Xuan Ji didn't know if he was hallucinating from being roasted by the magma of Chiyuan.

In a daze, he heard a melody he had heard in his childhood in the Northern Plains.

Why did he suddenly remember that tune?

Xuan Ji couldn't say for sure, but perhaps it was because the melody was filled with the wishes of refugees returning home.

But what did the wishes of mortals, whose lives were as fleeting as floating duckweed, matter in the grand scheme of things?

He couldn't stir up the ashes floating on Chiyuan, nor could he melt the ice and snow of the extreme north.

In the end, he could only wander aimlessly, tying his fate to the elusive prophecies and yearning for a savior to extinguish the flames.

Xuan Ji suddenly realized that he had been spoiled.

After hearing so much about the "last descendant of the Vermilion Bird" and the "unique Heavenly Demon Sword," he began to feel that he was extraordinary too.

He thought he could control and change things.

Until just now, when he watched Sheng Lingyuan jump off the cliff, he was still fantasizing about extinguishing the fires of Chiyuan and bringing peace to the world, hoping to see his soulmate again.

He never expected to reunite in such an unexpected way.

He tried countless times to embrace the person, but his hands passed through the body riddled with wounds.

It wasn't until a piece of metal debris fell out of the charred body, along with the Vermilion Bird bone, that he was guided back to the present world.

Finally, he caught the body he had been longing for with both hands... only for the person to sacrifice themselves for him once again, turning into ashes.

He carefully collected the bloodline that Sheng Lingyuan had abandoned, and nurtured the man's bones.

After the Chiyuan was completely extinguished, he went to the mortal world, taking the same path they had traveled while fleeing and reclaiming lost territory.

Finally, he personally experienced the warmth and coldness of the mortal world that he had always longed for, instead of relying on someone else's senses.

There was no more fighting, the population gradually increased, and Lingyuan himself had taken on the role of the villain, laying a good foundation for future generations.

The successor was said to be the son of the Prince Ning, and Xuan Ji had visited the Tomb Palace once... Unfortunately, that boy didn't look much like a member of the Shen family.

His features were quite delicate, with a hint of the Dongchuan witch people.

After the Chiyuan was sealed, the humanoid races became no different from ordinary humans and settled down to live peaceful lives.

The descendants of the Mountain people became skilled craftsmen, while the witch people and the Central Plains humans, who were close to plants, produced many famous doctors who were skilled in herbal medicine. The Shadow people gradually disappeared because all their descendants belonged to other races. The demon race also became low-key and settled down, either hiding or joining the Qingping Division.

Smoke rose from the villages, and chickens and dogs roamed leisurely. Farmers returned home from the fields to eat. The official road was built, and on both sides were endless fields with a constant stream of travelers passing by.

The witch people's tomb in Dongchuan was sealed by Lingyuan.

Xuan Ji stood at the foot of the mountain, reminiscing about the plants and trees that once grew here... but the memories were gradually becoming fuzzy.

The road was the same old road, but where was his soulmate?

At that moment, he realized his mistake.

The false intimacy he had stolen on the snowy New Year's Eve was not enough to comfort him through his long, long life.

The song of homesickness by the Northern Plains echoed in his ears, hanging in the air and gently harmonizing. He moved like the wind, free to go anywhere but with nowhere to return.

Xuan Ji wandered aimlessly, almost sympathizing with the Shadow people he had once despised. He remembered how Dan Li had urged him to guard Chiyuan, so he sneaked into the Du Ling Palace to search for Dan Li's confiscated belongings that had been sent to the imperial palace after his execution.

The imperial tutor had no strategy left, so Xuan Ji had to arrange everything himself. As expected, he found a book called "Thousand Demon Bestiary" and a method for refining the Nirvana Stone.

The Nirvana Stone is a secret technique that seals one's consciousness. It can close off the sea of consciousness and seal past memories into the stone.

He turned it into a tombstone and erected it on the Chiyuan altar, pretending that he had been reincarnated and started anew. Those who are sealed by the Nirvana Stone will carry a piece of pigeon blood red stone with them, which is the external manifestation of the seal.

To prevent forgetting important things, he personally transcribed the "Thousand Demon Bestiary" and sealed it into his left eye.

As long as Chiyuan remains stable, he can live his life in the mortal world without worry. He picked up the swords when he was wandering in the mortal world.

They were all damaged and worthless at first, but as he got used to collecting them, even his amnesia didn't stop him from scavenging.

He collected a valley full of swords and armor, and although they weren't very clever, they could at least keep him company. He took care of them until their last days, and they protected him when he was refining the Nirvana Stone. They depended on each other for survival.

It turned out that the iron prison door in his dream was his own seal, and the trapped beast inside was himself all along.

Finally, all his memories were connected, and he understood everything clearly. The last trace of the Nirvana Stone's seal in his sea of consciousness disappeared in the demonic haze.

This was the thirty-sixth piece...

The Nirvana Stone was very fragile - maybe it was because of his poor skills, but in any case, it broke for all sorts of reasons.

At first, he would sometimes be moved by a scene and feel sentimental for no reason. Even though the event had passed, the emotion remained.

When he revisited old places or stumbled upon remnants of the past, a surge of overwhelming emotions would cause the Nirvana Stone to easily shatter.

Perhaps he had grown tired of playing in the human world and couldn't understand why he felt so lonely in the midst of all the hustle and bustle.

So, with nothing better to do, he became curious and began to investigate the secrets of the Nirvana Stone. As time passed and people changed, the things that could stir up old memories gradually disappeared.

However, the weapon spirits discovered his problem and would prevent him from investigating in various ways.

So, more often than not, he would be instead be caught up in disasters and wars, and the great calamities of the human world would stimulate the Chiyuan, forcing him to come out of the Nirvana Stone's shell to suppress the demonic energy.

Happiness is commonplace, but pain accumulates over generations. He could never hold on for long and was forced to be resealed in the Chiyuan, shattered into pieces.

It is said that if you live near a fish market for too long, you won't even notice the smell anymore. Similarly, when people suffer for a long time, they may become numb and find ways to bury their wounds and seek a new life.

Who knew if it was true, but maybe because he was a weapon spirit, he was different from living beings. It seems that half of his soul was left on the back of the Sheng Lingyuan, and without that person, he couldn't survive on his own.

"Lingyuan," Xuan Ji instinctively reached for his back, "Lingyuan..."

His back was empty!

Xuan Ji's forehead emblem suddenly rose, turning red to the point of almost breaking the skin.

In that moment, he was like a dragon with its scales pulled in the wrong direction, unable to distinguish reality from illusion.

"Lingyuan!"

Xuan Ji was furious, and his body reflexively ignited with white flames.

Something in his arms suddenly exploded from the heat, mixed with the voices of many people.

"Director Xuan..."

"Director Xuan!"

"Xuan..."

Director...?

Who were they calling for?

What just exploded?

During his time in Yuyang, a group of Wind Gods were deceived by Sheng Lingyuan's false affection and gave him a bunch of paper shields. Zhang Zhao, that silly deer, even contributed a family heirloom protective turtle shell.

Sheng Lingyuan didn't care, but Xuan Ji couldn't bear to waste their kindness and kept them in his wallet. However, there are few opportunities to use cash now, and the wallet is just something to bring along for emergencies when traveling far.

After returning to Yong'an, he never opened it and forgot about the matter.

The paper shields were just a gesture of goodwill and strictly speaking, had no practical use.

However, because they were infused with the special abilities of the maker, carrying them around would establish a slight connection with the maker if they were torn apart.

The faint connection made Xuan Ji's mind momentarily blank.

In that instant, the modern title of "Director" pried open a crack in his consciousness and inner demons.

The sound of the xun suddenly became sharp, as if the sound waves had turned into needles and pierced into his ears.

Someone shouted, "Come back!"

Xuan Ji's empty spine felt like it was electrified, and the familiar voice shook his mind.

Who was it?

Whose voice was that?

The heart demons had turned into a rolling sea of clouds, now blood-red, as the Wind God agents became exhausted one by one. Even Yan Qiushan's rescue efforts were not enough.

Captain Yan was already a seriously injured patient, and the Five Elements Formation was constantly changing, so delicate that not even a single mistake could be made. The metal-type ability could not replace other types, and could only rely on Sheng Lingyuan to continuously adjust the formation.

At last, they were in a tight spot.

Suddenly, one of the field agents collapsed without warning, and the formation was broken.

The protective film that had been floating around the agents shattered, leaving these fragile mortals exposed to the clutches of the Shadow person.

Having lived for three thousand years and encountered countless masters and demons throughout history, the Shadow person was extremely annoyed by being entangled with a group of mortals who were impervious to both hard and soft attacks.

He was about to strike a fatal blow.

The deadly stench of death was approaching, and Gu Yuexi could already smell it.

Just then, she heard the voice of Sheng Lingyuan in her ear: "Use your eyes and look carefully."

"What..."

Suddenly, a beam of white light burst out from the depths of the blood-red heart demon haze.

At first, it was just a small cluster, and Gu Yuexi hadn't had time to see it clearly.

But then, the white light suddenly exploded into flames!

The figure in front of them let out a scream as the miasma ignited like explosive powder, spreading out in a burst of snow-white flames.

For a moment, everyone was nearly blinded by the light.

The flames brushed past the scrambling field agents without burning them, instead leaving a chilly sensation like a thin mist. They fell in large clusters on Sheng Lingyuan, and the man playing the xun opened his eyes in the midst of the blinding white light, gazing silently at the figure with wings on its back in the depths of the flames.

In one glance, he saw through three thousand years.

The intense light was everywhere, melting away both reality and illusion, as if the world had been freed from all darkness.

Zhi Chun, standing nearby, sensed something and quietly stepped back.

At this moment, Gu Yuexi gritted her teeth and didn't look away from the dazzling light despite the pain.

With closed eyes, a bloody tear rolled down her cheek as she witnessed the moment when the Heart Demon Poison was ignited and the Shadow person transformed into a mercury-like form, diving frantically into the earth's veins.

"He's trying to escape!"

Without hesitation, Gu Yuexi chased after him, but a hand held her shoulder.

Sheng Lingyuan, who was originally sitting amidst the ruins of the field vehicle, had somehow teleported to her side.

"Let me borrow your eyes," Sheng Lingyuan said.

"How can I lend you my eyes?" Gu Yuexi asked.

"Agree now!"

The field team had just lent their entire bodies to him as pawns, so lending a pair of eyes was a piece of cake.

Gu Yuexi agreed without hesitation, "Okay, I agree to lend them to you."

As soon as the words fell from his lips, Gu Yuexi felt a chill on her forehead, as if she had just signed some kind of contract.

The next moment, her vision suddenly went dark, and her heart, which had been hanging in her chest, dropped.

Gu Yuexi quickly opened her eyes and found that her normal eyesight had returned, but her newly opened all-seeing eyes could not see anything.

Sheng Lingyuan took her all-seeing eyes and turned into a black wind, chasing after the Shadow person who was fleeing in the earth's veins.

At the same time, the field agents who were still recovering from the blinding white light were blown away by a strong wind, as if a giant bird had taken off nearby.

Zhang Zhao was blinded by the bright light, tears streaming down his face as he looked up and saw a fiery red figure in the sky.

Xuan Ji made a gesture of drawing a bow and shooting an arrow.

A snow-white flame emerged from his palm and transformed into a large bow. Then, a cluster of flames burst from his fingertips and formed an arrow, over two feet long.

With a swift motion, he released the arrow, which plunged straight into the ground.

The shadowy figure shattered like a broken thermometer, and its mercury-like body dispersed rapidly into the ground.

Sheng Lingyuan cast a spell, and the withered grass suddenly grew wildly, greedily absorbing the demonic energy from the air and burrowing into the ground.

In no time, a cage was woven out of thin air, trapping the shadowy figure with no escape.

Suddenly, the figure burst out of the ground and soared into the sky.

Before Xuan Ji could release his second arrow, the Shadow person hit something and sparked a chain of electric sparks in mid-air.

Sheng Lingyuan looked up and saw that above their heads, a 'seal' had been placed without them noticing.

It was different from the spell circles and talismans he was used to seeing, with a uniform flow that didn't seem man-made, but rather like it was produced by a machine.

"It's a 'high-energy isolation screen,' nicknamed the 'electric mosquito swatter.' It's a super-sized protective device designed to isolate high-energy hazardous materials in densely populated areas. It's flawless except for its high energy consumption!" A team of field agents drove up in a battered car, looking like they had just been through something intense.

There were four agents in the car, and the rest were all puppets created by Sheng Lingyuan's spell. The plant-type puppet was driving while a metal-type puppet held a cannon and aimed.

Mid-conversation, the second shot fell and solidly stuck the fading shadow figure in mid-air.

The peculiar metal puppet saluted Sheng Lingyuan and said, "Hello comrade, we are the escaped fish from the Jiangzhou branch...oops! We are survivors who were awakened by the first batch of Echo Sound radios and immediately came to reinforce! Hahaha, it's my first time touching this kind of mass destruction weapon, so cool!"

The various branch offices usually didn't have much to do, but from Yuyang to Jiangzhou, the field agents were all lively and eager because they didn't often get the chance to encounter big events.

So, whenever something happened, the field agents of the branch offices eagerly rushed forward, afraid of running too slowly and missing the chance to see what kind of monsters and demons they were dealing with.

Sheng Lingyuan smiled at the metal puppet.

The other field agents had never had the chance to witness His Majesty's smile, so free of any darkness and almost genuine.

The metal puppet in his hand trembled, and the isolation screen almost toppled over.

"Brother, which department are you from? Can I find you next time I make a short video? We'll split the profits, my salary isn't enough to spend, so let's do some side business."

Sheng Lingyuan didn't answer, he just said, "It's up to you guys now, stop him," and disappeared on the spot.

Although Gu Yuexi had temporarily 'lent' her all-seeing eye to him, it was still someone else's property, and he couldn't use it for too long. Fortunately, seeing the desperate and panicked look of the Shadow person, he knew that the mysterious clamshell where he was hiding couldn't be far away.

Just as the all-seeing eye was becoming increasingly blurry, Sheng Lingyuan keenly caught a trace of the same origin as himself, not far away in the woods.

There was a shrine in the woods, next to a ancestral grave.

The Shadow person crazily slammed into the high-energy isolation screen, attempting to break through by force. His heart demons shattered, and he was badly burned by the flames, leaving him with no strength to create more.

He could only try to persuade them with words, "You all carry the blood of the powerful races, originally born as superior beings. For thousands of years, you have been deceived and kept in the dark, still working for the human race. Don't you find it ridiculous?"

"Buzz!"

The field agents of the Jiangzhou branch fired another shot, and the fully armed driver stuck his head out, wearing a protective suit.

"I come from eight generations of poor farmers... Holy sh*t!"

The Shadow person was indeed an ancient demon who had drained the earth's veins in Jiangzhou.

Despite his injuries, he had already smashed a hole in the field agents' high-energy isolation screen in just a few words.

"This guy is too tough, retreat, retreat... Get out of the way!"

However, the Shadow person didn't have time to deal with these ants-like mortals. Their mercury-like body drilled out from the isolation curtain and rushed towards Sheng Lingyuan in despair.

The field agents heard a buzzing sound in their ears, echoing with a vague and distant voice, like the ancient bells and drums, mixed with the majestic sound of the ancient divine birds spreading their wings in the wind.

At the same time, the second arrow transformed from fire cut through the dark sky like thunder and directly pierced the Shadow person's body.

Meanwhile, Sheng Lingyuan locked onto the oldest tomb with the same origin as himself. There were no words on the tombstone, and it stood alone at the highest point, overlooking the temple.

It was precisely the Feng Shui treasure land where the four veins of Jiangzhou intersected. With his black mist-like sword in hand, Sheng Lingyuan cleaved open the tomb with one strike, sinking three yards into the ground.

In the tomb, there was no coffin, only a snow-white clamshell. It was unclear how long it had been buried, but it remained immaculate, covered in dazzling jewels and precious stones.

It was identical to the clamshell that was split open by Sheng Lingyuan's sword all those years ago, except that it had been refined by the Great Master Tian'er.

It had collected the demonic energy from the body of a demon that had lived three thousand years ago and had been nurtured by the earth's veins in Jiangzhou for many years.

The clamshell's surface emitted a dazzling glow that was almost spiritual.

The Shadow person, who had been pierced through the chest by the flaming arrow, let out a heart-wrenching scream.

Without hesitation, Sheng Lingyuan struck down with his sword.

The demonic energy within the clamshell returned to its original owner like a tired bird returning to its nest.

The jade clamshell that had been forcibly occupied for centuries disintegrated, and the earth's veins let out a deep sigh.

The figure wrapped in flames crashed to the ground, struggling to crawl forward a few steps before extending a deformed hand towards the shattered clamshell.

This scene was reminiscent of a meeting three thousand years ago...

After all this time, the Shadow person still had no face of its own.

The spiritual energy scattered from the clamshell as the flames poured into the figure's limbs, sealing the demon tightly and turning its flowing mercury body into stone.

A thunderbolt struck, and Sheng Lingyuan was attempted to dodge.

But as the lightning fell on him, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, feeling as though the shackles imposed upon him by the heavens had been relocked.

Flying three zhang away, Sheng Lingyuan was caught by a pair of trembling hands before he could hit the ground.

The wings, flickering with flames, permanently dyed Sheng Lingyuan's cold irises a fiery hue.

The light and shadows flowed, and it seemed as though the emperor had finally come back to life.

Xuan Ji gently held him and landed on the ground, his wings spread out to shield them from the punishment of the heavens.

The lightning and fire illuminated each other, drowning out all human voices with their deafening thunder.

No one spoke, and Xuan Ji simply gazed deeply at the person before him, with those eyes that had gazing through the prison gates for three thousand years... the eyes of a madman.