Brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
The brass oil lamp watched from behind the scenes, inwardly wanting to applaud Silver-Horn — while outwardly saying: "Fine, Chen Huangpi — they've said all that. Just pass it on to them."
Looking like it was being completely dragged along and utterly reluctant.
Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn suppressed their irritation.
They couldn't stand Huang Er at all. First it had tried to stop Chen Huangpi from giving benefits to his family. Then it had imdiately stirred up trouble between them. When Chen Huangpi had barely managed to get through to it, it had started in about talent.
Simply outrageous!
Once they mastered this celestial technique, they'd make Huang Er eat its words.
Otherwise how could they justify Huangpi-Dad's kindness?
Chen Huangpi watched Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn looking at him with desperate, eager eyes, and imdiately ca closer. "Empty your minds — I'll pass you the celestial technique right now. Cultivate it properly. You must master it before dawn."
"Don't worry, Huangpi-Dad!"
"We are after all Sons of Diting — however profound the celestial technique, we can master it."
This wasn't a boast. Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn's true nature was as Sons of Diting, born roaming the Yellow Springs through the Yin Lands. In the Yin Lands they were the favored children — just as Chen Huangpi was the favored child of the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Mastering a celestial technique was entirely within their reach.
"Wait — this technique..."
Golden-Horn turned the complete text of the so-called celestial technique over in its mind and felt sothing was slightly off. It had caught a strange, indefinable trace of sothing.
Hard to na. But unmistakably odd.
"Ah!"
Silver-Horn lit up with delight: "Elder Brother — I've already gotten through the gate of entry!"
"You..."
Golden-Horn's eight eyes went wide in disbelief. "How did you cultivate so fast?"
"Naturally because my talent is exceptional — one try and I've got it!"
Silver-Horn said smugly: "Elder Brother — don't tell you haven't even gotten through the first gate? After all those years guarding the Scripture Pavilion's door, if you can't even pass through the door of a celestial technique — maybe you should let be the elder brother from now on!"
Golden-Horn ignored its foolish younger brother and instead asked Chen Huangpi: "Huangpi-Dad — is sothing wrong with this technique?"
"What's wrong with it?"
Chen Huangpi and the brass oil lamp felt a jolt in their chests, and imdiately began to exchange ssages in secret.
"This Golden-Horn wouldn't have seen through it, would it?"
"Hard to say — it doesn't seem like an empty-headed creature. And its nose is sharp."
Just at that mont, Golden-Horn said abruptly: "Unless I'm wrong — you haven't passed us the complete version, have you?"
The celestial technique was the Dog Rearing Scripture.
Of course Chen Huangpi couldn't hand them the whole thing. Even this lower volu — the Trained-Dog Scripture — had a great many things omitted from it.
Chen Huangpi's expression didn't change. He smiled and said: "Golden-Horn — I didn't expect you to see through it. You're right. I've transmitted only the first five levels to you. Once you've mastered them, I'll pass you the remaining five."
"This—"
"What 'this'?"
The brass oil lamp spoke up furiously: "Haven't you heard — sacred arts must not be passed on carelessly?"
"Even family has ranks of trust!"
"Look at you — Chen Huangpi is giving you benefits, passing on a celestial technique — and yet you're hesitating. Whereas Silver-Horn — holy hell, it's already mastered it?"
"Hahaha!"
Silver-Horn burst into laughter and rolled on the ground with glee: "To think Second Elder has such exceptional talent that I mastered this celestial technique on the first try — as if it were crafted specifically for ! Elder Brother — please tell you're not failing to cultivate it and throwing a tantrum to cover it up?"
Golden-Horn was imdiately furious: "I, Elder, haven't even started yet. If you can do it — how could I not?"
"Let at it!"
Golden-Horn began cultivating in a burst of indignation.
And then it was stunned.
"I've already passed the gate of entry?"
"Wait — I've already mastered it?"
Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn looked at each other, both astonished.
"Huangpi-Dad — could it be that we brothers are genuinely prodigies?"
And their Huangpi-Dad, at that mont, let a satisfied smile cross his face.
"Huang Er — you pick one."
"This even needs picking? Start with the big one — it insulted the most just now!"
The brass oil lamp gave a cold laugh.
"That's not appropriate."
Chen Huangpi said: "That's personal bias — if I had disciples soday, they'd say I'm not impartial."
The more Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn listened, the more wrong it sounded. A terrible premonition settled in both their minds.
They looked back at Chen Huangpi.
Chen Huangpi had already produced a copper coin, and was saying to himself: "Perfectly heads or tails — whichever it falls on, that's the one."
Hearing this, Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn instantly understood they had been completely played.
This so-called family, so-called benefits — it had all been scheming against them from the start.
"ROAR!!!"
Golden-Horn let out a furious bellow, its body swelling suddenly larger: "Three-Inches-Short — and you — that wretched lamp — I, Elder, am going to eat you both!"
Silver-Horn was even angrier: "Kill them!!!"
But the next second — they discovered in terror that the celestial technique they had just mastered inside their bodies had instantly activated on its own. As if so will was driving the technique. A will a full level higher than their own mastery of it. And their bodies — were right then being controlled by that will, as if they had changed masters.
"What sinister technique did you pass us?!"
"The Dog Rearing Scripture is not a sinister technique!"
……
Elsewhere. The blood-red moon spread across the sky.
Tonight, the Hundred Thousand Mountains were unusually quiet. The weather had turned cold — autumn was coming. Even the wind was cold.
The Fox Mountain God curled up at the entrance of the Pure Immortal Temple's main hall, and looked up at the red moon in the sky. It was perfectly round. In the old days, the Fox Mountain God would have howled at a red moon like this. Even though it was a clay deity — it still had the nature of a fox. But right now, never mind howling — it didn't even dare make a sound.
Because ever since Chen Huangpi had entered the Old Temple, the Fox Mountain God had been crouching at the entrance, keeping watch over Guanzhu's body inside the hall, making sure no birds ca to peck at it and no bugs ca to gnaw at it.
"Are there even any birds or bugs in this wretched Pure Immortal Temple..."
The Fox Mountain God was suffering internally: "Chen Huangpi just loves to tornt . He knows I'm the sensible one. If it had been the Yellow Peril, it definitely wouldn't have listened to him."
The Yellow Peril had once been the weasel mountain god — made alongside the Fox Mountain God by Xu Qingshan.
And just at that mont, the Fox Mountain God happened to glance at Guanzhu's body.
Its heart tensed.
Its eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Is it imagining things? Why does it feel like Guanzhu just moved?"
No — not imagining. During the day, it and the brass oil lamp and the Life-reaping Ghost had all kept their eyes fixed on Guanzhu. They had stared until their eyes hurt. And yet they hadn't noticed him growing a third head until it was almost already happening. If it felt movent — then there had been movent. Definitely.
With that thought, the Fox Mountain God's heart lurched. It realized, for the first ti, that "heart pounding like a drumbeat" was not just a mortal exaggeration.
"Could Guanzhu be rising from the dead?"
An irreverent thought rose in its mind. Its curled-up body imdiately raised all its hackles. But it waited and waited, and looked and looked — Guanzhu showed not the slightest movent. He looked exactly like a stiff immortal corpse that had simply not yet decayed.
"Guanzhu — please have rcy."
The Fox Mountain God clasped its paws together and kowtowed respectfully toward Guanzhu: "I am just a little fox — you promised Chen Huangpi you wouldn't eat . If you want to absorb sothing — go right ahead. Absorb deeply. Just leave alive as a fox — even if you don't leave alive as a dog, that's enough."
And just at that mont — Guanzhu's two heads suddenly moved, shifting further apart to the left and right, as if making way for a head that hadn't yet appeared between them.
The Fox Mountain God's heart stopped.
Its eyes rolled back. Its legs gave out. Its body fell still. A mountain god — a real mountain deity — had been frightened unconscious.
The main hall was eerie and still. Three portraits of the Daoist priest hung on the wall. Below them, the offering table where tributes were normally placed now held instead two fragnts of the brass oil lamp. The lamp flas flickered — brightening and dimming.
Crack. Crack.
Several bones pushed through from between Guanzhu's two heads with a grinding sound. Had the Fox Mountain God not fainted, it would have recognized them imdiately — those were cervical vertebrae. Tendons and flesh were slowly growing around them. The third head — was truly beginning to erge.
……
Elsewhere. Old Temple. Entrance of the Scripture Pavilion.
Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn both wore expressions full of bitter defeat.
"Chen Huangpi — you are a thoroughly rotten person. You will not die well. If you actually had the guts — fight us honestly, one-on-one."
"Elder Brother, it's useless. He's young and his thods are dark. We can't out-sche him."
Hearing this, Chen Huangpi shook his head: "Golden-Horn, Silver-Horn — you've misunderstood . Yes — I used underhanded tactics. I renad the Dog Rearing Scripture as a celestial technique and passed it to you. But all of this was to save you, to bring you to the Yellow Springs and the Yin Lands."
"If there is even half a falsehood in what I say — may I never grow tall for the rest of my life."
"You think I'd believe you?"
"But Elder Brother — he made an oath. Last ti he swore an oath he didn't deceive us."
Silver-Horn said, then turned to Chen Huangpi: "I believe you. But if you're really trying to bring us out — why did you flip a coin to decide? Does that an only one of us can co?"
"That's correct."
Chen Huangpi thought back to the Life-reaping Ghost's words and said: "You are Sons of Diting — the favored children of the Yellow Springs and the Yin Lands. Once you were there, I'd fear you might have ans to shake off the Dog Rearing Scripture. So I can only take one out, and the other stays in the Old Temple as a hostage."
"If either of you develops any ill-intentioned ideas — then the one left behind can forget about returning to the Yellow Springs and the Yin Lands for the rest of their existence."
"I see!"
Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn both understood at once, and the way they then looked at each other imdiately changed.
"Younger brother..."
"Elder brother..."
The two of them didn't say anything further. And yet it felt like everything had already been said.
The next second, Golden-Horn imdiately announced: "This is unfair — I am smart and obedient. You should simply have chosen from the start."
Silver-Horn hurried to counter: "Huangpi-Dad — I am dull and foolish. But I have no bad intentions. With your wisdom you can easily keep in check — choosing is the surer bet!"
Chen Huangpi had no intention of going back and forth with them. He simply flipped the copper coin.
Heads — which ant Golden-Horn.
"Hahaha!!!"
Golden-Horn erupted in triumphant laughter, rolling on the ground with satisfaction: "I get to go back to the Yellow Springs and the Yin Lands! I'm going to drink until I drop and eat until I burst. Silver-Horn — stay here and be a good hostage. We'll et again in the Yin Lands eventually."
Silver-Horn howled in protest: "This is unfair — foul play — I demand another flip!"
"Denied. Whoever it lands on gets processed first. Once I've settled the business, I'll co back for you."
As Chen Huangpi said this, a branch shaped like a sword appeared in his hand, and a sinister dead-grey blade of sword qi condensed in an instant.
Looking at Chen Huangpi's face — alive with killing intent — Golden-Horn and Silver-Horn both froze.
"Younger brother — didn't you say there was foul play? Go on, take the spot — you've been hosick for forever anyway. Might as well head back."
"No — I haven't been. Not even slightly."
"AAAGH!!!"
Golden-Horn let out a scream. A blade of dead-grey sword qi swept clean across its neck, and in an instant — a head dropped to the ground.
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