Suddenly, a clear whistle echoed through the Echo Sound waves.

From the rolling smoke of Chiyuan, butterflies appeared like illusions, each carrying a spark of fire as they flew out. Just as the flaming 'Jiu Xun' was about to fall into the flames of Chiyuan, the butterflies lifted them up.

The forces of the remaining two heavenly demons, and all the other noises in the Echo Sound waves, were led by the butterflies and flew towards the direction of Biquan Mountain, following the ancient earth veins.

Almost every descendant of the witch clan was in front of the Echo Sound at each earth vein they passed.

It was a coincidence that the witch clan had the closest bloodline to the human clan. Although their descendants were also "special abilities people," they had lost the inheritance of spells and often did not show any special abilities.

Most of them went into logistics departments such as the aftermath department. The logistics team felt something and looked around, but there was nothing except a breeze.

Only Ping Qianru felt someone touch her hair. She turned around, confused, and saw a thin figure of a young boy flash by and disappear.

The energy that could ignite the Chiyuan surged towards the Biquan Mountains, leveling half of the mountain range to the ground.

The ancient tomb was uncovered, and the dawn light leaked in.

The heavy feeling that had been weighing on Xuan Ji suddenly disappeared - the wings that had disappeared suddenly spread out, and his power returned!

But before he could fly up, the rolling demonic energy had already arrived above him. It flowed down the walls, melting rocks into magma as it went, burning everything in its path.

Suddenly, Sheng Lingyuan pulled him into the Heaven and Earth Cauldron, and the huge bronze cauldron flipped over and trapped them both at the bottom.

A tsunami-like roar echoed through the cauldron, deafening Xuan Ji for a moment.

But even in the magma that could melt sand and rocks, the Heaven and Earth Cauldron remained unmoved, like an ancient disaster from the legends.

When the Chiyuan fire fell and all the creatures fled, only a few Vermilion Bird eggs were overturned into the cauldron, escaping the calamity and remaining with Chiyuan.

On Chiyuan, the illusion of the demon king dissipated like smoke.

"Almost there," Gong Chenggong's shadow flickered and disappeared in the burning forest.

He used a very classical and ladylike gesture to touch his temple, but found nothing - Gong Chenggong's hair was shaved to less than half an inch, and he didn't have any sideburns.

His face darkened as he looked down at his old man's body with disdain, then squinted and looked towards the direction of Biquan Mountain.

"Returning soon..."

The communication signal in Biquan Mountain City was interrupted for a night, and nearby residents received a level one warning of volcanic eruption and began to evacuate.

A little girl held in the arms of an adult caught sight of something and curiously looked up, pointing to the sky and saying, "There's a shooting star."

However, the adults were all in a hurry and had no time to look up.

"What shooting star? It's just an ominous star," muttered the police officer coordinating the crowd as he picked up the girl and stuffed her into the car.

Watching the car drive away, he took off his hat and fanned himself vigorously, sweat pouring down his back as he went to attend to the next citizen.

The little girl leaned against the car window, staring at a small, inconspicuous fireball in the sky.

Half of Luo Cuicui flew over from Chiyuan at high speed, and the violent friction against the air caused it to burn into a lump of charcoal, which then crashed into a pile of magma.

The Heaven and Earth Cauldron was turned upside down, and the space inside was about the size of a typical restaurant booth, but a little shallower - about one and a half meters. An adult couldn't stand up straight inside and would have to crouch and bow their head.

Xuan Ji hugged Sheng Lingyuan tightly and spread his wings to cover the entire space, positioning himself as a heat shield between Sheng Lingyuan and the bronze cauldron.

However, he soon realized that the cauldron was not hot at all.

Despite the rushing magma and the raging fire outside, the inner wall of the Heaven and Earth Cauldron remained icy cold. If Xuan Ji wasn't half-fire himself, and could sense the fire outside, he would have doubted whether it was just a light rain outside.

Nevertheless, Xuan Ji remained silent and took the opportunity to hold Sheng Lingyuan tighter, burying himself in his messy, blood-stained hair.

Sheng Lingyuan could only convey a sentence through their connection, "Cough...I'm still here."

Xuan Ji: "..."

He had forgotten about their connection, there was really no privacy.

However, Sheng Lingyuan did not push his hand away.

The emperor looked exhausted, sitting in an unusual position against his wings propped against the cauldron. He stretched out his legs and pressed on his wound to stop the bleeding.

By the light on his wings, Xuan Ji could see that his face was dry and pale, as if though the tears had almost burned him were just an illusion.

In the cramped space, the "rumbling" outside the cauldron was deafening at first, but after a while, everything became quiet - the bronze cauldron must have been completely buried under the magma.

"We don't know how long we'll have to stay in this pot," Xuan Ji said. "Does Aluojin really want to help, or does he just want to bury you?"

As he spoke, he pulled out a pack of wet wipes from his pocket - surprisingly, it hadn't fallen out - and then carefully wiped away the bloodstains from Sheng Lingyuan's hair, bit by bit.

Sheng Lingyuan let him play around, smiled for a moment, and then his smile quickly faded.

At the critical moment, Aluojin brought the three heavenly demon powers and led them to Biquan Mountain, handing them over to Sheng Lingyuan for handling, instead of letting them directly ignite Chiyuan. He must have known that many of his fellow clansmen lived ordinary and peaceful lives in the peaceful world.

On one side was the past, on the other side was the future, what the young clan leader had dreamed of, was gradually realized three thousand years later, even though his name was not among them...

So he finally let go of his obsession with the past and no longer fantasized about using Chiyuan to burn Dongchuan to the ground.

But heavenly demons arise from obsession, and when the obsession dissipates, they also become like the forgotten dreams of Dongchuan... turning into a gentle breeze.

Suddenly, Sheng Lingyuan's face turned cold - Xuan Ji pressed a wet tissue to his face.

Sheng Lingyuan held onto his wrist and asked, "Hmm?"

Xuan Ji cleared his throat, "Feeling upset? Do you want to lean on my shoulder?"

Sheng Lingyuan turned his head away from the overpowering scent of the wet towel, "Don't be silly."

"Look at how smooth and broad it is, evenly fleshed out. Whatever you need, I've got it," Xuan Ji leaned in, promoting his shoulder, "Lean on it, Brother Lingyuan, don't waste this opportunity."

The space inside the bronze cauldron was very small, and Xuan Ji's large body was pressed up against Sheng Lingyuan's.

It was a hot and stuffy mess.

Sheng Lingyuan had no choice but to reach out and hold him.

Only then did his bleeding stop, and his breath became icy cold. His fingers were still numb, almost curled up from being scalded by the lively and jumping bird-man.

Suddenly, Sheng Lingyuan said absentmindedly, "I remember after we arrived in Dongchuan, you suddenly stopped calling me Brother. Why?"

Xuan Ji was slightly stunned.

Because... because he was powerless.

They were being chased by a powerful demon, with no way out.

Lingyuan was at his wits' end, but still managed to comfort him and chat with him as if nothing was wrong. When he collapsed into the arms of the witch clan chief who had rushed to their aid, he had lost all consciousness and his senses had faded away.

In that moment, Xuan Ji realized that he didn't want to hear Lingyuan force himself to say "it's okay" anymore.

Xuan Ji had always known that titles were delicate things.

Whenever he called Lingyuan "big brother," Lingyuan would agree to anything he asked. Only when they called each other by name would Lingyuan occasionally reveal his temper - usually because they were fighting.

But when Xuan Ji was young, he didn't realize the reason behind it. He only remembered the time when Lingyuan was struggling to breathe, but still stopped to respond to every call from him.

However, the responses became lighter and lighter, giving him a terrible feeling: as if every call of 'Brother' was draining his spirit, just like every 'Your Highness' would force him to straighten his back.

From that day on, he couldn't wait to grow up and never call Lingyuan 'Brother' again.

Their minds were connected with each other at this moment.

Xuan Ji didn't want to show the Emperor these sad things, so as soon as the idea flashed through his mind, he quickly came up with some random nonsense and said, "Because you're so pretty! You were like a little beauty back then. As a wise person who plans ten steps ahead, of course I had to lay the groundwork for my future. If I called you 'Brother' every day, I would be shortchanging myself. How would I ever win you over in the future?"

Sheng Lingyuan: "..."

He was dizzy from Xuan Ji's rich variety of nonsense in his head: "What does '50 things to do with your lover in a lifetime' mean?"

Xuan Ji quickly said, "Nothing."

He didn't pick the right 'filler material'. He was about to move away when Sheng Lingyuan held him back, and then his phone slipped into Sheng Lingyuan's hand with a light touch on his chest pocket.

Xuan Ji said, "You can't use it, my phone has a password..."