"Three thousand years wasn't enough for a nap? Chen Zheng, just keep on bragging! Who would believe that!"
Hearing that, Jiang Rou clearly didn't believe what Chen Zheng had said. She thought he was boasting, making his claims as outlandish as he could.
"Does this need any boasting?" Chen Zheng didn't turn around, but looked at the white clouds drifting slowly along the horizon outside the window. "There was a time when I was too bored, so I buried myself underground, hoping that time would kill me while I slept. Unfortunately, I still woke up. When I did, I discovered that the age of dinosaurs had already begun."
"Dinosaurs? Pfft! Do you think you're writing a novel? Dinosaurs, of all things! Those creatures lived tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years ago. Are you saying you've lived for hundreds of millions of years? It's the twenty-first century now. Could you put a limit on your bragging?"
Jiang Rou merely laughed when she heard that. In any case, she didn't believe him.
A person living for hundreds of millions of years?
That was utterly impossible, completely unrealistic!
"I once raised a Tyrannosaurus rex and even taught it some Secret Methods. Unfortunately, an asteroid struck Earth."
But Chen Zheng didn't explain anything. He simply continued speaking.
"Huh? An asteroid striking Earth? Bullshit! Chen Zheng, did touching that ancient jade do something to your brain? According to you, if you'd lived for that many years, your cultivation must have been incredibly profound. Blowing up an asteroid should have been utterly effortless. So why did the asteroid still hit Earth and wipe out the age of dinosaurs?"
This time, Jiang Rou rolled her eyes outright at Chen Zheng. Everything else about this guy was fine, but he loved spouting nonsense, and his boasts were getting more and more far-fetched.
"I said I once slept for hundreds of millions of years because I hoped time would kill me. But time didn't kill me, so the asteroid striking Earth was an opportunity. I hoped the violent explosion from the impact would reduce me to ash, so I didn't stop the asteroid. It arrived as expected and struck Earth, while I stood at the very center of the impact zone. The instant I felt the blast wave, I knew I'd been wrong."
Chen Zheng's airy voice continued to ring out.
"Wrong? Why were you wrong?"
Jiang Rou asked with a slight frown.
"The blast wave wasn't powerful enough."
Chen Zheng replied indifferently.
"..." Hearing that, Jiang Rou rolled her eyes at Chen Zheng again, then looked at his back. "Chen Zheng, have you seen that low-budget science fiction movie? I think it was called The Man from Earth. Don't tell me you've started imagining you're its protagonist?"
"I know that movie. Its protagonist is probably an epoch short of my level."
This time, Chen Zheng turned around and smiled at Jiang Rou.
"Pfft!" Of course Jiang Rou didn't believe him. "The protagonist of that movie was immortal. How could you possibly be an epoch stronger than him!"
"I returned to this point in Earth's timeline because I fought a supreme being. Our fight destroyed the epoch and restarted it at this point in time. Can you understand it if I put it that way?"
Chen Zheng spoke casually.
"Uh... is everything you're saying true?"
Jiang Rou hesitated, looking at Chen Zheng very seriously.
She still didn't believe him. She thought Chen Zheng was simply spouting nonsense. Perhaps touching that ancient jade left behind by her ancestor just now really had suddenly made him a little unhinged!
"Not a single word is false."
Chen Zheng nodded indifferently.
"Where's the evidence?"
Jiang Rou pressed.
"Evidence? There's no evidence. Or rather, I myself am the evidence."
Chen Zheng smiled.
"What do you mean?"
Jiang Rou pressed again.
"I don't eat or drink, and I don't need to replenish any energy, yet I won't die. My cultivation grows without any deliberate effort. Although it doesn't grow quickly, it's enough to handle the situation on Earth. Oh, and given the current state of my physical body, weapons on Earth probably can't hurt me."
Chen Zheng spoke after some thought.
"Not even nuclear bombs?"
Jiang Rou immediately thought of nuclear bombs!
"Nuclear bombs? Probably a joke." Chen Zheng chuckled. He turned back to look at the white clouds drifting along the horizon outside the window, and his airy voice rang out once more. "Seeing the ancient jade I left to Ziya back then stirred some feelings today. There was so much I wanted to say, yet I felt I didn't know where to begin. Unfortunately, you're not Ziya. If you were Ziya, perhaps I could talk to Ziya for three days and nights. Ziya should be in the Immortal Realm now. Three thousand years have passed. With Ziya's talent for cultivation, as long as nobody screwed him over, he ought to have reached the level of a Golden Immortal at least."
Ziya?
Holy shit!
Why did that form of address feel so strange!
Although Jiang Rou knew the Ziya Chen Zheng spoke of was Jiang Ziya, the Jiang Family's ancestor, hearing the tone in which he addressed her ancestor now felt more than a little strange. Then she remembered that ever since the first day she'd met this guy, he had never seemed to show any particular interest in women!
When ordinary men saw a great beauty with an exquisite figure like hers, wouldn't they steal several extra glances, or even stare straight at her? Yet this guy seemed never to have shown that kind of look!
Could it be!
Could it be that Chen Zheng didn't like women, but liked men?
Had there been something between Chen Zheng and her ancestor?
A thought suddenly sprang up in Jiang Rou's mind, and she couldn't help asking, "Chen Zheng... you're not interested in men, are you?"
"Have you seen A Chinese Odyssey?"
Chen Zheng turned around and looked at Jiang Rou.
"I have." Jiang Rou nodded, but then shook her head. "What does this have to do with A Chinese Odyssey?"
"You know Tang Seng in A Chinese Odyssey, right?"
Chen Zheng said.
"Yes. Tang Seng was a chatterbox. Nobody could stand him once he started nagging."
Jiang Rou continued nodding.
"There was a period when I was much like Tang Seng in A Chinese Odyssey. My favorite thing to do was find someone to chatter to, talk about everything under the sun and recount the things I'd experienced. Many people thought I was mad back then, but there was a young man and a little fox who liked listening to those things. While chattering, I would occasionally talk about cultivation, too. Later, the little fox became obsessed with cultivation and only wanted to hear Secret Methods for cultivating, but I insisted on not talking about them. Still later, the little fox left, and only the young man remained." Chen Zheng recounted the past. "Throughout that period, only that young man remained true to his original heart, and only that young man could take in the things I said, so I regarded him as a disciple."
"That young man and little fox you're talking about-don't tell me you mean my ancestor Jiang Ziya and that Demon Consort Daji?"
With Jiang Rou's intelligence, how could she fail to understand the story Chen Zheng was telling? Still, she found it somewhat hard to believe. She thought this guy Chen Zheng was simply too bored and had deliberately made up a story to tease her.
After all, that wasn't how the story in Investiture of the Gods went. This guy Chen Zheng must have adapted a story from Investiture of the Gods!