Shi Jingzhi had never experienced the feeling of being on the brink of death.

His memories were vivid, but after more than twenty years, he could no longer taste the bitterness. This time was different. The cold blade slicing across his throat chilled him to the bone, followed by a burning, stabbing pain. Su Si's hand was very precise, not cutting his windpipe, but the gushing blood still shocked Shi Jingzhi to the point of despair.

His entire body felt like it was sinking into an icy lake, every movement requiring tremendous effort. All sounds seemed muffled, as if filtered through cotton, blending into a hazy jumble of fragments. A deep terror surged up, nearly crushing him alive.

Shi Jingzhi wished he would pass out. However, his heart was pounding wildly, the panic and fear making his limbs go numb in waves, forcing him to remain conscious. The heavy dread came crashing down, grinding his mind with excruciating pain. He couldn't see anything, couldn't grab onto anyone, his consciousness filled only with suffocation and horror.

It was like being imprisoned in a lightless cell, listening to the clanging and clattering of unseen torture devices being prepared. This torment was too much for an ordinary person to endure, let alone a Desire Child.

...Was this the same pain Yin Zizhu suffered, buried underground for more than eighty years?

Thinking hazily of Yin Ci, Shi Jingzhi regained a bit of clarity. Amidst this stifling agony, he seemed to grasp a hand, steadying his mind.

However, as Shi Jingzhi gradually became more lucid, he vaguely sensed something.

As his life slowly drained away, Shi Jingzhi's five senses failed one by one. An extremely faint perception emerged—

Around his body, it was as if there were countless invisible "fine roots" tied, with vital energy constantly flowing through them, ceaselessly pouring into Shi Jingzhi's meridians. He was like a bizarre plant, able to dimly sense the boundaries of this strange "root system".

When they first discovered the secret of the flesh god statues, their speculations had been correct.

At the ends of the "root system" were the cities where emperor shrines had been built. Large cities with dense populations like Yi City, Qizhou, and Yongsheng provided especially abundant vital energy. People knelt before the statues, praying with desire-filled hearts. That vital energy mixed with desire was absorbed by the mystical techniques, ultimately flowing into Shi Jingzhi's flesh and blood.

...But this was something they had long suspected.

This vital energy poured in day and night without cease. Forget about keeping him alive, it alone would have bloated him to death. Shi Jingzhi carefully sensed this "root system" that spanned the entire country, trying to uncover its secrets.

The cold and despair of death clung behind him, making pondering especially difficult. Before he knew it, his perception of the outside world had been completely cut off. Shi Jingzhi struggled to maintain his sanity, forcing himself to probe deeper—

Despair arrived in an instant.

As if sensing Shi Jingzhi's struggle, another force emerged from the void. It was chaotic and dull-witted, yet carried an immense oppressive aura, like a giant hand about to descend, lightly cupping Shi Jingzhi in its palm.

That force appeared and vanished in a flash. It was like a firework exploding in the night, its fleeting light illuminating the darkness. Or like waves rising on black waters, the ripples touching upon hidden reefs.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, in that instant, the last bit of Shi Jingzhi's energy happened to be focused entirely on the "root system". Thanks to that force, he "saw" another silhouette along with it.

It was a root system.

His "root system" that stretched across mountains, rivers, lakes and seas was completely enveloped by another "root system".

It was even more lush, more hidden, and more terrifying. Its growth direction was opposite that of ordinary plants, with roots pointing skyward, resembling the ancient, massive roots of a thousand-year-old tree. Even with Shi Jingzhi's endless vital energy, he couldn't immediately locate the source of the root system.

He only saw countless roots plunging into the ground, their tips protruding above the surface, absorbing the vital energy of all things. The tiny portion that emerged above ground were those gray-red "bare branches" covered in fine roots, shooting straight into the clouds.

...They were also the "bare branches" mixed into Yin Ci's body, making him undying and indestructible.

The bare branches were everywhere across the land, densely packed and piercing the sky, thousands or tens of thousands times more numerous than the shrines. If Yan Budu's jade eye could show the reality across the entire country, all its prosperity would likely be buried beneath the gray-red bare branches. It was only because mortals couldn't see or touch them that they had lived peacefully until now.

It couldn't end yet. Shi Jingzhi suppressed his panic and pushed himself a step further.

Although his original intent was only to probe the Immortal Gathering, he wouldn't have a second chance to be on the brink of death. He had to see it clearly. Mustering his strength, he almost gave up half his life, recklessly continuing to explore.

Who would have thought the deeper he probed, the more horrifying and absurd everything became. In a daze, Shi Jingzhi felt like a tiny insect trying to measure a giant elephant. This monstrous thing seemed to have no boundaries. He searched until his head was splitting with pain, nearly losing consciousness, before finally managing to discover the "trunk" of this thing.

Just as the root system was inverted, at the end of the root system, the "trunk" of this monster also plunged deep underground, its shape extremely twisted. As for its thickness...if the vast territory of Dayun was divided into ten parts, the thickness of this "trunk" would occupy one or two tenths of it.

Further down was pure darkness. His brain nearly boiling, his entire being on the verge of collapse, he really couldn't see any further.

Shi Jingzhi had exhausted all his strength, yet had only managed to glimpse a corner of the monstrosity. His man-made "root system" was sparse and flimsy, forming only a shallow layer. In comparison, it was like the delicate roots of young crops, completely negligible.

Shi Jingzhi hovered blankly in the darkness, seeing the bare branches on the ground rising into the clouds, the bare branches underground gradually thickening and twisting, merging into that unimaginably enormous entity. Just from a hint of hazy perception, it suffocated him beyond the ability to breathe.

So that was how it was.

No wonder Yin Ci couldn't use his internal energy. His disciple wasn't "leaking" at all. It was just that as soon as he merged with the roots, Yin Ci's meridians connected to this "inverted giant tree".

No matter how profound Yin Ci's internal energy was before, no matter how he cultivated afterward, it would be impossible for him to circulate his internal energy—if you sprinkled a pinch of salt into a surging river, how could you expect the river to turn salty?

For some unknown reason, Yin Ci connected to the "inverted giant tree" and obtained this thing's vital energy, thus unable to die normally.

...So the National Teachers used Yin Ci's body as a foundation to establish the flesh god shrines. Generation after generation, they experimented, copying a set of "small root systems" for absorbing vital energy by imitating the original.

The Desire Children throughout history were monsters nurtured by this small root system.

Unfortunately, man-made imitations were extremely crude, naturally incomparable to this innate, earth-nurtured giant monstrosity. Anything in excess is as bad as a deficiency. The vital energy was extremely mixed and impure, pouring in ceaselessly day and night. Not only did the Desire Children fail to become undying and indestructible, they ended up with even shorter lifespans than ordinary people.

Those ambiguous and enigmatic parts seemed to have found their answers.

Why was the technique in his blood so incomparably complex, unlike that constructed by mortals, with only traces of artificial modification - it was naturally intricate and difficult to decipher, having been scraped off and altered from this monster.

Why would there be a phenomenon of "Heaven's Wrath" in Dayun - the artificially created small root system was naturally crude and could not handle such troublesome matters. But if it were such a vast and monstrous thing, even if it drained the "useless" people to death, it could probably manage to feed back some essence to the robust laborers.

[Minor illnesses and injuries of livestock should be quickly helped and cured. But if the treatment is troublesome or the roots are injured, it should be promptly slaughtered and eaten, otherwise it would only be a waste of feed.]

Who could have guessed that Yan Qing's idle talk in the northern lands back then would prove prophetic.

Indeed, something was raising them, dominating them. He "saw" it clearly in a fleeting glimpse.

Thinking of this, Shi Jingzhi suddenly shuddered.

If this evil thing were more straightforward, could it drain people dry in a short period of time? The Deity Summoning Formation, just what was it summoning? ... Did the generations of National Teachers already know about the existence of this "giant tree"?

Shi Jingzhi couldn't help but reach out again towards those bare branches. At this moment in his heart, they were no longer bizarre and ridiculous monsters, but the judge's pen that held the power of life and death over everyone.

Unexpectedly, this time he actually found some clues.

Among the countless roots, the "inverted giant tree" had two roots that were particularly twisted, vastly different in texture from the surrounding root system. They were the color of human skin. One was close to himself, surely connected to Yin Ci. The other extended into the distance, and he couldn't see where it ended.

What kind of person was connected over there? Or rather, "what thing" was connected over there?

As for the specific appearance of this "inverted giant tree", and what lay at the end of the darkness, Shi Jingzhi no longer had the strength to perceive, let alone imagine.

Only an incomparably deep despair engulfed him.

Before, Shi Jingzhi thought his opponents were only the Immortal Gathering, and at worst, an illusory "immortal". At most, it was an equal contest in the mortal world. Now, it seemed his opponent was too vast, too ancient, and too formidable. He hadn't even figured out a way to destroy his own "small root system", so how could he deal with this world-sized monstrosity?

The rivers and lakes, the imperial court, were nothing more than games of mortals playing house. If Jiang Youyue had known about the "inverted giant tree" from the start, if the National Teachers had a way to negotiate with that evil thing, he was nothing more than an ant in the world, and even if he had myriad loves and hates, they couldn't withstand a flick of the finger from this demon or buddha.

The foolish man moving a mountain still required countless generations. With his limited lifespan remaining, he couldn't even slowly work at it.

He couldn't win.

No matter how he thought about it, Shi Jingzhi couldn't find a way out.

...He couldn't win, he couldn't think of any solution.

With the current situation, what could he do? If he refused the Shi Rou, he would undoubtedly die. This death wouldn't be instantaneous. With the Shi Rou in hand, he would have to endure endless hesitation and torment before dying. If he didn't refuse the Shi Rou, his resistance along the way would be no different from a superfluous joke.

The most fatal thing was that Shi Jingzhi didn't know what would happen after eating the Shi Rou. Just this unknown that hinted at hope was enough to generate thousands of excuses and ignite all his anxious desires.

In the midst of utter despair, a chilling thought pierced Shi Jingzhi to the core-

If he had no human heart now, how easy this would all be.

Initially, he would have single-mindedly sought survival, passing through the rivers and lakes game set up by the Immortal Gathering, obtaining the Shi Rou after hardships. Such a simple and interesting matter, he wouldn't need to heed any darkness or have the slightest doubt. In the instant he ate the Shi Rou, before the unknown arrived, he might even be incomparably happy.

But he couldn't even hate Yin Ci. Thinking of that person, all his resentment deflated, turning into bitterness and grievance.

Or perhaps, going mad would be easier. Whether it was ending his own life or losing his sanity, it would be better than facing the torment of despair. Now that he thought about it, the Desire Children seemed destined to walk this path - hoping for an impossible ending and actively stepping onto the road of self-destruction.

But he still had a bit of warmth he cherished in his heart. He hadn't watched the lanterns with that person yet, hadn't had enough of the feeling of letting go of burdens and living in mutual reliance with someone. He didn't want to die.

...He had no path to take, yet he couldn't stop.

In this suffocating despair, Shi Jingzhi opened his eyes. His lips were cracked, his throat still aching and itchy, unable to utter half a word. Seeing Yin Ci's concerned gaze, before Shi Jingzhi could decide what expression to put on, tears fell unbidden.

How embarrassing, he thought.

But he just couldn't stop those tears. Under the other party's gentle gaze, all the despair and grievance seemed to burst forth like a broken dam. Unable to control his emotions, Shi Jingzhi moved his body without regard, desperately hugging Yin Ci, using this to escape from the world for a moment.

Yin Ci seemed to sense his despair and didn't urge or question him. That person only spoke softly, as if the sky falling didn't matter.

His beloved who had suffered so much still didn't know what absurdity lay behind this "immortality". Nor did he know what kind of bizarre scene existed on the other side of this great land.

Shi Jingzhi swallowed, his throat aching as if torn. He hugged Yin Ci even tighter and finally uttered a hoarse phrase.

"Giving up on my own, leaving you alone."

His tears weren't dry yet.

"How could I... be willing."