The Imperial Master did not answer him as he was completely immersed in the lingering horror that the scene had brought to him.

He said, "Those human faces haven't seen the light for a long time. They couldn't stand even the moonlight at night. I suddenly took off the mask, and they seemed to be surprised. They all squinted their eyes and stopped talking. But after a while, when they saw that it was me, they started... shouting my name.

"I was stunned. As I said before, I have never seen a more horrifying scene than tens of thousands of people falling from the sky and burning to death in a sea of ​​fire, but the scene before my eyes was a million times more horrifying than that!

"My hands holding the mask kept shaking. If I hadn't been completely stiff, the mask would have fallen off and woke up His Royal Highness. The three faces seemed to be eager to say something to me. Their mouths opened and closed more violently, but they kept their voices down, as if they were afraid of waking His Royal Highness.

“I felt sick and scared when I saw their appearance, but I couldn’t help wondering what they wanted to tell me, so I bent down, held my breath, and leaned close to His Royal Highness’s face to listen.

"I got too close, and I could smell the strong smell of herbs, which couldn't cover up the smell of blood and decay. I heard them say, let me run, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is crazy!

"It turned out that after the other three left, they were still worried and secretly returned to look for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Unexpectedly, they just happened to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince leading a group of people, rushing towards the copper furnace.

"Only then did they realize that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had not given up on the idea of ​​sacrificing living people. They were shocked and angry, and came out to stop him and started fighting with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Who knew that His Royal Highness would kill them so ruthlessly and throw the three of them, along with the hundreds of people, into the copper furnace!

“Of course, the rest of the people were thrown in and turned to ashes, but the three of them had cultivation, and were killed by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Their resentment and obsession were so deep that their souls actually parasitized on him in this way, and they still angrily chattered at him every day, trying to stop him from doing what he did.

"As I listened, I felt terrified and confused, and I had no idea what to do. What was terrified? I couldn't even tell which was scarier, the Crown Prince or the three things on his face!

“At this moment, I felt a hand placed on my head.

"My scalp went numb, and I slowly raised my head and saw His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

"I don't know when he woke up. He and the three faces on his face, a total of four pairs of eyes, all looking at me!

“The expressions of those faces changed more, twisting and tearing the wounds on his face, and a lot of blood flowed out.

"He stared at me for a long time, then sighed and said, 'Didn't I tell you not to come in?'

“I suddenly understood what was going on with all the anomalies these days.

"His Highness found these three things growing on his face. He couldn't accept it, and couldn't tolerate seeing himself in the mirror in a state that was neither human nor ghost, so he smashed all the mirrors. The blood was because he wanted to cut them off with a knife, and the rotting smell was because the wounds took a long time to heal. But no matter how many times they were cut, they would grow back again!"

The Imperial Master covered half of his face, his pupils contracting violently.

He said, “I…knelt down beside his bed all of a sudden.

"His Royal Highness slowly sat up from the bed and said, 'Don't be afraid. They became like this because they betrayed me. As long as you don't do this, I will still treat you the same as before. You are still my most loyal servant, and nothing will change.'

"How could I not be scared?! How could nothing have changed? Everything had changed a long time ago!

"His Royal Highness is very smart. He never used to read people's faces, but since he was demoted, he has learned to read people's faces. He saw what I was thinking and asked slowly: 'You are leaving too, right?'

"Honestly, I don't know. If he just threw the 'evil people' he called into the copper furnace, I could pretend nothing happened. I said I would really understand.

"But he killed our best friend for so many years and threw him in there. We depended on each other for survival! This is really... insane. I... can't accept it.

"His Royal Highness said to himself, it doesn't matter, I expected it a long time ago, if I become like this, no one will stay. I can be alone. I understand, I have always been alone!!! I don't need anyone else!!!"

"His expression suddenly became extremely ferocious. He grabbed my neck with one hand, stared at me intently, and kept repeating: I can be alone, I can be alone, I am alone, I am alone, I am alone, I am alone, I don't need anyone else, I don't need anyone else, I don't need anyone else, I don't need anyone else...

"His Highness is very strong. If he really wanted to kill me, he would have snapped my neck in an instant, and I wouldn't have been able to make a sound. But I didn't die immediately. And when he got angry, our three friends all screamed in his face, as if they had done something to him, which made him scream with a headache, and I was screaming too. The five of us were all screaming and shouting like crazy. His Highness the Crown Prince held his head with one hand and pinched it harder with the other hand. My eyes went dark and I felt like I was about to die. At this moment... I saw what was under his pillow.

"He had a sword under his pillow, which he used when he slept. This was a habit he developed after being demoted. I grabbed the hilt and pulled the sword out. The sword gleamed coldly, and His Highness laughed loudly, his eyes bloodshot, saying, "Do you want to kill me too? Come on! Stab me! Stab me in the heart! You are not the only one who matters! I want to see who dies in the end! Will it be you or me?"

"Of course I didn't stab him. I held the sword in front of him and shouted at the top of my lungs: 'Your Highness! Your Highness! Come back and look at yourself! Look at what you have become now?!'"

"He broke all the mirrors, as he had not looked in a mirror for a long time. The sharp edge of the sword suddenly reflected his current appearance, and he also saw his own face.

“When he saw himself in the mirror, he froze.

"His Highness's grip on me did not lessen, but after an unknown amount of time, as he watched, tears suddenly flowed from his eyes.

"Seeing his tears, I couldn't help but burst into tears. The reflection on the sword was so ugly! It made me sick just by looking at it. Why should I let him see himself like this and remind him that he is such an ugly monster now?

“I still couldn’t bear it, and the sword slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground.

"Finally, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince threw me out with force and said, 'Get lost.

"I ran away in a hurry."

After hearing this, Xie Lian finally felt relieved.

The Imperial Master also put down his hand and said, "I fled very far, out of Wuyong Country. Not long after, the Tonglu volcano erupted again.

"This time, the entire Wuyong Kingdom was buried, and almost no one was spared. A country just disappeared like that.

“I escaped, but I never heard from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince again. It seems he was buried with Wuyong State.

"I have ascended to the heavens and cultivated myself, with some success. I have maintained my physical condition and wandered aimlessly in the human world. I have served His Royal Highness the Crown Prince since I was a teenager, but now that I don't have to serve him anymore, I don't know what to do.

"His Highness is gone, and my three friends are dead too. I made three empty dummies and let them talk to me in their voices, and occasionally play cards with me."

Hearing the words “empty shell fake person”, Xie Lian’s face darkened slightly. The Imperial Master said, “Later, my magic skills improved, and I instilled the skills of my three friends into them.”

Xie Lian whispered, “Are they the other three imperial masters?”

No wonder he always felt that the other three state masters were a little strange. They never acted alone, nor did they communicate with him alone. They were just fakes. They would be exposed if they left the state master. The state master said, "It's them. So, in a sense, you can be considered as the apprentice of my three friends. Unfortunately, I am not them after all. The abilities I can impart to the fakes are only 20% or 30% of theirs. I can't teach you much. The three fakes that accompanied me for a long time were destroyed by him a long time ago."

"After another one or two hundred years, the heavens changed, and the original priests all fell, and gradually a new batch of priests came to replace them. But none of this mattered to me, so I just lived a lazy life and waited for death.

"Until one day, in a certain country, there was a prince who was born on the day when Mars was in the heart.

"That's you, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Xianle Kingdom.

It finally came. Xie Lian’s hands on his legs tightened slightly.

The Imperial Master sat cross-legged, folded his arms and said, "I think it's a coincidence, a fate. But in fact, Wuyong had been destroyed for many, many years. There will always be one or two encounters in hundreds of years, so it's not a coincidence at all. But I made up a name for some reason that I didn't understand, and became the Imperial Master of Xianle."

Xie Lian thought to himself, “I knew the name was just made up…”

The Imperial Master said, "I don't despise you Xianle, but it's too easy for me to get a job as an Imperial Master there. There's only one problem, people always think that young people are not qualified and capable, and will be looked down upon. If I go to the exam with this face, I might not pass, so I changed my face to look a dozen or twenty years older, and I got the job soon. As an Imperial Master, I have to talk directly with the priests in heaven.

“So, I faced Jun Wu.

"Jun Wu's appearance is completely different from the Crown Prince I'm familiar with. However, I'm too familiar with him after all. After a few conversations, I started to have some doubts. But it's just a suspicion.

"And even if I have doubts, I don't want to say anything.

"He has completely become a different person, and the human face has disappeared. I thought my three friends' resentment has dissipated. If that's the case, there's no need to bring up the past and disrupt the peace. It would be good if we all pretended not to recognize each other."

Xie Lian said, “If it were me, I would probably do the same.”

The Imperial Master said: "But we still couldn't pretend to the end. Because we all saw you.

"Your Highness, you should have guessed why I have high hopes for you. You are very much like him. So, I hope you can become the person or god he wants to be. You can do what he couldn't do. You can use your perfection to make up for the regrets of him and me."

Hua Cheng said calmly: "You were wrong from the beginning. It doesn't look like that at all."

The Imperial Master looked at him and said, "Of course you can say they don't look alike now. But they did look alike in the past. And the bad thing is, they looked too alike."

He turned to Xie Lian again and said, “When you saved the child who fell from the tower during the Prince’s Pleasure, I was not very happy. Not only because that incident stopped the ceremony, but also because what you did was too eye-catching. You caught Jun Wu’s attention.

"Jun Wu started talking to me about you. He was very fond of you, and every time we talked about you, I felt something was wrong. But I could see that he really liked you, and was happy to have found a good candidate who suited his taste, and he wanted to recommend you, but I always persuaded him to go back with various reasons."

Xie Lian was also reluctant to believe that Jun Wu’s attitude towards him was all fake, but after hearing what the Imperial Master said, he felt mixed emotions that were difficult to describe.

The national teacher said: "The turning point lies in the bridge of one thought."

Hearing these three words, Xie Lian came back to his senses. The Imperial Master asked, “Do you still remember the ghost at Yi Nian Bridge?”

Xie Lian said in a deep voice: “That was the opportunity for me to ascend to heaven, so I naturally remember it.”

The Imperial Master said, "When you met that ghost, I felt something was wrong. This ghost haunted the broken bridge in the wilderness. He wore broken armor, stepped on the flames of hell, and was covered in blood and swords. Every step he took left a trail of blood and fire behind him. And the three questions he asked you - all of them made me very concerned and uneasy, but I couldn't tell what was wrong. And after defeating the ghost at the bridge, you ascended very quickly, and I didn't have time to figure it out.

"Fortunately, after you ascended, Jun Wu treated you as well as before. He was very fond of you and valued you very much, as if nothing had changed. I also told myself not to think too much.

"Then there was the drought in Xianle and the rebellion in Yong'an. And then there was the appearance of that thing, Bai Wuxiang."

Xie Lian held his breath and concentrated. The Imperial Master said, “I said, at first I had no idea what it was. Even when the human-faced plague came out later, I was just suspicious. But because vengeful spirits are parasitic, it’s not that uncommon, it’s just that they have never spread so widely. Plus, I have some resentment towards the so-called heavenly way, so at first I thought that Bai Wuxiang might be a natural thing, and that heaven wanted to punish you.

"But as you come into contact with that thing more and more, the human face epidemic becomes more and more rampant, and many things make me think of the worst possible scenario."

Xie Lian asked, “Many, many things. What do you mean specifically? For example?”

The Imperial Master said, "The family of three who fell to their death at the gate of the Imperial City of Xianle."

Xie Lian choked and said, “That… is…?”

The Imperial Master said, "Later, I examined the bodies of the three people and found that they were not three people at all, but three empty shells."

Xie Lian said, “But the hollow shell man is hollow, has no internal organs, and won’t bleed?!”

The Imperial Master said, "There is no need for internal organs. After falling from such a height, the internal organs would have been smashed to pieces long ago. All we need to do is stuff a ball of rotten meat and fill the empty shell with blood plasma. Among my three friends, there was one who was the best at making this kind of weird thing. He was the first to make the empty shell mannequin. He only taught us, and at that time the method of making empty shell mannequins was not as popular as it is now. Now that they are dead, who else can make empty shell mannequins and make them so realistic, except for me?"

Xie Lian lowered his head, his pupils contracted.

The three members of that family fell to their deaths at the gate of Xianle Imperial City, which directly triggered the war. However, those lives were fake, it was a trap!

Xie Lian asked, “Then… why didn’t you tell me at that time?”

The Imperial Master said, "I don't dare. If it was really him, and I told you, with your temper at that time, would you rush up to him and settle the score? That would not save you and Xianle Country at all, and would only accelerate your demise. Moreover, even if there were no three empty shells, sooner or later..."

Sooner or later, something else will spark the war. Just like the missing dog in Xianle Imperial City.

“Later, you were defeated, and Xianle was defeated too.

"I really couldn't bear it any longer, so I first dismissed everyone in Huangji Temple, asked him to descend to the Divine Martial Hall, and then directly tore off his identity."

That is what Jun Wu said, the one they met eight hundred years ago. The Imperial Master said, "I questioned him about many things, but he neither admitted nor denied them. Finally, I asked him, 'Your Highness, what do you want?'

"He finally answered. He said he wanted you to be his most perfect successor.

"If there is one person in the world who can completely understand him, it's you. As long as you succeed, you will never betray him!

"I understood what he meant. In the heat of the argument, we started fighting again. I couldn't fight at all. I would definitely die if I did. He could crush me to death without lifting a finger. But at this time, his face suddenly changed drastically and he covered his face.

“I was startled, and then I realized that those three faces appeared on his face again!

"It turns out that they didn't disappear at all, he just kept suppressing them with his magic power! And now, I don't know if it's because of their excitement or because of me, they ran out again!

"So, my three friends came out to cause trouble, which gave him a splitting headache and a terrible expression, and I took the opportunity to escape.

"I started wandering in the world again, and this time I had to hide from place to place. I wondered what the Wuyong Kingdom was like now. So I went back to take a look.

“I didn’t expect that when I went back that time, I made another big discovery.

"For some reason, the land of Wuyong was completely closed off and isolated from the outside world. I walked there for a long time and met my three friends again.

Xie Lian asked, “Are they the three mountain monsters, old, sick, and dead?”

The national teacher said: "That's right.

"The copper furnace devoured their bodies. The ashes that were almost burned to nothing mixed with the volcanic ash and erupted. As time went by, more and more sediment accumulated. After thousands of years, it finally turned into three mountains, hosting parts of their souls."

“It took me a long time to find a way to communicate with them after they turned into mountain monsters, but after I succeeded, I learned a lot.

"It turns out that the previous generation of priests did not die naturally, but were killed one by one by him. He... slaughtered the entire heaven, leaving no one alive!

"After slaughtering the heavens, he returned to the human world, waited patiently for a while, made up a new name, fabricated a new identity, and ascended again as a 'human'. All the previous priests in the heavens were dead, and no one knew who he was, or what he was like before. The origin, stories, anecdotes, appearance, and temperament of the 'Divine Emperor' that are widely circulated in the human world are all false, and are all elaborate lies woven by him!

"This Immortal Capital is the new heaven that he built and is completely under his control. The bodies and ashes of the previous priests are all mixed in the soil of the foundation of this Immortal Capital, and are trampled under his feet every day. Right now, you may be stepping on someone's ashes."

“…”

The Imperial Master continued, "He is now the number one martial god in the heavens, and he appears to be glorious on the surface. But in his heart, he is suppressing endless darkness. Resentment, pain, anger, hatred... these things need to be released. Only in this way can he maintain balance and continue to rule the three realms as the number one martial god, instead of going on a killing spree.

"The former Wuyong country has become a hell. He fed the copper furnace with countless living people and three quasi-priests, and it has recognized him as its master. He regularly releases these dark emotions into the copper furnace, and with the help of the millions of dead souls of the Wuyong people, he ignites the fire of karma and refines many evil things.

Xie Lian asked, “The methods of refining these things are different from those of ‘Jue’, right?”

The Imperial Master said, "Indeed, they are different. 'Jue' was created later, because he...changed the method of refining it."

Xie Lian asked, “What do you mean by the method of refining?”

The Imperial Master said: "'Quality' and 'Quantity'."

He glanced at Huacheng again and said, "You all must know that Jue is born once every hundred years or even hundreds of years. There can only be one at a time, so it is extremely rare and difficult to achieve. Moreover, the predecessor of Jue is an independent existence. The copper furnace only provides an environment to accelerate the process of their explosion. Those who can achieve Jue can achieve Jue anywhere, and they will achieve Jue sooner or later.

"In fact, the word 'Jue' means 'unparalleled' or 'the best'. It has little to do with whether or not one has been trained in a copper furnace. However, those who can survive the quenching of a copper furnace can indeed be called so. Because there are not many who can survive. Aren't there only three so far?"

Xie Lian glanced at Hua Cheng who was standing beside him, and Hua Cheng happened to be looking at him as well. Although he didn’t know why he was looking at him, he still smiled slightly.

The Imperial Master went on to say, "However, the copper furnace's early output was not like this. In the early years, it would be produced once every few years, with hundreds or dozens of them at a time, and it would pour out in batches. This may be related to his unstable emotions at the time. The monsters produced were all condensed from his hatred and resentment, and there are probably some things that you are familiar with. For example - Baihua Zhenxian."

Xie Lian asked, “The Baihua Immortal was also born from a copper furnace?!”

The national teacher said: "That's right. Some of these things have their own consciousness and are no longer related to him; some do not, and can be considered his clones. Baihua Zhenxian has his own consciousness, and after he left, he also had many smaller clones. My three friends stayed in the territory of Wuyong to prevent these monsters from leaving the country, and I have been looking for these things in the outside world all year round and trying to remedy them."

Xie Lian suddenly remembered the strange attitude of the Imperial Master when he saw Master Qingxuan before he came up, and said, “Master! Master Feng… the master who read Qingxuan’s fortune and told his family not to hold a grand wedding, were you the one?”

The Imperial Master said, "Nonsense. Apart from me, your master, which expert can calculate so accurately? Which expert has so much free time? You would calculate for a bowl of porridge?"

“…”

The Imperial Master said, "The Immortal Baihua originally wanted to try to swallow the young Shi Wudu, but Shi Wudu was too ruthless. He was not easy to deal with at such a young age. He was invulnerable to swords and spears, but he was so fierce that he couldn't bite him. If he tried to bite him, he would probably break his teeth and have a mouth full of blood. So he had to turn to his brother who was destined to be rich and mediocre. Although he still didn't bite him, he made the two brothers restless, and he bit a person who was destined to ascend to heaven. It was not a loss in any way. I was really unwilling to not kill this thing."

Hua Cheng said: "He has been killed."

The Imperial Master said, "They were swallowed by He Xuan, right? I've heard that too. I was going to keep an eye on the Shi brothers until they were sure they were alright, but at that time, Tonglu was about to open, so I couldn't keep up, so I went to Tonglu first. When I came back, things had become a mess. Shi Wudu had evil intentions and caused a huge mess that couldn't be resolved! I had a terrible headache and couldn't do anything about it even if I wanted to."

That's really impossible to control. The Imperial Master said, "But to be honest, Baihua Zhenxian is not a powerful one. He just likes to cause trouble. Strictly speaking, this thing can only be considered a second-rate product and cannot be ranked. And, for example..."

Xie Lian whispered, “Another example… a thought at the bridgehead, fighting the dead soul?”

The Imperial Master took a breath and said, “…It’s him.

"Why else do you think I said that everything was because of your words? Because that bridge ghost was a black clone that he created in the copper furnace. Every many years, it would come out to cause trouble and kill people to vent its hatred. But you defeated that monster!

"He felt that the bridge ghost had been killed, and immediately went down to check, and saw you. And you, in front of him, said those words - 'My body is in hell, but my heart is in paradise'. This was simply a crazy mockery of him, and it touched his reverse scale...

“This is the turning point of everything.”