"Huang Er, where did Master go?"
Chen Huangpi jumped down from the crooked tree and cast his sightless gaze around.
But he couldn't see, so naturally he had no idea where his master had gone.
The Brass Oil Lamp replied, "The Guanzhu went into the main hall, but the mont he stepped inside, he vanished. He appears and disappears like a ghost — I have no idea where he's gone either."
"Hmph!"
Chen Huangpi snorted coldly. "Master has gone senile. I may be young, but when have I ever had a single day of leisure? Ever since he lost his mind, I'm the one patrolling the mountains, I'm the one who went to save him. Sure, strictly speaking, it didn't matter whether I saved him or not — but I saved him anyway."
"Master treats like a child. I refuse to accept it!"
"Huang Er, do you accept it?"
"What do you think? I've been beaten to a pulp — you tell !"
"Fine. Then I accept it too."
Chen Huangpi ruefully rubbed his backside.
When Third Master had been in his manic state, that bamboo switch had rained down on his rear countless tis.
If not for his thick skin and tough flesh, his backside would have been whipped to pieces.
"First Master would never hit like that."
Chen Huangpi said bitterly, "Third Master keeps saying it's all for my own good, but when he hits , his hand is by far the heaviest. And then there's Second Master — he was genuinely kind to too. I learned to cook from Second Master."
At the ntion of Second Master, Chen Huangpi's spirits sank. "It's just a sha that Second Master is trapped in the Old Temple now. I wonder if he misses in there."
The Brass Oil Lamp couldn't help but say, "The First Guanzhu wanted to refine you into a pill. The Second Guanzhu wanted to eat you raw. The Third Guanzhu just wants to kill you and get it over with. If you ask , the Third is the kindest one."
"True enough."
Chen Huangpi thought about it, then said, "But what exactly is the Old Temple suppressing? I used to think it was Third Master, but now Second Master has gone in and Third Master has co out. The Old Temple isn't what I thought it was at all."
When Master was lucid, he often patrolled the mountains.
Who knew how many powerful evil spirits had been hurled into the Old Temple.
The Nine Separation Bell was in there as well.
And each ti one master erged, another had to go in.
Could it be that the master was actually the one suppressing whatever was inside?
The Brass Oil Lamp speculated with a hint of malice, "Maybe the lucid Guanzhu is the one being suppressed in there."
It kept feeling that the Guanzhu's remark — "I'll still be able to see him" — carried a hidden aning.
Otherwise, the Guanzhu had made it perfectly clear: the outside world and the Hundred Thousand Mountains were different worlds with different suns and moons. If Chen Huangpi went out there, things would not go nearly as smoothly.
Heaven and earth themselves would find him disagreeable.
And yet the Guanzhu seed perfectly at ease about Chen Huangpi leaving. Perhaps there was a fourth Guanzhu.
No, wait — there had always been four, hadn't there?
Chen Huangpi mused, "First Master, Second Master, Third Master — though each of them has had monts of clarity, their robes never change to dark cyan."
"That's not entirely true."
The Brass Oil Lamp said haltingly, "I have seen the Guanzhu wearing a dark cyan robe. Co to think of it — didn't that Evil Daoist wear the exact sa thing?"
"No."
Chen Huangpi frowned. "After the Evil Daoist jumped out of the Fox Mountain God's mory, his robe turned black. I wanted to go settle the score with him earlier, but now I can no longer sense the whereabouts of that stolen blood drop. He may have already left the Hundred Thousand Mountains."
Hearing this.
The Brass Oil Lamp froze.
Could the Guanzhu have ant that the Evil Daoist would watch over Chen Huangpi out in the wider world?
But the Evil Daoist was rely a manifestation born from soone else's mory of the Guanzhu.
It wasn't the Guanzhu. It even called itself the "Evil Daoist." How could it possibly be the one?
The Evil Daoist's sole fixation was devouring Chen Huangpi. Could it really have changed its nature overnight?
And right at that mont.
Chen Huangpi suddenly rembered sothing.
He took out the Soul-Hooking Manual.
Though it looked the sa as before — just a finger's width thick — it felt different sohow, as if it had genuinely grown heavier and more substantial.
"A Gui is still sleeping."
Chen Huangpi said with concern. "I need to kill more cultivators and more gods to help him wake up sooner."
When the Decadirectional Bone-Illuminating Mirror had been shattered.
The two Soul-Hooking Manuals had already rged into one.
Unfortunately, the Life-reaping Ghost had not benefited from this — in fact, because he had forcibly severed the bond, every bone in his skeletal body had crumbled to pieces. If the two Manuals hadn't rged and Chen Huangpi hadn't remained the contract master, he would have thought the Life-reaping Ghost was gone for good.
The Brass Oil Lamp felt a twinge of emotion as well.
"A Gui earned his rit. He's on your side, sa as ."
"But the Hundred Thousand Mountains have fewer gods than people, and barely any cultivators at all. If you want to kill, you'll have to go to the outside world."
The closest part of the outside world to the Hundred Thousand Mountains was Xuzhou City.
The Brass Oil Lamp harbored no particular goodwill toward cultivators or gods.
But letting Chen Huangpi go out there right now didn't sit well with it.
"Let's wait until your eyes heal. Then we'll go out and kill."
The Brass Oil Lamp said with a cold smirk. "I may have purged that tainted lamp oil, but the clean oil is still inside . Right now, I'm far more powerful than before."
"The two of us, working together — we could raze Xuzhou City to the ground."
Chen Huangpi shook his head. "I won't slaughter innocents. Not unless they bring it on themselves."
"Besides, Master never said when I'm allowed to leave."
"Fair enough. Looks like A Gui won't be coming out for a while, then."
The Brass Oil Lamp sighed. "But without A Gui around, I keep feeling like sothing's missing. Like there's a gap."
"Yeah. I feel it too."
"The thing I'm missing isn't A Gui, though."
"Sa."
Chen Huangpi and the Brass Oil Lamp exchanged a glance.
Then, in perfect unison, they said: "The Vast-Sight God!"
One day in the mortal world equaled one year underground.
Chen Huangpi had entered the Underworld Yellow Spring through the God-Burying Mound. Although he'd spent eight double-hours down there, in mortal-world ti it had been no more than an instant.
By now, he was already back at the Pure Immortal Temple.
By all rights, the Vast-Sight God should have arrived by now.
Chen Huangpi couldn't see, so he told the Brass Oil Lamp, "Huang Er, wake up the Fox Mountain God and ask." Hearing this.
The Brass Oil Lamp imdiately shook awake the Fox Mountain God, which was still dangling unconscious from the crooked tree.
The Fox Mountain God asked blearily, "What Vast-Sight God?"
Chen Huangpi said urgently, "The one with the tumors on its head and eyes in its palms — the Vast-Sight God. I used to call it the Mutant Statue."
"Haven't seen it."
The Fox Mountain God shook its head. "I've been on the mountain the whole ti. If the Vast-Sight God had co, there's no way I wouldn't have noticed. Maybe the God-Burying Mound is too far and it's still on its way."
"..."
Chen Huangpi said nothing, but a bad feeling crept into his heart.
The Vast-Sight God had told him: when the day cos for you to return to the Great Qian Immortal Dynasty, I'll carry you on my back — let all those people see how grand and majestic you are.
That was its promise to him.
The Vast-Sight God was good...
It took promises seriously, too. Back then, if it hadn't been absolutely out of options, it would never have left the Pure Immortal Temple.
"It must just be delayed on the road."
Chen Huangpi clenched his teeth. "With thirty percent of its strength restored, the Vast-Sight God is more powerful than an ordinary Calamity. Maybe it's banishing evil and slaying demons along the way."
And right at that mont.
The Brass Oil Lamp suddenly seed to sense sothing. It said with puzzlent, "Buddy, there's an evil spirit at the foot of the mountain!"
Chen Huangpi was already in a foul mood. Hearing that an evil spirit was approaching.
Naless fury ignited in his chest.
"An evil spirit — it deserves to die!"
"It's the Big-Headed Evil Spirit."
...
A short while later.
Pure Immortal Temple, at the mountain gate.
The Big-Headed Evil Spirit — enormous skull, scrawny body — stared in disbelief at the young Daoist before it.
"You're the Yellow-Skin King?"
"But you're clearly human — you're not an evil spirit at all!"
Chen Huangpi brought two fingers together in a sword seal, and a razor-sharp blade of sword qi slashed past the top of the Big-Headed Evil Spirit's skull.
The creature was petrified with terror.
That single stroke of sword qi could have killed it.
With the even more terrifying broken lamp beside the boy, and so fox giving off a bizarre aura nearby, the Big-Headed Evil Spirit was furious — and yet all it could manage was a feeble: "If you kill , the Yellow-Skin King will avenge !"
"He commands legions of evil spirits! He's not afraid of you!"
Chen Huangpi said coldly, "I am the Yellow-Skin King. Big-Headed Evil Spirit, you beca the Vast-Sight God's tongue — so why have you co alone? Where is the Vast-Sight God?"
"The Vast-Sight God was turned into an evil spirit by an old Daoist in a black robe."
The Big-Headed Evil Spirit said uneasily. "That old Daoist cut off, then told to pass along a ssage to the Yellow-Skin King."
"What ssage?"
"He said: 'Huangpi, a child who never leaves the cradle will never grow up. Your master and the Vast-Sight God are waiting for you outside. Don't keep your master waiting too long.'"
"The Evil Daoist!"
Chen Huangpi gave a heavy nod. His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked.
Though his eyes were blind and vacant.
Killing intent brewed within them. Rage burned behind those empty pupils.
The Brass Oil Lamp sighed. "Chen Huangpi, let's go. I'll co with you."
"No."
Chen Huangpi shook his head. "My eyes haven't healed yet. Once they do, I'll go settle things with the Evil Daoist."
"He turned the Vast-Sight God into an evil spirit. I can turn it back."
The reason the Vast-Sight God had degenerated into an evil spirit.
Was the black smoke clinging to its body — power from the source.
It looked the sa as the black smoke inside the Kidney Temple, but in truth the two were fundantally different.
However, Chen Huangpi did have a way to deal with that source — he just needed to inhale it.
Seeing his restraint.
The Brass Oil Lamp breathed a sigh of relief and said with admiration, "Chen Huangpi, you have no idea how much you look like you're about to murder soone right now. I thought you'd charge in recklessly, but you didn't let anger cloud your judgnt."
"No," Chen Huangpi replied. "I just want to watch the Evil Daoist die with my own eyes."
"Right now I'm full of rage."
"I really want to find soone to kill. Huang Er, let hack at you a few tis to let off so steam."
"Or the Fox Mountain God — either of you would do."
The Brass Oil Lamp and the Fox Mountain God exchanged a glance and shook their heads in perfect synchrony.
Chen Huangpi was rely unable to see.
That didn't an he'd grown weaker. His Kidney Temple was fully forged, his Liver Temple was nearly complete, he'd eaten a mountain of Soul-Restoring Jade, and he wielded the Void-Piercing Sword — the one forged by Yi Qingzhou.
On top of that, he was currently in a towering fury.
Never mind taking a few slashes — a single swing from him right now would be aid squarely at taking a life.
And right at that mont.
At the foot of the mountain, a middle-aged man began ascending the stone steps.
As he climbed, he called out, "Chen Huangpi, I have a question for you — where has that Mutant Statue gone?"
"And who are you?"
"Song Tiangang."
"Ah. Your timing is impeccable."
Chen Huangpi slowly rose to his feet. The Void-Piercing Sword materialized in his hand out of thin air.
Behind him, the spectral silhouette of a withered tree unfurled, its trunk stretching toward the heavens. Its branches spread wide until they canopied the entire peak of the Pure Immortal Temple, blocking every last ray of light from reaching them.
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