Pig farming
An ancient battlefield and mass grave.
Dan Fengyu arrived alone at the site where the Jianmu tree had collapsed. The once lush and verdant Jianmu tree, capable of supporting the heavens and the earth, had long since vanished, leaving behind only a large pit.
A howling wind blew from all sides, swirling the black sand on the ground in a circle. The large pit seemed to come alive, with black mist faintly floating around it.
Dan Fengyu slowly walked down into the pit. At the bottom of the pit, there were many white bones piled up in a circle, surrounding a slightly raised area in the middle.
“You’ve come, my son.”
A voice came from underground, intimate in tone, but hoarse and unpleasant.
Dan Fengyu kicked the middle of the white bone and snorted, "Old man, don't think I don't know what you're thinking."
The voice from underground fell silent, replaced by an even more stern one.
How much longer until we can get out?
Dan Fengyu kicked away the soil between the bones, revealing the tree roots. He looked at the roots and said calmly, "Half a year is enough."
The Jianmu tree collapsed a thousand years ago, but its roots are still growing deep into the ground, trapping its people for over a thousand years.
The stern voice spoke: "It has been too long, and the tribespeople are growing impatient."
Trapped underground for tens of thousands of years, how could someone escape in a moment of despair? What do others think of that?
Everyone will only resent the person who ran away, blaming him for running away alone.
"You don't mean you're planning to go out and have fun by yourself and abandon us, do you?" the voice that spoke first said angrily.
Dan Fengyu walked out of the pit and stood at the edge, looking down at the roots of the Jianmu tree. His face was full of impatience and annoyance.
He wasted too much time trying to appease these fools.
Not wanting to deal with them anymore, Shan Fengyu turned and left, leaving them calling his name repeatedly.
After confirming that the person had left, the one who spoke first cursed, "We shouldn't have let him out in the first place; we should have chosen someone else."
A stern voice said, "They've already been released, there's no point in saying anything now."
The initial voice said, "Luckily, I had a backup plan."
A stern voice: "What do you mean?"
“I once met a little girl who made a contract with me with the Heavenly Dao, promising to let me out.”
"You told the humans about our situation?"
"Um."
"……idiot!!"
After the curses, the wind blew up black sand again, covering the exposed roots of the Jianmu tree.
In the small courtyard.
The same silence fell over them. Mu Qing turned and looked at Wen Zheng in surprise, "What?"
Elder Ye also showed the same expression and asked, "Ah?!"
Wen Zheng glanced at the two of them, her gaze settling on Mu Qing, and said, "It's said that demons are suppressed beneath the Jianmu tree, but the Jianmu tree has collapsed, so where are the demons?"
What can be recorded must be authentic. It's just that a thousand years have passed, and it's hard to say how much of it is true and how much is false.
Mu Qing frowned, pondering Wen Zheng's words.
Elder Ye looked at the two of them with surprise and asked, "Why did you think of this?"
The Jianmu tree is long gone, and younger cultivators probably haven't even heard of it.
When a third person learned of the matter, Wen Zheng and Mu Qing exchanged a glance and spoke first: "Elder Ye, are you a good person?"
After speaking, she looked into Elder Ye's eyes, trying to gauge her reaction.
Elder Ye was stunned for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "What do you mean by that? Am I not a good person?"
Wen Zheng remained silent and changed the subject.
Elder Ye called her twice, but she pretended not to hear and stared blankly into the distance.
After failing to get an answer from Wen Zheng, Elder Ye turned his attention to Mu Qing. "Immortal Mu, for the sake of me helping your junior sister refine pills, explain the meaning of what she just said."
Although she was smiling, her eyes held a stormy undercurrent, clearly indicating that she had taken Wen Zheng's words to heart.
Pressed by her, Mu Qing paused for a moment and said, "If Elder Ye can make a heavenly oath to guarantee that what I said today will not be spread."
Without saying a word, Elder Ye made a Heavenly Oath in front of the two of them.
With her concerns resolved, Wen Zheng finally turned around and said, "Elder Ye previously suspected that there was something wrong with Thousand Saints Palace. In fact, we share the same idea."
Elder Ye frowned: "So what does this have to do with the Jianmu tree?"
Wen Zheng took a breath, slowly exhaled, and calmly stated her guess: "I suspect that the evil spirits under the Jianmu tree have already escaped."
Elder Ye gasped and said sternly, "Impossible."
When the Jianmu collapsed, some people did mention such a thing, but so much time has passed and no one has ever actually seen the demon, so everyone thinks the news is false.
The sudden loud noise startled Wen Zheng, who leaned back and quickly called out to her, "Keep your voice down."
This is the territory of Qian Sheng Palace. What if Dan Fengyu is monitoring them and hears them?
Elder Ye lowered his head and said in a low voice, "The book records that the evil demons are ruthless, sucking the essence of people and living inside their bodies."
If demons were to truly emerge, the various immortal sects would likely be filled with them.
She hadn't noticed anything amiss with people from other sects in her daily interactions, so this was absolutely impossible.
Mu Qing added, "The possibility of this happening is indeed very low, but it just happened."
He recounted in detail how he discovered the Jianmu tree at the Changsheng Gate. Worried that Elder Ye might not believe him, he also mentioned the tree that he and Wen Zheng saw in the mirror.
"We think that might be Jianmu."
This is something that can be basically confirmed after the two of them talked.
Elder Ye lowered his head and remained silent for a long time before asking, "If it is truly a demon, why are there no unusual phenomena in the heavens and earth?"
Whenever a major event occurs, Heaven will surely send down extraordinary signs as a harbinger.
“Perhaps the evil spirits have a way to conceal the strange phenomena of heaven and earth,” Wen Zheng said after thinking for a moment, then she herself began to doubt the answer.
Elder Ye's lips twitched. "Don't speak yet."
What I said almost made her furious.
Wen Zheng: "No, I want to say that I want to actively participate in the discussion."
Elder Ye made her intentions clear by walking quickly to Wen Zheng's side and covering her mouth.
The two started playfully fighting, and without using any spiritual power, they were able to exchange blows evenly.
After the two of them finished their commotion, Mu Qing said, "Wen Zheng's guess might be correct."
Elder Ye snorted: "What about the strange phenomenon?"
She wouldn't believe it even if you beat me to death unless you presented her with extraordinary signs of the demon's emergence.
Mu Qing lowered his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then slowly said, "The emergence of demons and the strange phenomena of the heavens are not contradictory."
"What's the meaning?"
"If the number of evil spirits that emerge is small and they do not commit any major errors, then the strange phenomena of the heavens will not appear."
Just like when scooping water, if the two drops of water that spill from the ladle are small, you won't even notice that the water is less.
Wen Zheng squinted and thought for a while, "It is indeed possible."
Elder Ye hesitated, wanting to say something but then closed his mouth again.
“Heaven may have already given us a warning.” Mu Qing took a piece of paper from the pile of books and placed it in front of the two of them. “Look at this.”
The paper contained a lot of information, describing the powerful figures who appeared in the cultivation world after the collapse of the Zijianmu tree, and their cultivation levels were also listed.
Elder Ye glanced at it and his expression immediately turned ugly.
Wen Zheng didn't notice anything wrong when she first started reading, but when she got to the end, she asked, "Over the course of a thousand years, the cultivation levels of the powerful figures seem to have been decreasing at different times."
From the initial Mahayana stage to the current Nascent Soul stage, it's only been a thousand years, yet he's dropped so quickly?
“There’s one who didn’t decline.” Mu Qing pointed to the names of the various palace masters of Qian Sheng Palace. Each of them was at the Mahayana stage, and each of them had a short life.
Wen Zheng frowned and glanced at the Thousand Saints Palace, saying, "Is it possible that the Thousand Saints Palace Masters of all time were fake, and that he was actually a demon?"
Demons devour human essence and reside in the body. Once a person loses their soul, their body deteriorates rapidly, which is why the successive masters of the Thousand Saints Palace have all had short lifespans.
Mu Qing nodded: "That's one reason, but we don't know when the evil spirits came out."
The Thousand Saints Palace has not been established for long, but it has changed its palace master quite a few times. It will take some time to investigate.
Wen Zheng thought for a moment and took out the book that Elder Ye had given her before: "Take a look at this. Could it be that something was wrong with the first one?"
Just as Mu Qing was about to take it, Elder Ye suddenly stood up and interrupted him. The two of them looked up at Elder Ye at the same time.
At this moment, Elder Ye's eyes were slightly red, his fingertips trembled, and his face was ashen. He kept muttering, "How could this be? Impossible!"
He was talking while pacing back and forth, making a jumbled mess of sounds.
Seeing that her expression was not right, Wen Zheng quickly pulled her to sit down on a chair and gave her a calming talisman.
"Elder Ye, what's wrong?"
Elder Ye's face was more ashen than ever before. She gripped Wen Zheng's hand, her voice trembling, and asked, "Is there really a demon in the Thousand Saints Palace?"
Wen Zheng hesitated and shook her head: "I'm not sure."
Maybe so.
Elder Ye's hand, which was gripping the ground, fell heavily to his sides, as if he had lost all hope.
"Are you alright?" Wen Zheng asked cautiously.
Elder Ye kept his head down, making it impossible to see his expression.
The courtyard fell silent. Wen Zheng and Mu Qing looked at each other, signaling each other to speak first.
Just as the two were exchanging glances, Elder Ye raised his head and looked at Wen Zheng: "You have a grudge against Shan Fengyu. What do you want to do? I'll help you."
The resolute tone in her voice prompted Wen Zheng to ask, "Your attitude has changed a lot."
Elder Ye chuckled bitterly twice: "Yes, the mystery that has puzzled me for many years has been solved, and my state of mind has changed."
"Really?" Wen Zheng didn't believe it, after all, Elder Ye's condition looked really bad.
Elder Ye didn't explain much, but instead talked about demons: "Rather than saying that demons like to devour people's essence, it's more accurate to say that they like the essence of people who are gifted and intelligent."
"These people are favored by heaven and earth, and their essence tastes even more delicious than that of ordinary people. This may be the reason why the Longevity Sect has been capturing disciples from other sects."
After she finished speaking, she looked at the two of them and said, "Qian Sheng Palace has been isolated from the outside world for a long time, yet it has gathered so many talented disciples. What do you think the evil forces are planning?"
Wen Zheng thought for a moment: "Raise pigs?"
"Hehe." Elder Ye laughed even more painfully, tears welling up in his eyes: "Yes, it was like raising pigs. I hate that I didn't see it back then, and I even hated the person who pushed me out of the Thousand Saints Palace."
Elder Ye became lost in his own emotions, muttering many things to himself.
Wen Zheng and Mu Qing lowered their eyes, their smiles gone.
The fact that Elder Ye was able to be pushed out of the Thousand Saints Palace was most likely because they had discovered some clues and wanted to protect Elder Ye.
Unfortunately, Elder Ye did not understand the other party's meaning and harbored resentment.
If that person really realizes something is wrong, he's probably not going to make it.
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