Xu Qing found himself in the Yin River, oblivious to the changes in the mortal world.
At this moment, within the Eight Banner Marshals' camp—a pit of tens of thousands viewed by the living, inside the generals' tombs—Xu Qing was refining his own artifact, the Mountain Rivers Society Cauldron.
The cauldron was enormous, rivaling the coffins of emperors, with not the traditional tripod and dual ears, but rather four legs with two ears, symbolizing the four corners of the world.
The body of the cauldron was inscribed with the Eight Views of Yin Mountain. If an ordinary person were to look at them, their Divine Soul would be lost in an instant, as if they were placed within the views, unable to escape.
Xu Qing carefully examined the cauldron before him. It was indeed a high-grade artifact, but not in its full heavenly state.
"Though the Eight Views of Yin Mountain are the origin of this cauldron, can it still be called the Society Cauldron without truly grasping the powers of the Eight Views?"
Xu Qing reached out and stroked the cauldron before him.
When he arrived at the Yin River, the mountain spirit Qishan Clan weighed a thousand pounds, while this cauldron was roughly five times the weight.
Five thousand pounds sounded substantial, but on a heavenly artifact named after the Mountain Rivers Society, it was somewhat lacking.
"To truly unleash the power of this cauldron, one must truly master the territories of the Eight Views."
This proved somewhat challenging for Xu Qing, as the Eight Views of Yin Mountain encompassed the most critical areas of the underworld. Unless he possessed the true position of underworld ruler, it would be impossible to command the 'country' depicted by the Mountain Rivers Society Cauldron.
As Xu Qing gazed at the Mountain Rivers Society Cauldron, it increasingly felt like the grand-hoax painted for him by his old neighbor, the Ghost King Duo'er.
"Wait! Why are they called the Eight Views of Yin Mountain?"
Thinking of the weight of the cauldron inevitably reminded Xu Qing of the ready-made unit of measurement, the Qishan Clan.
The Qishan Clan happened to possess the method to refine the powers of famous mountains and great rivers. In the Nine Netherworld, only the Yin Mountain range was the largest, and the Eight Views of the underworld were within the Yin Mountain's scope.
As far as Xu Qing knew, the powers of the Yin Mountain had never been heard to be refined or mastered by anyone.
If he refined the powers of the Yin Mountain...
Then his Mountain Rivers Society Cauldron would encompass the entire Yin Mountain and even the Eight, Sixteen Views, all becoming his territories.
At that time, the lands carried by the cauldron would all be at his command!
Xu Qing felt an imperial ambition surge through his cold zombie body, filling him with fervor.
He forcibly suppressed the desire, silently contemplated the 'Saiyu Immortal Ascending to the Great Treasure Map,' and finally calmed down.
At present, he was but a zombie that hadn't completely refined the twelve bones. Not to mention the vast Yin Mountain range of the underworld, he couldn't even bear the weight of worldly famous mountains exceeding ten thousand pounds.
"The weight of ten thousand pounds is about the same as the peak weight of the Qishan Clan..."
Perhaps when he could bear the complete form of the Qishan Clan, it would signify his cultivation success, allowing him to consider such matters.
"The road is long and distant, and I, a zombie, will strive to seek it."
Steady and cautious, Xu Qing spent over a month, finally refining the cauldron before him.
"Gather!"
The sinister aura of the cauldron's eight views emerged, then swiftly vanished, while the rustic and heavy Society Cauldron also began to float, as light as a feather or particle.
When Xu Qing's voice fell, the cauldron acquired the ability to change its size, quickly shrinking to palm-size and whisking into his sleeve.
Three heavenly-tier rewards—Xu Qing had never felt so wealthy before, but besides these rewards, his greatest gain was the Ghost King's remains with a millennium of path cultivation.
As well as the moving lights within the remains.
After digesting all the rewards, Xu Qing emerged from his month-long revel of harvest, gazing at the Ghost King's skeleton filling the tomb, its entire body white and smooth as jade, as though viewing a work of art.
"Unfortunately, this skeleton, though remarkable, isn't easy to digest."
Inside the Ghost King Duo'er's moving lights, Xu Qing saw not only the rise of his old neighbor but also the fundamental reason he existed in the Yin River for a thousand years.
In a world of great calamity, those who dared to reign in the Yin River, who managed to call themselves king or emperor, were surely no simple figures and certainly had some backing.
Xu Qing knew the Ghost King Mausoleum was the site of the Bixi head, where cultivation would be doubly effective, yet he chose the Eight Banner Marshals' camp.
Though partly cautious, the decision was mainly influenced by the hidden secrets within the thousand-year-old moving lights of Ghost King Duo'er.
The founding emperor of Dayong was once brimming with ambition, even going as far as sending the Eight Banner Marshals into the Ancient Yin River Dao to pave the way for reigning in the underworld prematurely...
But he did not succeed.
How then did the Ghost King Duo'er manage to preside over the Yin River entrance for over a thousand years, steady upon the throne without wavering?
Looking back at the moving lights of the old neighbor, over a thousand years ago when he was still the emperor of Chu Kingdom, he wasn't called Duo'er, but Huan Wenyu.
Since ancient times, emperors sought immortality, either through alchemy or searching for immortals, in myriad ways. But Chu Kingdom's Emperor Huan Wenyu was obsessed with seeking the 'Ghost Dao,' yearning for posthumous 'immortality' to continue his reign.
To prolong the nation's prosperity, Huan Wenyu built a shrine by the Baisha River, visiting Jin Sect every year to offer to the door-ghosts governing the Yin River.
Seeing the old neighbor's methods of soliciting ghosts as opposed to Emperor Jingxing's failed offerings seemed absurd to Xu Qing.
Yet what was even more absurd was when the nation lay on the brink of collapse, Huan Wenyu eschewed addressing internal strife and external threats, instead depleting state funds and laboriously gathering capable individuals and craftsmen, prematurely constructing a mausoleum at the Yin-Yang boundary at the Yin River's entrance where ghosts roamed.
The mausoleum crafted was far grander than any mortal emperor's, even the grand one of the First Emperor's grandmother spanning over two hundred acres with rammed earth walls and gates couldn't compare to his!