Ao Ding rested the Northern Yin Hell Diagram on his knees.
The iron writ's icy touch brought an incomparable stillness to his mind.
Whatever else might be said, the iron writ itself, which bore Northern Yin's profound mysteries, was a rare Dharma Artifact.
Ao Ding activated the Primordial Truth Mirror, combining the eyes of a True Person with the "Mystical Perfection Formula" to carefully examine the dark patterns engraved on the iron writ.
As his fingers touched them, countless scenes of the netherworld appeared before his eyes.
Dark mountains piled with white bones, dim and deathly silent nether soil, uncanny and boundless nether rivers...
One strange Ghost Dao seal-script text after another appeared before Ao Ding.
The Northern Yin Ghost Dao was one of the Ghost Dao's Two Prefectures, ranked alongside the Six Sects of the Immortal Gate, Buddhism's Five Temples, the Demonic Dao's Four Halls, and the Divine Dao's Three Palaces. Compared with the so-called "Eight Thousand Demon Courts," these great cultivation powers were the ones that truly carried weight.
These great powers were genuine traditions handed down by "True Lords."
True Lord Northern Yin was the master of the netherworld, its undisputed Son of Heaven today. At the same time, he was a mighty being who imparted his teachings selflessly. Northern Yin Iron Writs were scattered throughout the mortal world, and any living being with the requisite affinity could comprehend them.
"The highest Dao fruit of the Northern Yin lineage is naturally the True Lord's Great Dao of Northern Yin. Methods that touch upon the 'Northern Yin Dao fruit' include the 'Northern Yin Hell Divine Wheel Great Sage Jade Chapter,' the 'Purple Void Dark Abyss Soul-Washing Salvation Golden Plan,' the 'Nine Nether Profound Baleful Supreme Nether Yellow Springs Treasure Record,' the 'Great Reincarnation Jade Book,' and others."
Ao Ding pondered, These seal-script texts I can glimpse now should be the many supreme core methods of the Northern Yin lineage.
Skipping the other texts, Ao Ding studied only the hell branch.
"Below the supreme core methods are the orthodox methods cultivated by Northern Yin's ghosts. The Nine-Boil Chain-Shaped Karmic Cleansing Great Method, Stone Mill Form-Erasing Formless Great Method, Five Insects Ten Kinds Great Skinning Method, and the like all fall under the 'Northern Yin Hell Divine Wheel Great Sage Jade Chapter.'"
Through the Northern Yin Hell Iron Writ, Ao Ding sensed the existence of at least seventy-three different orthodox hell methods.
"Senior Sun once said that Northern Yin has three thousand six hundred orthodox hell methods. With eighteen of them, one can cultivate the 'Eighteen Narakas' and manifest eighteen layers of hell. What I can sense now is still far too little."
Beneath the many orthodox hell methods lay the "Northern Yin Netherworld Hell Great Method" that Ao Ding currently cultivated. It was the preliminary Foundation Establishment method for all hell methods, as well as the overarching framework encompassing all orthodox hell methods. Only by cultivating the "Northern Yin Netherworld Hell Method" would one qualify to comprehend the "Northern Yin Hell Divine Wheel Great Sage Jade Chapter" in the future and become a Netherworld Great King of Northern Yin.
Suddenly, a thought stirred in Ao Ding's mind.
He turned the Primordial Truth Mirror upon himself.
Within a sea of mirror-light clouds, a youth sat upright. True Heaven Golden Gang circulated through his body, traveling through every limb and bone with his Dantian at its center. Behind his head hung a broken, jade-colored wheel of light.
That jade wheel was the fruit of Ao Ding's current cultivation of Northern Yin Dharma.
As Ao Ding formed seals and chanted incantations, eighteen indistinct expanses of space-time appeared within the jade wheel.
"Skinning hell, arise!"
Ao Ding circulated the "Five Insects Ten Kinds Great Skinning Method," and a scene of skinning hell appeared in one segment of the jade wheel. Hundreds upon thousands of chickens, ducks, pigs, and rabbits struggled within that hell, cursing Ao Ding with their resentment.
Then he successively circulated the Nine-Boil Chain-Shaped Karmic Cleansing Great Method, Stone Mill Form-Erasing Formless Great Method, Bone-Filing Spirit-Severing Metal Weapons Demon-Breaking Method, and Pounding Annihilation and Mashing to Dust Great Method. Scenes of oil cauldron hell, stone mill hell, knife mountain hell, and pounding mortar hell appeared within the jade wheel, with countless wronged souls drifting through them. In oil cauldron hell especially, a million wolf souls howled in misery.
Among Northern Yin's many methods, the hell methods were the fiercest, most ruthless, fastest to advance, and greatest in might.
Their price was this-whoever killed must pay.
Every killing committed in the lifetime of a cultivator who practiced hell methods was recorded.
However many one killed, retribution would fall upon one's own body while cultivating hell methods, making one experience the same suffering.
Even killing chickens or slaughtering dogs would bring the same suffering back upon oneself.
Rumble-
The power of five hells turned the jade wheel simultaneously, and boundless suffering welled up from Ao Ding's soul.
One moment, he seemed to be inside a cauldron of oil. The next, he was immediately chopped into countless pieces on a mountain of knives... After finally resting and recovering, his skin was peeled away layer by layer...
Over and over, Ao Ding endured the pain, sitting there tempering his Dao heart, silently visualizing the many hells and silently reciting scriptures.
The experiences of the four hells-skinning, stone mill, knife mountain, and pounding mortar-soon ended. Only oil cauldron hell remained...
Endless wolf howls, boiling-hot iron cauldrons, the sensation of being chopped into countless pieces and then tumbling through a cauldron...
Ao Ding endured only three hundred and sixty rounds before he began to find it unbearable.
His progress, however, was extremely gratifying.
Not only had the "Netherworld Hell Method" smoothly entered the Mysterious Gang level, but under the experience of oil cauldron hell, it had also stepped straight into the Upper Realm, with the Ultimate Realm ready to break through at any moment.
Ao Ding slowly opened his eyes. Looking at his own deathly pale face, he could not help smiling bitterly. "I feel-if I could experience what happened to all million wolf souls once... I could probably reach Jade Palace through the hell methods... No, even Light Joining might be possible."
He looked at his skin again. His entire body was red, as though scalded by boiling oil.
Chewing golden buds while applying medicinal pills externally to treat his injuries, Ao Ding leisurely lay down on his bed and leafed through a copy of the "Great Supreme Three-Corpses-Removing Purification Method."
The "Three Corpses Severing Method" passed down by the Six Sects of the Immortal Gate referred to the three corpse gods within the human body: Peng Ju, Peng Zhi, and Peng Jiao. By severing the three corpse gods, one ensured the purity of one's immortal body. It was an orthodox True Person method inherited by the Purple Sun Sect, ranked among the jade chapters and golden slips.
"Perform rites and recite incantations on a gengshen day to sever the three corpse worms within the body and preserve the purity of the immortal body-it's not as though I couldn't try..."
Confident in his talent for incantations, Ao Ding was greatly tempted by this method.
Suddenly-
An explosive boom came from the foot of the mountain, shaking all of Qianling Mountain again and again.
An uncanny, chilling aura surged out of the passage between yin and yang, and a booming voice rang through the mountains.
"Is that fellow practitioner of the Ghost Dao here? I am-ah! The hell path? The Jade Wheel Great Sage Method?"
The ghost on the other side of the passage was about to step into the mortal world when, seemingly sensing something, he hastily withdrew his foot and said in horror, "Are Northern Yin cultivators in the mortal world all this savage now?"
What decent ghost would casually sacrifice a million yin souls just to establish a ghost domain as a cultivation ground?
Oh, never mind that.
In the end, those yin souls had even wound up in oil cauldrons, cooked into dishes?
No, while orthodox Northern Yin cultivators did indeed enjoy exalted status in the netherworld, surely they could not disregard ghost rights like this?
Ghosts had dignity too!
Before long, the Green-Eyed Ghost saw a golden dragon churning through oil cauldron hell, and a calm, solemn voice slowly rang out.
"What sort of ghost are you? What have you come here for?"
Ao Ding once again assumed the manner of a Ghost Dao expert, inwardly giving those wolf ghosts a thorough cursing.
Once a ghost-domain passage to the mortal world formed, even if he found a way to seal it later, it would remain a weak point between the worlds of yin and yang unless thoroughly purified, becoming a preferred target for all manner of ghosts.
Only a few days had passed, and trouble had arisen again.
"Hmph-you still intend to cause me trouble in the future? These bitter days of interrupted cultivation, worry, and fear-I'll go collect the debt from your mortal-world Wolf Court first!"
Naturally, Ao Ding erased his own "contribution" from the "ghost-domain incident."
Without the support of Northern Yin's orthodox direct-lineage methods, without someone receiving them on the living side and "sacrificing" a million wolf souls, could a ghost domain rooted in the mortal world have been established so smoothly?
"A few days ago, I caught a Red-Horned Ghost. Those meat stews he had were very interesting. I asked where they came from, but he kept refusing to speak. Out of curiosity, I questioned him with a secret method and learned of this passage. I only came to have a look and ask for some food. I never expected to stumble upon your identity."
How was this some netherworld Ghost King fighting his way back into the living world?
Clearly, a Northern Yin cultivator in the mortal world had laid a trap, summoned a million yin ghosts from the netherworld, and slaughtered them all!
Ruthless, vicious...
The Green-Eyed Ghost swiftly raised Ao Ding's threat level to the highest possible in his mind.
Even more terrifying was that none of the mortal-world cultivators had questioned such savage, evil behavior!
What did that mean?
He had backing!
This cultivator must be an important figure in the mortal world's Northern Yin Ghost Dao!
The Green-Eyed Ghost's tone grew ever more courteous.
An important figure in the mortal world's Northern Yin Ghost Dao, even one lacking strength, still stood above an unaffiliated Ghost King in the netherworld.
"Rest assured, I won't spread word of your cultivation here, and I certainly won't disrupt your plans to practice the eighteen layers of hell."
Seeing those hundreds of thousands of oil cauldrons, the Green-Eyed Ghost felt he understood.
This vicious, evil being was probably planning to keep laying traps and establish the other hells one by one!
Even the Red-Horned Ghost might have been bait he deliberately released, intended to lure in simple-hearted, good ghosts like himself.
At that thought, the Green-Eyed Ghost took another two steps back on his side of the passage.
Meanwhile, Ao Ding conjured a golden dragon through his Dharma Treasure and opened his left eye as wide as possible, staring fixedly at the green figure at the other end.
Utterly pure ghost qi, gleaming green light.
Light Joining?
No, perhaps stronger. This seemed to be a ghost marshal at the Divine Illumination level?
Immortal cultivators were refined and liked devising one elegant name after another for their own system. Their classifications for demons, fiends, and ghosts, however, were exceedingly simple and blunt.
Unranked demons, fiends, and ghosts; demon generals/fiend generals/ghost generals; demon marshals/fiend marshals/ghost marshals; demon kings/fiend kings/ghost kings.
Of course, the other systems all had their own internal divisions of cultivation realms, but immortal cultivators generally did not use them, and Sun Chen could not be bothered to tell Ao Ding.
He would encounter only a handful in his lifetime. Why learn so much?
A ghost marshal!
Ao Ding's heart grew heavy. Last time, a ghost general had come; this time, a ghost marshal. What if a Ghost King came next...
If a Ghost King descended upon the world, never mind staying a full three years-even escaping would be in question.
Each harboring his own thoughts, the two sides fell silent for a time.
On the other side of the passage, however, the Red-Horned Ghost captured by the Green-Eyed Ghost spoke cautiously.
"Senior, we mean no harm. I didn't voluntarily divulge information about you either. It-it was this gentleman who forced me to speak using a secret art..."
The Green-Eyed Ghost came to his senses and said stiffly, "That's right. I originally came to ask for some 'food offerings,' but looking at things now-just pretend I never came-"
"No... Wait..."
Ao Ding stopped the Green-Eyed Ghost.
"This food of mine is very useful to you?"
"Food made from netherworld ghosts can nourish our ghost bodies. What's remarkable is that your food carries a measure of soul-delivering incantation power, which can purify ghosts' turbid qi."
"Then a lot of ghosts would like it?"
"At least, those hungry ghosts would go mad for it."
Ao Ding's right eye sparkled. "So, would you pay for it?"
"Pay?"
"You can exchange any netherworld spirit goods with me-oh, if you're willing to bring ingredients, I can help process them too. If you like, I could even teach you Northern Yin secret arts."
Just listen to that!
The Green-Eyed Ghost's face darkened.
What did he mean, processing ingredients?
Did he really regard the ghosts of the netherworld as ingredients?
You mortal-world cultivators were too vicious!
Which Ghost Dao Great Sage had left behind a successor like this in the mortal world?
Unaware of the Green-Eyed Ghost's thoughts, Ao Ding continued envisioning his plans. "If you're willing to help sell them in the netherworld-we can split the proceeds seventy-thirty. Seventy for me, thirty for you... Also, you'll have to help me perform 'salvation rites.'"
After considering it, the Green-Eyed Ghost accepted Ao Ding's invitation.
"Very well. I can help you sell this food. As for the rites-if they're rituals to deliver hungry ghosts and help ghosts be reborn, I'm willing to assist."
Heh-this evil fellow actually wants to accumulate hidden virtue too?
Fine. It benefits ghosts, so I can agree.
Seeing that the Green-Eyed Ghost was willing to agree, Ao Ding immediately prepared a written contract. He even activated his left eye of his own accord, branding a true-nature imprint upon it, afraid that the Green-Eyed Ghost might change his mind.
Labor delivered right to my door. Wonderful!
Those hundreds of thousands of cauldrons of meat stew could finally be sold!
If Ao Ding purified the wolf-soul crystal beads himself every day, who knew what year of the monkey and month of the horse he would finish in?
Selling them for other netherworld spirit goods would save him the effort of refining and purifying them. Taking a portion out for charitable salvation would accumulate merit for him. With the trade settled, there would also be ghosts guarding the passage entrance-truly several gains in one stroke.
Once the contract was signed, Ao Ding swiftly passed over a hundred cauldrons of fragrant meat stew.
"You and the Red-Horned Ghost can eat these first. Eat while you sell-oh, and watch this passage carefully-don't let other ghosts approach."
"Of course." Having signed the contract, the Green-Eyed Ghost consciously adopted the attitude of a partner. "Later, I'll establish a 'Ghost Gate' here, with one key for each of us. Without permission from both sides, I won't be able to go to your side, and you won't be able to come to mine."
I absolutely can't let this evil cultivator run wild!
If he came to the netherworld every day to catch ghosts and cook them, it would be too terrifying! I must make sure he stays in the mortal world!
"Oh, do you need the Ghost Gate adjusted into a Dharma Realm Spirit Land?"
"No need." Ao Ding politely declined the Green-Eyed Ghost's kindness.
Another Dharma Realm.
This place already had Dharma Realms nested inside Dharma Realms!
The Qianling Dharma Realm, the Immortal Tomb Dharma Realm, oil cauldron hell-a quasi-Dharma Realm. Add a Yellow Springs Dharma Realm, and they could play mahjong.
"I cultivate... Mm, I cultivate Northern Yin secret methods. Oil cauldron hell is enough."
In the netherworld.
After ending their communication, the Green-Eyed Ghost immediately instructed the Red-Horned Ghost.
"Go, prepare a stall and find a site in a nearby ghost city."
The Green-Eyed Ghost had originally been a ghost wandering aimlessly through the wastelands.
Only curiosity about the fragrant meat stew the Red-Horned Ghost produced had led him to find his way to Ao Ding.
But now, the Green-Eyed Ghost had found a short-term goal.
Hell Eatery?
How interesting!
When those Northern Yin Great Sages learned that their methods could also be used for this, it would be such fun!
That would teach them to call themselves True Lord Northern Yin's direct heirs and look down on ghosts like me. Hmph, hmph...
Hearing the Green-Eyed Ghost's request, the Red-Horned Ghost repeatedly agreed.
In the mortal world.
Ao Ding was also delighted.
Hooray!
It doesn't matter if I can't go over. It's best if no ghosts can come through from that side!
And now there's hope of clearing out oil cauldron hell!
Both sides were satisfied, and so-a restaurant named "Hell Eatery" opened in the netherworld.
Before you continue