The joy in his heart was almost overflowing!
The people beside the bonfire noticed Cui Jiuyang.
Li Jinbo stood up first and introduced him with a hearty laugh. "This is a young immortal, and now he's come to join us."
"Our carefree lives as immortals will live up to the name even more!"
Everyone else burst into hearty laughter at his words.
Some praised him as a brilliant young talent!
Others said he had the makings of an immortal!
Some came over and bowed deeply to Cui Jiuyang, saying they felt like old friends at first sight and hoped to become close confidants from that day onward!
Cui Jiuyang was profoundly moved. How could such sincere, warmhearted people exist in this world?
Being able to befriend them here was a blessing earned over three lifetimes!
His eyes even grew hot, and he nearly shed tears of excitement!
Wasn't this a paradise on earth?
Surely only in the legendary Peach Blossom Paradise could one meet such sincere people!
If I, Cui Jiuyang, could live among these people, I too would become a truly carefree immortal!
Who cared about a hundred years from now? Even one carefree day here would be worth an entire lifetime in the future.
Who cared if I had only a year left to live? Wouldn't one day here be worth ten years anywhere else?
Two teenage boys came over, poured a cup of fine wine from the jar, and offered it to Cui Jiuyang.
Cui Jiuyang accepted it, feeling that the cup held divine nectar, something nothing else in the world could rival.
He was just about to tip his head back and drain it.
Suddenly... he froze.
The Dragon-Transformation Wall in his dantian spun frantically, spreading a cooling energy.
The spiritual power in his meridians circulated faster, and the heirloom jade plaque from Great-Grandfather kept trembling against his chest.
A flicker of clarity surfaced in Cui Jiuyang's mind. Where am I?
But a moment later, the wine cup drew his gaze again.
This looks delicious. I really want a sip.
The cooling spiritual power roused him from his trance once more.
Huh? What was I thinking just now?
About drinking what's in this cup?
What is this? I really want to drink it...
Clarity and intoxication alternated across Cui Jiuyang's face. The cup in his hand crept closer and closer to his mouth, until it was almost touching his lips.
A fireball suddenly erupted from Cui Jiuyang's hand and exploded almost against his face. His spiritual power automatically circulated to protect him, but half an eyebrow was still burned away.
The scorching fireball shattered the cup in his hand, and the pain jolted Cui Jiuyang back to his senses.
Fuck! What the hell is this stuff? I almost drank it.
Yet his gaze still seemed nailed to the wine jar. The thing still held an irresistible allure for him.
Only the burning pain around his eyebrow kept reminding him to be careful.
Cui Jiuyang hurried backward, his fingers ceaselessly forming divination signs.
Yet he still received no warning of danger...
The divination told him that this place was peaceful and tranquil, without any danger.
Cold sweat streamed down Cui Jiuyang's body. This was the first time his divination had failed him, revealing nothing at all.
This place was clearly bizarre. How could there be no danger whatsoever?
Even as he pondered, he kept looking at the wine jar despite himself. Its boundless attraction still worked on him.
The jade plaque Great-Grandfather had passed down kept vibrating, yet it could not fully rouse him from his trance.
The Dragon-Transformation Wall was already working at full speed, but even the cooling energy circulating through him could not stop his fondness for the wine jar from welling up in his heart.
Even Great-Grandfather's ward and the Water Palace's ultimate Numinous Treasure together couldn't counter this thing?
What on earth was it?
Cui Jiuyang gritted his teeth. Since I can't tear my eyes away, I'll take a damn good look!
Steeling himself, he bit open his index finger and drew a vertical streak of blood down the center of his forehead.
He held three fingers upright before his face and chanted, "Let heaven's light shine! Let earthly barriers break! Humans, ghosts, demons, and evil-none shall hide!"
First Extremity · Three Realms Clear-Sight Spell
The streak of blood became a heavenly eye, opening on Cui Jiuyang's forehead!
Damn it, now I can see!
The trick lay in the stone platform holding the wine jar!
A mass of white vapor invisible to the naked eye gathered beneath the platform, then divided into nine streams that rose from its base.
The nine streams enveloped the wine jar, then gathered and condensed. Once a drop of transparent liquid formed, it fell into the jar!
Chapter 66: Free of Worry
Cui Jiuyang gritted his teeth as lightning surged in his palm...
Mysterious Thunder Strike!
A bolt of violet-indigo lightning descended from the sky and struck the stone platform!
The lightning hurled the wine jar away and split the platform down the middle.
The people who had been drinking around the bonfire saw the wine jar fly away and its divine nectar spill across the ground. They had no time to wonder what had happened.
Everyone dropped to the ground and began licking up the wine.
Suppressing the urge to join them, Cui Jiuyang slowly walked toward the stone platform.
He kept the heavenly eye on his forehead open, afraid that something invisible to ordinary sight might suddenly leap out.
But nothing else happened, even when he reached the platform.
All was quiet. The only sounds in the clearing came from the others scrambling to lick the ground.
Holding two talismans, Cui Jiuyang finally saw what was giving off white vapor beneath the platform.
It was the skeleton of a beast...
It looked about the size of a cat, but had no sharp canine teeth... it seemed to have been an herbivore.
Now that the wine jar had shattered and the stone platform had split, the white vapor rising from the skeleton gathered in midair.
Seeing that the wine had formed from the corpse vapor of a strange beast, Cui Jiuyang finally understood why his divinations had always indicated peace and tranquility.
After all, what danger could the remains of a small beast pose?
He untied the Celadon Porcelain Gourd from his waist and held its mouth beside the white vapor. Channeling his spiritual power, he drew all the vapor into the gourd.
He gave it a shake. It had condensed into roughly half a gourd of wine.
He sealed the Celadon Porcelain Gourd with a paper talisman, hung it back at his waist, and crouched down to examine the skeleton.
It was small, a docile herbivore, and seemed to have had a long tail...
Its corpse vapor could condense into wine that made people forget their worries...
A beast with supernatural properties like these...
Could it be a Feifei?
The Classic of Mountains and Seas, in the Classic of the Central Mountains, said: "Forty li farther north lies Mount Huo, where paper mulberry trees abound. There is a beast there shaped like a wildcat, with a white tail and a mane. It is called the Feifei, and keeping one can dispel worry."
When people touched a creature like the Feifei, they could forget their worries...
The Miscellany of Great Island also recorded that if one silently repeated "Feifei" three times before bed, it would swallow all the anguish in one's heart after one fell asleep and carry it away.
Cui Jiuyang suspected that this skeleton belonged to the legendary Feifei.
This ancient beast had possessed such supernatural qualities while alive. After its death, certain conditions in this dense forest had not only preserved its wondrous power, but strengthened it.
But his cultivation was still too shallow to investigate its secrets.
He could only make a rough guess.
This place should have been an earth vein capable of nourishing corpse vapor.
The Feifei had died here and been nourished by the earth vein. Over the years, its bones had become a wondrous object, and its corpse vapor could condense into wine.
This wine was extraordinarily magical. Not only had it inherited the Feifei's peculiar ability to make people forget their worries, but the earth vein's nourishment even allowed those who drank it to go without food or water...
From that perspective, these people really were no different from the legendary Guye Immortals, who fed on wind and drank dew...
He imagined how, in the beginning, someone from Heyang Village had gotten lost in the dense forest behind the mountain, then been drawn here by the wine in their sleep...
As time went on, more and more people had gone missing...
They had cleared this patch of land, built thatched huts, and settled here.
Every day, they drank and made merry, entirely free of worry, without caring whether their families were anxiously missing them.
Had Cui Jiuyang not discovered this place, there was no telling how many more people it would have drawn in.
However, the skeleton could produce only a limited amount of wine. One day, too many people would come here, and there would not be enough to go around.
When that happened... the real tragedy would begin.
He imagined people immersed in the happiness of this place, unwilling to leave, yet gradually wasting away because the earth vein could not provide enough nourishment.
Eventually, some would succumb to starvation. Then there would be enough for the survivors again, and they would continue their carefree lives...
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