Although this place is a space within the Mirage Realm and not the land of the Four Continents, Tang couldn't help but stomp his foot, seemingly wanting to test the solidity of the ground beneath him.

"Refinement of the Four Continents? What gives him the right?"

Tang didn't understand what Xiao Jing relied on to say such bold words.

After all, even at his most daring, he never considered such things.

Saying such things and drinking soup alike—refining such a large piece of the Four Continents—would leave cultivators like them without any dignity.

Zhang Ze pondered for a moment before speaking a guess, "Taoist, are you familiar with parasitic wasps?"

"I am. Those tiny creatures lay eggs inside much larger insect larvae or living beings. Once hatched... wait a moment!"

Tang suddenly realized something.

Zhang Ze's analogy was somewhat fitting.

If Xiao Jing is a parasitic wasp, then the Four Continents are the living being into which eggs are laid, and the wasteland-like Central Continent is the wound cut by the 'parasitic wasp.'

Only this wound was quite large.

Lily, who also realized, rubbed her goosebumps.

"Yikes~ But if it's really as you say, wouldn't this whole affair have begun during the great war in Central Continent long ago?"

Zhang Ze glanced at Lily and offered an even worse guess.

"Not necessarily. It might have started even earlier."

Lily, "!"

He paused for a bit, seemingly organizing his memory.

Shortly after, Zhang Ze flicked his left hand, extracting some memories that appeared as several illusionary ancient scrolls before Tang and Lily.

They recorded some old affairs of Dongqi.

Starting from the enthronement of Dongqi's first emperor, Xiao Qingyun's great-grandchild, leading up to the final Immortal Dynasty of Xiao Jing.

Zhang Ze, "After discovering the incident with Little Walnut, I checked the White Emperor City archives hidden by Xiangxiang.

"Although they eventually parted ways, White Emperor City initially cooperated extensively with Dongqi's royal family.

"Until I kicked the bucket in my previous life, the square shaped... I mean, Li swallowed the old White Emperor City. After Xiangxiang and Sister Wang took charge of the Demon Race, the two families slowly ceased contact.

"But because of my overly good relations with Xiao Qingyun in my past life, much intelligence should have long since leaked out.

"Plus, at first, the Northern Territory was as poor as a ghost, and many things needed Dongqi's help. They couldn't possibly have been unaware."

"So, the Xiao Family might have discovered something unknown to White Emperor City long ago, then..."

As Zhang Ze hooked his finger, the pages of the ancient scroll flipped open, revealing record after record to the two.

Some were secret histories of the palace, and it was unclear where Xiangxiang pulled them from.

But more were task logs from generations of Heavenly Destiny People uploaded previously.

[Dongqi Jiangdong Guardian, Wei Tianqing.]

[In the year 370 of Shengde, led his guard south to suppress the rebellion of the Heaven Stone Sect.]

Zhang Ze, "Taoist, back when your inspiration came, you learned the Reversed Life, injecting cultivation into that Dongqi grand tomb of the Big Head Taoist. It wasn't far from where the Heaven Stone Sect rebellion was."

[Sword Sect Second Pavilion, Flowing Cloud Sword Immortal, Lan Yu.]

[In the year 88 of Qingwei, hearing of stone demons causing harm in Bianzhou, Lan Yu set out west controlling his sword, but arrived too late. By the time he arrived, the stone demons were already subdued, reportedly taken to Divine Capital Baiyujing.]

Zhang Ze, "Although Senior Lan Yu didn't witness the stone demons, he gathered some info from the local populace.

"I checked, the appearance of those stone demons resembles an innate idol named 'Desolate Snake' from the Mountain and Sea Hundred Gods List."

...

Piece by piece, these scattered bits of information tied together. The news brought back by Lin Feng became the beginning, morphing into a tarnished, filthy rope that climbed towards the past.

"Plus, there's one most crucial point." Zhang Ze looked at his right hand, which was gesturing with a middle finger.

"The cause of old White Emperor City's destruction, the fall of Demon Venerable, and the city's devouring wasn't the sudden appearance of Li.

"Instead, it was a wave from Central Continent's Earth Sea.

"But back then, the center of Central Continent wasn't a wasteland. It was Dongqi's Imperial Capital, the most prosperous place in the world.

"Divine Capital Baiyujing."

...

Listening to Zhang Ze, Lily took out a small blanket and wrapped herself up.

She was afraid.

"But according to what you say, if the Xiao Family is a 'parasitic wasp,' why would he go to the heavens? It's better to just hide in the wasteland of Central Continent."

Zhang Ze, "I don't know, maybe it's a diversion, or perhaps it's part of the plan."

For some reason, as he spoke, he suddenly thought of those calamities roaming the wastelands of Central Continent.

Monsters composed of countless souls cycling endlessly between birth and annihilation.

'That damn Xiao Jing can't be planning to transform the Four Continents' beings into orange juice, aiming for some human completion plan.'

Zhang Ze shook his head, dismissing this thought from his mind.

After Zhang Ze finished speaking, Tang pondered for a moment, but didn't speak immediately. Instead, he took out a Thousand Mechanism Thunder from his sleeve, raised his hand, and threw it, detonating it.

"You guys stop eavesdropping, come out and see what to do?"

The explosion of Thousand Mechanism Thunder triggered the defenses of this Mirage Realm, and in a trance, snowflakes flew, sealing everything in ice.

But in the blink of an eye, everything was normal, as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, a hand extended from the void, pinched an ice crystal stoping in front of Tang's forehead.

"Dian, you want to gather people, throw thunder, why? The array here doesn't recognize people." Lu Yuzhou stepped out from the void, dispersing the ice crystal in his hand.

"If I hadn't been eavesdropping, if you had accidentally caused your own death here, wouldn't your junior brother Da Chengzi come for me endlessly?