"Teacher." Zhao Linchuan inclined his head slightly, his voice steady and respectful. "This Golden Scale Dragon Crocodile Flower is almost a perfect match for your Martial Soul."
"If you take it, I'm at least seventy percent certain I can make your Martial Soul evolve into the Golden Crocodile Emperor."
Golden Crocodile didn't answer right away. He lowered his head and looked at the jade box in his hands, his thumb gently rubbing the patterns carved into its surface. He was silent for a long time.
For a while, the hall was so quiet they could hear the wind rustling the leaves outside the window.
At last, he spoke slowly. "You've gone to a lot of trouble."
He raised his head and gazed through the open window lattice at a pale golden cloud on the distant horizon. His eyes looked forlorn, as though he had remembered something from long ago.
"It's just that this Immortal Herb came too late. I'm already too old for it to be of any use."
He shook his head, the corner of his mouth twisting into a faint, bitter smile.
"At my age, it's impossible for me to make any more progress."
"I'm long past the age of fighting to prove myself."
He held out the jade box, his tone carrying both a measure of acceptance and an indescribable hint of regret.
"You should take this Immortal Herb back."
"It might be more useful to someone else."
Zhao Linchuan didn't reach out to take it. He looked Golden Crocodile in the eye, fell silent for a moment, then suddenly changed tack.
"Teacher, can you still eat?"
At his words, Golden Crocodile's brows knitted instantly.
"Brat," he said, his voice tinged with irritation and rising slightly in pitch, "what do you mean by that?"
"I'm a dignified Level 98 Peerless Douluo, and you're asking whether I can eat?"
Zhao Linchuan ignored him. His expression unchanged, he remained where he stood, back straight, eyes fixed on Golden Crocodile, and asked again in exactly the same voice and tone as before.
"Teacher, can you still eat?"
"Brat, what are you getting at?"
Golden Crocodile's brows furrowed even more deeply, but he didn't lose his temper at once.
Unable to figure out what Zhao Linchuan meant, he asked in a low voice,
"I'm one of the strongest people on the entire continent. Of course I can eat!"
"But the way I see it..."
Zhao Linchuan said coolly,
"Teacher, you're already steeped in the gloom of old age, on your last legs, and about to step into your coffin."
At those words, the atmosphere in the hall abruptly froze.
Golden Crocodile's expression changed at once. A flash of anger passed through his weathered eyes, his chest rose and fell slightly, and even his beard trembled.
He opened his mouth, seemingly about to rebuke him, but for some reason swallowed the words before they could leave his lips.
He took a deep breath, forced down his temper, and stared intently at Zhao Linchuan, waiting for him to continue.
Zhao Linchuan went on,
"Cultivation is like rowing upstream: if you don't advance, you fall behind."
"If you've even lost the ambition to improve, then this is as far as you'll ever go."
Zhao Linchuan met Golden Crocodile's gaze, his voice carrying the sharpness peculiar to the young.
"I've heard that when you were young, Teacher, you dominated an entire era."
"In your time, no one dared challenge your might."
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, his smile carrying both respect and regret.
"But look at yourself now. Where's that 'I'm the greatest under heaven' spirit you had back then?"
Golden Crocodile lowered his eyes without a word, his fingers tightening slightly around the armrest.
Zhao Linchuan lowered his head and cupped his hands, his tone so solemn it was clearly no joke.
"Teacher, go home and take up farming."
"When Ling Ji and I have children, you can look after them for us."
"I'll take my leave."
With that, Zhao Linchuan straightened up, turned around, and walked toward the door without looking back.
Seeing this, Yan Lingji inclined her head slightly and hurried after him.
Bibi Dong stood rooted to the spot, panic flashing across her face as if to say, "It's over, it's over. We're done for this time."
She cautiously edged half a step forward, her voice as soft as if she were trying to soothe a lion with its hackles raised.
"Second Worship, please don't be angry... Linchuan might've been kicked in the head while fighting a Soul Beast..."
Golden Crocodile remained silent with his eyes lowered. He held the jade box in his hands and gazed in the direction Zhao Linchuan had disappeared, his expression complicated.
After a long while, he waved a hand, his voice returning to calm. "It's all right. You may go."
"Ah, sure. You get some rest..."
Bibi Dong tiptoed backward two careful steps, then spun around and hurried out of the hall, almost running on her tiptoes. She looked just like a cat fleeing in a panic after stealing a dried fish.
The sound of footsteps gradually faded, and the hall fell quiet again.
Golden Crocodile sat alone in the seat of honor, lowering his eyes to glance at the jade box in his hands.
After a long while, he raised his head and looked out beyond the hall.
In the distance, the sky was vast and clear. A few birds swept across the horizon and disappeared behind the mountains.
Golden Crocodile murmured to himself, "Am I really... old?"
A moment later, in the corridor outside Pope Hall.
Bibi Dong walked beside Zhao Linchuan, chattering nonstop, her face a jumble of anxiety and anger.
"Linchuan, have you lost your mind?"
"Who talks back to their own teacher like that?"
The more she spoke, the more worked up she became. She was just short of laying hands on him.
"Even if you were trying to provoke him, you didn't have to be so blunt!"
"He's a living legend, and you asked if he could still eat? Then you told him to go home and farm?"
She took a deep breath, her voice rising another notch.
"You might as well have grabbed him by the hair and slapped him in the face!"
"The old man's at death's door." Zhao Linchuan kept walking, his tone indifferent. "I had to give him a strong dose."
He didn't dwell on the topic, changing tack instead.
"After you've reported on what's happened these past few days, work with me and ask them to give me a position with real authority."
"Tch..."
The corners of Bibi Dong's mouth lifted slightly, and she raised her chin, a smug smile on her face.
"So even you have to ask this Holy Maiden for a favor?"
She puffed out her chest, looking as if to say, "Leave it to me."
"Just wait. You'll see this Holy Maiden's performance in a little while."
"Oh, right," Zhao Linchuan continued. "There's also the matter of your big sister Ling Ji's Soul Ring. Here's what you should say..."
"I know, I know. How many times have you told me already? My ears are about to grow calluses..."
An hour later, inside Pope Hall.
Qian Xunji sat behind a broad desk, with documents piled high before him. He had no desire to read them, though; he leaned back in his chair, his expression changing again and again.
Shock, disbelief, bewilderment, emotion... Each feeling played across his face in turn, as if he were performing a silent pantomime.
After a long, long while, Bibi Dong finally gave a brief account of some of what had happened over the past few days.
She told it with vivid detail, leaving Qian Xunji utterly dumbfounded. He felt as though he were listening to a science-fiction story, and could hardly believe it.
If the three of them hadn't just shown off their Soul Rings, he wouldn't have believed a word Bibi Dong had said, even if someone beat him to death.
Before you continue