Are we really not cultivating immortality?

"Knock, knock, knock."

Luo Yan lay comfortably on the sofa, watching television. Modern life really was comfortable, with internet access and phones. Hearing a knock at the door, he looked toward the entrance and saw who was there through the security door: Ye Hai.

"Brother Luo, have you seen Ye Fan?" Ye Hai asked anxiously.

"Ye Fan? No! Hasn't he come home yet today?"

"When I went to pick him up from school today, his teacher said someone had already collected him. I thought his mother had picked him up, but when I came home and asked, it turned out she hadn't.

"So I wanted to ask whether you'd seen Ye Fan come home," Ye Hai said anxiously. Behind him, Ye Fan's mother was making phone calls, equally unsettled.

Luo Yan immediately spread his divine sense over Danan City and soon found Ye Fan.

He discovered why the boy had disappeared. Some cultivators on Earth had noticed the Jade Stone Ye Fan carried and kidnapped him to interrogate him about its origins.

"Don't worry. Ye Fan is fine. I've found him." Luo Yan first reassured the couple, then took a single step and vanished from the residential complex.

The sight startled them both.

"Little fellow, tell big sister who gave you this Jade Stone." The three Earth cultivators questioned him patiently. They seemed kindly enough, but with Ye Fan tied to a chair, they hardly looked like good people.

Ye Fan watched them fearfully, tears brimming in his eyes. He was clearly terrified.

None of the three looked like a normal person. One had blue scales on her face. Another leaned on a cane, his hands nothing but bare bones without a scrap of flesh. The last looked more normal, except for the green light shining from his eyes, making him look as though he might eat people.

"Uncle Luo gave it to me..." Ye Fan answered truthfully in fear.

"Who is Uncle Luo?"

Without thinking, Ye Fan blurted out, "Uncle Luo is Uncle Luo. I don't know what his name is. Uncle Luo gave me this Jade Stone. He told me it could ward off evil and keep disaster away!"

Ye Fan was no fool. He had guessed that the Jade Stone was extraordinary.

"What do we do? Should we make a move?" The old man leaning on the cane was worried, afraid that stealing the Jade Stone would offend someone important.

The man with glowing green eyes showed no fear. "Of course we should! We've already kidnapped him. It's too late to worry about offending anyone! We might as well kill him and destroy the body to erase the evidence. Then we won't have to fear that so-called 'Uncle Luo' coming after us."

The woman with blue scales on her face agreed. "If this man gave away a Jade Stone of this caliber so freely, he must have more! The Dao patterns within it are extremely important. If we can comprehend them, we'll surely reap enormous benefits!

"Let's find an opportunity to investigate his identity. If he's an ordinary person, we'll..."

"Then it's settled!"

Just as the three made up their minds, a figure appeared out of thin air before them.

"Who goes there?" All three blanched in shock.

"So it was just a few little demons. I thought you were human cultivators."

"Slash!"

Shock filled their eyes. They found themselves unable to utter a single word. Their vision flipped upside down, and all they saw were three headless corpses.

"Uncle Luo!"

Ye Fan's mouth hung wide open. In his mind, Uncle Luo had always been an ordinary, kindly man. He had never imagined Uncle Luo could be so powerful, turning his hand into a blade and effortlessly killing all three.

Facing the bloody scene, Ye Fan fought down his fear and asked, "Uncle Luo, are you an immortal?"

"Me? No. I've just practiced some martial arts. Would you like to learn?"

Ye Fan nodded rapidly.

"I'll teach you once you're in middle school."

"Uncle Luo, I'm starting middle school next term! You promised to teach me-you said you'd teach me to cultivate immortality once I started middle school!" Ye Fan knocked on his door early in the morning.

Luo Yan opened the door. Ye Fan ran inside, dropped his schoolbag, and plopped onto the sofa. Making himself at home, he picked up a piece of fruit from the desk and began munching.

"Cultivate immortality? What immortality? We have to believe in science!"

"I mean, last time you said you'd teach me martial arts! The kind where you can split a rock with one strike!" Ye Fan jumped off the sofa and demonstrated a couple of moves, looking like a little martial arts master.

Luo Yan chuckled. "That takes hard training. You won't master it without ten or twenty years of practice! Are you ready to fight this uphill battle?"

Ye Fan thumped his chest confidently. "I'm ready!"

Luo Yan took out a secret manual and handed it to him. "I've got everything ready for you, too! The martial arts in this manual will help you exercise effectively and lay the foundations for your training. Follow its instructions and train diligently."

Ye Fan stared blankly at him, then tilted his head in confusion. "That's it?"

"Aren't you supposed to cleanse my marrow, purge my meridians, and open up my Ren and Du Meridians, like in martial arts novels?" Ye Fan asked with a little anticipation.

"You certainly know a lot! But there's no need for all that trouble. What they say on TV isn't necessarily right! I also have three drops of precious blood left by a martial arts master of bygone days. I'll place them between your brows now. In the future, they can help you break the Desolate Antiquity Taboo." Luo Yan pressed three drops of his own blood essence into the space between Ye Fan's brows.

Ye Fan couldn't help asking again, "Uncle Luo, are we really practicing martial arts, not cultivating immortality?"

"Of course. Believe in science!" With a perfectly straight face, Luo Yan conjured another three drops of Divine Liquid out of thin air before Ye Fan. This was Divine Liquid from the He Shou Wu on Changbai Mountain.

"What's that, then?"

"A precious medicine! Comparable to an Immortal Peach! It contains tremendous vitality, enough to revive the dead, restore flesh to bare bones, and bring people back to life!"

Ye Fan's mouth fell open. "Uncle Luo, are we really not cultivating immortality?"

"I told you to believe in science!" Luo Yan said sternly. "Immortals don't exist in this world! All right, I'll hide these three drops of Divine Liquid inside your body. In the future, they can save you from death three times!"

Before long, Ye Fan left with a spring in his step, clutching the body-tempering manual.

"You haven't finished your fruit!" Luo Yan called after him.

From the doorway, Ye Fan answered, "I don't want any more! I'm going to practice martial arts!"

Donkey hopped onto the sofa, picked up the half-eaten fruit Ye Fan had left, and began munching, grumbling as he ate. "That kid really doesn't know a treasure when he sees one. This is good stuff! Can't let it go to waste!"

Ye Fan might not know what it was, but how could Donkey not know?

It had come from a Divine Vine seed Luo Yan had casually "picked up" while passing an exceptionally prosperous planet on his way from the Big Dipper to Earth. In the process, he had also accidentally blown up a planet, much to his bitter anguish.

Watered with Luo Yan's Quasi-Emperor blood, the Divine Vine seed had now regained its vitality, taken root, sprouted, and borne fruit in five colors.

It was called the Five-Element Vine. Although it couldn't compare to Immortal Medicine and wasn't even a half-divine medicine, it was still a rare treasure of the world.

Its fruit contained law fragments imbued with the power of the five elements. Eating it over a long period could deepen one's understanding of the five-element laws. With sufficient aptitude for comprehension, one could even condense the five-element laws.

Beyond that, it could subtly improve the eater's constitution over time, offering a chance to develop an acquired five-element divine body.

After blissfully finishing the half-eaten fruit, Donkey still wanted more. "Too bad it only bears a dozen or so at a time..."

"But fortunately, after absorbing Master's Quasi-Emperor blood, this Divine Vine flowers every three days and bears fruit every half month." Donkey felt a little envious. That was Quasi-Emperor blood-a supreme treasure that, in a certain sense, rivaled Immortal Medicine!

Had Ye Fan known, he would surely have regretted today's waste in the future.