Nine Venoms Sect Founder

For an instant, even Harun felt dazed. In his 165 years of life, he'd seen countless women, countless beauties, and if at his age he still gawked before any, Harun felt that he should just find a rod to beat himself to death. But when that figure made her entrance, awestruck, Harun had to place one hand before his lips to avoid betraying himself.

Wearing a long cyan dress embroidered with the Empyreans' orchid, like the moon goddess of mortal fairy tales, that figure robbed the l.u.s.ter of the starry sky—outshining the full moon. Her rosy-white skin glittered with a l.u.s.ter of its own, clearly setting her aside from human girls, and as she stepped toward him, Harun could smell a faint floral scent overpowering his senses—preventing him from getting a good look at that figure's face.

But how could the overlord of plagues lose to a mere scent? Imperceptible dark-green light rippled in Harun's eyes, and the scent's effects collapsed—enabling him to see his helper's face—Jiyan's face.

"It's you?" Harun doubted his sight. Though they looked 90% similar, the girl before him possessed a completely different aura from the Jiyan he met in his cell. Both possessed the white hair and icy-blue eyes of the Empyrean race, the same straight-edge nose, those small but inviting lips. But unlike the slightly airheaded Jiyan, this one held herself with matchless poise, more akin to the God Empress—that image soon collapsed.

"Besides me, who would care for you? Glad to see that despite meeting me in my full glory, you've not lost your head—a promising man," Jiyan said with an impish smile, pulled out the hairpin holding her long hair tied, and tossed it at the runaway assassin's corpse.

"Glad to see that you still got your head on your neck. When I got out of jails and heard that you succeeded, I initially wanted to celebrate and make more plans with you but...heard you're planning to battle all under the heavens," Jiyan pursed her lips and, with a sideway glance, ambled at Harun.

"At first I got depressed, thinking that you crumbled under all the pressure and decided to kiss death's t.h.i.g.h with a big, juicy smile. But then I recalled how much you love being alive so...just decided to bring you wine and meat," Jiyan leaned over, and while staring into Harun's eyes, summoned a wine jug in her right hand, and a bundled package in the left.

From that package, tiny Harun could smell the mesmerizing scent of roasted meat, a unique species he'd never tasted before. With gleaming eyes and watered lips, Harun's gaze wandered between the wine and meat—not knowing what to attack first. Meat won him over, and with a lightning fast grasp, he attempted to rob the package from Jiyan's hand. But faster, and now much taller than him due to his age reduction, Jiyan raised the package as high as she could, forcing Tiny Shota Harun to leap toward it time and time again.

"At your age, shouldn't you know that women don't like men that are too eager?" Jiyan chortled and patted Tiny Shota Harun's head.

"Who cares about women? Give me the meat!" Harun sobbed with large beady eyes, making Jiyan roll her eyes in exasperation. In the history of Heaven and Earth, where could one find a man that loved wine and meat more than women? Perhaps instead of dolling up, she should have basted herself with meat grease? And knowing that Harun wouldn't regain his cool before having the package in his hands, Jiyan sighed, and gave it to him.

As if he'd just gotten his hands on a priceless treasure, Harun held it tight against his c.h.e.s.t, crying endless tears of joy.

"What a unique fragrance. After two years of sorrow, I'm finally rewarded for my good deeds! I thought the 33 Heavens enforced a vegetarian diet. Where did you get this?" Harun asked as his tears trickled down his cheeks.

"It's phoenix meat and contraband. Don't ask how I got it, I think you don't want to spoil the taste, do you?" Jiyan shrugged and said with an evasive glance. Knowing that some things were best kept secret, Harun didn't probe further.

"Never mind. There is wine, there is meat, there is Jiyan. What else can a man ask for? I give you an eternal pass to my house. Come when you want to, leave when you want to. You can stay for as long as you wish—forever isn't out of question!" Harun pledged, making Jiyan arch her eyebrows. While all those celestials and deities racked their brains and plotted to swindle Harun, she handled the job with two packages.

Past today, who could say that she wasn't the most brilliant person of the 33 Heavens? Her mother couldn't compare. And as Harun readied to open the packaged phoenix meat, Jiyan reached down, took him in her arms, and walked toward his pagoda's entrance.

"Wait, let go of me. This is child abuse! The shota community doesn't agree! Let go of me!" Harun thrashed against Jiyan's grasp, but soon realized that his best efforts couldn't break the slender girl's grip.

"What does 'shota' even mean?"

"Just one of the many things I invent in my dreams. Like cars, skyscr.a.p.ers, starsh.i.p.s, and all those things we will never see in this world—until I become the invincible monarch," Harun replied, sticking his c.h.e.s.t out in complacence. How many could be like him, and with one casual dream, invent new worlds and a myriad of technological devices?

Unfortunately, the cultivation road took too much of his time, or he'd have already revolutionized the world!

Believing that in the recent days, Harun's mind had suffered more damages than she expected, Jiyan didn't probe further.

…

The rest of the night was uneventful—well, almost. Harun soon realized that he underestimated Jiyan's brew, and while the latter drank with moderation, he gulped down cup upon cup as if his liver's destruction had become his most ardent wish. Feeling as if he'd grown a pair of wings and flew across layers of paradise, Harun loosened his limbs in a frantic dance, giving Jiyan a memorable show.

To make sure the world wouldn't forget his performance, Jiyan took out a recording mirror and...recorded it all.

"Although enhancing your Celestial Nature is critical, shouldn't you focus on improving your cultivation too? I know a secret art that, with the right setting, can help you breakthrough three levels in a short time. There are many drawbacks, but nothing you can't solve with time," Jiyan offered Harun, who after his performance, sat across the table he'd set for her—still drinking with no restraint.

"Bah, forget about the Divine Path. It's as clear as daylight that the Divine Path is a hoax. The fewer steps you cross, the better," Harun said between two sips, making Jiyan narrow her eyes in confusion.

"A hoax?"

"Isn't that obvious? The cultivation path we know is divided into two steps: The Mortal, or Dao Traversing step, and the Celestial, or Divine Transformation step. But how do the two connect?" Harun asked, but before Jiyan could think of an answer, pursued:

"Mortals first cleanse their bodies of impurities to achieve Purification, then cleanse their souls to achieve Sanctification. With flesh and mind purified, they can start seeking their Dao, build a Dao Heart, a Dao Truth, and abandon it all to master their path and achieve Nihility. Then they cross the nine calamities to reach Crossed Vicissitude. In my case, I went through decades of starvation—trapped by my own Dao of Gluttony.

How can the end of such a path be to refine blood drops? If the Divine Path was correct, and if you heaven-born celestials were truly blessed, why do you incarnate yourselves in the mortal world, as early as the Celestial Guard Realm, to build a Dao Foundation?

Crossed Vicissitude to Celestial Kin, Empyrean Monarch to Dao Emperor, those two breakthroughs...don't add up!

The whole Divine Path feels like a misguided step. As if someone put a sandstorm in our faces to trick us into this wrong move. If you don't want to cultivate in vain, and like the rest forever stop at the Demi-Emperor stage, find another road!" Harun said, and immediately threw Jiyan's mind into chaos.