The Nine True Realms, Origin of the Battlefield

Ling Xiao grew wary. This old man looked far too uncanny—wearing a tall crown and strange robes, yet bent with age. He sat there as if no one else existed, utterly motionless.

"Could this guy be the Yellow Springs Evil Emperor?"

Was the mighty Evil Emperor really supposed to look like this?

With doubt in his heart, Ling Xiao slowly approached. Reaching the old man's back, he hesitated for a moment before cupping his hands in salute.

"Are you the Yellow Springs Evil Emperor?"

He asked bluntly. For now, the old man had not shown even a trace of killing intent, nor had there been any of that cliché where some ancient fossil tried to possess the protagonist.

Ling Xiao thus relaxed his guard somewhat, and his manner remained quite polite.

"Shh!"

At that moment, the old man's head turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and he made a silencing gesture. In a low voice, he said, "The fish is about to bite!"

Ling Xiao frowned, a strange feeling rising within him. Was the fish the old man spoke of referring to him?

Was this Jiang Ziya fishing or something?

He was growing impatient and was about to continue questioning him when the line on the fishing rod suddenly snapped taut, splashing waves across the water's surface.

"It's here, it's here!"

The old man leapt to his feet in excitement and began pulling with all his might. At last, the hook rose from the water, bringing with it a golden fish three feet long. Under the sunlight, it was as dazzling as a tiny sun.

"A big fish! Truly a big fish!"

The old man laughed heartily, as though this were the first time in his life he had caught such a large fish.

*So he used to be an