"What is the secret left behind by Nüwa?" Zhou Yin asked in the Zhenyuan.

"After the ancient gods fell one after another, the upper realm continued the ancient tradition of being ruled by the demon beast clan. But as the immortal clan rose, they gradually became dissatisfied. They secretly allied with the demon clan to drive the demon beast clan out of the upper realm, leading to their decline."

In order to get closer, Zhou Chen transformed into a furball and clung to Zhou Yin's leg, refusing to leave. The story he told was more or less the same as what Fei Lan had said before.

"The way of heaven is constant. Responding with order brings fortune, while responding with chaos brings misfortune. As an ancient deity, Nüwa must have understood this principle. She still left behind the Painting of Mountains and Rivers for future generations, but the demon beast clan was blinded by their loss.

"They pinned all their hopes of revival on the Painting of Mountains and Rivers, believing that as long as they gathered the six magic treasures and restored the map, the demon beast clan could rise again and rule the three realms. So this became the generational mission passed down in the demon beast clan, imprinted in the mind of every member."

"Although I don't think the Painting of Mountains and Rivers has anything to do with the demon beast clan's resurgence, since it involves an ancient deity, perhaps finding it could reveal more about this continent."

Zhou Yin pondered, "This is indeed quite interesting."

Zhou Chen rubbed his fluffy head against Zhou Yin's leg. "Perhaps you are destined to have a connection with the Painting of Mountains and Rivers."

He said, "To prevent the demon beast clan from rising again, the immortal clan used some tactics to kill off the high-level demon beasts. My father was imprisoned by them beneath the River of Oblivion and eventually died from exhaustion. The victor becomes king while the defeated becomes the bandit - this is not unreasonable."

Zhou Chen gave a low, wry laugh. "Unfortunately, the Vermilion Bird is different from other demon clans. One death leads to one life. So even if the upper realm knew, they were helpless and could only send people to search for the whereabouts of the reborn Vermilion Bird.

"Who knew I was lazy by nature and in no hurry to hatch and take form. I remained curled up beneath the Dragon Shadow Pool, so I fortunately escaped disaster and wasn't discovered by them. But other demon clans were not so fortunate."

"Many demonic cultivators and beasts were either killed or perished. Some were secretly imprisoned, their whereabouts unknown. From then on, there were no traces of the demon beast clan on the Primordial Continent. Even if there were, they had transformed into human form, making them hard to distinguish.

"But in the war between immortals and demon beasts back then, some low-level demon beasts were still secretly kept by the upper realm. Most of these beasts had no spiritual intelligence, or only half-awakened intelligence. They could not possibly have the cultivation of high-level demonic cultivators."

Hearing this, Zhou Yin suddenly frowned.

Zhou Chen keenly sensed his mood and asked, "What's wrong?"

Zhou Yin briefly mentioned the incident where he encountered the Nüyue with Huang Wenjun, He Yun and others near the back mountains of the Mirror Sea Sect.

Zhou Chen also frowned. "If that's the case... It's possible that a small number of demon beasts escaped the catastrophe back then, hid away, and then coincidentally appeared in the back mountains of Mirror Sea."

Zhou Yin said, "Since many high-level demon beasts couldn't escape, there's another possibility."

Zhou Chen wanted to nod, but since he had transformed into a furball, he had no neck at all, making it very difficult to do so. He had no choice but to give up.

"I mentioned earlier that the upper realm had secretly kept a batch of low-level demon beasts. So the Nüyue you encountered may also be a descendant of those beasts originally kept by the upper realm."

Zhou Yin fell silent.

Why would demon beasts kept by the upper realm appear on the Primordial Continent?

Did they escape unintentionally, or were they deliberately released?

If it was the former, it would make the upper realm seem too incompetent. How could the barrier laid down by the gods of the heavens be so easily broken through?

If it was the latter, the intention was even more questionable. Logically speaking, no matter how hard the cultivators of the mortal world cultivated, in the end it was just to ascend to the upper realm and become part of the immortal clan. This posed no conflict with the upper realm.

In other words, regardless of whether they were mortals or cultivators, they revered and worshipped the gods of the upper realm. So why would those gods, having nothing better to do, make trouble for those who worshipped them by releasing demon beasts to wreak havoc on the continent?

What benefit would it bring them if the mortal world fell into chaos?

So the question they were discussing had reached a dead end.

Unless one day they could ascend to the upper realm and seek the answer there.

So Zhou Yin changed the subject and asked, "Where are the six magic treasures of the Painting of Mountains and Rivers?"

"The Jade Spirit Rhinoceros Horn and the Heaven Washing Brush are with you." Zhou Chen started showing off. "Actually, I have another one."

Seeing Zhou Yin not responding, he said, "Guess what it is."

Zhou Yin: "..."

Zhou Yin really couldn't describe what a smug expression looked like on a furball.

Zhou Chen was still rolling around on the other side, acting spoiled, not showing a hint of a demon beast lord's bearing. "Guess, Ah Yin, guess guess guess!"

His body had shrunk, and even his thinking had become childish.

Zhou Yin simply closed his mouth.

Zhou Chen felt very aggrieved. "Why can't I see a single trace of you loving me?"

After a moment, Zhou Yin said, "Tell me where I've shown traces of loving you, and I'll change it."

Zhou Chen rolled back and forth on his knee. "From the moment you named me Zhou Chen, didn't it mean you had decided I was yours?"

Zhou Yin remained very calm. "I don't mind if you change your name."

Zhou Chen's teasing had failed, but he didn't mind, still feeling good about himself.

"Alright, alright, what kind of relationship do we have? Even if you're shy, it's okay. I won't mind."

Without waiting for Zhou Yin to refute, he transformed into human form and placed his hand on his brow.

A soft glow emanated from between his brows. As his palm moved further from his forehead, the light also stretched longer. Finally, his hand grasped the light, and the light solidified into a mirror.

Zhou Yin's gaze sharpened as he blurted out, "The Heaven Opening Mirror?!"

"My Ah Yin has good eyes!" While Zhou Yin's attention was on the mirror, Zhou Chen quickly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

Zhou Yin ignored him and took the Heaven Opening Mirror to examine it. He frowned. "Do you still remember Fei Lan?"

Back then, when they returned to 60,000 years ago through the cave beneath the Dragon Shadow Pool, Zhou Chen's spiritual intelligence had not yet recovered. In order to express his apology, Fei Lan had poured his life's spiritual power into the Heaven Opening Mirror and perished together with Kui Hao.

Zhou Yin had thought the Heaven Opening Mirror had also turned to ashes in that battle. He never expected that after 60,000 years, it had ended up in Zhou Chen's hands.

Zhou Chen said, "Of course I remember. He died at that time, but the Heaven Opening Mirror, as an ancient supreme treasure, did not disappear. Later, it returned to the hands of the demon beast clan. When I returned to the demon beast clan, I also received this mirror."

He sighed after saying that: "I think, perhaps it was destined by fate, to let us return to 60,000 years ago, to encounter those people and events, so now many questions have answers."

Zhou Yin thought of Fei Lan, and also fell silent for a while, before asking: "What about the other three items?"

Zhou Chen said: "Their whereabouts are unknown."

Zhou Yin lightly acknowledged with a "Mm", and didn't inquire further.

These things are currently still missing, even if they wanted to find them there's no need to be anxious, the most important thing right now is to find a way out of here.

Zhou Chen: "What are you thinking about?"

Zhou Yin: "This place might be a trap."

Zhou Chen raised an eyebrow: "Targeting the demon beast race?"

Zhou Yin shook his head: "Targeting cultivators."

Zhou Chen knew what he was thinking, and said: "Although I can sense the aura of my race nearby, this aura is faint and extremely weak, that person must be heavily injured, it seems impossible for them to open up such a large cave abode, and the demon beast race also has no need to target the human race."

"It may not be the demon beast race." Zhou Yin said indifferently, "Let's go out and take a look first."