Venerable Yao's Story

"Xie Xie! Gu Yue!"

Tang Wulin abruptly sat up in bed, a trace of panic still in his eyes.

But when he took in his surroundings, he realized he seemed to be in a hospital, lying in bed with no one else around.

"Where is... this? Wasn't I on Snack Street?"

"Ugh... it hurts!"

Tang Wulin clutched his chest. His whole body hurt like hell, and his bones felt as if they were about to fall apart.

"This is your academy's hospital. You've been unconscious for several days!"

At that moment, Venerable Yao appeared beside Tang Wulin.

"Venerable Yao?" Tang Wulin rubbed his aching head and asked, "Several days have already passed? What exactly happened? What about Xie Xie and Gu Yue? And that Guang Biao?"

Venerable Yao smiled. "They're both fine. At this time, they should be in class, barring any surprises. You're the one who suffered serious injuries."

"As for Guang Biao, after you passed out that day, I took control of your body for a while and drove him off. Then your teacher, Wu Zhangkong, arrived and brought all three of you back to the academy."

Venerable Yao briefly recounted what had happened on Snack Street that night, leaving out many details. He didn't even mention Mountain City's arrival afterward.

Hearing that Xie Xie and Gu Yue were all right, Tang Wulin finally relaxed a little and lay back down.

"That was really close. I honestly thought I was going to die there!"

"Going through a few more things isn't all bad. It was a trial for you, and besides, I helped you make a killing this time." Venerable Yao smiled.

"Make a killing?" Tang Wulin didn't quite understand what he meant.

Venerable Yao pointed at the middle finger of Tang Wulin's left hand.

Tang Wulin looked closely and saw that, at some point, a very exquisite ring had appeared on his left middle finger.

"This is... a Storage Soul Tool!" Tang Wulin recognized what the ring was.

"Take a look inside. That's the compensation from the people who came to buy Guang Biao back afterward."

Tang Wulin sent a little spiritual power into the ring. The space inside was astonishingly vast. The ring alone was probably worth an astronomical sum! But when he saw what was stored inside, his jaw dropped in shock.

"Isn't this Guang Biao's Black-Grade Mecha? And there are several high-tier Soul Tools in here too. They must be at least Level Six or Seven!"

Venerable Yao nodded with a smile. "I don't know about the Soul Tools you mentioned, but I did put that Black-Grade Mecha in there. What do you think? Wasn't I right? Did we make a killing or what?"

Tang Wulin nodded hard. This was more than just making a killing. According to Xie Xie, Black-Grade Mechas were the strongest things around apart from Red-Grade Mechas. The whole of Eastsea City probably couldn't produce a second one! Just how much could he make if he sold it?

Thinking that he was about to become rich overnight, Tang Wulin couldn't help grinning foolishly.

"Venerable Yao, you really are amazing. You can even defeat a Soul Emperor," Tang Wulin said with a grin.

"You brat! I told you long ago that I was amazing, but you wouldn't believe me." Venerable Yao gave him an exasperated look.

"Venerable Yao, I believe you now. But if you're this powerful even in your current state, what kind of powerhouse could defeat you in your prime? Dou Qi Continent... If I ever get the chance, I'd really like to see it."

When Venerable Yao heard Tang Wulin's question, the smile vanished from his lips, and a trace of barely perceptible malice flashed in his eyes.

"It's all right. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Seeing Venerable Yao's expression, Tang Wulin tactfully added.

"No." Venerable Yao gently shook his head. "There are some things I should tell you. It'll do both of us some good."

Tang Wulin's expression turned serious at once, and he listened closely to what Venerable Yao had to say.

"When I was alive, I wasn't the strongest in my world, but I was certainly capable of carving out and protecting territory for myself. The one who reduced me to my current state wasn't some peerless powerhouse. It was the only disciple I'd taught for over a decade!"

Tang Wulin's eyes widened in shock. He hadn't expected the person who had harmed Venerable Yao to be his disciple, the sole student he had taught for over a decade.

"I was born into the Yao Clan, one of the Ancient Eight Clans of Dou Qi Continent. I came from a branch family, but from a young age, I displayed a heaven-defying talent for alchemy, surpassing every descendant of the main line."

"But when I was young, I didn't know how to hold back. I kept showing off in front of the main line's descendants, earning the elders' resentment. So, during a clan alchemy competition, the elders of the main line secretly set me up, and I lost miserably. Then they accused me of stealing the clan's spiritual herbs. Finally, the elders of the main line joined forces to sow discord before the clan leader. The clan leader had no choice but to expel me from the Yao Clan."

"But I didn't let that defeat me. I wandered across Dou Qi Continent alone. Decades passed in the blink of an eye, and my cultivation reached a respectable height. My alchemy skills, meanwhile, reached their peak, making me famous across the entire Dou Qi Continent."

"In those days, I was truly a force to be reckoned with. Wherever I went, people addressed me with respect as 'Venerable Yao.' I also founded Starfall Pavilion with a friend I'd made while traveling, making it one of the Four Pavilions of Dou Qi Continent."

"Later, I took on a disciple. He had a fine talent for alchemy, and he was an orphan. For over a decade, I treated him as my own and passed on every alchemy technique I'd mastered in my life."

"But to my surprise, that disciple of mine actually colluded with the Soul Clan, one of the Ancient Eight Clans, for the sake of a cultivation manual. He lured me into the Soul Clan's encirclement. At the time, I never suspected it was his scheme. I still fought desperately to protect him, trying to get him out of the encirclement and save his life."

"But just as I was fighting the Soul Clan's experts until heaven and earth darkened, I never imagined he would stab me in the back."

"That stab hurt. By then, there was no way out for me. In the end, all I could do was leave behind a fragment of my soul, hide in this Spirit Ring, and fall into a long slumber."

"You already know what happened after that. For some reason, this Spirit Ring drifted to your Douluo Continent and was found by you. Your life force is exceptionally strong. I only managed to awaken after absorbing three years' worth of it."

After hearing Venerable Yao's story, Tang Wulin fell into a long silence. From his birth as a genius, to being resented and ostracized by his clan, from reaching the pinnacle of a great faction to being stabbed in the back by a disciple he had raised for over a decade—Venerable Yao's life had truly been full of twists and turns.