“Enough of that talk for now, let’s drink first,” Ye Fan said.
“Right, bottoms up first,” everyone raised their cups. Naturally, it was all fine wine — Qi Luo spared no expense, having people bring out thousand-year divine brew.
“I brought everyone some delicacies,” Ye Fan said with a smile, taking out one piece after another of meat jerky that gleamed with a crystalline luster, imbued with a flow of great Dao-power.
“This is…” Even Sage Qi Luo was stunned on the spot, saying: “The flesh of a Demon Sage!”
“That’s right. This came from an ancient crocodile I encountered in the depths of the starry expanse — now it’s become a dish on our table,” Ye Fan said, cautioning them not to eat too much, lest they be unable to withstand such refined essence-energy.
Everyone was astonished — an ancient crocodile of ages past had become roasted meat, now laid out on the dining table. This was truly a bizarre occurrence, its fragrance wafting through the air, gleaming with radiant light.
“This is… simply astonishing. This is truly a rare treasure, said to be an incredible tonic!” The whole group picked up their utensils at once, beginning to enjoy the Divine Crocodile feast.
Everyone asked in detail about what had happened, all feeling tremendously shocked — killing a Sage-level being was an event significant enough to make the heavens tremble.
Ye Fan recounted the events of that time, and everyone felt deeply moved upon hearing how the ancient Great Sage had made his move, being divine by day and demonic by night, ultimately exiling himself into the deepest reaches of the starry expanse.
“Better to arrive right on time than a moment too early — haha, this old Daoist truly has good fortune, actually getting to taste the jerky of an ancient Sage crocodile?” Duan De had arrived, wearing his usual charlatan-like expression, dressed in a purple-gold Daoist robe, his face glowing with ruddy health.
He didn’t stand on ceremony at all, clinking cups with Ye Fan, then immediately cutting off a large chunk of meat and wolfing it down ravenously.
Black Emperor came over quite warmly, pouring wine for him, and bringing over several more plates of meat to make things convenient for his enjoyment.
After six pounds of crocodile meat had gone down his stomach, the shameless Daoist noticed that everyone had set down their bowls and chopsticks, staring at him strangely. His skin was thick enough that he simply said, “Sacred Crocodile meat truly is delicious. Everyone, eat up, don’t stand on ceremony with me.”
Black Emperor nodded and said, “Old Duan, you’re late — we’re all already full. You’d better hurry and eat, because in a bit, you, me, and that dim-witted horse are going to pull off something big together.”
It kindly brought over several more plates of meat, pouring wine for Duan De as well, urging him to eat quickly, saying there was a big business deal waiting to be done.
Duan De’s face immediately flushed with ruddy delight, eating even more heartily. But after a while, he seemed to notice something was off. He set down his chopsticks, and before long he broke out in a full sweat, brilliant light spraying from his pores. He shot up to his feet abruptly, shoving aside the overly attentive Black Emperor.
Duan De began jumping in place on the spot, heat steaming from his entire body, as though he were being roasted alive, fire spewing from his mouth and nose. He then bolted off without looking back, beginning to sprint laps frantically around the Village of Heaven.
“Old Duan, don’t rush off — eat a couple more plates,” Black Emperor called out warmly from behind.
“Damn you, Black Emperor, you son of a bitch! I knew you were being suspiciously kind — just you wait, this old Daoist won’t let this go!” Duan De cursed loudly. At this point, his energy was overflowing excessively; he had eaten far too much crocodile meat, and his entire body felt like it was about to burst into flame, so he ran laps around the mountain.
And as he ran, he began stripping off his Daoist robe piece by piece, simply to better vent the surging essence-energy within his body, for his entire being felt as though it were about to explode, his body seemingly set ablaze, transforming him into a human-shaped torch.
“Ahh… Amitabha, damn it, I’m burning up!” the shameless Daoist wailed, drawing the attention of everyone in the Village of Heaven.
“Hahaha…” The crowd burst into laughter, drinking wine while watching him run naked, especially the massive black dog, whose grin stretched practically from ear to ear.
“Come, come, come, let’s all drink a toast — Daoist Duan is providing such wonderful entertainment, we mustn’t disappoint his good intentions.” The group raised their cups repeatedly.
Duan De’s nose was practically crooked with fury, his legs pumping frantically, utterly unable to stop, forced to burn off his surging energy with all his might.
“Where are Pang Bo and the Ji family siblings — how are the three of them doing now?” Seeing that most of his old friends had gathered, Ye Fan noticed these three were still missing, and asked about them.
“They set foot on the ancient starry path,” Sage of Slaughter Qi Luo said.
“What?” Ye Fan was stunned.
“You’ve been gone fourteen years — a great many things have happened. Let’s talk while we drink,” Yao Yuekong said.
They held nothing back, discussing everything that had happened over these years.
Ye Fan furrowed his brow. What he had heard rumored along the way had not been baseless at all — over a decade ago, the Central Emperor had nearly been killed!
When the Central Emperor severed the Dao, auspicious colors had rained down from the heavens, springs of sweetness had gushed from the earth, all manner of strange and marvelous phenomena appearing — people said these were signs of an imperial destiny. Ten years ago, an ancient patriarch king had made his move, nearly annihilating him in both body and spirit!
“At the critical moment, Gai Jiuyou stepped in, dispatching that ancient king with a single finger-snap, and then very nearly entered a decisive confrontation with the ultimate overlord of the ancient races.”
Recalling these past events, the atmosphere grew somewhat heavy. This matter had not been widely known at the time — only a handful of cultivators were aware of it.
“Afterward, Gai Jiuyou and Sacred King Jiang grew ruthless, going directly to confront the Heavenly Emperor Son, Huang Xu Dao, and Huo Qizi, wanting to wipe them all out completely.”
It was precisely because of this that the various ancient patriarch kings had grown wary, restraining themselves, no longer carrying out such acts of total annihilation — otherwise this could have escalated into a tragedy of mutual extermination between geniuses of different sides.
Not long after this incident, the ancient path of the Zhongzhou Scholar Estate had opened, and the Central Emperor, the Southern Demon, and Ji Haoyue had been the first to set foot upon this journey, embarking on a mysterious trial, departing this world.
Since ancient times, this ancient path had opened once every ten thousand years, and no one knew where those who entered had gone — it had always been called history’s most formidable trial.
“This time, the Scholar Estate broke precedent — the ancient path had opened several times in succession already.”
Xi Pusa, Pang Bo, and others had also set foot on this journey, entering the vast, boundless cosmos, and several years ago, Ji Ziyue had also chosen to walk this path.
Upon hearing this, Ye Fan fell into a distant reverie — where did this ancient path lead? Was it the same road that Laozi had once walked? Could it possibly lead to the Immortal-Ascending Star?
Among the life-bearing stars Ye Fan knew of, there were four ancient stars one could choose from — Fire Mulberry, Reaching Heaven, Gou Chen, and Immortal Ascension — yet he had had little opportunity to visit any of them.
“What happened to Pang Bo back then?” He still clearly remembered that moment — just as they were about to set off on the return journey, this good friend had acted strangely uncharacteristic, disappearing without a word of farewell.
“His Demon Spirit bloodline suddenly awakened. His racial inheritance nearly caused a disaster…”
Such an awakening was extremely dangerous, forcibly altering one’s physical constitution, even one’s very consciousness and thought patterns could be overturned, and all manner of terrifying, inexplicable events could occur.
“The ancient Great Emperor once said that life is the greatest miracle in this world!”
According to the sayings of the ancient sages, perhaps eternal life truly did exist — the propagation of a race itself was a manifestation of this, and there were many mysteries bound up within it.
“Did our ancestors truly die? A certain ancient quasi-emperor once said — in truth, they did not. He lives on within our blood.”
“In a certain sense, this isn’t wrong at all. Think about it carefully, and that’s exactly how it is — isn’t this precisely what the propagation and evolution of life represents? All the codes of eternal life are imprinted within our genes.”
Upon hearing this explanation, Ye Fan was stunned for a moment, then came to understand — thinking it over, this was indeed the case. Hadn’t he personally witnessed a concrete example of this? When facing off against Yuan Gu, his opponent had summoned forth a phantom projection of the Origin Emperor from within his bloodline.
“Back then, Pang Bo’s inheritance was extremely dangerous — he very nearly became an entirely different person, obtaining many memory fragments from his bloodline, and was forced to depart through a secret formation array.”
Ye Fan fell silent, lost in thought. He had already learned back on Earth that in ancient times, demon races and humans had lived intermixed together, and that Pang Bo’s lineage was descended from the Demon Spirits of old.
They raised their cups and drank together, discussing the events of these past years, everyone growing somewhat tipsy, until the moon rose high in the sky and the feast still had not ended.
Only the unfortunate Duan De remained alone beneath the moonlight, howling like a lone wolf, venting his excessive surging energy, unable to join the festivities.
After a while, Black Emperor had drunk so much its tongue grew thick and slurred, and it gathered together with Long Ma. This pair of scoundrels didn’t come to blows this time — instead, after a lengthy conversation, they seemed to develop a mutual sense of kinship, saying they wanted to team up and pull off something big together.
“That ancient path from the Scholar Estate once sent back a blood-stained fragment of a battle robe — it belonged to Ji Haoyue, though there was not a single word written upon it…”
It was precisely because of this that Ji Ziyue had set out on her journey — she had gone to save her brother, joining the historically unprecedented trial.
“Before she left, every night she would gaze up at the starry sky, and in the end she departed for the Scholar Estate with a heavy heart,” Li Tian said, patting Ye Fan’s shoulder as he spoke these words, sounding somewhat wistful.
“Can that ancient path still be opened?” Ye Fan asked after a moment of silence.
“It hasn’t opened again these past years,” Yan Yixi said, shaking his head.
Gu Fei and Gu Lin, the two child prodigies, ran over to toast Ye Fan with wine — this pair of siblings had both grown up now, the elder brother now standing tall and heroic, the younger sister now graceful and elegant.
“Uncle Ye Fan, why is it that not even a trace of you could be found, even though you stood right before us?” Gu Lin asked, blinking her large eyes.
“I severed the great Dao out of proper order, throwing off the workings of heavenly providence,” Ye Fan said with a smile. In truth, this was not the real reason — he knew it was surely because of that broken, incomplete ancient cauldron within his body.
“These past years, Yao Guang the Sacred Son has kept an extremely low profile — he should still be somewhere on this ancient star, but there are also rumors saying he was the very last one to set foot on the starry path,” Black Emperor said.
It had long conspired with Black Emperor, having its eye on the Sacred Sacred Ground for years, believing it was built atop a massive imperial tomb, wanting to dig it open.
“Where exactly does that path deep within the starry expanse lead — the greatest trial of all?” Ye Fan drank down a cup of wine, gazing toward the starry sky.
Deep in the night, Duan De emerged looking as though he’d been fished out of water, drenched in sweat, exhausted nearly to the point of convulsing, his skin still radiating brilliant light outward, having finally managed to endure through it all.
He came back in and first clinked cups with Ye Fan, sighing with emotion for a moment, then set down his cup and went straight for Black Emperor, and a man-versus-dog brawl broke out.
At once, everyone’s drinking spirits rose again, watching the fight while continuing to drink.
“Brother Monkey, are these injuries of yours serious?” Ye Fan asked, a jade vial appearing in his palm as he handed it over — this was divine liquid he had brought back from the Immortal-Ascension Star.
“It’s fine, I’ll recover with some rest. In a while, come with me — help me hold someone off while I go kill the Heavenly Emperor Son myself,” the Monkey said, his eyes flashing with an intimidating divine light, clearly having held in a grievance for a long time.
“Alright, no problem!” Ye Fan said — this was exactly what he had in mind.
Now that he had returned, he certainly had no intention of remaining silent and dormant. Once he had accumulated enough strength, there would need to be a release — to settle the old grudges and enmities of the past.