Chapter 211

"Are you serious?"

"Do you think this is the time for joking?"

"This is my ancestor's skin."

"You aren't exactly a very filial son either."

"I am only able to barely retain my self when using the ancestor's skin because I have the ancestor's bloodline; you, an outsider, if you cover yourself with it, you will fall into confusion."

"You don't need to worry about that, give me the thing."

"Because this place is the layout constructed by the ancestor, his skin has special significance and effects here, which will cause the rules to vibrate, and as a result, a lot of disturbances will enter together..."

"Are you giving it or not?"

"Giving!"

Li Zhuiyuan knew that as long as he spoke, the other party would definitely give it.

The so-called manipulation of people's hearts, to put it bluntly, is to first figure out what the other party really wants in their heart, and then follow this line of thought to weave a dream for them that they can complete.

In this situation, even if you are lazy and tired and don't want to lie anymore, they can instead actively help you lie to themselves.

The faceless man began to tear at the upper half of his face.

Soon, half a piece of skin drifted in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

The youth reached out and grabbed it.

The touch was cold, not greasy at all, and it emitted a refreshing sandalwood fragrance.

Those who know, understand it is human skin; those who don't would think it is some kind of artwork.

Since the faceless man's ancestor had the ability to build this place, then it seems the tomb he built for himself shouldn't be simple either.

This sandalwood fragrance was soaked in over a long period of time, which means the environment inside the tomb remained fixed during this period.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Where is your family's ancestral tomb?"

Faceless man: "Is this question of yours a bit presumptuous?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Anyway, your own family has already robbed it, and your family members have all been killed by you and moved to be buried here.

After you become an immortal and live in the Tiangong, it won't be easy to descend to the mortal world, so it's better for me to sweep the tomb for you."

Faceless man: "Qingtan, Sanyue Forest."

Li Zhuiyuan hadn't heard of this place name, but it could be checked.

Li Zhuiyuan spread out the half piece of skin in his hand and raised it again.

Without hesitation, and without making any psychological preparations, he simply closed his eyes and stuck this half piece of skin on his face.

When Li Zhuiyuan tried to open his eyes, that half piece of skin seemed to come alive, and huge distracting thoughts began to surge toward him crazily.

The faceless man observed the youth in front of him carefully, hoping to see a look of struggle and pain on the youth's face.

It was a pity that he was disappointed; the youth's expression didn't change in the slightest.

Not only that, when the youth opened his eyes, there were no miscellaneous colors in the depths of his pupils.

This meant that the youth not only didn't lose himself, but also suppressed all other distracting thoughts.

Faceless man: "Are you a human or a ghost?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Don't you find it ridiculous? You, who walk by drifting, ask me, who has flesh and blood, whether I am a human or a ghost."

Faceless man: "This is impossible!"

The faceless man had his own experience and cognition; he believed that there were people with extremely strong willpower in this world, but he didn't believe that there could be anyone in this world who was not affected in the slightest.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and poked the skin beside his eye socket lightly: "Impossible?"

Every time the black-skin book secret technique is used, it is equivalent to quickly experiencing someone else's life; memories, emotions, insights, etc., will all leave marks on the user.

The one under the peach forest was the one who lost himself because he used this secret technique too much.

But the youth and Wei Zhengdao were not affected by this kind of thing.

Absolute cold rationality naturally requires the removal of all impurities and burdens.

Therefore, as fellow patients, every time they get sick, it is actually a kind of attempt to erase their "self-consciousness".

Having no emotions is the fruit borne by this cause, it's just that it is the easiest to be expressed and perceived.

Those distracting thoughts, those factors that might shake their identity cognition, entered their bodies and couldn't affect them at all, because they were so ruthless that... they even killed themselves.

Li Zhuiyuan turned around and looked at the scholar lying on the couch.

Now he could see the "threads" emerging on the scholar.

They were connected to the surrounding furniture, furnishings, floors, and walls, interacting with each other.

However, there were many broken ends on the scholar, which indicated that the original threads were denser, almost completely wrapping the scholar, and now many had broken.

Just like the rules that had been continuously destroyed and had become riddled with holes.

Li Zhuiyuan looked around, observing these thread ends everywhere; there were many on the ground, and quite a few emerged in the surrounding air; they had heads and tails, and were broken.

The youth raised his hand, trying to touch them, but as soon as his fingertips touched them, these threads swayed away like a reflection in a mirror.

When Li Zhuiyuan was still outside the tower earlier, he felt the bell sound coming from inside the tower, and at that time he thought about studying the method of group formation well after this wave ended and he went back.

He didn't expect that after he entered the tower again, he could still face these "threads" intuitively.

This was simply an observation hall, which was a great help to his subsequent research.

It was a pity that time didn't allow it, otherwise he really wanted to sit here for ten days or half a month and study it thoroughly.

The youth focused his attention on the scholar again, and at the same time reached out and grabbed the bell in front of the scholar.

The moment the bell was in his hand, the threads on the scholar began to move crazily.

He got off the bed, stood up, closed his eyes, and stood in front of the youth.

Li Zhuiyuan felt it carefully; although it was very similar, the other party was not in a puppet state controlled by himself.

At this time, the scholar had a certain degree of autonomous behavioral ability, but this autonomous behavior was not from himself.

Rather, it was a kind of drive carried out under the operation of rule deduction through the entanglement of these threads.

Li Zhuiyuan thought of the three stone gates at the entrance of this secret realm: puppet, beast-driving, and formation.

These three constructed the foundation of the rules here.

The faceless man's ancestor was indeed an extremely remarkable existence; being able to arrange this place meant that he had at least mastered all three of these and combined them into one.

This also reminded Li Zhuiyuan that if he wanted to continue to study on this road, then the "beast-driving" part seemed to really not be skipped.

However, is it possible for Wei Zhengdao's black-skin book secret technique to replace the "beast-driving" column?

Yu Cangsheng could become a teacher here by relying on Yu family learning; Li Zhuiyuan didn't think that Wei Zhengdao's strongest signature secret technique would be inferior to the Yu family's beast-driving formula.

Is it possible that the beast-driving column was originally a retreat to the second best because of the difficulty and emptiness of arts like human-driving and spirit-driving?

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Seeing this, the faceless man stood straight; sure enough, you will still feel uncomfortable and confused.

He misunderstood; the youth didn't lose himself, but was forcing himself to interrupt the learning and thinking process.

This high tower is truly full of treasures everywhere.

Every detail contains the amazing ideas and innovations of the ancestors.

The scholar turned around and prepared to walk down.

Li Zhuiyuan could perform a certain degree of completion on him through the bell.

Just like before, when the old Daoist priest and Yu Cangsheng and the others were dueling, the role played by the faceless man on the top of the tower.

Dead people are dead people after all; even if they stand up to fight again, their own limitations are still very large.

Yu Cangsheng had long seen this point; he was far from being the old Daoist priest's opponent, but if it weren't for the faceless man's blessing at that time, Yu Cangsheng would actually have had the opportunity to defeat the old Daoist priest on his own.

Because the deduction logic of the high tower was really a bit too rigid.

Rigid like the black-skirted woman who appeared at the beginning to "kill" Yu Miaomiao, only using that one move from beginning to end.

It's probably according to the logic of the high tower, as long as it's easy to use, then keep using it.

Like that teaching game back then, the current high tower is the self at that time, and the current self is the Zhao Yi at that time.

Holding the bell in his hand is equivalent to temporarily lending his brain to this high tower to deduce together.

This is not the mode Li Zhuiyuan wants.

At this time, Xu Zhenrong and Zhen Shaoan under the tower possessed a classroom environment, and their strength soared, forming an extremely unfair situation.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Was that old Daoist priest the most powerful existence in this tower during his lifetime?"

Faceless man: "That's right, he should have sat on a floor alone."

After a pause, the faceless man continued: "It's not that he wasn't strong enough, it's that he was already dead, and I could only..."

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand and interrupted the faceless man's words.

The old Daoist priest was already the strongest, but he still couldn't save the situation.

Therefore, even if this scholar went down now, he could increase his side's combat power, but it was not enough to pull the balance of the situation back.

Since he chose to take action, he had to aim for winning, not just for a little more time of lingering on.

Li Zhuiyuan conveyed his orders through the bell.

The scholar's footsteps paused, and then he continued to walk toward the stairs.

When his own orders conflicted with the rules in the high tower, the scholar would follow the behavioral logic given by the latter.

This won't do.

Li Zhuiyuan chased after him and followed behind the scholar.

The faceless man reminded: "Go to the top of the tower, it's more convenient to overlook the overall situation there."

Li Zhuiyuan: "There's no need to overlook a losing overall situation."

The faceless man felt that these words made sense, but what was the point?

Seeing the youth following behind the scholar downstairs, he also drifted over immediately.

Li Zhuiyuan knew he didn't have much time; if he couldn't intervene in the scholar before he left the high tower, then he wouldn't have a chance to do anything else to him next.

The youth began to pinch seals, and the newly learned Nuo opera puppet art was operated.

Strands of black energy rose from the scholar, and a faint mask phantom appeared on his face.

But the next moment, accompanied by the high tower that was already in vibration, a slight additional shaking was added.

The black mist on the scholar dissipated, and the mask on his face also collapsed.

This road doesn't work.

If he wants to control this scholar through Nuo opera puppet art, he must first suppress or simply break the high tower rules, which is obviously impossible.

As for from the perspective of formation... apart from digging a mouse hole like he did when stealing the book earlier, he couldn't really shake the formation here at all.

Of the three methods, two were gone.

He didn't know beast-driving art.

In this situation, Li Zhuiyuan had to take out the substitute that was originally intended to be used as an experiment in advance.

The youth's eyes condensed, and he began to walk in the underworld; the black-skin book secret technique was also operated at the same time.

In an instant, the environment in the high tower disappeared, replaced by a cliff.

The scholar and a woman were sitting there, as if enjoying the scenery.

At sunset, everything was dyed with orange frost, and the scenery was like a painting.

And they, who were enjoying the scenery, also seemed to enter the painting in the image of talented men and beautiful women.

After dark, it was a starry sky.

The two just sat there, motionless.

After sitting until late at night, the scholar moved; he picked up the woman.

On the woman's body hung several jade pendants with special textures, emitting cold air.

She was already dead; these jade pendants were used to preserve the corpse from rotting.

The scholar held the woman and walked into a cave; the cave was not very deep, but a formation was arranged outside.

Inside the cave was a stone platform, and a small stream flowed under the platform; this was the formation guide that formation masters liked most.

The scholar placed the woman's remains on it and said:

"They all say that this birth, aging, sickness, and death cannot be resisted by human power; I believe it, so I don't intend to continue being a human.

You just sleep peacefully here; after I become an immortal, I will come back to resurrect you, and then take you to the sky together.

You haven't seen the scenery there, but I think you will definitely like it."

Is this the path of pursuing immortality to resurrect a lover?

Li Zhuiyuan felt that this was quite in line with this scholar's character setting.

The youth also additionally noticed that the wordless book was always tied to the scholar's waist; he was already looking at this book at that time.

Next, the memory screen advanced rapidly.

Fast-forwarding a movie in a video recorder doesn't jump to that time period all at once, but reads quickly; Li Zhuiyuan here is the same.

This is also the reason why this secret technique will cause serious side effects; you have immersively experienced someone else's life, so your positioning of yourself will definitely be shaken by this.

In the following screen, the scholar used various means to enter here at the moment when the stone gate opened again; together with him, there were quite a few people.

The screen skipped again; the scholar came to the eleventh floor and chose a big man with a full beard.

The following scene was familiar, because Li Zhuiyuan had just experienced it himself.

This batch of people who entered here with the scholar brought the people they chose to the underground level and began to compete and kill.

The scholar killed the bearded man.

The bearded man's corpse began to rot rapidly, turning into mist and rising, drilling into the scholar's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

The scholar didn't resist, calmly accepting all this; his vitality also slowly cut off during this period, accepting his death in a very calm way.

From the moment of death, he became a part of this high tower.

He closed his eyes, walked back to the high tower like a walking corpse, came to the eleventh floor, sat in the position where the bearded man was earlier, took out the book, lay on his side, and remained motionless.

The people on the eleventh floor rarely changed, because few people could challenge this floor.

In the following years, the scholar only accepted two challenges; after the two challenges ended, he absorbed the other party's fate and good fortune into his mouth, and then returned to his position, posing in the same posture.

The next memory screen was gray, like the slits of eyes opening.

In the gray, Li Zhuiyuan saw a youth's figure, busy arranging a formation, and then, forcibly pulling down the book "in his own hands".

Li Zhuiyuan didn't expect that he could enter the other party's deep memory.

Next, according to the traditional process, he should go to construct false memories for him to achieve the purpose of manipulation.

But now, he had already gone down to the fourth floor.

Even if this scholar is controlled by rules, suppressed by formations, plus the special effect of the half-piece of human skin on his face here... but even with so many favorable conditions as a prefix, wanting to complete the black-skin secret technique to achieve traditional manipulation would require a lot of time; without anything else, he was too strong during his lifetime.

Li Zhuiyuan could only take a shortcut; since dogmatic means were too late, he could only take the gentle route.

The other party could still remember the scene of himself stealing his book earlier, which meant that he actually had a slight self-consciousness.

And this scholar was different from other fanatics pursuing immortality.

He might not be obsessed with pursuing immortality, but his lover died, and he couldn't stop it and couldn't turn it back, so he came to this place specifically to escape.

Under Li Zhuiyuan's operation, the memory screen began to rewind, all the way back to that cave.

Outside the cave, the scenery of spring, summer, autumn, and winter flashed by rapidly.

Li Zhuiyuan was simulating the changes that would happen inside and outside the cave under the erosion of time.

The youth was extremely good at formations, and his aging technology was naturally not bad.

Soon, accompanied by "time constantly passing by rapidly", the formation at the entrance of the cave appeared mottled and peeling, gradually losing its power.

The stream in the cave stopped flowing, the patterns on the table were slowly filled with dust, and slowly lost their protective effect.

Several jade pendants on the woman's body used for keeping the corpse fresh slowly dimmed in luster.

Small animals began to sneak in; the corpse that lost protection and freshness not only had to face the risk of being eaten by animals, but also had to bear the price of rotting.

The scholar's body began to shake; he obviously couldn't accept this kind of picture.

Li Zhuiyuan's voice also sounded in his ear:

"When you left, you thought you would be away for a long time, but you probably didn't expect it to be so long.

Even if you had already considered the erosion of time in the prior arrangement, no matter how much arrangement and precaution, you still couldn't stop the fact that would inevitably happen.

I promise you, if you fail to ascend to become an immortal in the end, I will go to the place where she is buried and help her rearrange all the formations inside and outside, so that her appearance will last forever."

The scholar in the memory screen stopped shaking.

The scholar in reality no longer resisted the youth's consciousness and completely opened his heart.

Success.

And at this time, the two of them happened to come to the first floor.

The scholar continued to walk toward the tower door, while Li Zhuiyuan stayed in place and closed his eyes.

At this moment outside, the fighting was very fierce and lively.

"Fake Runsheng" did not try to fully open the qi gate; it was highly probable because Xu Zhenrong was also not sure whether this human kneaded from a large number of black shadows could support the load of fully opening the qi gate.

Furthermore... she already occupied enough advantages.

Zhao Yi did not naively go for "soldier against soldier, general against general", but chose to gather everyone together, with Runsheng responsible for the frontal hard resistance, while the others were behind Runsheng, carrying out various assistance and blessings.

He gave up the possibility of "winning" early on, and very simply chose to take the formation he arranged as the core, with everyone else gathering and covering around him, and wholeheartedly acted as a shrinking turtle.

Because "Fake Runsheng", "Fake Lin Shu", and "Fake Tan Wenbin" all had better body quality than the originals, so one-on-one duels could only accelerate the process of failure.

Zhao Yi just wanted to drag out the time, dragging until the guy surnamed Li in the high tower returned to help.

Just this one decision was better than countless specific instructions when directing combat.

Just like Yu Miaomiao above, she was already covered in blood, being suppressed more and more severely by Zhen Shaoan, doing a very tragic desperate struggle.

What she should have done most at the beginning was to give up any idea of active attack, let herself pull out enough safe distance, and seek to carry out external deterrence.

But her eyes were filled with hatred and unwillingness, still thinking about breaking through the formation pressure that was constantly accumulating and becoming more and more terrible, and then, killing him.

It was precisely because of this stubbornness and extremism that she was stepping into a dead end step by step.

Zhen Shaoan only needed to continue to arrange the formation; maybe in the next moment, Yu Miaomiao's body would "pop" and turn into a cloud of blood mist.

Xu Zhenrong occupied an absolute advantage, but the three powerful puppets under her hand were slow to break through that turtle shell that was set up wholeheartedly.

She was already considering whether to let "Fake Runsheng" enter the fully open qi gate mode; this seemed to be the only way to accelerate the process at the moment.

Just at this time, the scholar walked out from the tower door.

Xu Zhenrong and Zhen Shaoan were startled at the same time, and then the two looked at the top of the tower again; the top of the tower was still empty.

They didn't understand why, after solving an old Daoist priest, someone could still walk out of this high tower.

Could it be that the one on the top floor had two lives?

Zhen Shaoan: "No need to worry, even if that old Daoist priest appears again, now that we occupy the geographical advantage, we don't need to be afraid of him anymore."

Xu Zhenrong: "No matter how strong he was during his lifetime, he is dead after all."

Although the sudden appearance of the scholar made the two of them feel surprised, this little surprise was not enough to affect the situation they controlled now.

Inside the high tower, Li Zhuiyuan, who had his eyes closed, opened his mouth, and the scholar who had just walked out of the tower door and stood there also opened his mouth.

Li Zhuiyuan was speaking, but the voice came from the scholar's mouth:

"Dividing the good fortune of that bell will cause the rule constraints here to collapse completely; under the breeding of resentment, everything here will turn into evil spirits; when they rush out of here to the outside, it will be a natural disaster."

The scholar spoke, which shocked Zhen Shaoan and Xu Zhenrong.

Zhen Shaoan: "Bluffing, it's the person inside using secret methods to transmit sound; it's fine, he is already dead, other changes are not worth worrying about, unless he can open his eyes."

Xu Zhenrong said: "In the name of ascension, bewitching the public, harming living beings, we lurked here just to kill this thief who bewitches the public, and seek justice for the poor living beings who were deceived and lost their lives!"

Inside the high tower, Li Zhuiyuan smiled; outside the high tower, the scholar also smiled.

It turns out that they, including Yu Cangsheng, actually always knew that taking away the good fortune on the bell of the high tower would cause the place to lose control, and thousands of evil spirits would rush out of Mount Yulongxue, causing disaster.

But they didn't care, because they only had their own families in their eyes.

Hearing this conversation, Zhao Yi couldn't help but think of the stone tablet left by his ancestors in the mountains, and the copper coin sword "given" to the guy surnamed Li by his ancestors.

He even remembered the time when he fed medicine to the guy surnamed Li, and the guy surnamed Li's evaluation of himself when reviewing the action:

"Because I was stupid."

Clearly there was a simpler and safer way to get rid of the old variable woman, but the guy surnamed Li insisted on choosing the most difficult and dangerous one.

At the moment, Zhao Yi was wiping the blood flowing from the life-and-death gate seam due to the overdraft of using the formation, while mocking:

"Heh, no wonder you guys couldn't compete with my ancestors back then; if the Long Wang position really fell to you, it would be a blasphemy."

What should be fought for should be fought for, what should be grabbed should be grabbed, and what should be killed should be killed, but there are always some things that must be put in the forefront; wanting to make people completely convinced, relying on fists alone is not enough.

Zhen Shaoan: "We admit we couldn't compete with Zhao Wuyang, but the things we want to get today must be obtained!"

Xu Zhenrong: "It's just walking out another dead person who can't open his eyes; Zhao family kid, do you really think you can turn the tables?"

"Hahahahaha!"

Zhao Yi suddenly laughed, laughing so hard that blood was rapidly spurting from his forehead and chest.

But he couldn't care about these now, shouting:

"You wouldn't say it, but once you did, I really feel like it will come true immediately; the facts will tell you that your mouths were blessed today!"

Zhao Yi raised his hand, stood up three fingers, and counted down while dropping them one by one: "Three, two, one!"

In his heart, he was repeating: Guy surnamed Li, I know you can do it, give me some face! Guy surnamed Li, don't let me be unable to get off the stage!

"... one!"

While saying "one", Zhao Yi also snapped his fingers.

"Pa!"

The scholar, eyes opened!

(End of chapter)