Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 94: The Altar, the Black Coffin, and the Immortal Corpse

"What kind of nonsense is 'Divine Embryo'? I'm a Daoist cultivator!"

Chen Huangpi despised hearing the word "Buddha" more than anything.

That Evil Buddha head from before had tried to convert him, to make him renounce everything and become a monk. It ended up as a sarira stuffed in his pocket.

And now this Mang Shan Jun opened with "born a Divine Embryo."

It was practically an insult to his face.

Heaven knows.

The Pure Immortal Temple was a Daoist temple.

Chen Huangpi was a proper, through-and-through Daoist.

How could he possibly endure such humiliation!

Yellow Peril's eyes lit up, and it shouted, "Mang Shan Jun, his black smoke may be terrifying, but if we join forces and stay careful to avoid it, we can definitely kill him!""He's mine!"

Mang Shan Jun shot Yellow Peril a savage glare.

"I won't compete with you for him."

Yellow Peril sneered. "I just want him dead! Whether you kill him or eat him, that's entirely your call."

"Agreed!"

Mang Shan Jun nodded, and its form vanished in an instant.

Yellow Peril, meanwhile, gritted its teeth and dissolved its entire body into a puddle of sludge that oozed out of the temple.

In a heartbeat.

The entire ground transformed into a quagmire.

Chen Huangpi rode the black smoke. He could naturally fly through the air.

But with Yellow Peril and Mang Shan Jun attacking in unison.

He was instantly thrown onto the back foot.

"A Gui, release Golden Horn for me!"

"Yes, Master!"

The Life-reaping Ghost was honestly quite frustrated. It wanted to help Chen Huangpi fight Yellow Peril and Mang Shan Jun, just like the Brass Oil Lamp did.

But Chen Huangpi was wearing its skin.

And the moment the black smoke appeared, its body had truly become nothing more than armor, locked tight against Chen Huangpi's form.

Now that Chen Huangpi gave the order.

The Life-reaping Ghost surged with energy.

The next second, the Soul-Hooking Manual radiated an aura of icy cold.

That aura jolted Chen Huangpi's mind to sharp clarity.

Then, wisps of yellowed mist materialized all around.

A ferocious beast head pushed its way out of the mist.

This was Golden Horn's soul.

Only now, Golden Horn looked utterly pitiful.

Its jaw hung crookedly, as though dislocated.

Six of its eight eyes were swollen shut.

Only the heaven-defying horn atop its head remained as sharp as ever.

"Whimper, whimper..."

The moment Golden Horn saw Chen Huangpi, it was like a bullied child spotting a parent. Its two open eyes brimmed with grievance and indignation.

Chen Huangpi erupted in fury. "A Gui, I told you to have a nice talk with Golden Horn. And this is how you talked?!"

The Life-reaping Ghost stammered in terror. "Master, it's my fault. I know I was wrong!"

"I'll settle this with you later!"

Chen Huangpi growled through gritted teeth. "Golden Horn, don't worry. I'll make sure you get payback. But the situation is dire right now, and I need your help. Your senses are sharp. Watch out for Mang Shan Jun for me."

Golden Horn hesitated, then nodded.

Its senses were indeed sharp, but without a physical body, sharp senses didn't amount to much.

Still, Golden Horn was a Son of Diting.

Even without its physical form, its soul could detect sounds that others couldn't.

Chen Huangpi mounted Golden Horn.

He was the keeper; Golden Horn was his beast.

Master and beast shared a mental link.

Chen Huangpi immediately sensed something amiss, and without hesitation, he slashed his sword toward a spot roughly fifty meters behind and to the side.

But it struck nothing.

"Worthy indeed of a born Divine Embryo!"

Mang Shan Jun lurked in the shadows, watching Chen Huangpi with a mix of excitement and wariness. 'I was once an Arhat. Even after becoming an evil spirit, a trace of Buddhist nature lingers in me. He must have sensed my position because of that.'

On the ground, jets of muddy water erupted from the quagmire.

That was Yellow Peril harassing from the side.

Every jet of muddy water contained the power of the yellow sludge.

That substance couldn't be touched, not even a drop.

A god that came into contact with it would be corrupted into an Evil God. An evil spirit that touched it would mutate into something far more horrifying.

This yellow sludge, however, belonged to Yellow Peril.

Anything tainted by it would become its puppet.

Chen Huangpi could dodge it.

But his disgust had reached its absolute limit.

And right then.

A familiar figure approached.

The figure stood roughly three meters tall, wrapped in tattered black robes. Its limbs were unnaturally long, its lips blackish-purple, its appearance beyond horrifying.

It was the Slender Evil Spirit.

"Stay back!"

Chen Huangpi shouted. "That yellow sludge can't be touched. It'll kill you!"

The Slender Evil Spirit was a good evil spirit.

Without it, the black smoke around Chen Huangpi would never have resurfaced.

At that moment.

The Slender Evil Spirit flashed Chen Huangpi a smile.

Only, its appearance was already terrifying, and the smile made it all the more unnerving.

Then the Slender Evil Spirit pulled open its robes, baring its body.

Within the hollow that dominated its abdomen.

A wisp of black smoke flickered in and out of sight.

The next second.

The hollow plunged into absolute darkness.

Immediately after, a beam of pitch-black light shot from the hollow, streaking toward Chen Huangpi's flank.

The black light was blindingly fast.

Chen Huangpi simultaneously swung his sword in a backhand slash to meet it.

The black sword qi and the dark beam collided at opposing angles.

"Damn it!"

Mang Shan Jun's expression twisted. It had been about to exploit the Slender Evil Spirit's appearance as a distraction, ambushing Chen Huangpi the moment he lost focus. It never expected both of them to strike at it simultaneously.

This time.

There was nowhere to dodge. The sword qi lopped off two of its heads.

The black beam blasted a gaping hole through its chest.

Worse still, both the beam and the sword qi carried traces of that black smoke.

Mang Shan Jun had no choice.

It was forced to sever the parts of its own body where the black smoke had latched on.

"So you came to help me!"

Chen Huangpi was overjoyed and called out excitedly, "Thank you, Slender Evil Spirit! You can't fly, so just stay right there. Don't come any closer."

The Slender Evil Spirit couldn't speak.

It could only nod. And right then.

Mang Shan Jun seemed to realize something and suddenly roared, "Yellow Peril, you dare play me for a fool!!!"

Hearing this.

Chen Huangpi whipped his gaze downward.

The quagmire below continued to spray jets of sludge upward.

Earlier, Yellow Peril had dissolved its body into the swamp.

Beyond that, there had been no other movement from it.

Could it be...

"Huang Er, did you see where Yellow Peril went?"

"Yellow Peril? Isn't it right here?"

The Brass Oil Lamp was confused.

The yellow sludge was effectively Yellow Peril's body. Wherever the sludge was, so was Yellow Peril.

"Whimper, whimper..."

Golden Horn howled, extending a claw to point in a direction.

"This is bad. We've been completely fooled by Yellow Peril's trick!"

The Brass Oil Lamp roared in fury. "It turned itself into a swamp and spread everywhere. It must have split its attention, making us think it was still here while secretly slipping into the burial chamber!"

The burial chamber was the deepest level of the God-Burying Mound.

And within it sat a coffin.

The passage leading to the Underworld Yellow Spring was inside that coffin.

Chen Huangpi already hated Yellow Peril to the bone.

Being tricked like this left him with zero hesitation.

He leaped onto Golden Horn and urged, "Good boy, Golden Horn, take me to Yellow Peril. Once I've killed it, I'll fix your jaw."

"Whimper, whimper..."

All eight of Golden Horn's eyes blazed with excitement. It bounded forward, charging toward the direction from which it had heard the sounds.

"Move!"

Mang Shan Jun hesitated for only a moment before concealing its true form and giving chase.

The God-Burying Mound was extraordinarily strange.

None of them had ever set foot here before.

Only Yellow Peril and the Deity of Broad Sight truly understood this place.

If it didn't follow, Yellow Peril might seize whatever opportunity lay ahead.

...

The burial chamber was immense and fathomlessly deep.

The further in they went, the larger the space became.

Yellow Peril had already reached the deepest recess of the chamber.

Here stood an altar.

A colossal altar, so vast its edges vanished beyond the range of sight.

The altar had eight corners.

Each corner corresponded to a cardinal or ordinal direction.

At each position, a bronze oil lamp was set. These eight bronze lamps differed from the ones outside; they were far larger.

The lamp bodies alone towered a hundred meters tall.

The boundless expanse of the altar was illuminated by these eight lamps alone.

Yet their light carried not a trace of warmth.

Instead, it radiated an inexplicable chill.

"Is the immortal buried here?"

Yellow Peril studied the countless chains emerging from the darkness, following them to the very center of the altar, where a coffin rested.

Not an ornate sarcophagus. Just an ordinary coffin.

A flimsy, thin-walled black coffin, looking utterly shabby.

"An immortal corpse!"

Yellow Peril's eyes blazed with greedy longing.

The God-Burying Mound entombed many deities. If Yellow Peril wished, it could corrupt them all and bolster its own power.

But Yellow Peril disdained those.

Though it was merely a failed creation, a defective product of some botched consecration, a stroke of fortune had turned it into a Yellow Peril.

Naturally, its ambitions soared far beyond its station.

Once it learned that an immortal corpse lay within the God-Burying Mound.

Nothing else could hold its attention.

Corrupt the immortal corpse. Devour it.

Then it, Yellow Peril, could proclaim itself the Yellow Immortal.

"Calamity Eye, Broad Sight, you all looked down on me. Yet the first to arrive here is me!"

Yellow Peril strode toward the coffin, trembling with anticipation.

Calamity Eye and Broad Sight were locked in their own battle.

That fool Mang Shan Jun probably still thought it was teaming up against Chen Huangpi.

Evil spirits were evil spirits.

Even those with minds and intelligence.

They couldn't compare to an evil spirit born from a corrupted deity.

"No, I will become an immortal!"

"A Yellow Immortal!"

Yellow Peril sneered. "That being hasn't patrolled the mountains in who knows how many eons. Perhaps it's long dead."

"These Hundred Thousand Mountains should rightfully be mine to rule!"

"So what if Chen Huangpi comes from the Pure Immortal Temple?"

"After the Heaven and Earth Mutation, the path of cultivation was severed. Even if Chen Huangpi cultivates his entire life, he'll never surpass Nascent Soul. He relies on a few sinister tricks to throw his weight around."

"But what he doesn't realize is that before an immortal, every last one of his tricks is utterly worthless!"

Suddenly.

Right at that moment, a voice rang out that sent Yellow Peril into a rage.

"First of all, I'm not at Nascent Soul. Second, since when does a weasel deserve to call itself an immortal?"

"Chen Huangpi!"

Yellow Peril spun around to find Chen Huangpi riding Golden Horn, charging straight at it.

"Yellow Peril, you deserve to die!"

Mang Shan Jun materialized in its true form, shaking with fury. "You hid a prize like this from us! The immortal corpse is mine!"

With the immortal corpse in hand, devouring the Divine Embryo would be child's play.

And that wasn't all.

Boom, boom, boom...

The Deity of Broad Sight's massive body came barreling after them as well.

Overhead, a colossal Calamity Eye snapped open, its pupil brimming with rage and killing intent.

A beam of sword light erupted from within!

"The immortal corpse is mine!"

Yellow Peril howled in fury and threw itself at the black coffin without an instant's hesitation.

It was closest to the coffin.

In a flash, it dissolved into a mass of sludge, engulfing the entire black coffin.

The sword light slashed down.

The sludge exploded outward.

But Chen Huangpi's expression turned grim. "It got inside!"