Chapter 592: I Have a Friend (13)

Divine Path Sect, Qingzhuan Dojo.

"..."

Yaochi frowned as she sat in a corner of the Qingzhuan Dojo. Beneath her, her original body, which shared her exact features, lay inside a crystal coffin. An illusory swimming dragon circled the crystal coffin, occasionally emitting a soft dragon's hum.

On the surface, Yaochi's expression was calm, but in reality, her heart was not as tranquil as it appeared; it was churning with waves.

Before she had just arrived here, she had held many conjectures and harbored great wariness toward Sikong Yu, feeling that he would take her to some dangerous place, or even that he would turn against her once they reached their destination.

Yaochi had remained on guard the entire way, ready to strike at any moment, but she never found an opportunity to counterattack. Only after truly arriving here did she realize she might have overthought it; the other party was truly as he claimed, doing nothing at all after bringing her here.

Not only did he do nothing, he didn't even restrict her freedom. After helping her find a crystal coffin to store her original body, he stopped caring and went off to chat with that strange-looking young girl soul on his own.

Then, after a long wait, Yaochi finally couldn't help but speak up: "... Um, Sect Leader Sikong?"

【"Hm? Who's calling me? Oh! It's you... You haven't left yet?】 Upon hearing this call, Sikong Yu seemed to wake from a dream, appearing somewhat surprised, as if he had forgotten there were others around. 【No need for formalities, just call me Sikong. Is there something you need?"】

Yaochi looked at the crooked divine statue of Sikong Yu with a subtle expression. There was something she had wanted to ask since she first arrived, but she had never found a suitable opportunity.

This... this guy, is he a bit crooked?

However, considering this might be the other party's habit or interest, she didn't take the initiative to be nosy and ask. There were too many eccentricities among capable people, so she skipped this trivial little question and asked: "Do you have nothing you want to ask me? You went to such great lengths to bring me back, is it just to let me stay here?"

【"It's not that I'm making you stay here. If you want to go elsewhere, I won't stop you, but you must be prepared. The others outside, hehe, won't be as friendly as I am."】 Sikong Yu answered with a smile. 【"You saw how fanatical that group of guys is toward the reviving Immortal Gods, right? They completely view you lot as flesh-and-blood Great Pills leading to the Ascension Realm."】

Recalling the scene where dozens of Heaven Realm cultivators besieged the half-immortal dragon, Yaochi's expression shifted slightly. At the time, she only wanted Ao Zhun to attract some attention; she hadn't expected such a massive scene to unfold.

"They... have absolutely no reverence for Immortal Gods." Yaochi felt somewhat estranged from such cultivators. In her memory, cultivators below the Ascension Realm would maintain immense reverence for Immortal Gods; the vast majority wouldn't even have the courage to face an Immortal God, let alone take action like they did.

At the time, although that stupid dragon had only been forced into the half-immortal realm through catalysis, it still carried a trace of immortal intent and should have been regarded as half an Immortal and treated with equal reverence.

Yet, not only did that fail to deter them, it had the opposite effect, making them even more frantic and turning it directly into a dragon-hunting feast.

【"Immortal Gods have been gone from this world for too long. Thousands of years have long since worn away that reverence. If they haven't seen it, naturally they won't revere it."】 Sikong Yu spoke leisurely, his words carrying a faint hint of mockery. 【"It's not the past anymore. No matter how many records are left in books or how exaggerated they are, if they haven't seen it with their own eyes, they won't believe it."】

Yaochi was silent.

Indeed, the world of today no longer belongs to the past.

【"Besides, don't forget why they are so frantic."】

Yaochi pondered for a moment, then arrived at the answer, saying softly: "... Lifespan."

Although she did not wake up very early, she had already figured out the restrictions between heaven and earth today. All living beings cannot achieve Ascension... This is truly despairing.

【"Yes, lifespan. If you cannot ascend to become a god, you cannot enjoy the treatment of living as long as heaven and earth. They reach their peak, then slowly experience their own decay, and finally die completely."】

【"The approaching deadline forces everyone, driving everyone to madness! For them, it's death either way; if they don't fight, they die for sure, but if they fight, there is still a glimmer of possibility."】

If eating them meant a chance to ascend and become a god, never mind that a reviving Immortal God was in front of them—even if the Heavenly Emperor were there, they would still step forward to take a few bites and swallow some flesh.

Longevity is like poison.

Almost everyone is unable to escape this deadly poison.

But there are always exceptions.

Yaochi frowned, looked at Sikong Yu, who was huddled inside the stone statue, and asked: "What about you? Why don't you care? Why can you remain so calm?"

She felt no madness from Sikong Yu; he was as peaceful as a pool of water without ripples, and as immovable as a rock, appearing unfathomable.

【"Haha! This is actually very simple, because this old man doesn't have such great ambition!"】 Sikong Yu laughed heartily, saying with a touch of ease and self-satisfaction: 【"What's so good about living so long? I, for one, haven't felt the benefits of living that long."】

【"Longevity? To hell with longevity! This old man doesn't care~"】

Sikong Yu laughed triumphantly, causing Xinying, who had been playing by herself on the side, to frown in distaste before slowly drifting away to play elsewhere.

No other meaning; Xinying simply disliked that he was too noisy...

Sikong Yu also noticed this situation. His triumphant laughter came to an abrupt halt, he coughed awkwardly, and then stiffly changed the subject: 【"I haven't asked you yet, have you adapted to life here? If you don't want to leave, that's fine too. You can move freely within the Divine Path Sect's territory. Of course, my dojo here is the safest."】

【"You can also keep Xinying company; she is the little Princess of my Divine Path Sect, hahaha! Uh, cough, cough, Grandmaster, keep it down, Grandmaster will keep it down! My little ancestor, please don't be unhappy."】

Sikong Yu, having been disliked again, hurriedly went to soothe Xinying, who was about to shrink into a corner, while Yaochi kept staring at him, deep in thought.

Through their conversation, Yaochi vaguely confirmed the guess in her heart.

"You are not a person of this age." Yaochi stated firmly, causing Sect Leader Sikong, who was currently using all his might to coax the child, to slowly turn his head back.

【"Oh? Why am I not?"】 Sikong Yu was not nervous, just asking with a chuckle: 【"You can't just make baseless accusations against me, can you?"】

【"You can go out and ask around; who in this world doesn't know that I, Sikong Yu, have been famous for hundreds of years? How could I be one of you old things crawling out of a coffin?"】

When saying this, Sikong Yu's gaze fell intentionally or unintentionally on Yaochi and the crystal coffin beneath her; the implication was self-evident.

Having been mocked, Yaochi was not angry; instead, she became even more certain of her thoughts: "I don't know the specific method, but you are definitely not a person of this age."

【"Oh my, baseless accusations, aren't you just slandering me..."】

"You know me."

Yaochi interrupted Sikong Yu, stood in front of the stone statue, stared at the somewhat blurry face, and said slowly: "If you are not a person of the past, why would you know me? Why would you take the initiative to wait for me there? And extend a helping hand to me?"

If you didn't know my identity, if you didn't know who I was, why would you help me?

【"Hahaha! Perhaps this old man was just moved by a moment of compassion."】 Sikong Yu chuckled, completely unperturbed, and said leisurely: 【"Just as I said at the time, after all, I couldn't just watch you die so miserably before my eyes."】

Yaochi stared at the stone statue, and the stone statue looked sideways to the side; the two just stared at each other silently for a while.

In the end, it was Yaochi who gave in first, snorting coldly: "Heh, if you insist on it being that way, then let it be that way."

In the matter of staring contests, she was at a huge disadvantage; this guy wasn't just a stone statue, his eyes were crooked!

【"Hehe, that's how it is."】 Sikong Yu asked with a chuckle: 【"By the way, as a person of this age, this old man still has some questions I would like to ask you. Would you be willing to answer, fellow Daoist?"】

Yaochi squinted and cast a sidelong glance at this guy.

Still pretending, this guy is still pretending!

Heh.

I'll see how long you can keep up the act!

Although Yaochi couldn't determine the other party's specific identity for now, she had already narrowed the scope of her guesses to people she knew from the past.

The other party's Divine Soul was very unfamiliar, and his way of speaking was something she had never encountered, but there was a faint sense of familiarity about him.

"If you have anything you want to ask, just say it. Regardless, I do indeed owe you this favor."

Although she could have left from the Beitianmen without Sikong Yu's obstruction at the time, she would have been hiding everywhere on the Beiming Divine Continent, without a single place to call home, and it would indeed have been very easy to escape the searches of others.

But this place can not only shield the heavenly secrets, it can also allow her to have time to properly rest and refine the original body more, striving to be able to integrate into it completely.

【"Cough, it's like this, I have a friend, hmm, a close friend whose name cannot be revealed, who once saw such a fragment in an ancient document."】

Sikong Yu coughed twice, and regardless of whether Yaochi believed him or not, he said quite brazenly: 【"A major event happened in the Western Desert back then; it seems a certain Fozi did something major that shook the foundation of Spirit Mountain, putting all Buddhas at risk of extinction. Countless Buddhas took action, but the Fozi's strength was powerful, and none of the Buddhas could rival him. In the end, it was only when the Spirit Mountain Fozhu of that time took action that he was suppressed."】

【"What I want to ask is, what crime did that Fozi of the Western Desert commit back then?"】

Yaochi's brows had been tightly furrowed ever since Sikong Yu opened his mouth, and she examined the stone statue with a very strange look in her eyes.

"Why are you asking this?"

【"Curiosity, pure curiosity."】 Sikong Yu's answer remained the same.

"This matter was very secretive even back then; where did you learn of it?"

【"I already said, I have a close friend, and he from an ancient book..."】

"Stop!"

Seeing him about to ramble on again, Yaochi shouted for him to stop with a headache, and only after hesitating for a while did she slowly say:

"I don't know exactly what happened back then either. I was still young at the time; I only heard my parents vaguely discuss this matter while chatting idly, and they made a casual comment about it."

"They said... that person's approach might not have been wrong, but Spirit Mountain could never agree to it."

"Because for Spirit Mountain, that was no different from digging its own grave."

"Come, come, come, come over and take a look, I have good stuff here to show you." Ren Yidao beckoned to Mingxin and sneakily pulled him over.

Mingxin: "Hmm? Alright, coming right away."

Yaoyue:???

"Hey, what are you brat doing? He is a proper monk!"

Yaoyue was a bit worried; would her disciple really be foolish enough to show a proper monk Joyous Zen!?

"I'm from a proper family too! Just leave it be." Ren Yidao rolled his eyes, brought Mingxin to the side, and then took out... a headless, half-person-tall Buddha statue.

"Come, take a look, what kind of Buddha is this?"