Invincible Dad-Chapter 776: The Identity of Sikong Jiu_1

The three elixirs in his hand plunged Xu Lai into silence.

There were eight identical Cloud Water Rust Characters, but only three elixirs. The spaces within the other five characters were empty.

The characters are empty?

Given the information contained within the previous characters, this was clearly impossible.

There was only one possibility—the other five elixirs had already been taken by someone else!

"There are thirty-six Cloud Water Rust Characters in total, not just on the No Righteous Sword, but in other places as well."

Xu Lai closed his eyes and said softly, "It’s like money in a bank. As long as you have the card and the password, anyone can withdraw it. The Cloud Water Rust is the card, and the characters within are the password."

Ruan Tang said nothing, simply gripping Xu Lai’s hand a bit more firmly as a gesture of comfort.

"I’m fine," Xu Lai said with a wry smile. "I’m just a little perplexed. Never mind the specific effects of these elixirs or who took the other five. I just want to know... who carved these Cloud Water Rust Characters?"

Xu Lai had never told Ruan Tang about the matters of The Other Shore.

Now, following his train of thought, she said earnestly, "The person who did all this must have had a reason."

Indeed.

What was the reason for doing this?

Cloud Water Rust was clearly a special restriction from The Other Shore. Neither Gu Yan nor the other five young prodigies from The Other Shore could see through it or had the ability to break it; otherwise, the items within would have been lost long ago.

Could it be that a cultivator from The Other Shore intended to use Gu Yan—or more precisely, the No Righteous Sword in his possession—to bring the Cloud Water Rust Characters to the Lower Realm and deliver them to someone specific in the Immortal Domain?

Xu Lai’s pupils suddenly narrowed. He felt this possibility was very likely!

But who could it be?

One hundred names of Great Emperors.

The second character, capable of stopping the Purple Spirit, which was seen by those in the Emperor Realm as either a good omen or a disaster.

Coordinates within the Boundless Sea.

Eight elixirs with unknown effects.

And the yet-undiscovered contents within the other twenty-six characters...

The more Xu Lai pondered, the more convinced he became that this was not the ’Immortal Scripture’ rumored throughout the Immortal Domain for a hundred epochs, but an opportunity specifically meant for a certain person!

It was just that an error occurred during its transmission, causing this opportunity to stray into the Immortal Domain. It never reached its intended recipient, and five of the elixirs were inadvertently taken by someone else.

Perhaps the remaining characters had also been partially deciphered by other cultivators over the long years.

Xu Lai shared his thoughts and told his wife about The Other Shore.

Ruan Tang, however, didn’t seem overwhelmed by the flood of information. She was calmer than Xu Lai had expected, and said softly, "So, we need to decipher the remaining Cloud Water Rust Characters as soon as possible, before someone else beats us to it."

"Honey, aren’t you curious who this opportunity was meant for?" Xu Lai asked.

There were a hundred emperors in the Immortal Domain, and in every epoch, there were at least several nameless Quasi-Emperors, sometimes dozens or even hundreds. Counting the brilliant, peerless Immortal Venerables or geniuses who died young, name after name flashed through Xu Lai’s mind.

No matter who it was, any connection to an Other Shore Cultivator would be enough to shake the entire Immortal Domain!

"Right now, we’re the thieves," Ruan Tang said with a blink. "Why should we care who the original owner is?"

Xu Lai was stunned. Even with his thick skin, he couldn’t help but correct her.

"How can the actions of a cultivator be called theft? Heavenly materials and earthly treasures belong to the virtuous. Besides, everything has a shelf life. If we don’t take them out, what if they spoil?"

"Oh?" Ruan Tang smirked. "Is that so?"

"Yes." Xu Lai coughed once, stating without a blush or a flutter of his heart, "Perhaps this opportunity was meant for me all along."

"So ’the fated one’ is just decided by who has the thickest skin," Ruan Tang remarked.

"And the strongest fist," Xu Lai added. The Cultivation World had always been this way—only the one with the strongest fist had the right to define what was a treasure belonging to the virtuous and what was murder for plunder.

Xu Lai kept one elixir for himself.

He had originally planned to have Divine General Taotie deliver the other two to the Heavenly Court, to let the Second Divine General Baize and the Tenth Divine General Shan Baiwan examine them.

But when he swept his Divine Sense out, he found Taotie enjoying a private getaway with Liu Wan on an uninhabited island in the south of the country.

So, he simply called out, "Xiao Hai, take a trip to the Heavenly Court."

The Dragon Vein of Mount Haitang materialized. A small, ten-foot-long black dragon coiled on the floor, its gaze toward Xu Lai trembling with fear.

It wasn’t that Xiao Hai was unwilling to accept the Supreme Emperor’s command. The journey to the Heavenly Court was long and perilous, and its Boundary was simply too low.

What if it got robbed on the way...

Xiao Hai said cautiously, "Supreme Emperor, please reconsider."

"Coward." Xu Lai glanced at it, then said, "Honey, bring out the Qingfeng Sword for it to carry."

Xiao Hai panicked even more. If the Tao Lineages and Holy Lands of the Four Immortal Domains found out it was carrying an Emperor Artifact, it would probably be killed before it even left the Milky Way.

Dragon Spirit Xiao Hai quickly pleaded, "Supreme Emperor! A trace of your Divine Sense is enough. Please, not the Emperor Artifact..."

"Fair enough."

As the Dragon Spirit left Earth, Xu Lai began to ponder the elixir’s purpose.

For an Alchemist, the most direct method was to swallow the small white pill. This would not only reveal its effects but also allow one to guess at the medicinal herbs used to create it.

But with only three extremely precious elixirs, Xu Lai was reluctant to consume a whole one. He flicked his finger, and a tiny piece of the elixir crumbled off.

Of course, it had to be eaten. Just not by him.

Holding the fragment, Xu Lai went to the backyard and called, "Sikong Jiu."

"Supreme Emperor! I’m here, I’m here!"

The Heavenly Dao appeared instantly, still in the form of a three-to-five-year-old child wearing a red bellyband and holding a stick of candied haws. He looked exceptionally festive.

"How do you think I treat you?" Xu Lai asked with a smile.

Sikong Jiu’s heart skipped a beat.

Based on his years of experience on Earth, people who asked this question rarely had good intentions. Either they wanted something from him or they were about to discard him now that he was no longer useful. In any case, it was never a good thing.

Sikong Jiu hesitated for a long time before saying, "Supreme Emperor, your grace toward me is as heavy as a mountain."

"Mm." Xu Lai pushed the elixir fragment forward. "Here, have a taste."

"???"

The moment he saw the fragment, Sikong Jiu understood. The Supreme Emperor wanted to use him to test the elixir!

He asked cautiously, "May I ask, Supreme Emperor, what is this elixir?"

Xu Lai said nothing, just tilted his head toward him. "Eat it. As long as you don’t drop dead on the spot, I can save you."

So there’s a chance I could drop dead on the spot!

Sikong Jiu’s tiny head displayed an immense sense of grievance. "Supreme Emperor, the trillions of living beings on Earth cannot be without me!"

"Eat it yourself, or should I help you?"

"..."

In despair, Sikong Jiu took the fragment and sniffed it. His expression suddenly changed, as if he had remembered something significant. All his previous resistance vanished as he hesitantly brought it to his mouth.

"You knew this elixir was harmless to you," Xu Lai said, his eyes flashing sharply. "I’ve suspected you were from The Other Shore, and now it seems I was right." His goal in making Sikong Jiu eat the fragment wasn’t just to test the elixir’s effects, but also to confirm his true origin.

Sikong Jiu remained silent.

Xu Lai said, "Tell me the elixir’s effects yourself, and I won’t force you to eat it."

Sikong Jiu let out a heavy sigh.

If the Supreme Emperor truly believed his words, then he wouldn’t be Xu Qingfeng, the man who clawed his way out of the treacherous, scheming Immortal Domain through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Without another word, Sikong Jiu swallowed the elixir fragment.

The next moment, his body went limp and fell softly to the ground, breathless.