Perhaps they are the 'they' that the Guanzhu spoke of. They cannot beat the Guanzhu, so they can only wait for the Yellow Heaven to be born. When the time comes, the seat of the Dao Lord will be vacated."
"Chen Huangpi, I understand, I understand it all."
The Nine Nether God Lantern cried and laughed simultaneously: "The Yang Extreme will last for nine days and nine nights, yet you truly haven't completely come alive yet. Therefore, the Guanzhu interrupted this Yang Extreme; otherwise, you would die."
"This Yang Extreme will still appear again. The Guanzhu can help you once, but can he help you nine times?"
"One thousand years equals one year of age; eighteen thousand years."
"No wonder you won't live past eighteen."
"The Guanzhu truly is carving out a sky-piercing great path for you."
"Chen Huangpi, have you thought it through?"
"Thought what through..."
Chen Huangpi's expression showed his deep emotion as he said: "Huang Er, I don't understand what you're talking about."
The Nine Nether God Lantern shed tears and said: "I don't want to say it. It's not that I don't dare to, but that I don't want to. You and I are as close as brothers; even if I transform into an evil spirit, I still wish for your well-being. Yet I don't know whether, if I spoke it, the choice you made would be right or wrong, good or bad."
It truly understood.
Thoroughly understood.
Within the Underworld Yellow Spring, that Headless Yama had said that eighteen thousand years later the Yellow Heaven would be born, and at that time the Guanzhu would achieve Union with the Dao, attaining the seat of the Dao Lord.
But in reality, that Headless Yama had died long ago.
Because in his consciousness, the mutation of heaven and earth hadn't even begun.
This also proved that prior to the heaven and earth mutation, everyone thought the Guanzhu would pursue Union with the Dao of the Yellow Heaven.
But the Guanzhu did not.
What the Guanzhu united his Dao with was the already dead, already mutated Azure Heaven. That Azure Heaven was precisely suppressed within the Old Temple.
The Guanzhu couldn't walk out of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, because if the Guanzhu did, then he would truly die. And if he died, then he could never again hold on until Chen Huangpi turned eighteen; he would be unable to bestow karmic opportunities upon him, unable to shelter him from the wind and rain.
But the New Heaven replaces the Old Heaven.
Wait until eighteen thousand years pass, and Chen Huangpi is exactly eighteen years old.
When that time arrived, how could the Guanzhu, who united his Dao with the Old Azure Heaven, possibly have any chance of surviving?
The Nine Nether God Lantern intensely wanted to tell Chen Huangpi all of this.
Because it didn't want the Guanzhu to die.
It was very afraid, and also very remorseful, constantly regretting having urged Chen Huangpi to go out to the outside world to take a look.
If he had stayed in the Hundred Thousand Mountains the entire time, Chen Huangpi might never grow up. Perhaps he also wouldn't hear those voices, and furthermore wouldn't trigger this Yang Extreme mutation.
It was just that the Nine Nether God Lantern also knew.
Even if Chen Huangpi didn't leave the mountains, when eighteen thousand years passed, he would still grow to eighteen years of age.
By then, how could he—this weak Yellow Heaven holding his own will—possibly survive?
I'm afraid the absolute best outcome would be having his gold and black dual qi extracted completely, having his skin engraved with those bird-flower-fish-bug-like text peeled off, and then a Yellow Heaven without its own will rebuilt.
"Chen Huangpi, tell me, have you thought it through?"
"I naturally have thought it through."
Chen Huangpi said earnestly: "I am going to kill that Song Yuzhang and save the lives of the millions of commoners in Xuzhou City."
The Nine Nether God Lantern said, "Not this one. You know it, what I'm asking is not this one."
"But I only saw this one."
Chen Huangpi pointed at Xuzhou City and said, "Master said that cultivating the Dao is precisely competing to see who walks further, who walks longer. To this very day, I still don't understand how to cultivate the Dao, nor do I know where that Dao is."
"There is no Dao beneath my feet either."
Saying so, Chen Huangpi looked at the road beneath his feet: "You see, this ground is intolerably muddy. Last night when we were trapped inside Xuzhou City, a heavy downpour definitely fell."
"The Human Dao walked by the cultivators in that Xuzhou City is broad and straight."
"I want to walk the Human Dao too, but I am not a human. Therefore, the road beneath my feet is stumbling and tripping, filled with mud everywhere, filled with stones everywhere. This road is very hard to walk, but does that mean I must halt and cease advancing?"
"Huang Er, the road must be walked step by step."
"I am only fourteen. I still have four years of time, or rather, I must still walk until the day the eighth Yang Extreme ends. By that time, there should be an answer in my heart."
"If you walk until that time, what if people come to kill you?"
"Then that proves I walked the right road."
Chen Huangpi said with a smile, "Whether they come to kill me, come to stop me, or want to obtain something from me, I don't care about any of it. Master once said, 'I reflect on myself three times a day, and it's always others who are wrong.'"
"Everything uses me as the standard!"
"And right now, I am going to Xuzhou City to kill that Song Yuzhang. He is very strong, very formidable. He is also a stumbling block on my path. Huang Er, do you want to walk together with me?"
"When have I ever abandoned you!!!!"
The Nine Nether God Lantern hissed frantically: "As long as you do not abandon me, no matter how hard the road is to walk, I will accompany you walking it! It is too dark outside; without me pointing the way for you, you will fail to find the direction home."
"And me too!"
The Life-reaping Ghost opened its mouth out of nowhere, saying: "Contract Master, your personality is simple and pure, too easily led astray by Huang Er. Without me advising from the side and checking for omissions, the two of you would always stir up a myriad of troubles."
Chen Huangpi said, "A Gui, for example?"
The Life-reaping Ghost said: "For example, Contract Master, although you are shouting about wanting to kill that Song Yuzhang and act as the savior for those millions of mortals, what are you going to use to kill him? He has integrated into one with Xuzhou City; you can kill him countless times, but you cannot kill an entire city."
Chen Huangpi remained silent.
His current state was highly bizarre, and also extremely powerful.
After these golden-black texts resembling flowers, birds, fish, and insects popped out, he felt as if he had entered the state of demonic possession again—all methodologies came easily to him at his fingertips, capable of perceiving everything and seeing through all falsehoods.
He saw that not far away was that group of mortals led by the shopkeeper. They were returning to Xuzhou City, but this journey was too far and their legs didn't walk fast.
Consequently, Chen Huangpi quietly strode to the front of them.
Looking at the massive city gate of Xuzhou City.
Chen Huangpi asked, "A Gui, my Void-Piercing Sword cannot kill him?"
"It can kill him, but it cannot kill him permanently."
"What if I add my Soul-Slaying technique?"
"Still won't kill him permanently."
"Then what if... I add the thing hiding in my shadow on top?"
The Life-reaping Ghost, the Fox Mountain God, and the shadow evil spirit simultaneously all looked toward Chen Huangpi's shadow.
Yet they didn't see anything.
They only saw a patch of darkness.
"Without light, where do shadows come from!"
Chen Huangpi pointed at the Nine Nether God Lantern and said, "Huang Er, emit light for me!!!"
"Nine Nether! Kill Kill Kill!!!"
The Nine Nether God Lantern's lamp body enlarged frantically, once again soaring into the sky, returning to a black sun.
And beneath the illumination of its brilliance.
Chen Huangpi's shadow was pulled extremely long, and extremely ferocious.
"Calamity Eyes!!!"
Chen Huangpi stomped his foot violently.
The Calamity Eyes all over his body were incessantly catalyzed, boring into his own shadow.
His shadow was too huge.
So huge it was akin to a giant, akin to a pitch-black lake.
Hundreds of Calamity Eyes bored into the shadow, but they didn't cause any impact whatsoever.
Not enough, still not enough.
If he wanted to use Calamity Eyes to control that existence inside the shadow, merely a few hundred Calamity Eyes were far too few.
Chen Huangpi had already seen what was hiding in his shadow.
It wasn't the corpse of the Headless Yama.
Rather, it was the shadow of the Headless Yama from the Ten Directions Bone-Illuminating Mirror back then, the one who tried to twist his head off.
That Ten Directions Bone-Illuminating Mirror had shattered.
This shadow had nowhere to go, so it had no choice but to bore into Chen Huangpi's shadow.
Most importantly, this shadow lacked any consciousness.
It was exactly as if, when Chen Huangpi left the Underworld Yellow Spring, someone deliberately gave him a parting gift.
The Liver Temple was vibrating.
Vibrating incessantly.
At some unknown point in time, this Liver Temple had already achieved near materialization; it only lacked the last few nails on the temple doors to thoroughly complete its forging.
Short as the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
Long as less than half a day.
And now, Chen Huangpi frantically spurred the Five Viscera Spirit Refining Art, and countless Calamity Eyes immediately bored out from those temple doors, endless and inexhaustible, seemingly having no end as they sank into that shadow.
Then, an arm clothed in an imperial robe and parasitized by countless Calamity Eyes extended out from Chen Huangpi's shadow.
That arm had no corporeal form; it was merely a shadow.
But the moment it appeared, it radiated a deathly still, despairing, dark, and gloomy aura.
That was the shadow belonging to the Ten Halls of Yama under the command of the Yin Emperor in the Underworld Yellow Spring.
Magnificently powerful while alive, even more terrifying than immortals.
Its shadow was naturally exceedingly extraordinary too.
Even though this shadow lacked consciousness, and Chen Huangpi could control it using the Calamity Eyes, with his current state of mind and cultivation base, he could only control this single arm; the remaining parts, he couldn't harness.
"This is that Headless Yama you guys mentioned..."
The Fox Mountain God's tone was dry to the absolute limits: "Just this one arm alone feels like it could slap that Xuzhou City into dust with a single palm."
The Life-reaping Ghost said: "This is the shadow of the Seventh Hall Yama. My father... no, the Ninth Hall Yama was even stronger than it."
As for that shadow evil spirit.
It was the earliest one to know Chen Huangpi had something hidden in his shadow.
Yet it never dreamed that it was actually the shadow of a Yama.
Merely glancing at it once, the shadow evil spirit got the illusion that its mind and soul were about to collapse.
It was a shadow, thus it was naturally incomparably terrified of it.
"Your Majesty, do you intend to destroy Xuzhou City?"
"No!"
Looking at that Xuzhou City off in the distance, Chen Huangpi said: "Taking a loss is a blessing, thus wicked people will have endless blessings to suffer. I will not destroy Xuzhou City, but I will sever the soul of this Xuzhou City, rendering it a city bereft of any consciousness."
As he spoke, Chen Huangpi clapped his hands together.
"Magic Tree!!!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
A towering Magic Tree appeared in the human realm once again.
That Magic Tree was incomparably humongous; the trunk alone was as titanic as the Primordial Firmament Tree.
However, this time, the Magic Tree summoned by Chen Huangpi was different from before. Its trunk acted as an arm, and its canopy acted as five fingers.
Chen Huangpi floated in the sky.
To his left was the arm transformed from the Magic Tree, and to his right was the arm of the Headless Yama's shadow.
And now, under Chen Huangpi's manipulation, both of these arms formed a hand seal.
That was the Soul-Slaying seal of the Life-Slaying Sword Formula!
"Song Yuzhang, as a City God, you sat by and watched while cultivators brutalized the commoners like fish and meat on a chopping block, committing monstrous, heinous sins!"
"You transformed into an evil spirit, and even fully knowing that extracting seventy percent of the commoners' human qi was slaughtering them, you disregarded it entirely, blinded by the lust for gain!"
"Your sins are great and your wickedness extreme. If Heaven won't take you, I will take you!"
As Chen Huangpi finished speaking, the Soul-Slaying seal formed by the left hand of the Magic Tree and the right hand of the Headless Yama's shadow erupted with an exceedingly bizarre fluctuation.
The entire world plunged into utter, deathly silence.
Song Yuzhang's divine soul was slain, dying right on the spot.
And because of his death, this Xuzhou City turned into a dead city.
Yet within this dead city, vitality was exuberant, because there were still millions of commoners dragging out an ignoble existence inside it.
Up in the sky, Master's Daoist robe had already tightly and securely wrapped the sun and moon within it by now.
The sun and moon struggled and leapt no more.
Following closely, that Daoist robe dragged the sun and moon along, flying towards the depths of the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Watching this scene, Chen Huangpi made a posture to pursue it.
But right at this moment, an extremely familiar voice rang out.
"Are you contented/comfortable now?"
"Contented..."
Chen Huangpi replied subconsciously, and then he looked toward the direction that voice came from.
That voice came from the sky.
A white-haired old Daoist wearing a black Daoist robe, who nevertheless gave off an extremely wicked and evil aura... was currently standing high above, casting a smiling, condescending gaze downward at Chen Huangpi.
"Huangpi'er, as your Master, I have waited for you for a long time."