Even though he knew it was just the past, just a memory, Xuan Ji's heart still hung heavy with the knowledge that the Heavenly Demon Sword had not been repaired in history.

His Clear Heart Talisman once again sent a chilling reminder, causing Xuan Ji to unconsciously clench his fists tighter.

His eyes remained fixed on the sword furnace in the illusion, and he couldn't help but follow the protagonist in his memories.

Wei Yun looked like he had aged ten years.

Eighty-one days had passed, and even his robe had become looser.

He held out a perfectly intact Heavenly Demon Sword in his hands, but his expression was that of a doctor about to declare a failed rescue.

Perhaps the Emperor, who was usually sharp-eyed and observant, was too preoccupied with his mournful expression to notice.

He rushed forward and grabbed the Heavenly Demon Sword, his hand trembling uncontrollably. Then he gently pulled out the sword from its sheath, struggling a few times before summoning the courage to touch the blade.

In an instant, the Emperor's face, which rarely showed any emotion, revealed a bittersweet surprise: "I...I can feel him!"

Xuan Ji turned around in amazement, looking towards the Sheng Lingyuan three thousand years in the future.

The old demon stood a few steps away, calmly holding a lantern, and nodded his head: "Hmm, the reforged blade did indeed resonate with me."

"So that means..."

"It's just the sword body, the sword itself is empty, and the sword spirit is not inside," the old demon objectively commented.

"I think the empathy of the sword body should be because the sword has been with me for over ten years on my back, and it has touched my blood in the sword furnace - isn't it the same awkwardness we share when we have blood ties? Empathy should be related to the sword body, not the sword spirit.

"I haven't heard of any connection between other weapon spirits and their owners. It's a simple truth, but when I was young, I was a bit stubborn and didn't give up easily."

Sheng Lingyuan tilted his head slightly and watched his past self with interest from the perspective of an outsider. The young emperor soon discovered the truth, and the color and vitality drained from his face in an instant.

He stared blankly at the iron sword, his fingers tightening around it until the blade was embedded in his flesh.

"Your Majesty!" The people around him cried out in fear, while Wei Yun's face turned pale and he collapsed to the ground.

But in the next moment, a gentle black mist lifted him up.

"He's not inside." The young emperor fell silent for a while, then looked at Wei Yun and spoke in a calm voice, "The sword spirit is not inside."

Wei Yun's legs trembled, causing his robes to rustle.

"It's okay," the Emperor said after a moment of silence. "It's okay... Ah Yun, I don't blame you. Go rest for the night and think carefully about where things went wrong. Then try again. The Vermilion Bird bone is still here, and my blood is always available for you to use. You have full control over the staff for the Sword Furnace."

As soon as he finished speaking, a eunuch next to him screamed.

It turned out that the Emperor had been gripping the sword too tightly, and the sharp blade had cut through his hand, splattering blood on his robe.

His fingers fell to the ground and turned into black mist, wrapping around Sheng Lingyuan's hand and repairing itself.

The man seemed to feel no pain and didn't even notice his severed hand.

He only panicked and hugged the iron sword that almost fell to the ground.

In that moment, his expression seemed like it was about to collapse.

However, he didn't actually say anything. His eyebrows just trembled for a moment before he forcibly composed himself.

He lowered his head and held the sword close to his chest, not letting anyone see his expression.

Then, suddenly, the veins on the back of his hand bulged and he snapped the sword in half with his own hands.

Xuan Ji's heart skipped a beat - the Emperor and the sword were connected!

Sheng Lingyuan silently broke the iron sword with his bare hands. His white collar was already soaked with cold sweat.

Then, the Emperor carefully gathered all the remaining pieces and gently placed them in front of Wei Yun. He patted the shoulder of the last Tian'er and his eyes were crazily calm: "Try again."

Blood stains were visible on his lips, where he had bitten his tongue.

"Try again!"

"Start over."

"If I say it's not a defeat, then it's not. We'll seal the sword furnace again tomorrow."

"Ah Yun, please try again..."

In the illusionary realm, the Emperor of Humanity repeatedly extracted his blood, only to be disappointed time and time again. Gradually, he became numb and lost hope, but his obsession prevented him from giving up.

Every eighty-one days, he would personally break the newly-formed iron sword, reliving the pain of the Sword Spirit being shattered into pieces years ago, and then force Wei Yun to enter the furnace again.

Outside the illusionary realm, Xuan Ji stood there in a daze, petrified and motionless.

The old demon thought he was scared by the crazy things he did when he was young. He looked up at the ever-changing sky and estimated that the illusionary realm had reached its limit.

He patted Xuan Ji and said, "We're getting ready to leave. You're addicted to my embarrassing joke of a past, aren't you?"

Xuan Ji slowly turned his head, and the emblem of his clan  appeared out of nowhere on his forehead. The fiery emblem accentuated his features with a hint of eerie and mournful aura.

He looked at him with an indescribable gaze, as if his eyes had frozen for thousands of years, penetrating through life and death with a single glance.

His eyes made Sheng Lingyuan feel uneasy.

"Don't take it to heart," Sheng Lingyuan said. "It's just a thing of the past."

As soon as he finished speaking, the blood-red sunset in the sky twisted and distorted, and the illusion began to tremble.

The Shadow person who tried to trap this big demon in the illusion was finally unable to hold on and was defeated by this three thousand years old wall of stone.

"You overestimated your abilities," Sheng Lingyuan sneered. "The illusion is collapsing. Little demon, let's go."

Xuan Ji remained motionless.

Suddenly, Sheng Lingyuan felt that something was off.

He saw Xuan Ji staring at him and saying, "I have a name and a surname, I'm not called 'little demon'."

Many years ago, when the Heavenly Demon Sword Spirit was unsheathed for the first time and saw its blade and inscription, it was greatly disappointed.

"I don't want to be called 'Tong', it sounds like 'Xiao Hong'! Who gave me this lousy inscription? It's not imposing at all! You can't call me that!"

That year, the young emperor carried himself with a dignified and restrained manner, but his eyes were always filled with a spring-like smile...not the other way around.

He stroked the blade and teased his beloved sword, whose mind was connected to him, "You were originally just a red-haired chicken, how much more imposing can you be? If you don't want a grand name, that's fine, then I'll just keep calling you by your nickname 'Little Chicken'."

"Who's a red-haired chicken! Even if I were a chicken, I'd be a colorful pheasant! Bleh...you confused me, who are you calling a chicken?!"

He kept pestering and teasing, forcing His Majesty to change his name.

His antics made His Majesty dizzy, and he finally relented, saying, "Your name was carved into your sword body at birth, how can we change it? Why don't we just give you the nickname 'Ji,' like the Xuan Ji star in the sky? Would that be dignified enough?"

You once said that I am like the Xuan Ji star in the sky.

"You..."

Sheng Lingyuan saw flames suddenly erupt from Xuan Ji's hand, burning the symbol drawn with lamp oil.

He was shocked and didn't have time to think, so he reached out to grab Xuan Ji's collar, but his hand went straight through Xuan Ji's chest as if they were in different dimensions.

Sheng Lingyuan grabbed nothing but air!

In the next moment, the illusion collapsed, and the void shattered, leaving Sheng Lingyuan standing on nothingness.

The black mist swept away the fake demon realm, and Sheng Lingyuan fell onto the cold and cracked ground of Jiangzhou, with not even a fly around...

Xuan Ji disappeared!

The shadowy figure burst into laughter, the sound echoing with lightning and thunder, reverberating between heaven and earth.

Within the dry veins of Jiangzhou, the black mist quickly spread and filled the ground, causing all the energy monitors that had been covering up the peace to explode simultaneously. Thunderclouds gathered overhead, and the spreading miasma enveloped the villages and then surrounded the city.

The birds were startled, and the domestic animals had nowhere to hide. They first let out miserable cries, then quickly quieted down, like the wild animals trapped in puppetry, standing still in place.

And then it was the people... The mist crept into the ears of a lone farmer's wife toiling away, causing her to burst into tears without warning. An elderly man, followed by the mist, rushed towards the bridge with a diagnosis from the hospital in hand.

The mist spread over the city, causing a chain of car accidents at the intersection and traffic to come to a standstill. The impatient honking of car horns blended together to form an anxious chorus.

Some people shouted in the streets, others cursed on the phone, and some tossed and turned in a corner...

Beneath the ten thousand joys and sorrows of the world, all beings suffer.

Sheng Lingyuan released his divine consciousness and instantly felt as if he had fallen into a boiling pot of porridge, filled with the emotions of millions of people.

Gu Yuexi was the first to discover the mist.

At the time, they lost contact with Xuan Ji suddenly and their situation was unclear. The helicopter was forced to land on the border of Jiangzhou, but luckily the Wind Gods was highly maneuverable and the first batch of reinforcements had already arrived and quickly joined them.

With her X-ray vision, Gu Yuexi took the energy detector to investigate the situation.

The mist came fast and was extremely sinister. When Gu Yuexi saw it with her X-ray vision, it had already wrapped around the wheels of the car.

Gu Yuexi immediately warned her comrades who were driving, and they accelerated.

However, the mist, which was as light as smoke, was like a festering sore attached to bones. It followed the human breath and entangled itself onto the car, causing the energy detector inside the car to sound like a fire alarm.

"We have encountered an unknown energy attack, with unknown energy level and range. We are currently testing our protective gear," Gu Yuexi reported calmly through the walkie-talkie, before ordering her Wind God team members, "Test them one by one, don't panic."

The Wind Gods in the car quickly threw down various protective gear.

"The plant toxin protection net is ineffective..."

"No, this is not a common plant-based poison. Test it with ice-water, thunder-fire, and metal..."

"Team Leader Gu, what is this thing? It doesn't react to high-defense equipment from any type."

A sudden idea flashed through Gu Yuexi's mind: "Try the spiritual-types."

"How is it possible to have such a large-scale spiritual attack?"

In her mind, Gu Yuexi saw the shadow of Sheng Lingyuan, but she didn't say anything. She quickly gestured to her team members and they deftly installed spiritual protection devices on the corners of the car to counteract the echoing sound waves.

The black mist that had already wrapped around the car trembled violently, as if it wanted to disperse.

"We have a reaction," said one of the Wind God team members. "It's really spiritual in nature..."

But Gu Yuexi saw the numbers on the energy detector at a glance and warned, "Be careful!"

Before she could finish speaking, the previously dispersed black mist came back like an enraged snake, wildly attacking.

Several spiritual protections simultaneously burst open, and the black mist sprayed out directly from their protective devices.

Wang Ze was closely monitoring the news coming from Gu Yuexi and the others. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that their spiritual protection gear was responding.

During their field work, many people carried small spiritual protection equipment to avoid unnecessary interference.

Even if they didn't need it for work, it could help block some of the already existing spiritual pollution from advertisements.

But before he could finish exhaling, he heard chaos on the other end of the intercom.

Wang Ze pushed aside the liaison officer and urgently shouted, "Yuexi! Gu Yuexi? What's going on? Respond! Hello?"

The response he received was a sharp brake sound and an unknown loud noise, followed by unstable signals.

"Gu Yuexi!"

"Captain Wang, there is unknown interference within the Jiangzhou area."

"Click... crackle..." Gu Yuexi's voice came through the intercom, sounding distant and weak, as if it was being interfered with. "Take off the spiritual protective gear... crackle... click! Whoosh--"

"Their signal disappeared!"

"What's going on?" Xiao Zheng, who was in the middle of deploying personnel, turned around with his phone in hand. "My phone suddenly lost signal."

At that moment, the communication device, which had been filled with static due to signal issues, suddenly fell silent.

"Hush... wait a minute, it's reconnected. Is this Team Leader Gu?"

A light laughter came through the communication device.

It was so eerie that it gave Wang Ze goosebumps.

He asked in a deep voice, "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" A distant voice came through the communication device. "I am you... Hello everyone, my name is Wang Ze. I come from Huanghua County in Qingshan Province. I just transferred here today..."

The laughter exploded through his earphones, and Wang Ze's mind buzzed.

His remaining sanity only had time to hastily squeeze out a bit of moisture from the dry air of Jiangzhou, forming a thin film that he stuffed into the bewildered face of Zhang Zhao next to him.

All the mental protective gear simultaneously shattered, and the black plague-like energy flowed around, devouring everyone.

As Wang Ze looked up, he saw a mouth with foam at the corners, incessantly saying, "Your mother married your Uncle Wang, and worked until her spine became like a sieve. Who was it for? Wasn't it all for you to get a permanent residence in Yong'an, to go to school, and to have a bright future? Why are you so foolish?"

Her features were indistinct, as her eyes, ears, nose, and throat were all unimportant.

The only crucial organ on her entire body was her mouth, which would occasionally spew forth a torrent of words that would echo in one's mind for three days.

It was as if she wanted to turn her saliva into a sharp blade and use it to carve her son, a piece of rotten wood, into a pillar.

That was his biological mother whom he hadn't seen in years.

Everyone said that the boss of Wind God had a nail under his foot. Despite being a local, he was always eager to go on business trips, and he were forced to stay at headquarters for a few days, it would be as if he were being imprisoned.

He even considered giving up his coveted permanent residency in Yong'an, something that countless people had sought but failed to obtain, and transferring his organizational ties to another city.

However, he was unsuccessful due to not meeting the company's regulations.

He hated this so-called "hometown" of his.

Wang Ze's ability to control water was likely inherited from his father, who was a performer in a local circus. His main act was performing magic tricks, but his claim to fame was surviving half an hour submerged in a sealed water tank.

Wang Ze deduced that his father was probably not a very skilled water manipulator.

Unfortunately, his father's main act didn't bring in much money, as the public didn't appreciate his performances.

After all, watching tropical fish fight was more exciting than watching someone not drown. So, he had to resort to his side hustle of promoting feudal superstitions and scamming people.

Wang Ze was a byproduct of his father's scams.

Wang Ze's mother devoted herself to a "master", becoming pregnant before marriage. The local police shut down the "master" and he fled.

As a single mother, she struggled to make ends meet and had to bring her son with her to the north to seek a living.

She endured a lot of hardships and eventually married a man 28 years her senior, in order to secure a permanent residence permit and school enrollment for Wang Ze.

Since then, Wang Ze has been indebted to her. His "good life" was all thanks to his mother's sacrifice, so he must show gratitude by praying to her three times a day, bowing in the morning and evening, and even breathing carefully to avoid any mistakes.

But later on, he still "failed" and went astray.

His mother believed that his water-based abilities were a "genetic disease" and decided to send him to a disciplinary school that was rumored to use electric shocks on students.

When she secretly contacted the school, Wang Ze ran away - after all, people with water-based abilities have low electrical resistance and are more afraid of electricity.

He mingled with small gangsters from all over, became the leader of a roving theft gang, and became a regular at the police station... until one day, while fleeing after stealing something, he got into a car accident.

His powerful ability was caught on the energy monitoring system at the station, and he was taken in by Captain Yan, who would teach him how to behave.

"Captain Wang, where are you from?"

"Old Wang, you sound like a local. Where's your hometown?"

"Do you have a travel addiction? It's the Lunar New Year and you're not even going home to visit?"

Wang Ze felt like he had turned into a shark that had been infected by the black plague.

If he stopped swimming, he would sink into the depths of the ocean and suffocate. So he kept swimming, tirelessly and frantically swimming...

When the unexpected happened, Xiao Zheng's first reaction was to protect Yan Qiushan, who was still unconscious. But when he turned around, he was surprised to see Yan Qiushan sitting up as if nothing had happened.

The wind and fatigue on his face were gone, as if he had never lost his way or wandered around to investigate the True Nature Sect.

He was holding a phone and seemed to be angry with someone, with a youthful and rebellious look on his face. If he was unhappy, it was written all over his face.

"I understand what the leader means. It means that our Wind God is a ragtag army of mud legs, not worthy of keeping the elites." Yan Qiushan said calmly on the phone, "How can we compare to 'Thunder'? They are either receiving foreign guests or carrying out major security tasks all day long.

"Don't worry, I will do a good job with Xiao Zheng. The young man's mind may not be able to turn around for a while. Why would he abandon a bright future and choose to stay with us?"

A hoarse male voice came through the phone, but Xiao Zheng had sharp ears and immediately recognized it as the voice of former bureau chief Xiang Zhang.

"What's going on? The Wind Gods are a pillar of our bureau, that's beyond doubt. We all see the hard work and sacrifices you guys make, even if you travel all over the country and never see anyone. But...some comrades' families are not willing, and that's understandable, right?"

"Family?" Yan Qiushan looked puzzled. "He's a single young man, where would he have a family?"

The old bureau chief replied, "Parents and elders aren't considered family? You're so naive!"

Yan Qiushan's expression became even more bewildered.

At that moment, a colleague wearing a Wind God uniform walked over and covered the microphone, whispering to him, "Little Xiao's father is the chairman of the Huihuang Group. He just donated a laboratory to our Research Institute... All the luxury hotels under Huihuang will provide travel services for our bureau's staff in the future, symbolically charging two yuan, basically for free. I heard it was just signed."

Xiao Zheng felt his blood boil and couldn't take it anymore.

He turned around and walked away.

By the way... that year, he was doing really well at Wind God, but suddenly received a transfer order from Thunder. He didn't want to leave Wind God and was planning to talk to Captain Yan privately, but he accidentally overheard the phone call.

He was always a perfectionist, a natural elite since childhood. He couldn't sleep if he didn't get first place in school.

Later, he awakened his special abilities and became a rare Thunder-Fire user. He despised those who relied on connections to get ahead and envied those who were talented but didn't work hard.

They say he's a genius, the youngest leader of a special forces team in history, a true elite. He had been deceiving himself all along, thinking that he was worthy of all his past achievements...

Even though he joined Thunder for his "money-making ability" and had nothing to do with them otherwise, he believed that his glorious record of zero casualties over the years could cover up this ignoble beginning.

But were those zero-casualty records really true?

The faces of the former chief, old boss, and Director Song from the security department all flashed before him.

"This is our Thunder's Team Leader Xiao, a young talent who has handled many major cases, with zero casualties for so many years. The fifteen-people red line has nothing to do with him,"

"Xiao Zheng, you are a young person who is a key talent for our bureau. You must live up to expectations."

"You have an unlimited future ahead of you."

An unlimited future...

An unlimited future...

Gu Yuexi couldn't see anything. It was as if she had returned to the time when she was kept as a rare and exotic animal with her eyes covered.

Suddenly, someone slapped her face. She instinctively covered her head and face with her hands, curled up, and rested her elbows on her hips, guarding against the next beating.

The person kicked her a few times, but seeing that she remained silent like a dead person, they felt bored. They spat a mouthful of thick phlegm on her hair and left.

Nearby, someone said, "Don't touch her - haven't you heard the story of the Southern Crowned Monkey?"

"What monkey?"

"Legend has it that before the great chaos in the Nine Provinces, humans and non-human races were not allowed to intermarry. Any mixed-blood offspring would be caught and imprisoned in the 'Southern Return Tower' for punishment, known as the 'Southern Crowned Monkey.'

"The tower was devoid of light, spirit, and food. Once inside, these Southern Crowned Monkeys could only grope around and kill each other, slowly losing their eyesight and developing a kind of 'X-ray vision' that could not see physical objects but could see through people's hearts, the veins of the earth, mountains, rivers, and even the rise and fall of fortune.

"Think about it, isn't this just like X-ray vision? During the great chaos, these ferocious Southern Crowned Monkeys were released. It is said that people with X-ray vision often have incomplete senses or suffer from physical or psychological disabilities throughout their lives. This little girl is dry and unremarkable, and you should be careful not to get too close to her and be infected with her unworthiness."

"The X-ray vision itself is already evil in nature, tsk..."

In the midst of a jumble of noises, Gu Yuexi slowly rubbed her body and felt a thin and weak bone. She was in a daze when suddenly she saw a faint light in the distance.

Instinctively, she followed the light, vaguely remembering a time long ago when she struggled alone in a seemingly endless mental prison.

When was that again?

Just then, a low and gentle voice sounded from far away: "Clear the three souls, return the seven spirits, wake up!"

Gu Yuexi jolted - that was when her seniors at the Bureau rescued her from the mental prison!

She had been working as a field agent for the Bureau for ten years and was no longer the weak and helpless little girl they kept in a cage.

Gu Yuexi suddenly opened her eyes, and a bright white light dispersed the mist around her body. The mist fell like ashes, and she saw Sheng Lingyuan.

Sheng Lingyuan was rarely in a disheveled state, with a strand of long hair falling from his temple and flowing on his shoulder, already damp with cold sweat.

"Finally, someone woke up," Sheng Lingyuan couldn't help but criticize the younger generation of the "Qingping Division," except for Gu Yuexi, who was the only one with a decent level of intelligence.

Gu Yuexi was startled, "Senior, what's going on?"

"In Jiangzhou, the land is now filled with the Heart Demon Poison of the Shadow person. Soon, all living beings on this land will become their nourishment. We must quickly find their true form...hiss..." Sheng Lingyuan pinched his temple, the blood vessels inside pulsing violently as if they were about to burst at any moment.

His migraines always seemed to strike at the worst times, and now they were tormenting him without mercy.

Gu Yuexi quickly supported him, asking, "Are you injured? What about Director Xuan?"

Who knows!

Sheng Lingyuan was rarely so passive.

He still couldn't understand how Xuan Ji had fallen into the Heavenly Demon Illusion Realm - only those who couldn't distinguish between illusion and reality, and those who merged with their "selves" in the illusion, would fall into it.

But that illusion was clearly his memory, so what did that little demon have to do with it?

The emperor paced back and forth, pondering for several rounds, but still couldn't figure out which character Xuan Ji had blended into.

Could it be that when he was refining the Heavenly Demon Sword years ago, there was an invisible bird person watching beside him?