Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

"This is the secret realm of a half-immortal of the demonic path. They wouldn't be so kind as to leave the way out here, would they?"

"It's hard to say."

"Eh?"

Gu Wangjun chuckled, though he seemed foolish, his words revealed a different story.

"The Tomb of the Half-Immortal is indeed a secret realm, but in reality, everything within it is formed from the remnant soul and physical body of the Half-Immortal, and most of the things within it are actually formed from the memories of this Half-Immortal during his lifetime."

"memory?"

"Just like this tower."

Gu Wangjun pointed to the dark gray floor tiles under his feet and explained, "The reason this tower appears in this secret realm is entirely because this half-immortal visited this tower in his previous life and had an extraordinary experience with it. After his death, the memories of this tower in his fragmented soul transformed into this strange tower."

"I see—so as long as he left this tower before he died, we also have a chance to leave here!"

"Yes."

Duan Xingchen's gaze towards Gu Wangjun shifted several times.

She remarked with considerable emotion, "My senior brother seems a bit simple-minded, but he actually seems to know a lot..."

"Really?" Gu Wangjun chuckled and scratched his head, still looking like a silly boy. "I think there's a lot I don't know."

Duan Xingchen chuckled twice. In fact, she now felt that her senior brother had a kind of profound wisdom that appeared as foolishness.

"On another note—"

Gu Wangjun's attention remained on the painting in front of him, which depicted only a gun and a hand.

"I think I know why the people in this painting look familiar."

"Huh? Why?"

Duan Xingchen was startled. Could it be that his senior brother already knew who the person in the painting was?

Gu Wangjun narrowed his eyes, then said—

"I always felt that, judging from the chin and hands, the people in this painting..."

"She looks just like Junior Sister Ruoxue."

Duan Xingchen: "???"

26. Why her?

Just by looking at the hands and chin, one can deduce what kind of person is depicted in this painting...

No matter how you look at it, it's unbelievable!

And people like Senior Sister Ruoxue—

Duan Xingchen's gaze lingered on the black spear on the incomplete scroll, and he blinked.

"It shouldn't be Senior Sister Ruoxue, right? Doesn't Senior Sister Ruoxue use her fists? She shouldn't be wielding a gun, right?"

"Um……"

Gu Wangjun clearly noticed the problem as well, and stared at the painting for a while: "That makes sense. Junior Sister Ruoxue is indeed completely clueless about spear techniques, but these hands and chin look very similar to Junior Sister Ruoxue's."

"So judging things solely by the chin and hands is completely inaccurate..."

Duan Xingchen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked around, a curious light flashing in his eyes.

"Compared to this—Senior Brother, why is there such a fragmented portrait in this tower?"

"Perhaps it's because the person in the painting was very important to this deceased demigod."

As Gu Wangjun put the tattered scroll that was stuck to the wall into his pocket, he gently stroked the wall covered with restrictive formations with his broad palms, as if he were searching for something.

—A slight touch will not cause any fluctuations in the formation.

Duan Xingchen nodded: "I see."

Indeed, if the tower itself was formed from the memories of this deceased demonic immortal, then its internal structure or its constituent elements should be related to the owner of this tomb.

If that's the case, then the two incomplete paintings on the first and second floors must also be related.

Perhaps, as Duan Xingchen said, this painting might be the key to leaving this place.

But the fundamental questions lingered in Duan Xingchen's mind: who was depicted on the scroll, why was it preserved here, and why was it so badly damaged? He couldn't find a single clue.

"Huh? This is..."

Just when she was at a loss as to how to proceed, Gu Wangjun suddenly beckoned to Duan Xingchen: "Xingchen, come and take a look."

"what?"

As Duan Xingchen moved closer, his own light illuminated an ancient book in the dark corner.

It was a book placed on a dilapidated wooden bed. It looked quite old, with a leather cover covered in dust, indicating that it hadn't been read for who knows how many years.

Through Duan Xingchen's light, the words revealed on the dusty cover were clearly the script from the era of Emperor Wen's Tianjue.

Because the style is almost identical to the characters of the current Lingze era, Duan Xingchen and Gu Wangjun had no difficulty reading it.

[Personal Record]

Two very short words.

Duan Xingchen and Gu Wangjun exchanged a glance, and then Gu Wangjun took over and slowly opened the book.

The billowing dust was quite choking, but there were no traps or formations hidden inside, just as what the two of them had found was nothing of importance.

In fact, from that extremely brief text, one could not glean any particularly useful information.

Turning to the first page, the yellowed, withered paper revealed words brimming with anger, as if trying to drill through the paper.

"At 7:08 on the 7th day of the 5th month of the 3rd year, I went alone to the Lingyun Sword Tomb and killed 3,000 sword masters in the Kaiyuan Realm to restore my physical body."

"However, his spirit was unstable. Although his physical body was complete, his spirit was restless. He tried to soothe him with medicine for seven days, but it was still ineffective. So he went to the heavens and went to the wilderness to obtain the spirit herbs of Qingqiu Mountain to calm his spirit."

"He encountered Bai Gu's enemies on the road, all of whom were at the Nascent Soul stage. In the end, he killed six hundred enemies. With no other choice, he used his blood to refine his body and returned to Lin Yuan with his injuries."

Three paragraphs were neatly arranged on the first page.

The characters looked as if the pen was forcefully penetrating the paper. Although they were square and neat, each stroke seemed to conceal endless anger and resentment.

Even after such a long period of time, the brief words on this paper still allowed Duan Xingchen and Gu Wangjun to feel the hatred that seemed to penetrate to the bone.

Just like it says on the cover—

This is a personal journal.

A personal record about someone.

For some reason, the second paragraph of this autobiography uses the pronoun "其" (qi).

That doesn't sound like someone referring to themselves, since no one would refer to their own body as "it."

—Even if there is one, they must be a lunatic.

"Xingchen, what do you think?"

Gu Wangjun didn't rush to turn the first page, but instead looked at Duan Xingchen, whose expression was slightly strange.

Faced with his senior brother's question, Duan Xingchen was stunned for a few seconds before straightening his expression: "I can't quite explain it either, but this book... might just be the autobiography of this demonic half-immortal?"

"Oh?" Gu Wangjun was quite curious about Duan Xingchen's judgment.

"Because, senior brother, look, the first page says 'refining the body with blood.' Ordinary cultivators wouldn't use such a method, but it's very common in demonic and evil arts. In addition, this is the memory of that demonic half-immortal, so it should be his own record."

“Indeed, using blood to refine the body is usually not something that orthodox sects do, so there is some truth to what you said.”

"Besides this—is there anything else?"

Duan Xingchen seemed to take an interest in this autobiography; she had a feeling that this autobiography of a half-immortal in the demonic path might contain some kind of secret.

however--

Just as Gu Wangjun was about to turn to the next page.

The turned pages dissolved silently in an instant, turning into thick, sticky blood that flowed down from the dilapidated wooden bed.

At the same time, the surrounding restrictive formations began to emit a dazzling scarlet light, and the pungent smell of blood once again permeated the surroundings.

Blood still flowed like a river beneath their feet.

Is it the flow of blood spirits from the first level spreading upwards?

Duan Xingchen was startled and hurriedly looked at the stairs, only to find that the stairs leading to the first floor were still clean, and the blood on the first floor showed no sign of rushing up.

In other words, the blood that suddenly gushed out came from the second level on its own!

"No way, not again?"

The surging blood, twisting and swirling in the crimson water, slowly condensing into a form that was clearly the blood spirit that had appeared once before on the first level!

Duan Xingchen might not have noticed, but Gu Wangjun, whose cultivation had reached the Void Realm, did not look so good. He could clearly sense that the spiritual energy surging within the blood flow was far beyond what the first level could compare to.

The Blood Spirit that appeared this time had reached the Nascent Soul stage in cultivation.

"go!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Wangjun put one arm around Duan Xingchen's shoulder and swiftly reached his other hand across the inside of Duan Xingchen's thigh.

The next second, the petite Duan Xingchen was picked up horizontally.

"Huh?!"

Duan Xingchen let out a surprised cry, but before she could react, Gu Wangjun had already carried her up the stairs in a princess carry at an extremely fast speed.

shhhhh--

Gu Wangjun was, after all, a martial arts practitioner. Although he later switched to farming, his physical speed was still beyond what a mere Nascent Soul Realm Blood Spirit could catch up with. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from the Blood Spirit's attack range.

Just a few seconds later, Gu Wangjun carried Duan Xingchen, who was still in a daze, to the third floor of the tower.

Standing at the top of the steps, King Gu looked back.

"As expected, they didn't catch up."

Just like on the first floor, the Blood Spirits did not chase them to the next floor.

That's quite a strange phenomenon.