It was Xu Qingshan’s hand.

Page 1 of 3

Although he didn’t know what would happen if he were swallowed by that darkness, Chen Huangpi didn’t dare to test it.

His skin was tough, so much so that even his master’s Nine Dragons Heavenly Refining Furnace couldn’t burn through it. Yet this thing was simply too sinister. Even if it couldn’t break his skin, it could surely kill him. It was like the yellow mud that rose from the earth dragon’s upheaval—touch it, and you would be tainted. Whether you were a god or a fiend, contact was forbidden.

Besides, who could tell what kind of bizarre powers belonged to the countless gazes lurking behind the darkness?

“Huang Er, stop spacing out! It’s coming! Do something, now!”

Chen Huangpi pressed tightly against the door. Survival lay just behind him, yet he couldn’t get out at all.

“It’s coming, it’s coming!”

The brass oil lamp frantically searched for a way to break the impasse.

But after just a few breaths, it had to admit in despair that it was useless. “I’m sorry, I really tried my best!”

Chen Huangpi fell into even deeper despair.

“Death Collector, are you there?”

“What do you want?”

“Huang Er and I are trapped—something sinister is about to devour us. Can you see it?”

As soon as Chen Huangpi finished speaking, a chilling aura emanated from the Soul-Hooking Ledger tucked in his clothes.

But the next moment, that cold aura froze.

“What… what is this thing? It can even warp space?”

For the first time, the Death Collector’s voice trembled with fear.

The only other time had been when Chen Huangpi’s master gnawed it to bare bones.

Chen Huangpi said urgently, “I don’t know either. It hadn’t moved before, but just as we tried to leave, it started moving. It doesn’t want us to escape.”

The brass oil lamp chimed in, “If we die here, you’ll be stuck too—trapped for eternity!”

“What?” The Death Collector was furious. “You’re still here?!”

Chen Huangpi muttered, “We did want to leave…”

The Death Collector was speechless. Never had it encountered a contract master like this. Since acquiring the Soul-Hooking Ledger, he neither went on killing sprees nor tricked people into signing contracts. Instead, he ran about causing trouble every few days. Last time it was the Yellow Calamity, and now it was some incomprehensible specter. If it remembered right, only two days had passed since then.

“Hahaha.” The Death Collector let out three bitter laughs, utterly dejected.

“Chen Huangpi, if you weren’t my contract master, I’d want nothing more than to perish with you right now!”

With that, the Death Collector fell silent, ignoring all of Chen Huangpi’s apologies and promises, as if it were dead.

It wasn’t that the Death Collector didn’t want to help, but that it truly couldn’t. It was even more desperate than Chen Huangpi.

The brass oil lamp grumbled, “I told you before—kill more people! Now even the Death Collector won’t help you.”

Chen Huangpi replied, “I’d like to, but where am I supposed to find so many people to kill?”

As the darkness crept closer, the brass oil lamp said in despair, “Chen Huangpi, before I die, I want to return to my true form. Can you grant me this last wish?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Chen Huangpi answered solemnly, “Because if someone dies with regrets, they turn into a ghost. If I resolve your obsession, wouldn’t you not even get to become a ghost?”

“You’re so thoughtful—already planning for my afterlife,” the brass oil lamp said, touched. “But I’m not human, and maybe you aren’t either. Can we really become ghosts?”

With clenched teeth, Chen Huangpi said, “Then we’ll become fiends!”

“Deal, then.”

In truth, what the brass oil lamp cared about most was Chen Huangpi. Though it was created a long time ago, back then, everyone at the Pure Immortal Temple was busy forging gods and paid it no mind. It had gone to seek out the Jiuli Bell, which ignored it. It had looked for that sword, only to almost be split in two. It had tried to approach Huang Yi… Better to become a fiend than that.

In the end, it really had only Chen Huangpi as a friend.

“Master!”

Page 2 of 3

A fierce light flashed in the brass oil lamp’s eyes, its voice cold and menacing: “Give me all your vital energy.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Chen Huangpi.

“To save you! Stop talking and hurry up!”

“But didn’t you say—”

“Say what? That I’m the Nine Nether Divine Lamp?” the brass oil lamp shouted. “Don’t be stupid, you really think I, Huang Er, am so useless? Hurry, or it’ll be too late!”

These words calmed Chen Huangpi a little. He hurriedly began pouring the vital energy between his kidneys into Huang Er.

Sensing his emotions, the vital energy spontaneously stopped building the kidney shrine. Only then did Chen Huangpi realize that a framework of a shrine had indeed appeared between his kidneys, not yet solid, but the outline was there.

“My kidney shrine is almost complete!” Chen Huangpi was overjoyed.

But this was no time to celebrate. He activated the Five Organs Spirit Refining Technique and sent his vital energy surging into the brass oil lamp, causing its body to swell.

“Not enough, give me more!” The lamp’s voice was urgent, its body glowing brilliantly from within. Its wick was burning, but the light was forcefully suppressed, waiting to explode.

By now, the dark region was dangerously close—within a few breaths, it would swallow them.

At such proximity, the brass oil lamp could even make out the frenzy in those shadowy figures.

Chen Huangpi felt uneasy. “Huang Er, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Don’t be afraid. As long as I’m here, no one can harm you!” The lamp’s voice was as always, but it prayed silently, “Huang Yi, this had better work as you said. Please, don’t let me down—we’re brothers born from the same furnace…”

Complex inscriptions surfaced on the lamp’s body. It was about to blaze with light, illuminating the entire extra expanse of the Pure Immortal Temple, even the Jade Qiong Mountain, even the whole Ten Thousand Mountains.

This was an escape technique passed on by Huang Yi: wherever the lamp’s light shone, it could reach in an instant. If it hadn’t been split into thousands of pieces, if it were still in its prime, this move would have been effortless. But now, it had to borrow Chen Huangpi’s vital energy and burn its own wick to make it work.

Without a heart, a man dies; without a wick, so does a lamp.

“Get ready. We’re leaving!” the brass oil lamp shouted, warning Chen Huangpi.

The shadowy figures in the darkness grew restless, as if sensing something.

In a blink, the darkness was right before Chen Huangpi.

The lamp was heartbroken, but afraid to scare Chen Huangpi. It wanted to weep, but its tears were lamp oil. If it cried, it might not have enough oil left to take Chen Huangpi out.

So, the lamp only closed its eyes, enduring the sorrow, and called out cheerfully, “Chen Huangpi, watch this! I didn’t lie—I really am powerful! I’m no worse than Huang Yi!”

But as it shouted, its words turned into advice.

“You’ve grown. Your clothes don’t fit—ask Granny Tang to sew you a new set.”

“The Ten Thousand Mountains are full of evil. The outside world is better for you.”

“On second thought, don’t go outside—there are too many bad people. I’m afraid they’ll bully you.”

The lamp did not cry, only shouted loudly, “Chen Huangpi, my kin, my friend—don’t forget me! Don’t forget me!”

Chen Huangpi was utterly panicked. “Huang Er, don’t do this, I… I…”

He was so anxious he couldn’t form a complete sentence, only feeling a sharp pain in his heart, as if the sky were collapsing.

Just then, a pale hand reached from the darkness, pushing a thick book toward Chen Huangpi.

On the cover were the words “Seventy-Two Secret Elixirs Unveiled,” the ink still wet as if freshly written.

Moreover, that hand bore a crack—not a crack, but a mouth.

Chen Huangpi blurted out, “Xu Qingshan, is that you?”

But after pushing the book out of the darkness, the hand withdrew.

Page 3 of 3

All the shadowy figures behind the darkness released their grip.

Then, like a taut bowstring snapping back, the darkness instantly recoiled.

Whether that tide-like darkness managed to catch the brass oil lamp, no one knew. But the lamp itself couldn’t hold back.

“Damn it, if you’d done that earlier, would it have killed you?” the brass oil lamp cursed in despair, trying to extinguish its burning wick, but to no avail. This move was only an escape technique, an ability of the Golden-Topped Heavenly Lamp. Huang Yi could surely control it at will, but it was Huang Er’s first time—how could it stop on command?

“Huang Er, don’t scare me!” Chen Huangpi realized something was wrong and panicked. Before he could reclaim his vital energy, the lamp let out a pained scream.

“Oh, mother, I can’t take it! Divine Ray of Escape, get me out of here!!!”

The next instant, the lamp’s light flared.

Daylight broke.

Just as the lamp wished, the entire extra expanse of the Pure Immortal Temple, from the Sutra Pavilion outward, burst into dazzling radiance.

Chen Huangpi saw the two sons of Di Ting at the gate. Bathed in the lamp’s light, black smoke began to rise from them. This smoke was different from what enshrouded Chen Huangpi—not as thick or pure, but very similar to the black miasma swirling around the mutated idol.

Gold Horn and Silver Horn opened their sixteen eyes wide, but the glare made them tear up, and they had to shut them tight.

“Three-Inch Ding, what have you done?”

“Stop that wild dog, now!”

But Chen Huangpi ignored them, for he had spotted the demon tree’s crown. The sky, once blocked by its vast canopy, was now completely illuminated. For the first time, Chen Huangpi saw the treetop overhead. It was as vast as he imagined, blotting out sun and moon, preventing a single ray of red moonlight from shining through.

Yet within the canopy, fine branches twisted together to form a cocoon, as if something was wrapped inside. There were countless such cocoons, impossible to number.

The demon tree hated the light. Furious, its roots tore from the ground. Not only it, but many other things grew restless.

But in the next moment—

Dong…

The Jiuli Bell tolled once more.

All at once, everything fell silent.

Chen Huangpi merged into the light—or rather, the light carried him. In an instant, he vanished from the Sutra Pavilion.

…

Ten Thousand Mountains, summit of Jade Qiong Mountain.

A giant sun rose. Though it lasted only a moment, it briefly illuminated the world.

All the fiends, gods, and even the scattered villages of survivors within the Ten Thousand Mountains were drawn to that light.

“What was that?”

“Was that the sun? Has the sun risen? But it’s clearly night!”

“That light felt so warm.”

“Let’s go there, let’s go!”

From every temple, the gods sent signals to their remaining followers.

After the earth dragon’s upheaval, the number of fiends in the Ten Thousand Mountains hadn’t decreased, but grown. Most terrifying of all, a new figure calling himself the Heretical Man had appeared. Wherever he went, mortals were left unharmed, but every god was devoured.

Now, the Ten Thousand Mountains were more dangerous than ever.

Elsewhere, deep in a forest, wooden temples stood scattered. Outside, many cultivators sat cross-legged. Within one temple, a clear, melodious woman’s voice rang out: “By my uncle’s order, you are to find a suitable place and establish a settlement, for the resettlement of refugees. The gods have responded—tomorrow at dawn, we set out for that place!”

“We obey!”