Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin

Donkey had known Ye Fan for over a decade and knew that the Ye Fan before him was an ordinary person, so he remained quite calm.

"This is the dog I got recently, Little White." Luo Yan kicked him.

Dragon Horse woke groggily and looked Ye Fan over before calming down, confirming that he was an ordinary mortal whose physical constitution was, at most, far stronger than a normal person's.

"Uncle Luo, did Little White just talk?" Ye Fan asked in shock.

Luo Yan feigned ignorance. "How could a dog talk? Did you mishear something?"

"No! Little White just said, 'A ghost!' I heard it loud and clear," Ye Fan said with certainty.

Luo Yan shook his head. "You don't even believe your Uncle Luo? You definitely misheard! Dogs can't talk."

Dragon Horse played along. "Woof, woof!"

Donkey gave a convincing imitation as well. "Woof-"

"See? I told you that you must have misheard, but you wouldn't believe me." Luo Yan remained utterly composed, without the slightest flaw in his act.

Seeing this, Ye Fan couldn't help muttering inwardly, Did I really mishear? Has something gone wrong with my training lately?

Still, Ye Fan eyed the two dogs, one black and one white, with suspicion.

"Ye Fan, are you ready yet?"

Two voices came from downstairs, one male and one female, as their owners climbed the stairs.

The man was on the heavy side, with a burly build; the woman was quite attractive, the sort anyone would call a beauty.

Seeing them, Ye Fan hurried to introduce the pair to Luo Yan.

"Uncle Luo, this is my good friend Pang Bo, and beside him is my girlfriend, Li Xiaoman."

"This is Uncle Luo, whom I'm always telling you about. He's nothing like those flashy frauds online-he has real martial arts skills! Everything I know, I learned from him!"

Luo Yan nodded slightly. "I know. You're Ye Fan's college classmates. His parents told me about you."

"Sorry for the trouble, but please look after Ye Fan over the next four years!"

"Why would Ye Fan need us to look after him? He's as strong as an ox, with an endless supply of brute strength every day. We'll be lucky if he doesn't bully anyone!

"Li Xiaoman knows that better than anyone!" As Pang Bo spoke, he shot Li Xiaoman a mischievous look.

Li Xiaoman blushed and lowered her head, her thoughts a mystery.

Though Ye Fan was usually easygoing, his stiff limbs betrayed his embarrassment.

Luo Yan pretended not to notice and said calmly, "I don't understand much about you young people's affairs. Enjoy the life you have now."

Once you set foot on the Starry Sky Ancient Road, you won't have opportunities like this anymore.

After exchanging pleasantries, Ye Fan and the other two waved goodbye to Luo Yan.

"Goodbye, Uncle Luo!"

"Goodbye!"

The three went downstairs, carried their luggage to the car, and drove away.

"Ye Fan, why do I feel like Uncle Luo looked at me differently?" Li Xiaoman asked worriedly from the passenger seat.

"I don't think so. Uncle Luo looked at all of us the same way!"

But Li Xiaoman was certain. "No, it was different! His gaze seemed full of regret and disappointment! Does Uncle Luo think I'm not good enough?"

"Impossible!" Ye Fan said. "I've lived around Uncle Luo for over a decade, and I've never seen or heard of him looking down on anyone!"

"Could I have been mistaken?" Li Xiaoman wondered aloud, then said nothing more.

Pang Bo changed the subject from the back seat. "Ye Fan, your Uncle Luo looks so young! If you hadn't told me, I would've thought he was your older brother!"

Ye Fan slammed on the brakes. Everyone in the car lurched forward, lightly bumping their foreheads.

"What's wrong?" Li Xiaoman looked at Ye Fan with concern.

Ye Fan stared into the rearview mirror. A building appeared in it, and a man stood on its balcony, silently watching them leave. He looked barely into his twenties.

Shock spread across Ye Fan's face.

In his memories, Uncle Luo had looked exactly like this the first time they met.

Now, more than a decade had passed. His parents had a few white hairs and noticeably more wrinkles, while he had grown from a little brat into a college student.

But...

Uncle Luo's face remained unchanged, as though he would never grow old!

Ye Fan was now certain that the white dog had spoken human words! He hadn't misheard! And there was Little Black, too-he had long suspected that the dog was no less intelligent than an ordinary person.

With signs this obvious, why hadn't he noticed before?

Whatever the case, now wasn't the time to ask. He would ask when he came back next time.

"It's nothing. I just thought of something. Let's go!" The three drove away.

In a dim room, Ye Fan answered a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Ye Fan? We have our class reunion in a couple of days, and everyone's decided to climb Mount Tai afterward. Li Xiaoman is coming too, so dress a little more formally."

"Sure, got it!"

Ye Fan got out of bed with his head swimming and gave himself a quick wash. He had worked overtime drinking with his boss the night before and hadn't returned until the middle of the night.

By his reckoning, he had been out of college for some time. He was among the few in his class who had done well for themselves; at the same age as his peers, he had already bought a Mercedes with his own earnings.

"I'll go home after this reunion and see Mom and Dad." After graduating, he had stayed in this city and had yet to return home.

"And ask a few questions while I'm at it!"

Ye Fan opened his phone. In an old park, a young man was walking two dogs, one black and one white, with a somewhat aging residential complex behind him.

Ten years ago, this would definitely have been a place only comfortably well-off families could afford to live. Ten years later, the complex looked rather run-down.

The photo had been taken six months earlier.

He had to call the person in the photograph "Uncle," even though the man looked younger than he did. It sounded like a tale from the Arabian Nights, but it was true!

Twenty years had passed, yet the face of the person in the photograph hadn't changed at all.

The next day, after the reunion.

Ye Fan drove his Mercedes to the foot of Mount Tai.

His classmates arrived one after another. He spotted his ex-girlfriend, Li Xiaoman, in the crowd at once. Neither greeted the other; they averted their eyes.

Their four-year relationship in college had ultimately returned to dust and earth.

This couldn't help reminding Ye Fan of what Li Xiaoman had said after meeting Uncle Luo for the first time a few years earlier.

It was as though Uncle Luo had foreseen this day, knowing from the very beginning how things would end between him and Li Xiaoman.

Rumble-

Nine dragon corpses, each a hundred meters long, had Black Iron Chains as thick as the mouth of a bowl bound to their tails. The chains stretched into the dark cosmos behind the nine corpses, where a twenty-meter-long Bronze Coffin floated silently.

The Bronze Coffin was ancient and unadorned, bearing a few indistinct patterns and the weathered weight of countless years.

The colossal mass plunged toward Mount Tai.

After the heavens shook and the earth trembled, the nine dragon corpses lay motionless across the summit, with a few portions hanging over the cliffs.

The tremendous impact blasted the buried Five-Colored Altar into view.

It was a staggering sight, a particularly overwhelming assault on the eyes.

Far away in Danan City, a man gazed calmly in that direction. "The Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin... has arrived!"

With that, he held the Broken Mirror above his head and stepped into the Long River, whose end was beyond sight and whose banks could not be seen.