In the dim, quiet chamber, as Meng Qi's thoughts stirred, the darkness around him grew deeper, like a night sky without moon or stars.
He had quietly activated the Seals of Limitless and Oneness, obscuring the secrets of heaven and karma. To one side, he made a shadow emerge that was impossible for the outside world to detect: a miniature Yellow Springs Skeleton, its bone spikes jagged and grotesque, its blood-yellow mists filthy.
At that moment, Meng Qi split off a portion of his consciousness and sent out a streak of chaotic light. It fell into the skeleton, causing flesh and hair to sprout from it until it became an old man in embroidered robes. His hair was black, with gray at the temples, and his features were exceptionally ordinary. Yet on closer inspection, one would find that deep within his black eyes, white life-force rippled; within that white, there was a seed of deathly, frigid blackness; and within that blackness, the original white lay hidden once more. The cycle repeated, layer upon layer, with no source to be found. It drew the mind in until it sank beyond retrieval.
The moment the figure appeared, he vanished into the deep darkness of the chamber, his whereabouts unknown.
If he was going to deceive heaven by "repairing the plank road in the open while secretly marching through Chencang," then he had to make it look convincing. In public, he would help his master perfect the Pure Land; in secret, he could not sit idle either. He needed to handle matters related to the underworld in an exceptionally covert way. The Yellow Springs Skeleton was just the thing: with the secret passage Senior Brother Qi had provided, he could infiltrate the Nine Abysses, investigate the Yellow Springs Reincarnation Body's whereabouts, and gather