Chen Xiyuan, mimicking the young man, patted the statue’s chin.

“Is it sturdy?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “It can hold two more without a problem.”

Chen Xiyuan smiled and said frankly, “That’s good. I can’t beat him.”

This statement had another meaning: she could at least hold her own for a few moves.

Previously, Chen Xiyuan was indeed the only one who could barely withstand the old Daoist priest’s attacks.

“Little brother, you’re not actually sure he’s hiding outside, are you?”

“Mm.”

“Heh.”

Miss Chen had learned her lesson and now began to express her true thoughts in reverse, with clear results.

“Hum! Hum! Hum!”

The statue vibrated slightly, and some debris fell, but overall, it remained stable.

Li Zhuiyuan looked up.

The white light in the statue’s eyes had gradually faded, as white magma was continuously flowing downwards. At this moment, those eyes were the only channel through which one could observe the inside from outside.

“Runsheng Ge…”

Chen Xiyuan said, “I’ll do it!”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

Chen Xiyuan grabbed the young man’s arm, leaped into the air, then stepped on the statue’s lips and nose, climbing all the way up to the eyelids.

It was spacious here, like a corridor.

Just as Li Zhuiyuan turned to look inside, the old Daoist priest’s figure appeared before him.

Chen Xiyuan immediately activated her domain, her face alert.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “It’s fine, he can’t get out.”

The old Daoist priest must have seen the figures outside. He was covered in flames, his beard, Daoist robe, and whisk were all burning.

The magma was still rising, and although it hadn’t submerged him yet, the environment inside the statue was terrifyingly harsh.

The old Daoist priest furiously pounded the “window” in front of him.

He had been tricked in by the young man and was now being observed during his “execution.” The fear of death and hatred for the young man drove him into a hysterical state.

But this area, from its initial design, was the most robust part of the entire statue.

When the old Daoist priest had struck other parts earlier, the statue would tremble slightly. Here, his attacks had no discernible effect on the outside of the statue.

However, who could remain calm in such a situation?

Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze fell on the old Daoist priest’s whisk, which was already half-burnt. The young man frowned slightly.

This was definitely a good item, clearly an heirloom artifact. Recalling the old Daoist priest using it, it could significantly boost both spells and strength.

It was a pity; this item surely couldn’t be preserved. Its value wasn’t in its material, but in the intricate formations and restrictions embedded within, which were now effectively destroyed.

The jade pendant at the old Daoist priest’s waist glowed green, enveloping him to resist the heat as much as possible, but it was a drop in the ocean. The pendant was already covered in dense cracks.

Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze finally rested on the gourd.

This item seemed to withstand the high temperature; there were no signs of damage yet.

If it could resist being engulfed by the white magma, he could retrieve it from the rubble later.

The whisk, jade pendant, and gourd were the three most valuable items on the old Daoist priest. Obtaining even one would be a huge gain.

Of course, the biggest gain was suffocating the old Daoist priest here.

Only in the Longwang ancestral home was there such a unique structure that even a being of the old Daoist priest’s level was helpless. Even so, Li Zhuiyuan couldn’t carry this structure around.

If he didn’t trick and eliminate the old Daoist priest here, he would remain a significant threat if he silently followed them in the darkness.

Next, the old Daoist priest began to employ various methods to escape, pulling out all sorts of talismans, taking out various small objects, and swallowing many pills.

But gradually, he lost his will. His Daoist robe was completely scorched, clinging to him like a layer of charred skin.

The magma below rose higher and higher. He had no more space to maneuver or hide, and his face was covered in dense holes.

One of the old Daoist priest’s hands landed in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

His eyes were filled with complex emotions.

His lips, already blackened, continuously opened and closed. Although his voice couldn’t be heard, Li Zhuiyuan could understand what he was saying from his lip movements.

“Whose demon are you?”

The earlier “demon” was to justify his actions; the current “demon” was an adjective.

Just now, he clearly saw Chen Xiyuan activate her domain.

The inheritor of Longwang Chen Family was willing to stand behind the young man.

Combined with the series of calculations the young man used against him, which led to his current predicament.

Such a character, such methods, such abilities, and at such a young age—if given more time to grow, the entire *Jianghu* might be plunged into chaos because of him.

He truly wanted to know the young man’s identity; he wanted to die with understanding.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t react.

The old Daoist priest thought the other person hadn’t understood what he wanted to ask. He simply withdrew his hand, stepped back a few paces, and began to perform the *menli* (door salutation).

Chen Xiyuan said, “Bixia Sect.”

More and more fire holes appeared on the old Daoist priest’s body, but he persisted in completing the *menli*.

At this moment, the white magma was close to his feet. More and more fire holes appeared on his body, but he was still staring intently at the young man outside.

Li Zhuiyuan still didn’t move.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t mind that the top forces gathered people to collectively attack the Yu Family. If the Yu Family, this festering sore, wasn’t lanced open early, it would inevitably cause greater disaster later.

But after they entered the Yu Family, they used the environment and mechanisms here to target the young generation of river walkers.

Even if there were factors propelled by the river, the final decision was still theirs.

Li Zhuiyuan did not acknowledge such *Jianghu* seniors. Such people were not worthy of him returning their salutation.

The young man was truly glad now that the old lady at home was indeed wise.

Ostensibly, she refused to participate on the grounds that the Qin and Liu families did not lack foundational heritage, but in reality, she must have gleaned some heavenly secrets in advance.

If Aunt Liu or Uncle Qin had actually been sent here, given the family traditions of the Qin and Liu families…

No,

Aunt Liu might be a different story.

Zhao Yi was now glad that it was Uncle Qin who came to question him, not Aunt Liu.

If Aunt Liu had come, with her skill in poison, combined with the thick darkness at the moment, she might have tried to kill as many of the other families’ river walkers as possible within the rules.

Therefore, the old lady had always only sent Uncle Qin out to do business, keeping Aunt Liu by her side.

Thus, if someone were to be sent, it would definitely be Uncle Qin. Uncle Qin would certainly not attack young river walkers. Moreover, with Uncle Qin’s temper, he might even directly confront those old relics who intended to strike.

Inside, the old Daoist priest waited and waited. Seeing that the young man still didn’t move, he understood the young man’s meaning.

He gave a desolate smile.

Flames shot out from his mouth, and he fell into the white magma below, disappearing.

The magma continued to rise until it completely filled the entire interior of the statue.

Chen Xiyuan suddenly said, “Good thing my grandpa didn’t send anyone from the family here. My grandpa said our family’s ancestral assets are abundant, but the descendants’ lineage isn’t quite up to par.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Let’s go down. It’s about to crack.”

Chen Xiyuan grabbed the young man’s shoulder, kicked the “eye,” and they slid backward.

At the other eye, Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Lin Shuyou had also climbed up earlier to watch the show.

Seeing Brother Yuan come down, the three brothers also quickly descended.

Upon landing, Lin Shuyou chuckled, “Inside, it’s like Taishang Laojun’s Eight Trigrams Furnace.”

Tan Wenbin said, “Except they’re not refining Sun Dasheng inside.”

“Crack… crack… crack…”

Cracks appeared on the outside of the statue.

Everyone except Li Zhuiyuan was startled.

“It’s fine; it won’t overflow. This is her masterpiece.”

When that Yu Family organ master designed this tower, it was so that one day someone would be able to destroy it.

This indicated that among the Yu Family’s descendants, someone had emerged who could resonate with her in the art of mechanisms.

The outer wall rapidly peeled away, revealing a white crystal, still in the likeness of the woman’s face, but more delicate and beautiful.

Chen Xiyuan said, “She’s so pretty.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Her goal has been achieved.”

Chen Xiyuan said, “How could she be so shallow…”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Just watch.”

The white crystal only remained fixed for a short while before beginning to distort. The woman’s face then showed a change in expression; she was smiling.

Immediately after, the crystal collapsed, turning into a large amount of powder and fragments. This building, which had stood in the Yu Family ancestral home for who knows how many years, was completely reduced to ruins.

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to an area, which was where the old Daoist priest had fallen into the magma earlier:

“Dig there.”

Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Lin Shuyou each held a Yellow River shovel and began to dig.

Li Zhuiyuan stood by watching, while Chen Xiyuan stood a bit further away.

Miss Chen was now a very conscious警戒 line.

After digging to a certain depth, beneath the crystal layer, a figure in a meditative posture appeared.

Tan Wenbin asked, “Not dead yet?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Keep digging.”

Runsheng continued to dig. When he finally unearthed the figure’s position, it directly turned into dust and dissipated.

And where it had been sitting cross-legged, there was a gourd.

Chen Xiyuan was even more excited than Li Zhuiyuan, shouting excitedly:

“Little brother, look, treasure dropped!”

Li Zhuiyuan felt that she must have lost her sensitivity to treasures and was experiencing joy by projecting herself onto him.

Runsheng tried to reach out to help Xiaoyuan take it.

“Don’t move!”

Runsheng immediately pulled his hand back.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “All of you, retreat behind me.”

Everyone immediately complied, backing away.

Li Zhuiyuan opened his right hand, and a blood mist, combined with the flood dragon spirit, condensed into a formation flag.

The young man waved the formation flag, continuously setting up temporary formations in this area.

After busying himself for a while, the young man stopped and turned to Chen Xiyuan: “Activate your domain and follow my footsteps.”

“Okay.”

Layered formations alone weren’t enough for Li Zhuiyuan; Chen Xiyuan’s domain also needed to be added.

There were too many examples of capsizing in a ditch; Li Zhuiyuan didn’t want to encounter an accident while collecting his prize.

“Little brother, is there something wrong with this gourd?”

“Just now, from above, I deliberately stared at the gourd on his body, precisely to tell him that I had my eyes on his gourd.

If he wanted revenge, the only way was to tamper with this gourd.

Moreover, he also had to protect this gourd from damage as much as possible.”

Chen Xiyuan recalled the figure’s posture just now; rather than meditating, it was more like tightly shielding the gourd in his arms.

This method of making the enemy guard a treasure for oneself once again refreshed Chen Xiyuan’s understanding.

She had once said that if in a future wave, she had to stand against the young man, she would voluntarily light the second lamp, not allowing… but because she knew very well that she was no match for this young man at all.

The gourd was now right in front of them.

Li Zhuiyuan first carefully observed it. The gourd was tricolored—black, white, and gray—and was indeed well-preserved, not even a speck of paint missing.

The young man took out his purple-gold compass and placed it on his left, then took out the blank book and placed it on his right.

With everything ready, Li Zhuiyuan reached out and touched the gourd.

The touch of a living person immediately made the gourd react. Surging black mist rapidly overflowed, condensing into the old Daoist priest’s twisted and ferocious face.

Indeed, before he was burned to death, he performed the *menli* to him, and after knowing that he wanted this gourd, he deliberately created this illusion.

“Little beast, even if I die, I will take you with me!”

It was a curse, a grievance, a spell, a technique, a soul sacrifice. In short, before his death, the old Daoist priest had poured all his available methods into this gourd, just to achieve a fatal blow the moment the young man touched it.

He thought he was about to succeed, because the young man was right in front of him.

However, the ferocity on his face was immediately replaced by astonishment.

As soon as he appeared, numerous formation effects were applied—various suppressions of evil, curses, ghosts, purification spells… a whole set of tailor-made attacks pressed down at once.

The old Daoist priest’s originally dense black mist was rapidly weakened layer by layer.

But he indeed had a way, managing to penetrate the formation’s barrier. However, upon touching Chen Xiyuan’s domain, he once again felt like he was sinking into a mire.

The purple-gold compass spun. Under its sensing, it flew up and smashed into the old Daoist priest. The compass itself wasn’t terrifying, but the copper coins embedded in it by Li Zhuiyuan began to wildly distort the old Daoist priest’s face.

“Little beast, die for me!”

Even so, the old Daoist priest continued to press forward. Although he had become very faint now, the possibility of killing the young man was almost nonexistent. At most, he could cause the young man to get sick if he touched him.

Moreover, this illness was constantly weakening, from severe to mild. By the time he actually reached the young man, its severity would, at most, cause a slight cold.

However, Li Zhuiyuan wasn’t even willing to get a runny nose. The young man raised his right hand, releasing karmic fire to form a barrier, intercepting the old Daoist priest.

Chen Xiyuan breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t expected the old Daoist priest’s final retaliation to be so fierce. Even with all the preparations the young man had made, he was still almost successful.

Chen Xiyuan asked, “Little brother, did you deliberately weaken him to let him get close?”

Li Zhuiyuan glanced at Chen Xiyuan. She seemed to have suddenly become much smarter.

Even Li Zhuiyuan couldn’t have guessed that Miss Chen was actually using self-negation.

The young man stepped on the blank book with the tip of his shoe. The book flipped up and landed in his hand.

Turning to the second page, he pressed it directly against the old Daoist priest’s face.

“Aaaahhhh!”

The final howl was not fake, not due to pain, but from tenfold, hundredfold shame and indignation.

To be designed and suffocated by a young man was already enough to make Li Hongsheng choke on blood and die with his eyes open. Yet, his premeditated revenge ultimately became a thoughtful act of personally peeling off his own skin and serving the most tender meat onto the young man’s dining table.

The old Daoist priest knew how tempting his current state was to those skilled in *Fengshui*—it was an excellent soul material that one couldn’t find even with a lantern.

Dying was depressing enough; he never expected that after death, he would turn himself into a huge joke.

Li Zhuiyuan looked down at the blank book. On the second page, a cage appeared, with the old Daoist priest standing inside, glaring fiercely at him.

He was the dignified peak master of the Bixia Sect, now reduced to a soul fragment that could be toyed with at will in the other’s hand.

On the first page, the woman formed by the *Xieshu* (Evil Book) reached out to the old Daoist priest through the page, like a courtesan in a brothel, inviting the Daoist priest to come and play.

The young man knew she wasn’t lonely; she was hungry.

Also, she really couldn’t stand having a second page or a new resident appear in the blank book besides herself.

Because she clearly knew that he wouldn’t give her a chance to get fat, often overeating for one meal and depleting three, yet she still enjoyed it endlessly.

Li Zhuiyuan was somewhat helpless about this. He possessed an entire blank book, but because she was the first one he collected on the first page, the entire book might forever only be usable for one page.

The young man suspected that this might not be the correct way to use the blank book, and that using it to imprison “evil spirits” was still a limitation of his thinking.

However, this time, Li Zhuiyuan didn’t plan to stop the *Xieshu*.

“You can eat him, but before you do, you must help me interrogate him for a few sets of Bixia Sect cultivation techniques. If you fail, you know the consequences.”

The art style of the first page suddenly changed. In the woman’s cell, besides the simmering cauldron, various torture instruments appeared on the ground and walls.

The woman knelt there, facing the young man beyond the page, weeping with joy.

How long had she been in this young man’s hands? Finally… finally… finally, besides being a spiritual energy reservoir, she had a mission.

Next, the young man awaited the performance of the *Xieshu*. If this succeeded, he would have another avenue for learning in the future.

Just then, a blood-red pillar of light, very conspicuous, rose from the central area of the Yu Family ancestral home.

Chen Xiyuan asked, “Where is that?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “The Yu Family Ancestral Temple.”

Inside the Yu Family Ancestral Temple.

Following Yu Dibei, bypassing all formations and restrictions smoothly, Ming Yuwan arrived here and looked at the ancient and solemn offering table in disbelief. Displayed on it were the Longwangs of successive Yu Family generations.

“The spirits of the successive Longwangs of the Yu Family… are they all still here?”