Niannian almost instantly caught up with her train of thought.
If they told their story to the evil spirit, the latter would surely present a different version that favored itself.
As the conversation progressed smoothly, it would be easy to extract information about the snake demon's weakness from the evil spirit.
No matter how these two lied, their mortal - enemy relationship remained unchanged.
They both wanted to use Niannian to get rid of the other.
So they definitely wouldn't lie about each other's weaknesses.
The truth or falsehood of the story versions didn't matter.
What mattered was how to kill both of these creatures.
The two quickly retraced their steps and returned to the temple. Weihe pushed open the door, slumped on the ground, and pretended to be weak as she said to the statue, "I can't do it. That demon outside is a bit too powerful. I simply can't defeat him."
"Moreover, he told me that you're the one who truly deserves to die. He said you're not a god at all, but just an evil spirit that survives by sucking the lives of the living."
Regardless of whether the statue was listening or not, Weihe rattled off all the things the snake demon had said just now.
She even embellished the story a bit.
The worse it sounded, the better.
Sure enough, after she finished the story, the consciousness in the statue couldn't sit still anymore.
"He's talking nonsense! It was he who coveted my power! It had nothing to do with him, but he just had to interfere. He deserved to die without a burial place!"
Sure enough, from the statue's words, they learned another version of the story.
The time could be traced back even earlier.
It was when the snake demon hadn't even taken on a human form.
The statue readily admitted that she wasn't a god.
She was originally a spirit.
Spirits were very mysterious.
They were close to gods but not gods.
They resembled demons but weren't demons.
The formation of a spirit was similar to that of a malevolent energy.
Both were formed by the convergence of a mysterious substance.
However, malevolent energy was a negative substance.
A spirit was a positive one.
The human soul could also be regarded as a kind of spirit.
It was a positive substance.
The statue was a rare natural spirit, also a positive substance, and was born with miraculous abilities.
For a spirit to go from being ignorant to having consciousness required a long time.
It was even rarer for it to take on a human form.
Most spirits dissipated into the world before they could grow to the stage of taking on a human form.
The statue was a rare lucky one.
She successfully took on a human form and had a human body.
This desert was the place that gave birth to her.
The first time she came into contact with humans was in this city. At that time, it wasn't a city yet, but just a small village with a large population.
The people living here were all poor and destitute. At that time, this was still a desert, and the resources were scarce. Their lives were extremely difficult.
Spirits were formed by good intentions, so they were naturally kind - hearted and compassionate.
This was also the aspect in which they were closer to gods.
Seeing so many people barely covered by rags and living in hardship, with people starving and dying of thirst from time to time.
She felt pity.
Since she was born in this desert, her power was much stronger than that of the snake demon, and she could basically control the entire desert.
She only needed to wave her hand, and water would appear in her hand. With a thought, edible animals would come before her.
After using her abilities several times to help the villagers, those people were extremely grateful to her and regarded her as a god.
The spirit felt a great sense of accomplishment.
She thought that she had done good deeds and saved many lives.
However, in fact, from the moment she first took action, the people she had helped had already been thinking about how to keep her by their side forever.
The spirit didn't understand the rules of the human world.
She didn't understand the principle that a tree will die if moved while a person can thrive by moving.
She didn't think carefully about why these people would rather die in the desert than venture out of it. Clearly, this desert wasn't very large, and with a little effort, they could leave.
Did they lack the ability?
No, they couldn't.
These people weren't born in the desert either.
They were all fugitives from outside or people with enemies.
Almost all of them had bad morals and had committed all kinds of crimes, such as arson, murder, and looting.
There was no room for them to survive outside the desert, so they fled here to survive.
Among these people was a hermit - wizard with extensive knowledge.
He recognized the spirit and had a way to trap her.
Seeing that these people's lives were getting better and better, the spirit planned to leave.
She also told the villagers about her plan to leave.
Those people happily said they would hold a farewell ceremony.
She readily accepted.
Little did she know that this farewell ceremony was actually a sacrificial ritual in a prison that would trap her forever.
The wizard gathered a group of people and forced three men to molest the spirit.
They forced her to fight back and commit a sin.
They attracted the thunder from the sky to punish the spirit. When she was at her weakest, they directly sealed her in a lamp.
The wizard made everyone kneel piously in front of the lamp and then fed it with their own blood, forcing the spirit to accept their blood sacrifices.
They transformed a pure and kind spirit into an evil one.
They were the ones who offered sacrifices to the spirit.
Even though she hated them, she couldn't kill these people.
Because of the sacrifices, she had to fulfill their wishes.
This was the rule of the world and the fundamental restraint on her.
The spirit hated them.
She constantly thought about revenge.
If she didn't want to dissipate, she could only satisfy the greed of these people.
Gradually, the small village developed into a city. They obtained countless wealth, inexhaustible water, and endless meat thanks to the spirit.
They no longer needed to work hard. They just needed to enjoy themselves every day.
The spirit never stopped the people in the city from leaving.
Because those who had offered sacrifices to her would die if they left.
Those who hadn't offered sacrifices to her weren't her enemies.
She thought that human lives were short, and it wouldn't be long before those who had harmed her would all die.
She would also be able to break free from the endless cycle of imprisonment.
However, the reality didn't go as she wished.
After a hundred years, the people who had originally imprisoned her had indeed died.
Even the wizard had reached the end of his life.
But the endless imprisonment didn't stop there.
Most of the people who accidentally walked into the city, passed by it, or stumbled into it would choose to stay in the city and offer sacrifices to her.
Gradually, she understood a truth. As long as human greed remained, she would never be free.
Originally, she had only been forced to accept the sacrifices. After understanding this truth, she changed to being proactive.
She actively proposed that these people find eight boys and girls every month and sacrifice them to her.
The souls of children were the purest, and they were a great tonic for her.
Doing this had many benefits for her.
Firstly, she could continuously strengthen her power. Maybe one day she would be able to break through the cage.
Secondly, she wanted all the people in the city to be childless. This was also to prevent more greedy people from staying here.
After all, there were always people who valued their bloodlines more than their own lives.
Even if such people were greedy, they would think twice and choose to leave the city.
Then there wouldn't be more and more people coming to offer sacrifices to her.
Those who remained would be unable to bear the increasing demands and would become childless.
Her plan was well - thought - out.
The population in the city, which had originally been increasing, began to gradually decrease.
The people in the city didn't think there was anything wrong. They cut off their emotions and personally sacrificed their own children to her, taking selfishness to the extreme.
They didn't really think about the future or accurately count the population decline.
The people who were gradually numbed in the midst of pleasure simply couldn't realize the consequence of becoming childless in the future.
There were enough children in the city, so they didn't react for a while.
The spirit's plan was not bad.
If things had continued like this, this city might really have been emptied by her over time.
However, the snake demon appeared as an unexpected variable.