The gate slowly opened. An ancient air poured out, but unexpectedly, four statue-like elders were blocking the path inside.

The four elders’ robes were tattered and broken. If their eyes weren’t open, they might really be taken for statues because there wasn’t the slightest aura of life on their bodies.

“Grand Elders!” Qu Jianying let out a startled cry upon seeing those four ancient figures.

Upon seeing them, Qu Jianying’s expression sank. Killing intent appeared in her eyes. “For this kind of minor matter, you bastards actually disturbed the four Grand Elders?! Are your heads full of crap?!”

“Alliance head, you refused to listen to our advice. You were so stubborn that nothing we did helped. Hence, we could only ask the four Grand Elders to make a decision,” said one of the elders indifferently.

“Fuck off! Do you realize what disturbing the four Grand Elders signifies?!” Qi Jianying was shuddering from rage. She had an urge to kill these nine right now.

“Jianying, even after so many years, you still have this temper.” One of the four Grand Elders opened his mouth. His voice was raspy and weak as if he might collapse at any time.

“Granduncle-master, they…” Qu Jianying pointed at the nine elders, her eyes reddening slightly.

“Child, you’re still the same as back then, still dealing things with your emotions. You have to be calm when you encounter things because you’re the one in charge. If you can’t even control your own emotions, how can you control the family?” rebuked the Grand Elder, but his voice was pampering. Everyone could tell that this Grand Elder treated Qu Jianying as his own child.

“But you were startled awake. Your longevity…” Qu Jianying’s expression sank again.

These four Grand Elders were the ones with the greatest seniority in the entire Martial Heaven Alliance. They were incredibly powerful Netherpassage experts, but even Netherpassage experts were still cultivators of the mortal world. Their longevity was still limited.

In order to extend their own longevity, the four of them had entered a hibernation state. The four of them were a secret of the Martial Heaven Alliance and also their strongest trump card.

Being woken cost them their longevity, which was no minor matter considering that their life energy was about to run out.

For this, the nine elders had startled the four Grand Elders. They hadn’t accomplished anything with this, while it came with such a terrible cost. Qu Jianying wished to kill the nine of them right now.

“It’s fine, everyone dies. Our lives have already been given to the Martial Heaven Alliance. Child, don’t feel bad. Furthermore, we’re quite excited to be woken at this time. The great era has descended, and we get to see it,” comforted the Grand Elder.

Hearing that, Qu Jianying fell quiet. The four Grand Elder’s gazes concentrated on Long Chen.

“You have the aura of the old wine ghost on you,” exclaimed one of them.

When that Grand Elder said the old wine ghost, Long Chen suddenly thought of the Wine God Palace’s High Priest.

“Correct, it is definitely the old wine ghost’s aura. It seems he has advanced from his past level.” One of the other Grand Elders nodded.

“Are the four of you talking about the Wine God Palace’s High Priest?” asked Long Chen.

“Arrogant! How dare you speak to the Grand Elders!”

Pow!

“Fuck off!”

Long Chen directly slapped the elder that had interjected. Caught off guard, that elder’s teeth went flying.

If Long Chen hadn’t held back, that slap would have slain the elder. These nine fellows were too idiotic.

“Little fellow, this move of yours is pretty good.”

The four Grand Elders’ eyes lit up when they saw the slap. Rather than scolding him, they actually praised him.

“You overpraise me.” Long Chen cupped his fists toward them.

The other elders’ expressions completely changed. Originally, they had been about to shout at Long Chen for suddenly attacking, but seeing the Grand Elders acting like this, they swallowed their cursing.

Qu Jianying’s expression improved after that slap as though she had slapped them herself. It was somewhat satisfying.

However, seeing Long Chen treating the Grand Elders so nonchalantly, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Cupping fists to someone was generally for people in the same seniority level.

One of these Grand Elders was her own granduncle-master. He was two generations above her.

The other three were even older, so old that she didn’t even know how old. However, Long Chen was actually treating them like they were brothers, leaving Qu Jianying speechless.

“You’re quite sincere,” laughed one of the Grand Elders.

“I have a bit of wine that the High Priest gave me. Should we go drink it somewhere?” Long Chen took out a jug.

This was the top-quality wine made by the High Priest, and it would increase a person’s comprehension ability. Long Chen had once drunk it while testing how to merge Star Fall with that mysterious rune, which resulted in him creating the World Annihilation Flame Lotus.

However, he didn’t dare to waste the High Priest’s wine, so he never drank it outside of times he was focusing on gaining insights.

Long Chen had yet to open the lid when a dense wine fragrance filled the air. Just smelling it would refresh a person’s mind and open their pores, making them feel like they were being basked in divine light.

The four Grand Elders involuntarily gulped.

“Wait a moment. We should talk about proper matters first, or this would be viewed as a bribe.” Qu Jianying’s granduncle-master stopped Long Chen.

“Alright, then I’ll start drinking first while you talk.” Long Chen really did pour himself a bowl of wine and drank it.

As a result, the wine fragrance spread so far that they heard quite a few startled cries ringing out from the distance. The fragrance could be smelled throughout the Martial Heaven Alliance.

“Long Chen, don’t be rude!” Qu Jianying shouted. She herself wasn’t too fond of wine, but she saw that the four Grand Elders were staring at the wine jug closely.

“Yes.” Long Chen tossed the wine jug to the side. One of the Grand Elders caught it.

“This is…”

“Whether or not this matter succeeds, let me show my filial respect in place of the alliance head. To tell the truth, I was a bit unwilling, so I just drank a mouthful first to quench my thirst. Since the alliance head treats me like her son and is also so close to you, even if I was unwilling, I would still have to bring it out,” said Long Chen helplessly.

Upon hearing that, Qu Jianying’s expression softened. Although Long Chen had caused her endless trouble with his fearless nature, he cared deeply about relationships.

These four Grand Elders were clearly infatuated with that wine, and Qu Jianying had assumed that Long Chen would use it as a bargaining chip. But unexpectedly, he had directly given them this bargaining chip.

“If you do this, you’ll embarrass us.” One of the Grand Elders smiled.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Although I have no relationship with you, just based on the face of the alliance head, I would have to do it. As for our discussion, that is another matter. It would be best not to mix up the two,” said Long Chen.

“Not bad. Little fellow, you have some daring.”

One of the Grand Elders that hadn’t spoken yet finally said some words of praise. He directly took the wine jug without the slightest embarrassment.

“Alright, then since you’re so direct, we won’t beat around the bush. We’ve already heard a bit about your matter. Before we go any further, I have a few questions to ask you,” said Qu Jianying’s granduncle-master.

“Please go ahead.” Long Chen knew that the real problem had come. Clearly, Qu Jianying’s reward for him was so big that even she wasn’t able to just randomly give it to others.

With the four Grand Elders being woken, this reward couldn’t be ordinary. Whether or not he would obtain it would be based on his responses to the Grand Elders’ questions.

“What is the goal of your cultivation?”

“To live. To live with dignity, and to make sure the people beside me can live with dignity as well,” said Long Chen without hesitation.

The Grand Elder nodded and continued, “How do you differentiate between good and bad people?”

“I never differentiate between good or bad people. That has nothing to do with me. I only differentiate between friends and enemies. As long as they’re my enemy, whether they’re a good person or a bad person, if they want to kill me, I will mercilessly fight back. I definitely won’t resign myself to my fate just because my enemy is a good person,” said Long Chen.

“Don’t you feel like that’s a bit extreme? What if there was a misunderstanding somewhere? Wouldn’t you end up accidentally killing good people? Why not find some other way to resolve your problems?” asked the Grand Elder expressionlessly.

“I don’t have the time. I am in a race against time, and anything that slows me down could take my life. Again, I want to live with dignity, and make sure the people beside me can live with dignity. I don’t provoke others, but others shouldn’t provoke me because anyone who blocks my path will be killed without mercy,” said Long Chen decisively.

The nine elders smiled when they heard this. They knew that Long Chen had essentially lost his chance.

One of the Grand Elders frowned and said, “That’s too arbitrary. Randomly slaughtering innocent people, how are you any different from the Corrupt path?”

“I didn’t provoke anyone, but I’m being chased by a pack of idiots all day. Aren’t I the innocent one? Why can’t I fight back?” Long Chen smiled coldly. Thinking about how many idiots he had encountered on his path, whether it was in the Eastern Wasteland or the Central Plains, he sneered. There were so many of them that he couldn’t kill them all. As his cultivation base grew, more of them appeared. The more he thought about it, the angrier he grew. Innocent? He was the most innocent.

“Long Chen…” Qu Jianying hastily tried to interject.

“It’s fine. Young people need to be like this. If they were spiritless, wouldn’t they be like us old people?” Qu Jianying’s granduncle-master was not angry.

However, he then said, “I heard you have established your own Dragonblood Legion. Then tell me, if there comes a day that the Martial Heaven Alliance’s millions and millions of experts were in danger at the same time as your Dragonblood Legion was in danger, when their lives were in the balance and you could only choose one, what would you do?”