Liver Temple, tree branches, a great fire simmering.

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"Huang Er, wake up, something terrible has happened!"

The brass oil lamp was roused from sleep and mumbled groggily, "Did the Demon Tree escape?"

"It entered the Kidney Temple. The one in trouble is me."

"What could possibly happen to you?"

"My two kidneys are gone."

"What?"

The brass oil lamp's eyes widened; there was no room for idle chatter now. It immediately fixed its gaze on Chen Huangpi's body to inspect him closely.

Sure enough, it was as he said. The two kidneys had vanished without a trace, replaced by an ancient, temple-shaped structure reminiscent of kidneys.

"Where are your kidneys?"

"They were there just a moment ago. Now, I have no idea where they went," Chen Huangpi replied, his face ashen.

He remembered clearly: when he summoned the Kidney Temple, both kidneys were still inside him. Even when the Demon Tree was drawn into the Kidney Temple, the kidneys remained. Yet, after the temple merged with his body, the kidneys disappeared.

The brass oil lamp speculated uncertainly, "Maybe it's because your Five Viscera Divine Refinement has succeeded. You've forged the Kidney Temple and invited in a deity, so you no longer need your kidneys? So they just vanished?"

"But my vital energy is gone too," Chen Huangpi added.

"Vital energy is generated by the kidneys. Without them, of course your energy is gone," said the lamp, as if convincing itself.

Looking at Chen Huangpi's pitiful state, the lamp was genuinely distressed.

It tried to comfort him: "Don't worry, try to see the bright side. Though you've lost your vital energy and your kidneys, the Kidney Temple is already formed. Keeping the kidneys would be useless anyway—just pretend a dog ate them."

"What did you say?!"

Chen Huangpi's voice was incredulous, and he longed to throttle the lamp. What did it mean, pretend a dog ate them? Even if a dog really had eaten them, he would make sure to transplant the dog's kidneys into himself—he could not simply accept this loss.

Besides, without kidneys, his vital energy was gone. He only had two techniques: the Demon-Slaying Sword, which relied on sword energy, and the Dog-keeping Sutra, which was a cultivation method. Without vital energy, both were now useless.

At that moment, the brass oil lamp also realized the gravity of the situation. Without vital energy, Chen Huangpi had lost all his means. The Dog-keeping Sutra would be unusable for him—but the lamp itself could still use it.

"Chen Huangpi, the Ten Thousand Mountains are dangerous, aren't they?"

"Yes, why?"

The brass oil lamp said earnestly, "Now that you have no vital energy, you're even weaker than when you started cultivating. If you encounter something evil, you’ll be easy prey."

"Evil spirits won’t pity you for losing two kidneys."

Hearing this, Chen Huangpi nodded in agreement, "You're right, evil spirits won't pity me. Only my master truly cares for me."

The lamp quickly added, "And me, Huang Er—I care for you too!"

"Really?" Chen Huangpi gave the brass oil lamp an appraising look.

Huang Er had been his companion since childhood. Their bond ran deep; they knew each other so well that they could predict each other's every move.

Chen Huangpi sneered, "I think you just want to be the master now, don't you?"

"Oh, it's just a temporary measure," protested the lamp. "I'm only doing this to protect you. Once your cultivation returns, I'll gladly give the position back. Please, just teach me the first volume of the Dog-keeping Sutra, won't you?"

"Don't even think about it!" said Chen Huangpi, extremely wary. "If you were me, would you pass it on?"

"Of course I would!" the lamp replied earnestly. "We're like brothers, surely that's worth more than a mere scroll!"

"You can’t use it now, so why not let me take over?"

The lamp was desperate to ride on Chen Huangpi's back. Even now, it couldn't forget the complicated feelings from when it tried to command him to transform, only to end up as a dog itself.

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Now, at last, the tables were turning!

"Huangpi, times have changed!"

"Huang Er! I'm still the master!"

Chen Huangpi was furious and instinctively tried to use the Dog-keeping Sutra.

The lamp sensed this. But instead of panicking, it waited, ready to see Chen Huangpi embarrass himself.

But in the next instant, the lamp couldn't laugh.

The Sutra had two volumes: Chen Huangpi practiced the first, the Master’s Manual; Huang Er practiced the second, the Dog’s Manual.

Suddenly, the lamp felt its own Sutra activate. In the blink of an eye, its lamp body stretched long, its limbs twisted, sprouting claws. Its head turned into that of a dog.

Its mouth opened, emitting a terrified bark.

"This..."

Sensing something, Chen Huangpi quickly focused inward. He discovered that although his kidneys and their endless vital energy were gone, a faint, almost imperceptible aura had appeared around his liver. It was weak, barely detectable, but undeniably present. Like vital energy, it was self-generating and cyclical, constantly forging the Liver Temple.

Unlike the kidney’s vital energy, this was yellow-green.

It was still vital energy.

Opening his eyes, Chen Huangpi looked coldly at the lamp. "Huang Er, did you just call me Huangpi?"

The lamp burst into laughter. "Master, you must have misheard."

It continued, "You've lost both kidneys, your body is bound to have problems, so it's normal if your hearing is off. Wait..."

"Look, there's something growing out of your ear!"

The lamp suddenly froze. It saw a branch poke out of Chen Huangpi's ear, then quickly retract.

Chen Huangpi sneered, "You think I’ll fall for that?"

But as he spoke, his ear began to itch. Instinctively, he reached up to scratch it—and the smile vanished from his face.

"Huang Er..."

"Yes, it's a branch from the Demon Tree."

...

A quarter hour later.

In the guest room, the Fox Mountain Spirit slowly regained consciousness, feeling as if its whole body was about to shatter. The pain was overwhelming.

"Old Lady Tang..."

The Fox Mountain Spirit instinctively called for its temple attendant.

A series of events had occurred the previous night, but its followers, who had remained in the guest room, were all unharmed. Each had survived. There weren’t many of them, but as long as there were worshippers, the spirit’s existence could be sustained.

Old Lady Tang responded.

"Where are you?" asked the Fox Mountain Spirit. "I remember seeing a temple and fainting before entering. Did you bring me back?"

"It was Chen Huangpi, not me."

"Him?" The spirit was moved. "Good, good, that boy has a conscience. My incense offerings weren’t in vain. Where is he? I must thank him properly."

The thanks were merely an excuse; the real aim was to serve as a loyal follower. In this temple, survival depended on clinging to Chen Huangpi. Otherwise, one could easily end up drained by that being.

Old Lady Tang replied with a complicated tone, "I'm down the mountain helping to rebuild the village. I don't know where Chen Huangpi is now. Earlier, he and that odd lamp took the abbot to the kitchen. Maybe they're still there."

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...

In the kitchen of the temple.

The brass oil lamp had sprouted eight arms, each holding a bucket of water, passing them up to Chen Huangpi, who stood atop the enormous stove.

Their master, with two heads and a robe of interwoven purple, white, and green, stood stiffly in the pot. There was no other way; the master was too tall and rigid to fit lying down, so upright would have to do.

When the water reached the level of the two necks, Chen Huangpi finally stopped pouring. If it went past the mouths, the master would surely choke upon waking.

"Quick, add more wood!"

"Oh, right, right..." The lamp hurried to pile firewood into the stove, and in an instant, the fire roared to life.

Earlier, a branch of the Demon Tree had grown from Chen Huangpi's ear, leaving him uneasy. He knew he was unusual—besides emitting black smoke, as he grew older, other strange things happened. But this was a branch of the Demon Tree, something entirely external to him. The Five Viscera Divine Refinement was passed to him by his master, so the only way to find answers was to wake his master as soon as possible.

The lamp was anxious too, but for a different reason. The Demon Tree was already sealed in the Kidney Temple, and a few branches couldn’t hurt Chen Huangpi or escape. No, what worried the lamp was that Chen Huangpi intended to stew the abbot.

"Are you sure this will work?" the lamp asked, tending the fire. "You poisoned the abbot with poison to counter poison, and now you're stewing him? I think you've gone mad and want to eat him!"

"Don’t be ridiculous," Chen Huangpi replied solemnly. "Madness is a minor affliction, my pill is a great poison. Big poison overcomes small poison; using poison to attack poison is correct, but the effect was too strong. Master is elderly, his digestion isn’t what it was. Putting him in the pot now is to force out the poison from his body, so he can wake up."

It did sound reasonable. Yet the lamp remained uneasy. "You’re skilled in medicine—I’m not as learned, but I know there are detoxifying pills. Why not refine one?"

"You think I don’t want to?" Chen Huangpi produced the Secret Compendium of Seventy-Two Pills. "There’s no detoxifying pill in here. I’m no charlatan; I can’t invent a remedy from nothing."

Refining pills was not like hosting a banquet, nor was it like painting or writing. A pill was what it was—without a formula, how could he refine one? Over the years, Chen Huangpi had given his master many medicines, always strictly by the recipe, at most increasing the dosage, never altering the ingredients.

"Just get rid of that compendium," the lamp said warily. "Xu Qingshan has long since turned evil. If he gave you this book, he surely meant no good. Maybe it’s why the abbot is like this."

Maybe Chen Huangpi’s refining technique was wrong, but the poison pill he made clearly did more harm—the abbot turned green and grew another head after eating it. Now there were two: the main abbot and the second abbot.

The lamp remembered clearly. Before passing out, the abbot had shouted, "Third, you’re playing dirty!" Clearly, the third abbot had acted from the shadows. But the third abbot had never appeared before—why would he do such a thing?

As the lamp considered this, it suddenly had a revelation.

"Chen Huangpi, do you remember last time, when we entered the old temple and the Jiu Li Bell suddenly rang?"

"Of course," Chen Huangpi replied. "At the time, I thought it was Master ringing the bell to save us, but no matter how I called, Master never responded."

"That must have been the third abbot," the lamp said, its voice complex. "I suspect the third abbot has been suppressed in the old temple by the other two. Once you wake the abbot, the third abbot will emerge."