Sage Ku Xuan

Fatty Wang looked up, his gaze instantly drawn to the Enlightenment Tea in Xiao Ruobai's hands. His small eyes widened into perfect circles, his mouth agape enough to fit an egg, and a stormy sea of shock surged in his heart.

"My... my goodness! Enlightenment Tea! You actually have more?! Isn't this thing a legendary divine object? Even a single leaf is hard to find.

Last time at the Heaven-Reaching Tower, he had seen Xiao Ruobai drink Enlightenment Tea during a breakthrough. Just scraping up a tiny bit of the dregs had allowed his own Dao of Talismans to advance by leaps and bounds.

Now he actually brought out another leaf? Did Big Brother and the others dig up the grave of some ancient almighty expert, or... did they just uproot a whole Enlightenment Tea Tree and take it home?!"

"B... Big Brother! This is too precious! I can't take this, I really can't!"

Fatty Wang stuttered as he spoke, hastily waving his hands, feeling his little heart trembling.

"Cut the crap and drink it. If your cultivation level can't keep up, you won't even be able to run fast enough when we really encounter a tough opponent next time."

Xiao Ruobai's tone was resolute as he pushed the brewed Enlightenment Tea in front of him. The tea's aroma swirled, flowing with Daoist rhymes.

"Hurry up and refine it. We will stand guard for you."

Looking at the cup of divine tea before him—something that would cause almighty experts in the outside world to bash each other's heads in over—Fatty Wang's eyes turned slightly red with emotion, knowing that his big brother truly had his best interests at heart.

He no longer declined. With trembling hands, he took the jade cup as if holding the weight of the entire world, and carefully took a sip.

In an instant, a majestic yet gentle Daoist rhyme rushed straight into his sea of consciousness. Countless obscure and difficult-to-understand points from his past cultivation, especially his understanding of his cultivation technique and the essence of talismans, were suddenly cleared up, like clouds parting to reveal the sun!

He felt his thought process speed up several times over, and his control over spiritual energy became even more precise.

Seeing this, Xiao Ruobai took out some crystal-clear Connate Spirit Marrow that exuded a rich connate aura, along with several rare precious medicines for assisting cultivation, and piled them in front of Fatty Wang.

"Use them all together, and go all out to break through your bottleneck!"

Fatty Wang nodded heavily, cast aside the distracting thoughts in his mind, and circulated his cultivation technique with all his might. A massive amount of energy surged into his body, and under the guiding effects of the Enlightenment Tea, it was efficiently refined and absorbed.

His aura began to climb steadily. The barrier of the early stage of the Cave Heaven Realm shattered with a boom under the impact of the abundant energy and the assistance of the profound Dao state!

An even stronger momentum erupted from Fatty Wang's body, astonishingly bypassing the middle stage of the Cave Heaven Realm and stepping directly into the late stage!

Not only that, but he suddenly opened his eyes, and countless tiny runes flashed through his pupils.

He impatiently picked up his talisman brush again, dipped it in spiritual ink, and wrote like flying dragons and dancing snakes on the talisman paper.

This time, his movements were even more fluid and natural, as if in harmony with the rhythm of heaven and earth.

The runes he outlined were not only more complex and exquisite, but they also faintly triggered spatial fluctuations in the surroundings.

The spiritual light of the newly drawn Void Shifting Talismans was restrained, yet their stability had increased several times over, even carrying a trace of true spatial traversal intent.

"Hahaha! I succeeded! Lord Fatty feels like I can draw even more powerful talismans now!"

Fatty Wang excitedly waved his chubby hands. Feeling the abundant spiritual energy in his body and his brand-new understanding of the Dao of Talismans, his confidence soared.

He couldn't wait to start trying to draw other types of talismans. With swift strokes and flowing spiritual light, it wasn't long before he had another stack of various talismans in his hands, brimming with spiritual charm and visibly increased power.

There was the Purple Firmament Divine Thunder Talisman flashing with lightning, the Black Ice Confinement Talisman radiating a piercing chill, and the Phantom Tracking Talisman that distorted light, among others.

Holding this stack of masterpieces, his small eyes shone, and his chubby face was full of smugness. He leaned in front of Xiao Ruobai and boasted with utmost confidence.

"Big Brother! Look! I'm not bragging, but with Lord Fatty's current talisman level and these new treasures, even if some blind Saint were to pop out right now, I'm confident I could tangle with him for a bit. At the very least, I could definitely run away!"

Xiao Ruobai looked at Fatty Wang's smug "praise me quickly" expression, but an untimely memory of a seemingly casual piece of advice from his master, Gu Changge, echoed in his mind.

"Ruobai, remember, whenever someone opens their mouth and says the words 'I'm not bragging,' you can basically conclude that they are about to brag."

At the time, Xiao Ruobai had thought his master's words carried a hint of teasing, but looking at Fatty Wang now, he deeply agreed.

He was just about to tell this fatty to keep a low profile and stop raising death flags...

"Buzz—!!!"

However, he was abruptly interrupted by a sudden, suffocating aura of dead silence!

Without warning, the sky suddenly darkened, as if covered by a layer of ashen shadows.

A rotten, decaying, yet terrifyingly oppressive might that made one's soul tremble crashed down, like the final roar of a dying behemoth!

The void quivered, and a hunched, withered figure silently appeared in the sky above the valley.

He wore an ancient Daoist robe that had long faded and was even somewhat tattered. His frame was as scrawny as a skeleton, his face covered in wrinkles as deep as ravines, and his sparse white hair was as dry and yellow as straw.

His eyes were incredibly murky, yet deep within them burned an almost maddening thirst and greed for life!

This person was none other than the old ancestor nearing the end of his lifespan from the depths of a Holy Land, whom Gu Changge had seen earlier.

An old Saint who had lingered at death's door for over five thousand years, his vitality decayed to the absolute limit—Ku Xuan!

He had originally been slumbering in the Holy Land's forbidden grounds to slow the loss of his life force, but the news of the "Undying Divine Medicine" and the "Seven Stars Secret Token" acted like a final lifeline, jolting him awake from his dormancy.

He spent several days barely adapting to this body that was practically falling apart, tracking the ripples of battle all the way here.

A Saint, a true Saint.

Xiao Ruobai, Fang Hanyu, and Ling Xi reacted extremely fast. In an instant, they unleashed their auras completely, weapons in hand, and formed a battle formation, shielding Fatty Wang tightly behind them with expressions of utmost solemnity.

Xiao Ruobai's mouth twitched. Without even turning his head, he spoke in an extremely speechless tone to the little fatty behind him:

"Fatty, is that mouth of yours... blessed? Or... are you actually a crow demon in disguise?!"

Fatty Wang: "I... I was just bragging! Who knew it would attract such a big shot?!!"

Right at this moment of hair-trigger tension, when the atmosphere was frozen to the extreme—

Ku Xuan's murky gaze had originally swept over the four of them with scrutiny and killing intent, but when his line of sight brushed past the remaining Enlightenment Tea dregs in the cup, it abruptly froze!

In the air, that faint, wondrous tea aroma—which made even his decaying divine soul tremble—drilled into his senses like the most fatal temptation.

"Enlightenment... Tea!!!"

A hoarse roar, like the grinding of gravel, tore from Ku Xuan's shriveled throat. A terrifying, almost maniacal gleam instantly erupted in his eyes!

It was the madness of a dying man seeing his only chance at survival!

This legendary divine object contained the origin of the Great Dao. To an old monster like him, whose lifespan was nearing its end and whose path of the Dao was almost severed, its appeal even surpassed that of the illusory Undying Divine Medicine!

Because this could allow him to experience instant enlightenment, break through his shackles, and extend his lifespan by a thousand years!

Greed instantly overwhelmed all reason, calculation, and even his doubts about why these juniors before him could possess such an item!

Juniors! Hand over the Divine Tea and the Seven-Star Secret Token, and I shall grant you the mercy of an intact corpse!

He did not give them any time to react at all. His right hand, withered like the claw of a ghost, thrust forward violently!

In an instant, heaven and earth lost their color. A massive, ashen hand that blotted out the sky and sun materialized. Within its palm, terrifying visions of all creation withering and stars extinguishing seemed to swirl. Carrying the power of a law that could decay all things, it clawed down viciously toward the four of them!

This was the true strike of a Saint. Although its power fell short of his peak due to his decaying vitality, the absolute suppression of his cultivation realm remained terrifying beyond measure!

There should be another chapter, but I haven't written it yet...