One more catty, one more attribute point

Su Heng's brows furrowed slightly as he perused with interest the past experiences of Xie Linyuan.

He was born on Skull Plain, to a warrior tribe, with childhood memories having become very vague. The only impressions that remained were of the iron-gray distant sky, the blade-sharp cold wind, the parched and cracked earth, and his father's palms, red and fissured.

In the year he turned twelve, Xie Linyuan's nomadic tribe was annihilated.

The environment on Skull Plain was harsh, resources were limited, and it was common for tribes to wage war against each other and even resort to cannibalism.

A monk passing by saved him from the hands of an enemy tribe leader with a piece of green agate.

There was no sense of relief in Xie Linyuan's heart, only profound fear.

This was because on these plains there were rumors about the snow mountain monks who practiced Tantricism; they were said to torture their slaves and impose suffering upon them. They believed that souls refined through torture possessed mana and used the slaves' fontanelles and limbs to create magic artifacts.

Fortunately, these rumors did not come to pass for Xie Linyuan.

"You have a destiny with Buddha," said the monk to Xie Linyuan before teaching him the cultivation technique and giving him demonic flesh to consume, to break his limits.

Over the next decade or so,

Xie Linyuan and the monk wandered across Skull Plain, exploring the four seas.

They dealt with many tribes, witnessed incredible sights, and also encountered the indescribable great terrors that lurked in the darkness.

The turning point happened during the summer of that year, during the Demon Suppression Army's autumn hunt.

The iron cavalry of the Great Zhou Dynasty surrounded the tribe that the master and disciple were visiting. In an effort to cover Xie Linyuan's escape, the monk did not manage to get out alive. In other words, it was this monk from the Endless White Tower Temple in the snow mountain who was the actual target of the Demon Suppression Army's autumn hunt.

From a distance, he watched a savage general with blood-stained teeth decapitate the monk and hold his head, as if beholding a rare treasure.

He heard the frenzied shouts of the Demon Suppression Army, "A head for ten pieces of silver."

A tribe of thousands was reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye.

Regardless of gender or age, the Demon Suppression Army cut off everyone's heads as trophies to bring back to the capital to boast of their martial achievements. They set the tents on fire, stole the herders' cattle and sheep, and then sprinkled sulfur and poison on the farmland and precious clean water sources, leaving behind nothing but pitch-black charred ground.

Xie Linyuan once heard the monk say,

A thousand years ago, Skull Plain was called "Motuo Teng'anda."

In the local language of Skull Plain, "Motuo" means flower, "Teng" is grass, and "Anda" means heaven.

When put together,

It means a paradise-like prairie, covered in blooming flowers.

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But now, all Xie Linyuan saw was blood-soaked ground and scorched remains. The dark-purple earth looked like blotches on a corpse, thick smoke billowed into the sky, and the air was filled with the stench of burning flesh.

Looking at the slain, headless monk, riddled with holes, a fierce emotion arose in Xie Linyuan's heart for the first time.

It was only many years later

that Xie Linyuan understood this emotion was called hatred.

Under the drive of hatred, Xie Linyuan concluded his cultivation on Skull Plain.

With his now remarkable martial skills, he joined a merchant caravan, then blended into Jiangbei Continent with them and began to devise his assassination plan. He wanted to kill that commander to avenge his master and to pay homage to the herders on the plains who had once taken him in.

Upon reaching Jiangbei Continent, despite being considered a desolate frontier by the Great Zhou Dynasty, Xie Linyuan was still shocked by the sights before him.

He had never seen such fertile land or such grand, bustling cities.

The people living there did not have to worry about war or the great terrors lurking in the darkness.

This made Xie Linyuan feel like they were the ones truly alive, while those tribespeople living beyond the frontier on Skull Plain were nothing more than beasts worth ten pieces of silver per head.

"Heh heh, ten pieces of silver," Su Heng seemed to hear Xie Linyuan's cold and mournful laughter in his ear.

In Jiangbei Continent, a strong adult ox cost thirty pieces of silver, the equivalent to the lives of a family of three from the Skull Plain beyond the frontier.

The more flourishing the sights he saw, the fiercer the hatred in Xie Linyuan's heart became.

That bone-deep hatred was like poison in his throat, like an abscess at the bottom of his heart that could not be healed or forgotten, quelled only slightly by bloodshed.

He pored over ancient texts and chose a name for himself, "Xie Linyuan."

On the brink of an abyss, walking on thin ice.

As a reminder to never forget his hatred.

Unfortunately, at that time Xie Linyuan was merely demon-formed.

In mortal eyes, he might already appear formidable, but in the eyes of the Demon Suppression Army's commander from the Heavenly Deceit Realm, he was no different from an ant.

Not to mention an assassination,

he could not even get close to that Demon Suppression Army commander.

After several attempts which not only yielded nothing, but also put him in great peril,

at the moment of crisis, he was saved and taken in by people from the Demon Elephant Sect, and Xie Linyuan, owing to his fierce determination, won the appreciation of the sect's upper echelons. In the following two hundred years, Xie Linyuan fought more ferociously with each battle, with both his personal cultivation and his status within the sect climbing ever higher.

He exterminated the entire family of an opponent on an outing to carry out a task.

Such acts had been done far too many times to stir any emotions in Xie Linyuan's stony heart.

But a girl hiding in a cabinet caught Xie Linyuan's attention.

"Such burning hatred in those eyes..." Xie Linyuan remembered his younger self, "I'll name you Xie Xianyu. From today onward, you will cultivate with me. Perhaps one day I can die at the hands of my own disciple, surpassing the blue with the indigo, would also be considered not bad."

Again, nearly a hundred years hurried by, and finally—

He had reached the pinnacle of his innate talent, the peak of the demon embryo.

By this time, Xie Linyuan was already more than three hundred years old, even if he had merged two demon corpses and extended his own life through some other demonic secret techniques, he was still in decline, no longer at his peak.

But his enemy was still alive, and had even become the commander of the Demon Suppression Army of Jiangbei Province.

A full three hundred years.

He thought he had put down those hatreds long ago, forgotten them.

But staring at his aged face in the mirror, Xie Linyuan was startled to realize that those things were still lurking in the depths of his heart. Knowing certain death awaited him, Xie Linyuan still chose to go forth to assassinate. He naturally failed, and was even seriously injured by a young general in the Demon Suppression Army before he could see his enemy.

The memories that followed were a blur.

Su Heng rubbed his head. As he continued to browse, it was already the time when Xie Linyuan stepped into the Heavenly Deceit Realm, planning to go to Jiangzhou to search for the tomb of Dragon King An Shelie. Since Xie Linyuan entered the Heavenly Deceit Realm, his memories became vague and distorted.

And it felt to Su Heng as if he had a split spirit, with memories always intermittent.

Nevertheless, even so.

Su Heng detected key information from these memories, "Demon Elephant Sect is looking for the tomb, it seems that it's not just for the cultivation technique and burial items left by An Shelie, they want to find some message from the tomb..."

Su Heng furrowed his brow, touching his chin.

He did not detect more specific messages in Xie Linyuan's memories.

The memories continued to the events that took place in Jiangzhou, even those of the time when he clashed with Su Heng himself.

From the viewpoint of the opponent, facing oneself. This feeling was also particularly novel to Su Heng, he watched for a while, then couldn't help but exclaim, "This kind of opponent with high attack, strong defense, and control abilities is really disgusting, and there's even a second form, like fighting a boss without any enjoyment."

"How did Xie Linyuan, who was gravely injured and on the brink of old age, suddenly enter the Heavenly Deceit Realm?"

Su Heng was quite puzzled in his heart.

The most crucial information had been skipped over. He focused his attention and began to rewind his memories.

Full, softly glowing thighs appeared in Su Heng's field of vision, and looking further up was a pair of towering soft breasts and a stunningly beautiful face with a natural seductiveness.

This woman was named Ke Yulan, the Sect Leader of the Demon Elephant Sect.

This was somewhat unexpected; Su Heng had thought it would be a bloodthirsty madman over three meters tall, with muscles all over, who would tear people to shreds and eat them without a word.

Su Heng listened to the conversation.

Because by this time, Xie Linyuan was almost dead, his consciousness blurred.

The content of the conversation was also unclear, but he faintly heard mentions of "he's almost dead," "Linyuan," "Lushena Buddha," "perhaps there is still hope," and so on.

Soon, his consciousness plunged into darkness, he must have fainted due to his severe injuries.

When Xie Linyuan's consciousness returned, Su Heng found himself under a huge dark rock wall.

All around was a dense forest, and in the sky hung a massive full moon, almost as large as half the dome of heaven, its cold moonlight soaking the entire rock wall within.

The surroundings were silent, the moonlight dispelling the darkness. The middle of the rock wall was carved with a majestic great Buddha, and at the Buddha's sides were equally dignified bodhisattvas and Arhats, whose names Su Heng did not know.

This rock wall might have a history of thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. Whether the Buddha in the center or the Bodhisattvas and Arhats on either side, their patterns were severely eroded by the wind. Details on their clothing and lines on their faces had all but disappeared, leaving only the general outline.

But that vast and majestic dignity could still be felt through Xie Linyuan's memories.

The Buddha's left hand was placed across the left leg, and the right hand was curled up with the thumb and middle finger touching while the other fingers spread out naturally.

Su Heng's mother was a Buddhist and would often recite scriptures at home.

He knew that the hand seals of the Buddha contained messages, and even that particular hand seals could only be used by certain Buddhas to provide distinction.

Of course, identifying these hand seals was beyond Su Heng's range of knowledge.

He could only note it down for now, to research later.

The most crucial point was.

What was so special about this Buddha statue?

Why had Xie Linyuan only stayed in front of the Buddha statue for one night and the next day not only fully recovered from his injuries but also broke through the decade-long barrier and successfully entered the Heavenly Deceit Realm?

Moreover, what price did Xie Linyuan pay after the breakthrough, and why did he go mad?

Was it just because of hypersensitivity, or was there also an issue with the Buddha statue?

Su Heng rubbed his temples.

Boom!

Just then, a loud noise came from the Buddha statue.

When Su Heng lifted his head, the cold, immense moon hanging in the sky turned to blood-red.

Under the blood-red moonlight, the corners of the Buddha statue's eyes cracked, with blood tears flowing out. The huge Buddha head drooped down, facing Su Heng eye to eye. Su Heng's heart chilled, as if an invisible hand had clenched his heart fiercely.

"How could this be!?"

Su Heng was truly surprised, for he distinctly felt the Buddha statue looking at him through Xie Linyuan's memories!