Above the Great Dao

Chen Shi walked into the quarry, the wind howling, with everything outside frozen, yet it was warmer at the foot of the mountain, the ice and snow melting.

Tombstones were piled up everywhere here, with no names carved on them.

Du Yiran was packing his bag, throwing the axe and chisel into his Void Great Realm.

He was dressed heavily, with a sheepskin coat outside, the wool worn inside, and a cotton jacket stuffed, making him look quite bulky, but in fact, he had grown old and thin.

He wore a sheepskin hat, tightly wrapped, his face appearing somewhat dark from the wind and sun.

Chen Shi had grown into a lad, taller than him, and he had grown old and shorter.

"Grandpa Du!"

Chen Shi stepped forward, knelt, and bowed, saying, "Chen Shi thanks Grandpa Du for the act of rescue!"

Du Yiran continued packing, saying, "Rise. Your life or death is none of my concern, only because I owe Chen Yindou a favor did I agree to rescue you. This is an old matter between us elders, no need to remember such gratitude in your heart."

Chen Shi kowtowed heavily a few times, stood up, and said, "No matter what, Grandpa Du is my lifesaver. How come Grandpa Du is here? My grandpa said that you are at the Yellow Stone Mountain Range doing, doing..."

Du Yiran glanced up at him and said, "Doing evil?"

Chen Shi nodded.

Du Yiran coughed twice and said, "I knew he would devise such tales about me. However, being neither dead nor alive, I might as well count as an evil spirit."

He finished packing and said, "This place is not suitable to linger. The Yan Family's people were scared away by me and will soon realize my strength is not as strong as they think."

He walked quickly along the mountain road, swiftly, and said, "They will find my tombstones are useless against ghost gods, only useful against humans, and not at a far distance. Then they'll come back to kill! I'm old, can't fight them."

Ahead was a small house, a stone building, standing alone, very simple, it should be Du Yiran's residence.

Chen Shi hastily followed him; Du Yiran opened the door and went inside, saying, "You and the dog come in, close the door. By the way, see if anyone else is following."

Chen Shi closed the door as instructed and, upon hearing, opened it again to look outside, and was dumbfounded.

Outside, it had just been a world of ice and snow, now it was a riverside under moonlight, distant green mountains lush, the climate pleasant.

He looked up, only to see the moon in the west.

Chen Shi closed the door muddily, thought for a moment, then opened the door again, outside the deer and green mountains disappeared, replaced by a lake, shimmering under moonlight.

This time, the moon was in the south.

Chen Shi closed the door, opened it, outside came waves crashing, in the distance were border army watchtowers guarding the coast, voices coming: "That stone house appeared again!"

Chen Shi closed the door, went to the window of the stone house to look out, massive beasts tossing in the sea, attacking the coast, many soldiers on the border army watchtower fighting these demons.

"Thirteen Families, already became a great force."

Du Yiran's voice came from behind him, "If Yama Hall falls, then the Ten Halls of Yama are all doomed."

Chen Shi was shocked upon hearing, turned around: "What does Grandpa Du mean?"

"Ten Halls of Yama, the great heavenly master ranked fifth, commonly known as King Yan. Apart from King Yan, the other nine Yamas have all fallen."

Du Yiran set down the axe and chisel, took off the sheepskin hat, removed the thick sheepskin coat and cotton jacket, hung them on the wall, and said, "The Yama of Xuanming Palace went missing over a thousand years ago, the current Yama of Xuanming Palace is the Yin God of the Gao Family. The Yama of Puming Palace vanished over eight hundred years ago, the current master of Puming Palace is a deceased old ancestor of the Li Family. Also the Palaces of Zhoujue, Taihe, Mingchen, Shenhua, Bizhen, Qifei, Suying, these Yama Halls' masters have also gradually been replaced by people from the Thirteen Families over a thousand years."

He stomped his feet, shaking off the snow, and said, "Back then when we went to rescue you, we encountered several ghost god battles, exactly the Xia Family leveraging their power, impersonating demon gods to besiege Suying Palace's ghost gods. At that time, your grandpa only focused on finding you, didn't notice these. He is very clever, if it were before he would definitely have sensed the wrongness within, but unfortunately, then he only cared about finding you, couldn't attend to other matters."

He shook his head, washed his face, went into the inner room to change clothes, the fabric quite elaborate, satin garments.

He opened the door and went outside, Chen Shi quickly followed him out.

Outside, daylight had already broken.

They were not at the seaside, but a town in the mountains, the townspeople seemed very familiar with Du Yiran, greeted him calling him Master Du.

Du Yiran had a stern face, as if everyone owed him a thousand coins, lightly nodding to people's greetings.

Yet people respected him greatly.

Du Yiran took Chen Shi to have breakfast, ordered coarse rice porridge and noodle soup, looked at Chen Shi and Black Pot, ordered several portions of meat, and said, "You're growing, eat more."

He paused, said, "The Xia Family impersonating demon gods, it's very strange, Chen Yindou doesn't investigate, so I will. I'll enter the underworld alone. I originally thought it was demon gods creating mischief inside, but as discovered clues increased, it turned out the Thirteen Families had completed the replacement in the underworld, replacing nearly all of the Ten Halls of Yama. If King Yan didn't have some real power, afraid they would have replaced even him."

He was old, couldn't eat meat in the morning, could only drink coarse rice porridge to nourish his stomach, looking at the phoenix chicken soup in front of Chen Shi swallowing his mouth, and said, "How did you run here?"