The sky was clear and the sunlight was crystal clear, as the sun lazily made its way across the sky.

On the ground, the little demons were screaming incessantly, piercing the ears of anyone nearby. The Secret Book was surrounded in the center, with thousands of dead people's heads with their eyes and mouths tightly shut, silent and still. The air was thick with the stench of death, so strong that even the noonday sun couldn't dispel it.

Perhaps it was the time of day, but its movements were stiff and sluggish, as if it was weighed down by the corpses.

With their enemy weak, Yin Ci no longer held back. His sword energy erupted, his killing intent overwhelming, and his sinister intentions no less than that of the half-dead Secret Book.

As the fierce aura spread towards Shi Zhongyu, she couldn't help but feel a sense of fear. However, with the danger facing her sect leader, she didn't waste any time panicking. Shi Zhongyu completely gave up on fighting alone and instead, with her tattered Green Maiden Sword in hand, she turned the blade and exerted all her strength to assist Yin Ci.

Finally, Old Man Chen nodded in approval. He kept his hands behind his back and showed no intention of making a move.

As for Shi Jingzhi, he couldn't help but feel restless. He believed in the importance of practical combat, and being forced to watch was more uncomfortable than having ants crawling all over his feet.

"Senior Chen, may I go and help...ah!" He had just tentatively spoken half a sentence when he received a blow from Chen Qianfan.

Sect Leader Shi gasped in cold air, his eyes stinging from the blow. He rubbed his head and felt a very obvious bump.

"So restless." Chen Qianfan commented bluntly, "You finally have the privilege of observing from the sidelines, yet you don't take the opportunity to analyze the battle situation. All you know is how to fight, fight, fight."

Shi Jingzhi remained silent. He didn't know what there was to analyze about that demonic thing on the other side. Despite being distracted by the prohibition, he had still stared at it for the entire morning, causing his head to ache and goosebumps to rise. The Secret Book had always been the same, with just a few moves that were repeated over and over again.

Now that he had gotten his disciple's promise, he felt infinitely confident and even raised his chin, saying, "I watched it this morning and have already memorized it."

Chen Qianfan looked at him askance. "Oh? Let's use that deadface kid's move as an example, if he were to hit the head of that corpse, how would the Secret Book react? How would the other corpses move? Come on, tell me every detail."

Shi Jingzhi: "..."

He suspected that the old man was just being difficult. The Secret Book was covered in unknown spells, how could he possibly decipher it?

Chen Qianfan snorted, not bothering to hide his contempt. "Youngsters will always be youngsters. At least those two kids over there know what they're doing. You, on the other hand, seem to have nothing better to do. I told you before that it was useless for you to follow, but you just don't seem to get it."

"They need to figure out how to harm the Secret Book and turn themselves into sharp blades. They can't afford to be distracted, so since they've chosen to be the knives, I'll be the one wielding them. Sharpening the blade won't delay the cutting, it's always better to study first... Sigh, I had hoped you would be of some use, but I was clearly thinking too much. Even a fart is more useful."

Shi Jingzhi took the jibe in stride, showing no signs of anger.

He stood still for a moment, despite being labeled as a "useless fart", and respectfully bowed to Old Man Chen, saying, "I have learned from you, senior."

Shi Jingzhi regained his focus and his amber eyes were glued to the Secret Book, completely absorbed.

Chen Qianfan was slightly taken aback, and his beard twitched as he revealed a less sarcastic smile.

Shi Jingzhi was no longer distracted by the matter of the prohibition, and his entire being was focused on the Secret Book. In his eyes, the hundreds of ancient corpses would sometimes form into orderly troops, and other times turn into chaotic flesh and blood. Even the slightest movement caused by sword energy would spread like ripples, leaving no trace behind.

As Shi Jingzhi continued to focus, he gradually became entranced. The terrifying corpses transformed into symbols that constructed puzzles, no longer able to evoke fear within him.

If this part is attacked, it will turn around. The three corpses will rise, and the five corpses will scatter. The talisman comes from the southwest, lifted by the corpses...

Smack!

"Ah!"

Just as Shi Jingzhi was lost in thought, he suddenly received an unexpected blow to the head.

He felt like he was going to be turned into a fool by this old thing, but he couldn't get angry. He could only grit his teeth and speak slowly, "Senior?"

"You should eat something. Your state just now was good, but it also consumed a lot of mental energy. When you're really on the battlefield, being too focused is not good - you not only need to use your brain, but also protect your body."

Shi Jingzhi suddenly realized that he had been too absorbed in his thoughts and hadn't moved for two hours. He took a step forward, but immediately felt dizzy and spat out a mouthful of blood. His legs were also numb and he almost couldn't stand.

Chen Qianfan lit a fire and handed a piece of sweet and delicious red sugar cake to Shi Jingzhi.

"Eat up and take a break."

"...Has Senior Chen ever fought against the Secret Book?" Shi Jingzhi sat upright by the fire, full of admiration.

Chen Qianfan stroked his beard and flipped through his record book. "I've fought two or three times. When I was in my thirties and forties, I could still handle it, but when I got older, I couldn't do it alone and had to work with younger generations."

Shi Jingzhi fell silent for a moment, looking at the thick and ancient record book.

"Senior, are you abandoning your memories to become immortal?"

"Although I am indeed seeking an indestructible body, I cannot ignore the cause and effect so easily."

Chen Qianfan casually nibbled on the sugar cake.

"People are easily obsessed with the ups and downs of the past - it's better to forget them, so as not to be hurt by the joys and sorrows of life. This way, even when I become an immortal, I won't suffer from the troubles of the world."

"Of course, I won't erase the daily trivialities...otherwise, I won't even remember who I am, and that would be ridiculous."

Perhaps people without the Object Addiction are just so carefree, thought Shi Jingzhi in his heart.

He struggled to swallow the overly sweet cake and asked, "Is Senior so sure that the 'indestructible body' exists?"

"Few people die of old age, most die of illness. If one of my organs fails, I'll just replace it with a magical tool - take Wei Chun for example. She had all sorts of problems from being beaten up in her youth. If I hadn't replaced her organs, she wouldn't have lived past forty."

In a fleeting moment, Shi Jingzhi felt a bit regretful. He was a person whose entire body, including his meridians, was malfunctioning. Otherwise, he could have considered swapping his organs as a way out.

"The indestructible body... Senior, it seems to me that this is more like a way to die a natural death from old age?"

"That's why I still need to search for a spell."

Chen Qianfan lifted his eyelids and flipped through the thick record book for a while. He found a page and pushed it towards Shi Jingzhi.

"When I was young, I traveled to many places, but it's a long story. You can take a look for yourself... This is a secret spell that I obtained, and since your life is hanging by a thread, who knows if it might be useful."

Unlike the brief records from earlier, the words on that page were neatly written and filled the entire page. Shi Jingzhi had good eyesight, but he still found it a bit difficult to read.

The matter of the indestructible body was meticulously recorded by the young Chen Qianfan.

It was often associated with the legends of immortals and Buddhas, and like the present-day Shi Jingzhi, Chen Qianfan roamed the land of Dayun, searching for relevant clues in his youth.

He had been to the city of Shafu in the northwest. In the desert adjacent to the ancient battlefield, Chen Qianfan found a village that was almost isolated from the world.

Usually, all regions would have similar stories of gods and monsters, and Chen Qianfan had long learned to separate fact from fiction. However, in that small village, he heard an unprecedented legend.

The village was tiny, and the villagers didn't interact much with outsiders. As they rarely encountered anything strange, any old person could tell this story vividly, as if they were present at the scene.

More than two hundred years ago, the village was plagued by sand bandits and wolf packs. One winter day, the sand bandits who often raided the village suddenly disappeared without a trace. The incident was strange, so the village elected the bravest young man to go to the sand bandits' lair to investigate.

As a result, he only found scattered bones covered in flesh and blood all over the ground.

The sand bandits seemed to have been devoured by wild beasts, leaving only sticky and broken flesh. Among the bloody lair, only one survivor remained.

He was young, dressed in luxurious clothes that looked like tattered cloth strips, and had the appearance of a celestial being from the nine heavens.

Unfortunately, he was a fool.

He spoke to him but went unacknowledged, called out to him and went unanswered. He just stood there, like a withered tree that had lost all its vitality. The young man thought he was a slave captured by the sand bandits for their amusement, so he carefully fed him and brought him back to the village to take care of him along with his wife and children.

Even if the strange man didn't know how to do anything, just watching him was pleasing to the eye. Not to mention, he had great strength and once he was trained, he could help with simple and heavy work.

But as the years went by, the strange man still couldn't speak and didn't want to interact with anyone. When he had no work to do, he would find an open space to sit and would sit there for half a day without moving.

The elderly people in the village said that his "heart was spoilt" and there was no cure. The villagers were simple and just considered him as a quiet scenery in the village, without disturbing the strange man.

Ten years passed without incident.

Ten years later, the brave young man from before had become a middle-aged man over forty, with children who were married and had children of their own who were learning to speak. The strange man's appearance, however, had not changed at all. He had not a single wrinkle more or white hair.

If it weren't for the strange person's beautiful and ethereal appearance, coupled with his foolish and silly demeanor, people would almost be afraid of them.

The climax of the legend was a wolf attack.

Every winter, the village would suffer one or two waves of wolf attacks. Usually, the villagers only needed to guard the outer wall of the village and keep the village gate closed.

Who knew that year, the wolf pack had a wolf demon. The wolf demon was very intelligent and actually commanded the wolf pack to break through the village wall.

People were frightened and immediately went back to their own homes, tightly closing their doors and extinguishing their candles.

At that time, the strange person was carrying firewood to the woodshed. The middle-aged man took advantage of the situation and pushed him into the narrow woodshed, extinguishing the lamp and preparing to lock the door.

"A cold wind swept by, and the his right arm instantly lost its flesh, leaving only a bloody arm bone."

Chen Qianfan swallowed his pastry and enthusiastically said.

"I also occasionally re-read this legend, it's very exciting."

Shi Jingzhi furrowed his brow, feeling a faint sense of familiarity with the strange man's technique. Despite this being an old story from two hundred years ago, he continued reading attentively.

The man was heavily injured and felt both angry and scared, as if his good intentions had been wasted. He left the strange man behind and ran towards the main house, locking the door tightly and only daring to peek out through the window.

The strange man looked at his blood-covered hands and showed a pained expression for the first time in ten years.

He stumbled out of the shed and ran into the pack of wolves.

There were no yards in the village, and the moonlight was just right for the nearby houses to see everything clearly.

The otherworldly man was instantly pounced on by the wolves, his limbs torn apart and killed on the spot. But the next moment, he stood up unsteadily, his legs and feet growing back - the wolves didn't even have time to swallow the remains in their mouths.

A sword aura flashed by, and the hungry wolves were instantly skinned and dismembered, turning into a bloody pile of corpses.

The man burst out with an extremely cold killing intent, walking through the herd of beasts with his bare hands. Wherever he went, the bones piled up like mountains and the blood flowed like rivers, and the frosty moonlight was dyed red.

In the midst of the slaughter, for some unknown reason, the strange man seemed to become more and more sober, and his gaze became more and more desperate.

The wolf demon suffered a great loss and was furious. It charged towards the strange man with killing intent, once again performing a tragic scene of crushing a living person in front of everyone.

But no matter how many times he fell, the man would always rise again from his remains.

Under the bright full moon, the blood-red fine roots rose into the sky, like a demon rising from the abyss.

They constantly gathered and formed, mending his wounds. But the strange man seemed to feel no pain, charging forward countless times with his bare hands, leaving wounds on the huge wolf demon. It is said that later, the wolf demon was so frightened that it wanted to escape, but was caught by the man by its tail and forced to stay.

Gradually, the dawn light began to shine, and not a single wolf from the pack survived.

The strange man's hair was disheveled, his clothes torn, and his body covered in blood and flesh. He stood quietly in front of the wolf corpses, gazing at the gathered villagers.

He said something in a hoarse voice, but no one could hear him. His middle-aged male caretaker was tragically injured, and the villagers united in anger, throwing stones at the strange man.

The strange man stopped speaking, allowing the villagers to pelt him with stones. He hung his head and bowed to the village before stripping the wolf demon's fur and draping it over himself, blood-soaked. And with that, he left.

Legend has it that in the end, the immortal demon's whereabouts were unknown.

Shi Jingzhi furrowed his brow.

Chen Qianfan raised an eyebrow, "Have you also noticed? Shafu is near the main altar of the Red Hook Sect. This is a legend from over two hundred years ago, and a century ago, Red Hook produced a skilled swordsman named Su Zhi, whose Sweeping Bone Sword technique is strikingly similar to that of the strange person. I have investigated thoroughly, and this legend is likely true.

"But Su Zhi lived to be ninety-nine and died of old age. Perhaps the strange person is an ancestor of the Su family, and the technique of immortality was not passed down."

Shi Jingzhi interjected, "Over two hundred years ago was the peak of the Mi Lan Empress's reign. So Senior believes that the strange person is related to Mi Lan's spells?"

Chen Qianfan did not shy away from him and replied directly.

"Hmm, I've only seen such strange effects from the Mi Lan spells. Even if that person isn't using the Mi Lan techniques, they must have been inspired by it... Kid, if you can't get the Shi Rou, trying this route wouldn't be a bad idea. I happen to need an assistant."

Shi Jingzhi absentmindedly agreed.

He had witnessed the "recovery with blood-red fine roots" from legend with his own eyes. In the forbidden area, he had cut open the unfinished flesh god statue, and it had recovered in such a way.

And as a descendant of the "Su Family," was it a coincidence that Yin Ci was also investigating the flesh god statue?

The battle in the forbidden area that day played over and over in his mind. Shi Jingzhi sat on the cold snow, and sweat dripped down his back— the way the flesh god statue moved was so familiar that it made him uncomfortable.

Shi Jingzhi lifted his eyes and looked towards the Secret Book not far away.

It was the same.

Compared to the flesh god statue, the appearance of the Secret Book is less refined. It possesses evil magic that the flesh god statue does not have, and also needs to devour external objects to supplement its energy. But their physical movements are exactly the same, following the same pattern.

When was the Divine Emperor Wu's shrine in Yongsheng built? It seems to have been more than two hundred years ago, around the same time as the Secret Book.

What exactly happened on this land two hundred years ago? If the Secret Book is a cursed artifact, then what is the flesh god statue?

Shi Jingzhi felt a chill run down his spine and suddenly had difficulty breathing.

"...Senior, if we cut off the corpse on the Secret Book, will it regenerate?"

Chen Qianfan sneered, "There's no such good thing. It was much bigger in the past. A corpse is a corpse, it won't grow randomly."

Little did he know that right after he let out a sigh of relief, Chen Qianfan had to add another sentence, making Shi Jingzhi even more uneasy.

"The corpses are completely dead, with no connection between the meridians. The essence cannot flow, so how can they be revived? To truly unblock the essence, one must use living flesh that is connected as a whole."

For example, using demonic creatures to erode living humans, turning them into living flesh paste, and patiently collecting them.

Someone had already... or rather, "something" had already done this.

Shi Jingzhi remained motionless.

He sat between the vast expanse of heaven and earth, his whole body freezing. His flesh and skin were like paper, and the cold wind blew through his bones. The giant statue in the forbidden area appeared before him again, pressing down on him to the point that he couldn't even lift his head.

Shi Jingzhi gritted his teeth, and a taste of blood slowly filled his mouth.

For the first time, he realized that the world before him was so unfamiliar.

The flesh god statue is related to immortals, and so is the Shi Rou. Today, the flesh god statue was covered in a layer of golden shell, making it beautiful and worthy of worship. The legend of the Shi Rou had also spread widely, causing people in the martial arts world to fight over it endlessly.

But is this Shi Rou also just a weak layer of golden shell?

At this point, he didn't think that the legendary immortals are as kind and friendly as they are said to be.

However, even if he had doubts, Shi Jingzhi could not let go of the slim chance of survival. He was tied up by countless threads called "desire," and he is forced to walk down a path that has already been predetermined.

This feeling is simply nauseating.

If it weren't for Ah Ci by his side this time, he would definitely choose to erase his memories and continue to pursue the Shi Rou with enthusiasm and naivety.

Not long ago, he still had a lingering fear and hesitation about breaking the prohibition. But at this moment, that struggle was completely overtaken by his determination. Shi Jingzhi couldn't wait to personally take action and dig out the prohibition that was tainted with "immortal energy" from his mind.

This prohibition, he would definitely break it.

Chen Qianfan didn't understand the young man's thoughts. He waved his hand to signal for Yin Ci and Shi Zhongyu to come over.

"It's getting late, and the Yin energy is heavy at night, making the Secret Book harder to deal with. The efficacy of the Breath-Stopping Pill is also running out. Let's go back first and come back tomorrow."

As he spoke, Old Man Chen quickly recorded the day's observations and then efficiently erased his memory. The whole process was as natural as eating and drinking water.

Despite having no opponent, the Secret Book indeed did not leave and was still leisurely wandering in place.

But as the group was about to disappear from view, the creature lifted its massive head and turned towards the direction they were leaving.

In an instant, the thousands of dead people's heads on its head opened their eyes. The murky eyeballs protruded slightly, reflecting the four figures in the snowy landscape.

The lips of the thousands of heads remained tightly closed, and the Secret Book remained as silent as ever.

The author has something to say:

Unfortunately, the two lovers had to leave the plot _(:з」∠)_

The special way that the Ku Mountain Sect deals with a sanity check -

Sect Leader Shi: Think of his disciple.

Demon Lord Yin: Think of his master.