Outside Zixiao Palace, Chaos surged.
Burning Lamp tidied his Daoist robe and let out a loud thud as he knelt before the gates of Zixiao Palace.
"Dao Ancestor, your disciple Burning Lamp begs for an audience!"
After the second sermon, Burning Lamp had made a trip back to the Prehistoric World.
As a result, he found that the current Prehistoric World was filled with undercurrents.
The Demon Court, the Immortal Court, and the Witch Clan constantly frictioned against one another, and he would be dragged into the Measure Calamity if he were not careful.
Without his system, Burning Lamp was terrified to the extreme.
Without another word, he hid outside Zixiao Palace, refusing to believe that the Witch-Demon war could reach the sage's Daoist sanctuary.
As the saying goes, constant dropping wears away a stone.
He refused to believe that the Dao Ancestor would remain hard-hearted if he begged here for an eon!
After a period of time.
Burning Lamp felt he had knelt long enough and decided to come back next time.
Suddenly.
The gates of Zixiao Palace swung open.
Two small figures walked out from within, none other than Hao Tian and Yao Chi.
Seeing the dejected Burning Lamp, Hao Tian asked with a face full of confusion, "Senior Brother Burning Lamp, why are you here?"
Seeing that the gates of Zixiao Palace were open and spotting Hao Tian and Yao Chi, Burning Lamp assumed Hongjun wanted to see him and hurriedly stepped forward to speak.
"Junior Brothers, I have begged to see the Dao Ancestor again for tens of thousands of years. Is he finally going to see me?"
Burning Lamp was on the verge of tears.
Which transmigrator had it as humiliating as him...
"What, Senior Brother, you've been begging here for tens of thousands of years?" Yao Chi opened her small mouth in shock.
"Uh... You guys didn't know?" Burning Lamp stared at the two of them in mutual bewilderment.
"Senior Brother, Zixiao Palace forms a realm of its own and is isolated from the outside world. Why didn't you knock on the door?" Hao Tian scratched his head.
Zixiao Palace itself was a supreme treasure.
Unless a sage acted personally, it could isolate any magical power fluctuations.
Quite a few of the Three Thousand Travelers of the Mortal World held grudges against one another.
The reason the sermon could proceed normally was not only because Hongjun presided over it, but also because Zixiao Palace suppressed them, preventing them from unleashing their full strength.
"Kn... Knock on the door?" Burning Lamp was dumbfounded; all these years he had focused solely on kneeling.
No way, one still had to knock on doors in the Prehistoric World!
Feeling rather awkward, Burning Lamp subsequently asked, "Then, Junior Brothers, could you please announce my presence?"
Learning that Burning Lamp had been kneeling here for tens of thousands of years, Hao Tian and Yao Chi also felt the fellow was rather pitiful.
Announcing his presence was no big deal anyway; whether he actually got to see the master had nothing to do with them.
The two returned inside Zixiao Palace.
After a moment.
The small figures of Hao Tian and Yao Chi walked out from the doors once more.
Burning Lamp immediately straightened his back and looked at them with eyes full of hope.
An odd expression crossed Hao Tian's small face. He cleared his throat and imitated Hongjun's indifferent tone: "Lord says..."
Burning Lamp held his breath.
"'Let him in, and stop howling at the door.'"
Burning Lamp: "..."
Yao Chi covered her mouth and chuckled nearby.
A blush of alternating green and white swept across Burning Lamp's face, but it was immediately overwhelmed by wild joy.
Never mind the tone; as long as he could get inside!
He immediately scrambled up from the ground, patted the non-existent dust off his Daoist robe, and tried hard to strike a solemn pose, only for his legs to be a bit numb, making his movements rather comical.
"Many thanks, Junior Brothers!" Cupping his hands, Burning Lamp could not wait to walk right in.
"Hey, Senior Brother, wait."
Hao Tian called out to him, admonishing him like a little adult:
"Lord's mood... seems all right, but watch what you say and don't bring up any more nonsense about nursing him in his old age."
Burning Lamp's old face flushed red, and he nodded repeatedly. "Understood, understood."
Following behind Hao Tian and Yao Chi, Burning Lamp stepped into Zixiao Palace once again.
The interior remained vast and desolate, filled with lingering Dao rhythm. Upon the high platform, Hongjun's figure sat cross-legged on a futon, looking as though he had not moved since the dawn of time.
Only this time, Hongjun was not completely merged into that abstruse Dao Integration state.
Instead, his eyes were slightly open, his calm gaze falling upon the approaching Burning Lamp.
That gaze carried no obvious coercion, yet it made Burning Lamp feel as though he had been seen through completely from inside and out.
It felt as though even his memories from before his transmigration were about to be dug up and laid out in the sun.
His heart tightened, and he hurriedly stepped forward to execute a respectful, deep bow. "Disciple Burning Lamp pays respects to the Dao Ancestor!"
Hongjun said nothing, merely watching him quietly.
Maintaining his bowed posture, Burning Lamp felt his heart pound frantically.
Under the gaze of a true sage, his earlier grandiose words about adopting a father now seemed so laughable and pale.
Right now, he only wanted to find a safe place to lay low.
After a long while, Hongjun finally spoke slowly, his voice betraying neither joy nor anger: "Burning Lamp, you have knelt and begged outside Zixiao Palace for tens of thousands of years. For what purpose?"
Not daring to raise his head while maintaining his respectful posture, Burning Lamp's brain spun at top speed.
Tell the truth?
Say he was a transmigrator whose system crashed, and that he was afraid of death and wanted to cling to a powerful benefactor?
Wasn't that courting death!
"Replying to the Dao Ancestor."
Taking a deep breath, Burning Lamp made up his mind.
"Disciple... disciple is foolish. Having listened to the Dao Ancestor's two sermons, although I have gained some slight comprehension, the Great Dao is boundless, and disciple often feels lost and uncertain."
"Strife in the Prehistoric World is gradually rising. Disciple is low in cultivation and weak in resolve, fearing that I will get lost amidst the Tribulation Wave and ruin the upright path of the Mystic Sect."
"Hence... hence I have come with a thick face, earnestly begging the Dao Ancestor in his great mercy to permit disciple to serve by your side, pouring tea, serving water, and sweeping the courtyards, asking only to constantly listen to your teachings, stabilize my Dao Heart, and not disgrace the Mystic Sect."
Having finished these words, Burning Lamp also let out a long breath of relief.
He had figured it out.
Proving the Dao and achieving transcendence were things done by destined protagonists with systems.
Since his system was gone, if he still considered himself a destined protagonist, wasn't that courting death?
Scheming against him would be a piece of cake for those ancient schemers in the Prehistoric World who had lived for countless eons.
Did he really think everyone in the Prehistoric World was an idiot...
As soon as Burning Lamp finished speaking, however, the expressions of Hao Tian and Yao Chi at the side did not look so good.
If you pour tea, serve water, and clean the courtyard for Lord, what happens to the two of us?
What if Lord actually agrees...
Burning Lamp was already at the early stage of Quasi-Saint cultivation, while the two of them had just broken through to Late Grand Unity.
No matter how one looked at it, Burning Lamp possessed much stronger competitiveness.
Hao Tian and Yao Chi exchanged glances, and without another word, they dropped directly to their knees.
"Lord, you mustn't chase us away!"
"Yao Chi and Senior Brother will be obedient from now on!"
"Sob, sob, sob..."
Seeing this, Burning Lamp also reacted: he was stealing the two kids' rice bowls!
Screw it!
Anyway, one more kneeling session didn't make a difference!
Burning Lamp also dropped to his knees, imitating Hao Tian and Yao Chi as he began to act spoiled toward Hongjun.
"Dao Ancestor, Lord, little Dengdeng can do anything! Please let me serve you!"
Hongjun:...
"Enough."
"Hao Tian, Yao Chi, the two of you go out first. I have words to say to him." Hongjun looked toward Hao Tian and Yao Chi.
Thinking the Dao Ancestor was truly going to chase them away, the two directly hugged Hongjun's thighs.
"Lord!"
Hao Tian and Yao Chi looked pitifully at Hongjun.
"Alright, alright. I won't chase you away." Waving his sleeve, Hongjun sent the two of them out of Zixiao Palace.
Subsequently, he looked at Burning Lamp with a playful expression.
Burning Lamp felt his sphincter tighten.
Oh no, could this Hongjun really be a bendy boy...