Chapter 29: The New Tenant

Earth. Danan City.

A new family moved in next door. A knock came at the door.

"Hello, I'm your new neighbor, Ye Hai."

"Luo Yan. I just moved in recently as well. We'll be neighbors from now on, so let’s look out for each other. Is this your child? How adorable!"

"Ye Fan, say hello to the uncle." Ye Hai tugged at the six or seven-year-old boy hiding behind his legs.

Little Ye Fan was a bit timid, but he gathered his courage and called out, "Hello, Uncle~"

Luo Yan smiled slightly. After a moment's thought, he took out a piece of jade and handed it to Ye Fan. "It’s our first time meeting; please take this as a gift! It has been blessed by a master to ward off evil and misfortune. Make sure you don't lose it!"

Ye Hai had a discerning eye and realized at once that the thumb-sized piece of jade was quite valuable. He immediately declined, saying, "Brother Luo, this is too generous; we cannot accept it! Ye Fan, give it back to Uncle Luo."

Ye Fan obediently reached out to return the jade.

Luo Yan insisted, "It’s of little value to me, and I quite like this child, so let him keep it. He’s still young, and this can bring him some blessings."

Ye Hai had heard rumors about a wealthy resident in this neighborhood who, twenty years ago, had spent a fortune to buy the entire development, only to pass away a few years later and leave his assets to a good-for-nothing son.

The man before him was likely that very heir. A little money surely meant nothing to him.

"Then we shall accept it!" Seeing that the man would not take it back, Ye Hai accepted the jade to avoid being rude.

"Keep it safe. It’s a gift from Uncle Luo, so don't lose it!"

Ye Fan nodded solemnly, sensing the value of the stone from his father's reaction.

"Woof!" A thin black dog darted out from the room, circled Ye Fan twice, and sniffed him.

"Uncle Luo, is this your dog?" Ye Fan asked, a bit frightened, worried the little black dog might bite him.

Luo Yan laughed kindly, "Don't be afraid, it doesn't bite!"

Ye Fan remained nervous, clutching his father's pant leg tightly and watching the black dog circle him without moving. Ye Hai and Luo Yan exchanged smiles, finding the scene quite amusing.

"I still need to buy some things, so I won't take up any more of your time!" Ye Hai had just moved in, and many household items were still missing.

Luo Yan understood perfectly. "Go on then. Come visit my place when you're free!"

"Say goodbye to Uncle Luo!"

"Goodbye, Uncle Luo!" Ye Fan waved his hand, though he still kept a close eye on the little black dog. The father and son soon went downstairs and left.

Only then did the black dog speak in a human voice: "Master, is this the person you've been waiting for all these twenty years? He doesn't seem particularly special!"

The black dog was, naturally, the donkey in disguise.

"You will understand in time! Where did you go yesterday?" Luo Yan suddenly asked.

The donkey lowered its head, looking guilty. "I... I didn't go anywhere."

Luo Yan narrowed his eyes, thoughtful. "Did you go off to bully that Dragon-Horse in Kunlun again?"

The donkey stammered, feeling a pang of fear, but remembering that peculiar creature, it couldn't help but say, "It's the Dragon-Horse's fault for always insulting me for no reason! I couldn't stand it."

Luo Yan did not scold it, but said patiently, "This place was once the Daoist sanctum of the Emperor. It is filled with perilous sites that even I would not dare to tread upon lightly. Furthermore, there are peerless, lethal formations within Kunlun that even I find daunting. What would you do if something happened while you were acting recklessly?"

The donkey looked at him in disbelief. "This is the Emperor’s sanctum?"

"Why else do you think I haven't taken the Immortality Herb in Kunlun, but instead set my sights on the semi-divine He Shou Wu on Changbai Mountain to extract some of its divine nectar?"

The donkey’s eyes widened like copper bells, and it drew a sharp breath that chilled it to the bone.

The Emperor—that was the legendary figure who founded the Heavenly Court during the Mythological Era and shook the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. He was a supreme existence, and countless people craved his inheritance!

To think this place was his sanctum! The donkey instantly wilted.

"Stay away from that Dragon-Horse in the future. That thing is no good," Luo Yan warned. Based on his knowledge of the donkey, it had the potential to be quite troublesome, and he worried that spending too much time with the Dragon-Horse would only make it worse. As one of the three "notorious" characters of the Shrouded Heavens era, Luo Yan knew full well that the Dragon-Horse was definitely a piece of work.

"Understood, Master." It said the words, but what it was thinking was another matter entirely.

Luo Yan had been on Earth for a long time, but he hadn't ventured into Kunlun; he was looking for people.

The Amitabha Buddha, the Daoist Celestial, the Void Emperor, and the Hengyu Emperor had all buried themselves on this planet, hoping to resurrect in a different way, though the beings that would return would no longer possess their original personalities. As for the coffin of the Void Emperor in the cosmos and the corpse cast into the void, Luo Yan suspected those were merely avatars intended to confuse the Supremes in the Life-Forbidden Zones.

For twenty years, Luo Yan had searched continuously, yet he had found no trace of them.

"Could it be that they are hiding from me?" A suspicion began to form in Luo Yan's mind. "Or are they still in deep slumber?"

The possibility of slumber was slim; after all, Laozi and Gautama Buddha had departed for the starry skies over two thousand years ago, leaving their marks in many places. It had to be the former.

"Forget it. If they are not appearing, it must mean the time is not yet right." Luo Yan gave up the search and began to contemplate returning to ten thousand years ago through the River of Time.

He calculated the risks. The further back he went, the greater the resistance would be. This time, he intended to go back to the period before the Qing Emperor attained his Dao, which would certainly be more than ten thousand years—likely around twelve thousand years, as that was when the Qing Emperor emerged.

Last time, when he went back six thousand years to the Tianxuan Holy Land, he had felt immense pressure. Now that the span had doubled, he wasn't sure if he could withstand it. Standing in the River of Time, one would be reduced to dust with the slightest lapse in concentration. Luo Yan was not yet at the Great Emperor level, and he could not resist the laws of time of the entire river; he would be consumed within an hour at most.

His only reliance was the Time Mirror, an Immortal Artifact of mysterious origin.

"I will wait a little longer. The essence of time I intercepted during my second trip hasn't been exhausted yet. At the very least, I must wait for the arrival of the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin and for Ye Fan to step onto the Starry Sky Ancient Road." Luo Yan muttered to himself.

There was a third of the Green Cauldron in Kunlun, and Luo Yan was determined to have it.

This object had a connection to the Qing Emperor, and the Qing Emperor's tomb would open within three years of Ye Fan’s arrival at the Big Dipper. Inside, there would be a bronze fragment, one of the pieces of the Green Cauldron. In the original text, the true body of the Qing Emperor was trapped in the Desolate Pagoda, and later, a drop of his blood took root on the bronze fragment in Ye Fan’s Sea of Bitterness, coalescing into an avatar to rescue his trapped self.

Luo Yan was cautious; he had the donkey explore Kunlun and never went there himself. Who knew if a quasi-emperor entering Kunlun would trigger an unfavorable reaction? Others might not know, but he was well aware: the Emperor was still alive.

Better safe than sorry. He was powerful, but one had to be careful; a single mistake and it would be too late for regrets.