When Xu Yuan returned, Li Bai was sunning himself on the balcony.
A hole had opened in the sky above Antarctica. Sunlight spilled through it and spread across the vast Icefield.
It was the strange sight left behind when Bìluò Palace rose into the sky.
"I rarely see you sunbathing."
Xu Yuan greeted him.
"This is how immortals live. I don't usually show it to mortals." Li Bai sat with his legs crossed and spoke without looking back.
"Sunbathing is how immortals live?"
"Of course. When I ascended, the first thing I saw up there was the Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity sitting on a lawn, sunbathing."
Beep, beep, beep!
Both their phones rang.
Xu Yuan glanced at his, then looked at Li Bai.
Li Bai kept his eyes narrowed against the sun and did not move.
"Aren't you going to the meeting?"
Xu Yuan asked.
"What problem could a meeting solve? I'm not going." Li Bai folded his arms and spoke with disdain.
Their phones had summoned them to an emergency meeting.
Xu Yuan thought it over. He ought to stand with Brother Taibai, so he said,
"Then I'll order some food and have it sent to the room."
"Sounds good to me," Li Bai said.
Xu Yuan picked up the phone and dialed an internal number. He carefully ordered several dishes and a bottle of wine, then hung up.
He looked back.
Li Bai had stood up, seemingly ready to go inside, but his gaze remained fixed on the Icefield.
The Ancient Gods were all dead.
The Monster of Truth had not been Parasitism only in the mind of the Ancient God of the Black Coffin.
The same was true of every Ancient God.
Once the truth came to light, neither side had a way out.