Mythology

Chapter 467 The Three Ghosts Transform into Immortal Lords (Part Two Combined)

The five-colored divine light pierced through the ninth level of hell, and even long after it ended, it still left a long trail in the air like clouds.

"Unfortunately, the Great Incense Master is essentially a demonic evil spirit who has attained Buddhahood, making him truly difficult to kill."

Yang He couldn't help but whisper. Although his spiritual vision hadn't yet exceeded one hundred million, and he couldn't directly see the scene of the ninth level of hell, he could clearly sense that the five-colored divine light was indeed falling on the Great Incense Master.

The Grand Master was already severely injured; the Five-Colored Divine Light had shattered at least tens of thousands of faces.

"Did they slip away again?"

Yang He could sense that the Great Incense Master had shed another layer of skin, which made his injuries even more severe. At the same time, a large amount of subtle five-colored divine light was penetrating his flesh and bones like a bone-deep infection.

He calmed his breathing, and the three Nuo flags returned to their original state.

"Ugh."

The burden on the body and soul of the Hua Ni Xian was within a tolerable range, but the integration of the unformed third Nuo flag resulted in a severe backlash on the body and soul.

"like……"

Yang He looked up at the sky, and the clouds began to tremble violently.

"They already think I'm a weakling they can easily bully?"

Seven enormous shadows were slowly approaching the ninth level of hell, emanating a sense of oppression far exceeding that of the Great Incense Master.

A grotesque outline is vaguely visible, attempting to break through the boundaries.

Yang He observed coldly; the appearance of the seven shadows was beyond the scope of common sense and could only be described as indescribable.

First, a giant face pieced together from countless baby heads slowly emerged. Each baby had eyes without pupils, mouths stretched to their ears, and was emitting silent cries.

The shadow that followed resembled seven mouths opening and closing on the surface of a tumor, making a sound of bones cracking as they chewed.

There are also Buddha faces made up of arms; or dragon faces with interwoven skin...

It's highly likely that Yang He's display of strength against the Great Incense Master made many ghosts and gods feel that even if he descended to the mortal realm at a great cost, this ancient immortal still posed no threat to them.

"Hehe, although I don't plan to go deep into the endless hell, returning empty-handed is obviously not in line with my consistent principles."

Yang He narrowed his eyes, seemingly unmoved but actually already summoning his control panel. Since his current strength wasn't enough, then...

[Vulgarity: Born a Monk]

[Related Allusion: "The Holy Demon Monk" - Consume 1 Spirit Vision to enter the allusion world?]

"confirm."

"Let's talk about it again in five hundred years, and then we'll have another fight."

Time stood still in the main world, and the five-colored divine light still appeared faintly. Yang He had already focused his mind on the upcoming seclusion.

No ordinary role could be imagined for Yang He.

The only option is to choose a permanent character.

[The Celestial Venerable of the Great Void's Exploration of Corpses: Your descent to the mortal realm in the Southern Continent, being far from human habitation, did not cause much of a stir. However, your physical body is shattered and will require time to heal.]

[Netherworld Patrol Sea True Lord: You have been submerged at the bottom of the East Sea for some time now. It seems you can sense the lingering resentment at the former Dragon Palace site, which has turned a thousand miles into a dead zone.]

[Child who strikes the chime: You have only recently escaped the upper realm. You are currently in Xiniu Hezhou, a place where the Buddha's light shines everywhere. You can only avoid the attention of the Pure Land by opening a temple in the open.]

[Namo Amitabha Buddha: Even if Mount Ling is oblivious to the passage of time, you can still pay attention to the temples in the mortal realm that worship you. Although their incense offerings may not be abundant, they are all praising you.]

[If no identity is chosen, the true form will be used to travel to the world of the legend.]

"The permanent characters are now scattered across four continents."

Yang He shook his head slightly. If it weren't for the fact that the Corpse Celestial Venerable's information indicated that nothing had happened, he really would have liked to directly impersonate the true body. Each of them would have their own troubles.

Needless to say, anyone who plays either the Buddha of Sikhin or Ksitigarbha will inevitably encounter great trouble.

"Let's play the role of the Immaculate Buddha first."

.........

The boundless sea of ​​clouds surged and rippled, with golden rays intertwining, reflecting the thousands of floating palaces.

As the sun and moon alternate, the glazed tiles reflect the light of Buddha, and faded prayer flags are wrapped around the vermilion pillars, fluttering slowly in the windless environment.

In the center of the sea of ​​clouds, a Buddha of immeasurable size lies reclining.

His head was as majestic as a mountain, his eyelids were half-closed with drooping eyes, his hollow eye sockets were crawling with maggots, and golden pus and blood seeped from his rotting flesh, flowing down the clouds.

The ribs were all exposed, and a huge hole had been carved out in the chest and abdomen.

The internal organs had long since disappeared, and countless monks could be seen harvesting new flesh and blood from inside and outside the body, indicating that the person was still alive.

"Well."

The Buddha's chest heaved, causing the monks to kneel in fear.

Yang He's consciousness descended.

He immediately took out the human-faced peach and swallowed it, which increased his lifespan by a thousand years. Since it could take effect once every five hundred years, he naturally couldn't waste it.

"kindness?"

"It seems like I'm overthinking it."

Yang He was stunned to discover that the lifespan of the Immaculate Buddha had reached seven thousand years, and that he could actually gain merit by cutting off his own flesh to support the monk.

He didn't linger and immediately extinguished the life force.

Your character, "Namo Amitabha Buddha," has died; the story has ended.

Yang He's consciousness was destroyed, and he successfully returned to the main world before re-entering it.

“Playing the role of [Corpse Celestial Lord].

.........

Southern Zhanbuzhou.

The mountain path was overgrown with weeds, some even reaching above knee-high.

An old man and a young boy walked with difficulty, having to lift their legs to move forward. Both were dressed as barefoot doctors and carried bamboo baskets with them.

"Grandpa, has this road been untouched for a long time?"

The old doctor paused upon hearing this, his eyes beneath his white eyebrows scanning the surroundings. The mountain wind howled through the dense forest, and rustling sounds came from the grass.

They had only gone into the mountains to collect medicinal herbs, but unexpectedly, they lost their way due to a sudden turn of events.

It took most of the day to barely figure out what lay ahead.

"Stop talking nonsense!"

The old doctor's voice was deep, yet carried an undeniable sternness: "We'll reach Tianxi Village soon. I visited the village three years ago. It has been worshipped by enlightened monks for generations, and is protected by the local earth god. Incense has been offered continuously. How could anything have happened?"

"It's getting late now, and it's not safe to turn back."

The grandson swallowed hard and dared not say another word.

The mountain path grew narrower and narrower, with the intertwined branches of the trees on both sides, as if trying to block the two of them.

The grandson always felt that something was spying on them from behind the bushes, but every time he turned his head, he only saw swaying branches and leaves.

"Hurry up and go."

The old doctor called from ahead, "We must reach Tianxi Village before dark."

The two quickened their pace, and as the sun set, they finally crossed the last mountain ridge.

But when they finally saw the view in the valley, they found that Tianxi Village was unusually quiet.

A dozen or so thatched huts are scattered in the mountain valley. At a time when smoke should be rising from their chimneys, there is not a trace of smoke. Not far away, the millstone is covered with withered leaves, and the rope on the well platform has long since rotted and broken.

"This..." The grandson's voice trembled, "Grandpa, why is the village completely deserted..."

The old doctor's face was ashen as he strode towards the simple little temple at the village entrance.

The temple gate hung askew, creaking in the wind.

The grandson followed behind his grandfather and smelled a putrid odor.

The Buddha statue of the enlightened monk enshrined in the temple was broken in the middle, with the upper half lying on the ground, revealing the hollow interior and half of the golden body.

The golden statue is of a seated monk, whose skin is like dried tree bark stuck to his bones.

Before the monk passed away, he was holding a string of human bone prayer beads in his palm, but now they have been scattered. A large hole has been ripped out of his chest and abdomen, and his internal organs have disappeared.

"The golden statue of the enlightened monk!!"

The old doctor muttered to himself, then his expression suddenly changed drastically. "Quickly! To the ancestral hall!"

Since the Shang Dynasty, it has been a chaotic world for more than 700 years. Demons and evil spirits have devoured countless people. It was only during the Han Dynasty that they barely managed to find a way to deal with it.

In towns and villages, Taoist priests and monks who were highly accomplished in their lifetime are enshrined.

Like the enlightened monk, who killed more than 300 people in his lifetime and had a fondness for eating young boys and girls, his body was preserved by Tianxi Village, which had provided the young boys and girls, after he died from demonic possession during his Buddhist practice.

As a local deity, killing three hundred people in his lifetime was enough to protect thousands of people.

卯～～

Strange noises echoed through the mountains and forests, like countless feet treading on withered branches and fallen leaves, coming from afar and approaching.

卯～～

The grandson's hair stood on end, and his cry sounded neither human nor beast.

"It's that painted-face old woman!!!"

“My child, listen to me.” The old doctor grabbed his grandson’s hand and said urgently, “The ancestral hall in the village is used to enshrine our ancestors. Before the bodies are cremated, the blood is poured onto the old graves behind the ancestral hall.”

"The soil in the grave absorbs yin blood over the years and turns into black soil. Applying it to the whole body can cover up yang fire and avoid the eyes and ears of evil spirits."

The grandson nodded in terror, and the two of them stumbled and ran toward the village ancestral hall. The sounds behind them grew closer and closer. The grandson dared not turn around, but he could sense something closing in from all directions.

The ancestral hall was even more dilapidated than the temple, and the door panels had long since disappeared.

The old doctor went straight to the grave in the backyard and found a patch of barren black soil.

He grabbed a handful of black soil, brought it close to his nose, and smelled its rusty, fishy odor.

"Quick! Apply it to your body!" the old doctor said as he smeared it on his grandson's face. "Hide here and don't make a sound. I'll distract it."

"Grandpa!" The grandson grabbed the old man's sleeve, but was pushed away.

"Remember, no matter what sound you hear, don't come out! Follow the stream down the mountain at dawn!" The old doctor rushed out of the ancestral hall without looking back.

The grandson huddled in a corner of the ancestral hall, listening to his grandfather's footsteps fade into the distance.

The night fell into dead silence.

The grandson shuddered and secretly peeked through a crack in the courtyard wall, where he saw a horrifying scene: the old doctor's body lay motionless.

An old woman, hunched over, prostrated herself before the corpse and swallowed the food whole.

The grandson covered his mouth and noticed that his grandmother's exposed skin was covered with hair, her nose was still pinkish-flesh-colored, and three long whiskers hung down on each side of her mouth, trembling slightly with her breathing.

He couldn't help but recall that the painted-face old woman was another name for the cat demon.

Mao!

The old woman with the painted face had amber-colored vertical pupils that gleamed eerily in the dim light as she stared intently at the ancestral hall.

The grandson covered his mouth, and fear quickly overcame reason.

He climbed out of the back window of the ancestral hall and ran frantically up the mountain, stumbling and falling in the darkness, with footsteps getting closer and closer behind him.

Suddenly, the grandson lost his footing and plummeted downwards!
Ahhhhh!
The grandson fell heavily onto something soft, and everything went black.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying in a cave with a sliver of light from the ceiling. In the dim light, he could see the white bones of some animals scattered around him.

The painted-faced old woman whimpered a few times and then disappeared.

The grandson huddled in a corner, enduring a night of fear.

Even as dawn broke, the rustling sounds continued, and he could sense that the painted-face woman was still lingering nearby, waiting for him.

"This can't go on. Maybe there's another way out of the cave."

The grandson licked his chapped lips and groped his way deeper into the cave.

The cave walls were damp and cold, and everywhere your fingertips touched was covered in slippery moss.

The further you go, the more murky the air becomes, mixed with an indescribable, rotten smell, making your throat itch.

As you go deeper, the cave passages gradually open up, eventually leading to a natural rock chamber.

In the center of the rock chamber, a mangled corpse lay quietly on the stone platform.

The corpse was dressed in a tattered Taoist robe, half of its body had turned into bones, while the other half retained intact skin, and all four limbs were broken.

Just seeing it made my mouth go dry.

The grandson's legs went weak, and he knelt down on the ground.

He remembered his grandfather saying that to become a local deity, one must commit evil deeds in life, and the corpse before him harbored even more resentment than the enlightened monk.

Could it be that he killed thousands of people? Or did he also enjoy eating young boys and girls?

"Lord Earth God, I have offended you, I have offended you!!"

The grandson kowtowed three times, his forehead pressed against the cold ground, and said in a trembling voice, "Jiang Qi, a wandering doctor from the Jiang family, once visited the local earth god. Now, forced by circumstances, he has taken his severed limbs and left. From now on, he will make offerings to him day and night."

After he finished speaking, he looked up tremblingly and found that the corpse was unresponsive.

Then he took off the corpse's left arm, respectfully raised it above his head, and returned the way he came. Unexpectedly, the demons and evil spirits noticed and all fled.

Jiang Qi didn't notice that the corpse suddenly opened its eyes.

Yang He watched the mortal leave, "Land God? What nonsense is that?"

The corpse then grew flesh at a speed visible to the naked eye, and was completely healed in the blink of an eye. At the same time, outside the Precious Bone Mausoleum, human-faced peaches were placed to form a yin-gathering and life-giving stake, and the earth veins trembled slightly.

After the destruction caused by the Great Incense Master, four thousand of the human-faced peaches at Baoguling were lost.

But it doesn't matter. All the lifeless human-faced peaches were brought back into the tower, and the same number of flower buds have already grown on their roots.

Listening to Jiang Qi's rambling incoherently, Yang He roughly understood the current situation.

Nowadays, every town and village worships the Earth God to ward off evil spirits, while ordinary people cultivate and live within a limited area.

Yang He did not retrieve his severed limbs, but used this to learn about the mortal world in the present day.

Moreover, the mortals also mentioned the Jiang family.

Yang He couldn't help but think of Jiang Ziya, who disappeared after the Investiture of the Gods. With his uncle's talent, it would be difficult for him to live for another seven hundred years, but Jiang Ziya would definitely do something in the face of the fallen mortal world.

"They shouldn't be offspring; their appearances are completely different."

"Anyway, there are local deities everywhere in the Han Dynasty now, so they won't miss one more. With my innate corpse qi body, I can suppress evil spirits. Even with my severed limbs, I should be able to protect millions of mortals, right?"

Yang He didn't pay much attention, focusing all his attention on his seclusion.

The moment the Yin-gathering and life-giving stakes were set up, the cave sank a hundred meters, leveling the mountain along with it, and the outside world could no longer disturb it.

He sat cross-legged for a moment, and the black cat snuggled into his arms, breathing out yin energy.

A cycle is formed inside and outside the Great Circulation.

"The Golden Immortal is divided into three steps, or three tribulations, which correspond to the previous version of the Three Corpses Severing, but they are now completely different."

Yang He had already discussed the Three Tribulations with Yang Jian and others several times and made some improvements, especially the third realm, the Unity of Truth.

The first tribulation is called Transformation.

Golden Immortals must condense their supernatural powers into Immortal Lords. Each Immortal Lord possesses independent spirituality, acting as a minister assisting a ruler, and jointly participating in the Great Dao.

However, if one lacks the necessary moral character, one is more likely to suffer a backlash.

The second tribulation is called the natal tribulation.

A Golden Immortal must refine one divine power into their natal power, while the other minor divine powers serve as supplementary powers. If there is a conflict between the primary and secondary powers, the minor divine powers must be immediately separated.

If one is not careful, their soul will be torn apart, and they will become a walking corpse.

The third tribulation is the union of truth.

The body and soul of a Golden Immortal are already self-contained, and their innate supernatural powers are integrated with the organs of the Mysterious Immortal, thereby constructing a small world within their body.

The so-called small world could also be called an incomplete dojo.

Just as the Nine-Bend Yellow Springs, which are the manifestation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's intestines, do have a certain ecosystem, they can never possess the sun, moon, stars, the changing seasons, and the cycle of life and death of a sacred site...

Yang He will have to make certain choices during his three tribulations, and the advantages and disadvantages of the training ground are something he cannot avoid.

If he didn't have a Taoist temple, he was certain that he would ascend to the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm within five hundred years. Now, however, he was somewhat apprehensive and decided to take it one step at a time.

"As for the black cat."

Yang He gently stroked Hakimi's head.

Black Cat's cultivation level didn't improve as quickly as the Three Ghosts'; he remained at the Profound Immortal Realm. He could go to the Golden Immortal Mountain to see how things would change.

It took Yang He half a year to organize the cultivation steps.

With a quick scan, the collapsed mountains were completely covered by vegetation.

With a slight thought, the Nuo Xiang ghost appeared in front of him, with three flags waving and the rest being a shapeless cloud of mist.

Yang He's gaze turned solemn as he formed a hand seal, causing the mist surrounding the Nuo Xiang Gui to surge violently.
Guided by divine consciousness, the amorphous mist began to twist and stretch, gradually outlining a blurry human figure.

what! ! !
The demonic figure let out a shrill scream, and the three flags fluttered wildly.

Yang He didn't care at all, and instead increased the speed of his drawing. After a brief wail, the Nuo Xiang ghost adapted to the pain and became quiet again.

"Three tribulations?"

"These four ghosts have followed me through countless life-and-death experiences, how could they possibly be afraid of having their forms reshaped?!"

Yang He's lips curled up, and then the Pupil Ghost and the Power Ghost were revealed. He decided to attack them all at once, so that if he failed, they could perish together quickly.

"Ordinary immortals can only accommodate one innate divine power within their bodies, since divine powers can conflict with each other, but I am the opposite."

"I don't need to build a small world; I can simply integrate my innate supernatural powers more closely into the dojo."

"To become part of the Daoist temple's Heavenly Dao."

As Yang He pondered, the traces he sketched became increasingly smooth.

His eyes were slightly closed, and yin energy intertwined and swirled in the void.

They gradually coalesced into three enigmatic portraits.

On the left is the Pupil Demon, with an air of otherworldly grace, yet he has a head made up of thousands of eyes, each of which flickers with firelight.

The wide Taoist robe fluttered without wind, and when the sleeves fell down, it revealed arms covered with pupils, as if they could see all the secrets of the world.

On the right is the Demon King, dressed in a green robe and jade belt, with a cold and stern face. Behind him unfolds a circle of ferocious limbs, some holding swords, some making hand seals, and some forming hand gestures, numbering in the thousands.

The arms wriggled and reassembled continuously, sometimes transforming into a lotus platform, sometimes condensing into a sword array, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.

The figure in the center is a demonic spirit, exuding a dignified and awe-inspiring aura, which has a somewhat familiar feel to it.

In his left hand he holds a white bone whisk, the end of which is woven from countless tiny finger bones, representing the Corpse Flag; in his right hand he holds a dark blue jade ruyi, the head of which is carved with the image of a hundred ghosts wailing, representing the Puppet Flag; around his neck hangs a string of human bone prayer beads, though slightly damaged, representing the Fu Flag.

The moment the three immortals took shape, a chilling wind howled throughout the entire cave.

Yang He's expression was strange. He had transformed himself somewhat according to the standards of the Three Pure Ones: the Pupil Ghost Taishang Laojun, the Power Ghost Tongtian Jiaozhu, and the Nuo Xiang Ghost Yuanshi Tianzun, who was the key to his supernatural powers.

(End of this chapter)