"Hmph, boy, stop playing tricks!"
Lord Taisu's voice came from the depths of the Chaos Secret Realm, aged and low, carrying a deliberately maintained air of authority and disdain.
"Let me see just how you intend to be anything less than polite!"
As his words fell, the swaying figure outside the Secret Realm showed no anger. Instead, he broke into a grin.
That smile was lazy and casual, tinged with his usual drunkenness, as though he had heard not a threat but a lousy joke.
"Heh heh..."
Gu Changqing chuckled, tipped his head back, and took a great gulp of wine.
As the wine slid down his throat, its rich fragrance spread through his mouth and flowed into his body, leaving him a little more relaxed.
Then he tilted his head, gazed at the empty void ahead through his drink-hazed eyes, and spoke unhurriedly.
"Heh heh... this Chaos Secret Realm looks more like a great Dao cage."
The moment those words left his mouth-
Deep within the Chaos Secret Realm, Lord Taisu's pupils abruptly contracted.
On his aged face, the carefully maintained authority and disdain seemed to have been struck by a thunderbolt, developing visible cracks in an instant.
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, and a tremor he could scarcely conceal flashed through his cloudy old eyes.
A great Dao cage.
Those words were like invisible swords, piercing with unerring precision through the disguise he had painstakingly woven over endless ages and driving straight into the secret he least wanted anyone to touch.
The Chaos Secret Realm was his dwelling, a refuge where Lord Taisu secluded himself from the outside world, from the myriad Daos, and from every entanglement of cause and effect.
To outsiders, it represented the supreme authority of the five pre-heavenly ultimates, the natural concealment