"You might not be able to tell, but your Nine Provinces Cauldron's Artifact Spirit currently exists in a state between spirit body and physical entity. It is a unique form of existence."

Every time the Qiankun Mirror lost its memory and saw Da Chun, it would say this.

"I speculate that he became like this because he chose to separate the artifact from its spirit, with the spirit reincarnating as a human."

"He was reborn?"

"Ah... you could say that, but actually, there's no such thing as 'reincarnation' in this world. When a soul goes to the underworld, it's not necessarily to be reborn."

"Even if he reincarnated as a human, why would he be incomplete?"

"The bloodline has been diluted. Your friend named Da Chun is not the direct reincarnation of the Nine Provinces Cauldron's Artifact Spirit, but rather his descendant.

That is to say, Da Chun is only a part of the artifact spirit.

However, he is the core part, because he can directly fuse with the artifact.

If you want the Nine Provinces Cauldron's Artifact Spirit to fully recover, you must find all the descendants of the artifact spirit's reincarnations and have them merge into Da Chun's body. Your friend will then appear completely normal.

Relying solely on 'eating peaches' for self-repair would probably require an extremely long period of time."

Outside the simulation. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Chen Yi's thoughts suddenly flashed like lightning.

He connected some dots and arrived at a conjecture.

"Da Chun grew up in Luoding Village. He is actually also the descendant of a family in the village. It's just that all his relatives died, which is why he became the village simpleton. That means..."

All the villagers of Luoding Village were the descendants of the Nine Provinces Cauldron's reincarnation!

If this deduction was true.

Then it wasn't hard to understand why the mastermind would massacre an entire small village.

"The mastermind was targeting the Nine Provinces Cauldron's Artifact Spirit. He wanted to kill all the descendants of the artifact spirit to prevent the Nine Provinces Cauldron from ever recovering!"

Luoding Village.

Was it originally called "Luoding Village"?

Because of accent, dialect, or miscommunication, it was said as Luoding Village?

"So, was it the Dragon-Man tribe that has already infiltrated the human world who gave the order?"

The Qilin Soul had just mentioned that the Dragon-Man tribe stole their Great Dao Immortal Artifact when they destroyed the Demon World.

The Dragon-Man tribe had a motive.

"But it doesn't quite feel like it was the Dragon-Man tribe's doing..."

On one hand.

The timeframe of the village massacre... the Dragon-Man tribe shouldn't have infiltrated so deeply by then, to the point of cooperating with major powers among humanity?

At most, they could only tempt small, unenlightened forces like the Chixin Sect, who mistook the Dragon-Man tribe for the Demon Tribe and couldn't resist temptation.

On the other hand.

Even if the Dragon-Man tribe somehow learned about the Nine Provinces Cauldron's Artifact Spirit reincarnating and discovered that the Luoding Village villagers were the descendants of the reincarnated spirit...

Why would they go to Xiliang to find the Sacred Flame Cult and instruct them to travel thousands of miles to massacre the village?

And afterwards, go to the Great Wastes to find the Blood Moon organization to eliminate the Sacred Flame Cult to cover their tracks.

Doing it that way is so troublesome.

Wouldn't acting directly be simpler?

Even if they didn't want to show themselves, they could have let the Chixin Sect do it.

Aren't they already cooperating with the Chixin Sect to build that demon bridge tower?

The truth of the village massacre case seemed to be hidden behind only a few thin layers of veil, just one breath away from being blown open to reveal its true face.

[Led by the Qilin Soul, you arrived at a certain sea area and descended deep into the ocean floor.]

["Thirty thousand years is far too long. Back then, this entire stretch of seabed was covered in the bones of my clansmen, but now they have all turned to dust."]

[On the seabed was a giant blue boulder, emitting a faint glow.]

[The Qilin Soul indicated that there was a spatial tear on the stone, leading directly to the human world.]

[However, this tear was extremely small, originally used for very small-bodied members of the Demon Tribe to cross over to the human world for reconnaissance.]

[Back then, it wasn't that they couldn't open a larger tear, but a larger tear would easily attract attention from the other side.]

[So the tears used for intelligence gathering were all very small.]

[You took a look.]

["This is way too small."]

[It was only the size of a bowl's mouth.]

[Normally, you definitely wouldn't be able to get through.]

[But the Nine Provinces Cauldron can grow and shrink.]

[You just need to enter the small world inside the cauldron, then have the Nine Provinces Cauldron shrink, and you can get through.]

[The Qilin Soul knew this, which is why it brought you here.]

["Senior, I'll be on my way then."]

["Not yet. This tear is actually also sealed."]

["Ah? Then I..."]

["It's fine. I'll open it for you."]

["Thank you, Senior."]

["Step back."]

[You were inside the cauldron, so stepping back or not didn't really matter.]

[But you did as told anyway.]

[In the pitch-black, icy depths of the sea, the Qilin Soul's soul body erupted with seven-colored rainbow light, like a bright rainbow.]

[The Qilin Soul used many demonic arts. You didn't understand them but were impressed.]

[A moment later.]

[You saw that the Qilin Soul had stopped moving, so you had Da Chun control the Nine Provinces Cauldron to approach.]

["Senior, is the tear open?"]

["It's open, but it can only be used for one passage. After that, this tear will be permanently sealed."]

[You noticed the Qilin Soul's condition wasn't right.]

[Its entire soul body had become so transparent it was almost invisible!]

["Senior, you..."]

["Fortunately, I was the one who sealed it originally, so opening it wasn't too difficult. However, it consumed all my remaining soul power."]

["Senior, you should have told me the cost. I actually didn't have to go back."]

["Since I've broken free from the imprisonment, I should destroy myself anyway. Rather than dissipating for nothing, I might as well do you this small favor in passing."]

["Why?"]

["Do you know why the Dragon-Man tribe imprisoned me there instead of directly destroying my soul?"]

[The Qilin Soul told you some secrets about Guardians.]

[A Guardian is a race, a concentrated embodiment of a world's fortune, an external manifestation of a world's will.]

[Normally, the succession of a Guardian.]

[Either involves a life-and-death handover, meaning the previous one dies, and the next one automatically ascends after passing the world's will trial.]

[Or the previous one personally passes the identity to the next one.]

[For a case like the Qilin Soul's, where the body died but the soul did not perish, it would prevent the next Guardian from ascending on their own. Yet, being suppressed, it couldn't go and choose a successor.]

[Thus, the Demon Tribe was effectively in a state of having no Guardian.]

[This would severely weaken the entire race's fortune, directly affecting the cultivation paths of all its practitioners.]

[Although the Demon World was destroyed, the Demon Tribe was not completely exterminated.]

[Some powerful individuals shattered the void and left.]

[Some might be scattered in other worlds, like those in the human world.]

[So the Qilin Soul had to annihilate itself. It didn't want to affect the survivors of its own race.]

["The powerful ones who left the Void Realm cannot return. The Dragon-Man tribe doesn't care about that.

They prevent the Demon Tribe from giving birth to a new Guardian because they fear the remaining Demon Tribe members within the Void Realm might produce powerful individuals who could threaten them again.

Because we were one of the strongest races among the myriad races of the Void Realm!

They finally defeated us, so how could they be willing to see us rise again!"]

[At this point, the Qilin Soul looked at you.]

["Rivaling the Demon Tribe in fame... is your human race..."]

[The Qilin Soul said no more. Its soul body completely dissipated, turning into points of light that gradually faded away.]

[With complex emotions, you rode the Nine Provinces Cauldron and entered the tear.]