Yang He was utterly incredulous. Events had developed far beyond his expectations. Why... could he not return to the Main World after the allusion was completed?
"Something's wrong. If the condition for completing Ghost Lotus was Nezha's resurrection, the coffin was only just transported to Qing Lake. How could it happen so quickly?"
Yang He gasped for breath. Before he could take the Great Replenishing Pill, a warm current had already surged from within his body.
Yang Fire reignited, and even the injuries to his internal organs had healed by more than half.
Then—
Yang He's eyes widened as his body suddenly felt an inexplicable downward pull. Yet he was not falling off a cliff; he was slowly sinking into the soil.
He discovered that the soil was flowing, clearly the work of some spell.
"Earth Evasion Technique?"
Yang He's guess was nearly correct. The soil then parted before him, and in an instant, he traveled from the mountainside to the summit. The sound of water rippled around him.
By the time he came back to his senses, he was already sitting in a small boat on Qing Lake.
The fragrance of tea filled the air.
The stove crackled as Grandmaster Taiyi leisurely took a sip of tea.
"Come, warm yourself up first."
Yang He accepted the tea bowl Grandmaster Taiyi handed him, his mouth twitching uncontrollably. The tea leaves were actually several strands of Madam Yin's black hair.
Grandmaster Taiyi smiled without speaking.
The two ghosts within Yang He stirred restlessly at the scent of the tea.
"Th-thank you, Master. Your disciple has no way to repay you."
Yang He cautiously took a small sip. Half a breath later, heat surged throughout his body as surrounding Yin energy poured endlessly into him.
The Pupil Ghost absorbed most of it, and traces of a fifth Yin Meridian began to form.
After Yang He drained the bowl in one gulp, his fifth Yin Meridian was already one-third complete, while the blood vessels and ghost hand formed by the Three Mountains Goddess grew ever more tightly intertwined.
"Master, you know your disciple was once a beggar. I couldn't taste much, so why not..."
"Do not be greedy for another cup."
Grandmaster Taiyi explained with a smile, "Unless you want Madam Yin to burst out of your body. After all, the tea leaves were nurtured from an incarnation of evil."
Yang He shuddered. Clearly, Grandmaster Taiyi looked more like an evil being.
He looked outside and saw dense mist blanketing Qing Lake. The Yin energy was incomparably rich, and two Madam Yins swam slowly beneath the water.
He summoned Spiritual Vision, and the words that appeared were particularly glaring.
Spiritual Vision: 57.3 points
As Yang He stood there stunned, his Spiritual Vision continued soaring. Breaking one hundred was only a matter of time.
"Master, um... did senior brother's resurrection go smoothly?"
He truly could not make sense of the situation. Just as he was about to test the waters, Grandmaster Taiyi raised a finger to his lips. "Heh heh heh."
"Don't rush. The fish has taken the bait."
Only then did Yang He notice that Grandmaster Taiyi's third hand held a thin line, which was dangling into Qing Lake. A baby's cry sounded from its end.
"Here it comes!"
Grandmaster Taiyi reeled in the line, dragging a struggling Child Ghost onto the little boat.
"Disciple, take a look. The lake water can give birth to evil beings. Interesting, isn't it?"
"It certainly is interesting."
Yang He watched Grandmaster Taiyi's third hand crush the Child Ghost to death before retracting into his body. Waves of hair-raising chewing sounds came from within.
"When your master passed through this mountain years ago, I discovered a spirit vein growing in the underground river. I deliberately drew it forth to form a lake. Later, in order to cultivate spiritual lotus materials, I dumped silt into the lakebed."
"Master's powers are truly divine. Your disciple is filled with nothing but admiration."
Yang He forced an awkward smile and echoed him. He vaguely remembered that the conditions for a Child-Mother Ghost to be born were extraordinarily harsh.
What silt?
Even if the corpse mud from Mass Grave were dumped into Qing Lake, it would not be this outrageous.
"Heh heh heh, it was just right to use Qing Lake as your senior brother's place of reincarnation."
Yang He could not help asking, "Master, have you seen the General's Mansion soldiers? They escorted senior brother to Qing Lake earlier. Even if they deserve no credit, they have at least worked hard."
"Disciple, what are you thinking?"
Grandmaster Taiyi stared at Yang He with amusement and said blandly, "You don't think the rotten flesh in the coffin is your senior brother, do you?"
Yang He's pupils contracted slightly. He understood that he had made an assumption from the start.
"The rotten flesh is merely your senior brother's old body. Even if it bore malicious thoughts, it could never serve as Nezha's foundation for reconstructing his body."
Yang He recalled that Grandmaster Taiyi had indeed never mentioned the coffin from beginning to end.
In the original story, Nezha's resurrection had nothing to do with his corpse either. His soul left his body before attaching itself to the golden body Madam Yin had created.
Then Li Jing destroyed the golden body, and Nezha's soul returned to Qianyuan Mountain.
So the corpse inside the coffin was just a corpse.
No, more precisely, it was a corpse that had already come to life!!!
"Disciple, your senior brother is in the depths of Qing Lake. It will not be long before he emerges."
Yang He opened the Pupil Ghost. His Spiritual Vision had already reached sixty points, and he vaguely saw a flash of blood-red light on the lakebed, guarded by Madam Yin.
"Urgh."
He groaned, and bloody tears dripped from the corners of the Pupil Ghost's eyes.
Nezha's true body beneath the water entered his sight.
A fleshy embryo, fully ten meters large, was continuously growing. Its surface was covered in densely packed lotus-root arms, which writhed and breathed with the water's currents.
Yang He frowned slightly. All of a sudden, he no longer found the corpse in the coffin all that bizarre.
Grandmaster Taiyi pointed toward the other side of Qing Lake and said with a smile, "More than a dozen people from the General's Mansion, along with the coffin, have been sealed beneath the water. Don't worry, their lives are not in danger. They are merely unconscious."
Yang He endured the discomfort of the Pupil Ghost and focused his gaze.
Fourteen people bound by black hair drifted with the current. The coffin lay nearby, wrapped layer upon layer in a vast mass of black hair.
Dong!
Knock knock!!
The corpse frantically pounded against the lid, radiating malice and resentment so tangible it seemed physical.
Yang He retreated several steps in terror, drawing unceasing hearty laughter from Grandmaster Taiyi.
The small boat swayed, and ripples rose across the water.
"So that's how it is."
Nezha's soul had successfully entered the fleshy embryo, which was why the allusion had been marked complete. Yet Yang He felt that Ghost Lotus was far from as simple as it appeared.
"Could it be that if the coffin had been brought to Qing Lake before Nezha entered the embryo, the demonic intent could have turned the tables?"
"Or perhaps it had targeted the corpse from the very beginning."
Yang He realized that although the allusion originated from the world of Investiture of the Gods, it did not need to follow the rules rigidly.
As he pondered, Yang Fire showed signs of going out again. He hurriedly took out the Great Replenishing Pill, but before he could put it in his mouth, Grandmaster Taiyi snatched it away.
"A child's toy."
Grandmaster Taiyi toyed with the Great Replenishing Pill, casting Yang He a sidelong glance.
"Disciple, you possess some fortune. You were born a mortal beggar in a Yin year and Yin month, yet your constitution has somehow acquired the essence of a corpse immortal."
"Not bad, not bad."
Though Grandmaster Taiyi spoke words of praise, his face remained expressionless.
"But you are about to die as well. The tiny bit of Yang energy stimulated by medicinal herbs cannot possibly fuel a body riddled with wounds."
"The more pills you take, the more you will need. Sooner or later, you will have to drink human blood to replenish your Yang energy."
Grandmaster Taiyi had been observing Yang He all along, and then a smile curled across his lips.
Yang He was not the slightest bit nervous. Within only a few breaths, he had accepted the truth. He continued taking the Great Replenishing Pill without hesitation, and the Pupil Ghost's cultivation did not cease.
"Heh heh heh, a steadfast Dao heart."
Yang He shamelessly moved closer to Grandmaster Taiyi. "Master, you gave your disciple this life. You wouldn't just watch your disciple die, would you?"
Grandmaster Taiyi revealed crooked, rotten teeth. "Of course not. Your senior brother Nezha acts rashly, so you can just happen to keep him in check."
"Disciple, this matter brings both fortune and disaster. Do you wish to become a true... corpse immortal?"
Before you continue