Demonic Demoness Training Project

"Alright, alright, Tan, do you have anything else to say? If you have nothing to say, you can leave now."

……

Much later, Tan Mengzi learned that the teacher had a reason for choosing this topic. At that time, the new emperor had ascended the throne, granted a general amnesty, promoted new laws, and issued an order to prohibit the forging of weapons by living souls. The "Decree of the Past" was born in response to this.

However, by the time she participated in the imperial examination, the new emperor had already been overthrown, the new laws had been abolished, and the old laws had been restored. The interests involved in the refining of living souls were too great, and it was the foundation of the entire Datong Dynasty. Naturally, the refining of the past order was suppressed.

Three years of hard work and investment vanished in an instant, and because of her past actions, she almost ended up in jail.

As for the refining of the ancient token, she had long given up. Not only was it extremely difficult, but it also ruined her career and left her with a mountain of debt. This distraught scholar eventually chose to live in seclusion to avoid her debts.

Until one day, debt collectors came to her door and beat her body to pieces.

Yes, completely broken.

When the artificial skin was torn off, the scholar suddenly realized that she was actually a puppet, and everything she had experienced from birth to the present was nothing more than being manipulated by others, nothing more than a part of the trials of the mortal world.

Even her own soul was nothing more than a spirit artificially created by someone who had erased her memories. She couldn't remember who she was or why she came into this world.

At this moment, the scholar was utterly despondent, and the spirit of the artifact, whose obsession had dissipated, was destined to perish.

But at this moment, a new obsession took root in her heart. She remembered the puppet that no one wanted to forge, and she made up her mind to forge it, whether for herself or to take revenge on the entire dynasty.

No one thought she could succeed. The cultivator who created her came looking for her and wanted to take her back. She escaped all the way to the Boundless Realm, and the cultivator didn't dare to chase after her anymore, so he simply gave up on her.

……

At the age of twenty-two, he failed the imperial examination.

At the age of thirty-five, he entered the Boundless Realm.

At the age of 129, he underwent three tribulations of lightning, using the demonic path to open up new sources of power.

From then on, she cultivated herself while diligently studying the ancient order's diagram, but throughout her life, she was unable to break through to the Spirit Pivot Realm.

Under the erosion of countless eons, the scholar's body continuously decayed and was constantly reforged. She seemed to have gained a lifespan far exceeding that of ordinary Open Source Realm cultivators, and her soul became more resilient and pure.

The Boundless Realm contains a large number of scarce resources, but the types of resources are limited. With her talent and relying on ancient cultivation methods, she can only reach the Open Source Realm... Although she cannot break through the realm, as she deduces the past, her attainments in the Soul Path are advancing by leaps and bounds, and her Divine Sense Realm is also slowly improving.

And this is part of the process of refining one's heart in the mortal world.

Two hundred and forty-one years old, Class B, Lowest Rank.

427 years old, Class B, Middle Grade.

Six hundred and thirty-two years old, Grade B, Superior Rank.

Grade B superior divine sense—this is the pinnacle that a demonic cultivator can achieve.

Now that things have come to this, the cultivator who once wanted to take her back has long since passed away, and those corrupt officials who once mocked her are all dead. Past honors and disgraces have become insignificant, and whether she leaves or not is no longer important. The only obsession in her heart is the old order.

Since the spirit of the artifact lives because of its obsession, the memory that carries that obsession must be hidden in the deepest part of its soul.

Under her deduction, the complexity of the puppet kept increasing. If the first transformation was not enough, then the second transformation would be used. If the second transformation was not enough, then the third transformation would be used. The third transformation was already the limit for cultivators in the Open Source Realm. The examiner was right. This thing was very expensive to make and almost impossible to achieve.

Twelve hundred years later, this soul, affected by countless eons, finally reached its limit. The battered and broken soul could not survive simply by changing bodies, and the deduction of the past order had reached its final moment.

However, she had no time left. According to her calculations, the crafting of this artifact was missing one of the most important spiritual materials—the inner core of a fourth-level Soul Path demon beast.

Given her methods, where in this day and age could she possibly obtain that kind of thing?

The scholar had no choice but to distribute the inherited jade slips, and then fell into a long slumber.

I will remain here for now, awaiting those who come after me.

……

Three thousand years later, the imperial court declined, sects rose, and hundreds of races emerged.

Three thousand five hundred years later, the dynasty collapsed.

Eight thousand years later, Lu Li has arrived.

Over the thousands of years, every so often someone would stumble upon a jade slip that supposedly carried on the legacy and gain access to her cave, but the scholar never found a suitable successor.

Having weathered the test of time, ended her final battle, and found her ideal successor, the scholar's spirit's last lingering attachment was finally extinguished, yet her voice still echoed above Lu Li's sea of ​​consciousness.

　“You are very much like me when I was young, but you are more perceptive and more ruthless than we were. Most importantly, you were born in a prosperous era.”

"You may not be able to obtain the inner core of a fourth-level Soul Path demon beast, but we believe that your Spirit Core can replace the inner core of a demon beast. With the Spirit Core as the core, you will surely be able to complete the final step of the Past Order."

"I have completed the forging of this puppet. All my deductions, all my puppet diagrams, and all my life's learning are now handed over to you. You previously said that you would only learn if I committed suicide. So now, as you wish, please take all of this."

"This……"

Lu Li stared blankly at all of this, speechless for a long time, until Tan Mengzi brought her back to her senses, her voice more tired than ever before.

"Tell us, in this world, are there still any man-made spirits?"

Yes, and they're everywhere.

“Even a centipede with a hundred legs dies but does not fall; a dynasty may fall, but its lineage may not be broken… Indeed, I do not know what you will do with this lineage, nor do I care whether you walk the righteous path or the demonic path. But we have only one request: that one day you may use this lineage to overthrow the entire Daoist tradition of Datong.”

"Overthrow a lineage? You overestimate me."

"No, I believe you can do it. The time is ripe. In my time, there were no spirit cores of such high grade. You must know that when you awaken the memories of the artifact spirits, they will inevitably turn their spears on their creators. You are not alone. Behind you stand thousands of awakened artifact spirits. When you succeed, I will return to this place."

"Hey, are you asking me to lead the artifact spirits in a rebellion? No way! And why do you all want to be my master?"

This time, Tan Mengzi did not answer, leaving Lu Li standing there blankly.

Lu Li suspected that this old thing, like Old Duan, was hiding in some corner of her mind, quietly lying dormant, just waiting for the day to give her a big surprise.

His masters... seem to be a bit too many.

Lu Li turned around and walked towards Mo Wan's body. The girl was curled up in the corner, motionless, as if she had died, which was quite poignant.

Lu Li flipped the puppet over. Its abdomen was deeply dented from the blow he had struck earlier, and the wind spirit core inside had been shattered by his own hands. Seeing the puppet he had crafted in such a state, Lu Li felt a pang of heartache.

Right next to the puppet lay a storage bag with an antique design.

"What's inside should be that person's legacy."

Lu Li activated the Azure Netherworld Skin to enter a steel-like state, then concentrated his mind and activated the Great Dream Profound Pivot to strictly guard his sea of ​​consciousness, carefully opening the storage bag.

Apart from a few broken artifacts, there was only one token left. This token was about two fingers thick, and the array patterns and integrated mechanisms engraved inside were quite complex.

The token has a raised section on the front, carved into the shape of an eyeball, and correspondingly, a walnut-sized groove on the back, which seems to be used to embed the inner core of a demon beast.

"This should be the Token of the Past. According to the inheritance, to activate this token, one must first recite the Escape Spell to the spirit of the artifact. Then one can use the Soul Dao Divine Power to awaken the spirit's memories from its previous life."

In addition, there was a jade slip in the storage bag. The jade slip was very new in style, unlike other artifacts. Just by looking at the craftsmanship, you could tell that it did not belong to this era.

"Perhaps it was stolen from one of the disciples. Wait, besides the open-source method based on immeasurable eons, there's also a map of the immeasurable realms recorded here?"

The map clearly records which spiritual materials and which demonic beasts are distributed in which regions. This map is far more detailed than the one from the White Moon Palace.

According to the description on the jade slip, the Ghost-Faced Flower grows in the core area of ​​the Boundless Realm, but in the end, it cannot escape and still has to fight against those deacons of the Open Source Realm.

After packing up the storage bag and taking Mo Wan's body with him, Lu Li set off again, heading straight for the core area.

After walking for about half a day, Lu Li sensed with his divine sense that a wooden crow was approaching from the front. The wooden crow was flying and calling out, its pitiful voice sounding as if it was calling for a soul.

"Croak~ Host~ Where are you~ Don't leave us alone, they don't want us~ Deer~ Pear~ Host~ Come back and eat pears~ Where are you~ Croak~"

"I'll use you to test my newly acquired puppet."

Lu Li was about to step forward, but then felt it was inappropriate. If Bai Yue Palace found out about this, she would be in trouble. So she activated her powers to conceal her identity, which allowed her to enter Ya Ya's field of vision.

The moment Ya Ya saw Lu Li, it was so startled that its feathers stood on end, and its wooden wings bristled.

"Hey, who are you? Come here and get your tonic. My host is really powerful. She... she's the champion of this year's academy competition. She can beat you to a pulp with just two punches!"

Lu Li touched his cheek, secretly thinking that this little thing knew quite a lot. Holding the Token of the Past, he channeled his divine sense into it and activated it with the help of the Spirit Core in his skull. Suddenly, he began to chant the so-called escape incantation:

"Do you really not remember anything from the past?"

At this moment, the divine power that Lu Li is using is called—

In the past, we were also human beings.

Chapter 110 The Little Wooden Crow Searches for Its Mother

Lu Li activated the Token of the Past, and a faint white light emanated from his palm. This white light converged into a single point in the eyeball on the front of the Token of the Past, and then suddenly shot out, striking the wooden crow.

The wooden crow was thrown backward by the impact. It spun in mid-air but stopped flapping its wings. Its mechanical body seemed to have lost its soul in an instant, and it fell straight to the ground.

"Could it be damaged?"

Lu Li hurried over. The wooden crow twitched twice, then suddenly got up from the ground. Its beak opened and closed, and its voice was no longer as cheerful as before, but became mechanical and hesitant.

"I... once lived."

The crow suddenly raised its head and looked at the sky of the Boundless Realm, at the low, crimson-purple canopy torn apart by twisted branches.

All the memories of the past surged up from the deepest part of its soul in that instant, rushing straight to its walnut-sized wooden head.

As a crude creation of mortal machinery, it crashed countless times during flight due to mechanical malfunctions, and was repeatedly pelted with stones during its sales process.

It was a fall, but this time it was different from the previous ones.

The woodcrow stood frozen in place, peering up through the gaps in the wild grass and branches—

She saw the sky!

Mu Ya looked down and around at the eerie wasteland, and couldn't help but ask herself a question.

Why am I here? What am I doing here?

Why did I come to this godforsaken place, to this place that tortures people half to death, to beg for a bowl of rice?

At this moment, the girl stepped forward, her face seemingly veiled, making it impossible to see or remember her features. She suddenly spoke, her voice clear and cold:

Do you remember who you are?

"I think my surname is Su, and my given name... I don't remember."

As expected, the wooden crow's memory was not fully restored, and it never could be fully restored. All artifact spirits had their memories cleansed before they were forged, and what could be retained was only a little bit hidden deep in the memory, especially the trace of obsession.

"My second question is, what do you want to do now?"

“I…” Mu Ya suddenly fell silent. After a long while, she shifted her body and said, “I want a mother.”

Upon hearing this answer, Lu Li stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

"Pfft! This is what you've been obsessed with all along?"

"This is probably what I really want."

"The third question is, do you remember why you became like this?"

"My mother sold me, and they used an axe to split my head open... Ah!"

The crow suddenly let out a sharp cry, its round eyes revealing a look of pain. It flapped its wings on the ground as if in a frenzy, and after a moment, it let out a shrill scream.

"It was them who killed me!"

"It's done."

Lu Li recalled the words Tan Mengzi had said before her death, and Tan Mengzi's life story was like a photograph in his mind.

From failing the imperial examination to being hunted down, from recognizing his own shortcomings to secluded cultivation, from his enemy dying of old age to completing the deduction of the Past Order and discovering that he was missing the last spiritual material... The world changes, dynasties rise and fall, and eight thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Eight thousand years later, the down-on-his-luck scholar rejected by the imperial court, and the mechanical device plan that no one believed in or wanted to accept, have finally been realized in this era, at this time and in this place.

Does the Puppet Path change destiny? No, it is never the Puppet Path, nor the Soul Path, nor any divine will that changes destiny, but the cultivator, the human!

The Great Harmony Dynasty, the method of forging weapon spirits...

As if suddenly remembering something, Lu Li searched through his mind and found a diagram—the Great Harmony Mystic Pivot.

This is a sleight of hand that he seized from the Venerable One. This sleight of hand is only at the second level, and its cost is relatively low. Its performance and effectiveness are far inferior to his Great Dream Pivot.

However, the two characters "Datong" at the very top of the rubbing were particularly eye-catching at this moment, like two ferocious beasts rushing impatiently into Lu Li's field of vision.

"Tongxian Sect, Datong Xuanshu, Datong Dynasty... The dynasty has fallen, but the lineage continues. Senior Tan asked me to destroy a lineage. Could it be referring to the Tongxian Sect of today?"

"It turns out that our goals were aligned from the very beginning."

"What a pity. If I had obtained this Token of the Past earlier and used it to deal with the Venerable One, I wonder what kind of scene it would have been."

At that time, the Venerable One refined the souls of a thousand people into artifact spirits, which were used to unleash the supernatural powers of the Soul Path. Lu Li still remembers clearly the way those artifact spirits chanted scriptures.

The Venerable One attempted to fake his death using the disaster-avoiding puppet to escape, but was found by a spirit whose self-awareness had not yet been erased. He made a fatal mistake and died on the spot.

Even a single artifact spirit's rebellion could deliver a devastating blow to the Venerable One at a crucial moment. If the "In the Past We Were Also Human" technique were used on all artifact spirits, and hundreds or even thousands of artifact spirits rebelled, Lu Li dared not imagine what would happen.