Sitting across from him was Dan Li, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.

Dan Li's figure was blurry, like a person, but also seeming like he had turned back into the wood and clay figure of the Vermilion Bird statue.

As for himself, he had calloused palms and a heart of iron, no longer resembling his sixteen-year-old self.

"Your Majesty," Dan Li respectfully bowed to him, "it has been a long time."

The unbearable burning sensation in Sheng Lingyuan's throat gradually faded away.

He paused for a moment, then lifted his robe and sat down in front of Dan Li.

"When we were young, Your Majesty and I played a game of chess. I noticed that Your Majesty was not focused, so I stopped the game halfway. It was an unfinished match," Dan Li said. "Would Your Majesty like to continue the game we started before?"

Sheng Lingyuan waved his hand and laughed, "My chess skills are not good, let's forget about it."

But Dan Li wouldn't let it go. He grabbed a handful of chess pieces and set them up on the board himself.

Sheng Lingyuan lowered his eyes and said lightly, "Teacher, you taught me 'the world is unpredictable, and we cannot cover everything.' We must leave room for heaven to judge right from wrong. You destroyed Dongchuan, exterminated the Mountain people, made the Shadow Clan disappear, broke Tong's sword body, and forced me to jump into the Chiyuan. Now, in this situation, what do you have to say?"

Xuan Ji's voice rang out in the air, interrupting, "Teaching by negative examples."

He felt like he was back in his childhood, always by Sheng Lingyuan's side, invisible to everyone else.

But if Lingyuan talked to someone else for too long, he felt ignored and would become unhappy, then he would start interrupting and butting in, trying to make his presence known.

This scene was too familiar, and both Sheng Lingyuan and Dan Li laughed.

Xuan Ji turned to Sheng Lingyuan and said, "You have the nerve to laugh. You and your mother are both negative examples - she is even more arrogant than you. Look at the trouble she has caused."

This Princess lived her whole life hidden behind layers of curtains, sneaking around and playing her balancing game by tearing down her east wall to build the west wall.

She coveted Chiyuan, but didn't dare challenge her own mother's clan, the Vermilion Bird Clan. So she seduced Emperor Ping to launch an attack. Later, she wanted to kill the Demon King for revenge, but lost all her trump cards. So she resorted to using the Vermilion Bird statue of Dan Li.

Of course, she wouldn't let the Vermilion Bird statue just live for her.

After using Dan Li, she burned her bridges and spread "prophecies," luring Empress Chen to give birth to the Heavenly Demon. She waited for the Emperor of Humanity to grow up, and then fight Dan Li to a draw.

Three thousand years later, she was still using the same trick - summoning the demon king's Shadow person as a figurehead to charge into battle, causing chaos in the enemy ranks, trapping Sheng Lingyuan, and eliminating the Fire-keeper.

Only then would she bother to touch up her makeup and gracefully emerge to reap the rewards.

Unfortunately, it seemed that her entire life was a testament to Dan Li's words, "You can't have it all." Her luck always seemed to be bad, with her obedient dog Jiu Xun indulging in gluttony and her loyal dog turning on her.

After all, Meng Xia was an Shadow person, a race that was naturally stubborn. Even though Dan Li was torn apart by the Emperor, he could still lay a trap and bury her in the Chiyuan, and thwart her plans even four years after his death.

It was a bitter defeat for her.

Afterwards, Chiyuan was completely sealed, and the spiritual and demonic energies in the human world became as thin as paper.

The monsters and demons became like oil-less lamps, and could only retreat and leave the stage, leaving behind a lonely Fire-keeper...and a group of unknowing descendants, all living as humans.

After enduring the sealing of Chiyuan for so long, the demons were restless and eager to move, but she no longer recognized the outside world.

Time had passed, and half of the earth's veins had disappeared without a trace.

She awakened once again and spent nearly a hundred years planning, thinking that she had taken advantage of the "favorable timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony," but unexpectedly, she was disrupted by a group of mortals...and those who were not much different from mortals, the so-called "special abilities."

Xuan Ji said, "Anyway, since all 36 seals have been lifted, I'm going to quit."

"In the past, it was indeed necessary to extinguish the Chiyuan. After decades of war, the blood of various races had not yet cooled, and the hatred still lingered. The Vermilion Birds who guarded the Chiyuan died, and the clan was destroyed. Without extinguishing the Chiyuan fire, there was no way to clean up the mess," Dan Li said.

"But... the Chiyuan has long-hidden its fire underground. I think, in this world, where there are gods, there should be demons, where there is light, there should be shadow. Forcibly suppressing it would go against fate. Therefore, when His Majesty jumped into the Chiyuan back then, he accidentally gave you a new sword body. The long-term plan I envisioned was not realized until now, when all races are unified and the seal on the Chiyuan is broken. It seems that fate has corrected its mistake... I was wrong."

Xuan Ji and Sheng Lingyuan fell silent for a moment.

What's the point of right or wrong?

The dead cannot be brought back to life, and the past has become history.

After a while, Xuan Ji finally spoke up, "What's the use of apologizing? Why do we need the police? Oh well, you're already dead anyway... But wait, where are we? Whose illusion is this? It seems that only in dreams can Dan Li apologize."

Dan Li didn't pay attention to his rude remarks and said to Sheng Lingyuan, "Your Majesty, do you remember the bet we made in front of this chessboard years ago?"

Sheng Lingyuan slowly lifted his eyes and met Dan Li's gaze behind the mask, "No wonder you let Meng Xia hide the Heaven and Earth Cauldron and the remains of the Vermilion Bird Heavenly Spirit back then."

Xuan Ji immediately became alert, "What bet? What did you two do behind my back?"

Sheng Lingyuan's eyes curved, "If he won, I would be scattered to the winds. But if I won..."

Xuan Ji couldn't wait for him to finish before getting angry: "Sheng Lingyuan! What did I say? I knew it, I told Old Wang earlier that you're just a worthless gambler who can't see beyond his nose! You..."

Sheng Lingyuan raised his hand, as if calming an invisible person in the air.

"If I win," he said, "the Vermilion Bird clan chief will have to be betrothed to me, body and soul."

With a loud bang, a missile hit the face of the goddess statue on Biquan Mountain, but the statue remained unmoved.

The Yin sacrificial text had already completely engulfed the Vermilion Bird remains, and the voice of the boundless laughter rang out, "Too late!"

The remains of the Vermilion Bird's divine spirit floated in mid-air, and all the world's unresolved grievances seemed to have turned into fuel, burning a snow-white flame in the deepest abyss.

The light of the sky paled in comparison to the flames that engulfed her. Her skeletal frame stretched out, and wherever the flames touched, flesh and feathers sprouted.

The magma erupting from the depths of the Chiyuan seemed to cheer, ecstatic for their newfound freedom and the rise of the Vermilion Bird Clan.

She could feel the vibrant pulse of life beating in her chest, like a zombie that had been buried for thousands of years suddenly tasting the joy of life.

She was the pride of the demon race, a half-Vermilion Bird beauty unmatched in her splendor. From the lowliest beasts to the ancient spirits, all bowed at her feet.

She had once thought that stirring up chaos in the Nine Provinces was the beginning of her glorious life, but it had instead led her to a dead end.

The Great Light Sacrifice was terrifying.

As she stood in the midst of the formation, every pore on her body seemed to freeze. The cold energy sank into her dantian and flowed through her entire body, causing her to feel the pain and fear of being drained of life... twice.

The first time was when she willingly sank herself into the Great Light Sacrifice.

The second time was when Empress Chen took the bait and dug out the 'tumor' in her belly like a precious treasure.

She wandered in a state of half-life and half-death for who knew how long, sometimes unable to distinguish whether her tiresome life was just a dream.

She had to return to the world, no matter what the cost.