At the very front of the palace stood a lotus throne, about three meters wide, with a statue perched atop it. The statue, however, was crudely made out of mud—so rough that it was barely recognizable as a human figure. It was impossible to tell if it depicted a man or a woman.3

Lu Chengkong couldn’t help but shake his head when he saw the statue, while the accompanying disciple bitterly smiled. The latter said, “You can tell how much they feared the Pill Ancestor. They only dared to act this way after sealing her statue in mud. Were they not just covering their own eyes and pretending to be invisible?”11

Long Chen...4