Ban Fenghuo was taken by Immortal Huiyan to the restricted area she had never set foot in.
When the young Ban Fenghuo saw the door of the palace open, she was almost scared out of her wits.
The palace was gloomy. At the deepest part, there was a giant stone statue of a dragon. However, the body of the stone dragon was incomplete. Many parts of its body were carved into dragon bones, and one of the dragon's horns on its head was broken.
Under the flickering candlelight, the statue of the stone dragon looked ferocious and strange.
Ban Fenghuo was so frightened that she hid behind Immortal Huiyan. However, to her surprise, Immortal Huiyan led her to the bottom of the statue. After they kowtowed three times, a long staircase leading downward appeared in front of her.
"Immortal Huiyan, I don't want to go down. I want to go back and find my father. Please, take me back!"
Ban Fenghuo cried and pleaded, hoping that Immortal Huiyan would take her away.
However, Immortal Huiyan's hand tightly grabbed her. His pale face full of false smiles gradually got closer. Finally, he opened his mouth and said something that made Ban Fenghuo despair.
"Fenghuo, be good. Don't you understand? Your father doesn't want you anymore. From now on, you will be the medicine boy in the main shrine. As long as you are obedient, I will ask them to be gentle with you."
Then, ignoring Ban Fenghuo's desperate cries, Immortal Huiyan dragged her away.
Ban Fenghuo's panicked voice echoed on the long staircase.
When they reached the bottom, a strong smell of blood assailed their nostrils, mixed with many indescribable odors.
And Ban Fenghuo saw the most nightmarish scene of her life.
Countless children were tied to the cross-shaped scaffolds, naked. Each of them had different wounds on their bodies. Some even had distorted and strange limbs.
What impressed her most was a boy whose limbs were like melted wax, hanging limply on both sides of his body. His body was full of small black holes, with countless tiny worms wriggling inside.
She was so frightened by the scene in front of her that her legs went weak. Before she could let out a panicked scream, two strong men stepped forward, stripped off her clothes, and tied her to the cross.
Seeing her tied up, Immortal Huiyan left without looking back.
From that day on, she had to drink strange decoctions every day. These decoctions would cause all kinds of unbearable pains in her body. Gradually, she even had hallucinations.
Sometimes she felt that she was a member of the dragon clan, living with her fellow clansmen in the Dragon Abyss.
Sometimes she felt that she was a highly skilled cultivator, following the lead of the sect to charge into the Dragon Abyss and massacre the dragon clan.
As time passed, Ban Fenghuo was tortured day by day. The pain in her body and the chaos in her mind made her gradually forget who she was. She only remembered a pair of amber eyes.
After taking too much medicine, Ban Fenghuo's body began to rot, but she could no longer feel the pain.
Among the children tied around, some had rotted into a pile of flesh. After they were cleaned up, new children would be immediately brought in to fill their places.
In this dark and endless secret room, Ban Fenghuo was locked up for an unknown amount of time.
Once, when she came out of the hallucination and opened her eyes, she saw Immortal Huiyan again.
She opened her mouth and instinctively wanted to plead with Immortal Huiyan to take her out.
However, before she could speak, Immortal Huiyan had someone untie her and then dragged her in front of the giant stone statue of the dragon.
There was a magic formation in front of the giant stone statue of the dragon, and she was placed in the center.
Eighteen people stood around the magic formation, all wearing black cloaks. Among them, there was one person that Ban Fenghuo could never forget - her father.
The eighteen people began to chant, and the magic formation was activated. A strong stabbing pain came from Ban Fenghuo's head, making her scream involuntarily.
The magic formation lit up and went out, went out and lit up again. No one knew how many times it repeated. It was not until a voice came from Ban Fenghuo's head that the long - term torture finally ended.
"Hello, host. I'm System No. 345. Please give me more advice."
When Shen Qing heard this voice, she suddenly clenched her fists.
This was the voice of the system!
Shen Qing was surprised. Then she continued to listen and heard the system tell Ban Fenghuo about this plan in her mind.
Just as Ling Zhou and she had guessed, Ban Fenghuo's goal was to refine Qing Qing, who had merged with the Ten Thousand Things Life, into a puppet corpse.
For the sake of freedom, Ban Fenghuo agreed.
Then, after many years, she finally walked out of the restricted area that had trapped her for more than a decade.
However, after that, the voice of the system never rang out again.
After being taken out, Ban Fenghuo looked at herself in the mirror and was completely broken down by her own appearance.
Her skin had all rotted away, and only the rotten flesh was still stuck to her skeleton. From a distance, she looked like a rotting corpse.
Ban Fenghuo went crazy and smashed the mirror. She smashed all the things she could reach in the room to pieces.
After she vented her emotions, Ban Qiushan finally appeared in front of her. Father and daughter had not seen each other for many years. When they met again, Ban Fenghuo sadly found that she had lost the ability to hate.
She should have hated Ban Qiushan for ruining her with his own hands, but now her heart was calm. She didn't even feel a ripple because of the lack of emotion in Ban Qiushan's eyes.
"Fenghuo, don't blame your father. Your father has only lived for the main shrine all his life. As my daughter, you should also contribute everything to the main shrine."
"Don't worry. Immortal Huiyan said that you've just become a medicine person. You can still cultivate and live a normal life in the future. There's no difference from before."
Ban Qiushan chattered on, but it didn't seem like he was comforting his daughter. Instead, he was comforting himself.
Ban Fenghuo was extremely sad. How could she live a normal life?
She had lost the ability to perceive and express emotions. How could she be considered a normal person? She had been trapped for more than a decade and could no longer live a normal life.
Moreover, the task given to her by System No. 345 was simply impossible to complete. Whether she completed it or not, she was doomed to die. She had no future at all.
Before Ban Qiushan took her to meet Qing Dai, Immortal Huiyan asked her to choose a face she liked from the captured mortal women.
She chose a girl who looked very similar to Qing Dai. She personally peeled off the girl's skin and put it on herself.
And Lin Yibai was someone she met when she sent those mortal women to Lin Yibai.
At that time, Lin Yibai was just a disfigured old woman. Thanks to those girls, she regained her beauty.
In exchange, Lin Yibai taught her how to gain a foothold in the Qingmu Sect and how to snatch her beloved from others.
It was a pity that she didn't do well.
Shen Qing read through Ban Fenghuo's memories from beginning to end. Apart from the restricted area of the main shrine and the system, she didn't find anything else useful.
Just as Shen Qing was about to exit Ban Fenghuo's spiritual sea regretfully, she found that her spiritual power seemed to be trapped in this darkness.
Outside, her body slowly opened its eyes and showed a strange smile.