High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

Lu Qingyan agreed and made a note of the arrangement.

She then made the arrangements: "First, hold the Five Veins Paying Homage to the Phoenix Ceremony, and at the same time confirm the items needed for the ceremony. I will explain the purpose and process to Her Highness, and once she agrees, we will begin formal preparations."

There were no further objections from inside the side hall.

With the matter settled, the clan leaders rose one after another to prepare for the banquet, but Cang Gu lingered in his seat for a moment longer, his gaze fixed on the spot where the projection had already faded.

The phoenix reappeared, accompanied by a human who possessed the essence of the phoenix. Within that young man lay a black flame that even he could not easily see through.

Each item can be explained individually, but when put together, they inevitably make him overthink.

Yuan Chongyue walked to the door, turned back and called out, "Senior Cang Gu, aren't you leaving?"

Cang Gu snapped out of his thoughts and stood up, leaning on his cane.

"They're here."

......

Meanwhile, in an unnamed seaside cave, Xu Mingjing still lay on the cold stone ground.

He had been awake for a long time.

Water droplets dripped into the stone hollow beside them, one after another, echoing in the empty cave.

It took Xu Mingjing a long time to accept the fact of failure. He didn't know where he was or why the old man had sent him here.

The changes in himself were also remarkable; his meridians were intact, his soul was stable, and his shattered black and white spiritual form had been restored.

Even more unbelievable is that causal wound.

In order to rebuild Gu Qin's physical body, he forcibly reversed life and death, enduring heavenly lightning and karmic backlash. The wounds had already penetrated deep into the source of his life, and even his spiritual form had developed irreparable cracks.

But now, those cracks have completely disappeared.

He even felt that his condition was more complete than before the Dead Zone opened. The powerful figure not only did not kill him, but also erased the injuries that should not have been easily removed.

In the past, Xu Mingjing would have wanted to find out the reason, but now, he didn't even have the thought of getting up.

As long as you close your eyes, Gu Qin's final appearance will appear.

Her newly reconstructed body continued to disintegrate, her flesh and blood turning to ashes. Her soul was drawn by the Gate of Death. She didn't ask him for anything, but only repeatedly begged the dead to let him go.

He prepared for twenty years for their reunion, and killed too many people in the process. He took away the life flame of the sleeping ninth-realm patriarch of the three major families in the Demon City, and he also deprived the life force of those eighth-realm cultivators.

He always believed that as long as Gu Qin could come back, these costs would be worthwhile.

But Gu Qin really came back, yet she was unwilling to accept everything he had gained in return. What did those twenty years matter?

What about those who died in the Dead Zone?

Xu Mingjing couldn't find the answer. He was used to seeing everyone who stood in his way as an obstacle, and he was used to telling himself that he was just a little bit away from seeing her, just one more step forward.

Now that Gu Qin has told him to stop, he finds that he no longer knows what to do after he stops.

During this time, he remained lying deep inside the cave, never venturing out, only occasionally hearing the sound of the tide crashing against the rocks outside.

Until this day, the sound of water outside gradually grew louder.

A cold wind carrying a salty, fishy smell swept through the passage, across the ground, and ruffled the hem of his clothes that were scattered around him.

Xu Mingjing opened his eyes and looked in the direction from which the sound came. After a long while, he slowly raised his hand, supported himself on the stone ground, and sat up.

He felt no discomfort in his body, and his spiritual energy circulated smoothly. However, when he got up, his movements were still somewhat slow, as if his mind was still elsewhere and had not yet fully returned to his recovered body.

Black and white spiritual light instinctively appeared in his palm, but he suppressed it back.

He looked down at his robes, which were covered in dust and had several old tears. He simply patted them off and walked out of the cave.

Gu Qin told him to stop, but she didn't say where he should go after he stopped, and he himself didn't know either.

But now, let's see where this place is.

The cave was deeper than I had imagined, with winding and narrow passages. The further I went, the more damp the air became. A thin layer of salt frost covered the rock walls, and there were traces of seawater seeping into the lower parts of the cave. Several pebbles were half-buried in the damp mud and sand.

Xu Mingjing walked very slowly, without using his divine sense to explore. He simply followed the faint light coming from afar, just like an ordinary person.

While traversing a steep slope, he became distracted and stepped on a loose stone. He swayed, his shoulder scraping against the rock wall beside him, causing a layer of dust and weathered debris to fall from the surface of the rock.

He didn't pay attention and was about to continue forward when he caught a glimpse of a dark mark emerging from under the dust.

Xu Mingjing stopped; the mark didn't look like a natural crack.

He raised his hand to wipe away the accumulated dust beside him, and then brushed aside a few loose stone chips, revealing more carvings. There were crisscrossing straight lines and crooked arcs, overlapping each other, which looked chaotic at first glance.

Some of the carvings are very deep, with outward-curving stone chips at the edges, as if someone had inserted their fingers into the rock wall and then forcibly cut it open. Others are very shallow, worn down by weathering to the point where only a blurry outline remains.

Xu Mingjing stared at it for a while, but couldn't recognize what it was; it didn't look like writing.

Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, the old man's voice suddenly appeared in his mind.

Before the other party saw him off, they seemed to have said something.

"There are some truths you should know."

Xu Mingjing's hand froze in mid-air.

Previously, his mind was filled with images of Gu Qin's final moments. These words had been buried deep in his memory, but only now did they become clear again. He slowly turned his head, looking in the direction where he had woken up, and then looked back at the messy carvings in front of him.

The other party did not kill him, but repaired his injuries, even erasing the karmic wounds that had penetrated deep into his very being, and finally sent him into this remote mountain cave.

Are all these things really just things done on a whim?

Xu Mingjing's eyes, which had been silent for many days, finally showed a change. He raised his hand again and released a stream of air, sweeping away an even larger patch of dust. The accumulated dust and moss were peeled away layer by layer, gradually revealing the black engravings hidden beneath.

Not just in this one place.

The airflow extended along the rock wall to both sides, revealing similar marks in front, behind, and even near the top of the cave. Some were deeply carved, while others were only faint outlines, overlapping each other and almost covering the entire rock wall.

Xu Mingjing's expression slowly changed.

He turned and walked deeper into the cave, his black and white spiritual energy spreading outward with each step, clearing away the dust, pebbles, and withered moss that were obscuring the carvings.

When he encountered severely weathered areas, he slowed down his work, preferring to spend more time rather than let those fragile traces peel away.

Dust rose in the cave and was swept towards the exit by the airflow. Xu Mingjing ignored the newly settled dust on his robes and focused all his attention on the rock wall.