Hearing a voice he hadn’t heard in a thousand years, Huang Fu’s tears flowed freely. He stood up and thrust the flagless pole into the ground. He straightened his back and walked step by step toward the back mountain.
「The back mountain.」
Before four graves, The Supre Emperor sat cross-legged. The once almighty figure that seed invincible now looked especially desolate.
Huang Fu knelt on one knee and said respectfully, "Huang Fu pays his respects, Supre Emperor!"
"Co, sit." Xu Lai didn’t turn his head. He simply took out another cup and poured so wine. "My Master brewed this one hundred thousand years ago. Try it."
One hundred thousand years ago! Master!
Just two words, yet they stirred a tempest in Huang Fu’s heart. He solemnly took the cup, which slled of nothing special, and drained it in one gulp.
The taste... was very bitter, very astringent.
It was far worse than the cheap liquor sold by mortals in the street alleys.
Xu Lai laughed self-deprecatingly. "It’s not very good, is it?"
Huang Fu hesitated before saying, "It is... a bit unpleasant."
"Hahahahaha."
Xu Lai laughed out loud. His laughter traveled from the back mountain to the Sect Gate, leaving Taotie utterly confused, unable to understand what had made The Supre Emperor so happy.
"I’ve t plenty who like to speak the truth and even more hotheads. Taotie is one of them. But there aren’t many truthful hotheads like you." Xu Lai turned to look at the white-haired old man beside him, his voice tinged with emotion. "Huang Fu, you’ve grown old."
Huang Fu’s nose stung, and he nearly burst into tears.
Yes. He had grown old.
From the high-spirited youth of a thousand years ago to the man he was now, with one foot in the grave, so old he was on the verge of death.
Yet The Supre Emperor was the sa as ever, as if ti had never left a single mark on him.
"Return to the Heavenly Court," Xu Lai said calmly. "I never blad you for losing the flag. I will heal your Dao injuries, and with your talent, you can reach the Immortal Venerable realm within three hundred years. Becoming a Quasi-Emperor in the future is well within your reach."
Back in his day, Huang Fu had been at the peak of the Celestial Venerable Realm, a Half-Step Immortal Venerable with a lifespan of fifty thousand years.
Now, he had fallen to the early Venerable Realm.
To think that in just three hundred years, he could cultivate from the Venerable Realm back to the Celestial Venerable Realm, and then all the way to an Immortal Venerable, was a fantasy so wild it would make any cultivator in the Immortal Domain laugh their heads off.
But Xu Lai believed Huang Fu could do it.
Huang Fu also believed in himself.
But he did not respond, falling silent instead.
Xu Lai didn’t press him, quietly waiting for his answer.
As ti passed and moonlight enveloped the mountain range, Huang Fu finally spoke, his voice filled with guilt. "Supre Emperor, I’m sorry. I can’t go back."
There are so paths you cannot walk, even when you know they are right.
And there are so things you must do, even when you know they are wrong.
"My wife has been waiting for in the Samsara Sea for a very long ti. I can’t... I can’t make her wait any longer. I’ve scraped by for a thousand years. The Liuyun Sect is now firmly established here, and it no longer needs ."
Though his hair and beard were white, Huang Fu smiled shyly, looking just like the young man who had joined the Heavenly Court all those years ago.
His words held no fear of death, only a serene acceptance.
Xu Lai felt a pang of regret.
He muttered to himself, "Master, you once said that of the five jugs of wine you brewed, one was for our senior sister’s wedding, one was for your own passing, and the remaining three were for my two senior brothers and , for when we married."
"Qingfeng has co for the wine, but you... you’re no longer here."
Xu Lai raised his cup. "Master, next ti, I’ll have my daughter propose a toast to you. You would have loved Yiyi."
BOOM!
Huang Fu’s pupils shrank, and his heart pounded with shock.
The Supre Emperor has a daughter?!
He asked in a trembling voice, "Supre Emperor, you... you’re getting married?"
"Yes, in a few years’ ti," Xu Lai said with a light laugh. "The wedding procession will be short one person to carry the ’Xu’ banner. How about you endure the hardship and live a couple more years?"
Huang Fu could no longer hold back.
Two streams of tears ran down his weathered cheeks as he choked out, "Flagbearer Huang Fu of the Qingfeng Camp, from the South Heavenly Gate of the Heavenly Court—at your command, Supre Emperor!"
"There’s a talented young girl at the foot of the mountain. Take her into your sect," Xu Lai said casually. "She can protect the Liuyun Sect for the next hundred thousand years."
A hundred thousand years?!
Huang Fu’s eyes widened. An Immortal Venerable’s lifespan was one hundred thousand years.
Was The Supre Emperor suggesting that this young girl could beco an Immortal Venerable, on par with the masters of the Holy Lands and Tao Lineages of the Immortal Domain?
He didn’t dare ask.
Nor did he need to.
"Yes."
Accepting the command, Huang Fu said solemnly, "Supre Emperor, I will take care of those blind flies. Do you have any other orders?"
"Just don’t let too many people die," Xu Lai said calmly. "It wouldn’t do to disturb the peace and quiet here."
Huang Fu acknowledged his command.
After a short while, Huang Fu descended the mountain.
In contrast to his desolate ascent, Huang Fu, though still ancient, now had a new light in his dim eyes. His entire deanor had transford. He had even regained a glimr of his forr ruthless decisiveness!
The City Lord of Qiuyue City and his son, Chen Beiming, were taken away. Though not killed on the spot, it was clear they would not survive.
The Liuyun Sect retreated.
Ye izi, however, beca restless. He kept scratching his head and touching his nose, as if infested with fleas.
Taotie glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Scared?"
"...I’m alright," Ye izi stamred.
But inside, he was screaming in agony.
He was only in the Foundation Establishnt Stage. He had assud Xu Lai and his companion were just ordinary young masters with a powerful escort—a mighty expert from the Divinity Transformation Realm, at best.
That was the limit of his imagination!
Who could have ever imagined running into the two strongest beings in the Universe?
The Supre Emperor was undoubtedly the strongest. And there was little question that Taotie was second only to him. This was the God of Slaughter—wherever he went, death followed.
The Eastern Desolate Domain was the most remote of the nine hundred and ninety-nine domains in the Eastern Immortal Domain, and Qiuyue City was one of the most secluded places within it.
Even here, the na Taotie was enough to make children stop crying and old n like him tremble in fear.
"You can go. If you like, you can join the Liuyun Sect," Xu Lai’s voice drifted down from the back of the mountain.
Ye izi was both stunned and overjoyed. He bowed deeply, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and promptly left the Naless Mountain Range. The pressure of staying there was too great; the sooner he left, the better.
As for the jar of wine The Supre Emperor had given him... Ye izi naturally couldn’t bear to drink it. He decided he would save it until he was on his deathbed.
To have t The Supre Emperor ant he could die without any regrets!
...
Xu Lai drank all night on the back mountain.
By the ti the sun rose the next morning, the jug of Plum Wine was empty. Having not used his power to dispel the alcohol, Xu Lai’s steps were unsteady. If Taotie hadn’t been there to support him, he might have stumbled and fallen.
"Taotie," Xu Lai murmured, "this wine isn’t strong at all. So why does it feel like a knife is twisting in my heart?"
It is not the wine that intoxicates, but the man who intoxicates himself.
Taotie opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, ultimately choosing to remain silent. He knew that the destruction of his old Sect Gate was The Supre Emperor’s greatest regret.
Otherwise, the faction The Supre Emperor himself founded would not be nad the Heavenly Court.
Was this not his way of vindicating his long-lost Sect?
"Let’s go back to Earth," Xu Lai closed his eyes and said softly. "The next ti I co here, it will be to deliver wedding invitations."
"Yes."
Taotie nodded.
With a re thought, his Divine Sense summoned a white cloud from the sky. Xu Lai lay down on it to rest, and Taotie sat on the edge.
A single cloud, two figures. They departed from the mountain range covered in plum trees.
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