Yinshan Record

Chapter 241 Yin Pool and Yellow Springs
The Yin-Yang Dharma King was clearly unfamiliar with the path, leading Su Che left and right, slowly making his way towards the thick fog beneath the Jade Sun Three Peaks.

Although the area still boasts lush vegetation of various colors, including pines, cypresses, bamboo, and weeds, a thick, chilling atmosphere pervades the air.

This place is actually an extremely yin place?
Yuyang Mountain is a renowned sect with a name in the Central Plains, so how come there is such a place hidden at the foot of the mountain?

Before long, the howling night wind carried a faint, mournful sound, as if countless evil spirits were crying in my ears.

Some places have natural features that are different from other places. For example, Xuanshan Mountain next to Shanyin County is a place of outstanding natural beauty and abundant spiritual creatures, and is a place where blessings are hidden.

However, there are also so-called ominous places, which naturally gather yin energy, foul energy, turbid energy, and miasma. People who live there for a long time will get sick, and at the same time, many evil spirits will automatically gather there.

Of course, fortune and misfortune are interdependent, and neither can be considered absolute. For example, Xuanshan was said to be a place of outstanding natural beauty, but it did not bring any benefits to the people of Shanyin County; instead, it became a veritable den of monsters.

This extremely yin place should be quite unfavorable to people, but with the Jade Sun Three Peaks above, and a righteous sect like Xuanmen guarding this place, it should be able to prevent harm to mortals.

Su Che stretched out his right hand, his divine sense slowly stirring the mist before him. This mist was formed from the condensation of yin energy and miasma; an ordinary person who inhaled it would fall seriously ill.

Occasionally, grotesque faces would flash through the white mist, some contorted in pain, others laughing—an indescribable and eerie sight. This must be a natural phenomenon arising from the interaction of the laws of heaven and earth.

Su Che looked at the Yin-Yang Dharma King who was leading the way.

"Senior, is the place you described really located beneath this fog?"

"Between heaven and earth, there is yin and yang, neither can be more or less, this is the so-called balance."

The Yin-Yang Dharma King lowered his voice and pointed to the sky above.

"Just like the three peaks of Jade Sun, which take all the essence of Misty Hidden Mountain and seize all its goodness, naturally the Hundred Ghosts Cave dwells beneath them, condensing the filth and miasma they don't want in one place."

The Yin-Yang Dharma King seemed to have rediscovered the feeling of Yi Yangzi, a disciple of the Xuanmen sect, in his appearance.

"Therefore, for every Taoist priest who ascends to immortality, there must be a demonic disciple who takes his defilement. This is the way of Heaven."

"Senior, may I understand it this way?" Su Che looked at the Yin-Yang Dharma King: "If a Heavenly Court is to be built, then there must be an Underworld. This is the way of Heaven."

“There was an ancient Buddha in the west who was in charge of the hell realm. He once said something that I admire, even though we have different paths and cannot work together. He said he would not become a Buddha until hell is empty.” The Yin-Yang Dharma King looked at Su Che and said, “Actually, I think this world may not need a heavenly court, but it must have a hell.”

The fog stretched on and on, and the night wind sounded like the wailing of ghosts.

"He who bears the nation's shame is called the master of the state. He who bears the nation's misfortune is called the king of the world." Su Che looked at the Yin-Yang Dharma King: "Senior, you didn't invite me to this good place just to lecture me on grand principles, did you?"

"You kid."

The Yin-Yang Dharma King looked at the shameless Su Che and said, "This old man is rarely in the mood to reason with you, and you really don't like to listen?"

"Of course I love to hear it, but now is not the time to reason with people."

Su Che looked at the Yin-Yang Dharma King: "Senior said this place is called the Cave of a Hundred Ghosts?"

"Around the end of the Middle Ages, in what was then known as the Dharma-ending Age, many demons and monsters emerged and ran rampant. Among them was a ghost cultivator named the Old Man of the Corpse, who founded his own sect. This Hundred Ghosts Cave is the mountain gate he painstakingly built."

The Yin-Yang Dharma King looked down into the mist.

"Although not all ghost cultivators follow the evil path, the old man from the Yin Corpse back then really went too far. In order to forge an evil magic weapon called the Ghost Mother Sword, he took 9,999 pregnant women who were nine months pregnant as sacrifices."

"If even the founder was like this, then his disciples were even worse. At that time, Wuyin Mountain was called Wuyin Mountain. This mountain was a thousand miles in circumference, and it was a ghostly realm in the human world."

The Yin-Yang Dharma King looked up at the three peaks of Yuyang Mountain. "Back then, Qin Jiansheng, the founder of Yuyang Mountain, vowed to destroy this sect. He rallied fellow Daoists from all sides and fought for a hundred years, finally killing the Yin Corpse Elder and wiping out that sect as well."

"Although the old man of the Yin Corpse has been eliminated, the Hundred Ghost Cave has gradually become a force to be reckoned with, with ghosts causing trouble day and night and frequently emerging to cause harm. In addition, there is miasma condensing here, which often becomes the source of plagues among people. Qin Jiansheng went all out and cut down three mountain peaks with one sword, and established himself in the Hundred Ghost Cave. The first priority of his disciples is to seal off this Hundred Ghost Cave."

Qin Jiansheng.

Su Che silently recited the name; the founder of Yuyang Mountain truly deserved the title of chivalrous.

"Qin Jiansheng never achieved immortality before his death, but many of his disciples became quite accomplished. The Hundred Ghosts Cave gradually transformed from a place sealed off by Yuyang Mountain into a forbidden area for them to capture a host of evil demons and ghosts."

Is such a forbidden area really necessary?

Su Che didn't quite understand.

Should we discuss criminal law with evil spirits and heretics? Let's discuss the principle of restraint in criminal law.

For cultivation sects, wouldn't it be more satisfying to simply slay any demons or monsters with a single sword strike? Confining these people to the Hundred Ghost Cave would not only require a lot of manpower and resources to guard them, but if even a few escaped, wouldn't that just create unnecessary trouble?

Just like the reason why the prison guards in the Imperial Guards were sinecures was because Lu Bai's guards would usually be sent to be executed after only two or three days, ending their lives in one fell swoop.

"Because they can't be killed all of them."

The Yin-Yang Dharma King looked at Su Che and said, "If everything in this world could be solved by using knives, then it would be the Jade Scenery Dao in charge, not the Xuandu Palace."

The deeper Su Che went into the fog, the stranger the feeling became.

The surrounding fog was getting thicker and thicker, and the turbid and foul air mixed in with it was getting heavier and heavier.

However, since the Yin-Yang Dharma King was originally a ghost, and Su Che also followed the Xuan Yin lineage, they were naturally able to move around in the mist with ease.

As he descended, the surrounding mist became increasingly filled with yin energy, its nature becoming more and more like water. Upon reaching the bottom, Su Che felt as if he had encountered an invisible resistance, preventing him from continuing downwards.

"this?"

“When Yin energy condenses to a certain degree, its nature becomes similar to water. Once it forms a certain scale, it becomes what is called Yin Pool or Ghost Sea.” The Yin-Yang Dharma King, however, was not affected and instead looked even more energetic: “Of course, the old name was better, called Yellow Springs.”

As the fog ahead gradually dissipated, Su Che finally saw the true face of the Yin Pool.

This is a large, transparent lake.

Yin energy condensed like water, and droplets gathered together to form a huge lake. However, it seemed to have a peculiar nature, as the bottom of the lake could be seen at a glance.

Many snake-like and dragon-like creatures floated in the lake formed by yin energy, their bodies emitting a faint green light as they moved slowly in the water.

Beneath the lake lies a dense, honeycomb-like grid, likely dividing the area into numerous caves. From this perspective, the Cave of a Hundred Ghosts truly lives up to its name.

This place is so peaceful, it's like a secluded paradise where no one can disturb you, rather than a prison on Jade Sun Mountain where demons are imprisoned.

The Yin-Yang Dharma King took out a yellow talisman from his sleeve and handed it to Su Che.

"Keep this safe. The old man Yuyang Mountain hired to look after the lake has a bad temper."

(End of this chapter)