Chapter 130: Conan Takes Over

"That was some decent luck, indeed." Chen Jin murmured, rubbing the clod of purple earth in his palm.

He had originally expected that his only reward for the day would be the satisfaction of a grand display, along with the harvest of a few looks of awe and reverence. He never imagined he would walk away with such a prize.

This purple clod was a fragment of a divine decree belonging to the mountain god of that dilapidated temple. The deity was effectively fallen, though not yet completely extinguished. This had led to the bizarre occurrence he had just witnessed: the mountain god, attempting to conjure a miracle to prove its lingering existence to the temple-goers, hoped to restore its flow of offerings and sacrifices to ascend back to its divine throne.

Unfortunately, it had run into Chen Jin. His plans were shattered instantly, forcing the god to return to the void and sink back into eternal slumber. Furthermore, with the divine decree now in Chen Jin's hands, the god had lost all chance of recovery, doomed to be eroded by time until it faded into nothingness.

As for that unfortunate wretch Song Chengfeng... that was no longer Chen Jin’s concern. He was certainly dead as a doornail.

The uses for this divine decree were numerous. If Chen Jin were to restore it, he could use it to ascend to godhood himself. After all, this decree was bestowed by the heavens, not granted by the underworld. However, this divinity would be limited to this specific mountain; it would be useless elsewhere. Since Chen Jin intended to return to the modern world, the decree held little value in that regard.

Yet, it possessed other properties. For instance, it could improve the concentration of the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth, affecting a spherical area with a radius of ten meters, increasing the density of the ambient energy by threefold.

While this utility was not particularly tempting to Chen Jin, he cared far more about another aspect: the decree contained a wealth of natural laws. To him, this was the true treasure. Although he could not yet comprehend or commit these laws to memory, having the decree in hand was enough. He could study it daily, much like a primary school student poring over university textbooks. Additionally, the decree could serve as a vessel to contain things existing between the illusory and the real, such as ghosts or energy entities.

Turning the clod over in his hand, Chen Jin walked along the earthen ridge of the path. He had completely exited Mount Emei and reached its base, having crossed over to the other side of the range. As for where exactly he was, he had yet to encounter a soul, so he would need to ask for directions.

Soon, he spotted a man. He was a middle-aged fellow with graying, ash-blue hair.

"Old man, hey, old man..." Chen Jin called out, chasing after him.

His voice was loud, and the man did not seem hard of hearing. Chen Jin soon caught a glimpse of his face—it was a horrific sight, covered in maggots and rotting flesh...

"..." Chen Jin felt he should probably turn around and walk away.

He suddenly felt as though he possessed the "Conan constitution"—that strange fate where one encounters in a single day what normal people might not encounter in a lifetime.

"What is it, young man?" the middle-aged man replied.

"Nothing, just out for a stroll," Chen Jin called back from a distance, then turned on his heel to leave.

"Oh." The man nodded, then turned to walk in the opposite direction—which, naturally, had been his intended path all along.

He hadn't taken more than a few steps when his body suddenly froze. A hand, filled with visible disgust, tapped the top of his head.

"I thought it was some great monster; turns out it’s just a decaying walking corpse," Chen Jin’s impatient voice came from behind him. "Can't have been dead for long."

Chen Jin leapt forward, landing directly in front of the man. From his perspective, he could see clusters of black mist shrouding the corpse, from its head down to its limbs. This was Yin-evil energy, allowing Chen Jin to deduce, "There must be a node of Yin-evil energy hidden nearby."

He had no use for such energy; he only wanted to ask for directions.

"Might as well burn it and save everyone the sight," Chen Jin muttered. He exhaled a breath of Hunyuan energy. Mid-air, it transformed into a bright, golden-yellow flame, instantly igniting the corpse into a pillar of fire.

Leaving the corpse to burn, Chen Jin turned and walked away.

*Woooo...*

No sooner had he turned than he heard a mournful, ghostly wail. A mass of black mist surged toward his face. Chen Jin immediately exhaled a puff of clear, gray breath.

*Hiss...*

The black mist and the clear breath collided, reacting violently like boiling water hitting hot oil. The fierce reaction lasted for a minute, eventually collapsing into a pool of black, oily liquid that spread across the ground.

"How brazen, to commit murder in broad daylight," Chen Jin remarked, stepping over the oily puddle and continuing forward.

Suddenly, white mist rolled in, swallowing the country path and limiting Chen Jin's visibility to about two meters.

*Awoooo...*

A deep, long, and fierce wolf howl echoed, accompanied by a foul, fishy stench. A gaping maw, dripping with blood, lunged hungrily for Chen Jin’s throat. But Chen Jin simply took a step forward, and the maw was instantly torn in two.

A streak of light pierced through the jaws, surging forward to carve a massive gap in the white mist, widening Chen Jin’s field of vision. It was his Tiger Tooth Flying Sword. As the light returned, it sliced through the mist once more, creating a narrow corridor.

"Today, I shall let a crooked path practitioner like you witness what true, righteous power looks like," Chen Jin shouted at the mist.

The white mist around him began to recede at a visible speed, as if the tide were pulling back, clearing a radius of a hundred meters. This was the effect of his Hunyuan energy, which, having left his body, had forcibly pushed the mist away.

"A fine 'righteous path' indeed," a voice shrieked from the mist, sounding like a night owl. It was filled with profound resentment and hatred. "It is precisely this 'righteous path' of yours that has severed my path of cultivation and stolen my chance at immortality."