“How bold of you, Minister Wang!”
A voice suddenly rang beside Wang Hou’s and Three Blades Lin’s ears. It was faint—at once close yet distant, and neither Wang Hou nor Three Blades Lin could find who had spoken.
Wang Hou’s face twitched, but soon regained composure, unable to resist a small smile.
He ‘saw’ the new arrival.
On the other hand, Three Blades Lin was absolutely astonished. Extending his spirit to scan around wildly but finding no one, he promptly drew his combat blade and yelled, “Who’s there? Are you even a heroic gentleman, sneaking around?”
“Old Lin…”
Wang Hou tried to stop Three Blades Lin, but the latter was already smirking, “Come out if you’re that impressive! I shall see what kind of a person has the guts to put on airs—daddy here will split your head, believe it!”
Three Blades Lin’s real name was Lin Wenshu, but rarely anyone used it. Everyone preferred Blade King or Three Blades Lin, and the reason for it was… mostly because the blade technique he developed himself only had three styles.
Still, those three styles were not to be underestimated. He was crowned the title of Blade King because he deserved it, and his three-styled blade technique was imposing and overbearing, because once the three blades were unleashed, it would kill or at least cripple the target once it made contact.
Even if the opponent could parry all three blades, the next barrage would follow, one coming after the other without end. That was why rarely anyone of the same tier could stand up to Three Blades Lin.
Moreover, whenever he was about to fight, he would imitate the generals of old in a standoff, dissing the opponent before going to business. He would always ‘daddy here will split your head, believe it!’ whenever he started, which was how he earned his reputation.
That being said…
You actually yelled ‘daddy here will split your head, believe it!’ when you have no idea who it was?
Wang Hou held his forehead.
What the heck.
Three Blades Lin…
Was he really that rash? To the point that Wang Hou could not hold him back?
Footsteps could be heard outside Wang Hou’s office then, as an elderly man wearing a Tang suit strode inside.
His hair was all white, but he looked very spirited.
There was a storm in his very gait, and his back was upright without any sense of hunching.
Nonetheless, he appeared ashen faced, and once he entered and saw Three Blades Lin, he barked angrily, “Doggone it! Who did you think I am?!”
Three Blades Lin’s whole body shuddered upon hearing that voice and he looked baffled as he turned to the old man. Quickly squeezing a smile, he chuckled. “You’re back, gramps?”
“Your cultivation has improved so much! I didn’t even notice you after extending my spirit.”
“Get out!”
The old man scolded angrily. “I don’t have a grandson as awesome as you… I wouldn’t dare to call myself your gramps, since you’re acting more like my gramps.”
“Calm down, Gramps. I didn’t find you with my spirit, alright? I thought someone came on purpose to provoke us….” Three Blades Lin quickly said, even subtly throwing Wang Hou a look and gesturing for him to defend him—which Wang Hou pretended he did not see.
Nonetheless, after seeing that the old man had calmed down after yelling, Wang Hou approached him with a smile. “You’ve returned, Elder Lin?”
Three Blades Lin’s grandfather had almost lived for 200 years.
His name was Lin Tianzheng, and was more or less equal to Dong Haichuan and Yang Luchan in seniority, as the Lin clan of Jingdu was a martial clan with an extensive legacy and strong depth. Indeed, they were considerably influential than the three great martial clans of Jiangnan.
Now, he sat carefreely on the sofa and laughed. “Minister Wang, I shall come with you to Shennongjia. The Dragoncroc Emperor was acting all smug because a group of ancient daemons has it back, although they are not showing themselves to everyone because something is holding them back.”
“Oh?”
Wang Hou’s gaze twitched as he said hesitantly, “Ancient daemons?”
“That’s right.”
Three Blades Lin’s gramps said with a serious look. “Minister Wang, the heritage site I entered in the island nation is an immortal’s inheritance. I can’t divulge the specific information I obtained there, since I swore a divine oath when accepting the legacies within.”
“That said, I have found some ancient text and came to learn many ancient secrets… though those aren’t exactly secrets. During pre-history—early-Qin, in other words—the cultivators of that era mainly trained in immortal arts and not martial arts.”
“Yuan Qi was plentiful in that age and many grotto-heavens exist. Humans may cultivate as immortals just liked daemons, but a global upheaval extinguished all immortal arts and the cultivators began to fall in numbers until they eventually disappeared, just like daemon cultivators.”
Wang Hou appeared thoughtful and that, and asked, “You mean… daemon cultivators existed even before history?”
“That’s not certain.”
Lin Tianzheng shook his head in reply. “It has been over 2000 years since early-Qin to present-day—even if daemon cultivators lived longer than humans, there wouldn’t be many that survived until today. That said, it won’t be surprising if we never find one such eminence if they had opened a microworld, hiding within to cultivate and flourish.”
Wang Hou’s face twitched again.
Meanwhile, Lin Tianzheng continued. “According to the ancient text I read after entering the heritage side, it seemed that there definitely would be such microworlds on Earth—as for how many, I wouldn’t know.”
Pausing, he then added, “When I entered the immortal heritage site of the mountain which counts as one such Secret Realm, I did not find any living person. However, I have the feeling that there must still be people alive in that heritage site, but could not show up because he was slumbering or some other reason.”
Beside him, Wang Hou had not said a word for a long time.
He was not quite shocked by Lin Tianzheng’s words. In fact, Wang Hou had been searching for that stuff since years ago and had some of his own theories, but Lin Tianzheng’s information merely proved his theory today.
And yet…
Those words left Wang Hou appearing immeasurably somber just then.
Originally, the situation on Earth was slowly calming down. The days to come would be difficult and there might be endless battles against the Ferals, and the countless martial artists would have to fight and cull Ferals for decades, centuries or even longer…
Even so, all of that was worth it because it was a fight for his own destiny.
But now?
Wang Hou felt an overflowing feebleness inside as old mysteries were getting unraveled. And how many more haze of doubts was still lurking behind this world?
What actually happened in the early-Qin dynasty that caused immortal arts to be lost, and the flourishing of the Old Martial Era?
Why did the Degenerate Age abruptly come to be centuries ago?
And why had Spirit Qi returned now?
But after a dozen minutes, Wang Hou came to his senses, took his Thermos cup and had a sip of tea before abruptly laughing. “What do these mysteries have to do with me anyway?”
“I just have to watch over the Hua Nation!”
He got to his feet and laughed out loud, an overbearing aura flowing out of his body and laughing, “Elder Lin, you must be tired from the long journey just after leaving the heritage site. Have a good rest—I would be going alone to Shennongjia and that’s enough.”
Whoosh!
Wang Hou walked up to his window and promptly took to the air.
Lin Tianzheng did not stop him, and simply smiled with a nod…
Wang Hou had the style of a leader.
Then, as he turned to look at Three Blades Lin beside him, he could not help scolding him again, before his tone changed and he asked, “By the way, who is Jiang He?”
Clearly, Lin Tianzheng had heard about Jiang He’s slaying of five Feral Kings and the Golden-Winged Roc after returning from the heritage site.
***
Meanwhile, Jiang He had just finished lunch.
After working overnight in his farm, Jiang He felt a little tired after eating, and so headed straight upstairs to sleep. He planned to sleep until tomorrow, adjusting his work-sleep schedule—but he woke up just as night came.
That left Jiang He a little irritated.
Everyone else would work come sunrise and rest come sunset, but what about him?
Day and night were completely reversed for him.
“I really need to adjust my work-rest schedule… and the best way to do that is to release the Twenty-Three Swords and consume my spirit, which was best done at night, after which I could go to bed… but who should I release it on?”
Jiang He went downstairs and headed to the farm, where he had a flash of inspiration.
“Yes, I could look for the Dragoncroc Emperor… that damned worm was hiding and spying on me when I was fighting the Golden-Winged Roc. It was definitely up to no good!”
Nonetheless, once Jiang He entered the farm, the two eagles promptly charged at him, flapping their wings.
Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp…
The crisp, melodious chirping of the golden eaglets left Jiang He speechless… he kept having the feeling that they were calling him mommy…
“Move aside, don’t disturb me!”
Shoving both eaglets aside with a single kick, Jiang He turned towards the bottle gourd vines.
On top of the bottle gourd vines, seven green bottle gourds glinted in emerald dazzle beneath the moonlight beautifully.
Gritting his teeth, Jiang He reached out and grabbed one of the bottle gourds.
There’s no stopping it now, it was time for the harvest… Jiang He would have to admit surrender it even if it’s another Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers.
[Ding!]
[+500 Farm Points.]
A System Notification jingled in Jiang He’s head as data about the Seven Bottle Gourd popped up… it was not data per se since there was no introduction of statistics, just a simple line of text: divine-tier bottle gourd.
???
Jiang He was utterly baffled.
Divine-tier bottle gourd?
Could it be the same as the divine-tier fruit, providing a chance of ascension to divine-tier after consumption?
Jiang He hesitated for a while, but when he was about to take a few bites for a taste, several bangs could be heard—the bottle gourd of the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers which he had kept in a corner had popped out from clouds of mists.
All of them came forward, staring at the bottle gourd Jiang He was holding for a long time before acting adorably, exclaiming in one voice, “We want that, Gramps!”
“Eh?”
Jiang He appeared taken aback. He shook the emerald bottle gourd and could not help asking in return, “You guys want to eat this?”
The brothers nodded heavily.
That left Jiang He laughing out loud…
The Bottle Gourd Brothers eating bottle gourds?
That’s the same as having Dumbo eat dog meat, and it just felt a little cannibalistic.
Nonetheless, Jiang He would not stop them since they want to eat it—they were the grandkids he had planted himself after all.
He hence handed the bottle gourd to Eldest Brother, saying, “Let big brother have one first. I want to see if there are side effects after he eats it—the rest of you, wait, there’s still more on the vines…”
“Thanks, Gramps!”
Delighted, Eldest Brother accepted the bottle gourd.
He opened his mouth… and swallowed the emerald bottle gourd in its entirety. An oily-green light promptly shone on his body after that, and his rank-seven advanced-pinnacle aura promptly shot up, reaching rank-eight in less than five seconds and climbing.
His aura finally calmed down until he reached rank-nine novice.
However, his belly was suddenly bloating, and the tudou he was wearing was almost tearing apart.
Eldest Brother appeared to be hurting too, and was holding his neck with both hands as his face flushed red.
“Big grandson, are you alright? Did you choke from eating too quickly?”
Jiang He quickly exclaimed, “Hurry, Fifth Brother, shoot your saliva down his throat… woah!”
Even before Jiang He finished his sentence, Eldest Brother had opened his mouth, and…
Swish!
An air blade shot out of his mouth, and struck the Cloudscraper Vine.
The Cloudscraper Vine convulsed in agony, one of its tendrils almost having been sliced off by the air blade.
Jiang He gaped…
What… the heck… was that?
The divine-tier bottle gourd on the bottle gourd vines was indeed a fruit of the daemonic bottle gourd…
Was that why after eating the divine-tier bottle gourd, Eldest Brother gained powers similar to that daemon bottle gourd?
“If that daemon bottle gourd was an imitation of the Immortal-Cutter Flying Dagger, doesn’t that mean eldest brother is now an imitation as well?”
Jiang He turned towards the Cloudscraper Vine then…
The plant had actually reached divine-tier.
Its tendrils were much tougher and stronger than ever before, and not even divine-tier martial artists who recently ascended could cut it. That was why the air blade that eldest brother breathed must definitely be divine-tier in power.
“If the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers all gained that power and breathe air blades simultaneously, wouldn’t they be able to cut down a divine-tier elite with a wild barrage of blades?”
