It’s over.

After recovering her senses, Xiang Haikui secretly glanced at Yin Changli’s slightly upturned lips and knew Blood Demon Lord was finished.

Earlier, she had felt sorry for him, but now she realized he truly excelled at courting death in creative ways.

“Little Kui, you’ve seen it, haven’t I been right?” Yin Changli straightened the scales at his temples and said calmly, “If he had shown even a bit of awareness all these years, he wouldn’t be troubled by this heart demon.”

“Just continue your conversation, pretend I don’t exist, no need to be polite with me.” Blood Demon Lord raised his eyebrows smugly and continued playing the suona.

Unless they returned to a room with soundproofing barriers, there was no escaping him.

But in the middle of the night, Xiang Haikui wouldn’t enter the same room with Yin Changli and lock the door.

Earlier in the carriage, whenever Yin Changli leaned in her direction, she would instinctively dodge, maintaining a certain distance, occasionally lifting the curtain for fresh air.

It seemed she had some psychological barrier, reluctant to stay with Yin Changli in the same enclosed space.

Blood Demon Lord figured that for Xiang Haikui, their dual cultivation experience must not have been pleasant, perhaps even leaving psychological trauma.

The tune Blood Demon Lord played was eerily gloomy.

Like a cold wind rising from nowhere, it made Xiang Haikui’s hair stand on end.

In this situation, Yin Changli wouldn’t continue talking. His mind was certainly focused on dealing with the Blood Demon Lord.

She prepared to return to her room to sleep. “I’ll first…”

Yin Changli transmitted a message, “Where were we just now? Oh right, we were talking about the strongest Four Races of Heaven and Humanity from the neighboring Three Thousand Realms…”

Xiang Haikui had just shifted her bottom, preparing to rise from the stone stool, but upon hearing this, she sat back down.

Yin Changli continued unhurriedly, “The Four Races of Heaven and Humanity each have their duties. The Heavenly Maidens are the leaders, the Heavenly Craftsmen are the artisans, the Heavenly Spirits are the brains, and the Heavenly Warriors are the soldiers.”

“Years ago, that great lord from the neighboring Three Thousand Realms, besides several divine swords, also brought many treasures. Among them was a Heavenly Warrior divine stone, nurtured by the essence and fresh blood of the Heavenly Warriors…”

These Heavenly Warriors, revered as children of gods and born naturally brave and skilled in battle, had no custom of burial.

When their lifespan was nearing its end, they would enter a designated cave in advance.

There, they would dissolve themselves, turning entirely into nutrients to nourish the earth’s veins.

Over time, the earth veins would form a kind of ore possessing Heavenly Warrior divine power, named Heavenly Warrior divine stone.

Every few thousand years, the Heavenly Warriors would extract aged ore and have the Heavenly Craftsmen forge divine weapons for them, used to protect the Four Races of Heaven and Humanity and maintain stability in the Three Thousand Realms.

Yin Changli said, “This is an admirable race, completely different from the Heavenly Race in our world.”

Xiang Haikui listened intently, almost forgetting the suona sound.

Yin Changli continued, “The Heavenly Warrior divine stone brought by that great lord was known as the King of Stones—the highest quality among divine stones, extremely difficult to produce. Divine weapons forged from the King of Stones were only worthy of the strongest Heavenly Warrior of each generation.”

Xiang Haikui quickly responded, “See? And you still say they didn’t come to provide aid?”

Even if those troublesome swords were thrown here, and the great lord felt guilty and wanted to compensate, would they offer treasures of such caliber?

Yin Changli smiled and said, “But for our world, this Heavenly Warrior divine stone was just a piece of scrap metal.”

Xiang Haikui frowned. “How so?”

Yin Changli: “Even the world’s greatest weapon forger couldn’t smelt the divine stone.”

Xiang Haikui: …

“Later, Shu Luoye and I finally found a smelting method.” As Yin Changli mentioned this, his eyes dimmed slightly. “However, if not for attempting to smelt it, Shu Luoye wouldn’t have lost most of his spiritual essence and died at Di Jun’s hands.”

So the stone eventually fell into Xiao Bai’s father’s hands. Xiang Haikui pondered briefly and suddenly understood.

The divine artifact that Di Jun feared must have been forged from the Heavenly Warrior divine stone.

“Senior, is this related to my father’s ability to see scenes from other worlds? If not, you needn’t continue…”

Xiang Haikui’s expression gradually became solemn.

The divine artifact was a secret Yin Changli had always kept.

A secret that both Di Jun and Han Qi schemed endlessly to obtain.

“It is related.” Yin Changli sat up straight, looking at her quietly.

His gaze was somewhat inscrutable, and Xiang Haikui felt a tension building in her mind like a tightening string.

He remained silent for a long time.

She felt suffocated with anxiety.

But Yin Changli just rubbed his temples wearily and turned to look at Blood Demon Lord. “However long we talk, you intend to play that long, right?”

Blood Demon Lord thought, “Can’t stand it anymore, huh?” He nodded and continued playing.

Yin Changli appeared thoroughly annoyed. “Little Kui, let’s continue tomorrow. Mentioning my old friend Shu Luoye has dampened my mood. I can’t calm down, and the suona noise makes me even more agitated.”

No! At such a crucial moment, he was going with “to be continued”?

Earlier, Xiang Haikui could have waited until tomorrow, but now it was impossible.

“Senior, when will you be done with this?” She glared at Blood Demon Lord, finding him increasingly irritating. She thought to herself, “No wonder Yin Changli bullies you!”

Standing up, she grabbed Yin Changli’s sleeve. “Let’s go! We’ll talk in my room. After activating the soundproof barriers, let him play all he wants. If he doesn’t play until we’re done, he’s a grandson!”

Yin Changli was pulled along as they left the pavilion.

As they entered Xiang Haikui’s room, he turned his head toward Blood Demon Lord on the wall, curling his lips to his mouth, “Thank you. Your small step has helped me take a giant leap.”

Blood Demon Lord: …

What was going on? Instead of being a stumbling block, had he become a stepping stone?

…

In the room.

Xiang Haikui picked up the oil lamp from the cabinet under the window and placed it on the table.

She and Yin Changli sat facing each other across a table.

Land in Jin Ling was extremely valuable, so the room in the post station villa was limited in size. After all the barriers were locked, it became so quiet that her breathing grew rapid.

Blood Demon Lord hadn’t been wrong—she did indeed feel some aversion to being in the same small space with Yin Changli.

In the future dream foretold by the Destiny Brush, she had been pressed into bathwater and died of suffocation.

She feared suffocation most.

Therefore, she had an inherent aversion to small, enclosed spaces.

And on the night of dual cultivation in the tree hollow, Yin Changli had nearly strangled her to death.

Although he had already explained it wasn’t intentional, the feeling of suffocation had been real.

Yin Changli understood this well. Looking at her across the dim candlelight, he saw her hands resting on the table, continually squeezing her knuckles.

He wanted to reach out and hold her hand, to take another step forward.

After hesitating for a long time, his restless hand finally settled to support his chin.

With his other hand, he took out a hairpin and adjusted the lamp wick, making the room a bit brighter.

Yin Changli spoke first. “Little Kui, didn’t you say you wanted to learn from me how to identify ore?”

“Ah, yes.” His mention reminded Xiang Haikui that due to the Blood Demon Lord’s interruption, he hadn’t yet agreed.

Yin Changli sighed with concern. “Naturally, I’m willing, but I suddenly realized that you’d have to follow me drilling through barren mountains underground, in dark, airless spaces. You…”

“I can do it! No problem!” Xiang Haikui hurriedly interrupted.

On her path to becoming a Tian Kuang Dragonoid, she had rammed her head against mountains countless times.

If this iron head she had developed wasn’t used for drilling into the earth to mine, it would be completely meaningless.

Thinking this way, she suddenly felt her breathing become smoother, and her body filled with energy!

Yin Changli couldn’t help but smile, nodding. “Alright, I’ll teach you when we have time.”

Xiang Haikui quickly agreed, almost blurting out “Thank you, big boss.” After regaining her composure, she urged, “Now no one’s disturbing us. Please continue. How is that Heavenly Warrior divine stone related to my father’s ability to see other worlds?”

Yin Changli fell into a brief silence, gazing at the lamp before him, gradually losing focus. “This begins with my infiltration of the Underworld to kill Que Chi, when I was stopped by Shu Luoye…”

When the Mountain-Sea Race was defeated and Shu Luoye was stripped of his position as the Heavenly Race’s Crown Prince, Yin Changli was still a youth.

With many years and experiences separating them, it was Shu Luoye who first chose Yin Changli to become close friends.

At that time, Yin Changli’s abilities and vision were still quite limited, but he had one quality that Shu Luoye desperately needed.

He was an expert on “ore.”

A fallen “Mountain-Sea commoner” who had accumulated vast wealth through mining in a short time.

Shu Luoye wanted to forge weapons and was researching the Heavenly Warrior divine stone from another world.

After evaluating his character, he made his move.

He recruited him to serve in the Underworld as one of the Twelve Palace Lords.

After hundreds of years of evaluation, determining he was like-minded, Shu Luoye finally brought out the Heavenly Warrior divine stone…

…

“Changli, this is the Heavenly Warrior divine stone.” Shu Luoye lifted the lid of the treasure box in his hand.

It was just a palm-sized box containing a fist-sized black stone—ordinary and unremarkable.

“I want to forge a divine artifact with it.” Shu Luoye looked up at the dark red sky of the Underworld.

Yin Changli examined the divine stone. “To deal with Di Jun?”

In earlier years, Shu Luoye had been experimenting with stripping away his spiritual pressure. His own spiritual pressure was already weaker than his brother’s.

Shu Luoye shook his head. “That would be too wasteful.”

Yin Changli: “Then what for?”

Shu Luoye’s gaze toward the sky gradually became distant. “The chaos in the Three Realms is the great fault of our Heavenly Race. And the current state of our Heavenly Race isn’t entirely the fault of spiritual pressure. Although spiritual pressure makes us desireless, being desireless should mean being without demands, not being cold-blooded killers, self-important, and arrogant.”

Initially, the Heavenly Race wasn’t like this. They lived in the upper realm, focused on cultivation, while maintaining order in the human realm and the Underworld.

But at some point, the Heavenly Race became increasingly arrogant, viewing themselves as noble, believing they were the incarnations of gods.

By the time of his great-grandfather’s generation, as Di Jun, they had classified all races into different tiers, considering the Heavenly Race as first-class.

During his grandfather’s generation, they plundered resources and suppressed all races.

His father’s time saw the beginning of wars.

His brother, the new Di Jun, was even more outrageous, exterminating races he disliked.

“Over time, this concept has deeply penetrated the bones of every member of the Heavenly Race…” Shu Luoye lowered his head, sighing slightly. “That senior from the neighboring world mentioned a term in his notes called ‘Yelang’s conceit.’ I think our Heavenly Race is Yelang, and our extinction is just a matter of time.”

Yin Changli took the Heavenly Warrior divine stone from the box, holding it in his palm. “Alright, enough with all these reflections. Let’s talk about the main issue—what divine artifact do you want to create?”

Shu Luoye: “I want to forge a divine arrow that can penetrate the barrier between spaces and worlds, opening a spatial tunnel between us and the other world. Since the Heavenly Warrior divine stone comes from the neighboring Three Thousand Realms, when it enters the void, it should be attracted to its ‘birthplace.’ The connection between our world and the neighboring Three Thousand Realms is most likely.”

The time flow rates were different on both sides, but after connecting, over a long period of integration, the time difference would gradually diminish until they were identical.

Yin Changli was slightly shocked. “You want to merge our world into the Three Thousand Realms, becoming one of the Three Thousand Great Worlds?”

Hearing this, Xiang Haikui also sat up in surprise.

So the divine artifact was an arrow capable of opening a spatial tunnel between two worlds.

Xiang Haikui didn’t think too deeply, but from Yin Changli’s words, this realm was less advanced than the Three Thousand Realms. Merging with them would be like joining an international organization, no longer being isolated—the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.

At least it would prevent the Heavenly Race from remaining like frogs in a well, arrogant and conceited.

She recalled something. “You now place your hopes for peace on Xiao Bai, always saying the divine artifact isn’t mature yet. Is there something wrong with the divine artifact?”

“It’s not the divine artifact that has a problem, but Shu Luoye’s indecision.” Yin Changli touched his earlobe. “It’s a matter of great importance with obvious pros and cons, requiring tremendous risk. In the end, Shu Luoye decided to let the Heavenly Dao choose—whether to continue staying in isolation or to connect with the greater world.”

Xiang Haikui didn’t understand. “Let the Heavenly Dao choose?”

Was it like drawing lots?

Rolling the dice?

Yin Changli said, “He instructed me, after the arrow was completely forged, to throw it into the realm of reincarnation, letting it reincarnate. As something not from our world, it should return to the neighboring world. If it doesn’t come back, then the Heavenly Dao doesn’t permit it. If the Heavenly Dao permits, after many twists and turns, it will surely return…”