Actually, Cheng Xiaofan had already discovered traces of a magic array around the collapsed pit when he entered the cave.
However, after he annihilated Yu Xuanji's four avatars, the magic array was destroyed.
To be more precise, those four avatars were the main pillars of the magic array.
Once the main pillars were destroyed, the entire magic array was ruined.
This was why the tombstone shattered and the tomb collapsed.
After listening to Yu Xuanji's words, Cheng Xiaofan said, "So, the thousand-year-old skeletons that your four avatars relied on were found for you by your master?"
Yu Xuanji nodded and said, "That's right. Long before I became a nun, I had already taken a master and followed her to learn Taoist arts!"
Cheng Xiaofan knew that in the Tang Dynasty's Chang'an, it was fashionable for young women to study Taoism. Royal women, in particular, were more enthusiastic about becoming Taoist nuns.
For instance, Princess Taiping, Emperor Wu Zetian's daughter, was arranged to become a Taoist nun at the young age of eight, with the Taoist name Taiping.
Yang Guifei, under the guise of praying for Emperor Xuanzong's mother, became a Taoist nun with the Taoist name Taizhen.
Princess Jin Xian, Emperor Rui Zong of Tang's daughter, was well-versed in various schools of thought, often meditated and practiced in seclusion, and later became a Taoist nun, known as the Master of Supreme Mystery and the Master of the Great Threefold Mystery of Shangqing.
Princess Yuzhen, Princess Jin Xian's younger sister and Wu Zetian's granddaughter, admired immortals and studied Taoism at the tender age of eleven or twelve.
And so on!
"My master's Taoist name was Chen Zhen. She was skilled in alchemy and setting up magic arrays. Most astonishingly, not only was she proficient in the avatar technique, but she could also fly through the wind."
Speaking of her master, Yu Xuanji felt an ineffable sense of pride. "My master has always been very low-key. In her entire life, she only took me as a disciple."
"Master loved reading poetry, especially the poems I wrote. She said I was intelligent and that if I cultivated diligently, I would achieve great things."
Getting emotional, she could not help but recite her most proud poem: "Maple leaves, a thousand branches and then ten thousand more, the river bridge veiled as evening sails linger, my heart misses you like the West River's water, flowing east day and night without rest!"
Cheng Xiaofan nodded and recited: "Cloud peaks fill the eyes, painting a spring sky clear, silver hooks form under the brush, precise and sheer, I regret my silken robes conceal my poetic verse, and gazing up, I envy those names that appear!"
Upon hearing Cheng Xiaofan's recitation, Yu Xuanji looked at him in shock. "You can also recite the poems I wrote in my lifetime?"
Cheng Xiaofan smiled slightly and said, "I have always admired the poems of talented women from ancient China!"
"Especially this poem of yours, which expresses your ambition at the time, yet your disappointment at being unable to compete with men!"
Hearing this, Yu Xuanji's expression immediately became dejected. She could not help but sigh and say, "That was a reflection of my mood at the time. After meeting my master Chen Zhen, I began to devote myself to the Tao."
"Unexpectedly, due to my indulgence in romantic affairs and my obsession with the mortal world, coupled with my growing notoriety and unrestrained behavior, I incurred jealousy and hatred, leading to a setup and an unjust death!"
She suddenly glared at Cheng Xiaofan with her beautiful eyes and said, "After I died, Master Chen Zhen built a magic array for me and found four thousand-year-old incorruptible skeletons for me. She covered them with my fragmented souls, intending to make my avatars gradually appear in the human world one day."
"At that time, they would use their own magical powers to raise funds everywhere. Once I was established and famous, they would build a temple for me to enjoy incense and offerings, and use the popularity to strengthen the soul of my true body."
"After several years, my true body would regenerate flesh and blood and be reborn into the human world in the form of a normal human..."
"Who would have thought that, when I was only one step away, my four avatars were killed by you. Why did you do this?"
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan could not help but burst into laughter.
He said, "Well said, Yu Xuanji! It's a wonder you were Chen Zhen's only disciple. Now I know how much she doted on you, and how foolish you are!"
"What do you mean by that?" Yu Xuanji's beautiful eyes widened again as she questioned him.
Cheng Xiaofan said, "Back then, Chen Zhen passed on all her Taoist skills to you. Who knew that to her disappointment, you used those skills to detain the handsome young men you fancied in the Taoist temple, indulging in debauchery day and night, lost in hedonism, and had long abandoned your original aspirations!"
"The so-called Young Master Wen was also a Taoist. He repeatedly sought your favors, but you refused him. You fought him and he bled from all seven orifices, nearly losing his life."
"It was then that he harbored resentment and devised a scheme, using an unknown female corpse to get you thrown into prison."
"The magistrate knew that the avatar technique you practiced was extremely powerful and that you could escape at any time. Therefore, on the very day you were imprisoned, he doused you with chicken blood and beheaded you!"
Yu Xuanji was stunned.
She asked, "It sounds like you were present at everything that happened back then. How do you know all these details?"
Cheng Xiaofan clasped his hands behind his back and walked around the sunken grave pit twice before finally standing before the shattered tombstone.
He was silent for a moment and then said, "I deduced it from the magic array your master set up!"
Yu Xuanji was immediately taken aback and said, "Are you trying to deceive me? You destroyed my master's magic array. How could you deduce all this from it?"
"This is a long story—"
Cheng Xiaofan glanced at Yu Xuanji and said, "Your master Chen Zhen was actually a remarkable person. As early as that time, she had predicted that your avatars would encounter me, Cheng Xiaofan!"
At this point, he couldn't help but think of the old Taoist priest that Ye Shisan had encountered.
Back then, if Ye Shisan hadn't been guided by that old Taoist priest, he wouldn't have fled all the way here and met himself, thus achieving a breakthrough in his earth element cultivation.
Similarly, Chen Zhen had also foreseen events a thousand years later.
"Cheng Xiaofan, I don't understand what you mean!" Yu Xuanji said, her moth eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Cheng Xiaofan chuckled and said, "If you don't understand, I will explain it to you one by one."
"Actually, your master Chen Zhen cherished your talent. It was just that your disposition was too malevolent. The Taoist arts she taught you were forcefully twisted into evil arts by you."
"After you were executed by the authorities, Chen Zhen was truly unwilling to see her only disciple ruined like that. Therefore, according to your dying wish, she transferred your corpse to this cave."
"Chen Zhen set up a magic array in this cave, separating the souls in you that were filled with malevolence and covering them onto those four thousand-year-old incorruptible corpses!"
"When those four corpses took human form, they happened to encounter me, and I completely destroyed them with the Demonic Bone Saber."
"When I resolved your three avatars tonight, I sensed some related information. By killing your four avatars, I have actually saved the pure Yu Xuanji."
Yu Xuanji's beautiful eyes immediately widened, and she said disdainfully, "Why does everything you say sound like a made-up story to me?"
"Hmph, Cheng Xiaofan, do you think I, Yu Xuanji, am easily deceived?"