Wu Xingxue turned to look at him and saw him holding one of the Life Spirit Talismans from the attendant statues between his fingers. He said, "This talisman is rare among the common people, but they're all over the Immortal Capital."

The implication was obvious. What kind of immortal from the Immortal Capital would use this thing to revive themselves?

"Then could it be some commoner who didn't know any better and set all this up?" the young disciples guessed.

Xiao Fuxuan moved his lips, but before he could speak, the young disciples shook their heads, refuting their own idea. "No, no, that's impossible. What kind of ignorant commoner would come to a sinister place like Great Sorrow Valley to set up a random formation? Are they crazy?"

"Then what are these Life Spirit Talismans for?"

"Yeah, we can just peel them off, and several of the attendant statues are already broken..."

They mumbled among themselves.

Speaking of broken, Wu Xingxue saw Xiao Fuxuan frown slightly and nudge the pottery shards on the ground with the tip of his sword.

Wu Xingxue followed his gaze and saw that the inside of the attendant girl statue that had held Gao Er was covered in bloody scratches.

He stared at the scratch marks for a while and suddenly realized something was wrong.

After Gao Er and the others had undergone their vicious transformation, their nails were as sharp as knives, practically able to cut through iron and leave grooves in stone walls, yet they couldn't shatter these pottery attendant statues? They only managed to make a mess of the insides?

Moreover, these commoners had only met their fate recently, but these attendant statues looked quite old, perhaps from around the same time as the god statues in the tomb.

So, before these commoners stuck the Life Spirit Talismans on them, what were these attendant statues doing in the tomb?

Xiao Fuxuan suddenly flicked the tip of his sword, and a shard landed in his hand.

Wu Xingxue glanced at it and saw that beneath the crisscrossing, bloody scratches on the shard, there seemed to be a tiny mark, but it was almost completely destroyed and impossible to make out clearly.

"What's this?" Wu Xingxue asked.

"Can't see it clearly," Xiao Fuxuan paused, then said, "It's most likely an Offering Seal."

"Offering Seal?" Wu Xingxue had naturally never heard of it, and asked again, "What's it for?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "To receive incense and offerings."

Wu Xingxue smiled. "High Immortal, do I look like I understand?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "..."

He probably rarely gave detailed explanations of such trivial matters. Watched by Wu Xingxue's smiling face, he was silent for a moment before speaking again. "In the past, the immortals of the Immortal Capital would leave an Offering Seal on their god statues so they could receive the incense and offerings from all the various immortal temples in the Mortal Realm."

Wu Xingxue thought of Yun Hai, whom he had mentioned earlier. In the end, it was because he had no incense offerings at all that his immortal status was revoked and he was cast back into the Mortal Realm.

"So, for all immortals, incense offerings are like food for the common people. They can't live without it?" Wu Xingxue said.

Xiao Fuxuan corrected him, "For almost all."

Wu Xingxue: "There are exceptions?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "Mn."

Wu Xingxue: "For example?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "...Me."

Wu Xingxue let out a soft "ah," but he could understand. He had been Summoned to immortality and wasn't under the jurisdiction of The Twelve Immortals of Lingtai. He was also in charge of punishment and pardon, which had nothing to do with the common people of the Mortal Realm, so being an exception was normal.

He didn't ask further, only saying, "Then what's the point of leaving an Offering Seal on these attendant statues? This tomb is buried deep underground with no one to come and worship. Whose incense could it possibly receive?"

As Wu Xingxue spoke, he suddenly remembered the ever-burning lamps that lined the stone walls and felt that perhaps the person who had first opened this tomb and placed the attendant statues here wasn't really trying to receive any incense. Like the ever-burning lamps, it was just a form of silent, long-term companionship.

Inside Gao Er and the others' tattered clothes were a few bundles of unbroken tribute incense. Wu Xingxue bent down, pulled out three sticks, and lit them with an oil lamp from the wall. He held the incense sticks and let them burn near the pottery shard for a while.

The thin, curling wisp of green smoke suddenly drifted in a certain direction.

"What's with the smoke?" an Immortal Sect disciple looked over, waving a hand. "There's no wind in the cave right now."

"Could it be pointing the way?"

The group exchanged glances and immediately followed the green smoke forward.

They passed countless hollows and found nearly twenty more attendant statues. Every one they opened contained a gruesome corpse. They had all scratched and struggled inside, leaving the pottery interiors a mess of crisscrossing bloodstains.

From each one, Xiao Fuxuan picked out a shard. Beneath the bloodstains on the shards was a ruined Offering Seal.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Yi Wusheng mumbled, "I'm afraid we've reached the end of Great Sorrow Valley... have we?"

Before he could finish, they followed the green smoke around a fork in the path and entered a huge, circular chamber. Yi Wusheng was suddenly rendered speechless—

Because the circular chamber was filled with tall god statues.

The chatter of the few Immortal Sect disciples came to an abrupt halt, and they gasped.

They had been to ordinary immortal temples, but the statues inside had never been this tall. Some town entrances and ferry crossings had extremely tall statues, but never so many.

Most were carved on wooden or stone pillars. This was the first time they had seen a scene with such a forest of giant statues.

The relentless feeling of oppression silenced them, making them afraid to even look too long.

But they couldn't help but look.

"These god statues are like the one at the very entrance to the tomb... I don't recognize a single one," an Immortal Sect disciple said, his face filled with shock. "I've never seen so many unfamiliar god statues gathered in one place."

"Senior, what about you? Do you recognize any?"

Yi Wusheng shook his head. He tilted his face up, his gaze sweeping over them one by one. After a long while, he said, "I don't recognize any of them."

The moment Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu entered this place, they felt like they could vomit for three lifetimes on the spot.

Their faces turned green, and they subconsciously swallowed, only to hear their City Lord ask softly, "You want to vomit in here too?"

Ning Huaishan pressed his hand to his mouth, swallowing the churning sensation in his stomach. It took him a long moment to say, "Shouldn't we?"

Fang Chu leaned on Ning Huaishan's shoulder, already bent over. He held it in for a long time, his eyes turning green from the effort, before turning to ask Wu Xingxue, "City Lord... I've been meaning to ask, why don't you have any reaction to the god statues at all?"

He was about to retch again and, fearing he would be disrespectful to his City Lord, quickly buried his head in Ning Huaishan's shoulder.

Ning Huaishan warned him, "If you dare to vomit on me, I'm not finished with you. I'm serious."

Wu Xingxue, however, looked perfectly calm. "How would I know why I don't have a reaction?"

Ning Huaishan stared at him with a green face, and after a long moment, he said "oh." Right, he thought, the City Lord doesn't remember things. Even if he knew why, he's probably forgotten. Ugh—

Fuck.

The two of them really couldn't take it anymore. Waving their hands, they scrambled and crawled their way back out.

Leaving Wu Xingxue utterly baffled.

He asked Xiao Fuxuan in confusion, "You said before that Yun Hai wasn't the only immortal here who didn't meet a good end. I assume all these statues are of them?"

Xiao Fuxuan was looking at the god statues.

There was no surprise on his face, yet he scanned every single one. It was as if... he already knew who would be here, but was still searching for something.

After looking at them all, he lowered his gaze and answered calmly, "Yes, they all are."

That was strange.

Wu Xingxue pondered inwardly—if they were all cast back into the Mortal Realm like Yun Hai, then the people carved in these statues were, in fact, no longer immortals.

Since they weren't immortals and had been forgotten by the Mortal Realm, these stone statues shouldn't have any effect on two little demons like Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu.

After all, they hadn't had much of a reaction when they saw Yun Hai's statue earlier.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard a young disciple exclaim, "There are words on this altar niche!"

Wu Xingxue looked down and saw that the altar niches at the feet of the god statues were indeed engraved with words.

"Sang Feng, presided over Immovable Mountain."

"Huo Ge, presided over Snow Pond."

"Meng Gu, presided over Skull Mound."

...

Wu Xingxue walked through the forest of statues, his gaze sweeping over the words on the niches. On them were the names of each immortal and the places they once presided over.

For a moment, he stopped abruptly amidst the crowd of statues, feeling that these immortals who had not met a good end were not so unfamiliar after all.

It was as if... he had once seen their smiling and laughing faces, only to never see them again.

"There are seals on the back!" someone else cried out.

Wu Xingxue snapped back to his senses and looked over. The two statues nearest to him had seals on their backs, positioned symmetrically to the names and domains on the front. Wu Xingxue bent down and swept his oil lamp over them, discovering that the seals corresponded to the ones inside the attendant boy and girl statues.