Old Man Bu watched from his desk as the two young disciples left his warehouse.
The water essence would serve the boy well, assuming he had the skill to use it properly. More interesting was how naturally he'd handled the negotiation - humble without being obsequious, cautious without being paranoid.
"No visitors for the next few hours," he told the woman who'd guided them in. "I have so... private business to attend to."
She bowed and left without comnt. Good help was so hard to find these days, but at least this one knew when not to ask questions.
Once alone, he made his way to a hidden door behind his desk, triggering a formation that revealed a staircase leading down. The warehouse above might be his public face, but this - this was his true sanctuary.
The room below was completely unlike the cluttered workspace above. Ancient spirit wood panels lined the walls, each carved with preservation formations that had taken decades to perfect. Shelves held row upon row of wine vessels - not the common spirit wine most cultivators drank, but true immortal vintages. So had been aging for centuries, their spiritual essences growing more potent with each passing year.
Old Man Bu's fragile appearance shimred and faded like morning mist, revealing the youthful features of Elder Chen Yong. He stretched, letting his spiritual pressure expand now that he no longer needed to maintain the illusion of a crippled mortal.
"That boy..." he mused, selecting a particularly promising jar from his collection. "The World Tree Sutra of all things. No wonder he needs elental essences."
The wine's aroma filled the room as he poured - hints of mountain peaks and sumr storms, with an undertone of starlight that spoke to its quality. Chen Yong took an appreciative sip, letting the spiritual essence mingle with his own.
"The Sect Master was right to take an interest," he continued his musing. "Though I doubt even Yuan expected him to attempt sothing like this. A beyond-Heaven rank cultivation thod at Qi Condensation..." He chuckled. "Either brilliant or suicidal. Possibly both."
The wine was already working its magic, its spiritual essence rging with his cultivation as he poured another cup. Most cultivators saw drinking as a vice, a distraction from proper cultivation. They never understood that anything, properly refined, could beco a path to immortality.
His thoughts drifted back to Ke Yin. The boy had potential, certainly. More importantly, he had the right kind of caution - not the paralyzing fear that kept so many disciples bound by convention, but a practical wariness that might actually keep him alive long enough to achieve sothing interesting.
"A favor from soone like that could be valuable indeed," Chen Yong murmured, though in truth he had no specific favor in mind. Let the other elders play their political gas and sche for advantage. He just wanted to drink in peace and watch the show unfold.
The second jar went down easier than the first, its spiritual essence creating patterns of light that danced through the air. Everyone thought he was just a lazy drunk who'd sohow stumbled his way to the peak of the Stellar Realm. Let them think that - it was easier than explaining the profound truths he'd discovered at the bottom of ten thousand celestial wine jars.
His thoughts drifted to the 'forbidden' materials stored in his warehouse above. He snorted softly, taking another sip.
After tens of thousands of years of cultivation, the sects still clung to their laughable distinctions between righteous and demonic arts. As if the great Dao cared about such petty human labels.
The heavens were vast and mysterious - why shouldn't the paths to understanding it be just as diverse? So found enlightennt through ditation, others through blood and sacrifice. In the end, all rivers flowed to the sa sea.
Better to let cultivators walk whatever path called to them. His role wasn't to judge, just to watch and occasionally nudge the truly foolish away from paths that would destroy them before they learned anything worthwhile.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
The other elders could keep their rigid dogma and endless politicking. He'd stay here with his wine, selling whatever people needed, letting the great Dao sort out the rest. Yuan understood that, even if he'd never admit it openly.
"I bet that boy would agree with ..." Elder Chen Yong slurred slightly as he opened a third jar, "Maybe I should take him as a disciple."
The thought was probably the wine talking, but it had a certain appeal. The boy clearly had talent, and more importantly, he seed to understand the value of staying out of trouble. Unlike certain other disciples who treated cultivation like a competition to see who could attract the most dangerous enemies.
As the third jar's contents began to work their magic, Chen Yong's spiritual sense turned inward to his Inner World. Where most cultivators at his level had precisely ordered cosmic systems, his inner universe was... unique.
Rivers of wine flowed between stars that burned like distilled moonlight. Planets made of crystallized spiritual wine orbited suns that glowed with the essence of ten thousand fernted experiences. The very void between celestial bodies was filled with a fine mist of spiritual alcohol, creating auroras of intoxicated enlightennt.
It was beautiful, in its own chaotic way. A universe that followed the natural laws of inebriation rather than the rigid patterns most cultivators sought to impose. And there, in a particular convergence of wine-rivers and starlight...
Chen Yong squinted, his physical body swaying slightly as he focused on the anomaly in his inner world. A tiny spark of awareness had appeared in one of his wine-oceans, a primitive life form born from the intersection of spiritual alcohol and celestial forces.
Creator...
"No, no, no," he groaned, waving his cup as if to shoo away the thought. "Don't you dare call that. I'm not ready for this kind of responsibility."
He'd been deliberately holding back this breakthrough for decades. Advancing to the Life Realm ant facing tribulation, and tribulation ant having to actually exert himself. Much easier to just stay at the peak of the Stellar Realm, drinking his wine and avoiding troubleso responsibilities. But like an unwanted child, the spark refused to be ignored.
The tiny life form had already begun to multiply, its existence reverberating through his inner world like ripples in a cosmic wine cup. Each new spark carried that sa reverent recognition. The vibrations grew stronger, all of them now singing that damned word.
"Here we go..." he muttered as warning signs began to appear. First ca the pressure - a weight that pressed down on every part of his inner world. Then the light, harsh and unforgiving, nothing like the gentle glow of his wine-stars.
Tribulation was coming. Not the simple lightning strikes that marked minor breakthroughs, but a true heavenly trial ant to test his understanding of the Dao of Drunken Immortality.
Chen Yong frowned looking at his unfinished wine. He'd have to actually focus now, had to face whatever the heavens thought would be an appropriate challenge for his rather unique cultivation path.
"Should have just stuck to drinking," he sighed as the first waves of tribulation energy began to manifest in his inner world. "So much for a peaceful evening."
The tribulation clouds gathered, dark and ominous above his wine-rivers and starlight seas. Chen Yong could only hope this wouldn't take too long - he had several very promising vintages he'd been planning to sample tonight.
Maybe if he dealt with this quickly enough, they'd still be properly chilled when he finished. Assuming he survived, of course. Though dying drunk wouldn't be the worst way to go.
Well, at least the boy's visit had made things interesting. It almost made up for having to deal with all this breakthrough nonsense. Almost.
"Right then," he took one last sip of wine. "Let's get this over with. I have a date with a three-hundred-year-old spirit wine that I'd rather not keep waiting."
User Comments
0 comments from readers