Chapter 575: Earth Vein

"Did it vanish?" Scrape marks left by the yin dragon still lingered on the stone walls to either side. My entire body ached; everything that had just happened was no hallucination.

Gasping heavily, I leaned back against the stone wall and took the White Bone Jade Box from my coat. After absorbing the yin dragon, the box had sealed shut again. From its appearance alone, it seemed an even ghastlier, more terrifying shade of pale.

"The Yellow Springs Token can only be used once a year. Could absorbing a yin dragon speed up its recovery?" I shook my head and stowed the White Bone Jade Box away. The price this thing exacted with every use was simply too great; it was already pushing past the limits of what I could bear.

"Now that the eighteen waves of yin energy tides have passed, I can enter the true earth vein." I bent forward and spotted She Qian after taking just two or three steps.

He lay slumped on the ground, his face deathly pale and his skin covered in lacerations.

"Not dead yet?" She Qian's vitality was incredibly tenacious. Even after having his body pierced through by the yin dragon, he still clung to a single breath.

I crouched beside him. Because I was wearing the Good and Evil Asura Mask, She Qian could see nothing but my cold, indifferent eyes.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you're only noticing me now. Isn't it a bit late?" I was not the type to waste words. The Skinning Knife slid into my palm, and I quickly dragged the blade across She Qian's throat. "In your next life, try reincarnating as a good person."

Blood bubbled from the wound. I stared at it for a long while, a strange thought rising from the bottom of my heart. 'This crimson hue is one of the most beautiful sights in the world. If only I could admire it more often... that would be wonderful.'

Standing up to avoid getting blood on my clothes, I kicked She Qian's corpse aside. I couldn't shake the feeling that some kind of psychological change was taking root within me. But those involved are blind; I couldn't pinpoint exactly what was going wrong.

"With She Qian out of the picture, the rest are just small fry. Once I wipe them all out, I can finally rest easy."

I pocketed the half-burned stick of Soul-Soothing Incense I found on She Qian's body. Waiting until the yin energy tides completely subsided, I headed toward the end of the underground passage.

Squeezing into the wind tunnel where the yin dragon had emerged, the view before my eyes suddenly opened into a vast expanse.

It looked like a massive subterranean cliff. A series of unfathomable chasms stretched out before me, looking as if the heavens themselves had taken up a blade to carve calligraphy into the earth—a sight both majestic and magnificent.

Within that abyss, yin energy vast as a surging sea churned upward from the depths, soaring like a waterfall flowing in reverse.

It was my first time witnessing such bizarre topography. I stood there, rooted to the spot for a long while, before finally recovering my senses.

"This is the earth vein? The source of the Henshan Yin Vein?" I stared at the churning yin energy, speechless for a long time. I had previously harbored doubts about whether a flood dragon was truly sealed beneath Jiangcheng, but upon seeing the scene within the earth vein, all those doubts vanished into thin air.

This world was far more magnificent than I could have ever imagined. From a land this vast and miraculous, any kind of extraordinary creature could be born.

I stood at the edge of the subterranean cliff. Bottomless abysses plunged into the darkness on both sides; my only path forward was a stone bridge stretching out before me, scarcely a chi wide.

The bridge didn't appear to be carved by human hands, but rather formed by nature itself. It stretched forward for about nine meters, jutting out like a colossal horn trying to pierce the earth.

Exhaling a breath of stale air from my lungs, I focused my full attention and stepped onto the stone bridge. Bitter yin energy whipped at me from both sides; the slightest misstep would send me tumbling into the abyss.

"I've already made it this far. How could I possibly resign myself to turning back now?" Mentally reviewing the array manipulation methods the Ghost Infant Sect Master had taught She Qian, I bent at the waist, lowered my center of gravity, and slowly shuffled across the stone bridge.

Looking beneath my feet, I watched the yin energy churn as phantom yin dragons bobbed up and down within the sea of fog.

"If I fall down there, not even my bones will remain."

One meter, two meters...

I crossed the nine-meter-long stone bridge without any major mishaps, finally arriving at the other side.

Before me was a stone platform roughly three square meters in size. Its edges were weathered by the heavy marks of time; if one were to truly trace its origins, this platform had likely existed for even longer than Jiangcheng itself.

I climbed atop the platform, and the sight waiting for me left me completely speechless.

The center of the stone platform was deeply hollowed out, resembling a massive inkstone. Only, what sloshed within its basin was not black ink, but the turbid waters of malevolent yin energy that had condensed into a physical, flowing liquid.

"Is this... a yin-yang fish?"

Within the basin, the turbid waters of malevolent yin energy only occupied half of the space. Nestled into the other half sat a stone stele.

A talisman was pasted onto the stele, bearing the inscription of the Mountain God Pardon Decree. An oil lamp rested beneath the talisman, though its oil had long since dried up. All that remained was a single wick, which emitted a faint, pale mist that continuously collided and fused with the ripples of the malevolent yin waters.

Yin represented cold, darkness, convergence, and turbid waters.

Yang represented heat, light, transformation, and righteous energy.

"To think that I'd actually find a Mountain God Talisman Stele here at the core of the Henshan Yin Vein. Extreme yin and extreme yang stand in direct opposition, mutually restraining each other. That is why the grand array in this place remains so stable, allowing it to be harnessed by talismanic arts."

The interaction of the two Qi gives rise to all creation; when heaven and earth harmonize, all things are born, and when yin and yang connect, endless transformations unfold. This was the true nature of Yin and Yang.

To leverage yin and yang in constructing the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation... there must have been a truly extraordinary figure among the past sect masters of the Three Yin Sect.

The two energies of yin and yang maintained a delicate balance upon the stone platform. Through their constant fusion and tempering, they stripped away the malicious and filthy aspects of the energy. It then seeped into the stone walls and wafted up to the surface above, forming purified yin energy that could be directly absorbed without harming evil cultivators.

"A true masterpiece of creation. The design of this array is nothing short of ingenious." I stood at the edge of the platform and observed it for a good while, a gleam of greed slowly surfacing in my eyes beneath the mask. "If I could fully master this grand array, then even if I clash with the Righteous Path Coalition, I'll at least have the means to protect myself. It's just a pity that the steps to control it are so complex. Even a master of array formations couldn't possibly grasp it in just a few short hours."

I only had a half-baked understanding of array formations, so I didn't hold out much hope.

Still, unwilling to let this trip be a total waste, I followed the manipulation techniques recorded in my memory and attempted to tap into the grand array's power.

My incantations and hand seals were executed perfectly. I moved with extreme caution, not daring to make a single mistake.

"Though the lamp of wisdom is extinguished and only ashes remain, its light still shines bright upon the Ten Directions."

The moment I finished reciting the incantation, I was shocked to see an actual reaction take place upon the stone platform. A faint flame slowly reignited atop the dilapidated oil lamp. In the very next instant, the Mountain God talisman blazed with a piercing light.

The Yang Qi surged violently, shattering the delicate balance. As if unwilling to be suppressed by the Yang Qi, the turbid waters of malevolent yin energy roared like crashing waves. The reaction within that small stone platform quickly cascaded, triggering a violent upheaval throughout the entire subterranean Yin Meridian.

Gale-force yin winds began to howl, streaks of black wind soaring and thrashing about as if trying to tear through the very boundaries of heaven and earth.

The lonely souls and wild ghosts of the wrongfully dead—entities that had long settled at the very bottom of the malevolent yin energy—slowly began to claw their way out. In the blink of an eye, the cavern had morphed into a terrifying ghost domain.

"I might have taken this a bit too far." Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. The situation had progressed past the point of no return, leaving me no choice but to continue chanting the incantation. Only when the malevolent yin energy finally restabilized into a yin-yang balance with the Mountain God talisman did a small black stone breach the surface of the turbid waters.

"It looks like... a Go stone?!"

Round, smooth, and utterly flawless, it existed somewhere between illusion and reality. It appeared to be formed entirely of yin energy. But what baffled me the most was that this Black Chess Piece actually gave off a particularly familiar feeling.

"The source of the Henshan Yin Vein... is actually just a single chess piece?" I didn't dare dwell on the implications. Amidst the wailing of ghosts and the howling of spirits, the entire earth vein began to violently quake.

With no turning back now, I had no choice but to forcefully control the grand array using the methods the sect master of the Ghost Infant Lineage had imparted to She Qian.

I rapidly formed hand seals and chanted the incantations, then reached out to grab the Black Chess Piece. It was the core array eye of the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation; seizing it would grant me control over a portion of the grand array's functions.

As the yin winds howled madly around me, I gripped the edge of the stone platform tightly with my right hand to anchor myself. I extended my left hand forward. The very instant my fingertips brushed against the turbid waters of malevolent yin energy, I snatched my hand back as if I had been electrocuted.

"This water can't be touched with bare flesh!" My fingers had barely grazed the malevolent turbid waters before the affliction poison violently surged into me, causing my entire arm to instantly swell up. "To think the Ghost Infant Sect Master held back a trick at the very end to trap She Qian. As expected, there isn't a single decent person among these evil cultivators!"

The meridians in my left arm had been sealed long ago by the paper-tying craftsman of No-Lights Road. Because of that, the affliction poison was unable to spread to the rest of my body, leaving it to aggressively pool and accumulate within my arm.

"The affliction poison sealed inside my left arm is worsening. At this rate, if I can't resolve it soon, my only option will be to chop the arm off entirely." I gritted my teeth and steeled my heart. Throwing caution to the wind, I plunged my left arm directly into the turbid waters of malevolent yin energy. My five fingers closed tightly, firmly snatching up the Black Chess Piece.

The core array eye was now resting directly in the palm of my hand. In that moment, the yin energy within my body surged madly into the Black Chess Piece. The Eighteen Yin Apertures fired up simultaneously. Fueled by the continuous injection of my own yin energy, I slowly dragged the bobbing chess piece out from the turbid waters.

At the exact same time, I chanted the final line of the incantation.

"Let not a single breath remain; the moment a thought is born, across the Ten Directions realm, let all living beings fall to demonic paths and revere the ghosts!"