The white-mustached elder forced a laugh. Ye Zichen, who’d been just on the verge of running away, laughed out loud and walked inside.
“Great Immortal Taibai, long time no see. You’re looking just as good as ever.” He reached out and shook Taibai Jinxing’s hand.
Taibai Jinxing forced a laugh and said, “Little Friend Ye, you’ve learned Physiognomy since I last saw you. To think you could tell my condition from my face!”
“Isn’t it obvious? Your complexion is vibrant. Of course you’re doing well!” He sat across from Taibai Jinxing and narrowed his eyes. “Mo’er, please bring us some fruit and immortal brew.”
Zuo Mo seemed worried, so she transmitted, “Who exactly are they?”
“You could call them my friends. They’re just… Well, it’s a long story. You can just go get everything ready.”
He glanced meaningfully at her, and once Zuo Mo left the room, Ye Zichen grinned. “Great Immortal Taibai, it’s been a long time. Tell me, why have you come all this way? If you wanted to meet, I should have gone to visit you instead.”
“What you’re really thinking is, ‘how did this guy find me, right?” asked Taibai Jinxing.
“Look at what you’re saying….” Ye Zichen smiled ambiguously, but in his heart, he thought, This geezer saw right through me!
The God Realm was huge, and Taibai Jinxing had been on the Divine Mountains while he was in the Lower Lands. How did he find him?
Could it be that he used my cell phone to track my location?
“Now you’re thinking, ‘did he use my cell phone to find me?” said Taibai Jinxing.
“….” Ye Zichen looked at Taibai Jinxing’s broad smile and sighed. “Since I last saw you, you’ve learned to read minds, huh?”
Taibai Jinxing smiled but didn’t deny it. The more Ye Zichen saw his smile, the tenser he felt.
“Well then, tell me. Why are you here?” Ye Zichen was in no mood to play any longer, so he wiped his smile off his face, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette. He puffed at it, then exhaled a cloud of smoke.
Back in the Heavenly Court, Taibai Jinxing was a hardcore smoker.
When he saw that Ye Zichen had cigarettes, he felt the itch to smoke.
“Want a cigarette?” Ye Zichen arched his brows and flicked one over.
Taibai Jinxing caught it and in one practiced motion, lit it. “My reason for coming here is simple. Please return the key fragment to the Divine Mausoleum to me.”
“You came this far just for a key fragment? You came all the way from the Divine Mountains, didn’t you?” Ye Zichen was practically speechless.
“I didn’t want it to come to this, but you refused to contact me, and you didn’t accept any of my video calls. I had no other choice; this was my last resort,” said Taibai Jinxing.
“That so?” Ye Zichen’s face was a mask of surprise. He took out his cell phone and pretended to look through his call log. “Oh, you really did send me video calls! I’m truly sorry, but after sending my last message, I went straight into seclusion. I didn’t see any of your video requests.”
Seclusion?
They both know he’d outright refused the first call, then pretended not to see the others.
Taibai Jinxing didn’t call him out. They had a tacit mutual understanding. He wasn’t here to fuss about the small stuff; he was here for the fragment.
“Then Little Friend Ye, can you…”
“I can’t.” Ye Zichen cut him off before he could even finish his request. “Our Red Packet Server has a rule. Once you send something, you can’t take it back. I sniped it fair and square. Why should I give it to you? Besides, all those people tried for red packets yet I’m the one who got the fragment. Tell me, Great Immortal Taibai, doesn’t that mean I was fated to obtain it?”
“How dare you talk to His Excellency Taibai like that!” One of the stalwart men standing behind Taibai Jinxing stepped forth with a bang. Cracks spread from his foot, shaking the entire room.
The moment the man moved, his aura billowed out. He was like a vicious beast.
Even though Ye Zichen was now a sky supreme expert too, even he felt a chill.
He was at least a ninth-stage sky supreme, and might even be a diviner!
After grasping the muscular man’s realm, Ye Zichen narrowed his eyes.
From the look of things, Ol’ Taibai was really here to make trouble.
“Great Immortal Taibai, this…” Ye Zichen glanced at the stalwart man.
Taibai Jinxing let out a refined laugh. “Little Friend Ye, please don’t misunderstand. I had no intentions of having him attack you.”
With that, he turned to the bulky man and glowered at him. “Who told you to do that?”
“Didn’t you…” This man was obviously not all that smart. He trembled, looking deeply wronged.
Taibai Jinxing’s smile froze. “Stand there and be quiet. Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”
The stalwart man backed off, looking somewhat aggrieved. Taibai Jinxing said somewhat awkwardly, “Little Friend Ye, please don’t misunderstand. I didn’t intend for him to do that.”
As he spoke, he glared at the muscle bound men, making the one who’d glared it seem even more aggrieved.
“No harm done.” Ye Zichen chuckled, and at that moment, Zuo Mo came in bearing a platter of fruit and drinks. When she saw the cracked floor, she instinctively glanced at Ye Zichen.
He shook his head, indicating for her to leave.
“Little Friend Ye,” said Taibai Jinxing, “we’ve known each other for a while now. You ought to understand how I do things. The fact that I showed up in person proves how important that key fragment truly is.”
“I know.” The Divine Mausoleum? The final resting place of the former God Emperor? Anyone could tell how important the fragment was.
“Then why can’t you return it to me?” said Taibai Jinxing in exasperation.
“What use do you have for it? It opens the door to the resting place of the North Star Emperor, the Emperor Star. Only someone who illuminated the Emperor Star can obtain his inheritance. Don’t tell me you’re his successor?”
“You even know that?” Taibai Jinxing was stunned despite himself, but before long, he shook his head. “I am, of course, not the one who illuminated the Emperor Star.”
“Then what do you want the fragment for?”
“But I do know who is, and that person has already contacted me.”
When Taibai Jinxing said that, Ye Zichen laughed.
The Emperor Star’s true chosen was sitting right here, yet Taibai Jinxing was saying he’d contacted him?
This joke wasn’t…
No, wait!
Something suddenly occurred to him. Back when the Emperor Star lit up, it selected two emperors, similar to when both the Five Elements Great Emperor and Zhou Wu illuminated it.
However, Zhou Wu had already become the God Emperor, and had no pressing need to visit the Divine Mausoleum.
“The person who contacted you isn’t Gu Li, is it?” After eliminating all other possibilities, Ye Zichen said the only other he could think of.
To his surprise, Taibai Jinxing’s pupils violently constricted. “How did you know? That’s right, it’s him. He came looking for me himself and told me he was the one who’d illuminated the emperor star.”
“Then do you know who I am?”
