Wang Zheng

Inside the Holy City.

The news that Fang Yang had defeated Grandmaster Tuoba had become known to everyone in just half an hour.

A Four Extremities Realm cultivator of fifteen or sixteen was certainly dazzling, but throughout history, there had been no shortage of people who shone brightly as children only to prove mediocre as adults.

In the Eastern Wasteland, there had once been a cultivator who reached the Four Extremes Realm at just seven or eight years old. But later, he faded into the crowd, leaving not even his name behind. He became nothing more than a laughingstock used by cultivators to warn their juniors.

But a Source Technique grandmaster at fifteen or sixteen was something else entirely.

Source Technique was nothing like cultivation, which required one to build up reserves and lay a solid foundation.

As long as one had talent, charging ahead by leaps and bounds was the norm.

Many believed that, given Fang Yang's current mastery of Source Technique, becoming a Source Heaven Master one day was beyond imagining.

After all, throughout the history of the Eastern Wasteland, there had only been five Source Heaven Masters. They were supreme masters of Source Technique who had succeeded through a rare convergence of favorable timing, geography, and human support.

But becoming a Source Earth Master was well within the realm of possibility.

For this reason, many people came to call on Fang Yang, hoping to befriend this rising Source Technique grandmaster. The entrance to the Yaoguang Stone Workshop was packed with carriages, and for a time, it became the noisiest place in the Holy City.

Unfortunately,

Fang Yang had already left the Yaoguang Stone Workshop and returned to the Yao Guang Sacred Land. No one could catch a glimpse of this newly risen Source Technique prodigy who had defeated a grandmaster.

"Greetings, Holy Son!"

"Hello."

"Greetings, Holy Son!"

"Hello, everyone."

As Fang Yang walked along, countless people greeted him. He had become a well-known figure in the Yao Guang Sacred Land, someone everyone knew.

Some time ago, his remarks directed at the Tuoba Clan had inspired many Yao Guang disciples, but they had also earned him some criticism. Some thought he was too high-profile, a hot-blooded youth who didn't know his place.

But after he defeated Grandmaster Tuoba and proved his Source Technique mastery could match—and even surpass—that of a grandmaster, the rumors disparaging him all but died out.

He arrived at the cave dwelling where Li Daoming lived.

Fang Yang held up a Dragon Loach a foot and a half long, knocked on the door, then sauntered inside.

With his head held high and his chest puffed out, he walked up to Li Daoming and said,

"Master, here."

Though the Dragon Loach had been dead for countless years, a faint golden gleam still flowed across its body like liquid gold.

Li Daoming felt a sting in the corners of his eyes. He remembered his young disciple's first words to him: "Master, Source!" For some reason, he was overcome by the vicissitudes of time.

"A Dragon Loach. This is worth at least a million jin of Source. Are you sure you want to give it to me?"

He took a deep breath to steady himself, then said with a smile.

"If I don't give it to you, who else would I give it to?"

"It's only right for a disciple to honor his master."

Fang Yang said with an unconcerned grin.

It was only a Dragon Loach.

Master Li Daoming had been as kind to him as a mountain. The Blood Diamond Cauldron alone might well be worth as much as the Dragon Loach.

With things put that way, Li Daoming had nothing more to say. He accepted the Dragon Loach his disciple had offered, then told him to leave.

"Source Technique can be cultivated."

"But your realm is the foundation of your cultivation. You gained a great many resources from Stone Gambling this time, so you'd best spend a while cultivating in seclusion first."

"Go on."

Deep within the Yao Guang Sacred Land.

Li Daoqing and his junior fellow disciple, Li Daoming, walked slowly across a stone bridge. One wore a conflicted expression, while the other remained calm as ever.

"Junior Brother, doing this..."

"Senior Brother, there's no need to say more."

Li Daoming interrupted Li Daoqing. His expression was carefree, and he had no regrets about what he was about to do.

"The Dragon Loach Little Yang offered as a gesture of filial respect was meant for me, his master. But as an aging half-step mighty figure, I've done far less for him than you have, his uncle-master."

"Little Yang is a good child. Sometimes I wonder what kind of good fortune I must have stumbled into to take on a disciple with such heaven-defying luck and monstrous comprehension."

"Heaven gave him to our Holy Lord Lineage. I believe the task of restoring our lineage to its former glory will inevitably fall on his shoulders one day."

"The Ruthless Lineage is ambitious. Even though Little Yang is merely a Mortal Body and of no use to their cultivation of demonic arts, they might still strike from the shadows and snuff out our hope."

"The Dragon Loach can extend a cultivator's life by three hundred years. Even if I, a half-step mighty figure, lived several hundred years longer, at most I'd become an Immortal Second Realm mighty figure."

"But our senior brother, Master Wang Zheng, is an ancient living fossil. If he took this Dragon Loach and gained another three hundred years of life, that would be a great blessing for our Holy Lord Lineage."

Li Daoming explained the pros and cons to Li Daoqing, considering everything from the perspective of the Holy Lord Lineage rather than his own interests.

Li Daoqing remained silent.

Both were dear to him.

His junior fellow disciple, Li Daoming, was from the same master as him, and they were as close as brothers. His senior brother, Wang Zheng, had also shared life and death with him.

Li Daoming still had several hundred years to live.

Wang Zheng, however, had at most a few decades left.

"Fang Yang... I hope your luck holds out a little longer... Don't blame your master for giving the Dragon Loach to someone else... It's all for your own good..."

Li Daoqing's heart was bitter.

As the Holy Lord of Yaoguang, others saw him as a mighty figure with boundless powers and immeasurable magical abilities.

But there were still many things beyond his power.

After crossing the stone bridge, the two arrived before a lake. They gazed at the simple stone hut on an island in its center and came to a stop.

The small lake before them looked utterly ordinary.

In truth, however, a terrifying formation had been laid around it, powerful enough to withstand attacks from several Immortal Second Realm mighty figures.

A moment later, ripples spread across the lake's center.

Only then did Li Daoqing and Li Daoming set off for the stone hut. There, they found Wang Zheng, who had been in seclusion for a long time, trying to break through the Dao-Severing barrier.

The dim, cramped stone hut hardly suited the status of a great figure from the Yao Guang Sacred Land, but it suited an Ascetic Monk perfectly.

Seeing Li Daoqing and Li Daoming arrive together, Wang Zheng smiled with the weathered warmth of a man who had seen much of the world.

"What brings you two junior brothers here?"

"We've come to ask you to leave seclusion, Senior Brother."

Li Daoming took out the Dragon Loach and placed it before Wang Zheng without a trace of reluctance.

"Is this a Dragon Loach? Where did you get it?"

Wang Zheng's eyes swept over the Dragon Loach. He showed no excitement; instead, he stared at Li Daoming and asked where it had come from.

The Dragon Loach was a treasure.

But that didn't mean it had to be used on an old man like him.

Faced with Wang Zheng's question, Li Daoming said nothing.

Li Daoqing sighed, then told Wang Zheng where the Dragon Loach had come from.

"Fang Yang..."

A brilliant light rose in Wang Zheng's old, clouded eyes.

"Great comprehension, great fortune..."

"Perhaps he really can restore the Yao Guang Sacred Land to its former glory."

"But... Daoming, I'm sorry to you."

He spoke with remorse.

Accepting a life-extending treasure that should have belonged to his junior brother Li Daoming was hardly something he could be happy about.

How long did one have to live before it counted as long enough?

If Fang Yang had not shown the potential to become a Source Heaven Master,

If the Holy Lord Lineage were not in decline,

Wang Zheng would rather have died in this stone hut than take his junior brother's treasure.

"Don't worry, Senior Brother."

"My young disciple has extraordinary Source Technique and abundant good fortune. Maybe one day he'll even find an Undying Divine Medicine. If that happens, you won't get a look in."

Li Daoming teased.

He said it to keep Wang Zheng from feeling too burdened, so he could refine the Dragon Loach in peace.