Cheng Qian watched Yan Zhengming and the others leave without relaxing his brows.

He is used to reporting good news but not bad news. Only when others turn their backs will his eyes reveal a bit of worry.

Cheng Qian proposed to stay and go with Tang Zhen. On the one hand, he really wanted to help, and on the other hand, it coincided with Yan Zhengming's idea - he planned to separate from his master for a while.

Although the eldest senior brother had a bad attitude and was extremely uncooperative, and no matter how he asked, he couldn't get his mouth to open, but it didn't prevent Cheng Qian from more or less guessing that Yan Zhengming's inner demon was probably closely related to him, otherwise he couldn't think of anything that the eldest senior brother couldn't say to him.

However, although Cheng Qian was very thoughtful, he lacked some cleverness. He could guess what to do next, but he didn't know how to deal with it. He could neither hint nor beat around the bush, for he was afraid that he might not be tactful enough and accidentally cause more trouble for his senior brother. So he thought of leaving for a while and pinning his hopes on his second senior brother Li Yun, who had everything except cleverness.

Cheng Qian didn't know whether Li Yun could be trusted. Before his fellow brothers had even gone far, he was already worried about them without showing any concern.

Perhaps there is always someone sent by God to jinx him, who really makes him experience the feeling of "it's hard to meet, but hard to part as well".

Tang Zhen watched coldly and said with some emotion: "The friendship among fellow disciples of your sect is really enviable."

Cheng Qian came back to his senses and retracted his gaze, saying, "I'm sorry for the delay, Brother Tang."

Tang Zhen didn't care: "I'm slow anyway, it won't be a problem."

Nian Dada came over from the side and said, "What's the matter? Is there any discord among Senior Tang's disciples?"

"It's hard to say whether we get along or not," Tang Zhen narrowed his eyes slightly, as if recalling something, his face was a little lonely, and he said, "Their Fuyao sect values ​​quality over quantity, but our Mulan Mountain is different. Mulan Mountain is too big, and there are several elders under the sect leader, each occupying their own mountain and accepting their own disciples. I have been in the mountain for hundreds of years, and I haven't even recognized all the elders. The only occasions for fellow disciples to see each other are occasions such as sect competitions. We don't know who is who, let alone have any feelings. Over time, everyone speaks based on qualifications and abilities, and the hierarchy is very strict and cold."

Tang Zhen said, glancing at Cheng Qian: "Your place is more humane, not like a sect, but more like a home."

Nian Dada said: "When a sect becomes big, there will be many people. When there are many people, the order will be strict and everyone will naturally become distant. There is nothing you can do about it, but among the same sect, there will always be one or two people who are good friends, right?"

Tang Zhen said: "There is indeed a junior sister who grew up with me. She...has a bad temper when she grows up, but she had a good relationship with me when she was young."

This was the second time Cheng Qian heard him mention his junior sister, so he asked, "Is your junior sister called Tang Wanqiu?"

"Yes, it's her." Tang Zhen said without turning his head, "But our so-called 'senior brothers and sisters' are just a title of seniority. We were quite close when we were young, but basically went our separate ways when we grew up. We are all just passers-by in Mulan Mountain. Even if she stands in front of me now, I don't know if I can recognize her. I know you have a close relationship with her, but now she is no longer in Liuhe, so you don't have to blame me for her actions."

There is a kind of smooth and frank indifference in Tang Zhen, no one knows if it is his nature, or because he has been walking on the edge of life and death for many years. He does not accept disciples, nor does he return to the sect. He even rarely mentions Mu Lanshan. He just wanders all over the mountains and no matter who he meets, he only regards the other party as a temporary fellow traveler.

The group disguised themselves as wandering cultivators in southern Xinjiang, hired a carriage, and continued their journey southward, crossing mountains and rivers like ordinary people.

Cheng Qian and Tang Zhen were not the kind of people who liked to chat, but Nian Dada was so frustrated that he had to tease Liu Lang, who was the easiest to bully. Liu Lang wanted to rush forward desperately when Cheng Qian was in the most dangerous time, but now that the situation was calm, he didn't dare to say a word to Cheng Qian. He always followed from a distance, lowered his head as if he couldn't stand the light, and buried his face in the shadows.

Nian Dada ran over and whispered in Liu Lang's ear, "Hey, little brother, I want to become a disciple of Fuyao - that is, Elder Cheng and his disciples. Will you come with me?"

Liu Lang glanced at Cheng Qian's back, then quickly looked away and shook his head silently.

Nian Dada thought that he was blind and didn't know the real talent, so he quickly approached him and said noisily, "Hey, you don't understand these things. Let me explain to you - those who have cultivated Yuanshen are all great figures who have the ability to go to heaven and earth. Not to mention ordinary people, even many cultivators from small sects may never see a Yuanshen cultivator in their entire lives."

Liu Lang did not answer, but just listened silently.

Nian Dada was a bit of a know-it-all. Seeing that he was paying attention to him, he became even more excited and said, "Besides, Yuanshen is different from Yuanshen. Look at the seniors of Fuyao Sect. Our Elder Cheng... Oh, that's needless to say. And their leader is a sword cultivator! This is the first time I've seen a living sword cultivator... Although he has a bad temper, it doesn't matter. I've talked to a sword cultivator above the Yuanshen level. This is enough for me to brag about for several years."

Liu Lang shook his head and said in a hoarse voice with difficulty: "Master Tang spared my life, so I want to stay and serve him. Besides, I have little ability, and I will only be a hindrance if I follow Master Cheng. I have no choice but to remember it for now and repay him later."

After hearing this, Nian Dada was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said to Liu Lang: "You... you, maybe Elder Cheng is willing to accept you as a disciple."

Liu Lang lowered his head and said no more.

The journey was only about a hundred miles, but they were robbed by various monsters and demons at least ten times.

Cheng Qian slashed two demon cultivators who tried to sneak in in the middle of the night to kill people and steal treasures with one sword, and felt that he had killed many people in recent days. A thin layer of blood frost had formed on the frost blade, reflecting a layer of murderous intent that involuntarily climbed up Cheng Qian's brows, making him look even more unapproachable.

Ever since a demon dragon appeared in southern Xinjiang, the demon cultivators seemed ready to rebel, gathering forces everywhere, and their methods were very simple and brutal - they slaughtered all the men, women, young and old in a city, directly occupied the city, covered the city walls with blood and hung human heads on them, and then artificially reversed the flow of clean energy in the city and built several demon cities.

Unfortunately, the Ice Heart Fire is within the territory of the Demon City.

The so-called "Ice Heart Fire" is actually not a real fire, but a special stone. According to legend, the outer layer of this object is as cold as a thousand-year-old ice, but the inside contains a warm jade with abundant spiritual energy. It can preserve a corpse for a thousand years without rotting. The corpse will not be frozen stiff, and when taken out, it looks as fresh as a person who has just died. It is the foundation stone of Zhaoyang, a large city in southern Xinjiang.

It's extremely hot in southern Xinjiang, with miasma everywhere, and the climate is terrible. Only in Zhaoyang City, because of this icy fire, the weather is like spring all year round. Merchants flock here, and it has gradually become the number one city in southern Xinjiang... Now it's a good opportunity for those evil bosses.

Nian Dada sighed heartlessly, "I originally thought that this 'Ice Heart Fire' is the foundation of someone else's city, why would they be willing to give it to us? We can't just take it by trickery - now that Zhaoyang City has been occupied by the demons, we can rob it by force or by trickery, and it won't hurt our moral principles. It's really better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early."

Cheng Qian didn't believe this was a coincidence and glanced at Tang Zhen meaningfully.

Tang Zhen was generous and said frankly: "What's a coincidence? I had expected that the south would be in chaos, and I came here to fish in troubled waters. The so-called 'heavenly secrets' are just listening to all directions, looking in all directions, and knowing a little bit about good and bad luck. Recently, the demonic energy in the south has gathered, and all the major sects have made unusual movements. Tianyan has even mobilized a lot of masters to come. I guessed that everything was about right, but I didn't expect such a big commotion as the appearance of a demon dragon."

Cheng Qian's heart trembled. Why didn't Han Yuan transform into a dragon? Why did he go north? Was he going to the imperial capital?

Could it be that... he still bears a grudge against Zhou Hanzheng for painting his soul, and wants to seek trouble with the imperial court?

Cheng Qian and Tang Zhen have known each other for many years. Although they are not very friendly to each other due to their personalities, which is a bit like "the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water", they are less cautious than others when speaking. Cheng Qian asked directly: "Brother Tang, I want to ask you a question..."

Tang Zhen said knowingly, "Your fourth junior brother?"

"That's right," Cheng Qian asked, "In your opinion, does my fourth junior brother really have two souls in one body?"

At the foot of Fuyao Mountain, Han Yuan didn't recognize the puddle after growing up. He was trying to find a way to let the strange girl go, while the other one was ready to kill.

Under the heavenly calamity, one Han Yuan was determined to peel the bones of Shuikeng alive, while the other one painfully pulled back the demonic energy in order to save Shuikeng...

"I think you don't understand what 'using the inner demon to enter the Tao' means," Tang Zhen said, "The other half of him is nothing else but the inner demon he nurtured himself. At his level of cultivation, the inner demon is no longer under his control and will instead turn against its master. How do you explain this? The inner demon is him and not him. His deepest hatred must be exactly the same as that inner demon, but if... your senior brother insists that he is possessed by a demon, it can barely make sense."

Cheng Qian: "How could he get to this point?"

"I don't know, I can only give you a guess," Tang Zhen thought for a moment, and said without any taboos, "For example, I am now a lonely ghost, and I dream of having a body again. Of course, taking over another's body is the best. Not only will my body not decay, but I can also take over the other person's cultivation. Although taking over another's body is an evil technique, I am not necessarily incapable of it, but I just don't want to go this route. But at this time, if I have a stubborn inner demon, it will be much more convenient. It can do whatever I want but don't want to do. I can get what I want and pretend that this is not my intention. Isn't it innocent and cheap?"

Tang Zhen said "I don't know", but his words were as sharp as a knife, and Cheng Qian was speechless for a moment.

Tang Zhen asked again: "Did your demon-like junior brother have a harmonious relationship with you back then?"

Cheng Qian's fingers tightly tightened around the frost blade in his hand, and he said in a low voice, "Better than a biological child."

Tang Zhen smiled and said, "That's right. His cultivation is low, and the sect is in danger. Not only can he not defend himself, but he is used by the enemy and kills you by mistake. How can he face his fellow disciples from now on? How can he face himself? He might as well use the remaining power of the painting soul to add fuel to the fire and let the Heart Demon Sword go astray. The way of the Heart Demon requires a person who is both strong and weak to achieve it. Speaking of which, your fourth junior brother is also a talent."

"Stop talking," Cheng Qian stood up suddenly, wishing he could go back to Yan Zhengming and the others right away. He said quickly, "I'll help you get the Ice Heart Fire tonight. Brother Tang, tell me the rules."

The devil cultivators indulge in lust, and the devil city never sleeps.

That night, Cheng Qian sneaked into the city alone.

He suppressed his aura, passed through the layers of blood and magic barriers, and took out the city map given to him by Tang Zhen from his arms. He checked it carefully for a moment and was a little hesitant - there were three bell and drum gate towers in the inner city, and the Ice Heart Fire was in the open space in the middle, suppressing the streets that extended in all directions, which was just right to get rid of the miasma and humidity in this place. Cheng Qian wanted to dig it up and leave without anyone noticing, but who knew that the place where the Ice Heart Fire was located was occupied by a group of ignorant demons in the city, and they ridiculously built a pavilion on the Ice Heart Fire.

Cheng Qian looked at the small building in front of him with the sound of decadent music, feeling helpless. He hid in the corner of the street, not knowing whether he should just rush in with sword in hand, chop people and grab stones, or keep a low profile and sneak in, then act according to circumstances.

Just then, a staggering sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corner of the street.

A demon cultivator with barely any cloth on his body walked towards this side drunkenly.

Cheng Qian didn't take it seriously at first. After he calmed down, the demon cultivators basically treated him as a human puppet and no one paid any attention to him.

But this time, the person who came back was a bit weird. Seeing Cheng Qian from a distance, the demon cultivator came over curiously and circled around Cheng Qian for a few times. Seeing that he looked expressionless and didn't have any human aura, he smiled and reached out to touch his face, sniffed it with his nose twitching, and said, "Whose puppet is this that was not kept? It's such a high-end item, it's a bargain for me..."

As he said this, the demon cultivator looked at Cheng Qian with a lustful look and tried to put his hand under his clothes.

Cheng Qian: “…”

He was immediately frightened and had goose bumps all over his body.

The demon cultivator was quite drunk, staggering to himself, "Eh... how come it seems like it can move on its own? Hehe, your original owner must have had a lot of fun..."

Cheng Qian could no longer bear it, and a sharp chill spread out uncontrollably. The demon cultivator suddenly woke up with a start, and was met with a pair of murderous eyes. The next moment, before he could even utter a word, his throat felt cold and had been pierced by a sword.

After this battle, Cheng Qian immediately rejected his previous idea of ​​"carefully sneaking in". He turned into a shadow and rushed into the wall of the small building.

There was a row of corpses lying inside the wall. Some of them had just died and their spiritual energy had not yet dissipated, and they could still be seen as monks. Cheng Qian took a quick look and found that none of the corpses were complete. Some were missing arms or legs, or there was only a lonely head left, and it was unknown what it matched.

There was a female cultivator in the corner, who looked like a puddle at first glance. Cheng Qian's heart skipped a beat and he couldn't help but take a closer look. He saw that her cheeks were slightly plump and there was a little cinnabar mole between her eyebrows. She was much prettier than his skinny little sister who would stick chicken feathers on her head. Unfortunately, her beauty below the chest was gone.

Even a heartless man like Cheng Qian couldn't bear to watch the beauty end up like this, so he held the frosty blade tightly and landed lightly on the roof of the small building along the corner of the wall.

Only then did Cheng Qian realize that this small building was not a building, but a magic weapon - it looked like an ordinary restaurant from the outside, but it was terrifyingly large inside, with a radius of half a mile and divided into several floors.

He looked inside and saw that there were hundreds of demon cultivators in the building, enjoying themselves crazily. A strange smell came straight to the top of the building, which was sweet and fishy, ​​making Cheng Qian feel a little nauseous.

There was a dark room in a corner of the lowest floor of the small building. Many people were locked up inside. It was too far away to tell whether they were cultivators or mortals. I only saw a few demon cultivators walk over and open the door. After a while, they dragged out a young man with a chain as thick as an adult's arm.

The man was dressed in white, with dried black blood on the front. He was dragged out half-dead and thrown onto the high platform in the middle of the field and hanged.

A short demon cultivator came on stage shirtless, holding a steel whip in his hand. He walked around the field, and started whipping the man in full view of everyone, causing blood to splatter. A group of demons, both big and small, around him were cheering with great enthusiasm, as if it was New Year's Day.

Cheng Qian was a little curious, so he stopped to take a closer look. He felt that the short demon cultivator's attack seemed very heavy, but he didn't seem to intend to kill the man. He wondered, "Is he going to torture him slowly? Or did the person holding the whip have good intentions and want to spare his life?"

Before he could finish his puzzlement, Cheng Qian saw several demon cultivators climbing up onto the stage in coquettish poses, both men and women. In the words of his senior brother, they all looked quite eye-catching, and had no self-awareness. It took the group half an incense stick of time to walk a few steps, and they twisted every part of their bodies that could be bent, from their hair to their toes, and twisted themselves to the middle like a group of two-legged snakes.

Cheng Qian wondered in his heart, "What is he doing?"

The next moment, he was stunned to find that this group of demon cultivators had gathered together and climbed on the hung man, molesting the half-dead man from head to toe, stripping his clothes until his face was half covered, and then surrounding him to have sex.

Cheng Qian: “…”

What the hell is this place!