108. You May Become a Yin Spirit

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Chen Huangpi groaned in frustration.

He never expected that when creating these yin spirits, millions of them in the end would all be waiting for some blessing from the Yellow Heaven.

The Yellow Heaven had not yet been born; the Dao Master had not yet arrived.

Therefore, approval was not granted.

Not only was approval denied, but there was even a next step.

“We’re still creating them, we’re still creating them.”

Feeling the urging gazes of those yin spirits, Chen Huangpi’s scalp tingled, and he shouted, “I really am creating them! Stop pushing me!”

He truly was in the process of creating them.

His pickaxe swung so fast it left afterimages.

The yin soil turned into soft, sloppy mud.

In just a few swift moves, he slapped together a mud figure.

Next came writing the underworld script on it, then embedding the Soul-Returning Jade.

This was the traditional method of creating yin spirits in the Yellow Springs.

Chen Huangpi shouted, “Give me a pen, I’ll write!”

All the yin spirits surrounding him handed over pens.

Chen Huangpi casually took one, about to inscribe characters on the mud figure.

But then he hesitated.

“Ah, ghost, how do you write the characters ‘Yellow Heaven’ in underworld script again…”

“Master…”

The death-seeking ghost said bitterly, “The beings nurtured by the Yellow Springs naturally master the underworld script from birth. But if you want me to teach you how to write it, I don’t even know where to begin. Even if I tried, you wouldn’t be able to write it.”

Before the cosmic upheaval,

the Yellow Springs and the human world were interconnected.

Immortals interested in this underworld script tried to remember its meaning, but none could reproduce the written form.

Even those reborn as beings of the Yellow Springs could write it, but once they returned to the human world, they instantly lost the ability.

That’s because the underworld script was constrained by certain rules,

like the sun being yang and the moon being yin.

It was all about the laws.

But now, the eyes of the yin spirits grew strange.

They were anxious, even resentful.

Chen Huangpi grimaced. “Ah ghost, write a character in my mind and I’ll copy it.”

The death-seeking ghost could not refuse.

It immediately inscribed the two characters “Yellow Heaven” into Chen Huangpi’s mind.

The characters were black, crooked, like a crude talisman scrawl.

Chen Huangpi tried to write them.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t replicate them.

“Despite calling myself well-read, I never thought I’d be a person who forgets how to write when holding a pen.”

He glanced at the yin spirits.

Their gazes were growing colder.

“Well then, I’ll give you the pen. You write.”

Chen Huangpi tentatively handed over the pen, but the yin spirits didn’t even take it, their eyes turning icily cold.

“Chen Huangpi, stop dawdling and just scribble something,” the bronze oil lamp said. “Since the blessing won’t be granted anyway, what have you got to lose?”

“Fine, then I’ll really write.”

With that, Chen Huangpi gritted his teeth and began to write on the mud figure.

The pen had no ink,

but the strokes appeared clearly.

These characters were not the underworld script,

nor the strange bird-fish-insect characters Chen Huangpi usually used.

They were ordinary, everyday characters.

Line after line, the words flowed down.

Then Chen Huangpi took out the Soul-Returning Jade, now chewed down to half a fist in size, and was about to embed it completely into the mud figure—but hesitated.

“Those other yin spirits only need a fingernail-sized bit to create a yin spirit. This piece I worked so hard to dig out—I can’t afford to waste it…”

Crunch.

Chen Huangpi bit off a large chunk.

After chewing a few times, he swallowed it whole.

In his mind, the six yin spirits already full from earlier now felt stuffed to bursting and fell silent.

Only a finger-sized fragment remained.

But Chen Huangpi didn’t continue chewing.

Because the yin spirits’ eyes turned furious, as if despising his behavior.

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He tossed the Soul-Returning Jade fragment into the mud figure.

Immediately, the mud figure changed.

A cold, sinister aura erupted from within it.

However, even when the mud figure stood up and transformed into a yin spirit, the characters on its body did not vanish.

Furthermore, this yin spirit was not tall.

Nor was its body slender.

Chen Huangpi was indeed exaggerating; the mud figure’s crooked facial features were even uglier than those made by the yin spirits, lacking any solemn divine dignity, instead giving off an absurd and bizarre feeling.

Most importantly,

the yin spirit was crooked and malformed, sure.

But the characters Chen Huangpi wrote were also crooked and malformed.

He had always written on paper before; this was his first time writing on a mud figure.

Since the characters didn’t disappear, the entire body of the yin spirit was covered with these ugly words.

In fact, Chen Huangpi ran out of space to write and ended up writing the number “9,981,424” right on the yin spirit’s forehead.

“This…”

Chen Huangpi looked helplessly at the other yin spirits.

Their gazes were strange.

Indescribably strange.

Their eyes flickered back and forth between Chen Huangpi and this even stranger fellow yin spirit.

This time, the yin spirit closest to Chen Huangpi lost its composure.

It suddenly strode up to him.

Then raised its hand to be level with Chen Huangpi’s head, maintaining that height as it moved to its own body.

Then down to its knees.

Keep in mind, this yin spirit was extremely tall.

Chen Huangpi, a youth, already reached its knees without being considered short.

But this gesture made Chen Huangpi’s heart pound.

“Those dumb dog yin spirits finally realized you’re not one of them?”

The bronze oil lamp’s voice was unreadable in emotion.

The yin spirit then moved its other hand to the top of the strangely made yin spirit’s head.

That strange yin spirit was not tall either.

Just half a head taller than Chen Huangpi.

The yin spirit compared its two hands:

one reached its own knee, the other its thigh.

Its gaze filled with confusion.

However, the strange yin spirit created by Chen Huangpi was unfazed.

It stretched both hands toward Chen Huangpi, as if asking for something.

“I don’t have it. Yellow Twenty-Four, ask them,” Chen Huangpi shook his head.

He knew that this yin spirit, nicknamed Yellow Twenty-Four, wanted a bamboo hat and black robe.

But he only had one bamboo hat.

No black robe at all. Where could he get one?

Although Yellow Twenty-Four was ugly and strange, it trusted Chen Huangpi completely.

When Chen Huangpi told it to ask the other yin spirits, it really reached out its hands to them.

But the other yin spirits were in a strange daze, ignoring Yellow Twenty-Four, who looked even less like one of their kind.

Yellow Twenty-Four was at a loss.

The bronze oil lamp scowled. “You foolish child, if they won’t give it to you, why don’t you just take it by force? You were made by Chen Huangpi, and yet you’ve inherited none of his strengths!”

Upon hearing this, Yellow Twenty-Four nodded thoughtfully.

Then its body suddenly expanded.

The crooked characters on its body emitted a bizarre aura.

In the blink of an eye, to the bronze oil lamp’s disbelief, it grew taller than the other yin spirits by more than half a body length.

Then it grabbed a yin spirit and punched it hard.

Next, it ruthlessly tore off the yin spirit’s bamboo hat and black robe.

Putting on the hat and robe itself,

Yellow Twenty-Four shrank back down to the size of the other yin spirits.

Its strange and ugly appearance was instantly concealed.

Then Yellow Twenty-Four stood silently in front of Chen Huangpi, gazing at him with pure and intense eyes.

Chen Huangpi’s skin crawled.

“What are you looking at? Go complete the ritual at that golden gate…”

Yellow Twenty-Four nodded and walked toward the golden gate.

The bronze oil lamp said in surprise, “Chen Huangpi, could it be that Yellow Twenty-Four thinks you’re its father? It listens to you that well.”

“Nonsense,” Chen Huangpi replied. “My master said I’m handsome. Yellow Twenty-Four is so ugly—I don’t have such an ugly son. Besides, we’re not related by blood. I won’t let it inherit my Pure Immortal Sect, nor the Great Qian, nor the Yellow Springs.”

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“Ugh! The golden gate is glowing again!”

The golden door emitted streaks of golden light once more.

It bathed Yellow Twenty-Four in a golden radiance, making it shine brilliantly.

Then the cold, somewhat mechanical voice sounded again.

All the yin spirits listened carefully.

“Dao Calendar 17,400 years. Today, one yin spirit prays for the Yellow Heaven’s blessing. However, the Yellow Heaven is not yet born; the Dao Master has not yet arrived; therefore…”

“Therefore…”

“Therefore…”

The voice repeated the character for “therefore” three times consecutively.

It seemed stuck, unable to say the final phrase of disapproval.

Therefore, therefore, therefore…

Countless “therefore” characters echoed from the golden gate.

The yin spirits were at a loss.

Yellow Twenty-Four continued to pray and kneel.

Because Chen Huangpi hadn’t told it to stop.

The yin spirits exchanged glances and all gathered around Yellow Twenty-Four.

But these yin spirits did not notice that the short yin spirit who treated the Soul-Returning Jade as food had vanished without a trace.

Chen Huangpi tiptoed out.

His movements cautious.

Once behind, he began to jog.

There were only two hours left before nightfall.

If he didn’t leave soon, he wouldn’t be able to leave at all.

“Golden Horn, where’s that path you mentioned?” Chen Huangpi called in his mind.

As for the other Soul-Reaping Register in the Yama Palace, he had no mood to retrieve it.

The Yama Palace was gone.

Returning to the human world to save his master was now his top priority.

Golden Horn replied, “Yellow Skin Dad, I can only sense that the path back to the human world is nearby, but golden light is everywhere, interfering with my spiritual perception. I can’t be sure, but it seems you’re getting farther from that path.”

“Farther?”

Chen Huangpi looked back.

Behind him were only the yin spirits gathered at the golden gate.

“Don’t tell me that path back to the human world is inside that gate?”

Before he finished speaking,

suddenly—

All the golden light vanished instantly.

The cold, mechanical voice in the gate faltered.

Only the repeated “therefore, therefore, therefore” echoed continuously in the air.

The “therefore” grew weaker,

until it could no longer be heard.

Only then did the voice sound again.

But this time, it was no longer cold and mechanical; instead, it was chilling and eerie.

“Dao Calendar 17,400 years. Today, one yin spirit prays for the Yellow Heaven’s blessing. Although the Yellow Heaven is not yet born, the Dao Master has not yet arrived, the qualifications are met, therefore approval is granted!”

The moment the voice finished, the golden gate instantly became covered with grim green copper rust, losing its previous majestic and solemn appearance.

Instead, it exuded a ghostly and sinister aura.

Inside the gate was pitch black.

One by one, pale hands reached out, firmly grasping the doorframe.

The gate had become the Gate of Ghosts.

Beyond the gate,

through the darkness, the faint outline of a grand hall could be seen.

Chen Huangpi said hoarsely, “Yama Palace. Behind this ghost gate is Yama Palace, just like the old temple.”

The bronze oil lamp trembled, “And that voice... Chen Huangpi, doesn’t it sound like my voice?”

As the words fell,

an ancient oil lamp covered in copper rust and burning with underworld flames emerged from the ghost gate before Chen Huangpi’s disbelieving eyes.

It was the bronze oil lamp’s true form.

The Nine Nether Spirit Lamp said coldly, “I am the Nine Nether Spirit Lamp. You may become a yin spirit.”

Half an hour ago, this was already written.

The last part took half an hour to smooth out.

In fact, only a few characters were changed.

Thank you all for waiting.

(End of this chapter)