CHAPTER 459: CHAPTER 459: WHERE IS THE DIM SUM?_1

"So..." Xu Lai’s gaze turned cold. "Was it her ancestor who stole my senior sister’s waist token and passed it down to her generation?"

Taotie remained silent for a moment. He had surmised as much; killing for treasure and plundering the dead was common, not just in the dog-eat-dog Immortal Domain, but everywhere.

However, Baize had other conjectures.

"The Divine General Baize said there is also a possibility that her ancestor spared your revered master and the others, letting them live," Taotie added. "There were originally seventy-two possibilities, but most lack evidence, so Baize maintains a skeptical attitude."

Master... Could they really have survived back then?

Xu Lai was emotionally stirred, but moments later, he sank into dejection. Even if they had been alive then, a hundred thousand years had passed. They had probably long since returned to dust. Even if they had reached the Immortal Venerable Realm, a lifespan of a hundred thousand years would be nearly exhausted. Why hadn’t they sought him out all these years?

At this thought, Xu Lai felt an inexplicable surge of guilt.

I shouldn’t have left the Mass Burial Mound back then. I should have kept searching, endlessly, until the end of time.

"Are there any other leads on that middle-aged woman?" Xu Lai asked calmly. "Can she be investigated?"

Taotie replied, "Fairy Qing Yuan has been tasked with the investigation. It may take some time to get results, or there might be... no results at all."

Xu Lai nodded, saying nothing more.

A hundred thousand years was an eternity of transformations for mortals, and even more so for cultivators. The Immortal Domain was brimming with countless cultivators. Back then, the Hehuan Valley could barely be considered a large sect, yet it had hundreds of thousands of Outer Sect Disciples. Some of these disciples were so-called nepotism cases, so their enrollment records were hardly reliable. With the sect’s annihilation, all information about the Hehuan Valley had vanished like smoke.

It was like an ordinary person trying to find a specific shell lost in a vast ocean. Except, this particular shell had fossilized one hundred thousand years ago. One could search for a lifetime and never find it.

Then there was the Mass Burial Mound. It was actually a tremendous pit, an area comparable to half of the Eastern Desolate Domain. Millions of corpses from the three surrounding domains were thrown into it every day. Legend had it that over a hundred eons ago, a corpse there had attained enlightenment through its deceased state and ultimately reached the Emperor Realm. There were also rumors that once a body was thrown into the Mass Burial Mound, its soul would be trapped there forever, unable to enter the Samsara Sea for rebirth.

These mixed tales of truth and fabrication had made the Mass Burial Mound a veritable graveyard. The bodies of cultivators and mortals, enemies and family alike, were all discarded there.

Xu Lai stood at the very pinnacle of cultivation, in the Emperor Realm, yet he couldn’t even find four corpses. If word of this got out, it would astound countless cultivators in the Immortal Domain. But it was the truth.

Even those in the Emperor Realm were still human. They were just slightly stronger ordinary people, and there were things even they could not achieve.

For instance, immortality. Or the inability to traverse the river of time and space to alter the past and future. And on the path of cultivation, one had to walk alone, unable to discuss with anyone where the road ahead might lead.

Temporarily setting aside the matter of his senior sister’s waist token, Xu Lai looked at Taotie. "How have things been with you and Liu Wan lately?"

"I’ve been in the Immortal Domain recently, so we haven’t talked," Taotie replied.

Just as Xu Lai was about to speak, Taotie added, "But on New Year’s Eve, I went to her house. Her parents invited me in for tea."

Xu Lai was flabbergasted. This kid has some nerve. When I first pursued Ruan Tang, her parents gave me the cold shoulder, but you, you block-headed Taotie, went straight to her house? You’ve only known each other for a few days!

Ruan Tang, who was washing fruit for Yiyi, Yun Jin, and Qian Xiao, overheard them and looked over in surprise. "You went to see Liu Wan’s parents? To propose?"

"Propose?" Taotie was baffled. "I just went to deliver a lamb. Liu Wan couldn’t carry it, so I helped take it to her house."

Ruan Tang put a hand to her forehead. "Oh, I see."

"Taotie, you need to show a little heart," Xu Lai said, patting Taotie’s shoulder. An unattached man delivering gifts to a young woman’s home on New Year’s Eve and getting invited in for tea by her parents... you didn’t need to be a genius to realize something was up.

"Hearts?" Yiyi, who was playing a video game, turned her head. "Are there candy hearts?"

Qian Xiao also asked expectantly, "Is it cloud candy? Or rainbow candy?"

Even Yun Jin was quietly swallowing her saliva.

Xu Lai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He looked up at the sky outside the window and raised an eyebrow. It was cloudless, with no chance of a rainbow, let alone snow.

"Bring me two dark clouds," Xu Lai said calmly.

Ruan Lan, who was lying on the sofa with her legs crossed, reading a comic and eating cherries, grumbled, "Are you dreaming, Brother-in-law? I checked the weather forecast. There’s no rain or snow today. No way there’ll be dark clouds!"

"And what if there are?" Xu Lai retorted.

"If there are, I’ll eat every last one of them right here and now!" Ruan Lan had barely finished speaking when her eyes widened in shock.

Before her very eyes, the once clear sky suddenly filled with countless clouds, completely obscuring the sunny afternoon. It felt as if a torrential downpour was imminent.

Ruan Lan was dumbstruck. "Well, this is... The heavens aren’t doing me any favors!" She cleared her throat. "I have something to attend to, so I’m out of here!"

Ruan Lan scurried away.

Xu Lai made cloud candy for the three little ones. Ruan Tang stretched languidly, showing off her stunning curves.

She said softly, "Xu Lai, let’s go for a walk along the seashore. It’s getting a bit stuffy in here."

"Okay," Xu Lai nodded, then looked at Taotie. "You coming with us?"

"No, thanks." Taotie scratched his head, looking a bit lost. "Liu Wan just messaged me on WeChat asking me to go see a movie, and I said yes."

"Show some ambition. Who watches a movie in the middle of the afternoon?" Xu Lai advised. "You should go at eight tonight. It’ll end at ten, just in time to get a..."

Before he could finish, Ruan Tang gently placed her hand on his waist and said with a dazzling smile, "Mr. Xu seems quite knowledgeable. It sounds like you used to do this often with your ex-girlfriends, getting a room and all."

"Not a room!" Xu Lai said earnestly. "I was going to say get a car and drive Liu Wan home. She’d get home by eleven, just in time for bed. What were you thinking, my dear wife?"

"Hmph." Ruan Tang pouted. Such a hypocrite! That’s obviously not what he meant!

Xu Lai pulled Ruan Tang toward the door, whispering, "How about we go see a movie tonight? My driving is very steady, though we might get home a bit late..."

"You flirt!"

"Heh heh heh."

The two of them headed down the mountain.

Taotie scratched his head, still trying to puzzle out the conversation between the Supreme Emperor and his wife. He didn’t know how to drive anyway... Besides, driving was so slow. Wasn’t teleporting or flying much faster?

Once all the adults had left, Qian Xiao looked around and asked, "Big Sis, can your computer play discs? I found a movie DVD in my parents’ room. Let’s watch a movie together!"