Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 100: The Underworld Yellow Spring

The Underworld Yellow Spring lay beneath the entirety of the mortal world.

Only during an earth dragon's turning could one seize the chance to travel there.

But now.

In the deepest reaches of the God-Burying Mound.

Inside the black coffin, there existed a path leading directly to the Underworld Yellow Spring.

The path was like an abyss, its bottom nowhere in sight.

Yet within the darkness.

A streak of golden light plummeted downward at breakneck speed.

It was the Brass Oil Lamp's Escape Light.

"How strange."Chen Huangpi rode Golden Horn and suddenly blurted out, "I meant to ask Yi Qingzhou whether the God-Burying Mound was set up by Master. But we're practically at the Underworld Yellow Spring already, and only now did I remember."

The God-Burying Mound strongly resembled the Old Temple.

The words "Subduing the Immortal" were carved on the tomb gate.

And Yi Qingzhou had been sealed inside.

No matter how you looked at it, it was hard not to connect it all to Master.

The Brass Oil Lamp scoffed. "Chen Huangpi, you're always going on about what a great memory you have, and yet you turn out to be the most forgetful person alive."

Hearing this.

Chen Huangpi was about to flare up.

He had grown up now, and he had the Void-Piercing Sword — a devastating weapon — at his side.

True, it wasn't something to use lightly.

But with such a blade in hand, one naturally had to flaunt some authority, throw one's weight around.

Just as he was about to snap back, reminding the Brass Oil Lamp who was the keeper here.

The Life-reaping Ghost suddenly cut in. "Master, we're about to arrive."

"That fast?"

Chen Huangpi immediately looked downward. A pinprick of light in his vision was growing larger by the second.

A surge of vigorous moisture billowed up from within.

He could even hear the crash and lap of waves.

Clearly, passing through that point of light would deliver them to the Underworld Yellow Spring.

This pleased Chen Huangpi greatly.

He had expected the passage to be filled with Yellow Spring sludge, making the journey supremely perilous — something only the Life-reaping Ghost could handle.

To his surprise, now that they were actually here, fortune had swung in their favor.

Nothing dangerous at all, and they were about to reach the Underworld Yellow Spring.

But the Life-reaping Ghost asked with grave seriousness, "Master, are you afraid of water?"

"Of course I'm afraid of water."

Chen Huangpi didn't understand why the ghost was asking.

Still, he was indeed afraid of water.

Master had never let him go near rivers or lakes since childhood, always saying things like "stand by the river long enough and your shoes will get wet" and "it's the swimmers who drown most often."

So Chen Huangpi wasn't just afraid of water — he couldn't even swim.

The few times he had waded into a river, it was only when the water had dried up completely.

Just then.

The Brass Oil Lamp seemed to realize something and said with a note of disbelief, "A Gui, don't tell me that once we pass through that light, we're going to plunge straight into the Yellow Spring?"

"Probably not."

The Life-reaping Ghost thought for a moment. "Our luck has been good. I'm probably just overthinking it."

The God-Burying Mound had been extraordinarily dangerous.

An ordinary person who entered would have had no chance of survival.

Yet after Chen Huangpi went in, first the Deity of Broad Sight came to his aid, then the immortal Yi Qingzhou stepped in.

He hadn't suffered so much as a scratch.

His luck was undeniably excellent.

But the Life-reaping Ghost failed to notice that the moment it said "our luck has been good."

The Brass Oil Lamp's face had turned green.

...

The Underworld Yellow Spring was a world unto itself.

The Yin Lands were boundless, stretching beyond all horizons.

The Yellow Spring was the sole river flowing through this realm, though its tributaries were countless, encompassing the entirety of the land.

Its waters were murky, yet eerily calm.

And then.

With a tremendous splash.

The placid surface erupted into towering waves.

A colossal figure — hundreds of meters tall — burst from the Yellow Spring.

The figure was vaguely human in shape.

Its surface was covered with pitch-black symbols and characters, twisted and interlocking, looking more like tattoos than writing.

This was a creature born and nurtured by the Underworld Yellow Spring.

Yellowed mist coiled around its body.

At that moment, the creature gazed at the Yellow Spring before it, then suddenly opened its cavernous maw. A boy in Daoist robes and a bamboo hat emerged from its mouth, clutching a brass oil lamp.

The boy was Chen Huangpi.

And the creature, naturally, was the Life-reaping Ghost.

Staring at the endless, yellowish expanse of water.

Chen Huangpi couldn't help but say, "A Gui, the Yellow Spring is really this vast? It's bigger than the largest lake in the Hundred Thousand Mountains by far. You can't even see where it ends."

The Hundred Thousand Mountains had a lake too.

A huge one — it looked like an ocean.

But even that lake had discernible boundaries.

Compared to this Yellow Spring, it was laughably small.

The Life-reaping Ghost shook its head. "Master, this is only a tributary of the Yellow Spring. It's actually not that large."

At that moment, Golden Horn's voice rang out inside Chen Huangpi's mind.

"Huangpi Dad! Huangpi Dad!"

"Don't worry, I'll let you out right now."

Chen Huangpi slapped the Soul-Hooking Manual.

The next second, Golden Horn's fearsome, spectral soul-form burst out of the pages.

The instant it emerged, it flung itself into the Yellow Spring without hesitation.

The Life-reaping Ghost was a being born from the Yellow Spring.

The Yellow Spring was its mother river. After diving in, the skeletal body that Chen Huangpi's master had gnawed down to bare bones could regrow flesh anew.

Golden Horn's connection to the Yellow Spring wasn't as deep.

But diving in would still allow it to grow a new body of flesh.

"Golden Horn said that once it restores its physical body, it'll be even larger than before. Riding it will be even more magnificent."

Chen Huangpi said this with anticipation, watching the water's surface.

As the keeper.

He could sense Golden Horn's state — it was growing stronger by the second, radiating a strange, vital life force.

Before long. A fearsome beast's head — eight eyes glaring — broke through the surface.

Golden Horn roared at the sky. "This daddy is alive again! Time for revenge!"

"Wretched ghost, this daddy is gonna destroy y—"

Splash.

Golden Horn immediately ducked back under the water.

It rubbed all eight of its eyes, then spoke in utter disbelief. "Am I seeing things? How the hell did that wretched ghost suddenly get so enormous?"

The Life-reaping Ghost had been merely a few hundred meters tall just moments ago.

But in the brief time Golden Horn had spent submerged and resurfaced — no more than a few breaths — the ghost had grown as tall as a sky-piercing divine tree.

In fact, when Golden Horn looked up, it could only see as high as the ghost's knees.

It was absolutely surreal.

"It has to be because I'm too excited. The blood rushed to my head and my eyes are playing tricks on me."

Golden Horn shook its massive head, then launched itself out of the water.

This time, its hopes were dashed.

The Life-reaping Ghost's body was still just as impossibly huge.

And a sound like rolling thunder boomed overhead.

It was Chen Huangpi's voice.

"Golden Horn, where are you? Why haven't you come out yet?"

"Huangpi Dad, I'm right here!"

Golden Horn bellowed. "Huangpi Dad, where are you? I can't see you!"

"How strange."

Chen Huangpi frowned. "Golden Horn says it's down below, but why can't I see it? A Gui, Huang Er — can either of you see it?"

"No..."

"Master, I can't see it either."

The Life-reaping Ghost and the Brass Oil Lamp scanned the surface with wide eyes, but Golden Horn was nowhere to be found.

"You think it's lying to you and made a run for it?"

The Brass Oil Lamp said with malicious speculation. "Golden Horn's rebellious streak is written all over its skull. The moment it set foot in the Underworld Yellow Spring, it probably started plotting its freedom. Right now it's probably sweet-talking you through the mental link while actually figuring out how to get revenge on us."

"I think I didn't go hard enough on it!"

The Life-reaping Ghost said with regret. "Master, the Dog-Rearing Scripture gives you control over a beast's life and death. If it comes to it, just cut Golden Horn's lifeline. It's a Son of Diting — in this Underworld Yellow Spring, we'd never be able to outmaneuver it."

They couldn't see where Golden Horn was.

They couldn't hear its voice either.

But for Golden Horn, their voices were like peals of thunder — impossible to miss.

"Wretched ghost! Wretched lamp!"

Golden Horn roared in fury. "You treacherous, lowborn scum, trying to get me killed! Huangpi Dad, don't listen to them! They're too evil!"

"Huangpi Dad, wait for me! I'm flying up to find you right now!"

Golden Horn was frantic. Fortunately, unlike Chen Huangpi, it didn't need black smoke to fly.

With a simple thought.

A grayish-yellow mist materialized beneath its four paws.

Then, eyes bloodshot, Golden Horn launched itself upward.

At the same time, the golden horn atop its head blazed with dazzling radiance.

Boom.

A bolt of golden lightning struck straight into the Life-reaping Ghost's body.

It hated the Life-reaping Ghost to the core.

Of course it wanted payback.

However, the very next second.

A colossal hand slapped down from above.

Boom.

Golden Horn's vision went black, and it passed out cold.

"A Gui, what happened? Did a mosquito bite you?"

"I don't think so. And besides, since when does the Yellow Spring have mosquitoes?"

The Life-reaping Ghost said uncertainly. "Maybe it's been so long since I was last here that things have changed."

It still hadn't forgotten when Chen Huangpi had recognized the underworld script.

A being who had never once set foot in the Underworld Yellow Spring.

Yet could read the script of the dead at a glance.

That was obviously abnormal.

At the time, the Life-reaping Ghost had assumed something was gravely wrong with the Underworld Yellow Spring.

But upon further reflection, Chen Huangpi had been born from an egg. Knowing the underworld script wasn't such a stretch.

Still, looking at things now.

The Underworld Yellow Spring truly had changed.

It even had mosquitoes.

"Master, is Golden Horn still communicating with you?"

The Life-reaping Ghost hadn't forgotten about Golden Horn.

Chen Huangpi shook his head. "A moment ago it said it was flying up to find me, but now there's not a peep. It must have really run away."

"Even so, it did help me a few times."

"Taking its life over this — that's not something I'd do."

"Let's just give it its freedom."

Chen Huangpi felt resigned. Golden Horn had a foul mouth, sure, but it had never actually done anything truly bad.

It was only rude to others.

It had always called him Huangpi Dad, respectful as could be.

As the saying went: if a child is poorly raised, it's the father's fault.

Chen Huangpi felt that he himself hadn't done a good enough job disciplining Golden Horn, which was why it remained so wild and desperate for freedom.

And right then.

Golden Horn's feeble voice suddenly echoed from the depths of Chen Huangpi's mind. "Huangpi... Dad, I'm stuck in A Gui's fingernail crack. Save me... save me..."

"What?!"

Chen Huangpi was stunned.

He quickly had the Life-reaping Ghost spread its palm wide, then leaped onto it and inspected each finger one by one.

There, wedged in the crack of the ghost's middle fingernail, was what looked like a wingless mosquito.

The mosquito was on its last legs.

Its four tiny limbs twitching feebly.

No...

It wasn't a mosquito. It was Golden Horn, shrunk down to an inconceivably minuscule size.

The Life-reaping Ghost and the Brass Oil Lamp exchanged a glance.

Both spoke at once, their tones flat and somber. "Master. Boss. Just put it out of its misery."