82. Bronze Oil Lamp

The sword light was peerless, its edge impossible to withstand.

The tomb gate, carved with the intent to suppress immortals, was blasted open in an instant.

Within the dark clouds, that gigantic eye wept blood, staining the endless autumn rain crimson.

The force of that sword light was terrifying beyond measure.

It seemed as though the giant eye had driven it forth, yet the moment the light emerged, it slipped beyond its control.

Thus, it too was wounded by the sword.

The fleshly growths sprouting from the giant eye convulsed wildly, once again veiling the sword shadow. Yet the instant those growths lunged at it, the shadow gave no sign of movement, and flesh turned to pulp.

For the shadow had no scabbard.

Its killing edge was laid bare to the world.

Still, the giant eye appeared accustomed to this. It immediately shut itself and vanished into the dark clouds.

But Chen Huangpi could see clearly.

The eye of tribulation had not disappeared; like Lord Mangshan before it, it had merely hidden its presence.

Blood rain fell like a torrent, soaking the grave mound of the God-Burial Tomb in the blink of an eye.

And the tomb gate now stood revealed before all the strange and sinister beings.

Seeing this, Yellow Calamity laughed uproariously. “All of you, within the God-Burial Tomb lie countless remnants of gods, and even greater fortune besides. Today, I will keep my word. I shall grant you all a chance to become calamity!”

“Follow me into the tomb!”

With that, Yellow Calamity drove the temple forward and surged in first.

Then came the mutated divine statues, and the calamities.

Those sinister beings, who had just been dancing like demons and gathering for a grave-side revel, were soon left with only Chen Huangpi, the gang of strange and sinister beings led by the long and thin one, and Lord Mangshan, who was herding the gods along at an unhurried pace like a shepherd with his flock.

Even the gigantic eye of tribulation had already slipped silently into the God-Burial Tomb.

“Move faster!” Lord Mangshan conjured a whip from nowhere and lashed the gods hard.

The gods cried out miserably, then helplessly crawled into the God-Burial Tomb.

“King Huangpi, do not miss this fortune. If you do, the one who regrets it will still be you.”

Lord Mangshan shot Chen Huangpi a savage grin, then dragged the grief-stricken Song Nine and the Qing’an County City God into the tomb gate.

At the spot where he stood, however, Chen Huangpi still did not move.

He was busy speaking inwardly with the brass oil lamp and the death-claiming ghost.

“The abbots’ sword truly is fearsome beyond compare. If not for you, master, closing your eyes, I fear my soul would have been sliced apart already.”

Even now the death-claiming ghost still felt lingering fear. That sword light was, after the abbots’ own figure, the most terrifying thing it had seen since coming to the mortal world.

If they truly fought head-on, it felt that even the soul-snatching register would be unable to protect it.

The brass oil lamp sneered. “Nonsense. That is the abbots’ sword—nothing it does not cut, all things it cuts! Even that evil Buddha, who was comparable to an immortal, had his head nailed to the mountain gate by a single strike. If his Buddha himself came, even that golden body would be split apart by one slash.”

But the death-claiming ghost said, “That is not right. Though the sword light was dreadful, the feeling it gave me was not enough to truly slay the evil Buddha. Could the sword itself be damaged? Or can that eye of tribulation not fully unleash its power?”

At that, the brass oil lamp immediately sensed something amiss.

It had seen the abbots’ sword before.

That sword itself was incomparably terrifying.

And unlike it, unlike the Nine-Li Bell, unlike Huang One, it would not lose much of its might even without the abbots’ control.

More importantly, that sword was proud.

How could it possibly remain inside a mere eye of tribulation?

Then Chen Huangpi suddenly said, “That is not my master’s sword!”

“Impossible. It is clearly the same one!” the brass oil lamp cried out inwardly. “I have seen it, I remember its aura. It is exactly like this—its edge so sharp that one cannot even look at it directly.”

“That was a shadow. The shadow of that sword.”

“A shadow?”

The death-claiming ghost mused aloud. “When wild geese pass, they leave a cry; when a sword passes, it leaves a shadow. Could it be that the eye of tribulation once saw the abbots’ sword, and so a sword shadow remained within it?”

“That must be it!” The brass oil lamp also understood at last, hurrying to ask, “Chen Huangpi, what does that sword shadow look like? Does it have a scabbard?”

“No scabbard!”

“Bad. This is bad!”

Chen Huangpi frowned in confusion. “Why is it bad if there is no scabbard?”

The brass oil lamp said anxiously, “That sword’s killing intent is too heavy. It is all too easy for it to go mad with slaughter. Without a scabbard, after so many years, I fear it has already slipped into lunacy and will not rest until every living thing in this world has been killed.”

“Get into the God-Burial Tomb at once!”

“Once we find the passage that connects to the Yellow Springs, we must hurry down and seize that so-called Reanimating Treasure Jade. This is no longer something you can handle. We must wait until the abbots wakes, and have him summon that sword back.”

Having said this, the brass oil lamp fell silent.

No matter how Chen Huangpi pressed it about the sword, it would only say one thing: once the abbots recalled it, Chen Huangpi could play with it however he pleased.

Chen Huangpi did indeed want to toy with that sword.

A mere passing shadow had already proved so terrifying.

If he truly held that sword in his hand, then within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and perhaps even beyond them, would he not be able to walk anywhere as he pleased?

At that thought, Chen Huangpi no longer hesitated and immediately rushed into the God-Burial Tomb.

...

At that very moment, in Xu Prefecture City, within the Song residence, rain had also begun to fall, just as in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Only this rain was light, not even worthy of being called a drizzle.

Song Tiangang sat expressionlessly on a stone stool in the waterside pavilion. Opposite him sat the bootlicking Grand Tutor, Wang Taiyu.

Between them lay a chessboard.

Black and white stones chased and slaughtered one another; the game had already lasted a long while.

It had begun in the morning and still had not ended.

Yet Song Tiangang had something on his mind.

His ambition to become immortal was about to be fulfilled.

Song Nine had already found the location of the Divine Geomantic Disk, and had even sent back word of what had happened atop the grave mound of the God-Burial Tomb.

The mutated divine statue!

The divine statue the Great Kang Emperor had paid an enormous price to obtain concealed the secret of immortality.

And that mutated divine statue looked exactly like the one in the imperial palace.

Song Tiangang was burning with impatience.

He wanted nothing more than to descend there at once.

But of all things, this Wang Taiyu had shown up first thing in the morning and insisted on dragging him into a game of chess.

Was he really here just to play chess?

Song Tiangang did not think so. In a man like him, so-called coincidence was nothing more than a scheme arranged in advance.

Only, he could not tell what Wang Taiyu was after.

So he endured it.

At that moment, Wang Taiyu glanced at the board and said with a chuckle, “Lord Song, it is your turn.”

“Do not be hasty, Grand Tutor. Allow this old man a little more thought.”

Song Tiangang wore a troubled expression, trapped in the game and wishing he could seize the board and smash Wang Taiyu to death with it.

But he could not do that.

Wang Taiyu’s visit today had been made with great fanfare; all the dignitaries and nobles in Xu Prefecture City knew of it.

If anything went wrong, it would be a slap in the face to the court, and a slap in the face to the emperor.

The Song family would never allow him to act so recklessly.

Moreover, the human vitality of Xu Prefecture City had not yet all been transferred away by Song Tiangang through his golden seal. This was not yet the time to tear off the mask.

Wang Taiyu looked at Song Tiangang and picked up a black stone, tapping it lightly against the board with a smile that was not quite a smile.

His son had already followed Song Nine into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

That was why he had come to hold Song Tiangang here.

A short while earlier, his son had sent word back that they had arrived at a place called the God-Burial Tomb.

And Song Nine had gone in with them.

Soon enough, he would learn exactly what schemes Song Tiangang had been hiding.

...

Cold. Dark.

Nothing could be seen.

The moment Chen Huangpi entered the God-Burial Tomb, he felt deeply uncomfortable.

His chest felt tight.

His head swam.

Then, all at once, flames sprang up one after another.

Only then could Chen Huangpi see clearly that he was now within a vast passageway, square-cut and straight, stretching forward in a rigid line.

The corridor was enormous, so vast that even the colossal body of the mutated divine statue could fit inside it.

The other strange beings and calamities standing within it seemed no larger than ants.

What astonished him even more was this:

On both sides of the passageway hung bronze oil lamps, one after another, extending for hundreds of paces. A glance could not even reveal their end.

“Second Huang, do you see this?”

“I do. Why do those lamps look like me?”

The brass oil lamp said in disbelief, “Could it be that during these years of my sleep, the abbots forged another lamp, and made a Third Huang?”

Those bronze oil lamps, aside from lacking tooth marks, were otherwise identical to the brass oil lamp.

If not for the difference in color and material, the brass oil lamp would have thought it was looking at its own double.

“No, these lamps definitely were not made by the abbots.”

The brass oil lamp tried to communicate with them, only to discover that although they looked very much like it, they were in essence nothing more than dead objects, completely without awareness.

“Look, a strange being is trying to touch one of the bronze lamps.”

As Chen Huangpi spoke, he stared at the strange being ahead.

Being the last to enter the God-Burial Tomb, the others were all in front of him. At that moment, a humanoid strange being had approached one of the bronze lamps and was reaching out to grab it.

But before its hand even made contact, a furious roar rang out.

The mutated divine statue spread its arms and slapped the strange being down.

Its strength was immense. Before the strange being could even react, it was smashed into a bloody pulp.

And yet this passageway remained utterly unmoved.

Not even the floor cracked.

All the strange beings shuddered.

Then the giant mouth on the chest of the mutated divine statue opened, and the big-headed strange being crawled out, shouting, “The Great Ominous Evil God tells you this: before you leave the God-Burial Tomb, none of the bronze lamps placed here may be touched. If you touch them, whatever is suppressed inside will awaken at once.”

“At that time, none of you will ever leave alive.”

With that, the mutated divine statue strode toward the far end of the passageway.

The other strange beings looked at one another, and all of them abandoned the idea of taking the bronze lamps.

Yet within the temple, Yellow Calamity’s face darkened.

The mutated divine statue had not told it about the bronze lamps. If it were not for its own grand ambitions, if it were not intent on reaching the deepest part of the God-Burial Tomb, it would probably have done exactly what the other strange beings were doing now—taken a few bronze lamps and used them to adorn its own temple.

“That foolish giant actually guarded against me as well.”

Yellow Calamity felt uneasy, and so it looked toward Chen Huangpi at the rear, saying with warmth, “King Huangpi, your strength and mine are more or less equal. You should come with me at the front. You there, all of you strange beings, move aside and make way.”

The strange beings immediately parted to open a path.

One after another, they said, “King Huangpi, please go first!”