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

Lin Du successfully opened the teleportation array, and as soon as he entered, Chu Guanmeng became furious.

"What is this?!"

This is undoubtedly a grotto, but the sides of the grotto are densely packed with thousands of pottery pieces, the contents of which are chilling.

Wei Zhi lit a lamp, and Lin Du looked up to see the contents of the mural: "The Transformation of Hell".

Chu Guanmeng was stunned for a moment, still clinging tightly to Lin Du's shoulder, "How do you know everything?"

Lin Du spoke up, "You don't know if you're not involved in painting, but my seventh senior sister once had me copy many paintings. This mural should be the most primitive depiction of hell."

Chu Guanmeng shuddered. "Was the ancient world a purgatory?"

Although there was no bloodshed in the picture, only the image formed by the dark and light sides and the overall background color, and there was no process of killing or execution, only the painful and distorted appearance of people and creatures, each person's body was twisted in panic, their face was ferocious, and the figures were deformed and grotesque, which made people's hair stand on end.

If an ordinary person saw this, they would probably be sweating profusely and their hair would stand on end.

Lin Du's gaze remained calm. "This painting is only meant to teach people to fear sin and do good. Don't be afraid."

Chu Guanmeng still clung tightly to Lin Du, "Why aren't you afraid?"

Lin Du subconsciously rubbed the relic on his wrist. "I have a clear conscience. If it is necessary to kill, then kill."

Wei Zhi stood behind Lin Du and said, "No wonder there are so few words on this stone tablet. This is not the original ancient god, but a god that emerged after the chaos was created."

As the group walked inside, they failed to notice that some of the immortals who had followed them in were trapped by the Hell Transformation Diagram. Standing before countless distorted human faces, they stamped their feet and wailed, feeling extremely ashamed, and some even fled in a sorry state.

Further ahead, however, one arrives at the Immortals' Picture.

Lin Du looked back and saw the world evolve from chaos to the creation of heaven and earth, wind, clouds, thunder, sun, moon, mountains, rivers, grass and trees, then to the creation of the Eight Trigrams and the Five Elements, the emergence of writing, fishing and hunting, then to rites and music, marriage, grains, markets, bows and cloth, carts, gods, ghosts, humans and demons, and the world took shape.

"This is... ancient history?" Chu Guanmeng's eyes widened. "Ancient times?"

Lin Du didn't speak, but glanced at the ancient-looking images from earlier, and seemed to have a vague feeling about them.

Several other wandering immortals followed behind, whispering among themselves, "Whose ruins are these? We can't tell!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Guanmeng nudged Lin Du, "Do you know?"

Lin Du nodded. "I have a guess, but it might not be correct."

Chu Guanmeng lay down peacefully, which meant it must have guessed, and that put its mind at ease.

They walked along this stone path for a long time, so long that the white-haired dumpling began to doze off, when Lin Du suddenly stopped. "Something's not right."

Chu Guanmeng was so startled she almost slipped off her shoulder. "Huh? What's wrong? What happened? Is there a conspiracy?!"

Wei Zhi snapped to attention, "What's wrong?"

"Even the water god is included, as are the deeds of every ancient god. It even depicts the gods' inspiration and their return to the Heavenly Way. But what about Houtu…?" Lin Du turned and asked again, "Why isn't Houtu here?"

This is an ancient relic; how could it have been touched by later generations?

After Lin Du finished speaking, the scattered immortals behind him suddenly heard a crisp cracking sound, and a bone-chilling, poisonous aura suddenly spread out from under their feet, like a maggot clinging to their bones, ignoring the spiritual treasures and magic robes they wore, and directly penetrating deep into their marrow.

It was a kind of sinister resentment that came from the depths of one's heart.

The immortals took off simultaneously, but all around them could be heard the sound of breaking. The pottery they had just left behind seemed to have been swept to the ground by their movements, leaving a scene of chaos and haste, like... the collapse of an ancient civilization.

"Wait, I don't remember touching it!!"

"No! It's a scam!!! I really didn't!"

The sound of pottery is not as crisp as that of glass and porcelain today, but the sound of it falling to the ground is much deeper and more resonant.

Amidst the chaos and commotion, only Lin Du and Wei Zhi remained standing steadily.

Lin Du lowered his eyes and quietly watched the creeping resentment rise up. He raised his hand to form a hand seal, and the golden divine ring shone brightly, easily shattering the resentment.

The next instant, the stone path trembled, space shifted, and amidst the shattering, countless pairs of pitch-black hands dragged them underground, where a shrine for sacrifices appeared before them.

The plaque above was written in ancient script. Lin Du glanced at it and said, "It's the Houtu Shrine."

"Houtu is the god who governs the nine provinces and the five soils. Therefore, she is worshipped as the god who accompanies the gods of the land." Lin Du looked up at the pottery paintings on the wall, which were all made by the same person as the stone paths in front of him. They told the story of Houtu.

"This is an ancient shrine, but the incense burning behind it clearly dates back to after the fall of the ancient gods."

Lin Du speculated that after the gods who mastered the rules had fully evolved the world, they returned to the Heavenly Dao rules, the ancient era ended, the Three Thousand Worlds re-evolved, and the current Thirty-Three Heavens and Three Thousand Worlds were divided, giving rise to innate gods.

Houtu is the central deity who governs the underworld.

"Because people have faith, Houtu will exist forever."

Looking at the offerings and piles of incense in front of the shrine, which were clearly from different periods, Lin Du said, "After the pacification of the nine provinces, it became a shrine god and was worshipped by all people. All the ancient gods perished, and the world evolved and changed, but people always worshipped the earth god. The earth god reappeared under the power of people's thoughts and sacrifices."

"As Kaiyang said before, Houtu originated from the wishes and incense offerings of all living beings. Its original form is earth, and it is the source of all living beings."

After looking around the entire shrine, Lin Du circled back to the center, saying, "This body was originally a clay sculpture, but it gained a soul because of the wishes of the people."

"My master once found traces of the ancient god's efforts to prevent her from returning to the Heavenly Dao in the ancient god's tomb. Perhaps, Houtu also wants to live."

Wei Zhi looked thoughtfully at the original shrine, "You wouldn't want..."

Lin Du bypassed the offering table and went straight to the clay statue.

In an instant, a sharp ghostly howl filled the shrine, and the place, which was not too dark before, was covered by a thick layer of poison.

Chu Guanmeng screamed, "There's something dirty!"

Looking at the grotesque, demonic fog before him, Wei Zhi suddenly recalled the moment he sank into the source of demonic energy.

Heavy, viscous, and resentful like a raging fire, the air was thick with a deep, humid heat.

There was clearly no fire, yet they were surrounded by a sea of ​​lava and fire.

"Please! Please wake up! Please recover! Please!"

"Empress Houtu, please wake up!"

"Help me...help me..."

"Why didn't you save my son?!"

"Goddess Houtu, please grant me a child, I beg you!"

"Please, God of the Earth, let the crops grow! Let there be no more drought...and no more floods..."

Wei Zhi heard it, and Lin Du heard it too.

The shrine is like a hellish place, where it is difficult to move an inch.

Lin Du continued forward, despite countless dark hands trying to pull her down and stop her. She paid no attention to them.

She stepped through the darkness and placed her slender hand on the clay statue.

The next instant, the red rope burst into golden light, almost emitting golden flames, which burned Lin Du's wrist so much that it trembled slightly.

But the clay statue began to tremble violently.

Just like... when Qi Zhen was first touched by Lin Du, he was dizzy and disoriented.

The solid yellow mud trembled continuously, gushing out pitch-black bitter water, which then quickly dissolved under Lin Du's palm, turning into a puddle of mud.

The next instant, another yellow clay statue appeared, countless black hands, scalding hot, fired the yellow clay into a terracotta statue.

Lin Du felt as if there were countless obstacles in her hands, but she remained determined and picked up the clay statue.

Splash!

A dull thud echoed as the clay statue shattered.

The ghostly howl vanished in an instant.

Inside the shrine, you could hear a pin drop.

Wei Zhi lowered the lantern nearby, his voice calm yet compassionate, "The Three Poisons Seal."

Lin Du closed his eyes briefly. "Just as I expected."

The terracotta paintings surrounding the shrine trembled for a moment, and then the remaining divine power from ancient times gathered together.

A compassionate female voice, seemingly from ancient times, rang out.

"This is the seal of all living beings."

"If one day my people gather and cry out, I will descend to earth again."

Wei Zhi lowered his eyes and looked at the golden seal; it was indeed exactly the same.

After the fall of the gods, as all living beings wished, Houtu descended to earth again.

Was that something Houtu left behind for her own future?

Wei Zhi thought, probably not.

Houtu probably truly wanted to protect countless people for thousands of generations to come.

How could the ancient divine seal have become the Three Poisons Seal?

Lin Du lowered his eyes and looked at the divine seal.

She stared for a long time, then suddenly looked up at Wei Zhi, "So, how did you learn about the Three Poison Seals in the lower realm?"

After a long pause, Wei Zhi finally replied, "Royal heritage, the vast collection of royal books."

This answer was exactly what Lin Du expected.

Wei Zhi continued to slowly recall, "The Three Poison Seal is a forbidden technique. Although I don't know why it has been passed down, the book forbids it. It can gather the most intense emotions in the world. Greed, anger, and ignorance will give rise to resentment, and resentment will give rise to poison. Those who plant it will surely destroy themselves."

"Back then, I planted it on Qianyu to test something."

"If it's a demonic seed, what would be the situation with those three lower poison seals?"

Wei Zhi made no attempt to hide the fact that his initial purpose for the experiment was out of a bit of morbid curiosity. "You've seen the results," he said.

Lin Du lowered his eyes. "If the Divine Seal is meant to collect the wishes of all living beings, then..."

"A strong desire led to the creation of three poisons, causing this divine seal to lose its original meaning and become a forbidden technique," Wei Zhi continued. "At least, that wasn't the original intention."

The two fell silent again, and the golden light of the divine seal began to fade slowly, on its last legs.

Chu Guanmeng understood as well and fell silent, a rare occurrence for her.

It also looked at the divine seal, "Then, if... if everything started with good intentions, how could it have led to... such a tragic end?"

"Yin Huaitian is not the first person to die for this..."

As it spoke, it suddenly realized an even more terrifying truth: "So, Houtu was the first god to die tragically because of the resentment of all living beings?"

Lin Du continued to recall, "The incense-burning deity path also originated from this, no wonder... after the fallen god died, the incense-burning deity path completely disappeared."

They should be eradicated.

It's like an invention that was originally intended to save lives and benefit the world, but ended up becoming something that destroys the world.

That was not the inventor's original intention.

How tragic that the gods themselves sowed the seeds of depravity.