The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

The Craftsmen's lair is indeed located in this valley, but it is extremely well hidden.

It was called a lair because he had dug out a winding cave in the valley, and Lin Du once suspected that they were going to be led into a mysterious laboratory and then taken down.

She glanced back at Hou Cang. Good, at least this person who broke through to the sixth level of the Wuxiang Realm a few years ago and was almost unmatched in the cultivation world is still here. If anything happens, Senior Brother will hold on. They'll run first.

The craftsman was talking to Xia Tianwu about the ancient witch doctor's techniques. The two of them were asking and answering questions, and they seemed to be able to have a good conversation.

The group of pets followed behind them. Yan Qing took out a small booklet and began writing as she walked. Lin Du's divine sense landed on it and found that the writing style was extremely similar to that of "Tales of the Central Plains," which had been popular in the Central Plains in recent years.

"Shocking! The true identity of the master craftsman has been revealed! He was looking for his head on the ground when he appeared in front of me."

Lin Du: ...

I didn't realize this kid had such a hobby.

After going through countless turns, and when Lin Du's ability to create maps in his mind was nearing its limit, they finally arrived.

Before us lay a wide, flat stone cave with more than a dozen different entrances. The "little pets" that had followed us back each entered a different entrance, all in a very orderly fashion.

"Here," Quan Jiangren said, "to be honest, when those dirty things came to my doorstep, I actually caught a few and studied them."

Xia Tian followed the craftsmen into one of the cave entrances, where they were immediately met with a thick aura of evil spirits and a chilling, corpse-like atmosphere.

But instead of the demon they expected, they found a nearly complete demon skin hanging there, along with piles of bones and flesh.

Xia Tian stared at the whole piece of leather, and after obtaining the craftsman's consent, he took out paper and pen and began to make a rubbing.

The incantation on it had long since become unclear, even fragmented and broken, and could be described as tattered, but Xia Tianwu still managed to glean some insights from it.

Even with the lower half of her face covered, Mo Lin could still vaguely sense that his junior sister seemed to be in a bad mood.

"How is it? Did you figure anything out?" Quan Jiangren seemed very happy to talk to Xia Tianwu. After Xia Tianwu finished reading, he even gave her the complete runes that he had figured out himself for reference. "Mine may not be completely correct, so you can look at it, but try to complete it yourself later."

Xia Tian nodded seriously, glanced around, and then pointed to a few places, "I think these places still need to be considered."

"Hey!" Quan Jiangren's stiff facial muscles visibly tensed and became excited. "I also think I didn't patch these places properly, but I took apart several pieces and still couldn't piece them back together completely! The piece of leather you see here is already the best stitched."

"This young lady has a bright future ahead of her. I wish my daughter was as willing to do research as you are."

Lin Du's gaze, however, was fixed on the seven lit candles. Her divine sense fell upon them, "The Seven Star Soul-Stabilizing Array? Is it the soul within a demon?"

"Yes," Quan Jiangren sighed, "You righteous disciples have seen quite a few evil arts, haven't you? Which sect is so unorthodox?"

"You're not some major sect, are you? Otherwise, would you have been allowed to stay?"

Lin Du crossed his arms and said calmly, "The Supreme Sect."

"Which sect??" Quan Jiangren's tone rose, forgetting that his head hadn't grown properly, and he abruptly turned his head with a snap, the muscles around his eyes stretched taut. Then he slowly and mechanically looked at Xia Tianwu, "That ruthless one is from the Supreme Sect, so you're not, are you?"

"Xia Tianwu, the 100th generation disciple of the Supreme Sect, greets senior." Xia Tianwu raised his hand in greeting, hesitated for a moment, and did not mention his master's name.

All Craftsmen: ...

"Your Supreme Sect is really playing some tricks," he said, cupping his head in his hands. "Has the world really changed?"

Lin Du asked again, "Senior, have you searched this soul?"

Quan the Craftsman hissed, "No, between you and me, who's on the righteous path and who's on the crooked one? How come your methods are even more wicked than mine?"

Lin Du blinked. "So you searched it?"

"It's difficult to investigate. The soul has already dissipated, and there are too many fragments. If you try to search the soul, you'll just become an idiot yourself," the craftsman said irritably. "You little girl, why do you act like my daughter? You're clearly practicing unorthodox methods but you're putting on the airs of a respectable master..."

As he spoke, he glanced at Lin Du, who was wearing a mask and only had his upper half of his face showing, frowned, and looked at him again.

No, his daughter's eyes aren't that big.

Yuan Ye whispered to Yan Qing from behind, "This guy sees everyone as his daughter."

Yan Qing, pen in hand, seemed lost in thought. "Do you think it's possible that we know this person's daughter?"

"So these demons, which these people transformed into, almost didn't retain their own consciousness. In your eyes, they are failures, right?" Lin Du looked at Quan Jiangren. The person in front of him indeed didn't have much sense of experimental ethics, but the rumors were probably somewhat inaccurate.

This man mentioned his wife and children quite a few times.

"You know what, your weird brain reminds me of someone." Quan Jiangren's gaze was still on Lin Du, but his thoughts drifted away. "That young man and I are kind of in the same boat."

The craftsman recounted how, seventy or eighty years ago, after he was expelled from his family, he encountered a masked monk who claimed to be disfigured.

That cultivator also had to leave the sect due to an accident, and devoted himself to the study of puppets and substitution techniques. After meeting him, the two hit it off immediately. They once traveled together and went down to the tomb of an ancient cultivator, where they obtained some unorthodox inheritances.

"I always wonder, humans are the most intelligent of all beings, so why is our physical body so fragile? The only way to become stronger is through hard work, but even after years of arduous physical training, our physical strength is still inferior to that of low-level demonic beasts that are born with armor. What kind of logic is that?"

"That monk said that what makes a person human is that they are born with intelligence. As long as one's mind is flexible enough, one can make up for the deficiencies in physical abilities. Later, we went our separate ways and no longer made plans together."

As Quan Jiangren finished speaking, the disciples of the Supreme Sect all looked at Lin Du.

Lin Du raised an eyebrow, bewildered by their unusually uniform gazes coming from all directions.

What does this have to do with her? She's only in her thirties; she wasn't even born seventy or eighty years ago!

"I'm not joking; it sounds like something Junior Uncle would say," Yuan Ye whispered to Ni Jinxuan beside him.

Ni Jinxuan thought about it carefully and nodded in agreement.

"Since I was a child, I have seen cats and dogs with broken legs and birds with damaged wings. I have thought about replacing their limbs with good ones. If any organ is damaged, I will replace it with a fresh and usable one," Quan Jiangren said, looking at Xia Tianwu. "This is the best way for ordinary people and demons who cannot access those high-quality spiritual plants that can regenerate."

"Now I can do it, but in the past I lost a very important person because I didn't dare to take action against people."

"My talent is not high and my cultivation progress is slow. Now all my body parts are from the most powerful species in the world. As long as my soul is not destroyed, I will never die."

The entire craftsman stared intently at Xia Tianwu, "Do you understand?"

Summer didn't understand, but she wasn't willing to agree, so she remained silent.

Lin Du steered the conversation towards a more serious topic, asking, "When did these evil spirits start appearing outside your house?"

"Actually, it appeared once before, but there was only one that time. However, starting about seven or eight years ago, more and more demons have been inexplicably appearing in the valley. I even found something to guard them, but I found that they all appeared at night. Every few days, a few more would appear, as if..."

"The passerby transforms at night?" Lin Du asked.

All the craftsmen nodded.

Lin Du frowned.

After a long discussion with Quan Jiangren about the various changes in the human body that had transformed into demons, Quan Jiangren even gave her a witch doctor's handbook.

The two exchanged final words using communication spells, and then Xia Tianwu rose to take his leave.

This time, the craftsman didn't see them off in person, but instead sent an exceptionally agile semi-mechanical monkey to the correct exit.

The stone door slammed shut behind them. Mo Lin walked to Xia Tianwu's side and reached out to shield her from the blinding sunlight. "You clearly gained quite a few things that interested you, but why are you so downcast? Is it because of those who turned into demons?"

Xia Tian didn't remove her mask, shook her head, and a layer of gloom shrouded her cool face. "I hope I'm wrong."

After she finished speaking, she walked straight to Lin Du, "Junior Uncle, there's something..."

Mo Lin, who was a step behind: ...?