The tunnel was extremely narrow, too narrow for two people to walk side by side. It twisted and turned, and one couldn't see the end at a glance.

So all Xuan Ji could see was Sheng Lingyuan's back.

Sheng Lingyuan was never one to hold back. If necessary, he would even exaggerate, and outsiders would think he was sincere.

This made those who loved him or tried to understand him uncertain, not knowing how many of the brilliant smiles he gave were genuine.

But Xuan Ji knew there were some things he wouldn't talk about.

He never talked about his relationship with his mother when he was young, never discussed swordsmanship with anyone when he was young, and after Dongchuan was burned to the ground, he never spoke of "brothers" again... even though Prince Ning was still alive.

When it came to his mother, Empress Chen, Sheng Lingyuan always followed a predictable pattern - he would start by praising her virtues and accomplishments with a string of exaggerated parallel phrases, and then simply express his gratitude for her "unrepayable kindness." It was like reading a speech that hadn't been updated in decades.

He didn't speak ill of Empress Chen, just as he didn't have much to say about the Heavenly Demon Sword.

When it came to talking about the Sword Spirit to outsiders, the usually eloquent Sheng Lingyuan would suddenly become tongue-tied, unable to come up with anything beyond "companions for many years" and "loyal and reliable."

Xuan Ji once suspected that, apart from a few people like Dan Li and Prince Ning who had watched him grow up, Sheng Lingyuan was seen by many as a classic honest and straightforward person.

As for Dongchuan... When Aluojin was alive, Sheng Lingyuan would often mention him with a heavy heart. He was frustrated with how he didn't grow as well as the young girls in the tribe, and had a bad and stubborn temper. He would even nitpick over small things, and it seemed like he would never mature.

However, before the time came for him to grow up, the witch tribe was wiped out.

After that, Aluojin was no longer the troublesome kid that caused Sheng Lingyuan so much worry. Sheng Lingyuan didn't hide Aluojin's faults and achievements, but from the perspective of the humans, Aluojin was an ally and a young clan chief who was a great loss to the humans when he defected and turned to the dark side.

Sheng Lingyuan never mentioned the pain of losing Aluojin or the fact that he personally beheaded over 40,000 witch people.

To him, it meant nothing.

"Lingyuan," perhaps the pathway was too long, Xuan Ji suddenly said without preamble, "If I could make a wish, I hope we could be an ordinary couple born in modern times, living next door to each other."

One is a mischievous child who climbs onto the roof of the house, while the other is a clever and sensible little boy who is always seen as the better "child next door."

The academically challenged troublemaker always gets scolded by his parents, who compare him to Lingyuan, causing resentment to build up between the two. As they grow up, they continue to bicker and argue...

But as they argue, a gust of spring wind blows by, and something inside them stirs, causing an unstoppable chain of events.

Sheng Lingyuan definitely didn't want to make a big fuss about coming out.

He always had a plan for everything, but adding Xuan Ji into the mix was a different story - after all, he was the 'more harm than good' official stamp of Director Xiao, the one who couldn't be predicted.

It was possible that in the end, it would still be a chaotic mess.

So what could he do?

He would probably slowly reconcile with his family over a very long period of time, amidst the mundane and trivial aspects of life, experiencing the ups and downs of it all.

They would sit together in the park playing chess with grey hair and wrinkled faces, arguing over who cheated or who made a mistake, sleeping back to back and waking up the next morning with a blank stare, two old fools who only remembered the fight they had just had but couldn't recall why, and then inexplicably making up.

Sheng Lingyuan was lost in thought. The two of them clearly didn't have a mental connection currently, but for some reason, he felt like he had heard something that would stay with him for a lifetime in Xuan Ji's words.

Before he could say anything, their cramped view suddenly opened up. After walking for who knows how long underground, another tomb unexpectedly appeared in front of them.

"This must be the real one..." Xuan Ji came back to his senses and looked up in awe. After some calculation, he said, "I think the vertical distance between this one and the fake tomb above is at least a hundred meters. It's so grand, it could rival the Heavenly White Jade Palace!"

This tomb deeper underground was several dozen meters high at the top, as bright and spacious as a palace in the mortal realm. The four corners were all adorned with dazzling arrays of light - otherwise, it would have collapsed long ago.

The tomb had been mostly emptied out, but the layout was still visible: eight treasures for sacrifice, nine divine artifacts, everything was there. Although the treasures were gone, the spots where they had been placed were now empty, and there were some scattered gold, jade, and gemstone scraps on the ground.

It was a rule in the tomb-robbing world that you couldn't leave a place completely empty, whether you were a big shot or a small fry, you had to leave something behind.

Obviously, this tomb had been visited by countless tomb robbers long before the Bureau of Paranormal Control discovered it. The crude formation in the fake tomb chamber could only deceive ordinary people thousands of years later.

On both sides of the tomb chamber were murals, painted with genuine dragon bone powder that had remained vivid and unfaded for thousands of years. When the torchlight swept over them, they dazzled the eyes with their brilliance.

As for the content of the paintings, it was hard to make out - after all, the artistic works of the demon race could be quite difficult to understand, and many parts had already been scraped away by people.

"Any tomb raider who stumbled upon this real tomb chamber would have drooled for three feet," Xuan Ji clicked his tongue. "But whether they actually made it in or not is another story... the wall is all scraped away... wait, what is that? A dinosaur?"

At the end of the mural, around a corner, he saw another octagonal altar.

It was as big as a plaza and held a huge skeleton that looked like some kind of fierce beast. It faced southwest and had wings on its back. It was over ten meters tall, with sharp fangs still visible on its white skull, and its mouth seemed to be salivating for human flesh.

As soon as Xuan Ji saw the skeleton, he instinctively felt a sense of danger as if he was being threatened by a powerful demon. His clan emblem appeared, and his wings suddenly lit up as he subconsciously surrounded Sheng Lingyuan.

However, he was pushed away by the emperor.

"Don't you think it's hot enough?" Sheng Lingyuan dodged Xuan Ji's fiery wings and walked straight to the foot of the giant skeleton, examining it closely. "What kind of demon is this? Why were all the burial objects removed, but the bones were left untouched?"

"Be careful!" Xuan Ji's intuition forced him to act, and he rushed forward to pull Sheng Lingyuan away.

Just as he approached the large skeleton, flames suddenly burst out from it and collided with the flames on his wings. This must be a pure-blooded demon before a great battle, dead for thousands of years, and its remains still forbidding.

Xuan Ji felt a tremendous pressure rushing towards him, causing him to stagger back four or five steps.

Xuan Ji looked up in shock, only to see Sheng Lingyuan standing unscathed next to the skeleton, staring at him in amazement.

Xuan Ji held his chest and coughed up a bit of blood, unable to speak for a moment.

After Sheng Lingyuan was startled, he suddenly seemed to understand something and looked up at the demon skeleton with a slightly mocking smile.

"So that's how it is," he said.

"How, how what? Ahem..." Xuan Ji struggled to catch his breath, then saw Sheng Lingyuan reach out and touch the skeleton without any regard, "Don't move! You..."

Sheng Lingyuan touched it, but the previously imposing skeleton remained still, and nothing happened.

Xuan Ji was completely convinced, "So the legendary 'Tyrant King's Domineering Qi' isn't just something made up by internet authors? Your Majesty...with just one glare, you could conquer an entire Jurassic Park? I was truly disrespectful..."

"What nonsense," Sheng Lingyuan said indifferently, "The demon race is weak, and it's difficult for great demons to reproduce. The higher the bloodline, the more difficult it is for them to have offspring, so not harming their bloodline is their instinct."

Xuan Ji: "Wha..."

Suddenly, he realized the implied meaning behind the emperor's words and looked up at the winged beast's skeleton in shock.

"So this is...this is..." he stammered.

"It's the half-blood Vermilion Bird, the only one of its kind. It should be the skeletal remains of Wei Fei," Sheng Lingyuan said, tapping the bones disrespectfully with his finger and circling around them. "There's still a formation under the altar. You should stay back."

Xuan Ji knew better than to act tough and quickly stepped back ten meters, watching as Sheng Lingyuan weaved in and out of the bones. "Is there something else? So, the fake tomb above was meant to cover up the real tomb below, and this real tomb below is still a decoy?"

Sheng Lingyuan carefully examined the inscriptions on the altar without lifting his head.

"If you didn't want the body to be disturbed, why bury it in the earth's veins? Why not somewhere else?"

The fake tomb had already fooled the majority of people, and even the elite field agents of the Bureau, armed with all sorts of instruments, couldn't find the "real tomb" below.

Even if a skilled expert were lucky enough to make it down here, they would probably be knocked out by a falling gold brick and wouldn't dare to explore any further - the remains of the demon empress were certainly valuable, but not something anyone could just tamper with.

For this half-blood Vermilion Bird, without the techniques of the demon king Jiu Xun Techniques, not to mention swallowing the remains, even just licking them would blow half a person's head off.

After the great battle, almost all of the demon clan's experts were wiped out. Later, with the sealing of the Chiyuan, peace returned to the human world, and even Xuan Ji, the "Fire-keeper," had to face many restrictions.

Wait a minute, that means that besides Sheng Lingyuan, who can use their bloodline to open the back door, no one else can cross this skeleton and open the altar below.

Xuan Ji said, "Lingyuan, wait, you should..."

Before he could finish, a heavy sigh came from beneath the octagonal altar, causing the ground to shake and the formation on the altar to crack.

"Not bad, this entrance was customized for me," said Sheng Lingyuan in a deep voice. "Someone went to great lengths to call me up from below. If I didn't come, it would be a waste of their efforts. Besides, with three powerful heavenly demons added, how could I resist the temptation to go down and take a look?"

The intense heat, similar to that from the bronze Heaven and Earth Cauldron, permeated through the cracks in the ground, carrying a bloody smell. The wind sounded strange, as if there was a huge cavity below...

With a loud crash, the bones of Wan Fei shattered into dust.

Beneath the altar lay a seemingly bottomless abyss.

Xuan Ji's feather, used for illumination, fell into the abyss and floated down, gradually turning into a small dot of light. The light grew weaker and weaker until it finally disappeared into the darkness below. It was as if it had fallen into the depths of the underworld.