“Are you serious?”

“Do you think this is a time for jokes?”

“This is my ancestor’s face-skin.”

“You’re not exactly a filial son yourself.”

“Because I have my ancestor’s bloodline, I can barely retain my self when I use the ancestor’s face-skin. An outsider like you, if you put it on, you’ll get lost.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. Hand it over.”

“Because this place is constructed by the ancestor’s design, his face-skin has a special meaning and effect here. It will cause a disturbance in the rules, leading to a lot of commotion entering at the same time…”

“Are you giving it or not?”

“Giving!”

Li Zhuiyuan knew that as long as he asked, the other party would definitely give it.

What is called manipulating people’s hearts, simply put, is first figuring out what the other person truly desires in their heart, and then, following that line of thought, weaving a dream for them that they can fulfill.

In this situation, even if you become lazy, tired, and don’t want to deceive anymore, they will actively help you deceive themselves.

The faceless man began to tear off the upper half of his face.

Soon, half a face-skin floated in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

The young man reached out and grabbed it.

The touch was cool, not at all greasy, and it exuded a refreshing sandalwood scent.

Those who knew understood it was human skin; those who didn’t might have thought it was an artwork.

Since the faceless man’s ancestor had the ability to build this place, then his tomb must also be extraordinary.

The sandalwood scent had permeated it over a long period, which meant the environment inside the tomb had remained constant during that time.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Where is your family’s ancestral grave?”

The faceless man: “Isn’t that question a bit presumptuous?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Anyway, your own family has already looted it, and your family members have all been killed and reburied here by you. After you become an immortal, you live in the Heavenly Palace, and it’s not easy to come down to the mortal realm. Why don’t I sweep the grave for you?”

The faceless man: “Qīngtān, Sānyuèlín.”

Li Zhuiyuan hadn’t heard of this place name, but he could look it up.

Li Zhuiyuan spread out the half face-skin in his hand and then raised it.

Without hesitation or mental preparation, he simply closed his eyes and pressed the half face-skin to his face.

When Li Zhuiyuan tried to open his eyes, the half face-skin seemed to come alive, and a flood of massive jumbled thoughts began to pour into him.

The faceless man carefully observed the young man in front of him, hoping to see a look of struggle and pain on his face.

Unfortunately, he was disappointed; the young man’s expression didn’t change at all.

Not only that, when the young man opened his eyes, there was no sign of杂色 (mixed colors/impurities) in their depths.

This meant that the young man not only didn’t get lost but also suppressed all other jumbled thoughts.

The faceless man: “Are you human or ghost?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Don’t you think it’s funny? You, who float around, ask me, a flesh-and-blood person, whether I’m human or ghost.”

The faceless man: “This is impossible!”

The faceless man had his own experiences and understanding. He believed that there were people with incredibly strong willpower in this world, but he didn’t believe there could be anyone who was completely unaffected.

Li Zhuiyuan gently poked the skin near his eye socket: “Impossible?”

Each use of the Black Book secret technique was equivalent to quickly experiencing another person’s life. Memories, emotions, insights, and so on, would leave an imprint on the user.

The person under the peach forest was lost because he used this secret technique too much.

But the young man and Wei Zhengdao were not affected by this.

Absolutely cold rationality naturally required the removal of all impurities and burdens.

Therefore, as fellow patients, each time they had an episode, it was actually an attempt to erase “self-awareness.”

Lack of emotion was the fruit born from this cause, it was just the easiest to manifest and detect.

Those jumbled thoughts, those factors that might shake identity recognition, simply could not affect them when they entered their bodies, because they were ruthless enough… to even kill themselves.

Li Zhuiyuan turned and looked at the scholar lying on the couch.

Now, he could see the “threads” emerging from the scholar’s body.

They connected with the surrounding furniture, floor, and walls, interacting with each other.

However, there were many loose threads on the scholar, indicating that the original threads were denser, almost completely enveloping the scholar, but many had broken.

Just like the rules that had been continuously damaged and were now riddled with holes.

Li Zhuiyuan looked around, observing these loose threads everywhere. There were many on the ground, and quite a few also appeared in the surrounding air. They had beginnings and ends, having broken off.

The young man raised his hand, trying to touch them, but as soon as his fingertips made contact, the threads dispersed like reflections in water or flowers in a mirror.

Earlier, when Li Zhuiyuan was still outside the pagoda, he felt the bell sounds emanating from within the pagoda. At that time, he thought that after this wave ended, he would go back and thoroughly study the method of group formations.

He hadn’t expected that after re-entering the pagoda, he would be able to directly face these “threads.”

This was simply like observing a classroom, which would greatly aid his future research.

Unfortunately, time didn’t allow it; otherwise, he truly wanted to sit here for ten days to half a month and meticulously study it.

The young man refocused his attention on the scholar, and at the same time, reached out and grabbed the bell in front of the scholar.

The moment the bell was taken, the threads on the scholar’s body began to writhe wildly.

He got out of bed, stood up, and stood before the young man with his eyes closed.

Li Zhuiyuan carefully sensed it. Although it was very similar, the other party was not in a puppet state controlled by him.

At this time, the scholar had some autonomous behavior capability, but this autonomous behavior did not originate from himself.

Instead, it was a kind of drive that occurred through these threads, under the operation and deduction of the rules.

Li Zhuiyuan thought of the three stone gates at the entrance of this secret realm: Puppet, Beast Taming, and Formation.

These three constituted the foundation of the rules here.

The faceless man’s ancestor was indeed an extraordinary being. To be able to set up this place meant that he had at least mastered all three of these and integrated them into one.

This also reminded Li Zhuiyuan that if he wanted to continue delving into this path, then the “Beast Taming” aspect seemed to be one he couldn’t skip.

However, could Wei Zhengdao’s Black Book secret technique potentially replace the “Beast Taming” category?

Given that Yu Cangshēng could serve as a teacher here relying on his family’s scholarship, Li Zhuiyuan didn’t believe that Wei Zhengdao’s most powerful signature secret technique would be inferior to the Yu family’s Beast Taming Art.

Was it possible that the “Beast Taming” category was originally a fallback option due to the difficulty and barrenness of techniques like manipulating humans and spirits?

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Seeing this, the faceless man stood up straight, thinking, “Sure enough, you still feel uncomfortable and confused.”

He misunderstood; the young man wasn’t lost but was forcing himself to interrupt his learning and thinking process.

This tall pagoda truly was a treasure trove everywhere.

Every detail contained the ancestors’ stunning ideas and innovations.

The scholar turned, preparing to descend.

Li Zhuiyuan could supplement him to some extent through the bell.

Just like before, when the old Daoist and Yu Cangshēng dueled, the role the faceless man on the top of the pagoda played.

The dead were, after all, dead. Even if they stood up again to fight, their inherent limitations were still significant.

Yu Cangshēng had long seen this. He was far from a match for the old Daoist, but if it hadn’t been for the faceless man’s boost at the time, Yu Cangshēng actually had a chance to defeat the old Daoist on his own.

Because the pagoda’s deduction logic was a bit too rigid.

It was as rigid as the black-dressed woman who “killed” Yu Miaomiao at the beginning, using only one move from start to finish.

Presumably, according to the pagoda’s logic, if it worked well, then keep using it.

Like that teaching game back then, the current pagoda was himself at that time, and his current self was Zhao Yi at that time.

Holding the bell, he was essentially lending his brain to the pagoda to deduce together.

This was not the mode Li Zhuiyuan wanted.

At this moment, Xu Zhenrong and Zhen Shao’an below the pagoda, having the classroom environment, had their strength soaring, creating an extremely unfair situation.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Was that old Daoist the most powerful being in this pagoda when he was alive?”

The faceless man: “Yes, he should have occupied a floor by himself.”

Pausing, the faceless man continued: “It’s not that he wasn’t strong enough, it’s that he’s already dead, and I can only…”

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand, interrupting the faceless man.

The old Daoist was already the strongest, yet he still couldn’t salvage the situation.

Therefore, even if this scholar went down now, it would increase their fighting strength, but it wouldn’t be enough to bring the situation back into balance.

Since he chose to act, he had to aim for victory, not just for a little more time to prolong the struggle.

Li Zhuiyuan conveyed his command through the bell.

The scholar’s steps paused for a moment, then he continued towards the stairs.

When his command conflicted with the rules within the pagoda, the scholar would obey the behavior logic given by the latter.

This wouldn’t do.

Li Zhuiyuan chased after him, following behind the scholar.

The faceless man reminded, “Go to the top of the pagoda. It’s easier to get a full view there.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “A losing situation doesn’t need to be fully viewed.”

The faceless man found this very reasonable, but what was the point?

Seeing the young man follow the scholar downstairs, he immediately floated down after him.

Li Zhuiyuan knew he didn’t have much time. If he couldn’t intervene with the scholar before he left the pagoda, he wouldn’t have another chance to do anything to him later.

The young man began to form hand seals, activating the newly learned Nuo opera puppetry.

Strands of black qi rose from the scholar’s body, and a faint phantom mask appeared on his face.

But the next moment, accompanied by the already shaking pagoda, an additional slight tremor occurred.

The black mist on the scholar dissipated, and the mask on his face collapsed with it.

This path was a dead end.

If he wanted to control the scholar through Nuo opera puppetry, he first had to suppress or simply break the pagoda’s rules, which was clearly impossible.

As for approaching it from a formation perspective… other than digging a mouse hole as he did when stealing the book before, he simply couldn’t truly shake the formation here.

Out of three methods, two were gone.

He didn’t know beast taming.

In this situation, Li Zhuiyuan had to bring out the substitute, which was originally meant for experimentation, and use it ahead of schedule.

The young man’s eyes narrowed, and he began to perform zǒu yīn (walking in the netherworld), while simultaneously activating the Black Book secret technique.

In an instant, the environment inside the pagoda disappeared, replaced by a cliff.

The scholar and a woman sat there, as if admiring the scenery.

Under the setting sun, everything was tinged with orange frost, a picturesque scene.

And they, enjoying the view, also seemed to be painted into the picture as a talented scholar and a beautiful lady.

After dark, it was a starry sky again.

The two sat there motionlessly.

Until late at night, the scholar finally moved. He picked up the woman.

The woman wore several jade pendants of special quality, exuding a cold aura.

She was already dead; these jade pendants were used to preserve the corpse from decay.

The scholar carried the woman into a cave. The cave wasn’t very deep, but a formation was set up outside.

Inside the cave was a stone platform, with a small stream flowing beneath it—a favorite formation guide for formation masters.

The scholar placed the woman’s remains on it and said:

“They all say that birth, old age, sickness, and death are beyond human control. I believe it, so I no longer intend to be a human. You sleep peacefully here. When I become an immortal, I will return to revive you and take you with me to the heavens. You haven’t seen the scenery there, but I think you will definitely like it.”

Was this to revive his beloved, embarking on the path of seeking immortality?

Li Zhuiyuan thought this quite fit the scholar’s persona.

The young man also noticed that the wordless book had always been tied to the scholar’s waist; he had been looking at this book at that time.

Next, the memory scenes fast-forwarded.

Just like a movie on a VCR fast-forwards by quickly reading through, not jumping directly to a specific time segment, it was the same for Li Zhuiyuan.

This was also why this secret technique caused severe side effects: when you deeply experience someone else’s life, your own self-identification will inevitably be shaken.

In the subsequent scenes, the scholar used various means to enter this place at the moment the stone gate reopened. Many people entered with him.

The scene skipped again, and the scholar arrived at the eleventh floor, choosing a burly man with a full beard.

The following scene was familiar because Li Zhuiyuan himself had just experienced it.

This group of people who entered here with the scholar, bringing the people they had chosen, went to the underground level and began to compete and fight.

The scholar killed the bearded man.

The bearded man’s corpse began to rot rapidly, transforming into mist that rose and drilled into the scholar’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

The scholar didn’t resist, calmly accepting all of it. His life force also slowly dwindled during this time, accepting his own death in a very peaceful manner.

From the moment of his death, he became a part of this tall pagoda.

He closed his eyes, walked back to the pagoda like a zombie, reached the eleventh floor, sat in the position where the bearded man had been, pulled out a book, lay sideways, and remained motionless.

The people on the eleventh floor rarely changed because very few could challenge that floor.

In subsequent years, the scholar only accepted two challenges. After those two challenges, he absorbed the opponents’ destinies and good fortune into his mouth, then returned to his spot, adopting the same posture.

The next segment of memory was hazy, like slight slits of eyes opening.

In the haziness, Li Zhuiyuan saw a young figure busily arranging a formation, then forcefully pulling the book “from his own hands.”

Li Zhuiyuan hadn’t expected to be able to enter the other person’s deep memory.

Next, following the traditional process, he should construct false memories for the scholar to achieve the goal of manipulation.

But now, they had already descended to the fourth floor.

Even if this scholar was controlled by rules, suppressed by formations, and had the special effect of the half-human skin on his face… even with so many favorable conditions as a prefix, it would still take a lot of time to complete the Black Skin Secret Technique to achieve traditional manipulation. No other reason than he was too strong when he was alive.

Li Zhuiyuan could only take a shortcut. Since dogmatic methods were too late, he had to take a conciliatory approach.

The fact that the other party could still remember the scene of him stealing his book meant that he actually possessed a slight degree of self-awareness.

Moreover, this scholar was different from other fanatics obsessed with achieving immortality.

He might not have been solely devoted to pursuing immortality, but rather, his beloved died, and he couldn’t prevent or reverse it, so he specifically came to this place to escape.

Under Li Zhuiyuan’s manipulation, the memory scene began to rewind, all the way back to that mountain cave.

Outside the cave, scenes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter began to flash rapidly.

Li Zhuiyuan was simulating the changes that would occur inside and outside the cave under the erosion of time.

The young man was already highly skilled in formations, so his aging techniques were naturally not bad.

Soon, as “time kept flowing rapidly,” the formation outside the cave entrance became mottled and peeled, gradually losing its power.

The stream in the cave dried up, and the patterns on the table were slowly filled with dust, gradually losing their protective effect.

Several of the jade pendants on the woman’s body, used to preserve the corpse, slowly grew dimmer in luster.

Small animals began to sneak in. The body, having lost its protection and preservation, not only faced the risk of being gnawed by animals but also had to endure the price of impending decay.

The scholar’s body began to tremble; he obviously couldn’t accept this scene.

Li Zhuiyuan’s voice also rang in his ears:

“When you left, you thought you’d be gone for a long time, but you probably didn’t expect it to be this long. Even if you accounted for the erosion of time in your initial arrangements, no amount of preparation can ultimately prevent what is bound to happen. I promise you, if you ultimately fail to ascend to immortality, I will go to where she is buried and re-establish all the internal and external formations for her, so that her appearance and voice will remain eternal.”

The scholar in the memory scene stopped trembling.

The scholar in reality no longer resisted the young man’s consciousness, completely opening up his defenses.

It worked.

And at this moment, the two of them also happened to arrive at the first floor.

The scholar continued towards the pagoda door, while Li Zhuiyuan remained in place, closing his eyes.

Outside at this moment, a fierce and lively battle was raging.

“Fake Rùnshēng” did not attempt to fully open his Qi gates, most likely because Xu Zhenrong was also unsure whether this human figure, sculpted from a large number of shadows, could withstand the burden of fully open Qi gates.

Moreover… she already held a significant advantage.

Zhao Yi didn’t naively engage in “soldier against soldier, general against general.” Instead, he chose to gather everyone, with Rùnshēng taking responsibility for the frontal assault, while the others behind Rùnshēng provided various assists and buffs.

He had long ago given up the possibility of “winning,” and very simply chose to make his own arranged formation the core, with everyone else gathered around him for cover, single-mindedly playing the role of a shrinking turtle.

Because “Fake Rùnshēng,” “Fake Lín Shūyǒu,” and “Fake Tán Wénbīn” all had significantly stronger physical qualities than their real counterparts, a one-on-one duel would only accelerate the process of defeat.

Zhao Yi’s goal was to buy time, to stall until the person surnamed Li in the pagoda returned to reinforce them.

This single decision alone was superior to countless specific commands given during battle.

For example, Yu Miaomiao above, she was covered in blood, increasingly suppressed by Zhen Shao’an, engaged in a desperate struggle like a cornered beast.

What she should have done at the very beginning was to abandon any thoughts of active attack, giving herself enough safe distance to seek external deterrence.

But her eyes were filled with hatred and unwillingness, still wanting to break through the continuously accumulating and increasingly terrifying formation pressure, and then, kill him.

It was this stubbornness and extremism that was leading her step by step into a dead end.

Zhen Shao’an only needed to continue setting up the formation, and perhaps in the next moment, Yu Miaomiao’s body would make a “pop” sound and turn into a cloud of blood mist.

Xu Zhenrong held an absolute advantage, yet her three powerful puppets were unable to break through the single-minded defensive shell.

She was already considering whether to let “Fake Rùnshēng” enter the full Qi gate mode, as this seemed to be the only way to accelerate the process now.

Just then, the scholar walked out of the pagoda door.

Xu Zhenrong and Zhen Shao’an were both startled, then they looked up at the top of the pagoda again. The top was still empty.

They didn’t understand why, after having already dealt with an old Daoist, someone else could still walk out of this pagoda.

Could it be that the person on the top floor had two lives?

Zhen Shao’an: “Don’t worry. Even if that old Daoist appears again, with our current territorial advantage, we no longer need to fear him.”

Xu Zhenrong: “No matter how powerful he was in life, once dead, he is dead.”

Although the scholar’s sudden appearance surprised them, this surprise was not enough to affect the situation they currently controlled.

Inside the pagoda, Li Zhuiyuan, with closed eyes, opened his mouth. The scholar, who had just walked out of the pagoda door and stood there, also opened his mouth.

Li Zhuiyuan was speaking, but the voice came from the scholar’s mouth:

“Dividing the good fortune of that bell will cause the rules here to completely collapse. Under the proliferation of resentment, everything here will turn into evil spirits. When they rush out from here to the outside, it will be a natural disaster.”

The scholar spoke, which shocked Zhen Shao’an and Xu Zhenrong.

Zhen Shao’an: “Bluffing. It’s someone inside transmitting sound with a secret technique. It’s fine, he’s already dead. Any other changes are not worth worrying about, unless he can open his eyes.”

Xu Zhenrong said, “Under the guise of achieving immortality, to deceive the masses and harm living beings, we have infiltrated here precisely to slay this treacherous villain who spreads misleading words, and to seek justice for the pitiful beings who lost their lives due to being deceived!”

Inside the pagoda, Li Zhuiyuan smiled; outside the pagoda, the scholar also smiled.

It turned out that both of them, including Yu Cangshēng, actually knew all along that taking the good fortune from the great bell in the pagoda would cause it to lose control, leading to countless evil spirits rushing out of Yùlóng Xuěshān and causing disaster.

But they didn’t care because their only concern was their own families.

Zhao Yi, hearing this conversation, couldn’t help but recall his ancestor’s stone tablet left in the mountains, as well as the copper coin sword that his ancestor had “given” to the person surnamed Li.

He also remembered the time he gave medicine to the person surnamed Li, and the evaluation the person surnamed Li gave him during the post-action review:

“Because I acted foolishly.”

Despite having a simpler and more reliable way to get rid of the old hag, the person surnamed Li stubbornly chose the most difficult and dangerous one.

At this moment, Zhao Yi, wiping the blood that flowed from the seams of the Gate of Life and Death due to overexertion of the formation, scoffed:

“Tch, no wonder none of you could ever contend with my ancestor. If the Dragon King’s position truly fell to you, that would be a desecration.”

One should contend when necessary, seize when necessary, and kill when necessary, but some things must always come first. To truly convince people, fists alone are not enough.

Zhen Shao’an: “We admit we couldn’t contend with Zhao Wúyàng, but what we’re here to take today, we must get our hands on!”

Xu Zhenrong: “It’s just another dead person who can’t open his eyes walking out. Young Zhao, do you really think you can turn the tables?”

“Hahahahaha!”

Zhao Yi suddenly burst into laughter, so hard that blood was rapidly gushing from his forehead and chest.

But he couldn’t mind these now, and shouted:

“It’s good that you didn’t say anything, but now that you have, I really feel it’s about to come true. Facts will tell you that your mouths have been blessed today!”

Zhao Yi raised his hand, held up three fingers, and counted down as he lowered them one by one: “Three, two, one!”

In his heart, he was rapidly repeating: “Li, I know you can do it, give me some face! Li, don’t let me be embarrassed!”

“…One!”

As he uttered “one,” Zhao Yi also snapped his fingers.

“Snap!”

The scholar, eyes open!