The seven stars of the Big Dipper. - Foreword.

People plagued by their heart demons were awakened by the rare thunder in the depths of winter.

Soon, the hastily gathered clouds could no longer bear the weight and began to release snowflakes as light as goose feathers.

In the distant mountains, faint lights rose up, indicating that the disrupted earth veins had returned to their rightful place.

The flames on Xuan Ji's wings went out, but the warmth remained.

The snow couldn't even settle on his feathers before it melted, creating a thin mist that softened the fiery feathers like a dream captured on film.

In this dream, there was no merciless passage of time.

Sheng Lingyuan looked like a burnt-out doll made of jade. He couldn't lift his hands or feet, and with all his strength, he could only raise his eyelashes, heavy as a thousand pounds, to see clearly the face in front of him that he had been with day and night but never examined closely.

The winged clan had beautiful colors, with eyes like glass, and Xuan Ji's eyebrows and eyes carried the traces of his ancestors.

The corners of his eyes were wide and long, slightly upturned, but because they always smiled, they dispelled the arrogant air of the 'feathered immortals.' There was also a small mole at the corner of his eye, which was the finishing touch.

Sheng Lingyuan thought: So this is how much he has grown, with a taste of being immersed in the world for a long time in his every move, as if he was born so sophisticated and never childish.

It was nothing like what he had imagined... if he could still 'imagine' at all.

After living a desolate life, Sheng Lingyuan had seen so many beings that nothing seemed new to him anymore. Even when he opened his eyes and saw mortals ascending to the heavens or tunnels leading to the sea, he didn't find it particularly surprising.

After all, whether flying in the sky or swimming in the sea, humans have always been the same.

Throughout history, human nature has remained constant.

It wasn't until he saw Xuan Ji at that moment that he realized how long he had been dead and how far behind he was in time.

He had spent his entire life playing with people's hearts, but now he had lost his own.

What was he to do now?

Sheng Lingyuan had no idea.

In a hurry, he nervously smiled at Xuan Ji.

However, his usual smile, which seemed to be permanently attached to his face, failed him at that moment.

He looked stiff as he awkwardly tried to smile, as if it were just a formality.

The deafening sound of thunder finally subsided with the falling snow, and the on-site support staff arrived one after another.

Sheng Lingyuan heard the noisy voices and wanted to say something before these people arrived.

He was anxious and confused, and blurted out, "Do you have anything to say to me?"

As soon as the words came out, he regretted it.

It was too stiff.

He had never spoken such stiff words in his life, not even during the frontline battles.

Sheng Lingyuan nervously tried to find something to say, but his usually eloquent tongue was not cooperating. His mediocre Mandarin and archaic pronunciation were mixed up, leaving him at a loss for words.

Xuan Ji was jolted back to reality by his question.

He folded his wings and hesitated for a moment before taking a half step back and kneeling down on one knee.

"Your Majesty," he said, trying to control his emotions.

Sheng Lingyuan's hand, which had been reaching out, seemed to be scalded by a flame and quickly retracted.

Yes, it had been three thousand years.

The passage of time had not only changed the world, but also diluted their once inseparable bond.

Otherwise, how could they have met without recognizing each other?

The northwest wind in Jiangzhou was as sharp as a knife, but Xuan Ji used the biting cold to cool down his boiling brain.

The sound of cars behind him was getting closer, and he didn't want anyone to see him kneeling like this.

So he pretended to tie the loose shoelaces of His Majesty's shoes, holding them in his hand as if to hide his true intentions.

He spoke softly, "I didn't mean to hide anything from you, nor did I forget you... my past was sealed by the Nirvana technique."

Sheng Lingyuan was taken aback.

He was not the same sword spirit who was once ignorant and no longer needed anyone to explain what the Nirvana technique was.

"If the Chiyuan is fine, the Nirvana Stone won't move. But when the Chiyuan had abnormal movements recently, the Nirvana Stone led me to the Bureau and shattered. It was me... My mind was sealed for a long time, not very bright, and my memory was only partially restored until I accidentally fell into the Heart Demon Miasma just now, which completely unsealed me. I've been talking and doing things in a confused manner lately, and I often have sudden outbursts... Your Majesty, please forgive me."

Xuan Ji explained while tying his shoelaces.

In the end, he left one loop hanging on his finger without tightening it, waiting for Your Majesty to say "dispense with formalities" before fastening it.

"I haven't been keeping an eye on Chiyuan these years..."

Sheng Lingyuan couldn't take it anymore and interrupted him, "Okay, stop... don't say anymore."

He remembered the inexplicably broken 'tombstones' at the bottom of the Chiyuan Valley and immediately understood the picture.

He couldn't bear to listen anymore.

If the Sword Spirit had forgotten about him, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

At most, he would have been hurt for a while.

In the eyes of Sheng Lingyuan, personal joy and sorrow were like insignificant things that couldn't be mentioned and weren't worth mentioning.

But the Sword Spirit didn't forget, relying on the Nirvana technique to seal his past life, and then being shattered by the turmoil of Chiyuan, waking up and being shattered into pieces more than thirty times.

This had been going on for over three thousand years, repeating itself over and over again.

What kind of life was this?

Looking back now, Xuan Ji couldn't enter a meditative state not because he was restless, but because of the self-protection of the Nirvana technique... and yet he still forced others to learn it without any explanation!

A thought suddenly occurred to Sheng Lingyuan: "Has Little Ji, with his ties to me, ever had anything good happen to him in his life?"

He curled and uncurled his fingers behind his back a few times before finally mustering up the courage to lightly brush the thin layer of snow off Xuan Ji's shoulder.

"Get up, you've suffered a lot these past few years...I know that suppressing the Chiyuan requires enduring excruciating pain, thirty-something times, anyone else would have collapsed. Luckily, you still remember how to refine the Nirvana Stone."

Anyone else would have collapsed?

As soon as Xuan Ji thought of the madman repeatedly smashing the iron sword he had refined, his eyes turned bloodshot.

He used all his strength to resist the urge to grab the other's hand that was always on the move, and his muscles were so tense that they ached.

He suddenly felt absurd, as if his Majesty was speaking to him in the tone of a leader comforting grassroots workers - the kind who only work hard but have no achievements to show for it.

Xuan Ji gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tightly, struggling to let out a 'Mm' before standing up like a zombie.

Fortunately, the Jiangzhou branch and the Wind Gods arrived one after another, and the noisy crowd inserted themselves between the two, surrounding Xuan Ji and bombarding him with questions about whether the Heart Demon Miasma had been burned away and where the Shadow person had gone.

Sheng Lingyuan took the opportunity to quietly step aside and hide in an off-duty car, maintaining his image of not getting involved.

The people in the car went down to collect the remaining parts of the Shadow person, and even Zhang Zhao carefully carried the wooden doll Zhi Chun on his shoulders.

Sheng Lingyuan closed the car door tightly and then lowered his head expressionlessly, holding his trembling hands that couldn't stop shaking.

In his entire life, he had never hoped to touch that person's shoulder with his own hands... even when he still had the Heavenly Demon Sword and had infinite expectations for the future.

At that time, he still thought he was human, but how long can humans live?

Above the Yuan Ying cultaivation stage, they can only live for three to five hundred years at most.

He knew he might not live to see the day when the sword spirit materialized, so he suppressed any romantic thoughts he had as a young man and just quietly played the role of an older brother guiding the way.

But...is he really fit to be the guiding older brother?

When the Heavenly Demon Sword broke, Little Ji was just in his early twenties and had never been involved in anything shady or unscrupulous. He was pure, upright, loyal, and never had any conflicts or hidden agendas.

If the Sword Spirit really did haunt him like Zhi Chun did for twenty years, watching as he killed his superiors, turned against his teachers, and betrayed everything he was taught...

After a long while, Sheng Lingyuan, like an addict who couldn't resist temptation any longer, couldn't help but glance at Xuan Ji through the car window.

Surrounded by a group of colleagues, Xuan Ji handled the situation with ease. The wings of his shirt were torn apart by the flapping of wings, and he had to wear a work uniform from the Jiangzhou field office that someone had given to him.

Suddenly, Xuan Ji turned his head towards Sheng Lingyuan's direction, as if sensing something.

Sheng Lingyuan knew that the windows of these field cars were one-way, and he felt a slight twitch in the corner of his eye, as if he had been whipped by an invisible lash.

However, like a masochist, he did not move his gaze away and held onto the eyes that made him feel ashamed.

Then, Xuan Ji said something to the Wind God next to him, who nodded and ran over, knocking on the car window with an attitude of extreme reverence.

Sheng Lingyuan cracked open the car window and heard the Wind God agent say, "Um... senior, we found something in the earth veins, but we're not sure what it is. Could you please come take a look?"

Without a hint of emotion in his eyes, Sheng Lingyuan calmly followed them out.

"There seems to be a hidden passage down here," Gu Yuexi pointed out to him.

Her eyes had returned to their normal state, and thankfully the heavenly demon's influence had dissipated.

Her X-ray vision was enough for the job, but there were likely anti-theft measures in place deeper inside that she couldn't see through.

"Shall we use a detection robot to take a look? We brought some robots with us," said the officer from the Jiangzhou branch, eagerly unloading a few small robots with cameras from their car and trying to sell them to the crowd.

"They are purely mechanical and guaranteed to have no special abilities. Our boss is a robot enthusiast. Last time during the Bureau's field technology competition, we brought all our gadgets. Can you guess what happened?"

"Did you get a good ranking?" asked Zhang Zhao.

The field agents from Jiangzhou replied in unison, "We were disqualified for cheating!"

Zhang Zhao was speechless.

Was the specialty of Jiangzhou to be foolish?

He couldn't understand why he was playing along with these idiots.

The robot car "clattered" down the crack that His Majesty had split open in the tomb, extending a pile of small pliers and shovels and other clearance tools.

With a few movements, it quickly placed the shattered shell fragments to one side.

That shell had been refined by a 'Tian'er' and stolen a lot of heavenly demon energy from Sheng Lingyuan.

Over the years, it had almost become the essence of the Shadow person, capable of absorbing the entire earth vein of Jiangzhou, enough to be classified as several "S" level dangerous goods.

However, now it had been drained of its heavenly demon energy, its earth energy shattered, and chopped into pieces. It had become a pile of calcium carbonate attached to rare metals, easily swept away by an amateur robot enthusiast's creation.

It seems that there is nothing in the world that is truly indestructible.

Xuan Ji had already roughly heard the incredible battle story from his colleague, a Wind God.

He turned his head and glanced at the quiet Zhi Chun puppet sitting on Zhang Zhao's shoulder, politely nodding in greeting.

He thought to himself, "So that's how Wei Yun's secret was exposed back then."

Zhi Chun was a sword spirit, just like Xuan Ji, and was even more sensitive to the changes in Xuan Ji's body.

When they first met in Pingzhou, Zhi Chun only acted on his sword spirit instincts and felt that this unfamiliar colleague had a fiery aura but also a familiar metallic energy.

But now, although the metallic energy was even stronger, Zhi Chun had a feeling of not daring to get too close to Xuan Ji.

If his sword body were here, it might have already started trembling.

The Wind God colleague hesitated for a moment, then whispered to Xuan Ji, "There's one more thing. That Shadow person just now called out to your sword spirit..."

As soon as the words fell, Gu Yuexi and Zhang Zhao secretly looked over.

Xuan Ji raised his index finger and made a quiet "shh" gesture, saying in a barely audible voice, "I know, don't make a fuss. This matter is a long story. I will make a formal report when I return to the headquarters."

The Wind Gods glanced at each other and, as special agents, they had discipline.

They all understood and kept quiet.

"What the hell!"

At this moment, the field agents of the Jiangzhou branch who were gathered around the screen exclaimed, "Look at this, what is this thing?"

The robot was more efficient than a groundhog. In just a few sentences, it had already dug up the secret passage that Gu Yuexi had mentioned.

At the end of the narrow passage, there was actually a hanging corpse. The robot was unaware of cultutal taboos and held up its camera, giving a close-up of the "welcoming corpse".

The field agents holding the screen were so startled that their hearts skipped a beat, and they all pressed their chests and jumped around.

"Where did this mummy technology come from? The preservation of this big brother's body is too good!"

"Um...the appearance seems a bit off..."

"I mean, was this person even human when they were alive?"

At first glance, the corpse looked like a human, but it had a pair of animal ears on top of its head, and two-inch-long fangs protruded from its dry lips. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to have a tail behind it.

Its limbs and neck were all locked in iron rings, and it was hanging upside down on the door. The eye sockets, which were easily decomposable tissue, had of course been dug out.

But instead of filling them with something, they were left empty, making the eye sockets look like black holes.

A pair of "earrings" hung on the animal ears, covered in ancient runes.

As Xuan Ji raised his eyebrows, he immediately recognized the identity of the corpse: "It's him?"

He remembered this person, whose real name was unknown...perhaps he never had one.

He was a half-blooded lynx, one of the earliest to join the human race after being rejected by his own kind.

Sheng Lingyuan gave him the name 'Xian Die'. Later, he was betrayed and sold to the demon race by his subordinates, and Xian Die disappeared.

It wasn't until the demon city was destroyed and the demon king's tower collapsed that they found Xian Die's body at the bottom of the tower. At that time, this remarkable half-blood had already been turned into a 'corpse guard' by the demon race, and the earrings on his ears were the tools used by the demon race to control the corpse guards.

The non-human races do not have the tradition of 'burying the dead in the earth for peace', so reusing the remains is not considered disrespectful to the deceased.

Since Xian Die has already been turned into a corpse guard, his brothers did not waste his body. They modified the soul-locking formation on his body and hung him in front of the inner library of the Qingping Division, allowing him to continue guarding the library and keeping company with his former comrades. Anyone who breaks into the storage room without a key is considered a rebel.

Xian Die died from betrayal, and after his death, he was dedicated to dealing with traitors. The half-demons believe that this is the best way to comfort his heroic spirit.

So, behind this door is the inner library of the Qingping Division, which Xian Die is guarding!

It seems that the "precious documents" that Old Lady Yu donated to the Bureau back then were really just documents.

The complete inner library of the Qingping Division was buried by her in this ancestral tomb!

The Qingping Division was established during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Great Qi Dynasty, and has lasted for over two thousand years. No one knows exactly how many precious collections and dangerous items are stored inside.

It sits on the Jiangzhou earth vein, like a troublesome wisdom tooth with its roots wrapped around a nerve. No one dares to move it lightly, so the entire area was sealed off and a report is sent to the higher-ups for approval.

Thus, the field agents set up a circle of tents outside the blockade and camped out in the wild cemetery, waiting for further instructions.

Although the duration of the Heart Demon Miasma was not long, it caused considerable chaos in the local area, leaving the aftermath department scrambling to deal with the aftermath.

The root of this demonic miasma was ultimately from Xuan Ji's body, so he had to clean up the mess he caused himself.

After a few months on the job, he seemed to have just remembered his job description and was involved in the aftermath department work in great detail for the first time, which was driving him crazy with all the trivial matters.

Xuan Ji squatted in the snow and reviewed the revised work plan. It was already 2:30 in the morning. The field agents took turns on night duty, and he sent a few of his subordinates to rest.

He exhaled a white breath and finally turned his head to look back towards the camp.

His colleagues had left a tent for him... right next to His Majesty's.

On this chaotic day, countless people couldn't sleep due to the turmoil.

Under the influence of the Heart Demon Miasma, the Emperor and the three thousand year old Shadow person engaged in a fierce battle. He were hesitant to make a move against the him given the Chiyuan, so he had to rely on the power of the Wind Gods.

The fake identity of the sword spirit that was made up on the spot was surely exposed by now, but the Wind Gods who knew the truth would not speak out of turn.

At this moment, everyone had their own suspicions and no one dared to get too close to Sheng Lingyuan.

The two tents stood out conspicuously in the dark night, like a private corner of utmost secrecy.

Xuan Ji's throat was dry, and he rubbed his hands together in the icy snow.

He closed his eyes and spent a long time building himself up mentally, crushing any inappropriate thoughts and stamping them firmly into the ground. He made sure that nothing would leak out and then slowly walked towards the tent.

Sheng Lingyuan's tent was tightly zipped up, with a thick layer of snow outside, as if he had already gone to sleep.

Quiety, Xuan Ji walked over, feeling lost, when several foolish snow crows suddenly fell from the dead branches.

Xuan Ji was startled, but then saw that the crows were bowing respectfully to him, perhaps intentionally flattering the "Bird King" who had returned.

The sound of birds flapping their wings broke the peaceful night, and a gentle voice came from Sheng Lingyuan's tightly closed tent: "It's late at night, don't stay outside in the cold. Come into the tent and warm up for a while."

Xuan Ji hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and slipped into the neighboring tent.

Two double-insulated windproof and snow-proof tent layers blocked their line of sight, but not their spiritual awareness. Both of their presence was extremely strong.

Sheng Lingyuan opened his eyes and could even feel Xuan Ji kneeling nervously in his own tent next to him.

It was as if someone was going to inspect his etiquette.

Looking back, it was when they encountered Prince Wei Yu at sea that the Nirvana stone began to be greatly weakened.

At that time, Xuan Ji was confused and probably couldn't even figure out how he suddenly became fluent in the ancient language, and the two of them chatted like they had three thousand years ago.

Now, they finally cleared the air and spoke honestly, but they both unconsciously switched to modern Mandarin.

It was as if they wanted to separate something with time.