Yinyin Island lay at the northeasternmost tip of the Congyun Sea. Li Fan had spent over twenty days traveling before finally reaching its vicinity.
The island was small, with little vegetation. A single square structure rose from its center. From afar, faint cries of human suffering carried on the sea breeze.
"Is Yinyin Shangren present?" Li Fan called out, his voice echoing across the island.
But after a long wait, there was no response.
Patiently, Li Fan repeated his question. Only the mournful howl of the wind answered him.
He called out once more. Still, no reply came.
Li Fan took a moment to confirm his intuition. Indeed, this was the place.
Cautiously, he descended onto the island, landing before the square building.
The structure appeared to be built from a bluish-black stone, with no windows or doors except for a single entrance at its center. Inside lay impenetrable darkness, a void that swallowed not just light, but even divine sense.
It was impossible to see what lay within. One could only hear intermittent sobs and wails echoing from the depths.
The place radiated an eerie atmosphere, and Li Fan steeled himself as he slowly stepped forward.
Just as he was about to enter, a sudden rustling sound caught his attention. A small, dog-like creature darted out from the darkness, nearly colliding with him.
Thinking it might be an exotic beast attacking him, Li Fan prepared to strike it down. But a sweep of his divine sense revealed it was nothing more than an ordinary animal.
As a guest, it wouldn’t be proper to kill the host’s pet without reason. So Li Fan reached out, grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, and lifted it up.
Startled, the creature whimpered in fear, trembling uncontrollably. With a soft thud, something it had been carrying in its mouth fell to the ground.
Holding the creature up for a closer look, Li Fan felt a wave of revulsion. It resembled a dog, but its limbs ended in human-like hands. On its belly, five or six eye-like organs shifted and squirmed, blinking intermittently as they fixed their gaze intently on Li Fan.
What in the world is this thing... Fighting the urge to fling it away, Li Fan held it behind him and stepped into the darkness.
After a few moments, his eyes adjusted to the gloom, and the scene before him came into focus.
Contrary to his expectations of a grim and terrifying interior, the space was surprisingly orderly and clean, with no traces of blood anywhere.
Transparent cages were arranged throughout, each holding various bizarre-looking creatures. These strange beings lay listlessly in their enclosures, showing little signs of aggression.
Even as Li Fan approached, they remained indifferent, as though the cages were one-way mirrors, opaque from the inside.
Among these grotesque forms was a two-headed serpent whose heads constantly wrestled with one another.
Another creature resembled a large disc covered in tiny, writhing maggots, floating and drifting through water.
Yet another was clearly a fusion of two different species: a sheep’s head grafted onto a tortoise’s body.
But the most unsettling of all was a monstrosity composed of six human heads fused together.
Arms sprouted from the top of each head, digging into the base of the one above it. One head hoisted the next in a grotesque pillar. The lowermost head had two small hands growing from its base.
This six-headed-hand creature stood upright like a giant insect, using its bottommost hands as feelers to crawl about its cage.
As it moved, each of the six heads swiveled to face a different direction, their pale faces utterly devoid of expression.
Even in his most terrifying nightmares, Li Fan had never witnessed such a revolting abomination. Suppressing the nausea rising within him, he took only a single glance before quickening his pace to move past it.
At that moment, Li Fan detected a low, whispering murmur echoing from deep within the structure.
"I must find you, I must find you..." It repeated the same phrase over and over.
Pausing to listen, Li Fan followed the sound deeper into the interior until he arrived before a massive, rectangular, transparent cage. On either side, four smaller prison cells were connected to this main enclosure.
Each smaller cell held a single mortal prisoner with strange devices attached to their body. It looked like something was squirming inside these humans—visible bulges writhed rapidly beneath their skin.
Wherever these bulges traveled, the flesh rapidly festered and rotted. As the bulges moved on, some of the ravaged areas slowly began to heal, while others worsened dramatically. In the blink of an eye, a deep, black hole would form, revealing the white bone beneath.
The torment these mortals endured was no less brutal than the most savage execution. They convulsed and wailed on the ground, and some had already ceased breathing entirely, leaving behind only a twitching mass of flesh and blood.
Standing directly in front of the large transparent cage was a solitary figure. Li Fan observed him: his hair was somewhat disheveled, streaked with both black and white. His clothes were filthy and tattered, as if they hadn't been changed in years.
"I must find you, I must find you..." The figure stared obsessively at the transparent cage before him, muttering the phrase under his breath like a mantra.
His cultivation was at the Dao Establishment realm, and he was the only person here.
"Fellow Daoist Yinyin Shangren?" Li Fan called out from a distance, keeping a gap between them.
The man seemed completely oblivious, showing no reaction whatsoever.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
Just then, the dog Li Fan had captured began to struggle and bark fiercely, as if crying out to its master for help.
Jolted by the barking, Yinyin Shangren suddenly whirled around. Seeing Li Fan, a look of realization dawned on his face.
"Aiya! A guest has arrived!"..."Aiya! A guest has arrived!" Two voices spoke in rapid succession, one after the other, as if it had echoed inside him before the sound emerged.
Li Fan's eyelids twitched slightly. Releasing the dog, he bowed slightly in greeting. "I pay my respects, Fellow Daoist."
The moment the little dog’s hands touched the ground, it whimpered and scurried over to Yinyin Shangren's feet, rubbing its head against him obsequiously.
Yinyin Shangren smoothed down his messy hair, looking somewhat embarrassed. "I was lost in thought while pondering a problem and failed to hear your call, Fellow Daoist. Please forgive me!" Again, the two voices rang out oddly, one after the other.
Yinyin Shangren kicked the dog aside. Then, with considerable enthusiasm, he said to Li Fan, "This is no place for conversation. Fellow Daoist, please, come this way!"
As he spoke, a door beside them slid open abruptly, and Yinyin Shangren walked through. The dog barked joyfully and trotted after him, wagging its behind.
Yinyin Shangren led the way ahead, then seemed to remember something. He turned back to speak to Li Fan. "Ah, right. I am not called Yinyin Shangren. My name is Yin Shangren." "...Yin Shangren."
The two voices spoke one after another, sounding like they had said “Yinyin Shangren.”
So that's how it is. Li Fan suddenly understood.
The cultivators of the Congyun Sea might have addressed him that way to mock him.
"Greetings, Fellow Daoist Yin Shangren!" Li Fan greeted him once more.
Yin Shangren appeared genuinely pleased to hear his name spoken correctly.