Chen Gensheng crouched by the human-shaped depression, scratching at the stone shards on the pit wall, his face darkening. Over three hundred grey-blue butterflies had vanished in an instant, only to trade for this single empty pit. As the saying goes, "one radish for one hole"; now that the original "radish" was lost, the hole remained. However, this pit ultimately needed a new radish to be filled.

  "Tch!"

  The Dao-restrictions here were gone. Now, anyone passing through this God-Burial Pit could come up, take a look, and meddle with it. If he left now to find an unlucky sacrifice, and some blind fool—coincidentally a Foundation cultivator—stumbled in, fell, triggered the exchange for the Ethereal Dao-Body, and then another person happened to take it away, what then?

  Wouldn't he, Chen Gensheng, become the world's biggest sucker?

  After all the bitter fighting and life-threatening struggle, he would have ended up working entirely for someone else's benefit. The mere thought of it made his internal organs feel congested. He straightened up and paced back and forth across the empty floor, his six arms swinging irritably.

  Since he feared others picking the fruits of his labor, he would simply stay here and guard it. In this Star-Fall Gorge, there was no shortage of cultivators looking to pick up a bargain; there would always be one or two with heavy curiosity and a supposed "hard fate" who would find their way to Thunder-Echo Ridge.

  When that time came...

  He turned his head to look at Li Simin, who stood quietly behind him.

  "Simin."

  "How about we wait here like the man waiting for the rabbit to hit the tree?"

  "I've always been a patient man."

  No sooner said than done. He circled the human-shaped depression a few times, scrutinizing every inch with his right eye. Finally, he stopped in an inconspicuous shadow of the rock wall, about fifty yards from the depression. This position was exquisite; it allowed him to keep the entire pit floor in view while using the terrain to hide his form. Anyone descending from above would find it nearly impossible to spot him at first glance.

  Gensheng nodded in satisfaction and settled Li Simin and the corpse-nourishing coffin beside him. The Essence-Marrow Toad poked its head out from the coffin, its lantern-like eyes blinking, seemingly curious about this new location.

  "Stay still."

  Gensheng reached out and patted its large head. His ink-jade insect wings retracted, and his six arms hung naturally by his sides.

  Time passed bit by bit. The grey sky above didn't change in the slightest. Atop the ridge plateau, there was only the moaning of the mountain wind. Gensheng remained motionless, with Li Simin standing behind him and the Toad perched on the coffin. Three beings, none possessing a hint of human presence. This pit floor was a perfect place for eternal sleep.

  Days fell away one by one. In the God-Burial Pit, forget a living person—not even a mouse crawled in. Gensheng grew somewhat restless.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Simin."

  He spoke, his voice sounding abrupt in the silent pit.

  "Do you think I killed that man surnamed Zhang too thoroughly?"

  Gensheng didn't expect her to answer. He shifted his posture, hugging his knees with all six arms and curling into a ball.

  "After you gave that eye to me, is your vision much clearer? My mortal eye, though it can't compare to your Void-Gazing Eye, has the advantage of being simple. Seeing a person as a person, a ghost as a ghost—it won't see messy things that disturb the mind."

  "Rest easy."

  He babbled on like an old man gossiping in the sun at the village entrance. Feeling as though his words lacked a bit of conscience, he let out two dry laughs to himself.

  Another half-month passed. Thunder-Echo Ridge remained deathly still. For over a month, aside from handling the Shock-Wyrm Fire-Fish Flag over a hundred times inside and out, he mostly talked to Li Simin about random things. At first, he spoke of his observations in the Star-Fall Gorge, then he began to reminisce about the past. From when he was a tiny cockroach, hiding in dark, damp corners from predators, to how he eventually gained this monstrous form.

  In this world, perhaps only a corpse-puppet could listen to such old, trivial stories with such patience.

  "Simin."

  "What if the cultivators in this Star-Fall Gorge are all like us—valuing their lives—and no one is willing to seek trouble at this god-forsaken Thunder-Echo Ridge? Wouldn't we be stuck guarding this place until the end of time?"

  The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. Gensheng's face immediately fell. He let out a long sigh toward the human-shaped depression.

  Wait.

  The pupil of his new right eye constricted slightly.

  Atop the ridge plateau.

  Xiao Bai had returned. After escaping with the sub-bead, he had intended to find a place to recover properly before planning his next move. The Ethereal Dao-Body in the God-Burial Pit was the fruit of years of planning between him and Zhang Cuizhan; seeing it within reach only to have Chen Gensheng disrupt the deal was a pill he couldn't swallow.

  The sha-light from that Essence-Marrow Toad was incredibly poisonous; even his divine sense had been affected. If he didn't find heavenly treasures to purge it soon, he feared it would leave permanent Dao-wounds. After much thought, the only thing that could save him was likely that Ethereal Dao-Body.

  He had expected a great battle on the ridge. Chen Gensheng and Zhang Cuizhan were bound to fight to the death. But the plateau was empty; aside from Zhang's tattered formation flags, there was only a mess on the ground. It seemed as though the two had perished together.

  Xiao Bai felt wild joy, yet he remained cautious. He carefully approached the edge of the pit, his injured divine sense sweeping below repeatedly. After confirming several times, he saw that the Dao-restrictions had indeed vanished. It seemed Chen Gensheng had used some method to break the restriction but had fought Zhang Cuizhan to mutual destruction, only to benefit him in the end.

  At this thought, Xiao Bai could no longer contain himself. He leaped, falling straight toward the bottomless God-Burial Pit.

  The bottom was right before his eyes. The human-shaped depression was clearly visible. The joy on Xiao Bai’s face grew richer.

  But just as his feet were about to touch the solid ground of the pit floor...

  A pillar of incredibly dense, pitch-black light erupted without warning from the shadows, silently smearing directly onto his face. That sha-light came too fast, too suddenly. Simultaneously, from the shadows on the other side, a several-yard-long fire-dragon roared into the sky, coiling around to pin him down.

  Before he could even struggle, two bursts of biting cold qi shot out, transforming into two freezing ice spikes that nailed his limbs and skeletal structure!

  "AAAHHH!"

  Xiao Bai let out a shrill scream. Before he could even summon a magic treasure, his spiritual energy was shattered by this sequence of killing moves, and his form became unstable.

  In that instant, a black shadow slammed into him. Li Simin’s fist, harder than gold or iron, landed squarely on his chest. Xiao Bai was sent flying like a stone from a catapult. Unwaveringly, he fell right into the human-shaped depression, his limbs and bones fitting perfectly into the contours of the outline.

  The depression lit up with a soft, white light.