At first, Lian Ruxin did not believe him.

He asked, "Killing just one person can resolve all these predicaments?"

The man in black said, "Yes."

Lian Ruxin: "How is that possible?"

"Feng Rugu had already reached the Nascent Soul stage ten years ago. Since the demonic cultivators corrupted the Dao, the world's spiritual energy has been insufficient. Those who can form a Golden Core are one in a thousand, and reaching the Nascent Soul stage is even rarer, one in ten thousand. If the stone god can obtain a Nascent Soul to assist it, it can help countless people avoid the suffering of sacrifices. This is the first point."

Lian Ruxin's expression shifted slightly.

"You carry the soul of a demonic cultivator on you, and only need a body. If Feng Rugu dies, his body would be the best vessel. You won't need to find an innocent person and seize their body. This is the second point."

"By killing one person, you bring fortune to millions, ensuring peace in the land. The stone god will be eternally secure, with no further need for protection. If the stone god is sentient, it should reward you and return your freedom. This is the third point."

The man in black's voice was extremely calm, as cold and still as snow on a high peak: "He stole your incense offerings and good fortune, indirectly causing the death of this demonic cultivator. Although unintentional, the karmic retribution has already been sown. Will you bear everything for him, or kill him and end it all?"

After a long silence, Lian Ruxin said, "I have no power to defeat a Nascent Soul stage cultivator. Besides, I cannot leave the ancient city."

The man in black said, "You only need to meet him to know that you can defeat him. I will help you. As long as you cause some trivial disturbances in the city to attract a few Daoists or Buddhists here, I have ways to make Feng Rugu come to this city himself."

Lian Ruxin did not understand.

That Lord Yunzhong should be a revered Daoist. How could trivial disturbances draw him to this place?

The man in black said, "You don't need to worry about that. I have my methods."

Lian Ruxin closed his eyes for a moment. "I will not kill anyone in the city."

The man in black said, "As you wish."

The man in black gripped his saber, about to leave, but Lian Ruxin stopped him.

The man in black turned his head. His figure was stern, his long cloak wrapping his silhouette like a thousand-year-old jade spirit.

Lian Ruxin asked, "I seek peace in the world, liberation, and for him to live again. What do you seek?"

The man in black grasped the hilt of his pitch-black tang saber, remaining silent.

Lian Ruxin noticed that from the slit in the mask, a pair of peculiarly colored blue eyes were revealed.

Lian Ruxin understood a little. "You have a grudge against that Daoist Lord?"

"I have no grudges against anyone," the man in black said coldly. "What I seek is only lasting peace in the world and the Dao sects' return to righteousness."

These words sounded extremely strange.

Lian Ruxin's eyes, nurtured by the power of nature, could see through things ordinary people found difficult to discern. Therefore, he could tell that this person was stained with much blood. The grand aspiration for world peace was extremely ill-suited for someone with such bloody hands.

But Lian Ruxin did not inquire further.

He followed the "rotten idea" Yi Shangchen had given him, selecting wealthy families in the ancient city. He took a soul and spirit from each, not harming their bodies, only causing them to fall into a coma.

Sure enough, rumors of a soul-devouring monster gradually spread in the city.

The people of Shuisheng City had long been under the stone god's protection and had not encountered such strange events for a long time. Thus, they were alarmed, and the monster's terrifying appearance was vividly described as if seen with their own eyes.

Their guardian Lian Ruxin transformed into a white shadow, carefully holding the newly stolen souls in his arms as he walked under the scorching sun, yet only felt like he was sinking in ice water.

Doing something bad for the first time in his life, he felt both panic and a strange, subtle sense of relief.

Five days later, he unexpectedly discovered the corpse of a young monk on Mount Mizhi.

...The young monk lay with his head to the south and feet to the north, a line of dried blood remaining on his neck. His throat had been slit with a single slash, clearly the work of a tang saber.

The blue-eyed man in black stood beside him, contemplating the positioning of the young monk's corpse.

Lian Ruxin recognized every person in the city. He knew this young monk was the second son of the Bai family's Bai Daguan in the city's west. Due to his mischievous nature, his parents, at their wits' end, had sent him to Hanshan Temple as a monk for three years of discipline.

And four days ago, he had just taken a soul and spirit from Bai Daguan.

Lian Ruxin stepped forward and said urgently, "You said you wouldn't kill anyone in the city."

The man in black: "When did I agree to that? I agreed that you don't need to kill anyone in the city. Who my saber wants to kill is not something the stone god needs to interfere with."

Lian Ruxin was not good with words to begin with. His heart was filled with anxiety, but he couldn't express it. His pretty face turned even redder.

In the end, he no longer tried to say anything and sighed softly, "Forget it. We conspired together. Whether you kill or I kill, what difference does it make?"

The man in black ignored him. He dragged the young monk's corpse to lay with the head to the west and feet to the east, then picked up a fresh zelkova leaf from the ground, holding it up to the sunlight.

The veins on the zelkova leaf were clear. When penetrated by sunlight, it looked like a small, green hand covered in blue veins.

He said, "Wait for him here. I have other things to do."

Lian Ruxin asked, "Where are you going?"

The man in black put the zelkova leaf into his bosom. "To bring him to you."

...

The thin mist before Feng Rugu's eyes dissipated. In the time it took for two drops of tea to fall from the cup onto his knees, he had already seen half of the life of Lian Ruxin, the stone spirit's child.

Lian Ruxin stood before him like this, repeating his purpose: "This one requests Lord Yunzhong to die in peace."

As he said this, there was still an embarrassed flush on Lian Ruxin's cheeks, like a young man who was shy about making an unreasonable request to someone else.

He presented all the stories and weaknesses before he made his move. Lian Ruxin was indeed a gentleman, killing with such grace and elegance.

Thinking this, Feng Rugu took another sip of the remaining smoke and placed the pipe horizontally on the table. "I really do easily attract hatred."

Lian Ruxin pressed his thin lips together, not denying it. His eyes, containing faint melancholy and sadness, looked at him.

Meeting his gaze, Feng Rugu felt an inexplicable chill.

Interacting with him until now, the doubts and unease lingering in Feng Rugu's heart became increasingly clear.

—Lian Ruxin was born from the spirit of stone, with every part of his body naturally formed. Thus, his eyes could see through all illusions.

With one glance, he saw that Feng Rugu had used the art of displacement twelve years ago while admiring the sunrise on the cliff.

He could also see at a glance that Yi Shangchen was a demonic cultivator, and the man in black had an aura of blood and killing.

...He could see through everything...

Suddenly realizing this point, Feng Rugu's expression changed slightly.

Upon noticing the change in Feng Rugu's expression, Lian Ruxin knew that he had guessed the truth. He even smiled a little embarrassedly, "Yes, Lord Yunzhong. All illusions are useless against me."

"Therefore, I know that you placed a guiding star on that monk's wrist, first giving him the wrong location to lead him away, and then planning to call him back at the appropriate time. Thus, I had already set up a spiritual barrier around Qingqiu Pavilion early on, and had also put the people in the pavilion to sleep just now."

"I also know that you have been maneuvering around me to buy time."

"...Lord Yunzhong's body is ill and cannot use spiritual power, I had already known this while following you."

"There is only one thing I don't understand," said Lian Ruxin. "Lord Yunzhong, knowing that I was by your side, waiting for an opportunity to strike, you wouldn't even keep a single disciple by your side. Do you really have such great courage, daring to wait for me here with a useless body no different from an ordinary person?"

"I said, I thought you would come together with him," Feng Rugu said indifferently. "My two disciples are not skilled in their arts, and I was afraid they would lose face in front of Lord Stone God and Lord Ghost Mask."

Lian Ruxin was silent for a while, then pressed two fingers together, igniting a white flame at their tips, "Lord Yunzhong's painstaking efforts to protect his disciples, I will try to convey."

Seeing the fatal white light ignite, Feng Rugu actually still had the mood to joke, "No need for that. As their master, as long as I don't drag them down, that is my greatest achievement."

Lian Ruxin was about to take action, but since this was his first time killing someone, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to do it while facing a living, breathing person, and his own face turned deathly pale.

He turned the direction of the white light at his fingertips, pointing it at the sleeping little monk Hai Jing on the bed, his tone containing a hint of bluffing threat, "Please commit suicide, Lord Yunzhong. I'll leave you some dignity."

Lian Ruxin only needed to activate the power in his fingers, and he could easily split open Hai Jing's head.

But Feng Rugu was no longer smiling, "This is a grudge between you and me, it has nothing to do with him."

Lian Ruxin, "I also don't want to involve others. Lord Yunzhong, if you don't kill yourself, I can only take his life, and then take yours. Either way, you have no power to resist, so why lose another life..."

Before he could finish, Feng Rugu actually turned and ran towards the window, grabbing the little monk's wooden sword hanging by the window, jumping onto the window sill, exerting force, and leaping straight down from the third floor of the building!

Lian Ruxin's mind turned rapidly—

This was not an escape.

With Feng Rugu's glib tongue, he could have continued to maneuver with him, but for the safety of the little monk, he resolutely cut off his own path of life!

The moment he jumped out the window, he took on all the danger himself!

Lian Ruxin didn't have time to think about what connection Feng Rugu had with this little monk, and why he was willing to give his life to protect him.

He only knew that he couldn't let Feng Rugu escape like this.

Feng Rugu had not wielded spiritual power for a long time, his movements a bit clumsy. When he landed on the pleasure boat, he didn't have time to check his momentum and stumbled forward a few steps.

However, before his toes could steady, he sensed something. Without looking back, he dodged to the side—

A white light filled with murderous intent poured down from the sky. Even though he dodged in time, a large piece of the clothing on his back was still torn.

The lotus pond was split open by a wave of water, and the pleasure boat was violently tossed about as if encountering a giant wave at sea, instantly capsizing. The zither table and chess board all fell into the water, leaving only the side hull and a small carved building still floating on the surface of the water.

Lian Ruxin stood in the void, floating in mid-air, looking down to find Feng Rugu's whereabouts.

As the water mist dissipated, Lian Ruxin saw the tattered Feng Rugu.

He was holding Hai Jing's bodhi wood sword, standing on the floating small carved building.

Under the damaged clothes, large swaths of blue lotus tattoos were revealed, lifelike and embossed.

But Lian Ruxin was shocked on the spot, and the spiritual light at his fingertips also froze.

The tattoos on the person in front of him were not tattoos, but rather blue stamens, white stones, and green water, following the paths of the scars all over his body, cleverly concealing the mess of lacerations.

The lacerations wound from the legs to the left chest, clearly the old wounds left after a lingchi execution!

The severity of the injuries made Lian Ruxin unable to help but wonder how he survived after suffering such injuries.

Even more horrifying was that on the small of Feng Rugu's back, a blue lotus slowly bloomed as if it were alive, its red stamens glowing, swaying with his body.

Strands of demonic energy overflowed from the red stamens, circling around his body, directly entangling Feng Rugu's sword-wielding arm.

On Feng Rugu's porcelain-white neck, an intricate demonic pattern flickered on and off, extremely gorgeous, and a faint red light flashed in his pale right eye, a sign of demonization!

In his surprise, Lian Ruxin didn't have time to think about why Feng Rugu's pure and holy body would become like this. Taking a closer look, he discovered that a corner of the mysterious seal on Feng Rugu's body had been broken.

"I lured you here, originally planning to have my little Hongchen take action. Unfortunately, that person didn't come, and little Hongchen didn't come either. So at this moment, there is only the grudge between you and me left."

Feng Rugu held the Buddhist sword in one hand, the inherent Buddhist energy on the sword entangled with the strange demonic energy emanating from his palm. Feng Rugu didn't care, brandishing the sword, the water in the lotus pond rippled slightly, actually forming a whirlpool with Feng Rugu at the center, as if all ravines were paying homage to the ruins.

Feng Rugu looked at Lian Ruxin, his tone still lazy, as if talking about the most ordinary family matter, "Before a flower fully blooms, I will defeat you."