This scoundrel is a bit of a swordsman.

The remnants of the Wheel Clan met again after three months—something none of them had expected. Mu Wushuang was also extremely surprised, not by the cripple, but by this unfamiliar scholar.

"who are you?"

"I am Xiao Xingchen, keep it a secret!" A voice transmission reached her ears, making her realize that if it was Xiao Xingchen, everything would make sense, since the two of them had gone down into the abyss together.

"Crippled man, tell me, what exactly happened?"

Xiao Xingchen had no time to pay attention to Mu Wushuang; all his attention was now focused on the cripple.

"No, no, who are you? Why do you have his aura on you?" The cripple, after his initial shock, immediately showed terror, retreating as he stared at Xiao Xingchen.

"Don't worry, he's trustworthy," Mu Wushuang quickly reassured her.

"But..." Seeing that the cripple was still hesitating, Xiao Xingchen decided not to hide it anymore.

"Are you referring to the Demon Lord's aura? I've had some fortuitous encounters, including my current appearance, all thanks to the Demon Lord. He said there was something here and told me to find it,"

"He...he's a traitor!" The word "traitor" startled the two men.

"You mean the Demon Lord?"

The cripple nodded. "The Great Calamity of the Moon Wheel, this demon is one of the masterminds behind it all. His body was shattered on the summit of Jade Capital, how could he still be alive?"

"What is the Great Calamity of the Moon Wheel?" Xiao Xingchen accurately caught the key words in the cripple's mouth.

"No, that's not right. He couldn't possibly still be alive. You... there's something wrong with you."

Seeing the cripple's renewed suspicion, Xiao Xingchen frowned.

"Believe me, I have seen the high priest of the Moon Wheel, and I know that the Moon Wheel is currently in eternal night,"

"You have the scent of Houtu on you, how is that possible?" The cripple's doubts were not dispelled, and every word he uttered made Xiao Xingchen's body tremble.

"Where is the scent of Houtu?"

"Right here," the cripple said slowly, pointing to his heart. The instant he finished speaking, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Unspeakable, unspeakable." A look of panic flashed across his face, as if an invisible force had descended, and the entire world seemed to press down upon him.

Even those on the first floor felt a sudden weight on their shoulders, and their legs involuntarily wanted to kneel down.

"What happened?" Mu Wushuang asked in horror.

"The heavens and the earth are beyond words?" Xiao Xingchen stood up, refusing to believe it, and stared directly at the heavens.

"I refuse to believe it! What can you do to me? Heaven and Earth, come out here!"

He first heard this from Daji, who had once said that the heavens and earth were beyond words. He hadn't forgotten this, and at this moment, he truly understood it. It seemed that the cripple's life force began to die out because of those words, and the moon behind him began to crumble even more rapidly.

"Crippled man, hang in there," his moon halo reappeared, radiating a soft light directly behind the cripple.

"No, don't waste the moonlight for me. I can die in peace as long as I can see the moon and its inhabitants again. Remember, when the moon is born, the departed goddess will return."

"Say something I can understand," a moon rose behind Xiao Xingchen, enveloping the cripple and influencing the sudden, annihilating power.

"Ahem, your Moon Wheel can actually withstand Houtu's annihilation, a miracle, simply a miracle,"

"I've met Aqing before!"

Seeing the cripple keep hitting the riddle-solving man, Xiao Xingchen blurted out,

But as soon as the name "A Qing" was uttered, the world changed color, and that inexplicable force of obliteration seemed to become enraged, determined to erase everything related to A Qing.

With a deafening boom, the cripple exploded first, his body shattering from the inside out. Even in his final moments, one could see the intense excitement in his eyes.

Blood splattered, covering his face, and Mu Wushuang was directly blasted away, landing some distance away, her fate unknown.

The moon behind him emitted a crisp sound, as if it might shatter at any moment.

This is divine retribution; simply because he mentioned A Qing's name, someone wants to erase everything related to that name.

His body creaked and groaned as he was crushed, the moon behind him teetering on the brink of shattering. He wanted to look up, to see clearly who was doing all this.

But under this divine might, he was like an ant, his knees constantly being forced to his knees.

"No, I will never bow my head!" he roared, determined to lift his head even with his spine bent.

No matter what he did, under the absolute suppression of power, he was given no chance to struggle. Under this irresistible force, the blood droplet belonging to the cripple shattered violently, and fragments of the cripple's memories flashed through his mind.

In the shattered scene, a towering moon hangs atop the Jade Capital, and twelve figures in black robes stand on the Star Orbit Altar. The leader raises his hand and removes his mask, revealing the face of the Demon Lord in his youth.

The blood-soaked Moon Priestess knelt at their feet, hissing intermittently, "What did they give you... traitor..."

Fragmented images flashed by; besides the Demon Lord whose face was revealed, there was also the God King and the Sword Saint. But the one he recognized most was someone whose hand was burning three incense sticks.

Boom!

Memories surged like a crimson tide. Xiao Xingchen watched helplessly as the protective array of the Moon Wheel Royal City collapsed from the inside like paper. The depths of the earth's veins seemed to be torn open, continuously gushing out viscous black mud. Wherever it passed, everything was swallowed up, leaving behind a scene of devastation.

In the moonlight, as bright as a silver platter, a blurry female figure fell like a withered leaf.

"Aqing..." he murmured the name unconsciously, as if calling out to a distant dream. The surrounding space suddenly froze, as if time itself had been frozen.

A beam of moonlight shot out from his body like a sharp arrow, and the moon, which was on the verge of shattering, seemed to be infused with life force, instantly restoring it to its original state.

Immediately afterwards, the chilling pressure receded rapidly like a tide, and Xiao Xingchen, like a deflated balloon, collapsed straight to the ground.

The bloody image still lingered in his eyes: A Qing's sword strike, like a meteor streaking across the sky. With a single strike, twelve men in black fell like harvested wheat. Stars seemed to fall from the summit of Yujing, as if it were an apocalyptic funeral, burying everything.

In his pupils, stars appeared like dazzling gems, seemingly summoned by some mysterious force, spinning wildly. The power the Demon Lord had inflicted on him was slowly worn away as the stars rotated, like ice and snow melting in the sunlight.

This time, the Demon Lord's power was completely destroyed, and he began to transform back into Xiao Xingchen's appearance.

However, his mind was still immersed in the shock of the cripple's memories. The fall of the moon was like a magnificent curtain call, creating twelve peak beings.

Besides Heaven and Earth, there are ten others: a man holding three incense sticks, like an immortal descending to earth; a master swordsman whose swordsmanship is as beautiful as poetry; a monk with boundless Buddhist power, whose light shines everywhere, and so on.

As these images kept replaying in his memory, he finally realized that the ruler of this world was not the lofty Nine Heavens, but the twelve people who had slain the moon.

As for this Demon-Suppressing Tower, it must be inextricably linked to that person with boundless Buddhist light.

"Xiao Xingchen, how are you?" Mu Wushuang struggled to her feet and came to his side, a trace of desolation flashing in her eyes, like a candle flame flickering in the wind.

"What do you know about the cripple?" His voice seemed to come from a distant place, carrying a hint of confusion and bewilderment.