The Identity of the Sloppy Old Man

Old Tao's wrinkled face twisted into a lecherous grin. "Don't take me seriously. Do you really think I'm the kind of man who'd sacrifice a friend for money?"

For a moment, Ye Tian was stunned. He quietly tugged at An Yi's sleeve. "Is this old geezer reliable or not?"

"Shouldn't be a problem."

An Yi said seriously.

Then, feeling he'd spoken too confidently, he added, "If something feels off, we'll just gut him."

"You two little shits! I heard every word!"

Old Tao shot An Yi a furious glare.

He'd graciously offered up his home for them to hide in, and this bastard was already plotting to knife him!

"Damn, what a waste!"

Watching An Yi scatter seasonings all over the grill, Old Tao's face twisted with heartache.

He quickly grabbed the chicken leg that was about to burn and blew on it. "Good thing the heat didn't get past it, you clumsy fool."

Old Tao seemed oddly obsessed with food. He reached out to An Yi. "That stuff you just sprinkled—that's interesting. Give me some."

"You mean cumin?"

An Yi casually tossed the cumin bottle over.

Old Tao caught it, poured a little into his palm, dipped his finger in, and licked it gently, a look of lingering appreciation on his face. "This seasoning's got something to it. Not bad at all."

An Yi shrugged. "It's yours."

On Blue Star, food was abundant beyond measure, with endless varieties.

When it came to crafting flavors to delight the palate, it absolutely crushed the Ancient Continent.

After all, most folks over there were still struggling with hunger and cold. Having anything to eat at all was already a blessing.

Old Tao tucked the cumin bottle into his clothes and chuckled. "Thanks, pal. This'll come in handy for the barbecue."

"What's been going on out there these past three days?"

Ye Tian held a cup of instant noodles, sipping the broth as he asked.

An Yi sat cross-legged on the fold-out bed and sighed. "Your fiancée, Xu Yiyun—she's dead."

"Dead!"

Ye Tian's pupils constricted at the news.

A tangled mess of emotions welled up inside him—hard to name, hard to describe.

Sure, the Xu family's bunch of ingrates had been using him all along, and he'd long stopped pining for Xu Yiyun.

But no matter what, she was still a woman he'd once loved.

Hearing of her death out of nowhere—it stung more than he expected.

"City Lord Qi Hong tried to stage it as a mysterious murder, pinning the blame on us two, but that Qi Zun insisted he'd ordered someone to kill that slut Xu Yiyun. Now the City Lord's mansion has completely broken ties with the Xu family!"

An Yi laid it out simply.

The two of them might have stirred up a storm across the city.

But honestly, the conflict between the City Lord's mansion and the Xu family was far bigger.

The whole city of Qi had a feeling of a storm about to break.

Old Tao tore into his chicken leg, smacking his lips with a grin. "Don't worry, they won't get far. Do they really think the Eastern Mystic Academy in Qi City is a pushover?"

"Eastern Mystic Academy—what the hell is that?"

An Yi looked at Ye Tian.

Ye Tian shook his head, pondered a moment. "I've heard of it. The Eastern Mystic Academy is very powerful, but the branch in Qi City is pretty average."

Old Tao: "..."

Ye Tian was badly injured. It'd take a couple of days at least before he recovered. Now he'd fallen back asleep.

Even in his sleep, he was muttering.

Cursing that a pack of beasts deserved death.

Having nothing better to do, An Yi lounged on the couch, flipping through comics, a bag of chips nearby, munching a piece now and then.

"How the hell do you do it?"

Old Tao stared at the bizarre collection of furniture beneath the bridge, a look of wonder on his face.

The kid carried around something like a treasure box—he had everything on him, like it never ran out. Strange, wild, all-encompassing.

An Yi said offhandedly, "Boring little trick. Nothing to marvel at."

His storage space could be expanded with karma energy. It was long past the original five cubic meters.

As for how big it was now, even An Yi wasn't quite sure.

According to Long Aoxue's description earlier, she could even rest inside it in her true form.

On his way to the Ancient Continent, he'd stocked up on all sorts of things from Blue Star, just in case.

"Kid, you're definitely not ordinary. No wonder you managed to turn Qi City completely upside down."

Old Tao said with a sigh.

An Yi raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Oh? Old man, you're not so simple yourself."

At that, Old Tao's eyes sharpened.

A faint smile tugged at An Yi's lips.

By all logic, this kind of scruffy old man always had a hidden background. Otherwise, why else would he pick a bridge where a trash-picking geezer lived to crash?

With his maxed-out medical skills, An Yi could tell Old Tao had an old injury.

A whole set of formidable strength was being suppressed by that ailment.

Old Tao set down his chicken leg, and in that moment, his whole demeanor shifted. "Looks like I can't hide it anymore. You guessed right—I am the renowned Tao Ye!"

An Yi: "..."

Uh, Grandpa. Awkward.

Who the hell was Tao Ye? Was he supposed to be famous?

No matter how impressive, could he top the Night Emperor?

"You came to me, obviously wanting the protection of the Eastern Mystic Academy."

Old Tao looked at An Yi with an air of having seen through him, hands clasped behind his back as he spoke leisurely.

Unfortunately, his scruffy, unkempt appearance really didn't sell the image of some hidden master.

An Yi was a bit confused, not following this turn. He nodded anyway. "Yeah, you got it. Exactly that!"

Old Tao waved his hand dismissively. "The Eastern Mystic Academy is tough to get into. They don't just let any riffraff through the door."

An Yi's mouth twitched.

Who wanted to go to the Eastern Mystic Academy anyway?

He'd only learned from Ye Tian's explanation that it was an academy independent of the great imperial capitals—so terrifyingly powerful it rivaled even nations.

Sure, the Qi City branch of the Eastern Mystic Academy was just a subsidiary, but it could still overshadow the royal academy of the Eastern Ling Empire's capital.

An Yi said flatly, "That hard to get in, huh? Guess I'll skip it, then."

Old Tao's mouth twitched, and he coughed lightly. "But—if you had a powerful figure to lead you in..."

"Old Tao, you're actually pretty decent at cooking."

An Yi munched on the food Old Tao had just grilled, praising it between bites, clearly not paying his words any mind.

Watching An Yi wolf down food, Old Tao's gaze suddenly grew distant and sorrowful.

Had the Tao Ye who once dominated the Eastern Ling Empire really become irrelevant to everyone now?

"You've had that injury on your waist for six or seven years now, right?"

An Yi glanced at him.

Tao Ye's expression turned solemn. "How do you know?"

He did have an injury.

His entire spirit meridian was blocked, unable to flow. He'd sought out a hundred physicians, all helpless.

That had sent the once-renowned Tao Ye plummeting in power overnight.

Unable to bear such a blow, he'd left the academy and wandered through these lands, drifting aimlessly year after year.

"I know medicine. Want me to give you a hand?"

An Yi asked.

Tao Ye's spirit meridian was fundamentally different from Ye Tian's.

Ye Tian's was just a dead-end meridian that needed to be carved open step by step—outside help did little. But Old Tao's meridian was much simpler.

Tao Ye licked his lips, hearing a glimmer of hope, and his eyes burned with excitement.

"How confident are you?"

Suppressing the surge of emotion, Tao Ye asked with nervous anticipation.

An Yi thought for a moment, then said truthfully, "It's not a serious problem. Conservative estimate? About ninety-five percent."

Old Tao: "…"