Lian Yunzhi immediately took out two Clear Heart Pills and swallowed them. But when he put the pill bottle back, his finger accidentally touched something.
He paused and took it out.
…It was that Thin Book about the truth of the world.
Lian Yunzhi steadied his mind and slowly opened it.
Would the book have the reason for Mu Cheng’s madness and better ways to soothe him?
.
The book was very thin, and the story it told was very short.
It said that ten thousand years ago, in the mortal realm, Spiritual Energy Revival occurred in a place called Xiaoze State.
Among them was a person named Mu Cheng.
Mu Cheng was the young master of the Mu Family, one of the Four Great Families. He was exceptionally talented with the Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root and should have had a smooth path to immortality. But he was cruel and heartless. After learning he was not the Mu Family’s biological child, he killed his foster parents and biological parents—four people in total—in one night to cover up the secret.
When the matter was exposed, the Mu Family Head crippled his cultivation and expelled him from the family.
However, the Mu Family Head was kind-hearted and couldn’t bear to see him die on the streets, so he brought him back home, fed him, healed him, and confined him to the mansion, hoping he would reflect on his actions.
But Mu Cheng’s nature was twisted. Not only did he not repent, he grew cynical toward the world. Relying on his Spirit Washing Body, he cultivated evil arts and began devouring souls.
The first soul he devoured was that of the young servant who brought him food.
The second soul he devoured was that of the Mu Family Head.
He destroyed the Mu Mansion and massacred Four Directions City.
He devoured countless souls, his cultivation surging, his temperament turning utterly mad. He summoned boundless flames and burned Xiaoze State to ashes.
The fire burned for a full seven years, extinguishing all life in Xiaoze State.
Ascended Immortals descended en masse to slay the evil and imprisoned him in the Immortal Treasure, the Pure Bottle.
The Immortals declared: You shall reincarnate eternally in your prison with the millions of wronged souls you devoured. You will endure ten thousand instances of broken bones, ten thousand instances of flayed skin. Your spiritual root will be extracted ten thousand times, your blood will flow to every inch of Xiaoze State’s land, merging into every river of Xiaoze State.
Only when you truly repent, only when your Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root truly revives the souls you devoured, only when your Spirit Washing Blood truly brings new life to the extinguished beings, can you truly die. Your soul will shatter into millions of pieces, turning to snowflakes, to sweet rain, falling into Xiaoze State to bring new life to this land once more.
…
Thus, Xiaoze State became a forbidden land of immortal punishment.
…
Until dozens of years ago, this barren wasteland suddenly erupted with five-colored heavenly light. Overnight, vegetation grew wildly, rivers formed, and people said the immortal punishment had ended, that an Immortal Treasure had appeared in Xiaoze State. Countless cultivators swarmed in.
…
Lian Yunzhi slowly closed the book and put it back into his Storage Bracelet.
When he read the part about Mu Cheng killing his parents, Lian Yunzhi knew the book couldn’t be entirely trusted, but nor could it be completely dismissed.
So who was he? One of the wronged souls killed by Mu Cheng? Or a cultivator come to seek treasure?
Lian Yunzhi’s intuition said neither.
And the Pure Bottle…
Were they currently imprisoned in an upside-down bottle?
Then, wouldn’t breaking the bottle or toppling it allow them to escape?
Since outside cultivators could be pulled in, it proved the bottle wasn’t impregnable—perhaps there was a crack or gap somewhere…
Lian Yunzhi closed his eyes and spread his Divine Sense, extending infinitely outward.
He saw the clouds at the horizon, distant mountains, pedestrians on the road…
No—no.
Don’t look at these, don’t look at this false Illusion Realm. He wanted to see the real thing, see the bottle, see the bottle’s gaps and cracks.
All colors in the world, all things suddenly vanished, halting at a thick blackness—
Lian Yunzhi’s heart leaped to his throat.
“Zhi Zhi…”
A hoarse murmur sounded by his ear. Lian Yunzhi irritably slapped out with his palm. “Get away!”
Blackness.
Blackness.
The blackness was suddenly replaced by a touch of green.
The distant probe of his Divine Sense returned to normal.
Lian Yunzhi angrily opened his eyes. “Mu Cheng! You—”
Lian Yunzhi’s voice cut off abruptly, his blood freezing.
A pair of scarlet eyes stared fixedly right in front of him. Those eyes held no focus, only endless craving and mad hunger, like the eyes of a starving beast. Blood dripped drop by drop from the eyes’ owner onto Lian Yunzhi’s robes, like some signal that feeding was about to begin.
Lian Yunzhi’s mind went blank.
It was over.
He had forgotten that this man was still mad.
