The Array Formation Inside the Old Taoist Temple

"After you fell asleep, the First Master suddenly turned into the Third Master."

"The Third Master said that even the sun must be blinded."

"He also instructed me to lead you into the Old Taoist Temple via another path, saying that his old Daoist robe is waiting for you along that way."

The brass oil lamp spoke as it guided Chen Huangpi through the Pure Immortal Temple.

After nightfall, the Pure Immortal Temple connected directly to the Old Taoist Temple.

Aside from the main courtyard gate, there were many other paths leading to the Old Taoist Temple—hidden inside guest rooms, dilapidated side halls, and even right behind the kitchens.

As they walked, Chen Huangpi asked, "Besides telling me to bring the Daoist robe, didn't the Third Master say anything else?"

"The Third Master has gone mad," the brass oil lamp said helplessly. "He started babbling incoherently halfway through and even mistook me for the sun, trying to choke me to death. It's a miracle I'm tough-lived, or you wouldn't even be seeing me right now."

"Still, since the Third Master wants to blind the sun outside, he must be planning to use that Daoist robe to execute his plan."

"Anyway, since his elder self said so, we just need to follow his instructions."

The First Master, the Second Master, the Third Master.

They were all masters of the temple.

Whatever the masters intended to do, whether great or small, it certainly had a purpose.

"I understand now."

"What do you understand this time?"

"The Third Master is bowing his head to apologize to me," Chen Huangpi said with a cold huff. "Yesterday he strung me up from a tree and beat me, but we are like father and son; the blows landed on my body, but the pain pierced his heart. Yet, being the master, he naturally couldn't lower his face to apologize directly to me, his disciple."

"That's why he waited until I fell asleep and used your mouth to tell me to retrieve the Daoist robe."

At this point, Chen Huangpi even pointed to the Daoist robe on his body as evidence. "This robe was made by Granny Tang. Although comfortable and well-fitting, after taking a stroll through the netherworld's yin soil, it has long since been torn to shreds."

"The Third Master is really something else. To mend our relationship, he actually went such a roundabout way."

"It's just that he underestimated me; I am not a person who holds grudges."

"By the way, Huang Er, don't mention this to the Third Master, or I'll get a beating."

"..."

Listening to Chen Huangpi's words, the brass oil lamp instinctively glanced at the red moon hanging overhead.

That red moon was suspended high in the sky.

It looked as though it had never changed in the slightest since time immemorial.

Yet it knew that this red moon was not the same as the one in the outside world; it was transformed from the temple master's yin spirit.

This red moon was like an eye.

Everything that happened within the hundred thousand mountains under the night was laid bare beneath its gaze.

At this thought, the brass oil lamp fell silent.

"Hahaha!"

Chen Huangpi let out three hearty laughs and said nonchalantly, "Huang Er, the moon is so round tonight. Hey, isn't this the path my most revered Third Master spoke of?"

"Huang Er, let's go right in. We mustn't delay the Third Master's grand endeavor."

The path leading to the Old Taoist Temple was actually located inside a side hall.

During the day, that side hall was dilapidated, with only a single door remaining, but at night it became completely intact, except that everything outside the door was swallowed by darkness.

Walking up to the entrance of the side hall, Chen Huangpi didn't hesitate for a moment. He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The next second.

He only felt his vision go dark as the world spun around him.

Immediately afterward, he entered the Old Taoist Temple, which only manifested at night.

In the darkness, with a soft *fwoosh*, a yellowish lamp flame illuminated the surroundings.

Only then did Chen Huangpi clearly see his surroundings.

This side hall was massive, standing about ten zhang high, and looking from left to right, it was four times as wide as the main hall of the Pure Immortal Temple during the day.

However, the interior of this side hall was extremely cluttered.

Tables, chairs, and meditation mats were strewn about everywhere, and there were even numerous dried bloodstains on the floor.

It looked as though a fierce battle had taken place here.

And in a corner against the wall of the side hall, a lampstand was placed.

***

"I used to hang right up there," the brass oil lamp said with a somewhat complicated tone. "When the temple master forged me, he only used scraps. I just assumed I wasn't valued, and the Daoists in the temple didn't take me seriously either, so they tossed me here in this side hall."

Recalling those years, even though the brass oil lamp knew it wasn't as utterly useless as it once thought—

The Nine Nether Divine Lamp was no weaker than...

Well, its potential was no weaker than the Golden-Crested Heavenly Lamp.

Yet, revisiting the old place today, with the scenes of the past welling up in its heart, how could it let go so easily?

Chen Huangpi comforted it, "Huang Er, the master arranged a side hall to house you; how could he not value you?"

"This side hall is called the Sundry Hall."

"Sundry Hall, Sundry Hall it is then," Chen Huangpi corrected himself. "Still better than the Wasteland Hall."

"My fellow clansman, you really know how to talk," the brass oil lamp said, touched. "If I couldn't beat you, I'd really want to seal your mouth shut with lamp oil."

Back then, the temple master brought the Daoists to the hundred thousand mountains to forge gods.

Over the course of three hundred years, they had practically turned the entire hundred thousand mountains upside down.

And those rare treasures that could not be used to forge gods were treated like garbage and tossed into this Sundry Hall.

Therefore, the Sundry Hall also went by another name: the Hall of Waste.

"Huang Er, I know you are deeply moved," Chen Huangpi said gratifyingly, "but you don't need to seal my mouth. You just need to tell me if there are any other sundries in this Sundry Hall like yourself. Being able to let me take one out would be the best way to repay me."

"No, not a single one," the brass oil lamp shook its flame and said, "Everything left in this Hall of Waste is a dead object, long since devoid of the slightest bit of spirituality. Even if you managed to carry them out, they would be completely useless."

"Fine."

Chen Huangpi felt somewhat disappointed and instantly lost all interest in the Hall of Waste.

Thus, he pushed open the door and walked out.

Going from the Pure Immortal Temple to the Old Taoist Temple required pushing open a door to enter. But once inside, pushing open a door to go back out would still lead to the Old Taoist Temple; only through a specific method could one leave.

Outside the Hall of Waste, everything was shrouded in a hazy gray mist.

When he last came to the Old Taoist Temple, this place had undergone drastic changes.

Everything had been suspended in the sky, shrouded in green fog.

Now, however, it had returned to its former appearance.

The ground was paved with bluestone slabs, flanked by withered trees on both sides. After walking forward several hundred steps, another side hall appeared.

Chen Huangpi carried the brass oil lamp as he walked forward.

"Huang Er, have you ever walked this path before?"

"Of course I have," the brass oil lamp replied. "Though I was kept in the Sundry Hall, I wasn't placed under house arrest. I've walked this path countless times—it's just that now that this place has turned into the Old Taoist Temple, this is my first time back."

"See that path on the left?"

"I see it."

Chen Huangpi looked to the left and saw a bluestone path disappearing deep into the mountain forest. That path stretched endlessly into the distance, flanked by vast swathes of dead trees, looking eerie and terrifying, as if it led straight to hell.

"That path leads directly to the side peak of Mount Yuqiong. The Nine-Separation Bell used to hang at the very peak of that mountain," the brass oil lamp sighed. "It's just that now it has turned into an ominous anomaly and no longer stays in that place. Who knows if it's still in the Old Taoist Temple now that the Third Master has come out."

Earlier, the Third Master had manipulated the Nine-Separation Bell to save Chen Huangpi several times.

And now that the Third Master had left the Old Taoist Temple, perhaps he had taken the Nine-Separation Bell with him as well.

Chen Huangpi, however, shook his head and said, "The First Master said something is suppressed inside the Old Taoist Temple. The reason that sword left was to go look for Huang Yi. As for the Nine-Separation Bell and the Book of Earth, they are both suppression vessels; they certainly won't leave the Old Taoist Temple."

"Wait, Huang Er, why are there words carved on those bluestone slabs?"

Chen Huangpi suddenly noticed that the bluestone path leading to the side peak where the Nine-Separation Bell used to reside was covered in dense rows of carved characters, which instantly piqued his curiosity.

"Don't look, don't look!"

The brass oil lamp's expression changed drastically as it hurriedly said, "The Old Taoist Temple is deeply ominous. Who knows what terrible trouble might happen if you look at them! Let's hurry up and find the temple master's Daoist robe instead of wasting time."

"There won't be any trouble."

As he spoke, Chen Huangpi had already stepped forward to take a closer look.

The bluestone path was covered in numerous inscriptions.

Those characters were identical in style to the flying, unrestrained scripts carved on the gates of the God-Burying Tombs.

The brass oil lamp turned pale with fright.

***

It didn't dare to look at those characters.

Yet Chen Huangpi began to read aloud: "The Azure Heaven is dead; the Yellow Heaven is not yet born. Descending to suppress the immortals, thus drawing upon its deathly Qi to form an array. Three thousand immortals serve as the array eyes, lasting for eighteen thousand years."

"Huh? Is this actually what is written on here?"

"What else did you expect it to say?"

"Nothing..."

The brass oil lamp breathed a sigh of relief.

It had thought the inscriptions were the confession letter it had written back then when it kowtowed and apologized to the Nine-Separation Bell.

Back then, the one it hated most was Huang Yi.

Therefore, it rarely used the name Huang Er and instead always styled itself the Nine Nether Divine Lamp. Later on, as it kept using the title, it grew a bit arrogant. Hearing from some waste objects in the Hall of Waste that there was a fellow named Nine-Separation Bell who also shared the surname 'Nine', the Nine Nether Divine Lamp immediately flew into a rage.

What caliber was the Nine-Separation Bell?

How dare it have a name starting with 'Nine' just like itself?

If it didn't force that Nine-Separation Bell to change its name, it would write its name—the Nine Nether Divine Lamp—backward.

As a result, the Nine-Separation Bell merely glanced at it.

And the lamp immediately began kowtowing every three steps, writing on the bluestone path that it had all been a misunderstanding, asking Big Brother Nine not to be angry, explaining that its actual name was Huang Er, begging for its big brother's mercy, and kneeling to kowtow.

At this moment, Chen Huangpi suddenly spoke up: "My Grand Uncle Chen Huang said that the upheaval of heaven and earth will last for eighteen thousand years. And this inscription mentions three thousand immortals acting as array eyes to draw upon deathly Qi and form an array—could it be that they are suppressing the Azure Heaven itself?"

The brass oil lamp said, "Why couldn't it be the Yellow Heaven?"

"The Yellow Heaven hasn't even been born yet; why suppress it?"

Chen Huangpi cast a strange look at the brass oil lamp and continued, "Besides, it clearly states that they draw upon deathly Qi to form the array. Since the Azure Heaven is dead, it must refer to the Azure Heaven's deathly Qi."

"It's just... why are there no such inscriptions anywhere else? Only here by the Nine-Separation Bell?"

"Keep walking forward," the brass oil lamp urged, as if remembering something. "Walk to the end of this path, then turn right. There's another bluestone path there that leads to the Sword Peak, which is where the temple master's treasured sword is located."

"Alright."

A moment later, Chen Huangpi arrived at the place the brass oil lamp had mentioned.

Another bluestone path led toward a side peak of Mount Yuqiong.

Looking at it from afar, that side peak resembled a sharp, piercing sword. Just a single glance at it sent a chill through one's heart, and the faint sound of sword ringing could even be heard echoing in the ears.

"The edge of that sword is far too sharp," the brass oil lamp said with a sense of dread. "Even though its sharpness is concealed by a scabbard, this sword peak has absorbed its aura and become terrifyingly dangerous. You cannot walk this path, or the sword peak will execute you."

"There are identical inscriptions on this path, too."

"Let's check another place."

"This used to be the Heaven-Viewing Pavilion where the Book of Earth was kept. The Book of Earth reflects the azure void and records all major and minor events that occur through the revolving of the sun and moon. But like the Nine-Separation Bell, the Book of Earth is no longer here."

"Let's go, let's check further ahead."

The brass oil lamp led Chen Huangpi all the way through the Old Taoist Temple.

These vicinities had all been places where the supreme treasures of the former Pure Immortal Temple were kept, yet for some reason, not a single ominous anomaly was to be seen.

Otherwise, the brass oil lamp would never have dared to let Chen Huangpi run around so recklessly.

They visited a total of five locations.

Without exception, every place that had once housed a supreme treasure—whether it was the bluestone path or the pavilions above—was covered in those bizarre inscriptions.

The brass oil lamp said in terror, "All five places—the Book of Earth, the Nine-Separation Bell, the Stone Pagoda, the Cave of Truth, and the Dragon-Locking Well—are like this. Could it be that they all became part of that formation, drawing upon the Azure Heaven's deathly Qi to suppress the Azure Heaven?"

"There should be more than five places. Nine is the ultimate limit, so there should be four more," Chen Huangpi said, his brows furrowed tightly. "The Ascending Immortals Scroll and Huang Yi used to hang on the walls of the main hall, but they have disappeared."

"Otherwise, those inscriptions should be written inside the main hall as well."

"Could one of them be me?" the brass oil lamp asked with an unsightly expression. "I woke up outside, and I can enlighten yin spirits; I am also a supreme treasure. But even adding me, that's only eight—one is still missing."

Chen Huangpi thought for a moment and said, "The First Master mentioned there is a millstone in the Old Taoist Temple. He must be talking about that altar. The altar is pulled by five true dragons, so it must be the ninth supreme treasure."