Jiang Taixu

"You... come here..." Jiang Taixu's voice was aged and feeble.

Jiang Zhu located the direction of the voice, followed the winding passages, and arrived before a purple rock wall.

The purple jade wall was lustrous and spotless, clear and translucent. Within it appeared a tall, hideous figure with a single horn on its brow, six arms beneath its shoulders, a pair of wings on its back, and fine scales covering its body.

"A bloodline descendant of one of the Undying Heavenly Emperor's generals. I wonder what race he belongs to? Could I refine Origin Blood from him?" Jiang Zhu murmured as he studied the ancient race figure.

"Your... realm... is..." God King Jiang Taixu asked.

"The Dao Palace Realm," Jiang Zhu answered truthfully.

"You... are too weak..." The voice sounded desolate, seemingly overcome with disappointment, as though all its strength had been drained away.

Jiang Zhu silently grumbled at those words. If I were strong, I wouldn't have come here. Then he asked, "Senior, are you all right? If you're fine, I'll be going. I've still got things to do."

"I'll teach you a move... and see how good your comprehension is..." Jiang Taixu's voice grew even weaker.

"Sorry, no time. Sorry for bothering you. Goodbye!"

Jiang Zhu refused without hesitation. He had no shortage of offensive secret arts; the True Dragon Secret Art and Grass Character Sword Art were enough for him.

Although Nine Secrets: Dou was powerful too, only the nine secrets combined constituted a True Immortal art. He already lacked the time to master the two Immortal King Laws best suited to him, so where would he find the time to learn Nine Secrets: Dou?

Inside the purple wall, Jiang Taixu fell silent. Why aren't you following the script?

After a long while, he seemed to have gathered enough strength. "It is one... of the nine secrets... I may die here, but the nine secrets... must not perish... in my hands!"

Jiang Taixu was simply too weak. It took him ages to stammer out a single sentence.

"Next time. Definitely next time!"

Jiang Zhu really did not want to stand here chatting with a lonely old man anymore. Having his words left on read, only to get half a sentence back ages later, was sheer torture.

After some thought, he took out a bottle of hundred herb liquid and placed it before the purple wall. "Senior, this bottle of hundred herb liquid should help you recover. You'd better wait for the next person destined to receive your teachings!"

Jiang Taixu's brain froze for a moment. Hundred herb liquid?

That stuff small, insignificant sects give their disciples when they open their Bitter Seas? As the God King Body of the Desolate Ancient Jiang Family, even when I was laying my foundations, the medicine liquid I used was hundreds of times better. Now that my God King Body has reached great accomplishment, drinking that stuff is supposed to help me recover?

Is he some disciple from a small sect who's never seen the world? He doesn't want Nine Secrets: Dou, and he thinks hundred herb liquid can help me recover. He really is a lowly little cultivator.

Despite being rejected twice, Jiang Taixu still decided to give this inexperienced little cultivator a chance.

"You... watch closely... hmm?" An emaciated figure appeared within the rock wall. Every single bone was visible; he looked scarcely better than a skeleton.

His long hair was longer than his body, trailing behind his skeletal frame. He was just about to impart his art when the hundred herb liquid outside the rock wall caught his attention.

This is hundred herb liquid?

Your hundred herb liquid looks like this?

You use this sort of hundred herb liquid to lay your foundations?

As a descendant of a Desolate Ancient Family, the possessor of a greatly accomplished God King Body, and the wielder of Nine Secrets: Dou, what had Jiang Taixu not seen? But he truly had never seen hundred herb liquid like this!

That refreshing fragrance penetrated his very heart. Just smelling it made him feel as though he might float away into immortality. At least dozens of medicine kings had been fused and refined into it, along with half-divine medicine, and even Immortal Medicine?

Jiang Taixu felt that he must have developed mental problems after being trapped for so long.

Over these four thousand years, he had barely eaten anything. Even the essence of his God King Body was nearly exhausted, and he had lived more miserably than a monkey. Now that a drop of immortal medicine had suddenly appeared before him, he wondered whether he was dying and hallucinating it.

But that fragrance was simply too enticing!

It could not possibly be fake!

Of course it was real. Giving away even this single drop of hundred herb liquid made Jiang Zhu's heart ache a little.

This hundred herb liquid had been refined from the extracted juices of countless Treasure Medicines, mixed with the medicinal liquid of hundreds of medicine kings and the essence blood of two half-divine medicines, with a final drop of medicinal liquid from a fruit of the White Tiger Immortal Medicine added.

This was no ordinary hundred herb liquid. This was hundred herb liquid SProMAXPlusUltra Ultimate Supreme Glory Commemorative Edition!

Even a Great Sage would be tempted by this single drop of hundred herb liquid!

No wonder he doesn't need Nine Secrets: Dou. Perhaps he already has it.

Jiang Taixu was struck utterly speechless. After a long while, he asked, "What do you need?"

As the man with the greatest offensive power five thousand years ago, Jiang Taixu had his dignity. He could not simply take the hundred herb liquid for free to prolong his life.

Jiang Zhu considered it. Jiang Taixu did not have what he wanted!

The Hengyu Scripture was good, but Jiang Taixu could not possibly teach it to an outsider just like that. At the very least, a woman from the Jiang Family would have to be thrown into the bargain before he could pass it on.

Wait, my surname is Jiang too!

"My surname is Jiang," Jiang Zhu ventured.

"?"

I've had no news for four thousand years. When did our Jiang Family become so wealthy? Even our hundred herb liquid is made to this standard now?

And the secret arts this junior possesses are at least as powerful as Nine Secrets: Dou.

Has our imperial ancestor returned? Has he unified the Big Dipper? Have all the dark forbidden zones been pacified?

"Are you a descendant of our Jiang Family?"

Jiang Zhu said nothing and merely sent over a drop of fresh blood.

Of course, he could not possibly be a junior descendant of the Jiang Family. Even if he belonged to it, by seniority, he would have to be a young ancestor of the Big Dipper's Desolate Ancient Jiang Family!

He sent over a drop of blood because he also wanted to see whether he possessed the Hengyu Bloodline.

Jiang Taixu drew the drop into the purple wall and examined it carefully. This blood did indeed share his origin, though its bloodline power was faint.

But why do the other two powers of origin contained in this drop of blood feel no weaker than imperial blood?

What happened in these four thousand years? Did the Jiang Family intermarry with the Demon Emperor's bloodline?

But after thinking it over, Jiang Taixu knew that was impossible. Only four thousand years had passed. Given what he knew of the Jiang Family's previous internal circumstances, such enormous changes were impossible.

Furthermore, although the Jiang Family bloodline within this drop was faint, it was closer to their imperial ancestor Hengyu than his own. Thinking of their imperial ancestor's habits, Jiang Taixu felt that he was gradually coming to understand everything.

Outsiders rarely knew Emperor Hengyu's true nature and habits, but how could their Jiang Family not know?

As the founder of the Ziwei and Big Dipper version of "I have a friend," and the pioneer who traveled far to the Central Province to crouch like a tiger atop the Sun Terrace, what was the story behind the Ancient Hua Dynasty's unnamed Great Emperor? Others might not know, but how could they not?

In other words, the person outside the purple wall might be a descendant of another branch of their imperial ancestor Hengyu's bloodline, one closer to its source than any of the Hengyu Bloodline on the Big Dipper.

"So our imperial ancestor may have lived another lifetime and, just as before, traveled far away from the Big Dipper? His life really does make others green with envy!" Jiang Taixu could not help marveling.

The earlier part of Jiang Taixu's speculation was roughly accurate, but the final part about making others green with envy was completely wrong.

Perhaps crouching like a tiger in the Central Province had left Hengyu with psychological scars, causing Shennong, who was born through his emperor corpse gaining sentience after his death, not to become an inveterate womanizer.

By contrast, Void Emperor, who had spent his life battling the Life Forbidden Zones and had failed to live a second lifetime despite possessing Immortal Medicine, left behind the tale of Three Thousand Consorts after his emperor corpse gained sentience.

After fighting his entire life, he truly had indulged himself.