140. Golden Horn Devours the Anomaly

Meanwhile.
Within the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the capital of Da Kang.
Having completed his ablutions and burned incense, the Emperor of Da Kang was relieving himself in his Daoist robes.
A figure clad in black robes and wearing a mask stepped out from the shadows of the corner.
"Your Majesty, Si-four reports that Wu-five and the others are dead."
"Dead? How did they die?"
The Emperor of Da Kang shook himself a few times, pulled up his trousers, and walked over to a gilded dragon basin nearby to wash his hands.
"Unknown. We only know they died deep within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and those four nails were seized by thieves. It is suspected they intended to carry out Your Majesty's will. Furthermore, there is someone named Huang Er beside the thief, who might be his subordinate."
"Anything else?"
"Nothing more. The thief seemed to have failed, remarked that it was no fun, and then Si-four could no longer hear any sound at all."
"He must have realized his attempt failed."
The Emperor of Da Kang chuckled. "Yet this scoundrel is audacious enough, using such a pathetic excuse. Anyone unaware would think he was just an ignorant child."
"Go investigate and see if there is anyone named Huang Er among the noble clans."
"As you command, Your Majesty."
The figure turned to withdraw upon finishing.
However, the Emperor of Da Kang waved his hand and said, "Forget it, do not bother investigating. Those with the audacity and capability to do this are only a handful—none other than the Song, Li,孟 [Meng], Han, Du, and Liu clans."
"Since they dared to do it, they are not afraid of me investigating. Besides, investigating back and forth holds little meaning."
"Yet Wu-five and the others were my trusted confidants. If I do not provide an explanation for their deaths, it would reflect poorly."
With that, the Emperor of Da Kang walked over to the Bagua Taiji diagram, holding a gold-inlaid and jade-decorated ritual ruler in one hand and striking a chime stone with the other. As he walked across the Bagua diagram, he struck the chime once.
*Clang.*
The chime's sound was crisp, lingering three times over the beams.
When the sound of the chime finally faded away.
The Emperor of Da Kang stopped in his tracks, sat cross-legged in the *Kan* position, and produced a die.
The die had six faces in total.
Inscribed upon them were the surnames of the six noble clans respectively.
The Emperor of Da Kang cast the die. Once it landed, the character facing upward was the Du clan.
Yet clearly, this was not what the Emperor of Da Kang desired.
Thus, he cast the die once more.
This time, the face pointing upward bore the character Song.
"Ah, the Song clan."
The Emperor of Da Kang said with satisfaction, "That Song Tiangang guards Xuzhou on my behalf, yet fails to keep to his place, embezzling this year's taxes. Although the old immortal of the Song clan personally came to confess his crimes and offered tenfold the taxes, business is not calculated in such a manner."
"The City God of Xuzhou City is Song Yuzhang, is he not?"
"Indeed he is."
"Achieving divinity on the spot is, after all, not the orthodox path. Let him cultivate the ancient arts."
Following the upheaval of heaven and earth, once a cultivator practiced the ancient arts, strange things would grow upon them, eventually transforming them into wicked aberrations.
This was an irreversible matter.
Deities were entities formed after cultivators achieved divinity on the spot.
With bodies of clay and wood, their Nascent Souls fused completely with the statues, while their physical flesh dissipated entirely.
Yet even without a physical body, one could still cultivate the ancient arts.
And they would become all the more ferocious.
"Your Majesty, should we bring along one of the nails?"
"Take one to keep in reserve."
The Emperor of Da Kang waved his hand, dismissing the guard.
Once cultivators practiced the ancient arts, they would transform into wicked aberrations, and only by being pinned down by those nails to anchor their ego could they maintain clarity of mind and remain under his control.
However, whether deities could do the same after transforming into wicked aberrations had never been attempted.
Therefore, the Emperor of Da Kang did not hold high expectations for this.
"It is the twenty-eighth year of Qingli..."
The Emperor of Da Kang said with a smile, "There is no lack of people in this world as clever as myself. Over such a long time, those people should have been able to deduce the rough outline of things. It is simply that their gaze is fixed upon a single corner of the present moment, whereas mine encompasses eternity and the entire world."
"What I contemplate is beyond their capacity to imagine."
"What I intend to do is likewise beyond their daring or ability to execute."

Meanwhile.
A vague, painful low roar suddenly echoed.
The Emperor of Da Kang smiled and said, "There is no need to rush. Those noble clans and the bald donkeys of the Western Regions Buddhist Kingdom have already made their moves. In due time, they will deliver that black sun directly into my hands."
"Those geniuses and mediocre minds all assume I am wholly dedicated to researching the secret of attaining immortality hidden within your body."
"Yet even if such a secret rested within you, I have lost all interest in attaining immortality."
"All things bear yin and embrace yang, blending vital breath to achieve harmony; water benefits all things yet nourishes itself, breath floats upon water. I shall grasp water with one hand and seize breath with the other, wielding the grand momentum of heaven and earth, following yin and yang to return them unto myself."
"Such minor currents are, after all, mere illusions."

Inside Immortality-Purification Temple.
Chen Huangpi casually tossed the four nails into the Soul-Hooking Register.
And Lord Mangshan, who had previously been foolish and unable even to recognize himself, suddenly recovered his wits.
Then, he said with extreme terror, "Chen Huangpi, what did you do to me?"
He only felt that after Chen Huangpi removed two of his heads and brutally hammered those four nails into his forehead, his consciousness had plunged into stagnation.
Not a single thought remained.
Chen Huangpi scratched his head and said, "I originally wanted to test whether those four nails could restore your original consciousness like other wicked aberrations, but I never expected it to fail."
Lord Mangshan sneered, "Why should I recover my original consciousness? I am a wicked aberration; I was naturally meant to eat humans. If I hadn't dared to leave these Hundred Thousand Mountains, I would have long since devoured every last mortal in Xuzhou City."
Chen Huangpi shook his head. "You were an Arhat in the past; do you not possess even a shred of kindness?"
"What is kindness?"
Lord Mangshan said with disdain, "I ate people even when I served as an Arhat."
"Then why did you transform into a wicked aberration?"
Chen Huangpi was extremely curious.
Lord Mangshan could have openly eaten people even without transforming into a wicked aberration. After turning into a wicked aberration, however, he became feared by mortals and treated as an enemy by deities.
"You want to know?"
Lord Mangshan sneered, "Fine, lean your head closer and I will tell you."
"Alright." Chen Huangpi leaned his head forward.
A fierce light flashed in Lord Mangshan's eyes, and his four hideous heads abruptly opened their massive jaws—yet before they could snap down,
the collar fastened around his neck suddenly emitted a faint glow.
"Ah!!!!!!"
Lord Mangshan shrieked unceasingly. That collar seemed fastened directly upon his divine soul, upon his true form. The mere thought of biting Chen Huangpi to death caused the collar to erupt violently, threatening to grind his divine soul and true form completely to dust.
"You cannot harm me."
Chen Huangpi brandished his mattock as a threat. "Your life and death are entirely within my control. If I want you to die, you must die; if I do not want you to die, you cannot even perish."
"If I make a full confession, will you spare my life?"
"No."
Chen Huangpi said matter-of-factly, "Whether you wish to speak or not is up to you. What does it have to do with me?"
"Very well, then I will speak."
Lord Mangshan smiled bitterly. "In the fourth year of Qingli, monks from the Western Regions came to the capital of Da Kang to have an audience with the Emperor. However, according to their rules, I, serving as an accompanying protective Arhat, was not permitted to enter the imperial palace."
"I was settled in the post station outside the palace, and without doing a single thing, I inexplicably transformed into a wicked aberration."
"Were there no other deities in the post station?"
"There were, but only I became a wicked aberration."
"After turning into a wicked aberration, many cultivators dressed in black and wearing masks hunted me down. Had I not possessed the ability to slip into the void and fled swiftly, I would likely have perished right there in the post station."
At this point, Lord Mangshan abruptly stopped.
Because he only remembered this much.
Chen Huangpi, however, said thoughtfully, "Those people were not cultivators, but wicked aberrations. It seems the capital of Da Kang holds quite a few such aberrations, and even the deities fail to recognize them."
"Wicked aberrations?"
Lord Mangshan said in disbelief, "Impossible! Those people were cultivators; how could they possibly be wicked aberrations!"
"What a foolish dog."
The brass oil lamp said with contempt, "Cultivators who reach the Nascent Soul stage hit their limit, falling short even of ordinary wicked aberrations. How could they possibly hunt you down?"
"If they were wicked aberrations, why would they hunt me down?"
Lord Mangshan was utterly baffled, yet the more he pondered, the more absurd it felt.
Even if he figured it out, what of it?
Chen Huangpi still would not spare his life.
Had he known this earlier, he should never have fled the capital of Da Kang back then; he should have simply let those traitors kill him.
Chen Huangpi paid no heed to Lord Mangshan's internal thoughts.
He had simply listened to a story.
Now that the story was over, Lord Mangshan naturally had no further use.
Therefore, with a flicker of his thought, he manipulated Lord Mangshan into regrowing the six heads that had been removed, and then tossed him directly into the Soul-Hooking Register.
That evening, he still had to visit the old monastery to see his Second Master.
Second Master must have been starving in there.
When the time came, he would crack open a few monkey brains for him to nourish himself.
Just at that moment.
A desolate howl of a dog rang out.
Immediately following, the Purple-Robed Old Daoist dragged Golden Horn as he trotted over enthusiastically.
The Purple-Robed Old Daoist held a hemp rope in his hand, while Golden Horn lay listlessly on the ground, its belly bulging heavily as if it had eaten far too much. Even while being dragged along, it didn't even want to twitch.
"Huangpi-er, Master has returned!"
"Eldest Master!"
Chen Huangpi stepped forward to greet him, asking curiously, "What is wrong with Golden Horn? Did you secretly feed it something?"
The Purple-Robed Old Daoist said proudly, "Indeed I did, and it ate a great deal. One must eat plenty in order to grow larger, fatter, and fiercer."
"What did you feed it?"
"I won't tell you. In any case, they were all good things. It's just too lazy; after Master took it on a single round around the Hundred Thousand Mountains, it stubbornly refused to move."
"Fortunately, your Master is not lazy, and dragged it through a dozen more rounds."
Hearing this, Chen Huangpi was dumbfounded.
Just how vast were the Hundred Thousand Mountains?
So vast that even when the brass oil lamp unleashed its Escaping-One Divine Light, it had to travel for an unknown duration to complete a round trip.
Golden Horn had been dragged through a dozen or so rounds by his master and yet survived.
It seemed his master had indeed fed it countless good things.
Chen Huangpi couldn't help asking, "Eldest Master, why didn't you let me eat these good things if you had them?"
"You cannot eat wicked aberrations."
The Purple-Robed Old Daoist shook his head like a rattle-drum. "Wicked aberrations taste terrible. If you ate them and picked up a strange flavor, your meat wouldn't be fragrant anymore."
"What?"
Chen Huangpi said in shock, "Eldest Master, you fed Golden Horn wicked aberrations? How much did it eat?"
"Master doesn't remember. Anyway, as long as it couldn't be eaten to death, I stuffed it until it nearly burst."
The Purple-Robed Old Daoist chuckled, "However, it ate a bit too much and is having trouble digesting. Master is going to take it to the alchemy furnace to help it digest. You don't need to prepare lunch for me; Master will eat something else."
Amidst his words, the Purple-Robed Old Daoist dragged the despairing Golden Horn toward the pill-refining room.

Time in the mountains passed swiftly.
As the sun set and the moon rose.
Immunity-Purification Temple transformed once more into Suppression-Immortality Temple.
The originally modest Daoist temple expanded immensely with the arrival of night.
Only those areas remained perpetually shrouded in twilight, hazy and indistinct to the eye.
That was where the old monastery lay.
Chen Huangpi walked to the courtyard gate where he had previously entered the old monastery, preparing to step inside while carrying the brass oil lamp.
Yet the latter suddenly spoke: "Chen Huangpi, do not enter from here. Take a different path instead."
"Why change paths? This way is much closer."
"Because the Third Master of the Temple said his Daoist robes lie along the other path."