Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 70: The Evil Buddha Head

Chen Huangpi was moving so fast his form blurred.

He clung to the brass oil lamp and refused to let go, even as the evil spirits inside the cyan mist yanked them both forward with brute force.

"There's more than one evil spirit."

The brass oil lamp shrieked out loud.

Of the sixteen arms it had extended to probe ahead, eight had been caught and seized all at once. All of them pulling in different directions at the same time — left one second, right the next, up, down, and every angle in between. If the materials from which the brass oil lamp was made weren't so extraordinary, it would have been torn apart already.

"Let go, let go of me!"

"I can't."

Chen Huangpi stared forward with killing intent in both eyes. The dried branch in his hand flickered with an unnatural dead-grey light, the savage, malevolent sword qi pulsing stronger and stronger. He had channeled roughly thirty percent of the power drawn from the Demon Tree into a single strike.

An ordinary evil spirit touched by this would die.

But that sword strike was not aimed at the spirits dragging the brass oil lamp. It was aimed at the creature behind him — the monster made of countless arms.The cyan mist blocked his line of sight. He couldn't see it. And now their positions had been completely scrambled. He didn't even know where it was — only that it hadn't been shaken off, and it was still right behind them.

"Where are you?!"

Chen Huangpi's gaze swept back and forth, searching for the creature.

That creature was an evil spirit assembled from the countless severed arms of Xu Qingshan. It could wield techniques from the Pure Immortal Temple. Life-Slaying Sword Formula — Soul-Slaying.

He had only needed one glance to understand it — just as he had understood the Dog Rearing Scripture and the Grand Duke Demon Slaying technique, those arts from before the Heaven and Earth Mutation, at a glance and in full. But the severed arms had only formed the opening stance of Soul-Slaying before Chen Huangpi had been dragged into the cyan mist. He hadn't learned it yet.

If he could learn it, he'd have one more technique in his arsenal.

And just at that moment.

The brass oil lamp suddenly let out a wail.

"AAAGH!"

Immediately after, Chen Huangpi felt an enormous force launch both him and the lamp straight upward.

The other seven unknown evil spirits hadn't had time to react.

They were left behind in an instant.

The next second.

The cyan mist ahead of them shattered and scattered.

Chen Huangpi took one look.

His heart nearly burst with shock.

He was looking at a head.

An enormous head — larger than the main hall of the Pure Immortal Temple.

It was tilted sideways. Its scalp was covered entirely in black fleshy growths, crowding together so densely they looked like a hood pulled over it. The head had been severed at the neck. The wound was still bleeding freely, as if it had been chopped off by a sharp blade not long ago.

And what was stranger still — this head was a magnified version of a human face, complete with eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. At this moment, that enormous head opened wide and extended a blood-red tongue, the tongue stretching out endlessly, wrapped around one of the brass oil lamp's arms and yanking hard.

"The Evil Buddha!"

The brass oil lamp named it, and then said in terror: "Chen Huangpi — let go of me! Or it'll eat you too!"

"Hurry — let go!"

As it spoke, the brass oil lamp even spat true flames directly at Chen Huangpi, trying to scorch him into releasing his grip.

"Huang Er?"

Chen Huangpi couldn't believe it — even at a moment like this, the lamp's first instinct was to attack him.

Had it been possessed by this so-called Evil Buddha Head?

If so — why hadn't he been?

"Cut it!"

Chen Huangpi erupted in fury — killing intent rising in every direction. His rage was fiercer than true fire.

Gripping the Demon Tree's dried branch, without a moment's thought, he brought it down on the Evil Buddha Head.

Dead-grey sword qi slammed directly into its face.

But it was useless.

The sword qi struck the Evil Buddha Head like a pebble thrown into an ocean — no: worse than that. A pebble would at least make a splash and ripple the surface. The moment his sword qi made contact with it — it vanished without a trace. Absorbed completely.

"How is this possible?"

Chen Huangpi couldn't believe what he was seeing. This sword qi was infused with Demon Tree power — even without the black smoke mixed in, it was still not weak. And he had pumped in even more force just to be safe. An ordinary evil spirit hit by this would die. Even a Disaster-class being wouldn't walk away unscathed. Even the Demon Tree itself, reduced to a Calamity, would at minimum lose a strip of bark.

The Evil Buddha Head showed not the slightest reaction.

No — that wasn't entirely accurate.

After swallowing the sword qi, the Evil Buddha Head began to move. It shifted from tilted to upright. And behind its head, an enormous halo materialized — grey and green intertwined.

This truly was a Buddha.

An Evil Buddha.

Though for some reason its head had been severed and thrown into the Old Temple.

"We're finished, we're finished!"

The brass oil lamp said in absolute despair: "It's waking up. There's no chance of escape now."

Chen Huangpi had never encountered an Evil Buddha.

He didn't know what an Evil Buddha meant — what it represented. He only knew that if he didn't do something soon, this Evil Buddha would truly eat both him and the brass oil lamp alive.

"A'Gui!"

"Contract-holder — let me handle this."

The Life-reaping Ghost's cold voice rang out — and its enormous skeletal form materialized behind Chen Huangpi.

It already understood how terrifying this Evil Buddha was. In a direct confrontation, it was no match for it whatsoever. But Chen Huangpi had called for it — and he hadn't called even when facing that severed-arm creature — which meant he was truly desperate.

"Yin-Shadow Summons! Come forth!"

The Life-reaping Ghost threw its jaw wide and let out a bone-chilling roar.

Wave after wave of pale yellow mist surged from its mouth, coalescing into an enormous weapon shaped like a banner-spear — its top edge blazing with frigid light and lined with serrated teeth.

And unlike last time — the Life-reaping Ghost had now recovered to half its peak strength. This weapon was also wrapped in a layer of pitch-black smoke, and within that smoke, countless screaming, enraged dead souls seemed to howl.

"Slash!!!"

The Life-reaping Ghost raised the banner-spear high overhead with a thunderous shout. The serrated blade — hundreds of zhang tall — came down on the Evil Buddha Head like something that could cleave the heavens apart.

But then…

The halo behind the Evil Buddha Head suddenly spun.

The blade hadn't even reached its head — and it was already reversing. Not only the blade — even the Life-reaping Ghost was being pushed backward, its flow of time seeming to be wound backwards. In an instant it was back inside the Soul-Hooking Register.

Chen Huangpi's mind nearly shattered at the sight.

The Dog Rearing Scripture!

He immediately activated it. The brass oil lamp activated in synchrony.

In an instant, a cold, eerie energy radiated from the lamp's body. Its original golden sheen faded, replaced by a spreading coat of sickly green copper rust. It had reverted to its true appearance — the Nine Nether God Lantern.

Boy and lamp became perfectly attuned.

"Fire!"

Chen Huangpi gripped the Nine Nether God Lantern and spoke the command. A torrent of frigid, ghostly netherfires surged from all directions and crashed toward the Evil Buddha.

But it was still useless.

The Evil Buddha Head simply opened its mouth and inhaled.

Every flame of netherfire was sucked into that gaping maw like a cyclone.

"Again!"

Chen Huangpi activated the Nine Nether God Lantern once more.

Netherfire engulfed the Evil Buddha Head — and from within the sickly green flames, countless pallid hands reached out and slapped down at it.

Every hand that touched the Evil Buddha Head — sank into it and disappeared.

And at that, Chen Huangpi froze completely.

The brass oil lamp's voice, hollow with bitterness, rose in his mind.

"When it comes to pure killing power — nothing in the Pure Immortal Temple compares to Guanzhu's sword at his waist. I have only seen it drawn once. That time was when this Evil Buddha arrived at the gates of the Pure Immortal Temple and demanded something from Guanzhu. Guanzhu ignored it, so it sat down at the entrance and began chanting sutras day and night."

"Once it began chanting — Guanzhu was enraged as if his most sensitive nerve had been struck. He drew his sword and took its head."

"Its body fled. Its head stayed. Guanzhu hung it at the temple gate."

"After I awakened, I assumed it had long since crumbled to dust. I never imagined it would be here — in the Old Temple."

Hearing this, Chen Huangpi felt everything go black before him.

"So what is it — a Calamity, or something else?"

"Neither. It is a Buddha. An Evil Buddha."

"An Evil Buddha?"

Chen Huangpi didn't understand — what did an Evil Buddha mean? Why did the brass oil lamp look so utterly hopeless?

"Think of it as an immortal. Think of it as the equivalent of an immortal — even if it only has a head left now, that is its essential nature."

The brass oil lamp gave a bitter laugh. "If I were the Huang Yi it would be different — I could give it something to think about. But I'm not. Chen Huangpi — looks like the two of us won't be born in the same year on the same day. But it seems we may die in the same year on the same day after all."

And just at that moment.

The Evil Buddha Head opened its elongated eyes — each pupil as large as a door. Green irises, grey whites, threaded through with blood vessels — and behind the head, that eerie halo.

There was not the slightest trace of solemnness or serenity. Only an overpowering, unnerving malice in every detail.

It had fully awakened.

And then the corner of its mouth curved upward — into a strange smile.

All the cyan mist in every direction scattered at once, like snow under a blazing summer sun.

Hmm…

The Evil Buddha opened its mouth and spoke one incomprehensible syllable.

Chen Huangpi had never heard this sound before. And yet he understood its meaning immediately.

He looked back.

Further away in the remnants of cyan mist — the brass oil lamp's other arms, the ones held by the seven unknown evil spirits, suddenly retracted back.

Not because the lamp had broken free. The seven evil spirits had let go willingly.

And stranger still — the Evil Buddha's blood-red tongue, still coiled around one of the lamp's arms, also released it.

As if now that it had awakened, it had truly become a virtuous Buddha who abstained from harm.

But was that possible?

Obviously not.

Because the moment the Evil Buddha's tongue let go — the brass oil lamp instantly activated the Divine Flash, and without any hesitation, took Chen Huangpi and fled.

The ghostly light lit the air around them like something out of hell, scattering the last scraps of cyan mist in all directions.

Light traveled at the speed of light. The Divine Flash traveled at the speed of light.

But the Evil Buddha Head was faster.

No matter how the brass oil lamp fled with Chen Huangpi — no matter how fast — the Evil Buddha Head was always already in front of them.

Smiling. Blood-red mouth opening and closing rhythmically. Chanting.

"The three worlds have no peace, like a burning house."

"The sea of suffering has no shore, and all sentient beings are hard to save."

"Enter my Buddha's gate — and you may reach the other shore."

The Evil Buddha wanted to convert Chen Huangpi — to complete the task it had once left unfinished.