Ye Fan's teeth itched with hatred. He wanted to unleash a stream of profanity, but since Duan De's cultivation was higher than his, he could only make a tactful demand for compensation.
"You've got it all wrong. Don't you understand yet, little friend?" Duan De beamed happily, shamelessly putting on the air of a charlatan. "It was precisely because our first meeting formed a good karmic bond that we had this second reunion. That led me here to subdue this bead transformed from a demon, helping you avoid a calamity. This is the good fruit borne from the good karma you planted."
"Damn it..." Ye Fan truly had the urge to punch him. His fist had hardened.
"Boundless... ahem, Heavenly Venerable. Little friend, may we meet again by fate. This poor Daoist is off!" The fat Daoist twisted his rear, rode a divine rainbow into the sky, and vanished with a whoosh.
"Dead fatty, I curse you to fall to your death halfway there!" Ye Fan cursed furiously. Yet before he could finish, a plump figure fell from the heavens, smashing out a huge crater and sending dust billowing everywhere.
Ye Fan stared at the fat Daoist in the pit with an odd expression, then touched his mouth. Could it be that, aside from the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, he had also awakened the physique of a crow's beak?
"Hahaha..."
Just as Ye Fan was puzzled, a crisp and familiar laugh rang out.
Lin Xian descended, crouching beside the pit with a smile. "Fellow Daoist Duan De, what a small world. Didn't expect it, did you? We've met again."
"Bastard!" Duan De could not help swearing. This guy really was targeting him alone.
"Fellow Daoist, this time it won't just cost you a psychic weapon." Lin Xian smiled. "You insulted me just now, so you'll have to pay extra."
Duan De's face immediately turned ashen, as if he had swallowed a dead child. He wanted to resist, but after looking at Lin Xian's Divine Bridge cultivation, he ultimately chose to submit. Along with handing over the psychic weapon, he also gave him a small chunk of Source Stone.
"So this is Source..." Lin Xian held the stone brimming with life essence, slightly excited. He had finally gotten his hands on the currency of the cultivation world.
According to ancient records, in the era when Heaven and Earth joined their qi to give birth to all things, chaos was hazy and spiritual energy thick and abundant. Many spiritual objects absorbed the world's original essence and formed amber-like crystals containing immense life essence.
Those preserved until the present were called "Source," and they were extraordinarily precious to cultivators.
The most precious kind of Source was called Divine Origin. Divine Origin could not only be used for cultivation, but was also an excellent means of sealing cultivators away and resisting the erosion of time.
Many cultivators would seal themselves within Divine Origin in their later years, locking away their blood and halting their lifespan as they slept through the ages. When their sects or families encountered a great crisis in later generations, these powerful beings from antiquity would emerge and sweep aside every danger.
This was the foundation spoken of by holy lands and aristocratic families: Saints who could awaken at any time.
The Source Duan De had taken out was not Divine Origin, but it was still immensely precious to Sea of Bitterness cultivators.
Lin Xian possessed a Mortal Body. Unlike the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, which required a hundred times the resources for every breakthrough and needed hundreds or thousands of jin of Source to begin with, if he got a few more Source Stones like those in Duan De's hand, he would be confident of charging into the Other Shore Realm.
Looking at Duan De in the pit, Lin Xian smiled. "Fellow Daoist, your cultivation is still too low. If you keep such precious weapons and Source, I fear they may bring you fatal disaster."
Duan De was nearly driven mad with rage. What Lin Xian said did make sense, but the problem was that those were supposed to be his lines!
In the past, after Duan De robbed other cultivators, he would also leave them with those very words.
A habitual bandit. He was absolutely a habitual bandit!
"The calamity has been dispelled. This venerable one is off!" Lin Xian shouted, turning into a streak of light and vanishing.
Ye Fan watched Lin Xian's departing figure, feeling that this cultivator seemed strangely familiar, but he could not recall why.
When had he ever known a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youth with such profound cultivation?
Ye Fan sank into thought.
Before he could think for long, there came a sharp whoosh.
Three streaks of purple radiance shot in from the distant sky. They were actually three psychic weapons.
At that moment, not only Duan De, the old hand, but even Ye Fan, who had only recently entered the cultivation world, instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
"There's something wrong here!"
Duan De pondered for a moment, then reached for the purple ring embedded in the stone wall without hesitation.
"Daoist, that's mine!" Ye Fan finally could not endure it any longer. Once, twice, three times—no matter how mild-tempered someone was, they would get angry.
"What's yours and mine? I felt an immediate affinity with you, little friend." Duan De laughed heartily and put an arm around Ye Fan's shoulder. "Why don't we become sworn brothers? From now on, your treasures will be my treasures, while my treasures will still be my treasures."
"Fellow Daoist Duan De, that makes perfect sense!"
A familiar voice rang out again. Lin Xian had returned, smiling as he said, "Long ago, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei slaughtered a chicken, worshipped Guan Gong, and became sworn brothers three at Peach Garden."
"Now that the three of us have met, this too would make for a fine tale."
"Guan Gong, Peach Garden..." Ye Fan's expression changed at once. Those were allusions from Starry Sky's Other Shore. How could this person know them?
Unless he, like Ye Fan, had come from Earth.
"Y-you are Master Lin?"
After scrutinizing him for a long time, Ye Fan finally caught a glimpse of his former features. Looking at the youth who appeared to be fourteen or fifteen, he cautiously asked, "Did you eat the fruit too?"
"Fellow Daoist Ye, it has been a long time. You've grown younger and younger." Lin Xian sighed and nodded. "My experience was similar to yours."
"So that's how it is." Understanding flashed in Ye Fan's eyes. The Desolate Antiquity Forbidden Zone possessed the power of time, causing people to age. Only those who had eaten Sacred Fruit and drunk Divine Spring could escape harm and regain their youth.
Seeing Lin Xian again, Ye Fan had countless questions he wanted to ask this Master Lin, a man shrouded in mysteries from head to toe.
Before he could open his mouth, Duan De flew into a righteous fury and cursed, "So you two are in this together!"
"This brat was bait you placed here. Damn it, this poor Daoist spends all day hunting geese, only to have his eyes pecked out by one!"
An Immortal Leap!
In Duan De's eyes, this was a blatant Immortal Leap.
Even though Ye Fan was innocent, he had no way to explain himself now.
Lin Xian, however, wore a smile as he watched Duan De make the misunderstanding worse and worse. Meaningfully, he said, "So, Fellow Daoist Duan, have you decided? This time, the price is double."
Duan De looked at Lin Xian, then at Ye Fan, and gritted his teeth. "There are always greater heavens beyond the heavens, and greater people beyond people. This time, this poor Daoist admits defeat!"
"Three chunks of Source." Lin Xian named an outrageous price. "And that psychic weapon."
"Three chunks of Source?!" Duan De let out a pig-slaughtering shriek. "Wasn't it only one just now? Three chunks? You're asking for my life!"
"You may not know this, Fellow Daoist, but among our Mystic Sect, we place great importance on the number three."
Lin Xian stood with his hands behind his back and sighed. "Today, I captured and released you three times. If you give me three more Source Stones, it will make for a fine story when word spreads in the future."
"Truly boundless... Heavenly Venerable!"
I stayed up late to write a chapter. Please send some votes!!!