"Why are you being so polite, Brother Zhu?"
Old King Yama did not treat himself as an outsider in the slightest.
He plopped down onto a meditation cushion.
With a flick of his hand, he produced a black jade wine gourd.
"Brother Zhu, come, come. I brought some fine wine today. Let's have a taste together."
The wine pouring from the gourd glimmered brilliantly, wreathed in faint violet-blue flames.
"Azureflame Wine!" Zhu Tianlin, the Western Plague Envoy, recognized it at once. His divine eyes lit up; evidently, he too was an old drunkard.
With a whoosh, he flashed over and was already seated across from Old King Yama.
After accepting the wine cup, he first brought it close and gave it a sniff.
A strange fragrance drifted into his nostrils, invigorating his spirit!
Then he drained it in one gulp.
Amid his thoroughly satisfied expression, his entire being seemed indescribably refreshed.
"Fine wine, fine wine!" Zhu Tianlin praised it unstintingly. "Lord Yama, I heard this wine is brewed from rootless water from the depths of the Netherworld, combined with eighty-one Netherworld ingredients such as ten-thousand-year mandrake. It is exceedingly rare!
Why is Elder Brother being so generous today, treating your brother to such excellent wine?"
"As long as you like it. Come, come, have another cup!"
Zhu Tianlin raised his cup and drank again. "Truly rare fine wine! By the way, Lord Yama, why aren't you drinking?"
"Heh heh... I can't afford to drink it. You drink, you drink!"
As he spoke, he moved to pour more wine.
But this time, Zhu Tianlin covered the mouth of his cup with his hand and looked at Old King Yama with a half-smile. "Lord Yama does not visit a temple without a reason. You must have come with some instruction today, yes?"