The legend begins with becoming a white deer.

Su Yanji frowned, his gaze fixed on the two children in the black-clad woman's arms.

The wrists of the two children, exposed outside their sleeves, had a familiar bluish-gray tinge, the marks of petrification.

Su Yanji immediately snapped, "Put down the child! Who exactly are you?"

The five guards responded immediately, spreading out in a staggered manner and instantly forming an encirclement.

Five longswords were simultaneously drawn half an inch from their sheaths, their cold gleam reflecting in the night, instantly tensing the atmosphere.

The woman in black merely glanced at the crowd, her tone laced with disdain: "Don't try to use the same tactics you use on human traffickers on me. I'm not like those scumbags."

"Not on the same wavelength?"

Su Yanji sneered: "Then you just said you knew everything we wanted to know. How could anyone outside the human traffickers possibly know the secret of petrification?"

Qi Ji also stared intently at the woman in black.

Although he didn't sense any malice from the woman, Su Yanji was right; one should always be wary of others.

"This woman is indeed a bit strange."

With a slight thought, Qi Ji activated the thick tree roots around him, which snaked and hung in mid-air, their branches and leaves trembling slightly, subtly encircling the woman in black.

Although it hadn't made a move, the immense pressure of life force had already locked down all of the opponent's evasive angles.

The woman in black glanced around at the tree roots, then looked at Qi Ji with a calm and unwavering gaze.

She released her grip, gently placed the two children in her arms on the ground, and took a step back.

The next moment, a dark blue-black light quietly emanated from her body.

In the darkness, a fluffy, slender silhouette flashed past behind her, like a fox's tail or a wisp of smoke, so fast that it seemed like an illusion.

"I am definitely not a human trafficker."

Her voice was calm and even: "I followed them all the way to rescue these two children. When I infiltrated the Black Stone Palace below, I captured a few lone human traffickers and used illusion magic to extract a lot of information from them."

The woman in black paused, her gaze falling on Qi Ji.

"You should be able to sense the state of my body, right? Someone like me could never stoop to their level."

(￣ ー￣)

Qi Ji's heart stirred.

The moment that faint light appeared, he was certain that he could sense a much clearer and more distinct aura of a spirit beast emanating from the other party.

The problem is that this aura is very scattered and weak, completely different from his own aura, and also different from the blood of the other spirit beast that he had seen in the underground palace before, which disgusted and repelled him.

Regardless, this woman in black is definitely related to the spirit beast.

"Could it be... an ability similar to creating a clone?"

Qi Ji, relying on his imagination from his previous life, came up with this conjecture.

Although he couldn't know for sure immediately, Qi Ji instinctively felt that this woman in black was largely not an enemy.

The light from the antlers above their heads gradually diminished, and the tree roots that had been hanging in mid-air around them slowly descended, no longer surrounding them.

"Yo~"

Qi Ji called out to Su Yanji and the others, indicating that the woman in black was telling the truth and could be trusted.

With Qi Ji's endorsement, Su Yanji's tense shoulders relaxed slightly, and the Five Guards also withdrew their swords, but remained vigilant.

Su Yanji looked directly at the woman in black: "Since Lord Bailu trusts you, then tell me, what kind of evil magic is causing the petrification of these children?"

"According to what I learned from those human traffickers, this evil magic is called the Stone Sieve."

The woman in black's voice was calm and even, yet it was like an ice pick, piercing deep into everyone's heart.

"The so-called stone sieve is a kind of screening process, which consists of three steps."

"The first step is called 'testing poison in muddy water.' They mix a substance called 'source liquid,' which is actually the blood of some special creature, diluted many times over, into the water and food for the children. Those who can't withstand it will turn to stone that day and be thrown away. Those who can withstand it will be kept."

"The second step is called skin hardening. Every few days, a layer of diluted residual blood is brushed onto the child's body. The child's body will be gradually eroded by the energy in the blood, which is called petrification. This process is very painful, but at the same time it can continuously stimulate the vitality in the child's body. It is like sifting sand with a sieve. A batch that cannot withstand it and dies is sifted out and piled into the stone chamber deep in the underground palace, where they are left to turn into stone statues."

"The third step is called the rebound of life force. In the end, the children who have survived or not been petrified will have all their life force stimulated to the maximum, which is what they want."

After he finished speaking, the room fell into a deathly silence.

Su Yanji stood there, her knuckles clenched so tightly they turned white, and even her breathing trembled.

She had heard of countless cruel deeds, but this was the first time she had ever seen a living child treated like ore to be sifted or like dregs to be refined into medicine.

The air around Qi Ji seemed to freeze.

The golden deer's eyes churned with barely contained rage, and the golden-green light on its antlers and body shimmered incessantly.

He had some suspicions, but after hearing the actual process, Qi Ji was still furious and wished he could use [All Trees Pay Homage] to smash the underground palace below to pieces.

The children who had just been rescued huddled up, their small shoulders trembling violently.

Having personally experienced that excruciating pain, hearing these words now felt like being dragged back into that dark and gloomy stone chamber. Their little faces turned pale with fright, and their eyes filled with tears.

Su Yanji and his group were not the only ones present to hear these words.

The merchants, bodyguards, and martial artists outside Black Stone Fortress hadn't wanted to go far to begin with. Seeing the golden light emanating from inside the fortress and the commotion, and knowing that there was no longer any danger, they boldly gathered around.

Most of the people wanted to see the spirit beast, the white deer, but as soon as they got closer, they heard the woman in black talking about the "stone sieve" process.

They were immediately stunned, then looked at the neatly arranged stone statues of children on the ground, and a group of children trembling all over.

Everyone was smart enough to understand what this meant.

"My God... Blackrock Fortress... this is actually a human trafficking den?!"

"Stone sieve...using children as a medicinal ingredient? Is this even humanly possible?"

A burly bodyguard slammed his fist into a nearby tree trunk with a loud thud, drawing blood from his knuckles and turning his eyes bloodshot.

"Beasts! No, they're worse than beasts! This kind of organization should be uprooted and its bones ground to dust!"

"This is absolutely the most evil and vicious thing I've ever heard in my life."

"This isn't sifting things; it's sifting lives, sifting out the lives of innocent children everywhere."

"Unforgivable! Such an inhumane act is simply outrageous."

The crowd erupted in chaos.

Anger spread like wildfire.

Human traffickers are deserving of death by everyone, let alone this so-called "stone sieve," which has already crossed everyone's moral bottom line.

The people present came from all over the country and from all walks of life. They even had some friction with each other in the past, but at this moment, everyone's face was burning with anger.

"That's not right..."

An elderly businessman, his face pale, muttered, "To be able to pull off such a massive operation and hide so well, this is definitely not some small-time human trafficking gang. There must be a much larger force backing them up."

Listening to the discussions of the crowd, Su Yanji felt somewhat at ease.

She took a deep breath and raised her voice to the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, Blackstone Fortress is just a branch of the human traffickers. Their real headquarters is hidden elsewhere."

"A branch?"

Immediately, someone in the crowd shouted, "Then what are we waiting for? Chairman Su, just tell me where the headquarters is. Count me in. I want to see what kind of beast dares to do such a heinous thing!"

"Me too, count me in!"

"Me too, count me in!"

In an instant, responses came one after another.

Most of them were skilled bodyguards and江湖客 (jianghu people), all filled with righteous indignation and willing to contribute their efforts for free to take down the human traffickers' hideout.

"Please be patient, everyone."

Su Yanji raised her hand to lower her voice.

"We will naturally investigate the location of the headquarters, and these crimes will be made public in the future so that the world will know their true colors. But for now, we need to find out the exact location of the headquarters."

As she spoke, she turned to look at Duan Chi on the ground, her voice as cold as ice: "Duan Chi, now that things have come to this, I advise you to confess honestly. Where is your headquarters? And what is the purpose of this stone sieve?"

Duan Chi lay on the ground, blood dripping from his severed limbs, but he only sneered, his neck stiff, and remained silent.

That "dead pig doesn't fear boiling water" attitude clearly showed that he'd rather die than spit it out.

Su Yanji's eyes sharpened, and he was about to order the torture to begin.

"There's no need to go to that trouble."

The woman in black suddenly spoke up: "If you force him to tell you, he may not be willing to say it, and even if he does, he may lie. But under my illusion, no one can hide even a half lie. He is the head of this branch, so it is impossible for him not to know where the headquarters is, nor is it impossible for him not to know the ultimate purpose of the stone sieve."

After the woman in black finished speaking, she paused, then suddenly turned to look at Qi Ji, her tone softening slightly.

"But before that, I'd like to ask you for a favor."

She bent down and gently lifted the collars of the two children beside her.

Everyone looked over and gasped in shock.

The two children's skin, from their necks to their chests and arms, had a large, bluish-gray, stone-like sheen. Their expressions were weak and powerless, and their eyes held a hint of pain, clearly indicating that they were being tortured every moment.

This is the true face of the harm caused to children by stone sieves.

Aside from the human traffickers, the only people present were the woman in black and Qi Ji, who had witnessed the incident firsthand. Everyone present felt a chill run down their spines.

The woman in black looked up at Qi Ji, her eyes filled with a barely perceptible plea: "These two children won't last much longer. I know you can cure this petrification disease. Could you please help them?"

"Yo~"

As long as he hasn't been dead for too long, his "Breath of Life" can be restored.

The next second, a soft golden mist once again emanated from Qi Ji's body.

This time, the golden light was not as dazzling and intense as before, but as gentle as the spring sunshine, flowing slowly and softly enveloping the two small bodies.

All eyes turned to them.

Su Yanji, Xu Ling, the Five Elements Guards, Duan Chi on the ground, the merchants on the periphery, and the timid children all held their breath and watched without blinking.

The golden threads of light seemed to have a life of their own, seeping into the child's skin little by little.

The bluish-gray petrification marks slowly faded away at a visible speed, from the chest to the neck, then to the wrists and cheeks, like ice and snow melting, gradually revealing the pink skin underneath.

In just over ten breaths, the bluish-gray petrification on the two children's bodies completely disappeared.