"But only someone as sharp as you would notice these fatal details; anyone else, all head-over-heels foolish, would have been easily swayed by Lingxu to do his bidding."

Chen Xuantian: "... Are you praising me?"

The White Carp flicked its tail,

"There’s no time to explain in detail now, so I’ll just spoil it directly for you.

You’re right, and what the world knows isn’t wrong either. What Lingxu said is even more accurate.

He only hid one thing.

What he announced to the world, for everyone to learn, is indeed the Ancient Immortal Technique, the Three Corpses Cutting Method.

However, at this moment, here and now, what he’s using is actually the Three Soul Exchange Skill!

Indeed! Not only did he cut out the upper, middle, and lower corpses! He also split the Heaven, Earth, and Human souls!

Back then, under Qingcheng Mountain, Lingxu exchanged souls and lives! Chen Dachong wasn’t his reincarnation; on the contrary, he’s masquerading as Chen Dachong’s reincarnation!

Lingxu is now stealing Chen Dachong’s Life Soul!

That’s why, no matter how the nine major sects, the Ten Extremes Venerable, all heavens and earthly gods and buddhas calculate.

They can only trace back to that unparalleled figure of Ba Shu, Chen Dachong, and the roots of Iron Crane Piercing Clouds, Chen Xiyi!

So naturally, they consider him a once-in-a-millennium prodigy, enlightened in Qingcheng! 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

As for severing his own Corpse Worm Peng Ju and continuing to impersonate Dachong, it’s nothing but a blinding technique, a method to sever cause and effect.

And the reason why Lingxu goes through the trouble of corpse severing, life swapping, body seizing, and concealing the Heavenly Mechanism, is precisely to hide his two-thousand-year past!

Because back then, Yuqingzi did indeed undergo Soldier Disintegration four thousand years ago!

Because his original plan was indeed to seek enlightenment four thousand years ago!

Yes, during the chaos of the Xiaoyao era, when the Mystic Sect closed its mountain, staying hidden for a thousand years amidst demons running rampant, wreaking havoc on the world, it was his plan!

When Yuqingzi witnessed the Nine Heavens Path! Knowing that the Mystic Sect’s path was unfeasible, he tried to imitate the Heavenly Demon, creating a new method to break free from this earthly prison!

Therefore, this guy not only betrayed the Mystic Sect! He also abandoned the mystical ways, dived into the Demon Path, breaking his vows! He turned against his brothers when he tricked them into reincarnating in search of enlightenment or secluded himself during closed-door cultivation!

He colluded with entities! Sacrificed all beings! Destroyed heaven and earth! Entered the Demon Path to abolish the Great Dao!

But the heavens have eyes! He was defeated!

After all, Divine Skills cannot overcome karma, and karma cannot overcome willpower! Whenever the mortal world faces catastrophe, there always exists the will of all beings! Heroes emerge! Turn the tides! Deliver all sentient beings!

Four thousand years ago, he encountered the Three Venerables, an unparalleled existence! At the hands of the Divine Lord of the Ten Extremes Sect!

The two of them achieved great success in their Divine Skills! Then engaged in sword fighting at his old lair in Qingcheng, testing their peak enlightenment!

Hahahaha! What a pity this old demon, with thousands of years of preparation, missed by a move! The timing wasn’t right! Ultimately defeated under the Blood Talisman Nine Luminaries Demon Slaying Sword Intent! Was slain by the Blood Talisman Exorcism, Divine Sword Body Killing!

However, the Divine Lord at that time still had some unresolved personal grievances, so he spared his life temporarily, sealed him with the Ten Extremes Formation, aimed to suppress both demon and soul, but unexpectedly ascended later, allowing him to escape death miraculously, trapped beneath Qingcheng Mountain for another full millennium.

So his descendants, that group of the Kunlun Demon Path, waited for the Divine Lord’s ascension, then gathered to siege Qingcheng! Attempting to unseal this old ancestor of the Demon Path, to make him their leader, leading the Five Immortals, Seven Monsters, and the thirteen cohorts of the Kunlun Demon Path to counterattack the Central Plains!

Unfortunately, these Demon Heads lacked brains and underestimated Lingxu’s scoundrel nature. Once the seal was lifted, he took the opportunity to counter-kill and seize them, resulting in a group annihilation, and instead became his achievements, which was quite hilarious.

Of course, Lingxu also knew that even though he broke out of the seal, being suppressed for a thousand years, he was too weak, and a few of his brothers emerged, unable to defeat them together, so he hid in the mountains, waiting till he swapped lives with Chen Dachong, hid his true form, and concealed the Heavenly Mechanism, only then dared to emerge!"

Chen Xuantian was dumbfounded.

The White Carp waited for a while, then bubbled up and concluded,

"In summary, Lingxu is just a bastard.

For thousands of years, this old bastard has lurking in the shadows, fallen into the Demon Path, scheming and plotting, committing all sorts of evil deeds, countless murders, annihilating families recklessly.

Meanwhile, he maintains a sanctimonious disposition like a righteous Taoist, acting all smug as the honored one of the nine major sects.

Whenever you get the chance, just chop him to pieces without mercy; don’t pity him in the slightest, got it?"

Chen Xuantian understood,

"Did he trick you too?"

"Cut the crap! Hurry up and come back! While this guy is at his weakest as a wandering soul, you’ll understand everything with just one look!"

The White Carp flicked its tail, knocking Chen Xuantian into the water,

"Oh right, don’t step into the water! And remember, four thousand years ago, his Taoist name was—"

Chen Xuantian opened his eyes.

At first, the vision was blurred, thinking something like pool water, amniotic fluid or formalin had covered his eyes; after blinking, he realized it was blood.

However, when he lowered his head, he found himself standing in waist-deep black water.

And Tang Xian’er lay in his arms, face pale, body icy, limbs twisted, bones cracked, drenched in fresh blood. This condition clearly appeared as if she had fallen from a great height, shattered into pieces, with no pulse, lifeless, dead long ago.

"Who are you?"

Suddenly a voice came, a blend of wakefulness and slumber, laughter and nonchalance, akin to an echo from the abyss.

As if tethered by this voice, Chen Xuantian slowly raised his head.

He saw a mountain ahead, a pond beneath it, with a shrine amidst the water,

Before the shrine, shrouded in greenish water mist, hung a plaque with two crooked seal characters, like distorted water plants, unreadable,

Within the ajar temple door, he could see a toppled coffin lying across the shrine,

On the plank of that coffin, there seemed to be a gaunt, Daoist robe-clad youth with disheveled hair, sitting with his back to the temple door, in utter darkness,

In this dark water, dark temple, pitch-black lightlessness, with blood covering Chen Xuantian’s face, squinting his eyes, he could still discern no contours.

Yet when that ’youth’ opened his eyes,

With amphibian-like lateral pupils, emitting a bright yellow light from semi-transparent gelatine-like spheres,

In that fleeting twilight, the ruined temple in the pond illuminated, shedding light across the board above him, Chen Xuantian suddenly discerned.

It was certainly not some youth.

Draped upon was not a Daoist robe, but a pair of enormous bat wings,

What draped over the shoulders weren’t hair, but gray-green octopus tentacles,

A greenish torso, greyish-green scales, covering the iron-hook-like claws,

Dried rubbery, cracked bark, stacked upon bony structures like bamboo stalks,

Resembling a grotesque embryo, resembling a warped cicada, resembling a decomposing fish,

Like countless corpses, decaying flesh, remnants, shreds, mashed and melded together by an invisible monster force, assembled into a twisted exaggerated, seemingly human-shaped assemblage,

"Where’s my worm?"

Lingxu asked this.

No,

Four thousand years ago,

Should have called out Netherworld Spring.