Xuan Ji said, "Our clan has tough skin and thick flesh, especially resistant to high temperatures. Stewing the meat won't make it tender, and eating it raw is not practical - unless it's at the level of a demon king. Otherwise, one might easily overeat and suffer from 'deficiency that cannot be replenished'."

"In the past, when the heavenly calamity struck, not a blade of grass grew within ten li of the temple. The Empress Chen's people stayed outside the lightning calamity's circle, with someone specially calculating the number of thunder strikes. As soon as the calamity stopped, they would rush in to prevent other clans from coveting the results."

Sheng Lingyuan squinted slightly, recalling the words he pried from the old maid beside Empress Chen. "When the Empress Chen's people rushed in, the temple was already reduced to ashes, leaving only me lying on a stone altar with the Heavenly Demon Sword in my back. Below the altar were eighty-one kneeling charred corpses. The Vermilion Bird statue in the center of the temple turned to ashes at a touch, and the Heaven and Earth Cauldron and Vermilion Bird Spirit body...vanished without a trace."

Xuan Ji asked, "Was it stolen by someone?"

Sheng Lingyuan shook his head absentmindedly - who could steal anything from such a violent heavenly calamity?

And even if they would steal something, it would be the defenseless Heavenly Demon child or a Heavenly Demon Sword with impaired consciousness, not a bronze cauldron and... a small bird corpse.

That didn't make sense, and Empress Chen, who was in charge of the Heavenly Demon refining project, had felt the same. She believed that the Heaven and Earth Cauldron and the Vermilion Bird Spirit body were damaged during the descent of the Heavenly Demon.

"Turn left at the intersection ahead, towards the west..." Sheng Lingyuan followed the familiar scent in the air and instinctively directed Xuan Ji on the right path. Then, he casually asked, "Do you have any feathers that have been lost?"

Xuan Ji found the word "lost" strange and couldn't help but explain, "My feathers are an abstract concept. Because my ancestor had wings, I also have wings after transforming from the sword. They are not actual bird feathers, but rather a manifestation of my power and an extension of my consciousness... In short, I don't shed feathers!"

Sheng Lingyuan paused for a moment before nodding slowly and saying, "Oh."

So, those feathers that would occasionally find their way into his clothes and hair were intentionally placed there as an "extension of consciousness."

Xuan Ji suddenly understood the meaning behind his one-word response and felt at a loss for words.

After a moment of hesitation, he tried to explain himself, "I mean...sometimes when I see a friend with a black mark on their forehead, it's a sign that they might have bad luck. So, I give them a feather as a talisman to protect them. If something were to happen, it could help them a little and I could rush over to help them in time."

Sheng Lingyuan spoke slowly, "So, you and the feathers that are separated from you are connected."

Xuan Ji finally snapped, "Are you done yet? My feathers have never fallen onto your clothes!"

Sheng Lingyuan laughed, but his smile didn't reach his eyes.

Xuan Ji glanced at him through the rearview mirror, "What do you mean? Did you find my feathers in some strange place?"

Sheng Lingyuan replied with a curt "Mm" and didn't intend to say more.

Xuan Ji was confused. His feathers had indeed stuck to Sheng Lingyuan's body these past few days, although some of them were unintentional.

But they all came from him and only him.

He could guarantee that not a single feather had gone to places like the bathroom.

"Where was it?" Xuan Ji asked. "Why do you think I don't know?"

"Chiyuan," Sheng Lingyuan paused and said briefly, "in one of my burial mounds."

"No way. I've basically never been there," Xuan Ji said. "With you here, aren't I already heartbroken enough? Why would I go all the way...Wait, I remember your nephew made one for you... Wasn't it at the Sheng family ancestral tomb instead of Chiyuan?"

"It's another place," Sheng Lingyuan replied.

Xuan Ji was initially confused, but then suddenly realized, "You mean the spot where that little brat from the Bifang family buried your Heart-Piercing Grass doll?"

Sheng Lingyuan changed the subject seriously, "I thought someone had stolen it from you, but if the form of the feather itself is maintained by you, then it shouldn't be possible. So, the bird feather I saw might not be yours - or rather, not from your sword spirit body."

"So..." Xuan Ji prompted.

Sheng Lingyuan didn't let him finish and interrupted him again: "Now that I think about it, those bird feathers were indeed very small. At first glance, they looked like down feathers, but they could also be the undeveloped fluff of young birds."

Xuan Ji was interrupted twice and wouldn't let it go.

He said in one breath, "So, you really didn't respond to Bi Chunsheng's Yin Sacrifice ritual, it was for me!"

No wonder the other heavenly demons appeared only after the Yin Sacrifice was finished, but this demon using a jade body appeared even earlier than the sacrifice!

Sheng Lingyuan turned his face and denied it: "You're thinking too much. My true body hasn't awakened yet. The actions of the Heart-Piercing Grass puppet are all based on instinct. Even ghosts wouldn't remember anything, how would I remember who you are?"

Xuan Ji immediately understood: "Your true body is confused, and Heart-Piercing Grass puppet doesn't remember anything, but it was still awakened by a feather from me!"

Sheng Lingyuan: "..."

As a child, why didn't he have the ability to think outside the box like this?

"I'll be serioud with you," Sheng Lingyuan sighed, "if that's the case, both the Heaven and Earth Cauldron and your original body are likely in the hands of the other party..."

Xuan Ji's heart was racing, he couldn't even focus on a serious conversation, and he struggled to keep his mouth from curling up into a smile.

Just then, the car they were in exited a tunnel and the view went from dark to bright, with sunlight suddenly flooding in. The navigation system in the car's dashboard announced in a flat voice, "You have entered the Biquan Mountain area."

Xuan Ji's heart skipped a beat, and his wild and restless heart was suddenly calmed.

This time, even he could clearly feel the familiar aura - the heat from the Heaven and Earth Cauldron as it refined the world's evil energy.

In the midst of the bitter cold of the ninth lunar month, the mountainous areas higher than Yong'an latitude were devoid of any remaining snow, and the temperature outside the car rapidly rose to nearly 40 degrees.

Meanwhile, the hidden creatures of legend and myth made their appearance. Terrifying scarecrow dolls were seen strutting down the streets, handing out flyers. These fake figures brazenly appeared in the bustling city center, moving up and down the streets, and conventional police weapons were useless against them.

In the city of Yuyang, the head of the local sub-bureau, Manager Du, personally led a team of officers to the central square. Surrounding the square was a green belt, with a bright open space in the middle.

But now, the branches and vines within the greenery had expanded infinitely, entangling the flagpole in the center of the square and weaving a green curtain over the entire area.

A group of puppets hung from the branches and vines like dead ghosts, shouting strange words in human language. Flyers fluttered down from their hands, but not a single piece of paper fell to the ground.

The flyers seemed to have a cruise control system, flying mysteriously without any wind. Some stuck to the glass of residential and commercial buildings, some stuck to car windows, and some even stuck to the faces of passersby.

More and more onlookers gathered, and anxious people took out their phones to take pictures.

"Take them all down!" Manager Du ordered, and the field agents poured out of the official car, loading mithril bullets into their guns.

And at that moment, Manager Du's phone rang: "Hello...wait a minute--who's calling to notify? Director Xiao from the headquarters? Perfect timing, I need to report to the headquarters. Please tell the dispatch center that we are currently here..."

The person on the other end of the phone quickly said something, and Manager Du was stunned for two seconds after listening. Then he pushed his assistant next to him fiercely and said, "Stop the operation!"

The first mithril bullet was stopped just before the trigger was pulled.

Terrified citizens saw a group of fully armed and mysterious personnel surrounding the square, not knowing which department they belonged to.

The eerie puppets were extremely excited, rising and falling in mid-air, and flyers flew like a blizzard.

"The Bureau is here to silence us, everyone run!" laughed the puppet controlled by the Heart-Piercing Grass curse. "The water element can summon a tsunami, the lightning element can roast you all, and the ordinary people who died are now inhabited by butterflies. Hehe, they work for you without anyone knowing, and these executioners are most afraid of leaks!"

Suddenly, one puppet raised its head and screamed at the crowd. The citizens, whose worldview had been overturned by this supernatural event, panicked like a hurricane and scattered in all directions.

The crowd was too dense, and the chaos was catastrophic.

The mutated plants in the green belt maliciously extended their vines and quietly drilled under people's feet. Many people fell and it looked like a massive stampede was about to occur.

Just then, people suddenly found themselves "fixed" in place. Half of them were hanging in mid-air, while the other half couldn't put their lifted legs back down.

At first, the citizens thought they were "frozen" and were screaming in terror. The square was chaotic yet eerily quiet, with the constant screams resembling a large slaughterhouse.

However, the people making these sounds were all standing still, like a group of strange humanoid speakers. The piercing screams only lasted for a moment, leaving the crowd breathless and unable to continue.

The deafening collective scream echoed for half a minute before gradually fading away.

At this moment, the desperate people suddenly noticed that the "frozen" crowd began to move. The people near the square's exit were the first to be "liberated" and quickly evacuated the scene under the guidance of the so-called "bureau executioners."

Then, the people behind them were released in an orderly manner, and a child stumbled and fell. Before his knee hit the ground, he was lifted up by some invisible force and gently placed back on the ground.

A staff member from the evacuation team patted his head as he walked by. At the same time, the mysterious figures surrounding the square remained motionless.

People noticed that they were acting as human shields, standing between the puppets and the citizens. They only cooperated with the evacuation and paid no attention to the countless flyers floating in the air.

Silence and stillness enveloped the vast square, with only the shrill and piercing voices of the puppets echoing emptily.

This was the first time that the various branches of the Bureau had appeared publicly in front of ordinary people, yet they remained silent.

Unexpectedly, the Bureau held their ground in the face of adversity, and not a single mithril bullet was fired throughout the entire area.