"Your Highness," Sheng Lingyuan sneered, "you were almost flawless in your plan. How exactly were you tricked by Jiu Xun back then?"

Wan Fei let out a sigh and said, "Jiu Xun was my dog. I was so arrogant back then that I didn't even think to watch out for the doghouse in my own backyard. Alas...Lingyuan, it seems you haven't learned from my lesson. As soon as you woke up and saw that the bloodlines of all the clans were thin and the younger generations were not capable, you also thought you were invincible and became complacent, didn't you?"

"Your Highness, you are right to admonish me." Sheng Lingyuan replied almost inaudibly.

The bronze cauldron shook more and more violently, giving people the feeling that it could explode at any moment. Cracks even appeared at the corners, and the light layer of frost on the inner wall of the bronze cauldron quickly turned into thin ice, sealing the cracks.

He and the statue seemed to have started a battle of powers without anyone noticing.

The statue spoke gently, "Don't resist anymore, my child. I don't know who you owed in your past life, but you came at the wrong time. The only thing I regret, Lingyuan, is giving birth to you. If you weren't born, you wouldn't have to suffer so much. For three thousand years, we've been separated because of the sealing of Chiyuan.

"Now that we have the chance to reunite, let me make it up to you. Give up that chaotic heavenly demon body and return to me, your mother. I'll pamper you as you grow up and we'll be reborn together in the future."

Sheng Lingyuan chuckled softly, but the second half of his sentence was cut off by a cough.

He leaned on Xuan Ji and he spread her wings to protect him, pressing against his chest to restore his strength that had been lost for so long.

Sheng Lingyuan grabbed his wrist, coughing and struggling to speak, "Don't bother...sigh, it's no use. She's shameless. I can't argue with her. Why don't you help me speak up?"

Xuan Ji's eyes turned red with heartache, "What's the point of me speaking up? I just realized that my face is as thin as a cicada's wings. Come on, stop choking yourself. Isn't it uncomfortable?"

With a "crack," the bronze cauldron, along with the thin ice on top emitting black air, shattered.

The scorching hot air rushed in, and the thin ice on the inner wall of the bronze cauldron didn't have time to melt, directly sublimating into steam.

Sheng Lingyuan squinted and glanced at the cracked thin ice, but he wasn't panicked.

Even if the sky were to collapse, he would remain calm and manage his expression until the end.

When the Heavenly Demon Sword broke, it exhausted all of his lifetime's worth of self-control.

"Your Highness, my biggest lesson over the years is not to calculate too much. No one can be completely accurate, and there are always more unexpected events than planned ones. It's better to go with the flow," he said softly.

"I must say, you are almost flawless in your strategies, but there is still a small gap... Did you not expect that I would not come alone, and that I would bring along the legitimate descendant of the Vermilion Bird?"

Wan Fei smiled and replied, "Yes, I thought you cherished your Tong so much that you wouldn't let him take any risks. I never expected you to be so carefree about it."

Xuan Ji interrupted, "Enough..."

Sheng Lingyuan gently placed a finger on Xuan Ji's lips and spoke through their connection, "Private conversations about living and dying together should be kept quiet. Your clan's disease of having to brag about every little thing they have, can you fix it?"

Xuan Ji was so stunned that he couldn't speak, but finally managed to say, "I'll report you for racial discrimination."

Sheng Lingyuan looked at him and suddenly laughed.

The stunned agents of the various sub-bureaus also snapped out of their daze.

The mithril cannon was fired out as if it were free, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier around the statue, causing the cannonfire to rebound.

"Secondly," Sheng Lingyuan said, "you didn't expect that Aluojin had already been devoured by the demon king's Shadow person, yet he still managed to turn the tables... Otherwise, when you shot at the demon king's Shadow person, the Chiyuan should have been re-ignited."

Wan Fei sneered, "What does it matter? The seal of the thirty-six Vermilion Bird bones has been broken. It won't take long for the Chiyuan to reignite. We've waited for three thousand years, can't we wait a few more days? With you, the 'Living Chiyuan,' I don't necessarily have to be as stubborn as Meng Xia and rely on the power of the true Chiyuan..."

Her words were interrupted by an external force.

In the eyes of the various earth veins, the statues remained motionless amidst the countless explosions of mithril.

At that moment, a unique rocket suddenly pierced through the outer barrier of the statue and hit one of the formations, although it didn't hit the statue directly.

The external personnel were stunned for a moment. They saw a military helicopter suddenly appear, standing out among the helicopters of the various bureaus.

On the helicopter, Wang Ze whistled while carrying a rocket launcher.

"This was borrowed from Chief Huang and the army. Cool, right? We just finished handing over the criminals and now we get to take it out from the Yong'an Military Region. Brothers, we may not be able to beat them in abilities, but we can fight them in other ways! Let these old relics addicted to sacrifice formations see the modern military technology!"

Yan Qiushan grabbed him by the back of his neck. "Stop showing off. You can't even aim properly. Let the professionals handle it."

The Heaven and Earth Cauldron under the Biquan Mountain was almost at its limit.

Sheng Lingyuan said almost inaudibly, "Yes, since you wanted to use me, the living Chiyuan, to complete your sacrifice ritual from the beginning, why did you go through so much trouble to arrange a fake Demon King to target the real Chiyuan?"

As rockets fell onto each formation, one statue after another was destroyed.

It seemed as if Wan Fei was getting impatient, and the booming sound from the bronze cauldron grew even more intense.

If it wasn't to re-ignite the Chiyuan... then, eliminating the wrong answers, there was only one purpose left - she was here to eliminate the Fire-keeper.

But if she only wanted to get rid of him completely, she could have waited until she was fully resurrected before turning to deal with Xuan Ji.

Xuan Ji, a great demon of three thousand years, could almost handle all the monsters and demons in the world.

To kill him, the Chiyuan Fire must reignite and the Vermilion Bird's bones must shatter.

Otherwise, even if the Heavenly Emperor returned, besides seduction... it was really uncertain if he could do anything to him.

But Wan Fei, who had been resurrected as the "New God" of Chiyuan, was different.

The Fire-keeper was just a sword spirit attached to the Vermilion Bird bone. Xuan Ji didn't have the ability to control Chiyuan, but instead was passively attached to it.

If she could control Chiyuan, she could hold the Vermilion Bird bone in her hand and smash it whenever she wanted.

When it comes to picking targets, it's always best to go for the soft ones first, rather than the hard bones.

Furthermore, until Wan Fei was fully resurrected, her source of life was those statues.

Because they were second-hand materials, their numbers were limited, making them her weakness. Once she was exposed to the public, she had to complete her "resurrection" as soon as possible, or else before she resurrected fully, the statues would be destroyed, deafeating all her plans.

As long as she was thinking normally, the whole process should be as low-key as possible.

Her entire plan seemed flawed from the beginning - after all, if she just needed to lure Sheng Lingyuan to Biquan Mountain and somehow turn him into fuel, it would have been much easier.

Although difficult, it would have caused much less chaos and avoided the risk from so publicly igniting the Chiyuan.

It's a common sense among masterminds that the more complex a plan is, the higher the chance of it going wrong.

So why did she choose the harder route?

There's only one explanation - she had no choice.

The order of events was irreversible, and before she revealed herself, she had a reason to eliminate Xuan Ji, the Fire-keeper.

Her calculations were too precise, with no room for error, and as expected, something unexpected happened.

Aluojin was as good as dead, destined to become a mere pawn in the game, but Chiyuan remained unfazed.

Xuan Ji not only survived but also bounced back with vigor.

Even Sheng Lingyuan, the master of heartlessness, had a change of heart.

Despite knowing the danger, he still kept Xuan Ji by his side and they were both trapped under the Biquan Mountain by the Heaven and Earth Cauldron.

When Wan Fei realized that Chiyuan had not successfully re-ignited, she immediately took hasty action and exposed all her "weaknesses" - those statues - to the bureau.

She appeared calm and collected, but in reality, she was racing against time. She had to revive herself on the remains of the Vermilion Bird Celestial Corpse before the others could react and before the bureau could destroy all her statues.

So, who was she racing against?

Sheng Lingyuan's scar, shaped like a teardrop, protruded from the corner of his eye, and he silently laughed - she was afraid that Xuan Ji would come into contact with the Vermilion Bird Celestial Corpse.