99. Let me see exactly what you are! (Third update, W-words)

Evil spirits are simply malevolent entities.

However, in the realm of the underworld and the nether soil, they are called evil spirits.

There is no distinction between different grades such as malevolent beings, disasters, calamities, or misfortunes.

Because, in truth, the underworld and the nether soil harbor only two types of evil spirits:

One is the underworld itself.

The other is the nether soil.

Yet, the ferryman claimed that Chen Huangpi is also part of the underworld and nether soil; he is an evil spirit as well.

His tone was resolute, as if Chen Huangpi were a creature born of the underworld and nether soil.

“Ridiculous,” Chen Huangpi thought disdainfully.

Though he was born from an egg, it was an egg from the Great Qian Immortal Dynasty.

Later, he was born amidst the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.

If anything, he was a part of those mountains.

What connection did he have to the underworld and nether soil?

Surely, it couldn’t be said that he grew up drinking underworld water and eating nether soil—it was too absurd.

Still, the ferryman gave Chen Huangpi a very strange impression.

He seemed like an ordinary mortal, and his strength was hard to gauge.

Chen Huangpi wasn’t sure, and since there was no enmity between them, although he found the claim laughable, he earnestly asked, “Grandfather, since A Gui and Golden Horn are beings of the underworld and nether soil, and you are too, we’re all from the same family. Can you tell me how to save them? I will repay you.”

At these words, the reaper spirit and Golden Horn felt a warm glow in their hearts.

They knew Chen Huangpi’s nature well.

Though he liked to lie, boast, and shamelessly act sly, he never harmed those around him without reason.

The ferryman’s voice turned cold: “After night falls, the evil spirits climb out of the underworld to kill them. They have nowhere to escape unless you bring them back to the human world.”

“One day in the human world equals one year below.”

“They will survive until the earth dragon turns over.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Huangpi breathed a sigh of relief.

The Hundred Thousand Great Mountains often experienced the earth dragon turning over.

Though it was brief, once he revived his master, those evil spirits dared to come up, his master would surely intervene.

But while Chen Huangpi thought this, the brass oil lamp had other thoughts.

The earth dragon turned over once every 365 years.

It had only just passed.

The evil spirits planned to use this opportunity to ascend to the human world and kill the reaper spirit and Golden Horn, but they would have to wait.

Yet, unlike those evil spirits, the lamp was different.

“Chen Huangpi, ask this ferryman how to return to the human world,” the brass oil lamp urged silently.

They had reached the underworld and nether soil by way of that black coffin; surely they couldn’t return the same way.

Besides, there was the already completely mad Yi Qingzhou above.

Chen Huangpi understood this well.

So he asked, “Grandfather, do you know how to return to the human world?”

The ferryman replied, “You came how you came; just go back the same way. Why ask me?”

Chen Huangpi was momentarily speechless.

True, the simplest was to retrace their steps.

He had not expected the passage in the God-Burying Tomb to be inside Yi Qingzhou’s coffin.

For a moment, Chen Huangpi felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.

But the reaper spirit whispered softly: “Master, this is why I insisted you bring the child of the listener.”

Chen Huangpi looked at Golden Horn.

“Papa Huangpi, I...” Golden Horn hesitated.

Years ago, when the Daoists from the Pure Immortal Temple came to the underworld to dig yellow clay, it was a grave offense, a taboo.

Yet the child had shown them where the yellow clay was most abundant and finest in quality.

In the end, it even led the Daoists on a shortcut back to the human world.

This was the child’s ability as the listener’s offspring.

But the second brother, Silver Horn, did not share this talent.

Moreover, so many years had passed, and with the changes in heaven and earth, the connection between the underworld and human world was usually severed.

One had to wait for the earth dragon to turn over or find strange places like the God-Burying Tomb to descend.

Those routes might have long since been cut off.

Yet, seeing Chen Huangpi’s hopeful gaze, Golden Horn could not utter such disheartening words.

So, with determination, it guaranteed, “Papa Huangpi, don’t worry. Once we retrieve the Soul-Reviving Jade, leave the return to me. I know a closer path. As long as we don’t die, we will definitely find a way out.”

“Good!”

Chen Huangpi felt somewhat reassured and no longer hesitated.

He directly said to the ferryman, “Sir, please take us to the nearest Desolate Mountain!”

“Of course,” the ferryman smiled. “So, what do you have to give me?”

Chen Huangpi said, “I have money.”

He took out some copper coins, not only his own but also the money collected earlier from those cultivators led by Song Qiuyue.

“I don’t want money,” the ferryman’s voice turned cold. “That is less than dung.”

“What do you want then?” Chen Huangpi frowned. “Besides money, I have nothing else.”

“Not necessarily,” the ferryman said, looking at Chen Huangpi.

In its countless years ferrying beings across the underworld and through the nether soil, not every passenger carried precious treasures.

So the ferryman searched for something better.

Its eyes fell upon the sword on Chen Huangpi’s back.

The sword was entirely black with an ancient design.

Chen Huangpi frowned. “I can’t give you the Dongxu Sword; it was given to me by Yi Qingzhou.”

“In the form of an evil spirit, transformed into a sword and scabbard, this sword is alive. Your Yi Qingzhou is truly skilled. I am not like him. Yet it seems there is something hidden inside this sword. Let me take a closer look.”

The ferryman’s gaze, sharper than any blade, pierced through the scabbard and blade of the Dongxu Divine Sword.

Tick... tick...

Two lines of gray blood tears slid from the ferryman’s hood onto the bamboo raft.

It saw clearly.

A sword shadow appeared—extremely sharp and terrifying.

To the ferryman, the sword shadow itself was not powerful; it was merely the trace left by a sword.

The shadow was weak, but the sword that left it was powerful.

“Take it away, quickly take it away!” the ferryman said in terror. “How can you have the shadow of that sword? Are you here to harm me?”

Chen Huangpi asked, “You mean Dongzhen?”

“No, no, no...” the ferryman hurriedly said, “Don’t say it, don’t say it—I don’t want to hear it, don’t tell me anything about that sword. I haven’t lived long enough.”

“Put it away, quickly!”

“Alright,” Chen Huangpi reluctantly sheathed the Dongxu Divine Sword into the Soul-Hooking Tome.

This made the ferryman breathe a sigh of relief.

“That sword...”

“What sword?” the ferryman waved its hand. “Where is the sword on you? I didn’t see anything.”

Though it said this, it couldn’t help sneaking another glance at Chen Huangpi’s back.

Carrying the shadow of that sword.

What kind of evil spirit was this?

Then, the ferryman froze.

It saw within Chen Huangpi’s body strange characters in gold and black, resembling birds, fish, and insects.

Looking next to the brass oil lamp, the ferryman immediately saw its true form revealed.

The Nine Nether Divine Lamp...

It was entirely the color of rusted bronze.

The brass oil lamp frowned, displeased: “What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen a lamp before?”

“Yes, I have, more than once,” the ferryman laughed, finally at ease.

It turned to Chen Huangpi. “You just said your name is Chen Huangpi. Is your family name Chen?”

“Yes, I am surnamed Chen,” Chen Huangpi replied with curiosity. “Grandfather, is there a problem with that?”

“No, don’t call me grandfather. I’m actually very young.”

The ferryman tried to keep its tone calm but couldn’t help bending over and speaking in the gentlest voice it had ever used: “You want to go to Desolate Mountain, right? I’ll take you there. Then, just pretend you never saw me, alright?”

“Please.”

“Alright.”

Chen Huangpi hesitated. “Then what do you want?”

“Want something?” The ferryman looked at the copper coins in Chen Huangpi’s hand, staring hard to confirm they were ordinary coins before relaxing.

“Money is fine! I love money the most!”

“How much do you want?”

“How much should I want?”

“How should I know?”

“Then I’ll just take one coin. Hmm... what do you think?”

“Fine.”

With that, the ferryman took one coin and waved its sleeve without hesitation.

The gray mist immediately roiled and surged.

The ferryman held the bamboo pole and swept it through the underworld waters.

In an instant, the bamboo raft appeared on a shore.

“So fast?” Chen Huangpi was amazed. “I thought it would take much longer.”

“If you want to return to the human world, time is very important,” the ferryman urged. “Hurry ashore. There are only eight hours of daylight left. If you haven’t returned by then, split up. The listener’s child and the underworld spirits will die—extinct, anyway. You’re different; if you can leave, then leave.”

“And remember—we never met, really never met!”

Saying this, the ferryman tapped the bamboo raft with its pole.

Chen Huangpi and the brass oil lamp were instantly transported to the shore.

Without hesitation, the ferryman stabbed the bamboo pole back into the underworld water.

Then, as if fleeing for its life, it vanished.

It truly was running.

While escaping, the ferryman screamed wildly inside its mind:

“Bird, fish, insect, gold and black—it's that egg, it must be that egg.”

“No wonder it carries the aura of the underworld and nether soil.”

“It hatched and still came back? Returning home?”

While thinking this, the ferryman repeatedly tapped the bamboo raft with its pole.

Ripples spread swiftly.

It was sending this information to other ferrymen.

Countless ferrymen floated above the underworld.

They never set foot on the shore.

Within the underworld, they transmitted messages through ripples.

Wherever the ripples passed, more and more ferrymen learned that the egg had returned—not only returned but had truly hatched.

“Don’t touch it! Don’t let it go into the water!”

“The underworld cannot be cut off again. Let it go cause havoc in the nether soil. Few there know it.”

“Stop talking. After dark, it will awaken and hear everything.”

“I’m still young. I’ve only lived hundreds of thousands of years. I haven’t lived enough. Please, shut up.”

(End of chapter)