"Achoo!"
Out in the Wilderness Beyond the Pass, cold winds swept up fine dust and sand, sending it pattering against the tent.
"Oh dear, have I caught a cold?" A mature, sexy older man stood atop a pile of ruins with a rather cavalier air, wearing a long black coat over shorts and flip-flops.
"No, there's absolutely no way it's a cold. Someone must be thinking of me. I did get around a little in my younger days, after all. I wonder which girl it is. Hmm... I haven't fooled around in over a decade. Those young ladies have probably all become older ladies by now. Just thinking about it breaks my heart."
Doctor Chen clutched his chest.
"Hey, why are you all so expressionless? Beauty fades like frost, and lovely women wither away. It's the cruelest thing in this world. What a shame-the path to becoming an Ancient Sage has only just begun to take shape."
Over a hundred military trucks were parked before him. Nearly a thousand fully armed, masked combat personnel surrounded him, with more than a hundred pitch-black gun barrels trained on him.
No one spoke. Only the wind howled.
"Chen Dukang, stop wasting time. Come back to Sky City with me." A middle-aged man in white clothes trimmed with gold stepped out of the crowd, his hands clasped behind his back and his gaze indifferent.
He had deep-set eyes, a prominent nose, and blond hair that stood straight up.
"It would be such a shame to waste your talents. Sky City can provide you with vast resources and intelligence, even records from the Epoch Era for you to study. You wouldn't have to worry about anything, nor would you have to keep running from place to place like this."
"We're old friends. I've been hunting