Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 170: Secret of the Dao Lord

In the back mountain of the Pure Immortal Temple.

It was currently evening time.

Chen Huangpi was currently picking vegetables in the vegetable garden.

As he picked vegetables, he casually tossed them over his shoulder.

The Brass Oil Lamp, which had grown out over a dozen slender arms, caught them from behind.

It was almost nighttime, so naturally they had to cook a meal to eat.

Chen Huangpi was somewhat unhappy: "The Evil Daoist is Master! But Master stubbornly refuses to admit it. Yet I already know! Next time I see the Evil Daoist, I must definitely expose his true colors."

The Brass Oil Lamp pinched a radish to death.

And then casually stated: "You only just found out, but I already guessed it previously. The Guanzhu said even if you went to the outside world, he would still be able to see you. At that time, I felt that perhaps there was another Guanzhu on the outside."

"You see, the Evil Daoist is exactly him.""He constantly professes with his mouth that he wants to eat you, yet isn't he still wholeheartedly teaching you?"

Chen Huangpi said in displeasure: "But he still seized a drop of my blood, as well as the High God of Broad Vision."

The Brass Oil Lamp said: "The High God of Broad Vision is the last deity of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and perhaps even the final deity of the outside world. For the Evil Daoist to act this way, he is absolutely acting upon his venerable self's considerations; set your heart completely at ease."

"Besides, the Evil Daoist didn't kill the High God of Broad Vision; he merely transformed it back into an evil spirit, that's all."

"Then what exactly is the Evil Daoist intending to do?"

Chen Huangpi puzzled over this, unable to find an answer despite a hundred attempts.

If one said the Evil Daoist treated him well, then why seize a drop of his blood?

If one said he treated him badly, aside from this single matter, the Evil Daoist genuinely hadn't done anything else. He hadn't even killed the High God of Broad Vision.

One must realize, ever since this Evil Daoist appeared, he had been running everywhere within the Hundred Thousand Mountains devouring deities.

Logically speaking, he ought not to have spared the High God of Broad Vision.

"Brother, I actually have some thoughts."

The Brass Oil Lamp speculated: "The Guanzhu cannot leave the Hundred Thousand Mountains, because the Hundred Thousand Mountains is the heaven and earth of the old era, and the dead Azure Heaven is also inside the Old Temple. But the Evil Daoist is different—he is the Guanzhu from someone else's memory."

"Right, what was the Guanzhu's name again?"

"Master takes my surname; his name is Chen Shidao. But even if I tell you, you won't remember it."

"That's true."

The Brass Oil Lamp walked in front of Chen Huangpi, saying with profound meaning: "The Evil Daoist is the Guanzhu, yet also not the Guanzhu, therefore he is able to manifest in the outside world. I suspect the Guanzhu is playing a massive game of chess, and all the existences of the outside world are pieces within this game."

"That drop of your blood might perhaps have a massive use."

Chen Huangpi looked at the Brass Oil Lamp as if looking at an idiot: "Do I need you to tell me this? Master said someone in the outside world wants to kill me, and the entire heaven and earth targets me. If he isn't plotting against the outside world, could it possibly be he is plotting against me?"

"That might not necessarily be true."

The Brass Oil Lamp ticked off on its fingers: "If the Guanzhu plots so much, if it's not for you, why go through such massive trouble? You are absolutely the most crucial piece in this game."

Chen Huangpi stated: "I don't think so."

If Master intended to plot against him.

There was fundamentally no need to be this troublesome; he could just directly tell him so.

"Regardless of whether Master is mad or not, he always loves speaking of profound and abstruse things. Every time, he never explains clearly, running away after a few words, or going mad after a few words. I suspect Master isn't truly mad at all."

Whenever Chen Huangpi brought up this matter, he felt very irritated in his heart.

Previously, when he couldn't cultivate and had experienced very few things, he only knew Master was omnipotent, but lacked a concrete concept of exactly what omnipotent meant.

But now it was different.

Chen Huangpi had experienced far too many things.

The so-called Dao Lord—achieving confirmation once confirms it for eternity. Where there are words, there must be knowledge. Even if one learns their name, one will instantly forget it, incapable of even sketching their portrait.

Unless they wish for you to know.

How could an existence this powerful simply go mad just by saying so?

However, the Brass Oil Lamp said in despondence: "Chen Huangpi, the Guanzhu isn't mad; he is dead."

With a 'bang'.

Chen Huangpi delivered a punch that caused the Brass Oil Lamp's eyes to bulge out viciously.

He ground his teeth and gritted: "Master isn't dead! Just mad!"

The Brass Oil Lamp roared in fury: "Surnamed Chen, you sneak attacked me again! The Guanzhu is dead; you don't understand, but I do!"

What the Guanzhu merged his Dao with was the old era's Azure Heaven.

The Azure Heaven was already dead, and moreover had mutated into an evil spirit.

It was being suppressed exactly within the Old Temple.

A problem had arisen with the Guanzhu a long time ago. The reason he could occasionally regain lucidity now was purely because he couldn't set his heart at ease regarding Chen Huangpi, and therefore was stubbornly holding on. Once Chen Huangpi reached eighteen years of age, the Guanzhu would absolutely die.

Chen Huangpi's eyes turned red: "I said it, Master isn't dead! Even if you die..."

"So what if I die!?"

The Brass Oil Lamp bellowed: "Chen Huangpi, I've tolerated you for a long time! Hurry up and nullify the Dog Rearing Scripture, or hand over the upper volume to me, otherwise you and I shall sever all kindness and righteousness!"

"Fine, I'll nullify the Dog Rearing Scripture with you right now!"

Chen Huangpi sat cross-legged on the ground, his both eyes tightly shut, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

Inside his body, the Dog Rearing Scripture circulated unceasingly at this moment.

The Dog Rearing Scripture inside the Brass Oil Lamp was similarly doing the same.

This greatly shocked it.

Because it felt the influence of the Dog Rearing Scripture upon itself disappearing.

And growing increasingly weak.

The next second.

The long-lost feeling of freedom and unhindered ease surged once more into the heart of the Brass Oil Lamp.

It said in disbelief: "Surnamed Chen, you truly nullified the Dog Rearing Scripture with me!?"

Chen Huangpi paid it no mind, merely standing up and continuing to pick vegetables.

"You are free now; you can leave. I do not wish to hear you speak such words, because it makes me very uncomfortable, and I do not like this feeling."

Parting in life, separating by death—this was not his true desire.

The Brass Oil Lamp's words might perhaps be correct.

But Chen Huangpi didn't want to hear them.

He even nullified the Dog Rearing Scripture, entirely no longer knowing the thoughts inside the Brass Oil Lamp's heart.

"Chen Huangpi, brother, good friend."

The Brass Oil Lamp couldn't help but say: "It was my fault; I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. You know me, over all these years we haven't lacked bickering and mutually beating each other. But I am also your family. I won't say such things in the future."

Chen Huangpi remained silent, saying nothing.

This made the Brass Oil Lamp even more dejected. It shuffled in front of Chen Huangpi and said: "Didn't the Evil Daoist tell us to find the fishing rod? And you also guessed that fishing rod is in a certain river. Let's go find the fishing rod together, alright?"

"I'll go find it."

Chen Huangpi said in a low voice: "Beloved Minister Yang is still waiting for me in the outside world. After I find the fishing rod, I need to fish Xuzhou City into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. The Evil Daoist said doing this can save the Azure Heaven."

Master had merged his Dao with the already-dead Azure Heaven.

If doing this could save the Azure Heaven, it also meant Master could likewise be saved.

Moreover, the Evil Daoist also mentioned that when the time came, the old era's heaven and earth—which is the Hundred Thousand Mountains—would undergo incredibly bizarre and wondrous changes.

Although Chen Huangpi detested how the Evil Daoist refused to speak clearly.

Making him guess everything himself.

But Master indeed possessed a fishing rod.

The first time he met Master, Master was fishing by a stream in the Celestial Realm. That fishing rod was perhaps also an extremely powerful, weighty treasure; fishing up a city would certainly be effortless and easy.

The Brass Oil Lamp asked Chen Huangpi: "When are you planning to set out?"

Chen Huangpi replied: "First thing tomorrow morning."

The Brass Oil Lamp offered: "I'll go with you!?"

Chen Huangpi cast a glancing look at it, snorting coldly: "I have A Gui and the Fox Mountain God; why should I bring you?"

The Brass Oil Lamp said helplessly: "Without me illuminating the path home for you, you won't be able to find your direction. Besides, aren't you going to retrieve Chi Xie from the Old Temple?"

Chen Huangpi explained: "My Liver Temple is forged. If I go collect it right now, then I'll lose a method of handling enemies. It is exactly when there is no deity presiding in the Liver Temple that I am at my most powerful."

"I will go collect Chi Xie after I move Xuzhou City into the Hundred Thousand Mountains."

"When that time comes, I don't plan to go out again for a short while. I'll wait until my Heart Temple is mostly refined before I seek the next deity, then rinse and repeat until I've completely mastered the Five Viscera Spirit Refining Art."

"Then what about your Six Yin Deities?"

The Brass Oil Lamp asked: "Your Six Yin Deities are already forged; you are only lacking in finding the place where the moon sets to release the Six Yin Deities."

"The sun and moon in the outside world are both gone."

Chen Huangpi said helplessly: "Even if I wanted to release the Six Yin Deities, I currently cannot. Moreover, Second Master never told me exactly where the final place the moon sets is; not a single word from Second Master's mouth is truth."

People were divided into good people and bad people.

Master was also divided into extremely bad, moderately bad, and slightly bad.

Third Master loved using his fists to reason with him; Third Master was extremely bad.

Second Master ate the words he spoke on a whim, entirely unreasonable; he was moderately bad.

Although First Master often dodged the question and spoke of unrelated matters, he told him something every time; he could be considered slightly bad.

Only the Evil Daoist.

The Evil Daoist was the baddest of them all!

...

In the outside world.

It was currently evening.

But it was still pitch-black here.

The sun and moon had vanished. Apart from lantern fires and lamplight, the entire world lacked even half a speck of brilliance to be seen.

The sky was black—an incredibly hollow, empty kind of black.

Previously, the sun and moon shared the sky; the Yang Extreme manifested in the world.

The entire outside world saw it clearly.

Some existences who knew what this Yang Extreme signified were already unbearably excited.

But nobody expected that the Yang Extreme would merely manifest for a brief moment before being engulfed and taken away by a cyan-black Daoist robe.

In the West Region Buddha Kingdom.

Atop that massive mountain range.

There lay an expanse of temples cast from pure gold.

Enshrined within the temples were Buddha statues of various disparate forms.

Looking left and right, all the Buddha statues lacked heads, leaving only their bodies.

At the highest seat of honor sat two golden Buddhas.

Those two golden Buddhas sat cross-legged upon lotus platforms cast of gold, with a swastika (卍) upon each of their chests.

This was the West Region Buddha Kingdom, or rather, the most central location of the Middle-earth Buddha Kingdom.

This mountain was named the Three Bodies Ten Thousand Buddhas Great Enlightenment Holy Mountain.

This temple was named the Three Bodies Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple.

Of these three leading Triple Body Buddhas, the one on the farthest left covered its eyes with both hands, the one on the right covered its ears with both hands, while the position in the middle was empty, as if that one had disappeared a long time ago.

It was just that their Buddha heads were similarly severed.

The magnificent, monumental voice heard previously by the worshipping monks outside the Holy Mountain was precisely the voice of the Triple Body Buddha on the farthest left.

Right now, this Buddha's voice murmured within the main hall: "Seventeen thousand four hundred years... still short by over five hundred years, so that one severed the Yang Extreme. Yet this also signifies that the Yellow Heaven is nearing manifestation."

"That one ought to have merged his Dao with the Yellow Heaven, yet instead he merged his Dao with the dead Azure Heaven. Whether in the previous era, the era before that, or from ancient times until now, there has never been a Dao Lord with such a short lifespan."

This Buddha was exceedingly ancient.

An expert from before the Heaven and Earth Mutation, or rather, the Azure Heaven Era era.

It knew a great deal, because the era prior to the Azure Heaven Era was the Verdant Heaven Era, and there were even earlier ones.

During those times, every era would possess a Dao Lord, and there could only be a single Dao Lord.

When an era ended.

A Dao Lord unwilling to perish along with the heaven and earth would execute self-severance (Dao Slashing), leaping out of this expanse of heaven and earth to wait for the new heaven to manifest before merging his Dao with the new heaven once more.

Of course, after the new heaven manifested, it naturally would instinctively loathe a Dao Lord from the old era.

Moreover, when a new heaven manifests, the cultivation methods and the so-called Dao would all be different.

A self-severed Dao Lord from the old era was no longer a Dao Lord, but would oppositely be treated as a heretical anomaly. They needed to cultivate from scratch before having a chance to merge with the Dao.

But the Azure Heaven Era was different. This era was a great tribulation. All existences near the Dao would not choose to merge with the Dao. Of course, it wasn't that they didn't want to, but primarily because there was an existence who was far too close to the Dao.

A True Immortal at thirteen years old.

And then a new realm every year. There were many whose cultivation realms were once on par with that one, or whose cultivation speed was even faster, but none could suppress the momentum of that existence. They could only gaze up at his back.

Some even suspected that even without merging with the Dao, this existence might not be too much weaker than a Dao Lord.

But that was merely speculation.

Because prior to the Heaven and Earth Mutation, that one from beginning to end never merged with the Dao.

All experts felt that one would definitely wait until the Heaven and Earth Mutation ended before merging with the newly born Yellow Heaven.

But now, that one's Daoist robe suddenly manifested and seized the sun, moon, and the Yang Extreme.

This inherently signified that this existence had definitively already merged his Dao with the Azure Heaven and become a Dao Lord; otherwise, how could the rules of heaven and earth be altered by him on a mere whim?

It was just that this Buddha truly couldn't wrap its head around it.

That existence clearly only needed to wait eighteen thousand years to merge his Dao with the Yellow Heaven, and the newborn Yellow Heaven would last for an entirely complete era. Why choose to merge with the Azure Heaven instead?

An eighteen-thousand-year Dao Lord...

Too short...

This Buddha couldn't comprehend it, yet was unwilling to continue pondering deeper into it.

Because it was precisely because it thought too much back then that its head was chopped off.

Having its head chopped off was considered lucky.

Some Buddhas didn't even have bodies left.

With this thought, this Buddha gazed faintly at the center position. Originally, there was another Buddha there, who ran away into the Hundred Thousand Mountains during the Heaven and Earth Mutation to find that existence, resulting in this position remaining empty up until now.