"The Heavenly Dao is clear, the Jianghu vast, now I, Yu Tiannan, sacrifice my broken body and depleted life to subdue you for three hundred years!"

...

"Buzz!"

Li Zhiyuan and Zhao Yi shuddered simultaneously as their consciousness returned to reality.

The divine thought depicted on the rock wall narrated how the Yu Family Dragon King, at the brink of death, chose to use the last glimmer of his life to once again subdue an Evil Spirit.

Li Zhiyuan and Zhao Yi together bowed before the rock wall.

After the ceremony, Zhao Yi curiously asked, "Beauty, how did you come up with this term?"

Li Zhiyuan: "What my heart desired."

Zhao Yi: "You're thinking so far ahead now?"

Li Zhiyuan: "I'm accustomed to it."

Wei Zhengdao's relentless attempts at suicide, and those who had connections with Wei Zhengdao all hoped for his success.

This was also Li Zhiyuan's acknowledgment.

To cure the illness and live this lifetime well, was already satisfying enough; pursuing immortality, turning oneself into neither human nor ghost, wasn't necessary, too ugly.

The others around didn't know what the two "leaders" were discussing, but no one asked.

Zhao Yi said to Chen Jing, "Continue to lead the way." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Chen Jing pointed ahead and said, "It's right up ahead, that black pool."

The group arrived at the edge of this black pool, where the water had almost completely thawed, with only traces of ice fragments floating around.

A stele was exposed on the water's surface, inscribed with: Yu Tiannan Town.

Li Zhiyuan noticed that within the black pool, black mist rose constantly upwards, tracing this direction upwards, one could see a thick and flowing consistency gathered on the rock wall's top, resembling a source, transforming into streams that spread outwards.

In this view, the accidents occurring at the worksite were due to them unearthing one of such streams, allowing the black mist here to leak out.

Zhao Yi: "There isn't any residual aura from the Seal, could it be that the Dragon King's Seal failed?"

After all, it was the final strike before death, not at peak power; failure would not be incomprehensible.

Li Zhiyuan: "He spoke of a subduing, three hundred years is just a rough estimation; I think when he acted, he was likely confident in wearing down this Evil Spirit within three hundred years.

Furthermore, do you recall the silver coins hanging on that mutt's neck? It's far from three hundred years now."

Zhao Yi: "So, you think something happened midway through the Seal?"

At this moment, the water level in the black pool rapidly decreased, as though an invisible force was draining it.

At the pool bottom, a platform lay, upon which an unimaginably immense wolf-dog figure rested, its sheer size and condition making it hard to comprehend how terrifying it once was alive.

Zhao Yi: "Is this that little mutt?"

Li Zhiyuan: "Yes, now look below, at those eight Lock Chains."

The eight Lock Chains were all broken at this point, but one was forcibly broken, while the other seven had decayed over time.

With the presence of the eight Lock Chains, the Array held intact, yet losing one saw the Array's power vastly diminished, leaving the remaining chains to naturally erode away with time.

Zhao Yi: "Someone, once ventured into the pool's depths, breaking one of the Lock Chains."

Li Zhiyuan: "Because that Lock Chain also trapped him."

Zhao Yi licked his chapped lips, already anticipating something, pointed below, and asked, "Xiao Yuan… Brother, don't you think something is missing down there?"

Li Zhiyuan: "His demon beast is buried here, this being his chosen burial site; his remains shouldn't be gone."

Zhao Yi: "Could it be possible…"

Li Zhiyuan: "There is, I witnessed this at the hospital, having treated those patients whose memories were swapped."

Zhao Yi: "So, after defeating and suppressing this Evil Spirit, Yu Tiannan quickly fell, then his dog betrayed him, submitting to the Evil sealed by Yu Tiannan, or perhaps striking a deal.

That Evil, using its unique ability, transplanted the dog's memory into Yu Tiannan's body, broke a Lock Chain, and left here, eventually…"

Li Zhiyuan:

"The dog returned to the Yu Family, under the guise of Yu Tiannan."