After the heavenly tribulation lightning, the ground was in absolute ruin.

To be honest, Tu Tianba didn’t remember how he had survived the tribulation. He only knew that with a blink of his eyes, his cultivation base had advanced from the Body Integration stage to the Mahayana stage. The flesh and blood he had painstakingly nourished for nearly a century had completely sloughed off again, and his very skeleton was starting to grow the vicious ghost patterns of the Soul-Refining Cauldron.

After reforming his body with the blood mist, he once again became hideous and terrifying.

Tu Tianba silently put away his palm-sized makeup mirror, secretly gritting his teeth. There was absolutely no problem with the separation method he had studied for over a hundred years! The fault lay entirely with that man in white, who just had to appear before him at such a critical juncture and disturb his Dao heart. This caused him to be controlled by his inner demons once more, forcing him to focus entirely on battling them to regain his sanity, thereby neglecting his surroundings.

The lightning tribulation just passed like that?

Why didn’t it blast that guy to death too??

Truly detestable!

Tu Tianba pulled a long face, unable to suppress his belly full of rage. This caused the wronged souls within the cauldron to mutter even more actively in his ears—though they were called the wronged souls of the cauldron, they were actually inner demons born from the resonant fusion between him and the evil weapon.

The Soul-Refining Cauldron. Its original name was unknown.

Back then, Lan Daozi obtained this evil weapon by chance and gave it this rather tacky name, though it did match the aura the cauldron exuded: sinister, greedy, and yearning to devour all living things. Sensing the cauldron’s craving, Lan Daozi guessed that it had likely birthed a spiritual consciousness and was definitely a treasure left behind by some ancient mighty figure. Overjoyed, he immediately began searching for “ingredients” for it, figuring that once the cauldron was satisfied, he could subjugate it with half the effort.

Never in his wildest dreams did he expect to be counter-killed by a mere Foundation Establishment brat.

Tu Tianba hadn’t expected it either. In truth, he didn’t understand what Lan Daozi meant by “innate evil bones.” He was just a bit more lively, mischievous, and energetic as a child. It wasn’t until he suffered in the cauldron for forty-nine days that he realized his bones were actually black. But he firmly believed they were just smoked black. After all, this cauldron was also pitch-black and ugly as sin.

Tu Tianba sat cross-legged on the rubble, feeling very troubled. What to do now?

Perhaps it was because the fusion between man and cauldron had deepened… but not only were his bones now carved with patterns, the number of his inner demons had actually increased by two? The good news, however, was that these new inner demons were different from the others.

Amidst the chorus of ghostly wails urging him to go on a killing spree, those two inner demons only spoke baffling words—things like host, system, and roleplaying to complete the plot. Amidst the countless unified chants of “Kill, kill, kill!”, they stood out exceptionally.

This inevitably made Tu Tianba curious. So, resting his elbow on his knee and propping his chin in his hand, he listened as the inner demon that had spoken up softly went ding and explained to him:

[Host, um…]

[This world is actually a book world, derived from an angsty Xianxia romance novel. Right now, a crucial supporting character is missing. If left alone, your world will gradually collapse until it completely vanishes. Therefore, we need you to play the role of this important supporting character…]

Inside the system space.

The blue orb, having been forcefully shoved forward, braced itself to finish this speech, then suddenly plunged into silence. Unlike the previous two hosts, this host was a native of this book world. According to the host’s resume, he was a ruthless, demonic overlord. The system wasn’t sure how such a figure would react upon learning he was merely a character in a book.

It paused, then added another sentence:

[As a part of this world, saving the world means saving yourself, Host!]

Contrary to the blue orb’s imagination, Tu Tianba thought this newly born inner demon spoke rather interestingly. He calmly rejected it, a rare occurrence: “I don’t want to.”

What did the fate of this world have to do with him? He didn’t have that kind of free time.

Hearing this, the blue orb instantly choked. It looked back at the snoring main system, its heart dead as ashes, and faced that vicious ghost face on the light screen. Mimicking the main system’s usual tone toward hosts, it tremblingly encouraged: [Host, there are rewards for completing the roleplaying missions…]

Tu Tianba switched hands to prop up his chin, asking back curiously: “What rewards?”

This was the first time an inner demon offered him a reward. How fresh.

The blue orb answered honestly: [Scanning indicates that the host’s physical body is destroyed. If you successfully complete the missing plot from the book, you can obtain the [Resurrection] reward, allowing the host to regain a physical body!]

Tu Tianba drew in a sharp breath of cold air, then rejected it again.

He reckoned that in the past, it was the Soul-Refining Cauldron’s sinister demonic qi affecting his mind, spawning many evil inner demons. This time, it was highly likely that his own traits had fused into the cauldron, to the point where the newly born inner demons spoke his very desires. Oh, how he wanted a fair, plump physical body!

But one could not listen to the words of inner demons. Tu Tianba had rich experience dealing with inner demons. The novelty in his heart quickly faded, and just as he was about to stand up, a blue light screen suddenly appeared before his eyes. It was filled with dense, tiny words, and at the top was an enlarged title—

“Wuhui”

Below the title were a few lines of plot summary. Tu Tianba saw at a glance that the first line of the summary read:

[…Although Nie Wuhui successfully slew the Demon Lord Tu Tianba, he himself was severely injured…]

Tu Tianba: “Severely injured???”

Tu Tianba: “He’s not dead!!!”

His eyes completely red, Tu Tianba plopped his butt back down: “Explain in detail!”

It must be that his advancement to the Mahayana stage had also improved his inner demons’ divine abilities. Not only could they tempt him with words in his ear, but they could also conjure up this bizarre light screen he had never seen before. Perhaps they had even awakened the art of precognition.

Nie Wuhui.

Tu Tianba had heard this name. Three hundred years ago, when he was wandering outside, he frequently fought the righteous cultivators who besieged him. When they couldn’t beat him, some would cry and beg for mercy, while others would still babble at death’s door, pointing at his nose and cursing: “Demon Lord, we are indeed no match for you. If only the Guiqing Sect’s Immortal Lord Wuhui weren’t in secluded cultivation, a scourge like you would have been cut down by his Untamed Sword long ago!”

Hearing this gave Tu Tianba an inexplicable sense of déjà vu. In the past, when kids in the village lost a fight to him, they would shout the exact same thing: “Just you wait, next time I’ll call my dad over to teach you a lesson!”

Later, Tu Tianba asked around and learned that this Nie Wuhui was an elder of the righteous path’s leading faction, the Guiqing Sect. Hundreds and thousands of years ago, he was an unparalleled cultivation genius, known for being upright and righteous, earning the beautiful reputation of the Gentleman Sword Immortal. Thinking about it carefully, wasn’t this guy the top boss of the righteous cultivators?

Although Tu Tianba didn’t know Nie Wuhui, hearing about him from these righteous cultivators still made him feel like it was bad luck. But soon enough, he had focused on how to separate himself from the Soul-Refining Cauldron and threw the name entirely to the back of his mind. Come to think of it, back then he had assumed Nie Wuhui was a white-haired old man.

Good, good, good.

With old grudges and new enmities piled together, Tu Tianba decided to play along with his inner demon’s intentions for now and carefully read through this storybook on the light screen. Staring at the title, he let out a cold snort.

So you’re the one named Nie Wuhui, huh?

Just you wait!

Inside the system space.

The pretending-to-sleep white orb seized the moment to push out the novel’s light screen, deeply hiding its merit and fame. Tsk. An intern system just wouldn’t do. It still had to be Him. N001 reached out a little nub and patted its own round chest, thinking with some worry:

…How did we end up binding this lunatic?

The last time it visited this world, he seemed to be in the middle of destroying it. Oh. At that time, he was no longer called Tu Tianba either.