At the immortal banquet, Shen Mo saw quite a few old acquaintances from the Heaven-Patrolling Domain!
Among them were Fu Jianghuo and the Peng siblings from the Clear Heart Sect. They had once joined Shen Mo and Hong Gu in entering the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield to seek opportunities;
There was Elder Yan Dacheng of the True Martial Hall, who had once fought Shen Mo over Goldman Titanium Twenty-Six at the trade fair in Sound Valley;
There were Xu Nan of the Yanyi Dunjia Sect, Hu Xiaodie of the Divine Firmament Sect, Mei Lihan of the Taiyi Sword Alliance...
What surprised Shen Mo most, however, was seeing Uncle Ma and Ma Pingkang, the uncle and nephew pair, at the banquet.
This uncle and nephew had been Rogue Cultivators who "picked through scraps" by the River of the Dead. When Shen Mo crossed the River of the Dead and first arrived in the Heaven-Patrolling Domain, they were the first people he encountered.
Because of this connection, when he later stayed at Wangxian Mountain under the identity of the alchemist Shen Qingyun, he had even rewarded Ma Pingkang with pills to open his Spirit Sea. Never had he expected them to follow him to the Mysterious Yellow Immortal Realm and appear at the Heaven-Patrolling Daoist Temple's "welcoming banquet."
Several decades had passed, yet Uncle Ma still looked as shrewd and slippery as a man from the streets and markets, though he seemed somewhat timid and constrained among a crowd of "important figures";
Ma Pingkang, meanwhile, had opened his Spirit Sea and was now a late-stage Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, though he too appeared uneasy and ill at ease!
"You fellow Daoists truly put some thought into this!" Shen Mo said with a faint smile, raising his cup toward several Daoist Temple True Lords