One slash of the sword.
And everything inside the Yama Hall transford beyond recognition.
The dog-head guillotine, the shackles, the chains — along with all the ghost officers — shattered into dust.
No, the ghost officers hadn't.
Because they had never moved from the very beginning. They had stood at their posts on either side the entire ti, maintaining their original stances.
What littered the ground instead were nurous scattered tree branches.
Chen Huangpi gripped the Void-Piercing Sword, eyeing the headless Yama's corpse with wariness.
"You can stop playing tricks!"
Chen Huangpi said coldly, "My three eyes can see everything with perfect clarity. You're the only malevolent spirit here — the rest of those ghost officers are all illusions, all fake!"
"I was wondering how I could have been bound by shackles and chains!"
"It was all delusion."
"I was influenced by you. I imprisoned myself."
The mont this third eye had appeared.
It had let him see through every deception in this place. From beginning to end, the ghost officers had never stirred — they had always been standing motionlessly on both sides.
The only thing that had ever changed was this headless Yama.
But it could not leave the dragon throne.
All it could do was influence Chen Huangpi indirectly. In truth, from start to finish, it had always been Chen Huangpi himself trying to tear off his own head and offer it up.
The headless Yama showed no reaction whatsoever.
No trembling, no speech.
As though Chen Huangpi had exposed its secret, leaving it suddenly powerless against him.
But then...
A chill suddenly rose in Chen Huangpi's heart.
The dark cyan eye locked onto the headless Yama with an unwavering stare.
"You're an illusion too..."
The instant those words were spoken.
The headless Yama's silhouette began to blur and distort.
As if a projection of light had exploded outward.
Once the Yama's corpse vanished.
Chen Huangpi was startled to discover that he himself was sitting upon the dragon throne.
Feeling the bone-deep cold radiating from beneath him, he raised his head — and there hung the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror directly overhead, its rcury-like surface reflecting straight down upon his body.
The world inside the mirror was reversed.
Chen Huangpi saw his reflection — face deathly pale, staring down at him with an expression of absolute despair.
And behind the reflection of himself.
Stood a towering, headless Yama.
At that very mont, the headless Yama was reaching both its hands toward the reflected Chen Huangpi's head.
Chen Huangpi said icily, "My Dao heart is unbreakable. What can a re illusion do to ?"
With that, the dark cyan eye snapped wide open.
Ripples spread across its pupil once more.
Yet.
Chen Huangpi remained absolutely motionless, still seated upon the dragon throne.
Instead, a colossal shadow lood before him, engulfing the throne and his own silhouette with it.
"This is also an illusion!"
Chen Huangpi snarled through gritted teeth, "My Dao heart cannot possibly be false. My will is even more unbreakable. Headless Yama, stop this nonsense — I've never been to school, I'm just a mountain kid, and you're a Yama King of the Underworld Yellow Spring."
"How could my head possibly fit on your neck?"
"Besides, if you take my head, I'll just take soone else's — and the cycle of vengeance will never end."
"I'm begging you — let's just part on good terms."
Chen Huangpi truly felt a pair of hands clamp down on his neck, then wrench upward with savage force, trying to rip his head free.
He glanced up at the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror.
Inside it, his reflection's face had turned beet red, utterly wretched.
And the headless Yama was gripping his neck with a deathlock, pulling upward with all its might.
"Let go!"
Chen Huangpi fought with everything he had to leave the dragon throne, but it was as though the seat had fused with his body — or rather, the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror was suppressing him, making escape impossible.
In a haze, a mory of the Evil Daoist surfaced in Chen Huangpi's mind.
The Evil Daoist had once told him: when the false is taken for real, the real becos false.
It was precisely through that principle that the Evil Daoist had obtained a drop of his blood.
He still didn't know what use his blood actually served.
But in this mont.
Chen Huangpi realized that if his reflection's head were torn off inside the mirror, then perhaps his real head would follow.
What terrified him most, though, was a question he dared not voice aloud.
Was he inside the mirror — or outside it?
'This is bad. I've gone mad just like Huang Er — I can't tell what's real from what's fake anymore.'
And right at that mont.
Chen Huangpi saw a beam of desolate black light surge from the mirror's surface.
The black light was blinding.
The instant it appeared, it consud the entire mirror.
"I am the Nine Nether God Lantern! Chen Huangpi, I'm here to save you!!"
That was Huang Er's voice — but now it had turned savage beyond asure, seething with a barely contained madness and agony compressed to their absolute limit.
Chen Huangpi also saw the Life-reaping Ghost.
The Life-reaping Ghost stood within the lantern light, pointing at the headless Yama and shouting, "Hurry — it's trying to rip off the contract master's head! Huang Er, you must not let it succeed!"
"Kill!!!"
The Nine Nether God Lantern erupted with murderous intent. Wave after wave of terrifying netherfire hurtled toward the headless figure without any regard for self-preservation.
But the netherfire, which should have been a ghastly green, had turned into a black fla of ill on.
The headless Yama let out an anguished howl.
The ominous fire did not burn its flesh — it didn't even ignite the ceremonial robes it wore.
Because what the fire burned was its true form.
Chen Huangpi's dark cyan eye contracted sharply.
He could see the true nature of the ominous fire.
Within it was the power of the black smoke.
Though faint — so faint it was nearly imperceptible — under the gaze of the dark cyan eye, there was nowhere for it to hide.
'Huang Er drained the power of that Nine Nether God Lantern!'
'But why does the Nine Nether God Lantern contain the black smoke's power? Was it truly Huang Er's clone — and one that I once contaminated?'
Chen Huangpi didn't know, couldn't understand.
All he could confirm was that his master must have visited this Underworld Yellow Spring long ago, leaving behind a clone of the Nine Nether God Lantern to enlighten Yin Gods. It was even possible that the master had brought an egg here — one that drained the Yellow Spring dry and devoured the Yin Lands.
But none of that mattered now.
What mattered was that Chen Huangpi finally knew whether he was inside the mirror or not.
"Huang Er, you've been tricked! A Gui, warn Huang Er — that's not !"
"It's a fake!"
"My real body is inside the mirror!"
But the one outside the mirror — the other him — was shouting at the top of his lungs: "Huang Er, A Gui, you've finally co to rescue !"
"Hurry and kill this Yama — I know how to get out of this damned place!"
"Don't be afraid! With here, no one can hurt you!"
Huang Er's expression had already grown sowhat deranged, yet he still hadn't forgotten his duty.
He had absorbed ninety percent of the clone's lamp oil.
With it ca the clone's countless years of mories and power, all crashing through his being, leaving him in excruciating discomfort. And he truly felt himself beginning to degenerate into a malevolent spirit — as though he had been corrupted.
"Yama — die!"
Huang Er threw open his gaping maw and bellowed, "I am the Nine Nether God Lantern! All ghost officers shall heed my command! Rise!!!"
The mont those words fell.
Black flas erupted from the severed necks of every ghost officer standing in the hall.
Imdiately after, wave upon wave of terrifying aura surged into being.
The Golden Top Heavenly Lamp belongs to Yang.
The Nine Nether God Lantern belongs to Yin.
The forr is radiant and righteous; the latter is eerie and sinister.
With his power now explosively amplified, Huang Er could naturally command these ghost officers.
He even had the sensation that if all his clones' power were reunited, then wherever his lantern light shone, the countless ghost officers and Yin Gods of the Underworld Yellow Spring would converge.
He was the guiding lantern.
They were the travelers who had lost their way.
And so, he cast his light upon the headless Yama. The very next second.
Every ghost officer in the Yama Hall materialized within the light.
Boom...
The headless Yama's body shuddered under an onslaught from countless ghost officers.
Yet despite its true form burning, its fra was imnse, and it still refused to release Chen Huangpi's neck.
"Detonate!"
Huang Er roared ferociously.
The ghost officers, as though caring nothing for their own existence, latched onto the headless Yama and began self-destructing one after another.
The lantern light flickered.
Every shockwave was deflected behind Chen Huangpi.
The headless Yama's body swayed, and it had no choice but to release its grip.
"Now's our chance!"
The Life-reaping Ghost cried out in excitent, "Huang Er, save the contract master — now!"
"I know!"
Huang Er extended a slender hand, clamping down on Chen Huangpi's shoulder with an iron grip. Then, with every ounce of strength in his body, he wrenched him bodily from the dragon throne.
And then, before the other could even process what was happening, Huang Er opened his cavernous jaws wide.
Crunch...
Crunch...
The Life-reaping Ghost's expression twisted in alarm. "Huang Er!!!!!"
"Fake!!"
Huang Er sneered viciously. "I'm his playmate, and he's mine! If I can't even tell the real from the false, then why would the Guanzhu have ever bothered to awaken ?"
He spoke in the archaic first person, yet the mont he ntioned the Guanzhu, he instinctively switched back to plain speech.
"Then where is the contract master?"
"How should I know?"
Huang Er scanned in every direction but could find no trace of Chen Huangpi anywhere.
In other words, the reason he had been certain the Chen Huangpi before him was fake was purely because they had spent so long together — he could spot the wrongness at a glance. It didn't an he understood what was actually going on in this place.
"Huang Er, I'm right above your head."
Chen Huangpi was rolling all three of his eyes. The bones in his neck were creaking audibly.
If his skin weren't genuinely tough as leather.
The headless Yama would have already ripped his head clean off.
But the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror truly could suppress everything — even the Dog Rearing Scripture's ability to share thoughts between bonded pairs was severed by it.
His words simply could not reach Huang Er.
Yet perhaps through so instinctive connection.
Huang Er suddenly glanced upward on a whim — only to see a pitch-black expanse above, abyssal and fathomless.
He could not see the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror.
Naturally, he could not see the Chen Huangpi trapped within the mirror, nor the shadow of the headless Yama ceaselessly tugging at Chen Huangpi's head.
"Chen Huangpi!"
Huang Er's voice grew increasingly frantic. A horrifying aura radiated from his body as he shook his head wildly. "Buddy, don't scare — where the hell are you?!"
"I'm powerful now — even if you were thrown into the eighteenth level of hell, I could still drag you out!"
"It's about to get dark. We can't waste any more ti."
"I can't leave you behind, and you can't leave behind either. Without by your side, people will bully you. This Underworld Yellow Spring is too wicked — it's not our ho. Let's go back to the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Let's go ho. Ho."
Huang Er's lamp body was trembling, warping.
More than half of his form had already turned black, and the transformation was accelerating.
He was truly on the verge of becoming a malevolent spirit.
"Huang Er!"
The Life-reaping Ghost gritted his teeth. "Get the Soul-Hooking Manual from that judge's hands."
No sooner had the words been spoken than a tongue of black fla delivered a Soul-Hooking Manual to the Life-reaping Ghost.
The ghost gazed at the booklet. Within his dark red eyes flickered a mont of hesitation — but it vanished as quickly as it had co.
"I'm going to sever every connection between myself and the contract master!"
"If I survive and can take up residence within this Soul-Hooking Manual, I'll use it to point you toward the contract master's location. If I die — then go back and carry the Guanzhu's body here to the Underworld Yellow Spring."
"This Underworld Yellow Spring has already gone to hell. Might as well destroy the whole thing!"
With that, the Life-reaping Ghost hurled himself headlong into the Soul-Hooking Manual without a shred of hesitation.
"AAAAHHH!!!"
The Life-reaping Ghost let out a scream of unbearable agony.
His body struck the Soul-Hooking Manual and shattered to pieces — as though the booklet were his natural nesis.
And in truth, it was.
A single Soul-Hooking Manual could house only one Life-reaping Ghost.
The Manual bound the Life-reaping Ghost. The mont Chen Huangpi had beco the contract master, the two sides had automatically entered into a pact.
Unless Chen Huangpi died.
The Life-reaping Ghost would remain under Chen Huangpi's command forever.
Now the Life-reaping Ghost sought to sever that bond, to take up residence in a new Soul-Hooking Manual, and then use the reverse resonance to locate the original Manual's hiding place — which was tantamount to breaking the contract.
Tantamount to death.
"When you think about it, it's almost laughable!"
The Life-reaping Ghost let out a wild, ferocious laugh. "Chen Huangpi never once ordered around. I was the one mooching off of him, eating his food, drinking his drink. I once heard a poem from the mortal world — 'To repay the honor bestowed upon the Golden Terrace, I draw my jade dragon sword and die for my lord.' I used to think mortals were foolish and absurd for that. But now... now I believe it a little."
"Only — can any of those mortals compare to ?"
The Life-reaping Ghost didn't know the answer, because his skull had already crumbled apart.
Then his neck. Then his torso. Then his hands.
That skeletal body disintegrated into powder in an instant.
The Soul-Hooking Manual struck the ground with a heavy thud, raising only a small plu of dust.
Huang Er watched the scene with hollow detachnt. Then, as if suddenly rembering sothing, he opened his mouth and inhaled a great lungful from the cloud of dust.
And right then.
The Soul-Hooking Manual emitted a faint, spectral glow.
That glow shot upward, illuminating the top of the great hall.
Huang Er looked toward where Chen Huangpi was supposed to be.
He still couldn't see a thing — but he knew: Chen Huangpi had to be there.
"Divine Light of..."
The blackened Nine Nether God Lantern erupted into full blaze.
A black sun illuminated the entire Yama Hall, and black light burst through the walls, blanketing the whole Ghost Gate region.
And beyond that.
In the Yin Lands. In the Town of Wrongful Death.
Not all the Yin Gods had departed — so still lingered.
And then they saw the golden gate transform back into the ghost gate, and pitch-black lantern light spill from within.
Throughout the countless tributaries of the Yellow Spring.
The Ferryn looked up. They, too, could see the black lantern light.
The Ferryman who had carried Chen Huangpi earlier smiled bitterly. "I knew it. That oil lamp the boy was carrying — it was the Nine Nether God Lantern all along."
"The Heaven and Earth Mutation — the sun plunged into the Underworld Yellow Spring. The Yin Emperor and every Yama died. The entire Underworld Yellow Spring degenerated into a malevolent spirit."
Ripples traveled across the surface of the Yellow Spring.
A ssage from another Ferryman: "Later, that person ca in person. Slew the malevolent spirits. Stabilized the Yin Emperor."
Yet another Ferryman added to the account.
"That person also brought an egg. Black and gold. The egg drained the Yellow Spring dry. Devoured the Yin Lands. The Underworld Yellow Spring has been dormant ever since."
"Enough — it's getting dark. That person is about to wake up. He can hear us."
The Ferryn looked skyward.
And then they saw it — high above the dim, overcast heavens.
The shadowy clouds parted.
A face so vast it eclipsed the entire Underworld Yellow Spring slowly opened its eyes. Those eyes were hollow and lifeless, yet as if sensing sothing, they snapped toward the Town of Wrongful Death, toward the Ghost Gate, and then toward the Yama Hall.
"Shatter!!!"
The sound of a mirror cracking rang out.
A black sun smashed headlong into the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror.
And then, all light vanished.
The Yin Emperor's gaze swept in that direction. He was already dead, yet instinct still compelled sothing within him — a sensation of being drawn toward sothing, an urge to devour, a yearning to live once more.
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