83. The Yellow-Skinned King? Chen Huangpi! (Third update, 11,000 words, please vote for monthly tickets)

The moment that word “Yellow Calamity” was spoken, Chen Yellowskin was put squarely on the spot.

Truthfully, on this journey into the Grave of the Buried Gods, he had never intended to stand out.

He only wanted to stay in the back and let these uncanny beings do as they pleased.

He did not care what treasures or opportunities might lie within the grave of the gods. Finding the passage to the Yellow Springs Nether Soil was all he had come for.

But now...

This situation had thrown his so-called plan, such as it was, into complete disarray.

A child of this age, no matter how mature his mind may be, was still a child in the end.

Fortunately, Chen Yellowskin did not panic. He simply stepped forward and walked beside Yellow Calamity, matching pace with him.

Yellow Calamity laughed. “This is better. I call myself Yellow Calamity, and you’re called the Yellowskin King only because I happened to mention it. By rights, we should address each other as kin.”

Chen Yellowskin smiled as well. “Yes, we are kin.”

Kin, my ass.

The Brass Oil Lamp was furious, cursing inside Chen Yellowskin’s mind. “What kind of level does it have? A clay idol, smeared all over with yellow mud before it became Yellow Calamity, and it dares to imitate me and call itself your kin? It doesn’t even share your surname.”

“A-ghost, what do you think?”

The Death-Claiming Ghost said helplessly, “Yes, it doesn’t share your surname. It ought to be your kin instead.”

“You’re all my kin. Yellow Calamity is not,” Chen Yellowskin replied calmly in his heart. “It means me no good. I’ve disliked it for a long time. When I get the chance, I’ll call out the golden-horned one too and see whether I can kill it.”

Yellow Calamity had no idea that the one it had called kin had already taken murderous intent.

It merely thought Chen Yellowskin was easy to fool.

A few words of flattery, and he would float right up into the clouds.

So Yellow Calamity led Chen Yellowskin onward.

At once, the vast and tumultuous procession of uncanny beings acquired a front and a rear.

At the very front were the mutated statues.

Behind them came Lord Mangshan and the hidden true form of the Calamity Eye.

Yellow Calamity, Chen Yellowskin, and the other disasters followed behind Lord Mangshan.

Only after that came the rest of the uncanny beings.

Among them, the long-limbed uncanny being somehow remained behind Chen Yellowskin at all times, neither too near nor too far.

The distance was exquisitely subtle.

With just a stretch of its hand, the long-limbed uncanny being could touch Chen Yellowskin.

Of course, Chen Yellowskin noticed.

Still, he was wearing the skin of the Death-Claiming Ghost, and with the Brass Oil Lamp on his body, he had no reason to fear this long-limbed thing.

Besides, the Death-Claiming Ghost had once guessed that this uncanny being might be a Daoist of the Pure Immortal Temple transformed.

Otherwise, why would it have shown Chen Yellowskin such friendliness again and again?

So Chen Yellowskin simply let it follow.

“The Great Ominous Evil God says: halt!”

It was the voice of the big-headed uncanny being.

It was speaking on behalf of the mutated statue, and the whole crowd of uncanny beings immediately stopped.

Yellow Calamity, however, did not care.

“Yellowskin King, come with me. There’s a good show to watch in a moment.”

With that, Yellow Calamity came to the side of the mutated statue, while Lord Mangshan, holding Song Nine and the city god of Qing'an County, cracked his whip and drove the hundreds of grass-headed gods forward as though herding sheep.

Chen Yellowskin stepped up.

This was the end of the passage inside the Grave of the Buried Gods.

Brass oil lamps hung on both the left and right, though neither of them was lit.

Looking ahead, all was pitch black.

“If only the Six Yin God had fully formed,” Chen Yellowskin thought with regret. Ever since he entered this grave, the Six Yin God that had yet to take shape in his mind had never stirred again.

He had lost that all-seeing perspective that missed nothing.

No matter how he called, the Six Yin God was dead still.

Chen Yellowskin knew this was because, when he had forcibly urged the Six Yin God to shut the Kidney Shrine before, he had injured it. Add to that the soul-killing strike of the Sword Technique of Slaughtering Life that he had taken head-on earlier, and the Six Yin God had not even formed yet before he had used it like a mule. It was already at the limit merely to function from time to time.

But this was not the reason he could not see into the passage.

“Yellow Two, I keep feeling this place is very much like the Old Temple...”

“It’s not just like it. It’s plainly copied from it...”

The Brass Oil Lamp had in fact been watching the bronze lamps that resembled it.

It had been split into thousands of pieces to suppress the Old Temple.

These bronze lamps were likewise suppressing what lay within the Grave of the Buried Gods.

Though this grave could not compare with the Old Temple, and the bronze lamps could not compare with it either, the intention behind them was the same.

At that moment, Yellow Calamity said to the mutated statue, “Great Ominous Evil God, light these two lamps. Let the grave guardian beast come out. Once we have fed it enough, we can go in.”

Hearing this, Chen Yellowskin immediately looked at the two unlit bronze lamps.

Light these two lamps, and a grave guardian beast would appear?

Could the Grave of the Buried Gods actually be a great tomb?

And the things suppressed by the bronze lamps—were they the gods within the tomb?

The mutated statue spread its arms and opened its hands.

The vertical eyes in both palms happened to align precisely with the two bronze lamps.

Then, within those eyes, two threads of flame suddenly blazed to life.

Indeed, its eyes were like torches!

And yet those vertical eyes were like mirrors, reflecting the two bronze lamps, with the two threads of flame in the eyes positioned exactly above the wicks.

At first glance, it truly looked as if the two bronze lamps had been lit.

No...

They had truly been lit.

The vertical eyes snapped shut, and the two threads of fire in its gaze vanished at once.

Then, as though jumping through the air, they landed on the wicks of the two bronze lamps.

Light burst forth in all directions.

But the darkness was not dispersed. It only seemed to lose its original strangeness.

Chen Yellowskin’s eyesight was excellent, and he immediately saw a hideous and terrifying figure suddenly appear within that darkness.

In the next instant, a blurry beast head with a human face poked out of the dark.

That beast head was even larger than the mutated statue’s own head. Around its neck was a full collar of arms covered in corpse spots, like a lion’s mane.

Its face was human in shape, but far too pale, with features that were unnaturally narrow and elongated.

As it appeared, the corpse-spotted arms encircling its neck began to sway.

A gust of cold wind immediately blew through the passage.

Wherever that wind passed, all the uncanny beings seemed to be pressed down under an invisible weight.

Even Chen Yellowskin felt very ill at ease.

No—more precisely, it was the Death-Claiming Ghost that felt ill at ease.

“Master, this grave guardian beast is a deity! It can suppress the uncanny beings!”

The Death-Claiming Ghost was right.

Even the mutated statue had been suppressed. Much of the black smoke around its body had withdrawn back inside.

The vertical eyes in its palms also became faintly clearer.

It even cast a silent glance at Chen Yellowskin.

That look was very complicated.

There was no frenzied, savage killing intent in it.

Instead, there was a kind of helplessness.

Chen Yellowskin only felt gooseflesh rise all over him.

He still preferred the mutated statue’s sky-high murderous glare. That at least looked like the eyes one would use on one’s own family.

Then the grave guardian beast suddenly spoke. “I have guarded here for more than ten thousand years. Even if the Supreme God were here, you still must offer blood food. Only after I have eaten my fill may you pass through this way.”

The mutated statue nodded, as if the Supreme God in question were it.

Yellow Calamity laughed. “Rest assured. The blood food has already been prepared.”

With that, Yellow Calamity said to Lord Mangshan, “Lord Mangshan, make your move!”

“That should have been done long ago.”

Lord Mangshan grinned savagely and immediately lifted the city god of Qing'an County. Then he伸 out one arm, seized the crown of the god’s head, and with only a slight exertion tore the head clean off.

With a wet sound, golden blood spurted out.

Then a torrent of human vitality surged from the city god’s body.

Lord Mangshan blew with all eight of his heads at once.

That human vitality immediately drifted toward the grave guardian beast.

The beast’s eyes lit up. It opened its mouth, revealing rows of snow-white teeth, and inhaled sharply.

All the human vitality was swallowed up without a trace.

“Delicious! I never expected this mud-molded, wood-carved false god to taste so good!”

“Let me sample its flesh and blood.”

Lord Mangshan tossed the city god’s head and body over.

The grave guardian beast opened its huge mouth and swallowed them in a single bite. The sound of chewing instantly rang out in all directions.

This was a county city god who, even in Xuzhou City, ranked among the notable figures.

Yet at this moment, it was just as muddled and cluelessly devoured alive by the grave guardian beast as though it were a little chick.

“Not enough! Still not enough!”

The grave guardian beast said loudly, “You have brought too many uncanny beings. This bit of blood food is only enough to let me eat my fill by half. Throw the other false gods over as well.”

Lord Mangshan swung his whip.

Those gods immediately wailed and crowded forward.

The great head of the grave guardian beast lowered to look, and at once it showed distaste. The ring of arms around its neck picked and chose, selecting only those with abundant incense among the many gods and tossing them into its mouth one after another.

Unlike the city god of Qing'an County, those gods had not lost consciousness. They were awake.

Feeling their bodies being gnawed apart alive, each one screamed and howled.

“It hurts, it hurts so much!”

“I don’t want to die. I worked so hard to become a god. I haven’t even enjoyed it yet...”

“Aaaah! My divine soul is shattered!!”

Crunch, crunch...

After chewing for a while, the grave guardian beast did not even grind them fully to pulp before swallowing them whole in one gulp.

“False gods are just false gods. Even chewing them slowly brings no real flavor!”

Seeing this, the remaining gods all trembled violently.

But before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, the grave guardian beast opened its mouth wide and sucked all the remaining gods straight into it, swallowing them alive in one brutal gulp.

“Low-grade rations!”

The grave guardian beast looked displeased, then abruptly turned its gaze toward Song Nine, who was being held in Lord Mangshan’s hand.

At this moment, how could Song Nine still not understand? The reason these uncanny beings had not killed him outside the Grave of the Buried Gods was simply that they had intended to feed him to this grave guardian beast.

And now, it was his turn.

“Do not kill me, honored uncanny beings! I am a trusted aide of Song Tiangang, the governor of Xuzhou. If you spare me, I will become your traitorous accomplice and open the gates of Xuzhou City for you. Hundreds of thousands of mortals can be yours to feast on to your heart’s content!”

Song Nine’s tongue had been torn out, so he could not speak. Those words came from his nascent soul.

Lord Mangshan was slightly tempted. “Is that true?”

He had once been a arhant of the Western Buddhist Kingdom. In the spring of the fourth year of the Qingli reign, he went to the imperial palace of Great Kang, but for some reason he suddenly transformed into an uncanny being.

After that, he gorged himself in the capital.

Yet before he had eaten many people, he was hunted all the way and fled into the Ten Thousand Mountains.

There were surviving commoners in the Ten Thousand Mountains.

But he did not dare eat them.

Because an even more terrifying uncanny being had told him that there existed a mountain patrol in those Ten Thousand Mountains. If he dared to stir up trouble, that being would personally intervene and harvest the uncanny beings.

Thinking of the taste of mortals, Lord Mangshan felt his mouth water.

But Yellow Calamity suddenly said, “Lord Mangshan, you’ve already suffered at the hands of cultivators before. Don’t fall for it again. Besides, if we don’t feed him to the grave guardian beast until it’s full, where else are we supposed to get another blood offering?”

Song Nine immediately cried out, “There is blood food! His name is Chen Yellowskin, and he is here! He has mixed in among you!”

“Chen Yellowskin?”

Yellow Calamity narrowed its eyes, then flew into a rage. “This god remembers him! That little brat was spouting nonsense to me before, insisting I acknowledge that he and his master are even more pitiable. Where is he? This god will tear him apart alive!”

“He’s standing at your right hand!”

“What!”

Yellow Calamity’s temple shook. It turned in disbelief toward the right-hand side, where the one standing there was none other than the Yellowskin King it had thought so easy to fool!

The author is not intentionally dragging out the pace. This is simply how the plot outline was set. Since much of this can already be seen clearly, many of the pits dug earlier and the foreshadowing laid down before must now be gathered together here, and certain mysteries revealed.

If the pacing were any faster, it would probably feel wrong.

Please bear with it a little. I’ll do my best to update more over these next few days, aiming for ten thousand characters a day, and finish the Grave of the Buried Gods arc as quickly as possible.