Chapter 2287: The Perfect Fusion of Demon and Man

This person was tall and handsome, with fine features, dressed in ordinary clothes yet exuding an aura of authority without anger.

Where have I seen him before?

Zhou Chengshou gave a start, suddenly recalling, and for a moment forgot to answer Liu Qingdao's words, his knees going weak as he was about to kneel before this person.

"Emperor..."

The next second, this person flashed to appear before Zhou Chengshou, grabbing his arm with one hand while speaking in a clear voice:

"Lord Zhou, be careful."

Zhou Chengshou then felt a gentle force transmitted to him, making it impossible for him to kneel down again.

Afterwards, he heard a faint whisper beside his ear:

"Shh, do not make a sound."

The Emperor is near at hand! Zhou Chengshou's heart surged with excitement, his throat almost unable to produce a voice:

"Yes... yes!"

Three years ago at the great ceremony, he had also gone to Ju City, standing behind the Wang Ting procession, gazing up at the Emperor from afar.

Never did he expect that one day he would be able to observe the holy countenance at close range!

"The Qi Xia Sect hides in its grottoes, yet can grasp external dynamics—eighty percent likely due to some divine artifact capable of observing the surroundings in real time." Liu Qingdao said softly, "The Emperor incognito on patrol—Lord Zhou, show no abnormality."

Since it concerned the Xian Sect and also involved the secrets of the demons, He Lingchuan had been persuaded by Dong Rui to come over.

Zhou Chengshou came to his senses, composed himself, and straightened his back:

"Yes!"

As the words fell, half of a vortex worm emerged from underground.

Yes, only half of it.

The other half seemed to have been torn apart by something, the break surface uneven, with sticky worm blood smearing the ground.

Liu Qingdao's face changed: "What's going on? Where is Wu Chuanjia?"

Why hasn't the unicorn immortal come out?

The vortex worm spoke in human words: "The bedrock of this mountain is strange; we only discovered after boring through the mountain base that the very center of the mountain encloses a large mass, oval-shaped, dark gold in color, its surface uneven, as if carved with countless gullies, yet the texture is not hard, like softwood, elastic and moist. Wu Chuanjia wanted to bore a hole into it and crawl inside to take a look."

They were sent out by Liu Qingdao precisely to investigate the mysteries beneath the mountain—how could they report back without making some attempt?

"Then?"

"Wu Chuanjia easily bored a hole and crawled in, and I followed along the hole he made, feeling this thing was softer than rock." Not to mention soft soil—even solid rock, the unicorn immortal, thanks to its special innate talent, could bore holes and crawl in.

"But when I had bored only halfway, this devilish thing suddenly became harder than gold and stone, clamping down tight, as if it wanted to push us further in—" the vortex worm still trembled with fear, "—as if we were in its gullet, and it wanted to swallow us down! I exerted all my strength but could not resist, so I had to bore back out. If I had been a step later..."

"... I fear it would have crushed us into worm paste."

Even a worm as soft and limp as this one got snapped in half—Wu Chuanjia's fate is likely grim.

Liu Qingdao pondered: "Judging by the sound, this thing does not seem like a magical artifact."

In fact, he had originally thought that a mountain capable of endless growth would likely be based on some strange treasure like 'xirang,' but unexpectedly it turned out to be an unknown object, and moreover, it possesses aggression in itself.

The vortex worm twisted its body, as if shaking its head: "It is definitely not a magical artifact; I'd guess it's a living thing!"

"A living thing? Hmm, not impossible. And furthermore, the soil dug up from the mountain is somewhat different." Liu Qingdao mused, "Insect eggs? Cocoons? Seeds?"

The vortex worm spat out two pieces: "These are the fragments that broke off when Wu Chuanjia bored his hole and struck that object! When I fled, I happened to pick them up."

"Good, thank you for your effort."

Liu Qingdao let the vortex worm withdraw first, then went to treat his wounds.

Dong Rui picked up the two pieces, wiped off the vortex worm's saliva, and gave them two light taps.

Bang-bang, whether looking at them or listening to them, they sounded like wood, yet they were dark gold in color.

He Lingchuan glanced at the sky, then said softly: "Find a quiet place; let us test these two things."

Zhou Chengshou immediately said: "Three li west of the riverside, there is a timber yard, very quiet."

Riverside timber yard, heavily guarded.

He Lingchuan stared at the soil on the table, lost in thought for a long time.

This thing always gave him a sense of familiarity, and moreover it was related to the demons—where had he seen it before?

After about an hour, Dong Rui came rushing over from the next room to find him:

"Hey, progress! Progress!"

Liu Qingdao was discussing strategy with He Lingchuan when this interruption occurred.

The surroundings of the room had already been warded with barriers against espionage and eavesdropping, so Dong Rui could speak freely: "The fragments the vortex worm coughed up—I have finished examining them, and you will absolutely never guess what they are!"

He placed the two fragments on the table.

After wiping them clean, both could see that the things were indeed dark gold, with uneven patterns of protrusions and depressions. Looking closely, they also seemed to have some color spots—meaning the color was not entirely uniform.

They really resembled wood.

He Lingchuan asked casually: "Are they related to the demon puppets?"

"How would you..." Dong Rui rolled his eyes, "Not exactly right, but not far off. How did you deduce that?"

"Isn't Ashumo just a demon puppet?"

"..." Is he being unreasonable? He should have known earlier—this fellow basically has six out of seven apertures open! "On the fragments, I detected human components."

"So it's a humanoid demon puppet?" Liu Qingdao wondered, "No, demon puppets seem to be demon + divine blood?"

He is the supervisor of the Bing Yuan Si, having encountered many strange things, demon puppets being among them.

The original intent of the demons in crafting demon-beast puppets was that human bodies are too frail to withstand divine descent, so they instead used sturdier demon physiques as the base.

If human bodies were usable—like that of Zang Xi Zhenjun—why bother researching demon puppets at all?

So the fact that these fragments contain human components—what does that mean?

Were the celestial demons originally experimenting on humans?

"What kind of humanoid demon puppet?" Dong Rui rolled his eyes, "This has nothing to do with demon puppets! The fusion of celestial demons and human components is perfectly seamless—both opposing and harmonious, perfect! No demon puppet master could ever create something like this!"

He Lingchuan asked him: "You can't either?"

"Impossible!" Dong Rui had always been proud of his technique, but some facts he couldn't deny, "They seem to have been fused together from birth... like the work of creation!"

"Born, creation?" These two keywords immediately triggered He Lingchuan's related associations.

Dong Rui continued: "What does it resemble? Do you remember that vial of blood I obtained from the Thousand-Eyed Cave? It's also a paradigm of celestial demon and human blood fusion, and these two are extremely similar..."

Before he finished speaking, He Lingchuan suddenly stood up and paced back and forth in the room a few steps.

Only Dong Rui dared to ask him at this moment: "What, did you think of something?"

He Lingchuan pointed at the fragments and soil samples on the table:

"Do you still remember the demon nest?"

"Yao Erniang's old lair? I remember." It left a deep impression—back then, he and He Lingchuan almost became the spider queen's meal.

"Yao Erniang isn't the original landlord. Before she took over, who was the original owner of the demon nest?"