Though the magus is unprincipled, cruel, relentless, and fond of beauty, it cannot be denied that he possesses extraordinary and unrivaled talent. From his rise to prominence to his emergence as the foremost adversary of the Taimei Sect, he has achieved this in just a few years. Even the high-minded Sect Master has praised the Ye You Shen profession as "the most talented in thirty years." The last to receive this accolade was the female Marshal, and even Fu Qingyang, to date, has not received a single commendation from the Sect Master. Thus, when Yin Ji described the magus' profound apprehension and deep fear regarding the "Silent Village," the elders of the Wuxing Alliance felt a sudden weight settle upon their hearts. The Yuan Shishen is indeed their prized asset, a key figure under special cultivation. Master Zhu's sister has long coveted Yuan Shishen, and even without causing tangible harm—despite the protection of the Fu Province Department—Wuxing Alliance can simply place her on a blacklist. Should Yuan Shishen suffer any injury, Zhu Rong would surely face dire consequences. Indeed, she has not yet received a good outcome—she has already been stripped of her dignity by the frenz Seeing the Five Elements Alliance elders turning toward him with growing concern, Yin Ji recalled: "He didn't go into great detail. He only mentioned that he initially misjudged the key point, nearly dying in the quest—his survival was all due to luck." When she and the Demon King were in the Saint Realm, their relationship had already been well-established. The matter of the Silent Village was merely a casual topic, something they'd casually mention while chatting over tea or meals. The Demon King didn't elaborate much, and she didn't particularly care about the extraordinary-stage quests, so she didn't press for more. The one we're most concerned about is the Dog Elder, since the Prime Primordial is his direct subordinate's direct subordinate, and upon becoming a Sage, the Prime Primordial will be directly under the Dog Elder's command. In simpler terms: the core team! The night-watch deities of Taimei Palace quietly discuss: "It sounds like an extremely challenging A-tier quest. A-tier quests rank just below S-tier—how could any A-tier quest not be perilous? Yet, even the Demon King nearly perished within it. That's interesting. If the Prime Primordial falls in this quest, that will be even more significant—there'll be major news tomorrow. Don't underestimate the stakes. If the Prime Primordial doesn't survive, will we? What about future encounters with this very quest? We won't face it again, and what about our future peers? I truly hope the Prime Primordial survives and emerges, enriching our Taimei Palace archives. Ah, I'll have to spend a fortune then. The Sun Elder was clearly unwise—when he recruited the Prime Primordial, we were expected to dominate the first three rounds of the tournament. "Wait a minute—where's Yuan Ting?" "It seems he's been sent back to the training camp again, this time undergoing a devil-level training program." "Truly pitiful..." The news spread quickly across the audience section, enriched and amplified by the details from the Taimei Sect, so that everyone now believed Yuan Shǐ Tian Zūn had entered a "hell-mode" scenario once more. "Wait—did Taimei Sect say the training level surpassed even S-tier?" "Really? The Arch-Mage nearly died inside, and they claim it's a certain-dead scenario?" "Really? The Arch-Mage said it's a certain-dead scenario?" "Really? Both the Arch-Mage and Taimei Sect say it's a certain-dead scenario?" ... The Village of Silence. Zhang Yuanqing stood outside the courtyard, holding onto the old man's wrist to keep him from fleeing, guiding the shade of the deceased: "If you don't mind, I'd like to enter." As soon as the words were spoken, the old man suddenly struggled violently, his wrinkled face expressing shock, shaking his head vigorously. The old man seems afraid of Wang Xia'er—he doesn't Zhang Yuanqing noticed this phenomenon and felt a sudden spark of insight. He silently activated his "Spirit Devouring" skill, and a thick, black substance surged from his eyes, filling his entire field of vision. Suddenly, the stone house began to rise in waves of dense, smoky negative energy—like the air itself was breathing. It seemed no longer a house, but a tomb housing a thousand-year-old corpse in deep slumber. How intense was the negative energy emanating from Wang Xia'er? Zhang Yuanqing's heart sank. At that moment, Wang Xia'er, his voice hoarse, said, "Come in! Why aren't you coming in? I'm so tired—I can't speak to you from this distance..." The old man struggled more fiercely, emitting strained "ah-ah" sounds, his face pale with fear, as though urging the young man not to enter. Zhang Yuanqing guided the spirit corpse step by step toward the stone house, through the small courtyard, and reached the two black, partially rotted wooden doors. The doors were not locked and were only half-open, with a deep, dark, lightless void within the crevice. Wu-1 lacked the vision to penetrate darkness, so Zhang Yuanqing could not see through the Yin尸's perspective to clearly observe what lay inside. If I didn't have the Yin尸, my best course of action would have been to draw my burst-gun, stand firm, and continuously fire to shatter these two doors. Zhang Yuanqing guided Wu-1 to lift his hand and gently push open the wooden door. A faint light streamed into the stone hall, revealing a side chamber beyond the threshold, where a square table stood, bearing a dark, lumpish object. Zhang Yuanqing then guided Wu-1 to step over the threshold and enter the room. Now he could see more clearly: the ceiling hung numerous thin hemp ropes, each tied to a tongue, resembling cured meat suspended in the air. At that moment, the dark lump on the table turned to face him. Originally, it was a human head with wild, tangled hair, soiled with grime. It turned its face toward the viewer, its eyes wide with a stillness filled with blood vessels, and black, viscous blood flowed from its mouth. A thick phlegm clogged in its throat, and it murmured, "You've come, I'm so hungry..." As the words faded, the two massive, decaying doors slammed shut with a loud clang, and Zhang Yuanqing lost control of the corpse. His will was forcibly driven back into his own body. "Ah! Ah! Ah!" The old man was terrified, his face pale as paper, his voice strained and loud. Cold, watchful eyes appeared from the windows of the nearby earth-and-stone houses, fixed on the scene. What a hassle! Zhang Yuanqing raised his hand axe, struck the old man unconscious, left the lively, cheerful one to guard the area and keep watch, then hurried into the courtyard. He summoned the "Outrager's Gloves" from his inventory. Tapping, tapping, tapping... Zhang Yuanqing rushed to the closed wooden door, clenched his fists and slammed them against it with force. Boom! Like a high-explosive hand grenade exploding, the shockwave sent the wooden door flying, shattering it into blackened fragments. The tongue suspended in the room swayed violently under the force of the wave, and the expanding flame dispelled the darkness, illuminating the scene within. There, Body No. 1 lay sprawled on the ground, its head—hair loose, strands stained with oil and blood—gnawing at the body's own head. "Crunch... crunch..." The sound of the skull being crushed sent a shiver down the spine. Half of Body No. 1's head had vanished, with red and white fluids oozing out. Remarkable teeth indeed. Zhang Yuanqing drew a sharp breath, regained control of Body No. 1, retrieved the burst rifle and the sight-glass spectacles, aimed at the head, and fired. The burst rifle and sight-glass spectacles were a matched set. Without the latter, Zhang Yuanqing's aim would likely have struck the brain—or even the brain matter—of his own spectral figure. *Puff! Puff!* The bullet struck precisely at the grotesque, ugly head, and the accompanying explosion generated powerful momentum, propelling the head like a soccer ball. "Oh! Oh! So painful! So painful!" the head cried out, wailing, "My body! My body!" With each cry, a series of clattering sounds came from the inner room, as if wooden planks had rolled to the ground. Zhang Yuanqing immediately turned his gun and aimed it at the inner door, where a black cloth hung down. A figure stepped out, moving with stiff, monotonous steps. Dressed in coarse cotton robes, it held its arms down, with black, sharp nails, and its neck was bare, devoid of a head. The figure approached the head, extended its hands, covered with black, sharp nails, lifted the head, and placed it gently upon its neck. The flesh at the neck rapidly contracted and intertwined, and a series of crisp "clicking" sounds echoed from within the flesh as bones reconnected. Wang Xiao'er's eyes were jerking erratically within his sockets—sometimes upward, sometimes downward, sometimes vanishing entirely—seeming to rotate in all directions. "Glurrrr... glurrrr..." As his eyes rolled upward and disappeared into his sockets, they instantly sank with a "glurrr" sound, now fixed and staring straight at Zhang Yuanqing. "Starving! Starving! I'm going to eat you!" He screamed with a wild, animal-like intensity, charging forward like a creature driven mad. Wang Xiao'er had turned into a ghostly corpse... Zhang Yuanqing raised his rifle and fired. The bullets exploded into brilliant flashes of flame across Wang Xiao'er's chest, yet they made no difference at all. This spectral body seemed to withstand the very force of the bursting rifle shots as if it were flesh and blood. Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing lowered his rifle, summoned his bloodthirsty blade, and simultaneously activated the deceased No. 1 to face the threat. "Bang!" The deceased No. 1 was thrown hard, crashing through the round table, rolling to the wall—where a loud thud echoed, and dust cascaded down. Wang Xiao'er staggered, quickly steadied himself, and charged toward Zhang Yuanqing, murmuring incoherently, "So hungry, so hungry—your meat is even better..." Copper and iron bones? What kind of shade corpse is this? Zhang Yuanqing's pupils narrowed, and decisively activated his night-wanderer technique. Two shadowed corpses collided, like heavy iron balls striking each other. The ground beneath their feet sank, compacting the firm clay and sending black clods of soil flying. Zhang Yuanqing retrieved a black mask drawn with a white skull from his inventory, held it in his hands, then suddenly stiffened. His spirit detached from his body, drifting out as if in a dream. A translucent, ethereal shadow emerged, entering Wang Xia'er's body. Wang Xia'er's body instantly went rigid, then began to tremble, as though suffering from epilepsy. This was Zhang Yuanqing's spirit attempting to inhabit Wang Xia'er's body and claim dominance. While both parties remained locked in this standoff, the deceased No. 1, responding to the master's command, turned and approached Zhang Yuanqing's body, took the mask from the silent one, and placed it over Wang Xia'er's face. All movement ceased. Wang Xia'er no longer struggled, standing still in place. Zhang Yuanqing's spirit returned to his physical form. "Unable to absorb the spirit..." Zhang Yuanqing said, walking over to Wang Xia'er and frowning. The night wanderer in a state of divine drifting can still employ the "Siphon Spirit" skill, which is the most effective method for dealing with shadow corpses. However, night wanderers rarely use this skill when fighting each other, as once they drift, they are effectively defeated—both their physical bodies become vulnerable like sacrificial lambs, and their spiritual forms are suppressed by enemy night wanderers. When he temporarily took over Wang Xia'er's body earlier, he attempted to siphon off Wang's spirit but failed. This situation differs from the case of the shoulder-pressing spirit of the San Dao Mountain Lady Temple, which cannot be siphoned—this was explicitly noted in the original campaign guide by the first-level night wanderer. This is a protective mechanism of the spiritual realm: certain key NPCs are inherently immune to being eliminated. In contrast, in the Yin-Yang Town, the children of Xu the widow can be freely siphoned, as these minor spirits are not irreplaceable. "After all, if characters in the quest are meant to respawn, then why not be able to siphon them?" A bit strange...” Zhang Yuanqing didn’t dwell on the mechanics of the spiritual realm. He immediately used his Blood-Drinking Blade to dismember Wang Xia'er’s body, crushing his head. The shade corpse went completely still. Then, he instructed the deceased No. 1 to fetch a porcelain bowl from the inner room, filling two large bowls with the shade body fluids—both corpse oil and blood—materials of excellent yin quality. He stored the full porcelain bowls in his inventory. The inventory could hold some small items from the spiritual realm, but larger objects couldn’t be stored. “I remember the spiritual realm introduction mentioned that Wang Xia'er brought burial goods from the tomb. His burial items should still be there.” After thoroughly searching the inner room—beyond the coffin, bed, and several wooden cabinets—there was nothing else. It didn’t make sense. Where had the burial goods gone? There should be some clue—by my experience, as one of the key characters in this realm, Wang Xiaosi would surely leave behind some trace. It wouldn't make sense for the Spirit Realm Travelers to fight and overcome countless dangers only to come out empty-handed. Zhang Yuanqing thought for a few seconds, then his eyes lit up. He quickly returned to the outer hall and headed straight toward the tongue hanging from the beam. "Pff!" He raised his bloodthirsty blade, severed one of the ropes, and caught the dangling tongue as it fell. A few seconds later, the item information appeared: [Name: Tongue] [Type: Oral Soft Tissue] [Function: Speaking] [Description: A tongue taken from a villager's mouth. If you receive it, return it to the villagers.] [Note: Honestly, it's hard to tell which villager's tongue this is anymore—just return it, and you're good. You'll be happy with that.] "The tongue is the clue—return it to the villagers and gather intelligence from them?" After reading the note, Zhang Yuanqing understood exactly how to use the tongue. Immediately stepped out of the stone house, crossed the small courtyard, and reached the side of the unconscious old man, inserting his tongue into the old man's mouth. To everyone's astonishment, the tongue miraculously reconnected, intact as if it had never been severed. "Snap!" Zhang Yuanqing slapped the old man awake. The old man opened his eyes, jumped up in alarm, and exclaimed, "You clumsy fellow! You clumsy fellow!... Wait a minute—can I speak?!" Full of surprise, he continued to curse the young man, confirming that he had indeed regained his ability to speak. "Sir, I have some questions for you," Zhang Yuanqing said. "You clumsy fellow, asking me questions? Asking me?" Seeing the young man raise his bright knife, the old man changed his tone. "What a capable young man you are! So strong in martial arts—you've already taken out Wang Xiaosi for us all. What would you like to know? I'll tell you everything."