Chapter 948

The birth happened at night; as soon as the child came out, the lamp in the room went out!

In the end, two children were born: one was a chubby baby, the other a small yecha with indigo skin and fangs.

The midwife swore repeatedly that she had seen two children—one smiled at her, then vanished.

It was the young Daoist from Tianhou Palace who came running to tell everyone that the two children were the reincarnations of two yin spirits from inside the Maitreya statue; years ago, two disciples of the Hongyang Sect had encountered a rare opportunity, purchasing a divine corpse from overseas and deciphering the corpse-liberation technique.

Later, the two were suppressed and slain by imperial elites, using the corpse to achieve corpse-liberation, their souls fleeing into the golden Buddha, refining the countless gold, silver, and wealth-qi accumulated within into yin spirits.

Eventually, the treasure-seeker, under imperial orders, was tasked with breaking their vessel.

They retrieved the golden Buddha, but were killed by two monks and Daoists using the stench of copper and coin-qi.

Their physical forms were thus shattered, forcing them to reincarnate into the womb of that xuan-yin woman; one ascended within the womb, born already dead, while the other remained in the mortal world to continue cultivation.

Later, the villagers had the Tianhou Palace Daoist take away the surviving child; when he grew up, he performed countless good deeds, often giving medicine and treating the poor, saving innumerable lives, and was called the Yecha King.

The Daoist enshrined a ghost fetus with indigo skin and fangs; whenever people asked, he said it was his elder brother.

Thus, people began to spread the legend that the two brothers were reincarnations of the Yecha King beside the Medicine Buddha.

One was born with perfect merit, liberated as the Yecha King; the other must still cultivate in the mortal world, completing forty-eight thousand good deeds, protected by the Yecha King and immune to harm from even the most evil people.

Eventually, at age sixty, the Yecha King indeed completed forty-eight thousand good deeds and died peacefully in his bed.

The villagers built a temple atop the former Maitreya shrine, enshrining the Medicine Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Light, while the two brothers were enshrined in the side halls as the Yecha King and the Yecha King!

After being introduced by the Three Emperors’ Association’s physician, the foreigners, through Drummond’s translation, all wore expressions of skepticism.

Caradoc whispered in Camlannese to his companion Shilling: “What a strange tale? Those two evil spirits were lying from the start, weren’t they? Why, after becoming gods through deception, did these Easterners come to worship them?”

“And after using witchcraft to become ghosts and gods, wouldn’t they harm people?”

“I still don’t see how this relates to medicine. Are you saying we should trust such sorcerers, healing others through deception?”

The Raven spoke up: “The Lord has mentioned this before—he said there are traces of the Fifth and Sixth Celestial Officers! The brother who achieved liberation was named Kundun; when the Tai Sui is Zi, it is called Kundun. He used metal to generate water, water to generate wood, gathering metal-qi to produce wealth, letting wealth flow like water, intending to take root in Zhigucheng as wood, sprouting branches, then wood generating fire, igniting rebellion across the land; if he could pacify the world, fire would generate earth and transform into the Yellow Dragon!”

“But the imperial court had its own elites; before the water-generated wood could grow, they struck decisively, severing the Jia wood.”

“Thus, the yang wood had to become yin wood; the metal shell sank underground, giving rise to yin water.”

“Finally, the court sent someone to dig for Ren metal and Gui water, hoping to destroy Yi wood—but he had already prepared, finding the daughter of the Dark Goddess to supplement the deficient Gui water, ultimately forming a primordial Yi wood embryo, achieving corpse-liberation and immortality within the womb.”

“He had already cultivated to the Fourth Realm.”

“Metal generating water was one step; water generating wood was another; Yi wood’s full maturity was already the Sixth Realm’s Longevity Sacred Body! Finally, corpse-liberated into a Fire God, he drew upon his brother’s sixty years of accumulated merit, Jia wood and Yi wood jointly nourishing Ding fire, deeply buried underground transforming into Ji earth; at the fall of the previous dynasty, he leveraged the reversal of the dragon vein to aid this dynasty’s ascension to the throne, Ji earth generating metal, and finally, the yin five-element cycle transformed into the Jiazi deities.”

“He is one of those who escaped this realm!”

The Raven spoke words half-understood, paused, then continued: “But he is someone else’s fish—unrelated to us!”

“It is his younger brother who gave all sixty years of accumulated merit to his elder, forced to start anew—luckily, this five-element cycle transformed his past cultivation into a Five Viscera Treasury, imitating the Divine Treasury created by the Heavenly Empress, corpse-liberated centuries ago, now enshrined in the right hall!”

“The two brothers, one left, one right—perfectly symmetrical!”

At these words, the Three Emperors’ Association members turned pale.

The physician Hua said gravely: “You mean… the figure enshrined in the adjacent side hall is the true body of the Yecha King?”

The Raven nodded: “This one is the Yecha King; that one is the reincarnated physical form of the Yecha King.”

“But how can a virtuous man, a physician, a Daoist who accumulated sixty years of merit, reincarnate as a street thug?” Hua could not believe it.

“Virtuous man, physician, Daoist, thug—all are merely cultivation paths! He has fused his past achievements, forged his own Dao path—do you still not understand? You cultivate according to his methods!” The Raven’s tone turned icy.

Hua and the members of the Three Emperors’ Association all turned pale…

The foreigners beside them, half-understanding, asked Drummond: “What are they saying? With my knowledge of the Eastern Continent’s language, I understood nothing.”

Drummond himself could not fully grasp it, but Shilling spoke up: “They are discussing the ascension path of a mysterious master from centuries ago!”

“This place was once part of his ascension ritual, seemingly connected to the Eastern Continent’s esoteric master text—the Five Elements.”

“Ascension ritual?” Caradoc’s face paled: “Impossible!”

“Have these barbarians who worship witchcraft mistaken the Immortal’s Longevity Rite for an ascension path? Mistaken evil spirits for true gods? In three aeons, only the Savior has ascended—how could such a shabby temple possibly contain the sacred traces of a true god’s ascension?”

The Raven ignored them, turning directly to Hua: “For this medical exchange, you no longer need to conceal the Five Viscera True Form Diagram!”

“Show it to the foreigners—let them know the true forms of the five viscera are not known only to the Westerners; that the five-element cycle of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, with the seven emotions internalized, our understanding of their functions has long surpassed yours!”

Shilling took a scroll from beside her, stood, and smiled: “I also have a complete anatomical chart, compiled over centuries of Western anatomy—it nearly exhausts all secrets of the human body, detailing every organ and bone. This is the foundation of Western surgical medicine, and the Great Mystery Academy has further developed esoteric interpretations upon it: phrenology, osteology, and neural circuitry!”

She untied the ribbon securing the scroll and slowly unfurled it, hanging it on a wooden stand.

Before them appeared a naked human figure, exquisitely detailed, showing muscles, bone structure, and precise cross-sections and forms of internal organs.

The Three Emperors’ Association erupted—several old scholars rose, crowding near the chart, some scowling and shouting: “You dissect human corpses? How many bodies did you have to desecrate to draw such a detailed map?”

“Damning your own virtue! Damning your own virtue!”

“Such exquisite detail…” another physician murmured in admiration: “It doesn’t differ much from our Five Viscera True Form Diagram, and is even more accessible.”

“It’s just good drawing!” someone scoffed: “They trace shapes from diagrams, probing internal mechanics—but all they study are dead bodies. Only in living bodies do the five viscera perform the five-element cycle, generate nutritive and defensive qi, and allow all energies to descend. With form but no function, they’re nothing but third-rate doctors treating symptoms, not causes!”

“At least they can dissect corpses! Not everyone can open a belly…”

Hua stopped mid-sentence, sensing his mistake, and fell silent.

“That’s not entirely fair. While the movement of qi is the principle of life, dissecting corpses to obtain their forms can still lead to understanding causes of illness. By thoroughly studying form, even a novice can diagnose by observing organ deformities—far faster than our qi observation and pulse diagnosis. We must reach the Second Step to perceive the five qi, the Third Step to observe qi and color.”

“We can observe qi and color—can they cut open chests to examine internal organs?”

“They can only see illness in the dead, not the living!”

“But if we can determine why someone died, we can reverse-engineer symptoms and diagnose based on form—could this not lead to a valid path?”

“Isn’t that the way of quack doctors—learning one disease to treat only that one disease? How can that compare to investigating the root cause, using yin-yang and the five elements to understand everything at once? The world’s diseases are infinite; how long would it take to conquer them one by one?”

The Three Emperors’ Association erupted into heated debate, but Shilling ordered a corpse brought down from the ship.

The corpse was a tall-nosed foreigner, lying on an iron bed, covered in white cloth; Shilling donned gloves and approached: “This gentleman was a sailor who died suddenly aboard ship; the captain entrusted us to determine his cause of death.”

“To verify this anatomical chart, we will perform a live dissection, observe whether his organs match the chart I brought, and jointly discuss his cause of death with your physicians for scholarly exploration.”

At these words, even the most conservative Three Emperors’ Association doctors stood up in shock.

“Desecrating a corpse before our eyes—these foreign devils are lawless!”

“Don’t say that—it’s just another foreigner. Foreigners dissecting foreign corpses—what does that have to do with us? Just watch for entertainment!”

“I knew these foreign devils had no good intentions coming here—do their churches collect corpses just so this foreign woman can practice on them?”

Hua and the Three Emperors’ Association members gathered close, whispering: “These foreign doctors are ruthless—I suspect their medicine begins with corpse-dissection, vastly different from our path. Such detailed human anatomy might truly give us a humiliating lesson.”

“I think Xuanzhen Sect doesn’t want the foreigners to steal the spotlight—that’s why they urged us to quickly unveil the Five Viscera True Form Diagram!”