Chapter 2286: 2286

Long Chen took out some wine bowls. Hesitating, he asked, “Do you have any good wine that I can try?”

The Nethergod looked at Long Chen. Upon extending her hand, a delicate fist-sized jug appeared. However, she didn’t pour it into Long Chen’s bowl.

Instead, she took out two small jade cups. They were so small that Long Chen felt that they could only contain the tiniest amount of wine.

The Nethergod passed a cup to Long Chen. But before she could say anything, Long Chen had tossed the wine into his mouth. As soon as it touched his tongue, he spat it out and started coughing. The wine went flying toward Ming Cangyue, but it parted around her.

Long Chen violently coughed, like he was coughing out his tongue. He wanted to speak but was unable to say anything. Ming Cangyue slowly smiled at Long Chen’s wretched state.

“You…” Long Chen only managed one word before succumbing to the violent coughs. Even tears squeezed out of his eyes.

This wine was excruciatingly spicy. It was like lava exploding in his mouth, and the strangest thing about it was that it even invaded his soul.

Long Chen had drunk spicy wines before. Tu Qianshang’s wine in particular was strong in that aspect.

However, even his wine was not like this. This didn’t even feel like wine. It seemed more like poison.

“You drank it too fast. You can’t blame me.” Ming Cangyue shook her head at Long Chen’s furious gaze.

This was definitely intentional. Long Chen was sure of it. She had had more than enough time to explain it while pouring the wine but hadn’t, only acting like she wanted to say something when he was already swallowing it.

“Fine, this wine…” Long Chen suddenly found that his voice had changed. It was rougher, like an old bull.

Ming Cangyue laughed. Feeling like she was lacking in propriety, she turned away.

“What is going on?!” raged Long Chen. This voice was not his. It was incredibly ugly, like an old cow farting. Even he couldn’t bear it.

Just as Ming Cangyue managed to suppress her laughter and look back, Long Chen’s furious gaze made her laugh once more.

Finally, Ming Cangyue pointed a finger at Long Chen’s throat. A cool and refreshing feeling blew away the burning feeling. Seeing that he was still angry, she said, “It truly is wine, and a high grade wine of the divine level at that. I am normally only willing to drink a bit of it occasionally. But because you are a mortal, you cannot come into contact with that kind of energy, so it naturally burns your throat.”

“Are you sure you’re not scamming me?” demanded Long Chen. He realized that his voice had returned to normal.

“I’m sure.” Ming Cangyue nodded.

“Alright. Goodbye.” Long Chen nodded and rose.

“Didn’t you want to talk? You’re leaving like this? Are you angry?” Ming Cangyue was slightly curious. “If you’re really angry and don’t even have this little bit of endurance, how will you accomplish anything big?”

“Tch, who said that I ever wanted to achieve something big? I wish I could be an old farmer with a group of wives to keep my bed warm.” Hesitating, Long Chen sat back down. He hadn’t accomplished his mission yet. “Let’s keep talking. You can put away your cat piss wine. I’ll give you some of my fine wine.”

Long Chen took out jugs of wines from his primal chaos space.

Ming Cangyue shook her head. “One mouthful of this divine wine is equivalent to decades of cultivation, but you aren’t blessed enough to enjoy it.”

“Wine is wine, while medicine is medicine. The former has its own realm to enjoy, while the latter must be taken for a goal. One is passive, one is active. Although this wine I’ve gathered is from the mortal world, it has manifested its own Grand Dao. Even as a god in control of a whole world, some things can’t be changed. For example, the heart can drag down mortals and gods with no distinction. All living things must traverse the sea of bitterness.”

“All living things must traverse the sea of bitterness…” Ming Cangyue seemed to be affected by Long Chen’s final sentence.

“Here, first try this bowl of wine. If you are willing, you can dispel your god energy first and enjoy it with the attitude of a mortal. That will give you greater comprehension.” Long Chen handed the wine bowl to her.

Ming Cangyue hesitated ever so slightly before a rune lit up on her forehead and then vanished. Long Chen clearly felt her aura change. She was no longer a supreme god but more like a true woman.

Long Chen was startled inside. Ming Cangyue had truly dispelled her god energy. That was a kind of trust in him. If he had been colluding with Leng Yueyan and attacked her together at this moment, she wouldn’t be able to resist.

Without realizing it, a new tender feeling appeared in his heart. Trust was something extremely hard to obtain.

Although she was a god, due to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, he was still able to sense the change in her emotions. Even he didn’t understand this.

“When you drink it, let the wine pass through the two sides of your tongue and converge in your throat… Don’t look at me like that, I’m not scamming you.” Long Chen hastily raised his hands in innocence upon seeing Ming Cangyue look at him warily.

Ming Cangyue was naturally wary after how angry he had been when she had offered him wine. Was this payback? But then thinking about it, she found it laughable. How could something from the mortal world harm her?

She allowed the wine to enter her mouth according to Long Chen’s method. Curiously, the wine was like clear water when it touched the tip of her tongue, then when passing by the two sides of her tongue, it gradually unleashed its flavor before finally converging at her throat.

She was surprised to find that when the two streams converged, a new flavor appeared. Although the flavor of the wine wasn’t very strong, she reflected upon it for a long time. She had never drunk such a wine.

“Good wine,” praised Ming Cangyue.

“This wine is called Rouge Red. It’s a very, very ordinary Hundred Flower Wine. When it enters the mouth, the wine energy is slowly released. The left side gives birth to sweetness, while the right side gives birth to bitterness. They advance together and then merge, reflecting the union of Yin and Yang. That is the essence of this wine,” explained Long Chen.

Ming Cangyue drank another mouthful after hearing this. She experienced those sensations that she hadn’t noticed the first time. It was true, the left side was sweet and the right side was bitter. When they merged, a new flavor was born.

The divine world’s fine wines weren’t really wine; they were medicinal wine. The ‘fine’ aspect about them referred to their medicinal effect, not taste. Actually, the finer the wine, the worse it tasted.

“I didn’t expect that I would be a frog at the bottom of a well. The mortal world actually possesses such fine wines. Why would anyone dream of becoming a god or immortal with such a wine?” Ming Cangyue sighed emotionally.

Long Chen clapped his hands in praise. “Miss Cangyue, this question is excellent. Let’s discuss it in a bit. Please, try this wine.”

Long Chen handed over another bowl of wine. This wine was golden like honey, but it gave off a refreshing scent.

“How am I supposed to drink it this time?” asked Ming Cangyue.

“With your mouth.”

Ming Cangyue laughed. “How else? I meant if there was anything special.”

“No. Drink it however you please.”

Ming Cangyue drank the wine and was instantly overwhelmed by a burst of flavor. However, when she tasted it carefully, there was a trace of bitterness within the sweetness.

Following that, Long Chen gave her another bowl of wine. Ming Cangyue drank it and frowned due to the bitterness.

“What do you feel?” asked Long Chen.

“The first bowl of this wine had a hint of bitterness within its sweetness, but the second bowl was full of bitterness,” said Ming Cangyue.

Long Chen smiled. “The first bowl is bitterness within sweetness, while the second bowl is sweetness within bitterness.”

“Why didn’t I sense such a thing?” demanded Ming Cangyue.

Long Chen didn’t reply. He handed over another bowl of wine. When Ming Cangyue drank this bowl, she finally sensed that trace of sweetness.

Long Chen finally explained, “This is why I said that there are still many principles that are the same for both mortals and gods. Those three bowls of wine were the same. To tell the truth, I was also puzzled just like you. Compared to bitterness, we prefer sweetness. A trace of bitterness within sweetness is easily sensed. But the slightest sweetness within bitterness is easily overlooked. When we are in pain, we turn a blind eye to things we find negligible. When we are happy, disagreeable things are easily noticed. Our sense of taste is the same as our perceptions. Our own desires trick us into this misperception.”

Ming Cangyue pondered this explanation. Long Chen continued, “Let’s not discuss all that right now. Let’s keep trying more wine. Every one of these wines possesses its own realm. If you like it, I want you to tell me a story about this next wine.”

This was the fourth wine. Ming Cangyue’s thoughts were all over the place as if she didn’t have time to consider each wine.

When she saw the fourth wine, she was startled. There were two kinds of energy intertwining within the wine. “What kind of wine is this?”

“The Yin and Yang Harmonious Merger Wine.”