Aman and Chen Yao both jumped in fright. Aman noticed that "Wu Gensheng" had actually leaped aside, his expression a sight to behold. His gaze at the old man brimmed with disgust, along with a hint of... wariness and wild delight?
Hmm? Aman began watching curiously.
"I too find this young brother blessed with extraordinary bones, a clear spiritual seat, and innate Dao resonance, with hidden wisdom in every word. This old Daoist also has a family legacy art to sell, one I fear will be lost because my poor aptitude has kept me from mastering it. And I only ask half that fellow's price!" An old man with a five-colored bird perched on his shoulder appeared, all smiles. Who knew how long he had been listening?
Strange. Were these two old men in the Blood Moving Initial Land really this strong? Weren't they in bad shape? Shi Hao clearly caught them and beat them up in the original story. I've already broken past the extreme realm, so why do they still seem to appear and disappear like ghosts, their depths impossible to fathom? Could they still have been holding back against Shi Hao that time in the original? Chen Yao was speechless.
That makes sense. They're fragments of Immortal Kings' primordial spirits, after all. However strong Shi Hao was as a child, he shouldn't have been able to suppress them so early. His potential and Dao foundation hadn't yet expanded and ascended to that level. At the very least, he would have needed the later myriad Dao fire to envelop him, or even the transformation of his Dao foundation after taking his own body as a seed, before that could feed back into his earlier realms and let him threaten Immortal Kings at the same Blood Moving Realm level. Chen Yao quickly grasped the crux of it.
"Please stop joking, seniors. You've never tried it yourselves, so where would these manuals come from?" Chen Yao said, feigning nonchalance.
"You're mistaken, young brother! How could no one have attempted something so fundamental? If no one had tried it, how would you know its secrets?" Lord Crystal Wall shook his head. He had already pulled out a deliberately aged manual, his smile positively brimming with ill intent.
"I said you two have never tried it." Chen Yao mercilessly exposed them. These two old codgers practiced the immortal ancient Dao seed method. The new paths opened while cultivating immortal qi were clearly different from the transcendence of the extreme realm method. What the Dao seed method deeply cultivated was not the expansion of individual realms, but the expansion of one's own Dao seed. Otherwise, research into the relevant subjects would never have been divided between the completely separate Immortal Academy and Sacred Academy.
Most importantly, these two old codgers currently had amnesia! They remembered jack squat! All they remembered was how to swindle and cheat.
"It doesn't matter if we haven't tried it. My family elders have!" Lord Bird also produced an artificially aged jade slip.
"So you two have decided to latch onto me?" Chen Yao glanced at Aman beside him, who was watching the spectacle with wide eyes, and spoke helplessly.
"Why be so resistant, young friend? We've always treated young and old honestly. We would never sell you fakes!" Lord Crystal Wall said with a smile.
Chen Yao rolled his eyes. He knew why these two old things were here. He counted as a genius who had transcended the extreme realm, and would naturally draw them to him. It was just like how the two had sidled up to Shi Hao to ingratiate themselves the moment he entered after breaking past the Blood Moving Realm's extreme limit.
It'll be hard to shake them off anytime soon. What should I do? Try waking them with words? That's probably impossible. Back then, even Shi Hao's mad spree of record-breaking only made them remember their duties. It still didn't truly wake them.
As he thought, he answered perfunctorily, "Sure. How about trading me the Ten Fiends Precious Arts?"
"So you really do have sacred medicine, young friend! I can give you a huge discount! I have twenty peerless divine arts for sale, each no weaker than the Ten Fiends Precious Arts! How about I bite the bullet and charge you just one portion of sacred medicine?" Lord Crystal Wall was clearly focused on entirely the wrong thing.
What is this, wholesale toilet paper? You old money-grubber, may every purchase you make from now on cost you double! Chen Yao grumbled inwardly.
But just then, Lord Bird and Lord Jade Coin had already forced the jade slip and battered book into his hands, their smiles blooming like two chrysanthemums.
Chen Yao had no desire to accept them. He was about to break free of the two old men and throw the items back when a sudden change occurred.
Lord Bird and Lord Crystal Wall gazed at Chen Yao, their bearing turning unfathomably profound. The surrounding Void God Realm actually began flickering in and out of sight, rendered unstable by interference from a power beyond its limits. "Take them! It's only one bottle of sacred medicine."
But it passed as quickly as it came. Everything returned to normal in practically the blink of an eye, so quickly that what had just happened seemed like an illusion. Yet Chen Yao's scalp prickled. This was completely unexpected!
Why had they awakened just now? What had happened? He clearly hadn't done anything that would greatly affect the Void God Realm, had he?
Watching the slumbering primordial spirits of the two supreme Immortal Kings before him return to normal, acting as though nothing had happened and seemingly reverting to shameless old men, Chen Yao probed cautiously, "Seniors, as the rulers of the Void God Realm, why are you amusing yourselves at my expense?"
The rulers of the Void God Realm?! Aman, who had been happily watching from the sidelines, nearly choked on his own saliva.
Lord Bird and Lord Jade Coin froze. After a while, they looked at him with the concern one might show an idiot and said earnestly:
"Young brother, though your Dao nature is innate, you do have some peculiar flights of fancy."
"Could you be dreaming of a fortuitous encounter, always imagining you'll find some hidden senior? Ah, to be young. This old Daoist won't laugh at you."
"Senior Dragon King, Senior Yellow Dao Immortal Gold King, are you truly not joking?" Chen Yao probed again. This was no small matter. He had to find out what had caused their brief awakening-or whether they could awaken on their own!
Besides, these two were powerful backers too. He couldn't count on Willow Deity for now, and the one fighting in the Boundary Sea had yet to take Aman as a disciple. These two might be the closest ones at hand!
Lord Bird's aura fluctuated violently once more. His bewilderment faded again, and he stared intently at Chen Yao, his gaze seeming to pierce through the Void God Realm and see his physical body directly. "Are you Six Paths of Reincarnation?"
"Huh?" Chen Yao was dumbfounded.
Next came Lord Jade Coin, who was none other than the Yellow Dao Immortal Gold King. He looked at Chen Yao and said gravely, "There really is something unusual about you. You know our identities, and you carry the aura of a Reincarnation Seal. Perhaps... a similar flower, or someone reincarnated?"
"I can't tell," Second Under Heaven transmitted, stopping Chen Yao from trying to interject and taking charge of the conversation. "Break as many records in the Void God Realm as you can. We can replace every reward with a spiritual treasure generated by the Void God Realm. No matter how much you know, let me finish stating our requirements first. Gather things such as immortal Dao auras, World Tree remnants, and world origin to feed that strand of immortal qi! You will surely be richly rewarded in the future. Oh, and you must use that strand of immortal qi to strengthen the Void God Realm's rewards!"
Feed it? Strengthen the spiritual treasures rewarded by the Void God Realm every time? Chen Yao committed this to memory and stopped interrupting, waiting for them to continue.
"We aren't lucid very often. If you want to awaken us next time, go break a few records in the Void God Realm. That may let us remain lucid for another stretch." The Immortal Gold Daoist stopped transmitting his voice and spoke openly, allowing Aman, who was curious about their preceding conversation, to hear him too.
"Is this a contingency that fellow Reincarnation left behind?" Second Under Heaven muttered. His aura, previously as unfathomable as an endless abyss, subsided, and he became an ordinary old man again.
After a brief spell of bewilderment, their eyes cleared, and they naturally picked up where they had left off before awakening. "Young brother, having fanciful ideas is a good thing, but trying to put on airs like this will only embarrass you in front of others. Look at that little lass-you've frightened her badly. She probably thinks you're a fool who does nothing but daydream, and trusts you less now!"
Meanwhile, seeing how "effortlessly" the two old men switched back and forth, Aman recalled their strange behavior just now and couldn't help reassessing what Chen Yao had said earlier, wondering whether his previous cryptic remarks had actually been true.
"Thank you, seniors." With a wave, Chen Yao flung out several drops of demi-divine liquid stored within the immortal qi in his primordial spirit. Ignoring the immense fragrance that suddenly erupted, he grabbed Aman and immediately used Eight Gates Transport combined with Grand Luo Insight.
Joy had only just reached Lord Bird's and Lord Crystal Wall's brows when their faces turned green. A great many cultivators in the distance had been drawn by the fragrance and were beginning to search for the droplets releasing it.
"You little bastard! Why didn't you give us a container!" the old codgers shrieked. By some unknown means, they vanished outright, leaving the gathering cultivators without so much as a glimpse of their clothing's color before losing all trace of them.
Soon, Shi Yi arrived as well. He examined the area with his double pupils but found nothing. Sweeping his gaze around, he spotted the two old men who had run up to peddle junk to him on his first visit to the Void God Realm, only to be chased away by the Martial King Manor's elders and guards. They were now brazenly running a stall here, selling books titled "The Mystery of the Divine Medicine's Whereabouts."
I can't see through them. I still can't see through them. To think I can't see through them... Shi Yi muttered to himself, but dared not act rashly.
A premonition of danger kept screaming warnings whenever he wanted to reveal any malice, leaving him agitated yet secretly delighted. He felt that this was his fortuitous opportunity, and that he had to carefully maneuver behind the scenes.
Before you continue