"Th-this... this... Your disciple is willing to accept the Sage Position!"
As those words squeezed out of Randeng's parched throat, all his vitality seemed to drain from him in an instant.
Then an unprecedented frenzy of longing filled him completely!
An illusion?
An inner demon?
A test?
No!
None of that mattered anymore!
At that moment, Randeng could spare no thought for anything else.
His Dao Heart, long withered and numb through endless ages, was being burned clean by a raging fire called obsession.
Countless billions of epochs!
What had he sacrificed for those two words-"become a Sage"?
He had been an Innate Deity of the same generation as the Three Pure Ones, yet he could only watch as others climbed to the summit one after another and looked down upon all living beings.
He had set aside his dignity as a former guest of Zixiao Palace and entered Yuanshi's tutelage, all to seek that one elusive thread of opportunity.
He had endured from ancient times into the middle ages, then struggled from the middle ages to the present. How many of his peers had he outlived? How many heaven-blessed prodigies had he watched pass away?
Yet a Sage Position remained beyond his reach!
It was like an invisible barrier stretching between Heaven and Earth. No matter how world-shaking his divine abilities or how boundless his magic power, he could not cross it by even a fraction.
The agony of yearning for what he could never obtain had long since become the deepest poison, seeping into his True Spirit and branding itself upon his Dao Fruit.
Now the antidote lay before his eyes!
Even if Hongjun was the one offering it, even if the Elder of Chaos stood beside him, poised to choose someone to devour.
Even if behind it