“I can naturally be certain that the green bronze belongs to the Central Province.” The unscrupulous Daoist pondered briefly, then continued: “The affair from back then made quite the stir. The most widely circulated account is that the Demon Emperor stole the Eastern Wasteland human race’s supreme treasure — the Desolate Tower — intending it as a burial offering when his lifespan neared its end. The Desolate Tower did indeed go missing during that period, and everyone believed he was responsible. Beyond that, there is a more obscure legend: it claims the Desolate Tower was not stolen by the Demon Emperor at all. He did make a move to acquire a burial offering, but what he stole was a mysterious artifact from the Central Province. As for this piece of green bronze — it is shrouded in mystery, and few in the Eastern Wasteland have ever heard of it. Even those who have heard tell of it know little clearly.”
“You deduced all this from just these clues?” Ye Fan revealed a look of doubt.
“The Demon Emperor’s tomb yielded no Desolate Tower — which refutes the first account. So naturally my thoughts turned to the green bronze.” Saying this, the unscrupulous Daoist slapped himself directly on the face. “I never in my wildest dreams imagined that after a lifetime of treasure-seeking, I would be deceived by the green bronze and let it slip right past me.”
“How did you come to your senses afterward — how did you sense something was amiss?”
“Because it was ordinary beyond all reason — not a single flaw or imperfection, no technique could expose it. Looking back afterward, that itself was the greatest flaw. Even ordinary scrap bronze could not be this ‘plain’…”
Ye Fan deliberately let out a sigh. “To think I turned out to be so transcendent — with a casual flick of my hand, I discarded an artifact on par with the Desolate Tower as though it were refuse. What a pity no one witnessed it. I imagine I must have appeared at that moment like a deity descended to earth — in a class entirely my own, peerless throughout all of history.”
“Trying to provoke me on purpose, aren’t you? You’re asking for a beating!” The unscrupulous Daoist’s nose was nearly crooked with rage.
Though Ye Fan found the fat Daoist to be quite shameless, he was not a vicious or ruthless sort, and so Ye Fan was not particularly afraid of him. “Calm your anger, Daoist. The most pressing matter before you right now is to think of a way to retrieve that piece of green bronze. Who knows — perhaps the Desolate Tower is also down there in the Yin Grave below. Perhaps you haven’t missed a great treasure at all — on the contrary, you may well end up obtaining two of them.”
“The Desolate Tower cannot be in the Yin Palace!” Though he said this, the unscrupulous Daoist nevertheless let go of Ye Fan and began carefully thinking over what he should do next.
“I’ll risk it — let me try once more!” The fat Daoist headed toward the black pool again. He could not get the mysterious green bronze out of his mind and found it impossible to let go.
Boom!
Just then, a tremendous vortex suddenly appeared in the black cold pool. A ferocious and vicious beast floated up and down within the black water. Its entire body was jet black, as though cast from dark gold, radiating a strange and sinister aura.
Its form was bizarre and unusual: it had three heads — the central head resembled that of a human ape, while the left and right heads were those of a bird and a serpent respectively. Its torso was like a dark-gold cast “netherworld steed,” its body entirely bare of feathers or hair, covered instead in black scales that gleamed with a metallic luster, appearing powerful and formidable.
This was a giant beast over ten meters in length. It let out a roar from within the water — a deep, resonant howl that made Ye Fan feel as though his soul was beginning to drift, on the verge of leaving his body.
“Steady your heart and concentrate your spirit!” The fat Daoist called out in a low voice. “To think one of these things actually exists here — dwelling in the most supremely yin place under heaven. Its howl can shatter a person’s soul. This is an extremely powerful strange beast, known as the Dark Golden Ape…”
This strange beast — its entire body glimmering with dark gold, ferocious and enormous — possessed three heads, yet only the central ape head held any intelligence. The left and right bird and serpent heads could manifest divine powers but had no consciousness of their own, and deferred to the central ape head as their master. It was thus called the Dark Golden Ape.
There was also a legend, however, that the bird and serpent heads — cast in what seemed like dark gold — could also awaken intelligence. Once the Dark Golden Ape reached that level of evolution, it would become extraordinarily terrifying. Unless a supreme powerhouse took action, it could not be slain. At that stage, its magical power would flood the heavens.
Ye Fan took all of this in carefully and committed it to memory. He steadied his heart and concentrated his spirit, and was enveloped in the light overflowing from the fat Daoist’s body, stabilizing his soul so that the drifting sensation no longer persisted.
Boom!
Just then, the Dark Golden Ape suddenly rose up in the black water, stirring up boundless black waves that surged crashing toward the fat Daoist and Ye Fan.
Whoosh!
The unscrupulous Daoist reacted swiftly. With one hand he drew a circle, releasing a swath of azure luminescence — like fireworks bursting into brilliant, hazy splendor — enveloping both him and Ye Fan. The black mist and cold water that could crack stone were blocked entirely on the outside. At the same time, he traced strokes in the air, writing a large character: “Seal.”
“Submit!”
The fat Daoist called out softly. The “Seal” character floating in the void instantly blazed with dazzling brilliance — as though carved from jade, substantial and tangible — and shot forward with a swipe.
Thud!
It struck solidly onto the body of the Dark Golden Ape, producing a hissing sound, with wisps of yin-cold black mist rising up as it slowly began to merge into the beast’s dark gold body.
Roar…
The Dark Golden Ape gave its body a violent shake. The two lowered heads on its left and right slowly lifted. The bird head opened its beak, instantly spitting out a scorching bolt of lightning. The serpent head flicked its tongue, spitting out a stream of black flame. In that instant, the very void seemed to scorch and sear.
“Extreme Yin Lightning and Netherworld Fire!”
The fat Daoist was greatly startled. He pulled Ye Fan back several steps and spat out a blood-red small shield from his mouth. It flickered with dots of light, and unfurling in the wind, it rapidly expanded to four or five zhang in height, standing before them as a barrier.
Bang bang bang!
Arcs of electric light danced everywhere. Black great flames burned — all of it crashed against the crimson red shield, sending crystalline red flashes of light scattering outward.
“This Dark Golden Ape is no simple matter. It appears the left and right bird and serpent heads once had their intelligence awakened, but someone pierced through that, and they lost their intelligence again!” The fat Daoist’s expression turned grave. If all three heads of the Dark Golden Ape simultaneously possessed intelligence, even a powerful cultivator who encountered it could only flee.
“Fortunately, the two heads are not in their perfect state…” He murmured softly to himself. The Dark Golden Ape’s ferocious attacks caused the shield — like a red precious jade — to rock and shudder, but it held fast in the end.
“Cut!”
Just then, a brilliant radiance surged from the fat Daoist’s Bitter Sea — like a bright moon, pure and luminous — shooting directly toward the Dark Golden Ape.
Bang!
From the eyes of the central ape head, two beams of golden light shot out, striking the brilliant jade disc that resembled a full moon. Both sides shuddered simultaneously.
The unscrupulous Daoist revealed a look of surprise. “All three heads appear to have been severely wounded — terrible scars are upon them all. It seems that in former days it successfully awakened intelligence in all three heads. If we had met it then, I could only have run for my life.”
Not only had the Dark Golden Ape’s left and right heads lost their intelligence, but the central ape head had also sustained severe damage in the past and could no longer recapture its former might. It was now gradually being suppressed by the unscrupulous Daoist.
Bang!
But just as the unscrupulous Daoist attempted to fully subdue and suppress it, the Dark Golden Ape thrashed violently. Dark gold radiance erupted across its entire body in an instant, blinding in intensity, and it broke free of its restraints in a single motion, sinking back into the black pool.
“This creature is truly fearsome. If it manages to restore all three of its heads, there will be few who could subdue it.” The fat Daoist revealed a grave expression.
Just then, the deep, cold pool suddenly began to roil violently. Something in the depths seemed on the verge of bursting forth — far more forceful than the Dark Golden Ape — as boundless waves surged within the black pool and black mist poured out in all directions.
The mist swirled and writhed, bone-piercingly cold. Many parts of this mountain ridge cracked open, and numerous rocks were pulverized to powder where the black mist swept past.
“Daoist, didn’t you say the Yin Grave was hidden in the dark and wouldn’t surface? Why has it become so terrifying now?”
“I may have inadvertently done something just now to bring trouble down on us.”
“What did you do?”
“At several thousand meters down in the black pool, I saw a crumbling stone tablet with the characters ‘Netherworld Pool’ carved upon it. I pulled it out and threw it deeper into the black pool. I think after it sank to the bottom, it may have struck the Demon Emperor’s Yin Grave.”
“Daoist — you didn’t smash that broken tablet right onto the Demon Emperor’s Yin Palace, did you?”
“How was I supposed to know at the time that the bottom of the pool hid the Demon Emperor’s Yin Grave…”
Splash, splash!
Just then, waves surged inside the black deep pool, and a troop of Yin soldiers clad in black iron armor came rushing out. Each carried a pitch-black yin blade, emanating a desolate aura of death.
“This is…” Ye Fan was greatly startled.
The fat Daoist also revealed a look of shock and pulled Ye Fan backward. “What is going on? What strange things are within the Demon Emperor’s Yin Grave? Could there actually be terrifying tomb guardians? What sort of living beings are these?!”
Within the black pool, waves churned and heaved as one by one, crumbling ancient war chariots rose up from the depths, each carrying a load of Yin soldiers. They were clad in tungsten steel armor covering their bodies from head to foot. In their hands they held either pitch-black yin blades or black netherworld halberds.