The sage was determined to die.

heat.

It's so hot.

Wang Zhixuan opened his eyes amidst burning pain. He struggled to open his mouth to make a sound, but no sound came out through his tattered trachea.

He struggled to raise his hand, but all he could see were bones that looked like withered tree branches.

The colors he could see at that moment were very strange; everything seemed to be covered with a layer of blue-gray film, except for the blood, which was bright red.

He closed his eyes, trying his best to recall everything that had happened to him. The fragmented memories were like a cut thread, with disjointed images that couldn't be pieced together.

—Someone wanted to kill him and pushed him down.

Who is this person?

Wang Zhixuan's broken throat emitted a faint, hoarse "hoarse" sound. He tried his best to recall, but could only remember one hand.

Who wants to harm him?

Is he still alive?

Wang Zhixuan laboriously turned his head to the side, only to see a mountain of corpses densely packed together.

He was squeezed among the other corpses, indistinguishable from the others. If he hadn't still had a breath left, his family probably wouldn't have recognized his body.

How did I become like this?

Wang Zhixuan suppressed his breathing; the still-beating heart in his chest proved that his life was still going on.

He endured the excruciating pain of his limbs being burned by flames.

He's still alive, and that's enough.

Wang Zhi closed his eyes, pretending that he was a real corpse. Even though he was in great pain, he did not make the slightest sound.

Time passed second by second, and after what seemed like an eternity, he heard footsteps approaching.

Wang Zhixuan closed his eyes even tighter.

"You think anyone's still alive?"

Ji Bai led a group of people in. He looked left and right and saw that the piles of corpses, after being burned by the flames, gradually revealed their true appearances... although they were all almost charred.

He looked at the person behind him and asked, "What do you think?"

Yan Ming hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping himself. He hadn't had enough of life without Ji Bai, and now this guy had suddenly joined them.

"You look disappointed?" Ji Bai said to him at the time. "I came here to protect you."

Back to this moment, Ji Bai was fully covered in armor, and according to him, he didn't know how to put it back.

According to Yan Ming, this guy has developed a habit of being afraid of death...

"With this high temperature," Yan Ming complained, "even the King of Hell would die a second time."

Ji Bai nodded and affirmed, "That makes sense."

As the sound drew closer, Wang Zhixuan's faint breathing became almost imperceptible. He dared not open his eyes, but judging from the voice, the person seemed somewhat familiar.

Wait, why would he find a stranger's voice familiar?

Ji Bai continued speaking, pointing to the sky and asking the crowd, "If someone were pushed down, do you think they could survive?"

Yan Ming looked up and asked, "Who's so unlucky?"

Ji Bai rubbed his nose, not answering the question, and instead said, "That bastard Chu Ze wants to find someone to be a word puppet. If someone survives a great calamity, wouldn't that meet the criteria?"

Wang Zhixuan gasped for breath for a moment, and the image of him being pushed down flashed through his mind...

Yes, he remembers.

A man pushed him down, and it seems he said something about not wanting to kill him...

"Word puppet?" Yan Ming's voice rose a momentarily. "What is this thing?"

Ji Bai raised an eyebrow with a slightly flippant air: "Oh? Looks like you didn't know."

As the sound faded into the distance, Wang Zhixuan very slightly lifted the lip, and could only see the back of a young man in the distance.

The person who pushed him down was also a young man like this...

"A kind of puppet." Ji Bai's voice came from afar, "Quite powerful, but also quite inhumane."

Wang Zhixuan quickly closed his eyes.

No wonder someone had the audacity to push him down; they wanted to turn him into a word puppet...