"I'll tell you a fun fact," Xuan Ji swallowed nervously. "Even our winged clan can be afraid of heights sometimes..."

His words echoed through the abyss, and in response, there was a low hum followed by the sound of rocks falling, making Xuan Ji dizzy.

"Let's go down and take a look," Sheng Lingyuan said.

Xuan Ji nodded and hooked his arms around Sheng Lingyuan's waist. He spread his wings and flew down into the abyss. His wings were wide and magnificent, and as soon as they appeared, the entire cave was illuminated, as he whooshed down towards the ground.

If anyone were above at that moment, they would have noticed that the light on Xuan Ji's wings was fading, just like the feather that had fallen.

In a moment, the two of them were swallowed up by the abyss's silence.

Sheng Lingyuan was the first to sense that something was wrong.

He realized that he couldn't control the puppetry technique anymore, and the sound from Xiao Zheng's side that he had been "hearing" through the crow's ears became intermittent.

Xiao Zheng saw the crow in front of him suddenly flap its wings and shake its head, and the black mist around it began to rise.

Before a blurry word could even form, the mist stopped moving.

"Director Xiao," said Ping Qianru beside him, "I think there's something off about the crow's expression."

The elegant and reserved crow suddenly seemed to freeze, the light in its eyes disappearing. It stood there, staring in terror at the people around it, while the black mist around its body solidified into a ball.

Xiao Zheng walked over, thinking to himself, "Even this thing has bad signal?"

But as soon as he got close, the crow suddenly struggled, and the black mist around it dissipated. It flapped its wings and let out a mournful cry, flapping its wings and hitting Xiao Zheng in the face with its feathers.

Xiao Zheng: "......"

Sheng Lingyuan's pupils shrank slightly - the connection between him and the crow had been broken.

The crow had a strand of heavenly demon energy that he had injected into it himself. Since Sheng Lingyuan grew up and was able to completely control his heavenly demon power, there had been no incidents of losing control.

He looked down at his hands, calloused from holding a pen and sword, they were very powerful...human hands.

"Little Ji," Sheng Lingyuan stared at his blank palms and said slowly, "I have something to tell you. Don't panic, but I can't feel my demonic energy anymore."

Xuan Ji chuckled, "I have something else to tell you, don't panic..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Xuan Ji leaped towards the almost vertical cliff and threw Sheng Lingyuan up. At the same time, the wings on his back turned into a blaze of fire and disappeared into thin air.

Sheng Lingyuan reacted quickly, grabbing onto a protruding rock at the edge of the cliff with his five fingers. He then quickly took off his long coat and whipped it out like a whip, wrapping it around Xuan Ji.

The two of them smashed into the steep cliff of the cliff at the same time.

Sheng Lingyuan hung on with one hand, supporting the weight of both of them.

He took a deep breath and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and elbow. The veins on the back of his hand almost tore his skin.

"I can't feel my wings," Xuan Ji said.

Not only could he not feel his wings, but he also felt an unprecedented heaviness in his body.

The fire that always surged in his veins was not responding to his control.

"I had a caveat when I said 'I hope to be a mortal couple.' I only wanted it when 'this matter is settled, and the world is at peace.' Flying halfway and becoming mortals, what the hell does that mean? I knew my sudden fear of heights was a bad omen!" Xuan Ji exclaimed.

Sheng Lingyuan squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "What are you wishing for blindly!"

This red-haired crow's mouth!

His palm was hanging in the air, with only his fingers pinching a small piece of stone, and he was almost unable to hold on.

Sheng Lingyuan had relied too much on the power of the heavenly demon in the latter half of his life, and had never seriously practiced martial arts like he did when he was a child. Now that the demonic energy suddenly disappeared, he almost had the illusion of being powerless.

Xuan Ji was even less accustomed to it: "I say, how do you humans withstand such a strong gravitational force every day and still grow so tall? And how much did you spend on this coat, is it enough to..."

Before he could finish his sentence, there was a "crack" sound, and Sheng Lingyuan's coat, which was being used as a rope, tore apart.

This guy's crow mouth was really something!

Sheng Lingyuan said, "Stop talking!"

"I want to complain about this lousy brand! What kind of quality is this? I didn't exceed the weight limit..." Xuan Ji exclaimed in frustration, as the decorative metal cufflink on the torn coat rolled down and clanged against a stone.

Xuan Ji suddenly fell silent, and both of them listened intently to the sound of metal and stone colliding.

They heard a soft "plop" as the cufflink seemed to land on something soft.

"We seem to be close to the bottom...it doesn't sound deep. But why didn't it bounce back? What's down there, and why is it soft?" Xuan Ji wondered aloud.

Suddenly, Sheng Lingyuan lifted Xuan Ji up by his coat, cutting off his sentence.

"Wait..." he protested.

The mortal-made fabric of his coat was meant for covering the body, not for survival. It couldn't withstand this kind of weight and had completely torn apart.

Xuan Ji didn't even have time to howl before Sheng Lingyuan pulled him close, protecting him in his embrace.

His hands released their grip on the rocks, and the two of them tumbled down the path, following the trajectory of the coat.

The fall nearly knocked their organs out of place, and for a moment, Sheng Lingyuan felt a numbness in his chest, struggling to catch his breath and almost losing consciousness.

But fortunately, neither of them were injured.

At the same time, Xuan Ji's phone, which had no signal, flew out of his pocket and landed over ten meters away, its screen lighting up.

The faint light illuminated the bottom of the abyss, revealing a thick layer of plant leaves beneath them, like a blanket.

The green vines were like veins, spreading out from the center... where a human body emerged.

The "person" was hanging on a familiar bronze cauldron, with all four limbs transformed into green vines that extended in all directions. Xuan Ji got up and picked up his phone.

Using the flashlight, he pushed aside the dense green vines and branches under their feet. At the other end of the green vines, he saw that they were nailed to a skeleton that was even bigger than the half-blood Vermilion Bird they had just encountered.

It was as big as half a mountain and facing southwest - towards the direction of Chiyuan. Unlike the half-blood Vermilion Bird on the ancient tomb altar, this skeleton was very agile, with a prominent breastbone, no terrifying jaws or fangs, and extremely wide wings on its back... it looked more like a pure winged race.

Xuan Ji was stunned for a moment, as if he had sensed something.

He almost trembled as he raised his hand to touch the skeleton.

"What?" asked Sheng Lingyuan.

"I think... I've dug up my own grave," Xuan Ji slowly exhaled a breath. "How exciting."

As he spoke, he raised the flashlight and illuminated the person on the bronze cauldron.

The "person" had already turned into a dried corpse, but their facial features were still somewhat recognizable.

It was actually Luo Cuicui.