Hey, I'm talking to you, little runt.

“Hurry!”
The brass oil lamp carried Chen Huangpi, one man and one dog racing toward the Sutra Pavilion.
Once they left that path, there was no need to worry about the demon tree anymore.
Huang Er could illuminate their surroundings without restraint.
Yet Chen Huangpi’s mind was unsettled, pondering the matter of the Nine Departure Bell.
Within the mountain god’s memory, when Xu Qingshan returned to the Pure Immortal Temple, the Nine Departure Bell rang three times in succession.
The sound was ancient and powerful, strikingly penetrating.
Chen Huangpi had an excellent memory.
So he was certain that what he’d just heard was the bell, though he did not know who had struck it.
Could it be Master?
If so, why hadn’t he come to find him?
Could it be he feared the demon tree?
“Huang Er, who do you think rang the Nine Departure Bell?”
“Stop guessing, it definitely wasn’t the Temple Lord.”
The brass oil lamp spoke with disdain, “If it really were the Temple Lord, seeing you bullied like this, he’d have slaughtered that demon tree long ago. There’s no way he’d resort to such means.”
“Besides, who’s to say it’s even the Nine Departure Bell?”
Chen Huangpi asked curiously, “You know the Nine Departure Bell?”
“I know it halfway…”
“What does halfway mean?”
“It means…”
The brass oil lamp stammered, “It means I know it, but it doesn’t know me.”
“Huang Er, you’ve changed,” Chen Huangpi sneered. “You’ve become shameless. It doesn’t even know you, yet you insist on clinging to it.”
“Why would I need to cling to it?”
The brass oil lamp’s dog face flushed bright red. “I was forged by the Temple Lord’s own hands, after all, while it was merely seized by the Temple Lord—a mere outsider. You and I are the true lineage, we should stand together against all others.”
“It was seized by Master?”
Chen Huangpi was deeply intrigued.
Before Master lost his mind, he’d never mentioned such things, and he hardly seemed the type to do so.
“That’s what Huang Yi, that bastard, told me himself.”
The brass oil lamp rolled its eyes. “The Temple Lord, back when he sought to create gods, led thousands of cultivators from the Great Qian Immortal Dynasty to this forsaken place, and took many treasures with him when he left.”
“But only the Nine Departure Bell was seized.”
At that,
The brass oil lamp suddenly shook its head. “But even Huang Yi doesn’t know what power the Nine Departure Bell possesses, that could compel the Temple Lord to take it by force. Surely, if he wanted something, the Great Qian Immortal Dynasty could provide it.”
“Later, ever since I was awakened by the Temple Lord, I’ve only seen you.”
“Huang Yi disappeared, the Nine Departure Bell disappeared, and there was a sword—I remember—but they’re all gone.”
“And the Immortal Ascension Painting,”
Chen Huangpi interjected, never forgetting that within the painting’s myriad wonders lay the Gate of Mysteries, and with the Ascension Token, one could enter the world within the painting.
That world was where the Golden Summit Heavenly Lamp enlightened deities.
Originally, the painting hung on the innermost wall of the Pure Immortal Temple’s main hall.
But now, it too had vanished.
At this moment, the brass oil lamp added, “If that bell sound is truly its doing, I can’t tell whether it’s good or bad.”
Chen Huangpi and the brass oil lamp shared a connection of spirit.
He knew.
The brass oil lamp was worried. The place they found themselves in now was a realm that only appeared at night within the Pure Immortal Temple.
If they didn’t leave before daylight,
They would never escape.
And the Nine Departure Bell, having remained here for so long, might have become a terrifying existence like the demon tree.
“No,”
Chen Huangpi shook his head. “Even Master would fight for it, so it must be extremely powerful. If it became a disaster, it would be even more dreadful than the demon tree.”
“Stop worrying,”
The brass oil lamp said, “Even the demon tree is beyond us, let alone it. Look, up ahead is the Sutra Pavilion. Time for business.”
In truth, when it heard the bell,
It knew it was the Nine Departure Bell.
It just wasn’t confident enough to admit it.
Back then, the Nine Departure Bell was second only to the Golden Summit Heavenly Lamp. If not for the Heavenly Lamp’s power to enlighten gods, who could say which was superior?
As for itself…
Huang Er quickly shook his dog head, trying to rid himself of the memories of being dismissed as a mere underling.
“If even I’ve survived until now, there’s no reason the Nine Departure Bell should have come to such an end…”

“Could it have been the Temple Lord’s doing?”
The brass oil lamp was baffled.
But it was timid, unwilling to risk Chen Huangpi’s safety. Otherwise, it would have tried to see what had happened to the Nine Departure Bell.
Just then,
Chen Huangpi spoke, “Huang Er, I see the Sutra Pavilion.”
“I see it too.”
Not far ahead in the darkness stood a tower as tall as a mountain.
It soared ninety-nine stories high.
It seemed built from some kind of stone—black and hard.
No matter how many years had passed, time had left no trace of wind or rain upon it.
Yet as man and lamp approached the pavilion’s entrance,
They frowned in unison.
“Why is there only half of it?”
From afar, one could only make out the general shape.
But up close, the rear of the Sutra Pavilion was cleanly split in two.
One half before them,
The other vanished.
Chen Huangpi had only ever seen the pavilion from a distance, knowing its location, but this was his first time approaching it.
He hadn’t expected it to be in such a state.
Chen Huangpi reached out to touch the split section.
But the next instant,
He drew his hand back.
“It hurts, it hurts so much.”
Chen Huangpi bared his teeth in agony; his fingers felt as though pierced by thousands of needles, or as if he’d touched a razor-sharp blade.
“Sword energy—such powerful sword energy!”
“There’s sword energy that can harm you?”
The brass oil lamp was incredulous.
After all, Chen Huangpi had thick skin and flesh, nine years old now,
Even the Temple Lord couldn’t deal with him.
He’d even been swallowed whole, only to be spat out again.
For him to cry out in pain—
How terrifying must that sword energy be, and this was only its residue.
“No, it didn’t hurt me. I think I’ve changed…”
Chen Huangpi rubbed his fingertips. He was not actually wounded by the sword energy,
He only felt pain.
But before, he would never have sensed a thing.
“Huang Er, I feel like I’ve changed. Ever since I cultivated the Five-Viscera Refining Divine Method and the Yin-Yang Harmonizing Transformation, my six senses have become much sharper.”
“Oh, so you’re not claiming you’ve grown up this time?”
The brass oil lamp snorted. “I’ve told you before, the Temple Lord’s gone mad and wants to eat you. The cultivation methods he taught you must have been to make your skin softer, more tender, more fragrant. Now your skin’s just whiter and your senses are heightened. Who knows, maybe you’ll shed your skin next.”
“Shed my skin?”
Chen Huangpi’s face turned pale, panic-stricken. “I’m human. Humans don’t shed their skin.”
“That’s not for certain. You dared to cultivate the methods he passed down—nothing that happens would surprise me.”
The brass oil lamp truly believed the Temple Lord had ulterior motives in teaching Chen Huangpi those arts.
He must have found Chen Huangpi’s tough hide too hard to chew.
So he devised these bizarre methods.
For nothing else, just to make him easier to eat.
“No, I must cure Master. I don’t want to shed my skin.”
Chen Huangpi shook his head desperately.
Frightened by Huang Er’s words, he was immediately flustered.
“Come on, let’s enter the Sutra Pavilion and search for the medical scripture.”
With that, Chen Huangpi, riding atop the brass oil lamp, returned to the pavilion entrance.
The doors were huge, even grander than those of the Pure Immortal Temple’s main hall.
At least ten meters tall.
Two pillars stood before the doors, made of some kind of wood that seemed harder than gold or iron.
And at the entrance,
There were two statues of strange beasts.
Each had a single horn atop its head, eight eyes on its face, a lean body devoid of muscle—only a thin layer of skin stretched tightly over bone.
Yet their skeletons were massive.
A single glance was enough to sense their ferocity.
“Huang Er, if only you could transform into one of these, I’d look so imposing riding you.”

“You’re too greedy. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t need you to become this—I’d be content just to ride you back.”
The brass oil lamp rolled its eyes.
If Chen Huangpi hadn’t promised to lift the dog-taming scripture once they escaped,
Would it have humored him so?
“These two statues—I remember they guarded the Sutra Pavilion, but alas, times have changed, even they…”
“They’ve come to life?!”
The brass oil lamp’s terrified voice barely faded.
“Not again!”
It was so frightened its soul nearly fled.
Carrying Chen Huangpi, it bolted, as if making some sudden decision.
“Wait, wait!”
Chen Huangpi cried, “They’re not chasing us!”
“What?”
The brass oil lamp didn’t stop but turned its head.
It saw the two skeletal, horned beast statues trembling, the dust that had hardened into stone over the ages falling away piece by piece.
The two beasts, radiating hunger and ferocity, leaped off their stone pedestals.
One left, one right.
They stared fixedly at Chen Huangpi and the brass oil lamp.
Yet they did not advance.
“Look, there are chains on their horns!”
The brass oil lamp looked,
And saw that each beast’s horn had a hole through which a fine chain passed—one end attached to the horn, the other to the pavilion’s foundation.
No matter how taut the chains were stretched, they showed no sign of breaking.
Chen Huangpi asked curiously, “What material are those chains made from, to be so strong?”
“First Mountain Copper—I know that well, it’s indeed very tough.”
After speaking, the brass oil lamp seemed to realize something and flared up in anger. “Just two gatekeeper dogs, what rank are they, to use the same material as me?”
“Unfair—the Temple Lord has wronged the lamp too much!”
The two beasts roared madly,
Their sharp claws gouging deep marks into the ground.
But no matter what they did, they could not break free from the chains.
Such massive creatures, yet bound left and right by a single chain—aside from their bulk, they couldn’t even move two or three meters sideways.
“Huang Er, they’re so pitiful…”
Chen Huangpi felt sorry for them—he believed that even guard dogs shouldn’t be treated so cruelly.
“Yes, truly pitiful—just like me.”
The brass oil lamp had been furious, but seeing this scene, it couldn’t help but feel compassion.
Its own body had been split into thousands of parts, its strength weakened to the extreme,
And it was not free.
All it could do was hope Chen Huangpi would take it out of the Ten-Thousand Mountain Range.
It had thought itself miserable enough,
But now it saw there were worse fates.
Yet in the next moment,
That compassion vanished.
Because the beast on the left, the horned, eight-eyed creature, roared,
“Mutt, Second Master’s starving—let Second Master eat you!”
The brass oil lamp’s fur bristled, flames blazing in its eyes.
“Who are you calling mutt?”
Chen Huangpi hurriedly restrained Huang Er.
The brass oil lamp bellowed in rage, “Chen Huangpi, don’t hold me back! If I don’t roast it with true fire today, I’ll take Huang Yi’s surname!”
“Don’t—let them be, they’re miserable enough already.”
At that, the beast on the right, also horned and eight-eyed, roared at Chen Huangpi, “Three-inch brat, come over and let Master take a bite—Master will only eat half, no more.”
Chen Huangpi was stunned, looking around.
Where was this ‘three-inch brat’?
He couldn’t see it.
The horned beast on the right said, “Stop searching, I mean you. Three-inch brat, stick your head over—Master’s starving.”
As it spoke, it opened its bloody maw.
Chen Huangpi’s face flushed red, blood surging, his teeth grinding audibly.
“Huang Er, obey my command!”