Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 84: Great King Yellow Skin? Chen Huangpi!

Yellow Peril's words put Chen Huangpi squarely over the fire.

Honestly, he had never planned to draw attention to himself on this trip into the God-Burying Mound.

He had intended to stay in the back and let the evil spirits do as they pleased.

Whatever treasures or fortunes the mound contained, Chen Huangpi didn't care — finding the passage to the Underworld Yellow Springs was his only objective.

But now—

This situation had shattered what could barely be called a plan to begin with.

No matter how mature a child's mind might be—

He was still a child in the end.

Fortunately, Chen Huangpi didn't panic. He simply walked up to Yellow Peril's side and fell into step beside it.

Yellow Peril grinned. "Splendid. I call myself Yellow Peril, and you were only dubbed Great King Yellow Skin because I mentioned it in passing. We should address each other as kin."Chen Huangpi smiled back. "Indeed — we're kin!"

'Kin my foot!'

The Brass Oil Lamp was spitting venom inside Chen Huangpi's mind. 'What right does that thing have? A clay-molded idol that rolled in yellow mud and became Yellow Peril — and it has the nerve to call itself your kin? It's not even surnamed Chen!'

'A Gui, don't you agree?'

The Life-reaping Ghost sighed. 'Yes, it's certainly not surnamed Chen. If anything, it should be claiming kinship with you.'

'You're both my kin. Yellow Peril is not.'

Chen Huangpi's inner voice was ice-cold. 'It doesn't have my best interests at heart. I've been itching to deal with it for a while. When the chance comes, I'll summon Golden Horn too and see if we can finish it off!'

Yellow Peril had no idea that its supposed kin had already marked it for death.

It simply assumed Chen Huangpi was easy to manipulate.

Flatter him with a few words and he'd float away on clouds of self-importance.

And so, Yellow Peril led Chen Huangpi deeper in.

The sprawling procession of evil spirits now had a proper head and tail.

At the very front marched the Mutant Divine Statue.

Behind it came Mang Shan Jun and the concealed Calamity Eye.

Yellow Peril, Chen Huangpi, and the other Disasters followed behind Mang Shan Jun.

After them trailed the remaining evil spirits.

Among them, the Slender Evil Spirit kept a curiously constant distance behind Chen Huangpi — neither too close nor too far.

The spacing was deliberate.

With one stretch of its arm, the Slender Evil Spirit could touch Chen Huangpi.

Chen Huangpi was aware of it, naturally.

But he wore the Life-reaping Ghost's skin and carried the Brass Oil Lamp. He wasn't worried about the Slender Evil Spirit.

Besides, the Life-reaping Ghost had speculated—

The Slender Evil Spirit might be a former Daoist of the Pure Immortal Temple, transformed.

Why else would it be so consistently friendly toward him?

So Chen Huangpi let it follow.

"The Great Calamitous Evil God says — halt!"

That was the Big-Head Evil Spirit's voice.

It spoke on behalf of the Mutant Divine Statue, and every evil spirit stopped at once.

Yellow Peril, however, was unbothered.

"Great King Yellow Skin, come with me. There'll be a good show ahead."

With that, Yellow Peril glided up beside the Mutant Divine Statue. Mang Shan Jun also hopped over, dragging Song Jiu and the Qing'an County City God, cracking its whip to herd the remaining lesser gods forward like sheep.

Chen Huangpi stepped up.

This was the end of the corridor within the God-Burying Mound.

Bronze oil lamps hung on both sides here as well, but these two were unlit.

Ahead — nothing but impenetrable darkness.

'If only the Six Yin God were fully formed...'

Chen Huangpi silently lamented. Since entering the mound, the still-developing Six Yin God in his mind hadn't stirred once.

He had lost that all-seeing perspective.

No matter how he called upon it, the Six Yin God lay dormant — as good as dead.

He knew why. Forcibly activating it to seal the Kidney Temple had damaged it, and before that, taking a direct hit from the Life-Slaying Sword Formula's Soul-Slaying technique hadn't helped either. The Six Yin God was still unformed, yet he had been riding it like a workhorse. The occasional flicker of utility was already its limit.

But that wasn't why he couldn't see into the corridor ahead.

"Huang Er, this place feels just like the Old Temple..."

"Feels like it? It's practically a copy..."

The Brass Oil Lamp had been studying the bronze oil lamps that resembled it all along.

It had been split into thousands of fragments to suppress the Old Temple.

These bronze oil lamps served the same purpose — suppressing whatever lurked within the God-Burying Mound.

The mound couldn't compare to the Old Temple.

And bronze oil lamps couldn't compare to it.

But the intent behind them was identical.

Just then—

Yellow Peril addressed the Mutant Divine Statue. "Great Calamitous Evil God, light these two lamps. Once the tomb guardian beast emerges and we feed it, we can proceed."

Hearing this—

Chen Huangpi immediately looked at the two unlit bronze oil lamps.

Light them—

And a tomb guardian beast would appear?

Was this God-Burying Mound truly a great tomb?

Were the bronze oil lamps suppressing the gods buried within?

The Mutant Divine Statue spread its arms, palms facing upward.

The vertical eyes in each palm aligned perfectly with the two bronze oil lamps.

Then, within those vertical eyes, twin flames ignited with sudden ferocity.

Its eyes truly blazed like torches!

And those vertical eyes acted like mirrors, reflecting the two bronze oil lamps. The two flames appeared to sit precisely atop each lamp's wick.

At first glance, it genuinely looked as though the bronze oil lamps had been lit.

No—

They truly had been lit.

The vertical eyes snapped shut, and those twin flames of ocular fire vanished.

Then materialized atop the wicks of the two bronze oil lamps.

Brilliant light blazed in all directions.

But the darkness beyond wasn't banished — it merely lost whatever strange quality it had possessed.

Chen Huangpi's eyesight was exceptional. He immediately spotted a fearsome silhouette materializing within the darkness.

The next instant—

A blurred beast-head with a human face pushed out of the blackness.

The head was even larger than the Mutant Divine Statue's. Ringing its neck like a lion's mane was a collar of arms — every one of them mottled with corpse-spots, swaying gently.

Its face was human. But deathly pale, with features stretched to grotesque proportions.

As it emerged, the corpse-spotted arms ringing its neck began to sway.

A blast of spectral wind swept through the corridor.

Wherever the wind passed—

Every evil spirit was suppressed, as if weighed down by invisible chains.

Even Chen Huangpi felt intensely uncomfortable.

No — to be precise, it was the Life-reaping Ghost that felt the discomfort.

"Contractor, this tomb guardian beast is a god! It can suppress evil spirits!"

The Life-reaping Ghost spoke the truth.

Even the Mutant Divine Statue was being suppressed — the black smoke around its body had retreated deep within, and some of it had receded entirely.

The vertical eyes in its palms grew faintly clearer.

They even glanced — briefly, silently — at Chen Huangpi.

The look in those eyes was complex.

No crazed, murderous intent.

Instead — something like helplessness.

Chen Huangpi felt goosebumps crawl across his skin.

He much preferred the Mutant Divine Statue radiating murderous fury. That, at least, was how you looked at family.

Then the tomb guardian beast spoke. "I have stood watch here for ten thousand years. Even if the Upper God is present, you must still offer blood-food. Once I have eaten my fill, only then may you pass."

The Mutant Divine Statue nodded, as though it were the Upper God the beast spoke of.

Yellow Peril smiled. "Rest assured — the blood-food has been prepared."

With that, Yellow Peril turned to Mang Shan Jun. "Mang Shan Jun, if you would."

"About time."

Mang Shan Jun grinned savagely and hoisted the Qing'an County City God by the scruff. Extending another arm, it gripped the god's skull and — with the barest squeeze — wrenched its head clean off.

Golden blood erupted like a geyser.

A torrent of human qi poured from the City God's decapitated body.

Mang Shan Jun's eight heads blew in unison.

The qi drifted toward the tomb guardian beast.

The beast's eyes lit up. It opened its jaws, baring bone-white fangs, and inhaled sharply.

Every last wisp of human qi was devoured without a trace.

"Delightful! I never imagined the flavor of a clay-and-wood false god could be so palatable!"

"Let me taste the flesh."

Mang Shan Jun tossed the City God's head and body over.

The tomb guardian beast opened wide and swallowed both in a single gulp. The sound of crunching echoed through the corridor.

This County City God — a being that ranked among the most powerful in all of Xuzhou City —

Was now being devoured alive and bewildered, like a baby chick fed to a predator.

"Not enough! Not nearly enough!"

The tomb guardian beast bellowed. "You've brought far too many evil spirits. This much blood-food only fills half my belly. Throw me the rest of the false gods."

Mang Shan Jun cracked its whip.

The gods wailed as they were driven forward.

The tomb guardian beast lowered its enormous head, looked them over with open disdain, and used the corpse-spotted arms ringing its neck to pick through the ranks — selecting only those with the richest incense and tossing them one by one into its maw.

Unlike the Qing'an County City God, these gods hadn't lost consciousness. They were fully aware.

They felt every agonizing second of being ground between those teeth.

One by one, they screamed.

"It hurts — it hurts so much!"

"I don't want to die! I only just became a god! I haven't even had a chance to enjoy—"

"AAAGH! My divine soul is being crushed!!"

Crunch... crunch...

After chewing for a while without fully breaking them down, the beast swallowed them whole.

"False gods are false gods — no amount of savoring improves the taste!"

The remaining gods trembled violently at the sight.

But before they could even exhale in relief—

The tomb guardian beast opened its jaws wide and sucked every last one of them into its mouth, forcing them down in a single grotesque swallow.

"Inferior feed!"

The beast looked displeased. Its gaze snapped to the figure dangling from Mang Shan Jun's grip — Song Jiu.

At that moment—

Song Jiu understood everything. The reason these evil spirits hadn't killed him outside the mound was simple: he was food to sate the tomb guardian beast.

And now it was his turn.

"Don't kill me! Fellow evil spirits, I am Song Tiangang's most trusted confidant — the Governor of Xu Province! If you spare me, I'll turn traitor for you. I'll open the gates of Xuzhou City! Millions of mortals — you can feast to your hearts' content!"

Song Jiu's tongue had been torn out. He couldn't speak normally — the voice was projected by his Nascent Soul.

Mang Shan Jun's interest was piqued. "You mean that?"

It had once been an Arhat of the West Region Buddha Kingdom. In the fourth year of Qingli, it had traveled to the Da Kang capital. Then, for reasons unknown, it had suddenly transformed into an evil spirit.

It had gorged itself in Jingcheng.

But before it could eat many, it was hunted relentlessly and fled into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

The Hundred Thousand Mountains had Remnants.

But it didn't dare touch them.

Because an evil spirit far more terrifying than itself had warned it: somewhere in these mountains, a being patrolled the peaks. If anyone dared cause trouble, that being would come to reap the offender.

Remembering the taste of human flesh—

Mang Shan Jun's mouth watered.

But Yellow Peril cut in without warning. "Mang Shan Jun, you've been burned by cultivators before. Don't fall for this again. Besides, if we don't feed him to the tomb guardian beast, where exactly do you propose we find more blood-food?"

Song Jiu cried out desperately, "There is more blood-food! His name is Chen Huangpi — he's right here! He's infiltrated your ranks!"

"Chen Huangpi?"

Yellow Peril's eyes narrowed. Sudden fury erupted across its features. "I remember that name! That brat spouted a load of nonsense at me before, trying to make me admit that he and his master were more pitiable than me. Where is he?! I'll tear him apart!"

"He's standing right beside you — on your right!"

"WHAT?!"

Yellow Peril's temple shook. It turned in disbelief toward the figure on its right — and standing there was none other than the Great King Yellow Skin it had thought so easy to fool.