Ten-Thousand-Calamity Yin Spirits Struggle to Enter Sainthood

In the original story, the mold growing in Xie Yali's abdomen was actually a method for refining an Inner Elixir.

After the Five Zhi Pill powder was planted in the dantian, one had to use the Five-Prison Human-Spirit Method to slay five kinds of "Human Fiends," then absorb that strange power caught between life and death, resentment and baleful energy, and soul intent. Only then could the External Elixir transform into an Inner Elixir.

The end of the path of External Elixirs had always been the Inner Elixir.

From outside to within, from falsehood to truth.

What Huang Bai truly wanted had never been Ying Caihong herself, but the pill cultivated within her body.

"This pill is also known as a Bait Pill. Once it is cultivated, there will be no need to keep firing the furnace and refining medicine every day. The Inner Elixir will naturally produce medicinal power."

After all, refining External Elixirs was far too troublesome.

He had to tend the furnace day and night, carefully control the heat, and raise toads to neutralize the pill toxins and medicinal properties. One mistake, and all previous efforts would go to waste.

As for why he did not simply plant the pill in his own body, the reason was simple.

Huang Bai did not want to forcibly carve a pit into his own lower abdomen.

Moreover, Corpse Liberation was ultimately risky. The slightest mishap meant death and the dissipation of all attainments. Though he dared to take risks, he was unwilling to gamble his own life on such a thing.

"More or less time."

At that moment, the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict on Huang Bai's left arm grew faintly warm before blossoming with brilliant golden radiance.

This meant that the karma of the world of The Dragon-Seeking Formula had been completely settled.

"This trip has yielded quite a lot."

The Flower of the Other Shore, the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art, and a Five-Ganoderma Inner Elixir.

Any one of them would have been a rare and priceless opportunity in the outside world.

Based on his past experience, in about the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict would guide him back to reality.

Huang Bai raised his head and looked around.

The courtyard was quiet, and the old scenery remained unchanged.

There seemed to be nothing left here worth lingering over.

The story of Ghost Blows Out the Lamp should end here as well.

Just then, the roar of a car engine suddenly came from outside the gate.

Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang were in the car, while Wang Pangzi sat in the back seat.

Over the past half year, Panda Express had flourished, with branches spread across nearly all of San Francisco. The three of them had also begun new lives.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, Wang Pangzi stuck his head out. "Old Hu, do you think Brother Huang hasn't left the house at all these past six months? Is he still in San Francisco?"

"He should still be here." Hu Bayi looked toward the courtyard gate, uncertainty in his voice.

Shirley Yang said softly, "Daoist Huang has always been mysterious. Maybe one day, he'll really undergo Daylight Ascension."

After their trip to the ancient tomb, none of them dared view Huang Bai as an ordinary person anymore.

Even if someone said Huang Bai was some old monster who had lived for centuries, they might well believe it.

The three had come this time to invite Huang Bai back to China to attend the wedding ceremony Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang were holding there.

They walked up to the gate and were just about to knock.

Creak.

The gate swung open inward on its own.

Inside the courtyard, Huang Bai stood alone in his Daoist robes, as though he had been waiting for them for a long time.

"You came at just the right time." Huang Bai looked at the three of them, his tone calm. "I'm leaving. Before I go, I can at least see you one last time."

"Leaving?" Wang Pangzi froze. "Where are you going? No, Brother Huang, can't whatever it is wait a few more days?"

Before he could finish speaking.

A sudden change occurred.

A faint golden glow suddenly spread from Huang Bai's body. At first, the light rippled like water, then it grew increasingly bright until it enveloped him completely.

Huang Bai merely gave them a slight nod.

"The mountains are high and the road is long. Until we meet again."

The next instant, the golden light contracted.

Huang Bai vanished completely from the courtyard, along with every trace of his presence.

The courtyard stood empty, with only the wind rustling through the grass and trees.

The three stood rooted in place for a long while, speechless.

"Th-this... has he become an immortal?" Wang Pangzi's mouth fell open.

Hu Bayi stared at the empty courtyard without speaking for a long time, an indescribable melancholy suddenly rising within him.

He had originally wanted to invite Huang Bai for another drink, but he had never expected this parting to come so suddenly.

Many years later.

Their restaurants had spread across the United States, and Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi were worth billions of dollars. They were no longer the two Gold-Seeking Commandants who had once run everywhere, struggling on the edge of life and death.

Yet whenever they recalled that time, they would still think of the young Daoist in his robes, with Jade Eyes and Square Pupils.

"Who would have thought," Hu Bayi said with deep emotion as he sat before the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out at the bustling nightscape, "that a chance encounter in that alley would become the turning point of our lives?"

At the time, they had thought nothing of it.

After a familiar bout of dizziness and disorientation, Huang Bai felt as though he had fallen into a bottomless abyss.

He did not know how long passed.

Then the ground beneath his feet suddenly became solid.

When Huang Bai opened his eyes again, he was standing once more inside that nameless ancient temple.

The ancient temple was as quiet as ever. Sandalwood incense curled through the air, and above the altar table, the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict condensed once more. Its pure golden glow illuminated the entire archaic temple.

Huang Bai's body slowly solidified within the golden light.

"Sigh."

He looked around and could not help letting out a breath.

"This damn place is the real destination."

Honestly, he would rather swing a wok in the back kitchen of Panda Express than stay here for too long. The ancient temple was safe, but far too lonely, like a prison cut off from the world. Stay long enough, and even one's humanity would be worn away.

"Hm?"

Huang Bai suddenly raised his hand.

He saw that a Flower of the Other Shore pattern had somehow appeared on his arm.

The pattern was only the size of a thumb, shaped like an unopened flower bud. Its color was dark and dim, faintly exuding a strange aura where life and death intertwined.

Meanwhile, the Other Shore Flower Meteorite he had brought back from the world of The Dragon-Seeking Formula had vanished without a trace.

"Could it have... turned into this?"

With a thought, Huang Bai sank his divine sense into the pattern.

In an instant, understanding surfaced in his heart.

[Resurrection]

This was a one-use consumable item. At the moment of death, it could reverse life and death, allowing him to come back to life once.

The Flower of the Other Shore had always drifted between the realms of yin and yang, growing at the boundary between life and death. If he fell into a state of death, the Flower of the Other Shore would bloom in the depths of despair and return the dead to life.

"It counts as a life-saving trump card."

More possibilities immediately arose in his mind.

If his path of External Elixirs deepened in the future and the condition of his Jade Eyes and Square Pupils worsened, he would eventually have to face the hurdle of Corpse Liberation.

If he could use the Flower of the Other Shore pattern to preserve his physical body, perhaps he could find another path.

"Maybe... I can even preserve this body through it."

Patriarch Lü had once said: cultivate nature but not life, and Ten-Thousand-Calamity Yin Spirits struggle to enter sainthood.

Though Ten-Thousand-Calamity Yin Spirits were already existences beyond the reach of ordinary mortals.

What Daoist cultivator did not wish for Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life, cultivating both the Primordial Spirit and the physical body, until spirit and form became equally wondrous and nature and life achieved perfect harmony?

"Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life, physical body cultivation..."

Huang Bai shook his head.

"Hard. Hard. Hard."

Cultivating the Dao was not like the cultivation novels online. It was not as though obtaining a cultivation technique would let one soar all the way to the heavens.

Since ancient times, countless sages and mighty cultivators had fallen on the path of Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life.

Even in the Heavenly Court of myth, those who had truly achieved Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life and Physical Body Sanctification were all among the very strongest fighters.

After reflecting for a moment, Huang Bai went beneath the lamp, opened the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art, and studied it carefully.

The ancient temple was silent, with only the faint sound of turning pages echoing through it.

In his spare time, he also took out the Five-Ganoderma Inner Elixir and placed it in his palm, sensing the flow of medicinal power within it.

After playing with it for a while, Huang Bai suddenly had an idea and swallowed the Five-Ganoderma Inner Elixir in one gulp.

The pill entered his stomach but did not sink downward. Instead, like a spiritual spark, it remained suspended within his abdomen.

Whoosh!

Huang Bai sprang to his feet. He felt his sinews and bones grow light, his blood and qi surge, as though his body had been forged anew.

With a light step, he drifted several meters away.

"A fine pill!"

Huang Bai spat out the Inner Elixir and lowered his gaze to his hands, a hint of surprise appearing in his eyes.

After swallowing the Five-Ganoderma Inner Elixir, his physical abilities had increased by at least more than double. Whether strength, speed, or reaction time, he was far beyond what he had been before.

"In the world of Ghost Blows Out the Lamp, Shirley Yang's grandfather, Partridge Whistle, once swallowed a Centipede Inner Elixir and gained astonishing abilities."

"My skills now may not be inferior to his."

As the thought turned in his mind, Huang Bai reached for the ritual sword at his waist.

Clang!

The ritual sword left its sheath.

Within the ancient temple, the Daoist's figure flickered, already gliding through the air like a white crane. As he leaped, shifted, and turned, sword light flashed brilliantly, cold gleams joining into a single sheet that lit the entire room.

The cauldron divided sun and moon; Daoist formulas flowed from his sleeves.

One scholarly and one martial—only now did he begin to possess the bearing of a true Daoist.

No one knew how much time passed.

The Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict on the altar table suddenly shone with golden light again.

Huang Bai sheathed his sword and turned around, raising his head to look.

A new line of writing slowly emerged upon the talisman edict:

[Travel to The First Commandment, slay the Ghost King]

"The First Commandment? A Ghost King?"

"Well, damn. There's even a Ghost King in that world?"

He had naturally seen the movie The First Commandment.

It told of police officer Li Guoqiang, who was transferred to the so-called "Miscellaneous Affairs Bureau" after shooting and killing serial murderer Chen Fulai and witnessing a female corpse undergo Resurrection. His superior, Inspector Wong, repeatedly warned him of one rule: there were no ghosts in this world.

But in truth, the Miscellaneous Affairs Bureau was a department dedicated to handling supernatural cases.

After Chen Fulai died, he became a Vicious Ghost capable of possessing living people, borrowing corpses to return to life and continue killing. Li Guoqiang and Inspector Wong investigated all the way through, only to discover in the end that the real Inspector Wong had long been dead. The one who had worked cases at Li Guoqiang's side had merely been a Vicious Ghost moving about in his body.

The film's ending was one of complete despair.

After Li Guoqiang killed Inspector Wong, he gave a strange smile at the mirror, implying that the ghosts had won completely and humanity's defenses had utterly collapsed.

It was an exceptionally dangerous world.

Ghosts could possess humans, and once they did, the original person was as good as dead.

Humans would never know whether the passerby brushing past them, the superior sitting in an office, or the driver smoking by the roadside was human or ghost.

Even more frighteningly, the upper ranks of humanity in that world might already have been thoroughly infiltrated by ghosts.

But now, the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict was telling him that a Ghost King was hidden in this world, where evil ghosts already ran rampant.

Huang Bai narrowed his eyes and rapidly calculated in his mind.

Could he deal with a Ghost King alone?

Ghosts feared Daoist arts, but he feared guns and artillery too.

"Never mind."

Huang Bai quickly made his decision.

"I'll go in first, adapt to whatever comes, and figure out a way afterward."

To Huang Bai, were these Vicious Ghosts hiding in the darkness, possessing people and harming them, not prey as well?