Corpse Liberation, Cicada Molting, Ascension

"I'm done being human."

The moment Huang Bai said that, everyone in the room froze.

Zhi Gang was the first to explode. "What the hell? Huang Bai, do you really want to turn yourself into a vengeful ghost? Don't do anything reckless."

He was genuinely anxious this time.

"Once a person becomes a ghost, ten out of ten will undergo a drastic change in temperament. After you really become one of those things, the first person you might turn around and bite could be one of your own."

Ghosts and humans were fundamentally different.

If becoming a ghost truly let one avenge their grievances, vengeful ghosts would have long since been hunted down by enemies everywhere. How could these ghosts still be throwing their weight around?

Huang Yaozu also tried to persuade him.

"Daoist Huang, you should think this through. Who can say for sure what happens after death? What if you fail and throw your own life away? Then it'll really be over."

There was no fixed method for becoming a vengeful ghost in the first place.

Some people died miserable deaths yet failed to become ghosts, while others died in confusion and somehow lingered as restless souls. In the end, it all depended on fate. No one could say for certain.

Huang Bai shook his head.

"Not becoming a ghost. Corpse Liberation."

"Strictly speaking, it means becoming an immortal. A Corpse-Liberated Immortal, like in the myths."

His tone calmed somewhat as he said this.

"Only by mastering Corpse Liberation will I have a chance to fight the Ghost King head-on."

According to the Five Prisons Immortal Ascension Method, Corpse Liberation first required a serious illness, as well as unusual changes in one's eyes.

Ying Caihong from the Dragon-Seeking Formula World had already proven that point.

The elixir poison had entered Huang Bai's body, and his heavy metal poisoning symptoms were worsening by the day. There was basically no chance of a cure. In a sense, that already counted as a serious illness.

As for Jade Eyes and Square Pupils, they also qualified as an unusual phenomenon.

He met nearly all the conditions.

Before the others could continue persuading him, Huang Bai went on.

"Starting today, I'll teach you how to take elixirs, then teach you the Wong Tai Sin Secret Arts. From now on, you'll be my assistants."

He had already made up his mind to fire up the furnace again and refine another batch of External Elixirs for Huang Yaozu and Li Guoqiang to cultivate with. As long as they developed divine sense, they would be able to activate the Wong Tai Sin Secret Incantation.

Huang Yaozu paused. "We can cultivate too?"

"You can." Huang Bai nodded. "Except Daoist Zhi Gang."

As he spoke, he briefly explained the side effects of External Elixirs.

Zhi Gang's face darkened after hearing him. "Except what? You looking down on these old bones?"

"Your body can't take it."

"Even if it can't, it has to." Zhi Gang refused to yield. "I've lived to this age. You think I'm afraid of that? If I die without personally killing even one vengeful ghost, then wouldn't all these years have been for nothing?"

Huang Bai looked at him for a long while, but in the end, he did not stop him.

"Do as you wish."

Over the following days, Huang Bai began searching for the Five Prisons Human Fiends. He also fired up the furnace again, refined elixirs, and distributed the External Elixirs among the other three.

The three of them gradually began to grasp some basics.

Without Inner Elixirs as a foundation, they cultivated slowly and were far inferior to Huang Bai. Still, they had at least entered the path and were no longer entirely ordinary people.

Late at night, in the wilderness, dark clouds pressed overhead. Moonlight flickered in and out, while strange cries from wild beasts occasionally drifted from the distant mountains and forests, sending chills down the spine.

Huang Yaozu stood in an open clearing, gritting his teeth as he formed hand seals.

"Solar light, twin poles; mingled brightness illuminates the Three Pure Ones, command!"

Golden light flashed from his fingertips and shot straight out, striking a tree trunk and blasting a small charred crater into it.

Li Guoqiang followed with an attack.

"Look up and survey the eight directions; only the moon nurtures golden essence, haste!"

A flash of green light landed on a nearby rock. A layer of damp, cold vapor immediately rose across its surface.

Zhi Gang sat cross-legged nearby with his eyes half-closed. He had just activated the Brightsight Curse, and a faintly eerie light surfaced in his eyes.

Huang Bai watched them from the side for a while, and finally felt somewhat reassured.

They could not be called powerful, but they at least had some ability to protect themselves.

He looked up at the moon in the sky and suddenly spoke.

"From now on, we'll be called the Demon-Slaying Bureau."

Everyone looked at him.

"We specialize in killing ghosts."

Moonlight fell across his face, leaving it half-lit and half-shadowed.

He was bound to leave eventually.

Even if he truly killed the Ghost King one day, the ghosts of this world would not simply vanish. Since he had brought people like Huang Yaozu and Li Guoqiang into this, he had to leave something behind for this world.

Huang Yaozu tightened his grip around the Gold-Seeking Talisman in his hand and murmured, "Demon-Slaying Bureau..."

He repeated it once, finding more force in the name the more he said it.

"Fine. From today on, we'll fight these ghosts to the bitter end."

Li Guoqiang said nothing. He merely nodded hard.

Huang Bai looked at the three of them and continued, "You can head out now. Start with ordinary vengeful ghosts and wandering souls. Train while you kill. I need to enter seclusion for a while."

All three had Gold-Seeking Talismans, so they did not need to fear being casually possessed by ghosts. Combined with the secret incantations they had learned, they should have no trouble surviving as long as they did not run directly into something on the Ghost King's level.

More importantly, if they went out and operated openly, they might even lure the Ghost King out.

As for Huang Bai himself... he needed to prepare for Corpse Liberation.

"Daoist Zhi Gang." Huang Bai looked toward the old priest. "I'll leave these people in your care for now."

"Understood." Zhi Gang nodded. "Be careful yourself."

Like Huang Yaozu, once this old man had something to hope for, he seemed to come alive again.

The group soon parted ways.

In the wild mountains, only Huang Bai remained, sitting alone with his eyes closed and saying nothing as he reviewed the entire Five Prisons Immortal Ascension Method from beginning to end in his mind.

"Five Prisons Human Fiends..."

He murmured the words under his breath.

The formal name of this method was the Five Prisons Immortal Ascension Method.

The first path was to obediently consume External Elixirs, slowly nourish and strengthen the soul, and eventually achieve ascension naturally, with the soul leaving the body.

The second path was Xie Yali's method from the Twin-Pupil World: kill five Human Fiends, then use Weapon Liberation to forcibly separate the soul from the body.

But Huang Bai wanted neither.

He wanted the third path: preserve the fleshly body while gaining only the ability for his soul to leave it.

Strictly speaking, this did not count as becoming a true Corpse-Liberated Immortal. It was more like cultivating a divine ability called Soul Leaving the Shell. But that suited Huang Bai perfectly.

What he wanted was for his soul to leave his body, become immune to blades, bullets, and guns, and confront the Ghost King head-on.

He wanted to preserve his physical body because he still intended to pursue Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life.

Half a month later.

Huang Bai spent a long time moving around the outskirts of Bangkok, specifically targeting people who fit the requirements of the Five-Hell Human-Demon Method.

Freezing, burning, disembowelment, heart extraction, tongue pulling.

Five prisons, five sacrifices.

During this period, more and more strange disappearance cases occurred in Bangkok, drawing the attention of the local authorities.

But the place had always been chaotic, with all kinds of cases constantly surfacing. Before long, new vicious crimes drew all attention away.

Deep in the mountains, inside an abandoned cave.

The cave entrance was overgrown with weeds, and nothing unusual could be seen from outside.

Charcoal burned within the cave. The flames flickered, casting shifting light and shadow across the stone walls.

Huang Bai sat beside the fire, his expression blank as he quietly recalled the method.

"Corpse Liberation may also be likened to a cicada shedding its shell. Like a cicada leaving its skin and changing its bones, one preserves breath and solidifies form within a rocky cave before ascending as an immortal..."

Corpse Liberation had flourished during the Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties. Back then, it had been considered a legitimate path to immortality.

Seeing this, Huang Bai suddenly smiled.

"Come to think of it, I really do have some affinity with Wong Tai Sin."

The Corpse Liberation method from the Twin-Pupil World was rumored to be something from Wong Tai Sin's lineage. In this world, the Four Secret Arts of Huang Chuping had also originated from Wong Tai Sin.

Who knew? Perhaps when he traveled to other worlds in the future, he might truly get a chance to meet this founding master.

That thought calmed Huang Bai somewhat.

He suppressed his stray thoughts, swallowed an Inner Elixir, closed his eyes, and began visualizing the Five Prisons.

The pain came quickly.

Bone-piercing cold, flames scorching his body, his intestines twisting, his chest feeling as though it had been forcibly hollowed out, and his tongue root going numb with pain.

The five tortures crashed down one after another, nearly grinding his mind to pieces.

Yet amid pain resembling the depths of hell, Huang Bai instead felt a rare hint of tranquility.

He could clearly feel his soul rising bit by bit.

His breathing, blood flow, tendons, bones, flesh, and skin all seemed to gradually drift farther away.

It felt as if the barrier between himself and heaven and earth had thinned, leaving his entire being in an indescribably profound state.

Huang Bai abruptly opened his eyes.

Now.

He sprang to his feet and raised his hand, presenting his ritual sword.

A flash of cold light.

The blade sliced directly across his throat.

Blood gushed out.

The vitality of life rapidly drained away, and his vision blurred with it. Huang Bai swayed twice, then fell backward. At last, he completely stopped breathing.

Only the crackling of flames remained in the cave.

No one knew how much time passed.

A ray of clear light suddenly emerged from above the corpse's head.

At first, that clear light was only a thin thread. Then it rose higher and higher, slowly spreading apart after reaching midair until it formed a blurry human silhouette.

Long hair, a Daoist robe, Jade Eyes and Square Pupils.

It was Huang Bai.

He floated in midair, wrapped in an exceedingly faint layer of white light. His whole body was so light that it seemed weightless, and even the hem of his robe appeared connected to the wind.

Huang Bai looked down at his own corpse, feeling something strange stir within him.

"So this is Corpse Liberation..."

He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes within himself.

There was no breathing, no heartbeat, no pull of flesh and blood, yet his perception was clearer than when he had been alive.

Every faint movement in the air, every echo between the stone walls, every wave of heat stirred by the dancing flames, even the sound of the night wind brushing past blades of grass outside the cave, all flowed clearly into his soul.

Like a bat locating itself through sound, like a bird soaring on air currents, like a fish entering deep water—light and free.

He even felt a powerful urge to completely abandon the fleshly body below, fly out on the night wind, become a wisp of white cloud, drift wherever he wished, and never turn back.

Unfettered and at ease.

The temptation was too great.

So great that it nearly made him forget who he was.

"No."

Huang Bai's heart jolted, and he forcibly suppressed that thought.

His path was not to become a Ghost Immortal, much less to abandon his body for the sake of easy freedom.

What he wanted was Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life, to walk the orthodox Great Dao.

The road ahead was still long. How could he covet a shortcut here?

Just then, the Flower of the Other Shore pattern on the corpse's hand slowly lit up.

An eerie red radiance blossomed bit by bit, dyeing the entire cave crimson.

The wound on the corpse's throat began to slowly close. Warmth returned to the stiff, cold flesh. A moment later, Huang Bai on the ground suddenly opened his eyes and rolled over into a sitting position.

The soul body in midair sank along with the motion and reentered the flesh.

Whoosh!

Huang Bai let out a long breath, then could not help laughing.

His laughter was exhilarated and triumphant.

"My Dao is complete."