Name: Qian Haixia
Race: Human-demon
Cultivation: Ten years seventy-two days
Identity: Embodiment of arrogance, consuming brain marrow, inducing arrogance, causing loss of intellect and reason.
Prerequisite: Triggerable
...
Name: Sun Shangshu
Race: Human-demon
Cultivation: Twenty years seventy-two days
Identity: Mother of Greed, commands avatars, absorbs life force, manipulates thoughts, amasses wealth.
Prerequisite: Not yet triggerable
...
Name: 27
Race: Human-demon
Cultivation: Four years eighty-one days
Identity: Embodiment of greed, manipulates thoughts, enslaved by it.
Prerequisite: Not yet triggerable
...
Name: 35
Race: Human-demon
Cultivation: Three years two hundred twenty-one days
Identity: Embodiment of greed, manipulates thoughts, enslaved by it.
Prerequisite: Not yet triggerable
...
...
These human-demons were all imprisoned in volcanic lava. From afar, they resembled a dish – gazing at the starry sky.
Two human-demons were among them, one with a triggerable prerequisite and one without. As for the avatars, none were triggerable.
Liu Nanfeng did not know the difference between pills refined from those with triggerable prerequisites and those without.
With the intention to try, he released the human-demons from their confinement with a thought.
Qian Haixia and Sun Shangshu flew into the sky one by one, while the human-demon avatars, resembling giant mosquitoes, burrowed into Sun Shangshu's back, looking like wasps returning to their nest. The empty cavities were then filled securely.
However, to Liu Nanfeng's surprise, out of fifty holes, only forty-nine avatars returned, meaning one fugitive had escaped containment.
Liu Nanfeng paid it no mind; instead, he was drawn to the prerequisite. He discovered that after the avatars returned to their host, the prerequisite became triggerable.
With the avatars returned to the main body, the demonic creatures above the lava were cleared, leaving only Qian Haixia and Sun Shangshu.
Liu Nanfeng pondered, then triggered Qian Haixia's prerequisite. His consciousness immediately felt like it was passing through a lake's surface, creating ripples, and then slowly descended. A bird's-eye view of Jiangcheng appeared before him.
Having gained experience, Liu Nanfeng felt no panic. He followed the descent, eventually landing on a little girl of five or six years old, observing her every action from above.
There was no doubt that this little girl must be Qian Haixia.
It was a plaza, with many elderly people bringing their children to play and fly kites. Qian Haixia was no exception; she was with her grandmother.
From Liu Nanfeng's perspective, this was likely Jiangcheng twenty years ago. The architecture, clothing, and even the billboards on the roadside gave him a sense of traveling back in time.
Qian Haixia's grandmother was talking to someone nearby, while Qian Haixia herself was looking up at a child flying a kite next to her.
She also wanted to fly a kite, but her grandmother said kites were too expensive and wouldn't buy her one.
"Little sister, can I borrow your kite?" Qian Haixia asked as she walked over.
"No, it's mine." The little girl clearly didn't want to share and turned her back to Qian Haixia.
Qian Haixia was displeased by this.
"Just let me play with it for a bit, you're so stingy."
Saying this, she reached out to snatch it. During the struggle, the kite in the sky swayed and landed on a nearby tree, its string getting caught.
"Waaah." The little girl burst into tears.
Qian Haixia turned to run, but the little girl's mother, who had been watching from not too far away, intending to let the children sort things out themselves, quickly ran over when she saw her child crying. Seeing Qian Haixia trying to flee, she grabbed her.
"What's wrong with you, little girl? How do your parents raise you?" the girl's mother scolded.
"How we raise our children is our business. What are you doing butting in here?" Qian Haixia's grandmother walked over from the side, her brows furrowed, waving her arms, looking furious.
Seeing her grandmother arrive, Qian Haixia immediately started crying loudly.
"If our upbringing is bad, what's so great about yours? You're an adult, and you still made my child cry!"
"What does her crying have to do with me? Besides, she snatched my Miao Miao's kite first, not only getting our kite stuck in the tree but also making my child cry. Are you even being reasonable?" the little girl's mother said angrily.
"Isn't it common for children to argue? What were you, an adult, doing standing by? You didn't interfere then, and now that you're at a disadvantage, you want to bully the younger ones? I tell you, no way..." Qian Haixia's grandmother, spitting with each word, was full of fighting spirit.
"You accuse me of bullying, where did you see me bullying her? You old woman are speaking nonsense with your eyes open." The little girl's mother was furious.
"I saw it with both my eyes. Otherwise, why would my granddaughter be crying for no reason? I think you're not a decent woman. You're out here wandering around with a child in broad daylight instead of working. Are you a kept woman?" Qian Haixia's grandmother said venomously.
"How can you just say such things?" the woman said, very angry.
In this era, both men and women had to work. It was rare for women to stay home to take care of children full-time; usually, it was left to the elderly.
"I'm speaking nonsense, why are you flustered? I must have hit the mark. Everyone, come look, this woman is being kept and even had a child..." Qian Haixia's grandmother shouted loudly.
"Unreasonable."
The woman's cheeks flushed red, and her chest heaved with anger. This woman was indeed attractive, no wonder Qian Haixia's grandmother slandered her so viciously; if she looked ordinary, no one would have responded to such accusations.
Knowing she couldn't win the argument, the woman could only pick up her daughter and leave in a hurry.
Seeing that she had won the argument, Qian Haixia's grandmother became even more smug.
"I hit the mark, didn't I? If you're so shameless, why run? Let everyone see what kind of person you are?"
The woman, holding her daughter, left in a sorry state. Being insulted like this in front of her daughter, she felt even more wronged.
After the woman disappeared from sight, Qian Haixia's grandmother triumphantly said, "Grandma defended you, don't cry anymore."
"Grandma, you're so amazing," Qian Haixia said with admiration.
"Of course. She wouldn't dare provoke me. If she really pushed me, I'd lie on the ground, and she'd be in trouble," Qian Haixia's grandmother said shamelessly.
However, the young and ignorant Qian Haixia looked at her with adoration. At this moment, faint wisps of black energy rose from her body, almost imperceptible.
But then, Liu Nanfeng finally saw this bizarre family and understood how low people could stoop.
Walking by the roadside, they would deliberately push over parked bicycles.
Stealing snacks in supermarkets was a common occurrence. What made Liu Nanfeng most speechless was Qian Haixia's mother publicly stripping and then falsely accusing the supermarket security guard of being a pervert.
Qian Haixia's father spent his days socializing outside, mooching meals and drinks, smiling outwardly, but upon returning home, he would curse and show disdain.
Growing up in such a family, it was no wonder Qian Haixia's values were skewed.
Compared to her family, she was even worse. The black energy on her body coalesced, eventually forming a human-demon.
This human-demon not only fed on Qian Haixia long-term but also on her family members.
Over time, this family was reduced to mindless shells, hated by all, with no friends or relatives.
Yet, they remained oblivious, believing the fault lay with others, and lived their lives carefree and content, which was quite ironic.
Once the human-demon grew into its complete form, Liu Nanfeng was pulled out of this temporal regression.
Although years seemed to pass within the time rewind, outside, only moments had elapsed.
Liu Nanfeng turned his gaze back to the scroll, choosing not to trigger Sun Shangshu's prerequisite this time, and prepared to refine him directly.
However, the human-demon formed from Sun Shangshu's desires possessed abilities that surprised Liu Nanfeng somewhat.