Cold winds howled and snowflakes swirled in disorder. The small tavern stood at the corner of the street, humble and unassuming, with no customers to speak of.
Several years had passed since they last met, and Elder Jiang had aged further — his hair now completely white, his wrinkles multiplied.
The tables and chairs were already quite clean, yet he continued wiping them slowly. In his clouded eyes there seemed to be a longing, or perhaps a recollection, his expression somewhat distant and dazed.
His clothes were old and patched, his hands calloused, his movements slow, his back bent, his sparse white hair thin.
Seeing this scene, Ye Fan felt a pang of sorrow in his heart. Why had things come to this? The Jiang Family had brought these two grandparents and grandchild to the Northern Domain — why were their lives still so difficult?
This lonely old man had lost his child in his later years and had raised little Tingting all by himself. He had thought that once they came to the Jiang Family things would change — yet this was what he found.
He walked into the small tavern, bringing with him a gust of bitter cold wind. The old man’s thin frame immediately shivered, and he slowly turned around.
Ye Fan quickly shut the door, blocking out the cold wind. He revealed a smile and said, “Elder, do you have anything to eat?”
Elder Jiang seemed very pleased to have a customer, the wrinkles on his face relaxing somewhat. He wiped his hands and brought over some tea.
“What would the young man like to eat?”
“Anything will do — nothing too elaborate, please.” Ye Fan did not want to trouble him with effort. Seeing someone of such age still running a small tavern left him with a painful feeling in his chest.
“Very well, please wait a moment.” Elder Jiang turned and went into the back.
Ye Fan quietly looked around the small tavern. It was very small — only a few tables — yet clean and tidy, almost identical to the tavern they had kept before, with nearly the same layout and arrangement.
There were still no hired hands, only the old man running things alone. In this bitterly cold winter, there were almost no customers at all.
Ye Fan’s gaze swept through every corner. He found that the old man seemed to be living here alone — there was nothing related to little Tingting to be found, not even a small garment.
It was not long before the old man brought out hot dishes, nothing particularly rare or extravagant, but the kind that stirred one’s appetite.
Ye Fan ate a large bowl of noodles, then several flatbreads, and cleared every dish clean.
“Young man, what a fine appetite — when I was young, I could eat this much too…” Elder Jiang smiled kindly and asked if he had eaten his fill.
“I have — it perfectly suited my taste.” Ye Fan smiled.
Elder Jiang cleared away the bowls and dishes and poured fresh tea. With a customer present, his face was filled with smiles — genuine happiness.
“Elder, do you live here alone?” Ye Fan began to ask.
“I do.” The old man began wiping the table again.
“Elder, the table is already very clean — see, it’s almost gleaming. If you keep wiping it’ll serve as a mirror.”
“When you’re old, there isn’t much else to do — you just find yourself wiping things without thinking.” Elder Jiang put down the cloth and shook his head, taking a seat.
“Do you have no family members?” Ye Fan asked carefully, afraid of causing the old man sorrow.
“I do — there’s still a granddaughter.”
Though the old man was smiling, Ye Fan could see in his eyes a hidden anxiety — as though something weighed on him heavily.
What was wrong? Had something happened to Tingting? Ye Fan was puzzled.
“Is she not living here with you?”
“No — she is cultivating with someone. But the child is very filial and comes back to see me every half-month.” The old man was filled with pride.
Yet Ye Fan was even more suspicious, for the old man unmistakably carried a suppressed anxiety — a knot that could not be untangled.
Ye Fan thought for a moment, then walked out of the small tavern and made a circuit around the small town, reaching out with his Source Heavenly Divine Awareness to sense everything in the surroundings.
He found no cultivators — no Jiang Family members here, only ordinary people. Before long, he returned to the small tavern.
“Come, young man, have another cup of tea.” Elder Jiang beckoned, without asking why he had left and returned.
“Elder, do you still remember me?” Ye Fan’s bones shifted and rearranged, restoring his original appearance. He needed to ask clearly about what had happened — he could not set his mind at ease about the two of them.
“Child, it’s you…” Elder Jiang’s clouded eyes opened wide in some surprise.
Several years had passed, and Ye Fan’s appearance had changed somewhat — he now looked about fifteen or sixteen — yet the old man recognized him quickly.
“Child, you…” The old man was deeply moved.
“Elder Jiang, please sit down — let us talk slowly.” Ye Fan helped support him into a chair by the hearth.
“I heard from Tingting that you stirred up tremendous waves, and many people are trying to capture you.” Elder Jiang was deeply worried.
Ye Fan smiled and said, “I am living very well — you need not worry. No one can catch me.”
“Every time Tingting comes back, she says she wants to cultivate hard so she can go and save you one day. I worry about you a great deal too.”
Ye Fan was deeply moved. When they had parted, little Tingting had been only four or five years old. He had thought that after so many years, at such a young age back then, she might have forgotten him. Yet this sensible child still remembered him and wished to go and rescue him.
The ancient sacred body had stirred up endless waves in the Northern Domain — carrying sacred objects, news that had reached even the Jiang Family, so even little Tingting had heard of it.
Elder Jiang took Ye Fan’s hand in his own calloused one and had him sit nearby, studying him carefully, and said, “Safe and sound is good — nothing amiss is good.”
“Elder, what has happened exactly? Why are you not living with the Jiang Family?”
“That place is full of cultivators. I am but an ordinary person — even the living quarters are suspended in the sky. I am not accustomed to it.”
“Surely there is something else as well?” Ye Fan asked.
The old man nodded and said, “I did not wish to listen to all the gossip and talk. I can manage on my own.”
Ye Fan felt a surge of anger in his heart and said, “You are at such an advanced age — how could they let you come out on your own?”
He already understood: the Jiang Family had wronged Elder Jiang’s father, Jiang Zhe, causing a generation of extraordinary talent to wander far from home and die in regret. How could they now treat Elder Jiang this way?
“No — I insisted on leaving of my own accord. I did not wish to stay there. Those people are all immortal beings to me — I am but a mortal living in a palace among the clouds. I was truly ill at ease, with no one to even have a conversation with.”
“What has happened to Tingting? Is something the matter?” Ye Fan still felt there was something he was not being told.
“My poor granddaughter — she may not live to see her twentieth year.” Tears streamed down the old man’s clouded face.
Ye Fan was struck with shock. “What has happened exactly?”
“Tingting has something called the Supreme Yin Physique. They say she will die young…” Elder Jiang wept, his old tears flowing freely.
When they had first arrived at the Jiang Family, Tingting’s cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds — a pace that put many geniuses to shame, her talent stunning even a group of old elders.
Yet before long, a reclusive elder ancestor of the Jiang Family had diagnosed her with what was known as the Supreme Yin Physique — a constitution of extreme rarity in the world. In terms of the physique itself, it was supremely powerful.
However, those who possessed it could not live long — most would die in their youth. Since ancient times, save for one or two who had left their names in the history of cultivation, all others had perished before reaching the age of twenty.
After the discovery of this physique, Elder Jiang had heard a great deal of gossip and talk. He was an ordinary person — the Jiang Family were all cultivators, each of them capable of flying through the sky — and he had felt very lonely there, unwilling to listen to such words. So he had strongly insisted on moving out.
From Elder Jiang’s account, Ye Fan was keenly perceptive enough to sense that the Jiang Family was complex, seemingly divided into two factions.
Elder Jiang and little Tingting were descendants of the bloodline of Divine King Jiang Taixu. This branch was thin in numbers, yet its members were all extremely powerful, and they had shown great care and attention toward little Tingting.
The other faction, by contrast, treated them with cold indifference — and most of the gossip and hurtful talk came from them.
“That still does not justify leaving you in such a mean little tavern!” Ye Fan was greatly displeased.
“Those who were close to Tingting built me a grand mansion in a large city where ordinary people reside, but I could not settle there either. When you are old, you always grow nostalgic — I grew fond of that little tavern in the Southern Domain, so I came here.”
“And Tingting — how is she?”
“Tingting herself is quite optimistic, but I…” The old man’s eyes grew clouded again.
Little Tingting’s cultivation had been advancing with remarkable speed. In less than five years, she had already reached the Realm Crossing stage — and it was worth noting she was not yet nine years old.
Many of the elder figures in the Jiang Family were astonished. The cultivation speed of the Supreme Yin Physique was truly staggering — yet it was destined to end in early death, and they all felt it a great pity.
Ye Fan was also stunned. This was nearly one cultivation realm per year — it immediately brought to mind Xia Jiuyou, who had already been a Supreme of the Four Extremities at thirteen or fourteen. Little Tingting’s cultivation speed could absolutely rival hers.
The elder cultivators close to little Tingting had tried every method imaginable, searching through ancient texts and preparing all manner of spirit medicines — yet nothing had any effect. In the end, they were at a loss.
“Is there truly no solution at all?” Ye Fan thought of the charming and delightful little Tingting, her life cut short, and he felt a painful wrench in his heart.
“I heard them say that only the Earth Mandate Fruit can prevent the Supreme Yin Physique from causing early death.” The anxious lines between Elder Jiang’s brows were so deep they could not be dissolved.
Ye Fan’s heart leapt at once. The Earth Mandate Fruit came after the ripening of the Human Origin Fruit, and could be spoken of in the same breath as the ancient divine medicines — it was an absolute peerless rarity.
Regrettably, both the ancient divine medicines and the Earth Mandate Fruit had already become nearly extinct. The elders in their final years — their lifespans nearly spent — had traversed the great wilderness in search of them and found not one. If any could be found, they could bring someone back from the brink of death — the value was beyond all measure. And yet, no one had ever been heard to have found one.
“Elder, rest assured — I can find the Earth Mandate Fruit. Little Tingting will be all right.”
“Child, you can find one?” Elder Jiang’s eyes opened wide, and then he shook his head and said, “You need not console me — I have already accepted this reality.”
“The reason I say this is that I have cut out the Human Origin Fruit from stone before. When it ripens it becomes the Earth Mandate Fruit — I believe that one day I may cut out this divine fruit.”
“Truly?” Elder Jiang was very surprised and said, “They said that unless a Source Heavenly Master were reborn, there would be barely a thread of hope for finding an Earth Mandate Fruit.”
Ye Fan smiled and said, “The reason I can speak so is because I have obtained the Source Heavenly Master’s legacy. The matter of Tingting — leave it to me. Even if I cannot cut out the Earth Mandate Fruit, I will find a way to obtain an ancient divine medicine for her.”
“Really… truly?” Elder Jiang was so moved he choked with tears, gripping Ye Fan’s hands with his rough and worn ones, asking over and over.
“Truly — you may rest easy!” Ye Fan gave his firm assurance.
“In a few more days, Tingting will come to see me again. Child, stay and see her.”
Ye Fan smiled and said, “Of course I must see her — it has been almost five years now. I do not even know what the little rascal looks like anymore.”
The cold winds were fierce, the snow fell thick, and over the next few days Ye Fan remained attentive to all manner of news, hoping that Divine King Jiang Taixu would be able to walk out of the Purple Mountain alive.
Yet he was somewhat concerned: even if the divine king was still alive, his lifespan was most likely nearly exhausted — perhaps not enough to overawe the various Sacred Lords.
“If only there were a few Earth Mandate Fruits.” He shook his head — that was far too unrealistic.
“If a complete divine medicine could be cut out at the divine city, that could also solve things.” He truly hoped that Divine King Jiang Taixu was safe and could live long — that way little Tingting would have someone to shelter her, and no one would dare trouble her.
“What a pity — the successive elder Grand Emperors of the Immortal Divine Dynasty, commanding hundreds of millions of li of territory, could not obtain a single ancient divine medicine.”
Four days later, a girl carved from pink jade came down through the wind and snow, landing in the small town and skipping merrily into the small tavern.
“Grandfather…”
“Tingting!” Elder Jiang quickly went to meet her.
“Grandfather, you don’t need to worry about me all the time.” The little girl was dressed all in white, purer than the snow itself, looking like a porcelain doll — exquisitely beautiful and lovely, her face full of a happy smile.
Elder Jiang caressed her head with doting affection and said, “Have these past two weeks been good for you?”
“Very good — Tingting has been very happy. The old ancestor granted a special exception and let me read the first half of the Eternal Universe Scripture.”