Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 183: Huangpi the Great Evil Spirit

"Quick! Flee quickly!"

"Bodhisattva save me! Lord Buddha save me!"

"Don't come over! Don't come over!"

Under the scorching sun in the sky, terrified wails reverberated through the clouds.

Ever since entering this immensely dilapidated village, these two monks had already raised their vigilance to ten thousand degrees. Yet even in their wildest dreams, they never expected that despite being so careful, they still—for completely unknown reasons—provoked a terrifying entity.

That entity was incredibly eerie and bizarre.

Standing eight feet tall, its entire body was covered in cracks, resembling a clay idol that had dried and cracked after being overexposed to the scorching sun.

Yet its entire body presented a bizarre dark-brown coloration.

Merely casting a single glance at it, one's ears seemingly heard the despairing roars of countless gods and demons.

As if this bizarre clay idol fed upon gods and demons.Rustle, rustle, rustle...

A sound akin to withered, dried leaves being blown by the wind resounded.

The complexions of these two monks suffered an instantaneous, monumental change.

"Split up and flee!"

These two monks each transformed into a streak of escaping light (遁光), fleeing separately toward the left and right.

Merely, possessing just flown out.

These two despairingly retreated back.

Because on the left and right sides respectively, two ghost things came hunting them down.

Of those two ghost things, the one on the left was a skeletal frame. Hanging upon the skeletal frame were heads one after another. Those heads possessed males and females, old and young, and even possessed deities and evil spirits. The eyes of this skeleton monster were continuously spewing out fresh blood. The moment the fresh blood dripped upon the ground, it instantly transformed into tiny miniature people.

The tiny people giggled/chuckled chi chi chi, chasing closely behind that skeleton monster.

Whereas the one on the right, was a monster possessing the head of a beast, the head of a human, the head of a sheep, and even composed of various profoundly strange and bizarre things. Beneath the abdomen of that monster existed legs, exactly like a centipede. Furthermore, its abdomen bulged to the absolute utmost extremes; faintly, one could even behold faces struggling, seemingly desiring to drill out from within.

These two monsters seemed to recognize each other. While forcing the two monks backward, they even emitted bone-chilling sounds.

That sound resembled the murmurs of vicious ghosts from the Yin realm.

Brimming with intense, overpowering malice.

The two monks exchanged glances, both consecutively revealing despairing, miserable smiles.

And then, without prior consultation/in tacit agreement, both sat down cross-legged.

Beholding their palms press together in a praying gesture.

The Buddhist shrines carried upon their backs trembled slightly, and then subsequently lacked any further changes whatsoever.

Within these Buddhist shrines, respectively resided an Arhat.

Inherently, Arhats and deities held zero difference. The former was a deity of the Buddhist school, the latter a deity of the Daoist school.

Deities possessed the capability to shelter mortals.

"Honored Shembi, Honored Great Cave Awakening, we beg You to bestow Your shelter upon us."

The two monks continuously recited scriptures, pleading endlessly within their hearts.

However, these two Arhats were incredibly infuriated.

Residing within the Buddhist shrines, although their power received reinforcement/blessing, the skeletal monster outside, as well as that thing seemingly reincarnated from a starved ghost, were fundamentally not entities they possessed the capability to contend against.

Merely that sheer imposing might; the aura of deep gloom and supreme malice leaking from between their every gesture and movement, caused the Arhats' guts to tremble with sheer terror.

"You and I are not their match."

"Go seek out the Crosser of Torments! Go invite the Bodhisattva to strike!"

The two Arhats exchanged thoughts within their minds, and instantly leapt directly out from within the Buddhist shrines.

The monks were overjoyed: "Honored Ones, save us!"

"Temporarily hugging the Buddha's foot at the very last moment; your hearts lack sincerity!"

"And you, you identically are just so!"

Following the descent of the words of the two Arhats.

The expressions of those two monks instantaneously turned completely blank and hazed over. Uncontrollably, they charged straight toward the two monsters to kill.

"My Buddha is merciful!"

"Subdue Demons and Vanquish Devils!"

The monks burned their own life force/vitality, actually erupting forth with an incredibly brilliant and dazzling grand light.

Yet those two Arhats didn't even spare them a single fleeting glance.

Directly fleeing back toward the direction they initially arrived from.

In that instant, the monks completely despaired.

Ever since stepping through the gates of Buddhism, they had worshipped and offered tribute to the Buddhas within their temples day and night.

Yet now, confronted with a monumental tribulation, the sole two Honored Arhats capable of intervening to save them actually forcefully bewildered their minds, shoving them out to die merely to buy time for the Arhats' own escape.

Biasly, they even lacked the capacity to refuse.

Across the entire West Region Buddha Kingdom, from top to bottom, from ancient times to present, the fervent belief and faith toward Buddha were etched deeply into their very bones.

The water they drank, the food they ate, and even the air they breathed, all belonged to the temples.

Belonged to Buddha.

However, exactly during this moment.

That bizarre and eerie 'rustle, rustle, rustle...' sound resonated again.

Puchi...

Puchi...

That was the sound of blood and flesh being pierced completely through.

Arhat Shembi lowered his head for a single glance.

Beholding a withered, sharply pointed tree branch piercing completely through his own chest. That tree branch seemed to possess a life of its own, ceaselessly devouring the fresh blood, Dharmic power, and even the divine soul contained within his body.

Looking slightly further away.

Arhat Great Cave Awakening was in an even more miserable and tragic state.

A tree branch stabbed in directly from the crown of his head. That fundamentally indestructible head of an Arhat proved to be exactly as useless and flimsy as paper-mache.

This Arhat's eyes rolled backward, losing his sentience and consciousness.

Yet his physical body continuously twisted and trembled vehemently. Upon the surface of his skin, there were even black objects ceaselessly crawling and slithering around.

Those weren't his meridians; it was the tree branch taking root and sprouting within his body.

"No wonder I felt an unbearable, bizarre itch."

Arhat Shembi let out a miserable, tragic smile, unwillingly swallowing his final breath.

But even in death, his eyes refused to close, instead bulging so wide they seemed almost practically ready to pop out their sockets.

In the succeeding second.

A bizarre, eerie silhouette appeared directly within his pupils.

That silhouette stood roughly eight feet tall, its entire body wholly covered in densely packed fissures; looking exactly like a clay idol of a deity that cracked entirely open on the spot after being exposed to baking sun and subsequently enduring a torrential downpour.

This clay-idol silhouette was draped in a pitch-black garment.

That garment seemingly resembled a cape, yet also resembled a rain cloak (蓑衣).

A stench of blood so pungently overpowering it induced vomiting seeped and wafted directly out from that black garment.

That stench of blood condensed together; faintly, faces seemingly god-like yet simultaneously demon-like manifested outward, roaring up toward the heavens in pure agony.

What was even more bizarre and eerie was...

Hanging from the abdomen of this clay-idol monster were two palm-sized miniature temples.

Chen Huangpi walked to the front of Arhat Shembi's corpse, seriously and attentively staring into the opponent's eyes.

From within the opponent's eyes, he beheld his own exact appearance at this very moment.

"Huang Er, my guess was right exactly as expected."

Chen Huangpi said: "To them, we similarly are also the evil spirits."

The Brass Oil Lamp offered zero response.

Because it was pondering over exactly what the hell was going on with this damnable place.

At this moment time, the Life-reaping Ghost and Golden Horn also walked over, carrying those two monks.

"Contract Master, these two monks were incredibly fierce."

"If it wasn't for those Arhats initiating separation from them, I'm afraid capturing them wouldn't have been this easy."

Within the eyes of the Life-reaping Ghost and Golden Horn, these two monks possessed severely bloated physiques, their bodies completely covered in purulent abscesses. The pus within those abscesses continuously seeped outward, unleashing a heaven-reeking foul stench.

Furthermore, these two monks had continuously been roaring like maniacs entirely gone mad, chanting incredibly obscure/gloomy and malevolent Buddhist incantations.

Looking at this scene.

Instantly, an indescribable sense of utter absurdity manifested within Chen Huangpi's heart.

The strengths and capabilities of the Life-reaping Ghost and Golden Horn currently had long since fundamentally exceeded general Calamity-level entities.

Whereas these two monks merely possessed the equivalent of Nascent Soul realm cultivation, nothing more.

Even those two Arhats; if it truly escalated into a fight, the Life-reaping Ghost possessed the capacity to comfortably obliterate them.

But this place was truly far too evil and bizarre.

Chen Huangpi and their night, constituted the daytime of these monks.

Between night and day seemingly existed a mirror. Whether one stood within the night or within the day, the objects they witnessed would be entirely, wholly different.

The monks beheld a dilapidated, ruined village; beheld a scorching sun high in the sky; beheld brutal/ferocious and vicious evil spirits.

What Chen Huangpi beheld, was a bleak, desolate, dead-silent Evil-Suppressing Village.

As well as identically fiercely vicious Monk Evil Spirits, Arhat Evil Spirits.

"I seem to understand."

The Brass Oil Lamp suddenly spoke up out of nowhere: "We are all living beings of the Old Heaven and Earth. Yet these people are beings born of the Current Heaven and Earth. Fundamentally, we are not of the same kind."

"And this damnable place, definitely possesses some specific kind of power capable of filtering/separating us from them."

"Therefore they fell into the daytime; we fell into the night."

"That Tai Yizi is identical to us; all living beings of the Old Heaven and Earth. Consequently, within his eyes, these monks are precisely the evil spirits; exactly the demons and devils."

Hearing the Brass Oil Lamp's words.

Chen Huangpi spoke, seemingly deep in thought: "So we can solely see them during the night, and they can solely see us during the day. But why do the methods/techniques they display also undergo a corresponding transformation?"

Those two monks were presently still struggling vehemently.

"Spare my life! Spare my life!"

"Senior Brother, exactly what do these evil spirits desire to do!?"

"Don't speak! That clay-idol evil spirit has continuously been staring straight at us!"

The two monks shrunk their heads entirely into their garments, utterly lacking the courage to engage in eye contact with this clay-idol monster located right before their eyes.

The two temples hanging upon the waist of that monster were supremely, unimaginably evil and malevolent.

Furthermore, pasted upon the door of one of those temples was a sheet of yellow paper, written upon which actually existed two bizarre and strange characters. Although unaware of what meaning those characters held, yet for some unknown reason, merely casting a single glance triggered an urge, a driving impulse to burrow directly into this temple.

"Seal Water!" (封水)

Chen Huangpi stated in a low voice: "Those two characters are read as 'Seal Water'."

In the eyes of these monks, he himself was precisely that clay idol monster.

His waist hanging specifically two puny temples.

Of those temples, one was pasted with a yellow talisman. The four corners of the yellow talisman held flesh and blood patterned lines; while precisely upon the center of the talisman paper were written the two characters 'Seal Water'. That represented the Kidney Temple, because the kidneys correspond to water.

As for the doors of the Liver Temple, there oppositely existed absolutely zero yellow talisman pasted upon it.

Chen Huangpi clearly understood; that was because although his Liver Temple had already completed forging, yet in reality, he still hadn't invited a deity to move within. If inviting a deity proved successful, his own liver would vanish, superseded entirely by the Liver Temple.

By that time, within the vision of these people looking at his self, yellow paper would conversely emerge upon that Liver Temple.

The vanished organ inherently constituted the yellow talisman paper.

This wasn't something Chen Huangpi spotted from the full manual of the Five Viscera Spirit Refining Art, rather it was a guess derived observing precisely the flesh and blood patterned lines upon the yellow paper of the Kidney Temple.

Because those flesh and blood patterned lines, were exactly identical matching the internal patterned lines of a human kidney after being sliced completely open.

"This yellow paper, I am incapable of seeing."

Chen Huangpi secretly figured within his heart: "Perhaps it's exactly the existence of this yellow paper that prevents the black smoke inside my Kidney Temple from exiting. Also... the 'me' existing within their eyes, could I genuinely, truly be pinched and molded entirely out of mud!?"

Although he had long since known his own physical body was incredibly peculiar and extraordinary.

But everything presently occurring before his eyes, could already no longer be described using merely the words 'peculiar' or 'extraordinary'.

At the very least, previously Chen Huangpi at most possessed black smoke wafting out from his body, grew an Evil Eye, and occasionally had characters resembling flowers, birds, fish, and insects emerging outward. Aside from those, he was entirely no different from an ordinary person.

Right now it was grand; within the eyes of those monks, he absolutely didn't even retain a human semblance.

Merely an out-and-out clay-idol monster.

"Could it possibly be Master genuinely utilized the method of creating gods, to forge a physical shell explicitly for me?"

Chen Huangpi stared at his own two hands, his tone incredibly complex as he stated: "If it is truly thus, then where exact is my true body? Chi Xie stated in the past he killed his way from the Small Scarlet Heaven all the way to the Hundred Thousand Mountains; entirely for the sake of seizing the 'me' that still resided as an egg."

"At that time, I seemingly was stationed upon that sacrificial altar."

"Later on, that sacrificial altar plunged completely into the abyss. Could my true body possibly be located within that place!?"

"Original Family, your heart is in chaos."

The Brass Oil Lamp suddenly stated: "We arrived at this place for the sake of seeking out the fishing rod. After locating it, we will immediately depart; completely pay zero heed to any other affairs."

It wasn't a matter of paying zero heed.

Rather, lacking entirely the capacity and strength to pay heed.

Even within the Underworld Yellow Spring, the Brass Oil Lamp had never felt more lacking in confidence than it did right now.

Right now, it simply desired to hastily execute an exit from this damnable place.

Sparing itself from encountering further highly bizarre and eerie affairs.

And right exactly at this moment.

Suddenly.

A familiar voice resounded.

"Audacious demonic monsters! Daring to continuously brew mischief underneath the broad daylight!"

The Crosser of Torments' beard and hair flared outward, glaring furiously directly at these four evil spirits before his eyes.

Particularly that specific evil spirit seeming to be pinched out of mud.

This evil spirit had ceaselessly been staring fixatedly at those two monks, continually chanting profoundly obscure and malevolent decadent murmurs.

Seemingly intent on completely polluting those monks.

The Crosser of Torments heavily waved his grand hand; the illusory silhouette of an honored Bodhisattva manifested directly behind his back.

Ever since his birth, this respected Bodhisattva existed residing inside his body.

Therefore, that Bodhisattva and he inherently practically shared a relationship of sharing life and death; naturally he was entirely capable of borrowing its full power.

Chen Huangpi cast a brief glance toward the Crosser of Torments.

Within His eyes.

This Crosser of Torments at this precise moment constituted one gargantuan flesh and blood lotus seat.

And upon that flesh and blood lotus seat, sat cross-legged the true body of an honored Bodhisattva possessing a thousand hands and a thousand faces, its entire body flawlessly pure and unmarred, resembling fine jade porcelain.

However, the center of the brow on that Bodhisattva's true body was utterly hollow; one could visibly notice something wriggling ceaselessly deeply inside.

"If not for the fact this place is bizarre and eerie, you wouldn't even possess the qualifications to die directly under my hands."

Chen Huangpi faintly shook his head; countless numbers of Evil Eyes opened abruptly across his entirety.

Following closely behind, his entire being vaulted directly into the air.

A towering Magic Tree manifested right beneath his feet, hoisting his entire being directly up to the tallest heights within the night.

Upon the Magic Tree, identically existed Evil Eyes completely covering it.

The current Magic Tree was already steadily undergoing a metamorphosis scaling directly toward the level of Misfortune (厄难).

Supplemented additionally by the power of the Evil Eyes, Chen Huangpi didn't even require utilizing the Shadow of Yama, and remained entirely capable of contending entirely against this Crosser of Torments.

And within the eyes of that Crosser of Torments.

This clay-idol evil spirit draped in black garments positioned right before his eyes was truly far too incredibly eerie and bizarre.

That evil spirit's waist hung two temples. One pasted with a yellow talisman, one lacking. Yet originating directly from within that temple sporting the yellow talisman, extended fully lacquer-black tree branches baring their fangs and brandishing their claws outwards. Meanwhile the other temple's main doors swung wide open, and purely blue-black Evil Eyes surged vehemently out.

Both of these objects universally caused that clay-idol evil spirit to morph into an even more profoundly terrifying and horrific entity.

Furthermore, within the mouth of this evil spirit additionally murmured a demonic voice compelling anyone desiring to lose their sanity and go mad.

It seemingly was saying something towards him.

But those words were far too profoundly obscure, fundamentally entirely incomprehensible, and utterly unallowable to even listen to.

"Join me in forming seals! Deliver/purify these Demons and Devils!"

The Crosser of Torments sat cross-legged squarely upon the ground, the palms of his hands clasped firmly together. Faintly there gleamed golden light flickering from within, nestled directly within that golden light further existed an all-illuminating swastika (卍) character.

Directly toward his rear.

Those remaining surviving monks had, at some unknown point in time, already scrambled over here.

Each and every single one consecutively sat cross-legged right upon the ground, uniformly commencing to recite Buddhist scriptures.

Even those Arhats housed within the Buddhist shrines similarly uniformly manifested their true bodies, collectively appending their power squarely upon the body of that Bodhisattva.

It wasn't that they desired to stand against this clay-idol evil spirit.

Rather, evil spirits inherently intrinsically possessed the explicit purpose of devouring humanity. They were humans; naturally they possessed zero avenues whatsoever to evade.

Chen Huangpi stared precisely down upon these numerous evil spirits, stating coldly: "A Gui, by entirely devouring the divine souls of these monks and Arhats here, are you capable of successfully morphing scaling up into Misfortune (厄难)?"

The Life-reaping Ghost replied: "Naturally, it is absolutely possible."

"Good!"

Chen Huangpi brought his fingers together into a sword gesture.

Following closely subsequent to this, the respective branches of the Magic Tree beneath him snapped violently ram-rod straight, precisely identical to immensely sharp swords.

"Kill, kill, kill! Slash, slash, slash!"

Tremendously sharp and purely slaughter-intent brimming arcs of sword qi poured down exactly resembling a meteor shower, killing straight down precisely onto the Crosser of Torments and his cohort.

That was the Grand Sui Demon-Slaying Sword Qi.

Chen Huangpi solely comprehended exactly this single move of sword arts.

It identically constituted the absolute strongest pinnacle degree of sword qi he possessed the capability to slash out strictly without utilizing the Void-Piercing Sword, nor relying upon any external power entirely whatsoever.

And yet within a certain singular house inside this very village.

A voice laced heavily with sheer absolute astonishment abruptly rang out.

"Who exactly is utilizing the Grand Sui Demon-Slaying!?"