"Grand Elder? Really?"
"Now that you ntion it... he looks just like the portrait of the Grand Elder when he was young!"
"I knew it! The Great Elder didn’t forsake us—much less died during the war!"
"What?" Xu Tao, hearing the disciples’ chatter after they learned of his identity, caught a few words that pricked his ears. "? Dying? War? What’s that...?"
"Perhaps you don’t know?" one of the five stepped forward, about to explain when—
"Before that, how can you prove you’re truly the Great Elder Xu Tao?" another grumbled, arms crossed before his chest. "I an, I could just claim I’m the Grand Elder, too. Show us proof, you know? Proof!"
Xu Tao chuckled, shaking his head.
"Impertinent child..." he sighed. "Alright. But before I show proof, let’s head inside first. Don’t worry, I won’t eat you alive or anything."
Jehanne’s group had already gone inside, leaving only Xu Tao and the five outer disciples of the Azure Dragon Sect. As such, he didn’t dare delay further and dragged the five in.
After entering the door, seeing that Jehanne and her five knights were talking in hushed voices at the far end, Xu Tao climbed up the stairs without paying them any heed. "Over here," he urged the rest.
The stairs were straight, so it didn’t take long to reach the second floor. As soon as they did, Xu Tao chose the room furthest from where Jehanne’s group was and sat directly on the floor, cross-legged.
The others, almost as if following by example, copied him and sat down.
"Alright, first is proof, right?"
He muttered, scanning the disciples’ faces carefully.
"It’d be hard for to do that myself... so why not ask anything you’d like to ask the Grand Elder? I’ll answer, then you decide if that’s an answer from the Grand Elder or just so cocky cultivator using his na."
"Then, I shall go first."
As he guessed, the first to try and "unmask" Xu Tao was the sa man who earlier called him a fake. His blue eyes were fierce, and his pale blue hair tied in a ponytail looked familiar—but Xu Tao couldn’t recall where he’d seen it before.
"I’m the Azure Dragon Sect’s outer disciple, Tang Weien. I cultivate the Illusory Path of the Sword. My cultivation technique is the Emperor’s Ice Breathing thod," he explained in one breath.
"I’m at the bottleneck of breaking through to the Late Stage of Body Refinent..." he revealed, before his face turned bitter. "If you can point out what’s wrong with or my cultivation, then I’ll call you Grand Elder and apologize for my rudeness!"
"What? That’s all?"
But to Xu Tao, it felt like soone asked him what "1 1" was. It wasn’t even sothing he needed to think about—the answer was too obvious.
"You’re training using the Emperor’s Ice Breathing thod, but your ridians are of the completely opposite elent. Didn’t your ntor tell you about this?" he pointed out. "It’s like you’re trying to force-freeze your burning core, which explains your obvious failure."
"Rather than the Ice thod, you should try the Phoenix’s Fla Feather Cultivation Technique. It’s easy to learn, too." He even provided a solution to his troubles.
"Hah!" But the man chuckled, pointing a finger at Xu Tao. "I knew it, you’re a fake! Didn’t you know? It was the Great Elder himself who taught this cultivation thod?!"
"...What?"
Xu Tao faltered, trying to rember such an occurrence.
However, his sharp mory failed him.
At least, he couldn’t recall anyone with this particular physique... "No, wait..." But then, he paused. "Are you... no way!" And finally recalled. "Are you Little Wenwen?!"
"...?!"
At that mont, the "man" froze. After all, the nickna Xu Tao just ntioned was a cursed na she’d tried to forget. A blemish from the past. A secret kept even from her fellow cultivators—known only to one, the Great Elder himself.
"You little girl, you grew up so big!" He grinned, happy at the reunion. "But why are you dressed like a man? And what’s with your na? Did you change it?"
A lot of questions swirled in Xu Tao’s mind. Specifically, regarding one matter: ti.
When he entered closed-door cultivation to break through to the Divine Heaven Immortal Stage, Little Wenwen should’ve been at the 4th Stage of Body Refinent. But now, she’d only climbed a few steps and was stuck at the 7th Stage.
That was far too poor a performance for soone of her caliber after thousands of years had passed.
’Sothing’s not right,’ he mused. ’And this must also be related to the war they ntioned earlier.’
"SHII—!!!"
Suddenly, Little Wenwen rushed forward, blocking Xu Tao’s lips with her hand.
Then, in a low whisper, she warned, "Alright, I’ll believe you’re the old man for now... but please, don’t reveal my dark history to the others...!"
Seeing her desperate expression and cheeks flushed a deep rose from embarrassnt, Xu Tao realized she must be disguised as a man for so complicated reason. And of course, he was curious about it. Still, he didn’t let her down and nodded, staying silent.
"Brother Tang...?"
Due to her sudden actions, the other four turned quizzical gazes their way.
"I-It’s nothing!" she cleared her throat, creating so distance. "It seems he’s the real deal... though he seems to have mistaken for soone else."
"Well, I am the real deal, after all." Xu Tao nodded, smiling. "Anyway, anyone else up to the task? Shoot your questions! This is a rare opportunity, after all!"
"Then, my turn!"
"I have troubles with..."
"Can you help understand..."
After Little Wenwen, the rest started asking their own questions.
Of course, their priorities were mostly about their stuck cultivation. Xu Tao answered their doubts without fail. Two of them even managed to break through just from hearing his words!
"I guess nobody doubts my identity now," Xu Tao nodded. "Though you might be curious as to how my cultivation fell this low... I’d rather not explain."
In truth, he wasn’t sure himself how his cultivation disappeared. He could tell the Lost System was sohow related to it, but beyond that, he was clueless.
"Now, it’s my turn to ask questions," he continued. "What happened to the Azure Dragon Sect? And what’s this war you guys ntioned earlier?"
"Ah, that...?" It was the most polite of the five who responded—Shin Gaoshun. "Let’s see... It all started about a week after the elders returned, sending you to the Starfire Lake cave..."
And then, a recount of the past that Xu Tao couldn’t even dream of happening began.
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