Crazy Old Man
"I'm actually alive…?"
Yaan lay on his back and stared up at the distant ceiling, a dark stone structure located hundreds of feet above him. His eyes remained blank for some time after he muttered to himself, until he recalled everything that he had been through prior to losing consciousness. As those memories flooded his mind, he suddenly sat up and started laughing crazily.
"Hahaha…I survived!"
He really thought that he had failed, he thought that he was going to die, that his pitiful life would end there and then, with nobody to see him, with nobody to lament his death.
But he was alive!
The feeling of going from hell to heaven filled his heart, until a familiar face appeared directly in front of him. Yaan's expression immediately darkened and he became serious. He slowly got to his feet, then silently stared ahead at the devil spirit, who seemed more imposing than usual…
"Lord inheritor candidate…you have reached the 5th Trial Realm…finally, you have reached the 5th Trial Realm!" The devil spirit's usually gruff and indifferent tone seemed to contain a hint of emotion. Yaan narrowed his eyes, observing the spirit seriously.
'He doesn't seem to be faking this emotion…there's no reason for him to fake such a thing anyway. Could it be that this is the end, and that he has confirmed that I really am this 'fated inheritor'…?' Yaan mused to himself silently, waiting for the devil spirit to go on.
However, just as the devil spirit became serious and opened its red mouth to speak, Yaan's gaze flickered behind the spirit briefly, before freezing for a moment as he saw something…unexpected.
The devil spirit noticed his distracted state and glanced back, also becoming stiff as its gaze fell back for a couple of hundred feet, into the centre of the grand hall.
In this dark and ancient stone palace hall, empty of all life and devoid of any decoration…
An old man was asleep on a king sized bed in the centre of the room. He slept sloppily, sprawled out on the silk mattress, with some golden covers lazily thrown over half of his body. If you strained your ears, you would be able to hear him snoring, even from this position a couple hundred feet away.
Yaan looked at the devil spirit doubtfully, waiting for him to explain this unexpected scene. However, Yaan was stunned to see the devil spirit's jaw hanging agape.
He was a hundred time more shocked when, a few seconds later, the devil spirit's expression became ferocious. The monstrous spirit's body rapidly expanded until it was standing almost as high as the stone rafters up within the ceiling!
"Who are you, how dare you trespass in master's inheritance?! State your business or prepare to meet your demise!"
"…"
"…"
As the old man did not reply but instead started snoring even more loudly, Yaan's eyes widened speechlessly. The devil spirit's aura was so intense that Yaan was honestly struggling to stay standing, whilst his voice was so loud that Yaan's ear drums were shaking. And that was considering that he was not the target of this pressure, he only experienced the residual impact, whilst the sleeping old man was definitely hit with the full force of the devilish aura!
"Bastard, wake up!" The devil spirit roared out with thrice the ferocity compared to before!
As the devil spirit lifted his giant crimson arm with a murderous and severe expression, both he and Yaan suddenly froze once again.
"Guh…damnit, who's the asshole that woke me up from my nap?!" The old man finally woke up, half opening his eyes and tilting his head to the side. He slowly turned his head until his eyes met the giant devil spirit's gaze. When their eyes connected, the old man glared intensely, as if he was not the least bit surprised nor afraid to be confronted by the red monstrosity immediately after waking up.
The devil spirit cried out and it suddenly shrunk back down to a more human size!
That old man's gaze alone was enough to completely subdue the devil spirit!
Before they knew what was going on, the old man was now standing upright, facing the both of them. Unknowingly, the devil spirit had been pushed back, now standing beside Yaan. The bed from before had vanished, whilst the old man was wearing an expensive looking golden robe…
Only, this old man had no aura at all, whilst this robe was clearly the sort worn by extravagant mortal kings! It was as if he was trying to pose as a high-class mortal, only, mortals actually had their own 'mortal aura', whilst this old man really just had no aura at all…
"You, what are you-"
"Hmm? Vil, is that you?" The old man cut off the devil spirit by ignoring him entirely as he turned towards Yaan with a slightly startled look.
Yaan felt even more bewildered than the devil spirit right now. He could not see it, but when the strange old man asked that seemingly random question, the devil spirit's expression changed drastically.
"You-"
"Huh, now that I think about it, you look nothing like Vil…Vil was more planet-sized, wasn't he?" The old man cut the devil spirit off again. At this point, it really felt deliberate…
"I- I have no idea what you're talking about…" Yaan forced a smile as he responded to the crazy old man.
Whilst this person had a somewhat majestic appearance and was overall well groomed, and his appearance suggested that he was probably extremely handsome when he was younger, his demeanour left Yaan feeling unsure about what to say. That, and his questions made no sense; Yaan really had no idea what he was talking about.
The old man frowned and squinted at Yaan.
"What's wrong with you, did you get dementia? Did your brain go bad? Worse than it already was I mean, you damned moron."
Yaan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Now he was being insulted? For what exactly? Before anyone could respond, the old man blinked and rubbed his eyes. His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at Yaan some more, and after a few moments, he even leaned in towards him at an uncomfortably close distance.
"You actually possess external dao comprehension now? What, you finally took my advice after all these years? No, that's not right, you're too stupid for that…wait, what the hell, why is your dao soul so messed up?! Just what happened to you…?"
After saying this, the old man's eyes started shining with a blindingly bright light. Yaan's expression changed drastically as he felt like he was staring into two divine orbs. This feeling of staring into something so grand that he couldn't even comprehend it almost caused him to fall on his back.
The remainder of the old man's body remained ordinary, but the glow in his two eyes…it was beyond belief!
Yaan felt as if he was being seen through entirely, this was extremely unnerving and made him want to retreat with his full strength. However, he found himself frozen to the spot, unable to move.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the old man's eyes returned to normal. On his face was a strange, shocked expression, mixed with uncertainty, annoyance, and doubt.
"You-"
Yaan froze, as did the devil spirit. They truly, properly froze; not only were they unable to move, but even their thoughts and senses had been frozen. Or perhaps, it was more like their very time had been halted!
The old man did not finish his sentence, because the entity whom he was speaking to emerged before he could say anything else.
Now, standing between Yaan and the old man, was the same young girl who had appeared before Yaan twice before. Her emerald eyes shone with a bright indifference, yet her gaze also exuded a dullness which lacked all emotion. Like always, a black crystal was imbedded into the centre of her forehead.
The old man and the young girl stared at one another silently for a few seconds.
"Do not reveal my presence to him. Do not reveal his own identity to him." The girl finally spoke. Her voice was monotonous, yet had a dream-like quality to it. She sounded like a young girl, yet also not, both at the same time.
Seeing her appear did not surprise the old man at all, but he was no longer relaxed and carefree like before.
"Tell me why." He replied bluntly, not backing down before her. He remained wary and serious, but he did not look afraid.
"Just do-"
"My debt is to them, not to you. I followed your instructions until now, but frankly, I don't trust you at all."
After a moment of silence, the girl replied:
"Explaining my divination would take too long."
"I don't care about all the small details. Just tell me the reason for stopping them from progressing naturally with the Fiend Transformation Technique. You're interfering with the plans they laid out for themselves."
The girl seemed to ponder for a moment, but her expression did not change at all.
"Law Empyrean learned of the plan, and of the technique's origin."
The old man's expression changed, becoming grim.
"Is that true? If that's really the case, then if they reached the Immortal Step with that technique, he would immediately locate them…"
Seeing the girl remaining silent, he snorted and crossed his arms.
"I still don't trust you. Why do all of that? You hid too many details from too many people this time. You didn't even tell Little Spirit, aren't you two practically sisters? And why did you manipulate that kid into reaching her? Was it so that he could learn the Four Paths Cultivation Technique? Why not just teach this kid yourself? You're so damned sketchy, hiding in his mind like this!"
"I'm following the path with the highest chance of success." She replied plainly.
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that." The old man sighed and scratched his head. "I really hate that about you. Expecting everyone to follow these nonsensical details and only providing such a bullshit excuse like 'it's because I divined it'. Do you know how damned annoying that is?"
"…"
The old man wasn't really expecting a response, he was only ranting anyway. With a sigh, he glanced at Yaan, showing a strange expression once again.
"You know, Little Spirit couldn't see the truth. She could only tell that his dao soul was damaged, she doesn't know what this kid is. Hah…but of course you knew that already."
"Will you follow the plan?" The girl asked emotionlessly.
The old man glanced at her and sighed.
"I will. Regardless, me helping those two to evade the Divine Court is good enough to repay them. After that, they can deal with their own problems, I can't be bothered with this anymore."
The young girl did not reply, but only gave a slight nod after hearing that the old man would comply with her plan, then turned back into a strand of invisible light and returned to Yaan's body, vanishing within.