Who Is the Long Emperor?

Inside the Divine Strategy Manor.

A pavilion.

"Manor Lord Jiang, Guochang requests an audience."

Tang Guochang bowed and scraped, abandoning his earlier dignified manner as he headed toward the pavilion with a guileless smile.

Inside the pavilion, an utterly unremarkable old man in plain clothes lounged in a reclining chair.

He basked in the sun while playing with a small transparent ball.

"What is it that brings the Third Division Saint here in person? Sorry for the trouble." The old man in plain clothes kept his eyes closed as he teased him.

"Manor Lord, you're too kind!"

Tang Guochang trotted forward and said with a broad smile, "It's nothing important. I recently acquired a bottle of immortal ginseng wine from the northern frontier, and I brought it especially for you, Manor Lord."

With that, he carefully produced a jade bottle wreathed in Spiritual Qi. Holding it above his head, he offered it to the old man with an awkward smile.

"I've reached a ripe old age, and I was just planning to give up drinking," the old man said. He opened one eye and pointed to the side. "Put it on the table!"

Tang Guochang cursed inwardly. You're telling me to put it on the table, and you call that giving up your ancestors' wine?

Of course, he kept smiling as he placed the immortal ginseng wine on the stone table.

"Oh!"

As soon as he put it down, Tang Guochang looked ahead and pointed in front of the pavilion. "Manor Lord, where's the whole lake of clear water?"

The place where a great lake should have been held not a drop of water. Black mud lay exposed, and countless fish and shrimp were flopping about, about to die for lack of water.

"Right here."

The old man opened his eyes and looked at the little transparent ball he was playing with.

"What?"

Tang Guochang's eyes widened.

The lake stretched for miles and was ten feet deep. How could such a vast volume of water be a tiny ball?

And how could the old man be playing with it in his hand?

As he stood there dumbstruck, the old man chuckled softly and casually flicked the transparent ball back into the lake.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

The transparent ball suddenly burst open, turning into a vast torrent of clear lake water that rushed back into the dry lakebed with a great splash.

As the ripples spread, a clear lake returned to the world once more!

"Beyond heaven and earth, into the Desolate Realm!"

Tang Guochang's voice trembled as he spoke those words.

He shuddered all over and immediately dropped to one knee, cupping his hands. "Congratulations, Manor Lord, on rising above the mortal world!"

"Making a fuss over nothing." The old man rocked back and forth in his chair and closed his eyes again. "What is it? Speak."

Tang Guochang was still breaking out in a cold sweat over the old man's strength, but he also knew that if he didn't speak now, he wouldn't get another chance.

"Well... Guochang wishes to recommend a young talent for the Divine Strategy Manor. Naturally, he meets the requirements. He reached Mystic Sea Frost Descent at thirteen."

"A member of your Tang Clan?" the old man asked casually.

"No." Tang Guochang lowered his head. "The boy is a commoner."

If he had been a member of the Tang Clan, there would have been no need for the immortal ginseng wine.

Hearing this, the old man waved his hand. "You may go."

"Manor Lord, why?" Tang Guochang froze.

He had given him an expensive gift, and the matter was a small one. Why was he being sent away?

"If you were recommending a child of a prominent family, that would be fine. We'd know his background. But if you bring in some pauper, who knows whether he's a law-abiding citizen or a thug? These days, people who hate the rich are everywhere. If one of those stray dogs outside bit some family's young lord or precious daughter, how ugly would that be?" The old man raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. "Tang Guochang, you're putting me in a difficult position."

Hearing this, Tang Guochang felt utterly stifled.

He hadn't expected Manor Lord Jiang to make an issue of the boy's origins even after he'd presented the immortal ginseng wine.

To put it bluntly, it wasn't that Manor Lord Jiang feared trouble. Tang Guochang simply didn't carry enough weight.

Alas! He's already entered the Desolate Realm. It's only natural for him to slap me in the face.

Helpless, Tang Guochang could only cup his hands and say, "Manor Lord, Guochang fully understands your deep concerns. In that case, I won't disturb your quiet cultivation any longer. Guochang takes his leave."

After speaking, he glanced at the immortal ginseng wine. The other man was still leisurely basking in the sun, with no intention of letting Tang Guochang take it away.

Damn it all! If this old bastard keeps holding up the sky with one hand in the Divine Strategy Manor, sooner or later he'll ruin it.

Tang Guochang cursed inwardly, then turned to leave.

He had barely taken two steps when he suddenly spotted a woman acting "suspiciously" by the entrance.

She wore a pink sleeping robe and soft yellow cloth shoes. With her hands behind her back, she was looking around.

Wasn't that Qi Lin's older sister?

Black lines covered Tang Guochang's face. He hurried over and lowered his voice. "Didn't I tell you to wait where you were? What are you doing here?"

After asking, he found it strange himself. They were deep inside the Divine Strategy Manor, with guards and elemental arrays all along the way. How could she be strolling around the manor lord's secluded residence?

Qi Tianlong rolled her eyes at him. "None of your damn business."

"Oh, come on!"

Tang Guochang had already been seething after being mistreated by Manor Lord Jiang. Now, cursed at again, he had reached the limit of his patience.

"Wild country girl, with no manners at all."

In a fit of anger, he got angry for a moment.

Just then, a trembling cry rang out behind Tang Guochang!

"Long Emperor!"

Tang Guochang froze. Turning around, he saw the old man in plain clothes standing three feet behind him, trembling all over and gazing at the woman in pink with profound awe in his eyes.

It was none other than Manor Lord Jiang.

As he spoke, he fell to both knees. His throat seemed to be blocked, and it took him some time to force out the words, trembling, "Jiang Daoyuan, master of the Great Cang Kingdom's Divine Strategy Manor, pays his respects to the Long Emperor!"

"What? What?"

Tang Guochang looked at Jiang Daoyuan, then at the woman in pink. His mind could barely keep up.

"You know me?"

The woman, who had been wandering around, stopped and raised an eyebrow at Jiang Daoyuan, looking slightly surprised.

"This lowly one once had the good fortune to glimpse the Long Emperor from afar on the Transcendent Demon Battlefield in Nine Nether Purgatory!" Jiang Daoyuan said.

"Oh."

The woman's expression suddenly turned cold. "You recognizing me is a problem for me."

Jiang Daoyuan shuddered all over!

His expression changed drastically. He looked up and cried, "Long Emperor, I'll keep my-"

Before he could finish, the woman in pink suddenly reached out and pinched the air.

Crack, crack!

The old man's body abruptly caved in and was squeezed into a ball of flesh!

It was about the same size as the ball of water from before.

He hadn't even left a single last word.

"Dead men keep their mouths shut better."

As she spoke, the woman crooked her little finger. A void ring emerged from the ball of flesh and landed in her fair hand.

"My younger brother wants to join the Divine Strategy Manor. What materials do we need to bypass this man?"

As though nothing had happened, Qi Tianlong asked Tang Guochang, who stood beside her.

"W-we, n-need, th-th-that..."

Tang Guochang's legs were shaking violently, and his upper and lower teeth were locked in a furious battle inside his mouth.

Qi Tianlong rolled her eyes at him. "You're useful to my brother, so I won't wipe you out."

Thud!

Hearing this, Tang Guochang finally couldn't hold on any longer. He fell to his knees and knocked his head against the ground, crying, "Thank you, grandaunt, for sparing my life! I, Tang Guochang, am yours in life and your ghost in death..."

"Can you act normal? I asked you about the materials!" Qi Tianlong said.

"A blank Divine Strategy Token. I'll take care of the rest."

Tang Guochang finally came to his senses and suppressed the upheaval in his heart.

"This?" Qi Tianlong took out a small white jade token and tossed it to Tang Guochang.

Tang Guochang hurriedly caught it, then nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

"Got it."

Qi Tianlong put away the void ring and flicked her hand.

Plop!

The little ball of blood that had been Jiang Daoyuan flew into the lake. Like a pebble hitting the water, it sent out faint ripples before vanishing without a trace.

A mighty supreme expert of the Desolate Realm, casually squeezed into a ball by her from a distance, and now even his corpse can't be found! Tang Guochang's heart pounded like a kangaroo, and he wanted to cry but had no tears. What kind of monster is she?

"Oh, right." Qi Tianlong had only walked a couple of steps when she looked at Tang Guochang seriously. "After we leave here, I want you to act completely normal. If you let my brother or anyone else learn anything about me, I'll soak all nine generations of your Tang family in this lake and drink them down with wine. Understand?"

Tang Guochang wailed, "Oh, my heavenly granny, I understand!"

In his mind, the Qi Clan, Qi Tianji, Qi Tianlong, Qi Lin... these people came together to form a terrifying family that made his scalp tingle.

"Anyone who goes against them must have lived long enough, right?"

Thinking of everything that would happen in the future, Tang Guochang was immensely excited.

Unfortunately, he was the only one who knew the secret, and he was bound to feel stifled keeping it inside. If he said a single wrong word, it would be "nine generations rejoicing."

"Heavenly granny?"

While he was still thinking, Qi Tianlong disappeared.

"Ahem, ahem."

Tang Guochang pushed down the storm in his mind and cleared his throat.

"To hell with you, you old bastard. After committing so many sins, you've finally gotten your retribution."

He tucked the jade bottle on the stone table into his arms, glared at the lake, and sped away in a cloud of dust.

"I'll drink the immortal ginseng wine myself!"