Eighty: There Are Many Ways to Feast on the Unholy One

At the instant the four-clawed black talon pressed against Song Jiu's forehead, the little seal hanging at his waist seemed to be stirred awake. A vast, mountain-like surge of human vitality burst forth at once.

With a thunderous boom, that fiercely abundant vitality seemed to catch fire.

The black talon, as though seared, vanished immediately.

Once the fire of human vitality appeared, it split into three streams and flew of its own accord to the crown of Song Jiu's head and to his shoulders.

Among mortals there is a saying: a person carries three fires, and when walking at night, if something unclean calls out to you, you must never turn around.

If you do, the fire will be slapped out.

Though the saying is absurd, a notion born of mortal imagination, for a cultivator like Song Jiu, who had been granted a seal on the spot and stood on par with a city god, human vitality truly could become three fires to protect the self.

But once such a method was used, it meant Song Jiu had already been driven to the limit.

And here, there was more than one calamity.

Song Jiu's expression grew ugly. He looked left and right, yet could not see where that four-clawed black talon had gone.

That was surely something evil that had transformed into a calamity. Otherwise, merely touching him would not have forced the bronze seal to unleash its final measure at once.

He was thus.

But the city god of An County was in far worse straits.

The Yellow Scourge and the mutated divine statue had both set their sights on it. One wave of the hand sent the mud of the Yellow Springs surging toward it, impossible even to touch. The other was wreathed in black smoke.

Though not as eerie or dreadful as the earlier black smoke, with every gesture it seemed ready to split the city god's body apart.

The mutated divine statue was not a disaster.

It had merely been polluted, and so had become something wicked.

Even among gods, there are distinctions of rank.

A cultivator who ascends to godhood on the spot is a god. The Fox Mountain God, who had been unsuccessfully enlightened by the Golden Dome Heaven Lamp and then worshiped by men into divinity, was also a god.

Yet even among gods awakened successfully, there are differences.

As for the mutated divine statue, it had once been a god as well, one that existed before the transformation of heaven and earth, a deity that had come from the Great Qian Immortal Dynasty into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Perhaps it was precisely because it was so different that the mutated divine statue could faintly suppress the city god of An County.

"Get out!"

The city god of An County roared. With its one remaining arm, it clenched the void, and a gigantic object resembling a vajra pestle appeared in its grasp. It swung the weapon down upon the mutated divine statue's head.

The statue's head had a great hole in it.

That was bitten out by Chen Huangpi's master.

Even now, it had not healed.

That single blow carried not merely a million-odd jin of force, but power enough to shatter an entire mountain.

Yet the mutated divine statue was brutally ferocious. It not only feared nothing, but instead lunged forward.

The gaping maw upon its chest opened wide at once. Its sharp, interlocking fangs parted and clashed, and from them burst forth a beam of divine radiance blazing with nine colors.

This was a method it had possessed in the days when it was still a god.

It was called the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light.

It attacked the soul directly. Once brushed by it, one's three souls and seven spirits would be reduced to but one, and one would instantly become a living corpse.

The Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light was not aimed at the giant golden pestle at all.

It was swept straight toward the city god of An County.

The sight made the city god both shocked and enraged.

The mutated divine statue had never intended to avoid the blow. If that pestle landed, it would smash its head to pieces.

But if it dared do that, the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light would be impossible to evade.

"Flee!"

The city god of An County shouted. The incense-formed human vitality around its body burned violently, and its figure shifted nearly a hundred zhang away out of thin air.

Seeing this, Chen Huangpi shook his head. "You can't escape it."

Earlier, the mutated divine statue had used this very technique on him.

There had been no way to avoid it, and he could only draw it into his kidney temple and let the black smoke devour it.

Sure enough, though the city god had shifted away, the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light seemed to have locked onto it and pursued directly after.

Danger! Danger! Danger!

The city god's expression changed drastically. It shifted another hundred zhang away out of thin air, but before it could even catch its breath, the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light came after it once more.

"Song Jiu! Use the seal, now!"

In its panic, it could no longer care about rank or respect, no longer address him as lord, and called directly for Song Jiu by name.

At this, Song Jiu had no time to guard against the owner of the four-clawed black talon. If no one helped now, that city god of An County might well die in the hands of the mutated divine statue, which was not even a true disaster.

He immediately slapped the bronze seal at his waist and roared, "Where are the eight hundred minor gods?"

As soon as the words fell, eight hundred deities emerged from the bronze seal.

In the Great Kang Dynasty, a city god protected a city and commanded many deities.

But once one called upon more than a hundred gods, one had to use the seal, or it would be deemed a violation of court law.

At that moment, as Song Jiu invoked the seal, the city god of An County seemed as though destiny itself had descended upon it. It bellowed to the eight hundred deities, "Why do you not quickly offer yourselves in sacrifice to this deity?"

"Yes!"

The eight hundred deities immediately bowed toward the city god of An County.

Eight hundred thick streams of incense rose from the tops of their heads.

The city god of An County drew in a great breath.

Its whole body swelled, its eyes bulging like bronze bells, and it blew a grayish breath toward the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light.

Deities feed upon human vitality.

But a city god could appropriate the power of other gods.

With the blessing of eight hundred deities, that gray breath was as though mixed with sand, forcibly blocking the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light.

And yet, the Nine-Color Fallen Spirit Divine Light was more tenacious still.

That gray breath seemed on the verge of grinding it to nothing, but even after it was fully exhausted, a faint trace still remained.

"City God, my lord!"

"Shut up!"

The city god of An County flew into a rage. Grabbing up one nearby deity, it used the god as a shield before itself.

The next moment, that last glimmer of light entered the deity's body.

At once the deity lost all reason, grinning idiotically like a simpleton.

A flash of insight crossed Song Jiu's eyes as he said in shock, "Its soul has been turned into a mortal soul, and only the human soul remains. The other two souls and seven spirits are all gone."

"What should we do now?"

The city god of An County commanded the surrounding deities to gather around.

It stood back to back with Song Jiu, yet felt no safety at all.

Looking down, the Burial-God Mound below was covered in wicked things: one long and lean evil presence, plus a far more terrifying yellow-skinned king.

Looking up, within the dark clouds above, the huge eye grown over with fleshy sprouts gazed down indifferently.

Ahead and behind, the mutated divine statue and the Yellow Scourge stood ready to pounce.

And hidden somewhere, there was still that four-clawed black talon.

It could be said there was no road to heaven and no gate into the earth.

At that moment, the Yellow Scourge looked down at Chen Huangpi, who had been watching the show all along, and said softly, "Yellow-Skinned King, we have not seen each other for ten days, and you have become even stronger, even more fearsome. It seems these past days you must have eaten no small number of wicked beings."

Hearing this, Chen Huangpi's expression became very complicated.

At last he understood why, in just ten days, his reputation had spread everywhere, as though every wicked thing knew he ate wicked things.

So it had all been this Yellow Scourge spreading rumors outside.

No wonder the name of the Yellow-Skinned King was enough to frighten ordinary evil beings at a mere hearing.

Thinking of this, Chen Huangpi shook his head. "I have not eaten any wicked things."

The Yellow Scourge laughed. "If you have not eaten wicked things, then why do they retreat in fear the moment they see you?"

Though it had not witnessed what had happened earlier, its timing had been perfect.

The instant it arrived, it heard those evil beings crying out for the Yellow-Skinned King to make a move.

And among this group of evils, the Yellow-Skinned King was indeed the most brutal.

If not him, then who?

Suddenly, as the Yellow Scourge's words fell, several hidden evil beings emerged from all directions.

Each of them exuded a vicious aura, all at the level of calamity.

There was even one evil being carrying a tombstone on its back.

Chen Huangpi had a very bad feeling about it.

It even gave him the sense of that demonic tree; perhaps it was only a matter of time before it, too, became a calamity.

These calamities stared at Chen Huangpi, each with a different expression.

One calamity fanned the flames, saying, "Tomb Owner, you also delight in eating wicked things. Now that you have met one of your own kind, have you nothing to say?"

Hearing this, Chen Huangpi immediately looked toward the calamity bearing the tombstone.

So it was called Tomb Owner.

What a strange name. Could it be that the tombstone on its back was its own?

Half of Tomb Owner's body was hidden by the stone tablet. It raised its head, revealing a blue-purple face, and said to Chen Huangpi, "Yellow-Skinned King, though I do eat wicked things, I only eat them fresh. And how do you eat yours?"

The other evil beings immediately turned to look at Chen Huangpi.

As though if Chen Huangpi could not give a proper answer, they would erupt at once.

The Bronze Oil Lamp had long since begun pretending to be dead.

But at this, it hurriedly warned him in its heart: "Chen Huangpi, fellow, brother, mind your words. If they see through anything, we won't even be able to run. Don't forget, there are two calamities all around us!"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Chen Huangpi soothed the Bronze Oil Lamp, then said to Tomb Owner, "I have many ways of eating. Fried, stir-fried, deep-fried, boiled, roasted—they all work. But there are too many methods, and I can't explain them all in detail at once. I can only tell you a few to hear."

"Yellow-Skinned King, you are far too ferocious."

Tomb Owner gave Chen Huangpi a long, deep look and could not help saying, "With conduct like this, you are not of my kind. Better to keep far apart."

With that, Tomb Owner really did draw far away from Chen Huangpi and no longer looked at him.

Chen Huangpi looked to the other calamities.

Their expressions all changed.

"Yellow-Skinned King, you ought to be a calamity by now, yes?"

"Yes, a calamity."

Chen Huangpi thought it over. With the addition of the soul-killing ghost and the Bronze Oil Lamp, he was indeed stronger than an ordinary calamity.

But seeing these calamities act this way, how could he not understand what they were thinking?

So Chen Huangpi split his fierce mouth in a grin and said, "Do not fear. I do not eat calamities. I can swear it. If there ever comes a day when I eat a calamity, then let me be condemned forever, never again able to become a true disaster."

"Good, I believe you!"

"I believe you too!"

"Such a poisonous oath. I cannot help but believe it!"

The intelligence of calamities did not seem much greater than that of wicked things.

Once Chen Huangpi made that poison oath, they believed him.

The Yellow Scourge, however, revealed a faint, barely perceptible sneer. In this God-Burying Tomb, danger was everywhere; without a fool to blaze the trail, that would not do.

Originally, the fool it had chosen was the mutated divine statue.

But now it seemed the Yellow-Skinned King was even more suitable.

Only, if the Yellow-Skinned King became the one to scout ahead, there would not be enough food left to feed the grave-guarding beast.

Thinking of this, the Yellow Scourge turned to Song Jiu and the city god of An County, and said in a sharp, delicate voice, "Count yourselves fortunate to have stumbled upon such luck. Come with us into the Burial-God Tomb; it will be your blessing."

A ten-thousand-character update today, a small burst of energy.

Two alliance leaders mean ten chapters in total; nine are still owed.