Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 58-59: Third Master — Is That You?!

In the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the sun sets last and the moon rises first.

Day yields to night, and yin flows into yang.

Inside the guest quarters.

Song Qiuyue's hands had been fully restored.

Chen Huangpi had locked his black smoke away inside the Kidney Temple — so the sword qi he had used contained not a trace of it, which meant it could not damage Song Qiuyue's true form.

For a Nascent Soul cultivator, so long as the soul is untouched, the physical body is merely a shell.

But the soul is the soul, and the true form is the true form.

The true form is the essential shape of a life.

If the true form is damaged, the life itself changes in accordance with that damage.

In simple terms: if Chen Huangpi had cleaved Song Qiuyue's true form in half, then even if she survived, she would live as two separate halves — unable to grow, unable to rejoin — because whatever her true form looked like, that was what it remained."Leave me."

Song Qiuyue sat inside the room, her heart turned to ash, and when she looked at the cultivators around her she felt only revulsion.

There was no saving her now.

There would never be anyone coming to save her.

Half a day passes in the blink of an eye.

In a little while, that boy — all crooked logic and sinister edge — would come and take her head.

And she was eighteen, nineteen years old.

She was filled with regret, filled with a simmering unwillingness to accept it.

She had glimpsed the road to immortality in Chen Huangpi.

And all she could do was sit and wait for death to arrive.

The cultivators exchanged glances — and saw in each other's eyes nothing but despair.

One by one they retreated from the guest quarters.

They sat down on the ground outside, deflated and hollow.

Out in the world, they were exalted Nascent Soul cultivators, servants of Governor Song Tiangang of Xu Province.

But in this Pure Immortal Temple, Nascent Soul cultivators were everywhere.

And died even faster than ordinary mortals.

At this very moment, inside the alchemy chamber, Chen Huangpi stared at the Heaven Toxin Pill taking its final shape within the Nine Dragons Refining Heaven Furnace — and his heart hammered with excitement.

Then, with a sweep of his hands, he formed the hand seal.

The Nine Dragons Refining Heaven Furnace blew open.

Inside the furnace, a pill the size of two human heads spun and rolled lazily in the light.

Its surface was a murky, churning grey.

An extraordinary fragrance — even richer and more overwhelming than when the pill was only half-formed — billowed out and filled every corner of the room.

Chen Huangpi could not help but say with some pride: "Huang Er, do you smell that? What do you think of my Heaven Toxin Pill?"

"Fragrant — absolutely divine!"

The brass oil lamp took a single sniff and felt saliva flood its mouth.

If it hadn't known this was the Heaven Toxin Pill, it would have been tempted to take a bite.

"Wait a moment…"

The brass oil lamp suddenly realized something was wrong. "Chen Huangpi — didn't you say the Heaven Toxin Pill would be completely colorless and odorless once it was done? You haven't made a mistake, have you?"

At those words, Chen Huangpi froze.

He stared at the massive pill in bewilderment. The whole thing was grey, with a faintly luminous membrane shimmering across its surface — and it had an overwhelming fragrance that was nothing like the "colorless and odorless" the description promised.

"Did I really get it wrong?"

Chen Huangpi pulled out the Seven-Jeweled Esoteric Elixir Scripture and read through it very carefully.

The more he read, the more troubled he became.

The refining steps — fine.

The ingredients — fine.

So what exactly had gone wrong?

The brass oil lamp said: "Stop puzzling over it. It has to be your technique."

"Impossible!"

Chen Huangpi shook his head. "Master refined me the same way I refined this pill. My technique cannot be wrong."

"Actually, there's something I want to ask."

The brass oil lamp said carefully: "Is it possible — just possible — that the technique Guanzhu used to refine you was never an alchemy technique to begin with?"

The truth was, it had been thinking this for a while.

Alchemy was for increasing cultivation, repairing the body, or producing external elixirs like sword-pills or weapon-pills.

Which sounded somewhat plausible.

But did Guanzhu need any of that?

If Guanzhu ever refined pills, it would be with the heavens and earth as the furnace and the sun and moon as the fire — that was the only scale that would even come close to matching him.

So whatever "alchemy technique" he used… was probably just for putting Chen Huangpi through the furnace, and nothing else.

Chen Huangpi and the brass oil lamp understood each other without words.

The realization hit him immediately.

"Huang Er — did I actually get it completely wrong?"

Chen Huangpi was devastated.

"Don't be sad — you can't be wrong."

The brass oil lamp consoled him: "You're an alchemy genius. You have a mastery of the art, an ocean of knowledge, and a library of reading behind you. The bigger the better, big is beautiful, you are the standard."

At those words, Chen Huangpi's face went crimson — he wanted to shove his entire head into the furnace.

His very first attempt at alchemy, and it had ended in such utter failure.

He felt hurt and miserable at the same time.

Hurt because he was apparently not a genius at alchemy at all.

Miserable because without the Heaven Toxin Pill, there was no way to cure his master's madness.

He went out on mountain patrols every day, gathering herbs.

All for the sake of curing his master.

And now it had all come to nothing.

"Huang Er, I'm useless."

Chen Huangpi sat down on the floor and buried his face in his arms.

At that, the brass oil lamp immediately panicked.

"Chen Huangpi, don't be upset."

It couldn't bear to see Chen Huangpi hurt, so it steeled itself and said softly: "Okay, so you're not an alchemy genius, and you don't really know alchemy, and you talk a lot of nonsense and like to show off — but the fact that your very first attempt produced… whatever this is, is actually quite impressive."

"I followed every single step."

Chen Huangpi raised his head, eyes red-rimmed, and said miserably: "Look — I clearly did produce something. It just isn't the Heaven Toxin Pill."

"It could be!"

"The Heaven Toxin Pill doesn't look like this."

"Then you're the standard."

The brass oil lamp said: "You say it's the Heaven Toxin Pill — then it's the Heaven Toxin Pill. Anyone who dares say otherwise, I'll burn alive with true fire."

"Really?"

"Of course. I never lie."

"Thank you, Huang Er. When you burn them, make sure I get to watch — that'll cheer me right up."

After the brass oil lamp's consolation.

Chen Huangpi's spirits lifted considerably.

He stopped being sad and returned to his usual youthful energy.

He stood up, walked over to the two-head-sized grey pill.

Chen Huangpi said: "Huang Er, this thing still counts as a pill, right?"

He might not have made the Heaven Toxin Pill.

But it was definitely some kind of pill.

The brass oil lamp agreed: "It's definitely a pill. We just don't know what it does."

"Do you want to eat a bite and test it?"

Chen Huangpi glanced sideways at the brass oil lamp.

He remembered that earlier the lamp had said it wanted the first taste once the Heaven Toxin Pill was done.

But then he reconsidered and shook his head: "Forget it. Let's just throw it out. Out of sight, out of mind."

"That's decent of you."

The brass oil lamp rolled its eyes.

Who knew what this thing was, anyway.

Loaded with poisons, and mercury, and white lead, and a Hundred-Deaths-No-Rebirth Man grown in the Yellow Springs of the Yin Lands.

Only a fool would eat it.

Though admittedly… it did smell incredible.

And just then.

The door to the alchemy chamber swung open.

The white-robed Daoist priest walked inside with his nose twitching.

Fragrant. Absolutely fragrant!

Even more fragrant than little Huangpi.

This was an overwhelming, commanding kind of fragrance.

One breath of it and the mouth filled with saliva.

"Little Huangpi — what is that thing in the furnace?"

The white-robed Daoist priest stared fixedly at the massive grey pill.

Drool spilled down freely from the corner of his mouth.

Chen Huangpi explained: "Second Master, this is a pill I made — but it came out wrong. I don't know what it actually is."

"Never mind what it is."

The white-robed Daoist priest said with naked greed: "This master is hungry. This master is going to eat it!"

And as he said it, he reached out a hand.

The enormous pill flew into his arms in an instant, and he wrapped himself around it.

"Second Master, that pill might be poisonous — you cannot eat it!"

"Cannot eat it?"

The white-robed Daoist priest paused, then sneered. "Can I truly not eat it?"

"Truly — you cannot."

"Or is it more accurate to say — you don't want this master to eat it?"

"What?"

Chen Huangpi stared, caught off guard.

The white-robed Daoist priest said furiously: "This master knew it. You're on First Master's side — and even more on Third Master's side. This pill smells so good, it has to be something you prepared for them. You don't have this master in your heart at all!"

"Second Master, I do have you in my heart."

"Then will you let this master eat it?"

The white-robed Daoist priest clutched the pill and refused to let go. "If you won't let me, then you don't."

"Aah…"

Chen Huangpi let out a long, heavy sigh. Second Master had already pushed it this far.

What more was there to say?

"Let me try a piece first. If it's poisonous, then Second Master can eat the rest."

At those words, the white-robed Daoist priest broke into a mocking laugh.

There — he knew it. Little Huangpi had gone bad.

Trying to keep the whole thing for himself!

So without another word, the Daoist priest ran his tongue directly across the surface of the pill.

Chen Huangpi stared in shock. "Second Master — what are you doing? If you've done that, how am I supposed to eat any of it?"

"Ha ha ha."

The white-robed Daoist priest cackled: "Little Huangpi — if you ate it all, what would this master have left? Watch and learn. Compared to this master, you're still too green!"

And with that, the white-robed Daoist priest simply opened his mouth wide.

The pill that was bigger than two human heads put together — in front of that gaping mouth, it looked as small as a single grape.

Glug.

The Daoist priest swallowed it whole in one go.

The pill bulged visibly in his stomach.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the bulge was gone.

Chen Huangpi said flatly: "Second Master, how do you feel?"

"Smooth. Didn't stick in the throat."

The white-robed Daoist priest opened his mouth — and threads of grey mist began seeping out, which he immediately inhaled back into his lungs.

But with each breath, the grey mist grew thicker and more plentiful.

In moments, he was practically wreathed in it, puffing clouds with every breath.

"Quite a kick! Not bad at all — this master approves!"

The white-robed Daoist priest laughed three times and stepped out of the alchemy chamber.

Right before he left he couldn't help himself — he inhaled sharply once more, pulling every thread of grey mist back into his mouth.

"Second Master should be all right, it's fine, isn't it?" Chen Huangpi asked anxiously.

The brass oil lamp said: "How could anything happen to Guanzhu? You didn't make the Heaven Toxin Pill. What are you worried about?"

"I have to go see."

……

Outside the alchemy chamber, the white-robed Daoist priest found himself entirely enveloped in grey mist.

"This grey mist — there's a strange smell to it."

The Daoist priest breathed in another lungful and savored it carefully, saying with puzzlement: "If the color weren't wrong, I'd swear this was Third Master's cyan mist."

"Wait — this… this IS Third Master's cyan mist!"

The words had barely left his mouth before the grey mist transformed before his eyes — turning vivid cyan.

BOOM.

A tremendous crack of thunder split the night sky into sheets of silver-white.

Far above the entire Pure Immortal Temple, the sky had somehow taken on two colors: purple and white.

An extreme, overpowering purple. A frenzied, searing white.

In that moment, countless evil spirits — Disasters, and things even beyond Disasters — were exposed beneath that sky of two warring colors.

Every evil spirit quaked.

As if the earth itself were splitting apart.

Chen Huangpi burst out of the alchemy chamber with the brass oil lamp, and the sight that met him made him freeze.

His master's white robe had been completely dyed cyan, his face twisted in a savage grimace, head thrown back in a howl at the sky, his entire body spasming.

BOOM. Thunder rolled through heaven and earth.

Every remnant, every cultivator, the Fox Mountain God — all of them inside the Pure Immortal Temple were drawn out by the sound, stumbling into the open.

And then they were all struck speechless by the spectacle.

What was happening?

Why had the strange old Daoist priest suddenly turned cyan?

Why did the sky over the Hundred Thousand Mountains look like this?

Chen Huangpi paid none of them any mind. He stared at his cyan-drenched master and stammered: "Th-th-th-Third—"

"Gua-gua-gua-Gua—"

The brass oil lamp was also stuttering.

Oh heavens. Was the lamp allowed to keep living?

After Guanzhu went mad, there was the great First Master — and Second Master had already been frightening enough.

And now Third Master had emerged too.

Honestly, rebellion was starting to sound better by the minute.

Chen Huangpi and the brass oil lamp were so shaken they couldn't form a complete sentence.

The cyan-drenched Daoist priest — teeth ground together, face twisted — rasped: "Little Huangpi, this master is your First Master. Seniority cannot be confused!"

"First Master?"

"No no no — that's Second Master! Not First Master!"

A second head suddenly erupted from his neck, shouting frantically: "Third! You can't come out so you try to sneak your way in! Shameless!"

And then both heads turned to look at each other, and simultaneously pointed their faces toward the two-colored sky and inhaled.

The entire sky — like a thin film of oil floating on a pot — was sucked into both their mouths at once.

Then the Daoist priest — two heads, body completely dyed cyan — opened both pairs of eyes wide, kicked both feet to the ground, went completely rigid, and toppled straight over backwards.

The brass oil lamp stared, struggling to form words: "Chen Huangpi — am I hallucinating? You — you—"

"You actually knocked Guanzhu out with a pill!"