Yellow Skinned Taoist Master

Chapter 101: The Ferryman and the Evil Corruptions

Upon the Yellow Spring.

The Life-reaping Ghost carried Chen Huangpi in its palms as it walked across the surface.

It truly was a water-element being.

Born and nurtured by the Yellow Spring itself, walking on water was as natural to it as breathing — an innate ability.

And in the palm of its hand.

Chen Huangpi and the Brass Oil Lamp were staring intently at the mosquito-sized Golden Horn.

Golden Horn was, of course, still alive.

Not only alive, but currently unleashing a barrage of curses.

"Wretched lamp! Wretched ghost!"

Golden Horn roared. "Sure, I wanted to come back to the Underworld Yellow Spring, but I'm not an idiot! Do I dare abandon Huangpi Dad and run off on my own? When the Guanzhu finds out, he'll tear open the Underworld Yellow Spring and flay me alive!""And yet you two dismissed me as a traitor with a few lousy sentences!"

"Are you animals?"

"And that wretched ghost — Huangpi Dad, it's too evil! If I weren't so tough, you'd never see me again!"

All eight of Golden Horn's eyes brimmed with aggrieved tears.

Unfortunately.

It really was the size of a mosquito right now.

Chen Huangpi strained his eyes as wide as they'd go and still couldn't make out its expression.

So.

Chen Huangpi consoled it. "If A Gui had actually killed you, that would've been a bad thing. But you're not dead, are you? At worst it's only half-bad. I'll definitely give it a good scolding later. I promise I'll get even for you."

"But you said the exact same thing last time."

"That's not important."

Chen Huangpi said earnestly. "What's important is, why did you turn out like this? Shouldn't you have been restored to your original size?"

"I..."

Golden Horn hesitated. "I have no idea either. Could something be wrong with the Yellow Spring?"

"Don't overthink it."

The Brass Oil Lamp quipped. "If you ask me, the problem is definitely with you. A Gui is a being born from the Yellow Spring — the Yellow Spring is its mother river. You, on the other hand, are the darling of the Yin Lands. For you, the Yellow Spring is a stepmother river at best."

"And a stepmother is never as good as a birth mother."

"Impossible!"

Golden Horn shook its head like a rattle drum. "Back in the day, I used to take Silver Horn swimming in the Yellow Spring all the time. Nothing ever happened then! If I've shrunk like this now, the Yellow Spring has to be the one that's broken."

"Then why is A Gui perfectly fine?"

That one question from the Brass Oil Lamp stopped Golden Horn cold.

Right...

Why was the Life-reaping Ghost unaffected?

Could the Yellow Spring really play favorites between a birth child and a stepchild?

Golden Horn may have been the Yin Lands' darling, but it had grown up drinking the Yellow Spring's water.

Even if it wasn't born of the Spring.

Surely the difference in treatment shouldn't be this extreme?

"That wretched ghost is just easy to feed!"

Golden Horn ground its teeth. "I'm high-maintenance. The Yellow Spring treats me this way, but once we reach the shore — once I set foot on the Yin Lands — I'll definitely return to normal."

Being the size of a mosquito was genuinely pathetic.

Never mind looking imposing — if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't even notice it was there.

Golden Horn might have been wild and untamable.

But it was stubborn to a fault. It had boasted in front of Chen Huangpi that it would carry him in style. If it couldn't deliver on that promise, the humiliation would be total.

Right then.

The Life-reaping Ghost spoke up. "Master, it seems we've surfaced near the center of this tributary. Reaching the shore is going to take a very long time."

"Then how far is Mount Luopo from here in the Yin Lands? Will it be very far?"

Chen Huangpi had come to the Underworld Yellow Spring specifically for the Soul-Restoring Jade atop Mount Luopo.

He didn't want to linger here.

Because Master had already been dead for three days.

If he delayed much longer, by the time he returned, the seventh day might have already passed.

The Life-reaping Ghost naturally understood the urgency.

But the Underworld Yellow Spring was simply too vast.

It had no idea where they currently were, so it couldn't provide an answer.

Golden Horn sneered. "That wretched ghost is only good for showing off in the Yellow Spring. Once we hit the Yin Lands, it'll have to rely on yours truly."

"Huangpi Dad!"

Golden Horn called out. "Don't worry! I'm a Son of Diting. Once I set foot on the Yin Lands, I'll instantly know where the nearest Mount Luopo is."

There were many Mounts Luopo throughout the Yin Lands.

In truth, "Mount Luopo" referred to any place where departed souls gathered for burial.

Before the Heaven and Earth Mutation.

The Underworld Yellow Spring, the mortal world, and even the Celestial Realm were all connected.

When beings of the mortal world and the Celestial Realm died, their souls would descend into the Underworld Yellow Spring.

Those souls would accumulate, ever more of them.

Eventually, they formed mountains.

The Soul-Restoring Jade sat at the very peak of such a mountain. If you had the ability to climb to the top, then even if the person's soul had long since scattered to the winds or entered the cycle of reincarnation, you could reassemble their spirit — an exact reconstruction — and bring them back to life.

Beyond this method, there was simply no other way to resurrect the dead.

Because those were the rules of heaven and earth.

"Thank you, Golden Horn."

Chen Huangpi let out a relieved sigh. He was genuinely grateful.

Of course, he also hadn't forgotten that it was the Life-reaping Ghost who had reminded him in the first place — that bringing a Son of Diting to the Underworld Yellow Spring was essential.

Because the Sons of Diting were the darlings of the Yin Lands, moving with the current of the Yellow Spring, turning misfortune into fortune. They were truly extraordinary.

And right then.

The Brass Oil Lamp suddenly spoke. "Chen Huangpi, A Gui, what is that over there?"

Hearing this.

Chen Huangpi and the Life-reaping Ghost looked in that direction.

Far off on the Yellow Spring's surface, a bank of thick, gray fog had appeared at some point.

Within the fog, a shadowy figure some four or five meters tall flickered in and out of view.

Golden Horn also widened its eyes, but in its current mosquito-sized state, even straining all eight of them only let it see a few hundred meters before everything dissolved into haze.

It couldn't see a thing.

Chen Huangpi cried out in alarm. "Huang Er, that thing seems to be heading straight for us."

The Brass Oil Lamp said, "Could it be an evil spirit?" "It's a Ferryman!"

The Life-reaping Ghost's voice was tinged with excitement. "Master, you might not know this, but Ferrymen dwell within the Yellow Spring. They never set foot on shore — they spend their entire lives on bamboo rafts."

"All you need to do is offer something in return, and they'll carry us anywhere across the Yellow Spring."

The Underworld Yellow Spring was simply too immense.

Without a Ferryman, relying solely on one's own walking or flying — no matter how powerful you were — would take an incomprehensible amount of time.

But a Ferryman was different.

The Yellow Spring's tributaries wove throughout the entire Yin Lands, and a Ferryman could deliver you to any corner of the realm.

They wouldn't step ashore.

But they could drop you at the nearest bank to your destination.

Chen Huangpi hadn't expected such good fortune.

His face immediately broke into a wide grin.

Only, mid-smile, the grin faded.

"A Gui, I'm a human being. Will the Ferryman still ferry me?"

Hearing this.

The Life-reaping Ghost said in a low, ghostly tone. "Don't worry, Master. A Ferryman won't refuse you just because you're human. And besides — whether you're actually human is debatable."

Chen Huangpi supposed that was a fair point.

In the time it took to exchange those words.

The gray fog had already drifted in front of Chen Huangpi.

Its speed far surpassed the Life-reaping Ghost's water-walking.

A bamboo pole emerged from the fog and plunged into the water.

Immediately after, a bamboo raft glided into view.

Chen Huangpi saw the Ferryman's form.

It was an exceptionally tall figure, its entire body shrouded in tattered black robes.

Only the hands gripping the bamboo pole were exposed — withered to the extreme, virtually nothing but skin stretched over bone.

As if sensing that Chen Huangpi and his companions wished to board.

The Ferryman came to a halt.

"Get on."

The Ferryman's voice was hoarse, cold, and ancient — like the croak of a decrepit elder emanating from inside a coffin.

Just listening to it.

Chen Huangpi felt his skin crawl, goosebumps prickling across his body.

"A Gui..."

"Don't be alarmed, Master. I'll come up right now."

With that, the Life-reaping Ghost rapidly shrank until it stood roughly three meters tall.

It was about to step onto the bamboo raft.

But the instant one foot touched the raft, the flesh on that foot dissolved into yellowish river water, leaving nothing but tooth-marked bone behind.

The Life-reaping Ghost froze.

Because it realized that the original form it had recovered by bathing in the Yellow Spring — the flesh that had regrown — was undergoing the same eerie transformation.

Chen Huangpi's expression twisted. He immediately gripped the Void-Piercing Sword and leveled a cold glare at the Ferryman. "What did you do to A Gui?!"

"It wasn't me."

The Life-reaping Ghost said with a complex edge in its voice. "It's the Yellow Spring. Something really is wrong with the Yellow Spring."

As it spoke, the ghost stepped fully onto the raft.

Sure enough, every scrap of flesh on its body dissolved into river water and sank into the Yellow Spring.

Once again, it was nothing but a skeleton.

And it wasn't alone.

Golden Horn, too.

It had likewise reverted to its previous state.

A spectral soul-body. No longer the size of a mosquito.

"Even the Yellow Spring is useless? What about the Yin Lands?"

Golden Horn's voice shook with panic. "If eating dirt on the shore can't restore me either, does that mean I'll never have a physical body again?"

Chen Huangpi did his best to reassure it. "Don't worry, Golden Horn. Silver Horn is watching over your physical body in the Scripture Pavilion. Worst case, we just go back."

"Silver Horn!"

Golden Horn's expression cycled through a kaleidoscope of emotions. "Then my body is definitely gone. It's over. I'm going to be a ghost for the rest of my life."

And right then.

The Ferryman spoke unprompted, its voice cutting through the tension. "A Son of Diting. A being of the Yellow Spring Nether Race. I never imagined that after tens of thousands of years, I would encounter such creatures again."

"A shame, though. You're all about to die."

"What did you say, you old codger?!"

Golden Horn exploded with rage. "You know I'm a Son of Diting and you still have the gall to curse me? Believe me, my Huangpi Dad will cut you down with a single swing!"

"Golden Horn, be quiet."

Chen Huangpi shook his head and bowed respectfully to the Ferryman. "Elder, A Gui and Golden Horn are my family. You said they're about to die. What do you mean?"

The Ferryman replied in its bone-chilling rasp. "The Heaven and Earth Mutation has polluted the Yellow Spring. These two have been tainted by it. Once the sun sets, those things will come to kill them."

"What things?"

"The things below."

The Ferryman tapped its bamboo pole against the edge of the raft.

Ripples radiated outward from the point of impact.

Wherever the ripples passed, the murky yellow water turned crystal clear.

Chen Huangpi looked down.

Beneath the surface, bloated, waterlogged faces — blanched deathly white — carpeted the riverbed of the Yellow Spring.

The faces bore no expression.

They only stared straight up, unblinking, at Chen Huangpi on the surface.

The Life-reaping Ghost and Golden Horn gazed at the countless faces below the water and felt a chill sink into the marrow of their bones.

"Since the Heaven and Earth Mutation, every living thing that has been tainted by the Yellow Spring has been killed by these abominations. Over and over again, in an endless loop — just like the Hell of the Living. Honestly, it's fitting enough. Born from the Yellow Spring, and in death, becoming part of it once more."

"In the mortal world, I believe there are similar entities. They call them evil spirits, and they apparently have ranks and classifications."

"But here, in the Underworld Yellow Spring, they are all called one thing — Evil Corruptions."

"The Yellow Spring is an Evil Corruption. And they are part of the Yellow Spring, so naturally, they too are called Evil Corruptions."

At that, the Ferryman suddenly lowered its head. Lank, ash-gray hair slipped from beneath its hood and hung before Chen Huangpi's face.

The Ferryman said, "And you — you, too, are part of the Underworld Yellow Spring. Which means you, too, are an Evil Corruption."