The sun dipped low in the west.
On a lush, vibrant hillside,
"Big brother, sister Bai Xi, you were amazing! You took down that powerful main god!"
Little Xiao exclaimed with a mix of awe and shock after hearing the account from Bai Xi and the others, a shiver of lingering fear for Ye Feng's ordeal passing through her.
"I... actually... I... I didn't help at all~!"
Hearing Little Xiao's words, Shuang felt quite embarrassed.
After all, her strength at the time was insufficient to be of any help. She'd found an opportunity, slipped away to a hidden spot, and used the divine concealment talismans given by Bai Xi to hide herself...
"Silly girl, don't overthink it~! Did you forget what I told you earlier!"
Yue Yan gently squeezed Shuang's cheek and picked up the conversation.
"Mhm!~"
Shuang nodded earnestly.
"Speaking of which... if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... it's truly hard to believe that elder was the Martial God Senior..."
At this moment, Ling Xi spoke, her gaze fixed on an old man wearing a bamboo leaf hat, weeding in the distance. Her voice was filled with wonder.
"Indeed!~"
Qiao Ying and Leng Yue nodded in unison, their agreement palpable.
...
In the evening,
Ye Feng and his companions, along with the Martial God, gathered around a bonfire outside the small wooden house. They savored fragrant roasted meat while admiring the breathtaking night sky of their idyllic retreat.
...
"Little Xiao... your memory has recovered..."
Ye Feng, while eating a lamb skewer, looked on in surprise. Little Xiao had just recounted events from her childhood.
It turned out that her elder sister had been killed by Yourmos, leading to Athena, one of the twelve main gods, merging with Little Xiao... This in turn led to the recent scene where Ye Feng's heart was pierced...
And because of Athena's presence, Little Xiao had no clear memories of her sister...
Upon learning of Athena's awakening... Little Xiao began to have nightmares... These were her consciousness battling Athena's divine consciousness...
"This Athena is truly insidious... But how did she know that Little Xiao would be such an important person in the future..."
After listening to Little Xiao's explanation, Shuang muttered, her expression a mixture of indignation and confusion.
"Perhaps this is Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom... With such a title, she must possess something extraordinary!~"
Bai Xi sighed softly and added.
"Athena..."
The name brought a complex expression to Ye Feng's face.
Athena had controlled Little Xiao... pierced his chest, and urged Little Xiao to commit suicide... He'd longed to kill her directly, yet later she had protected him with the Aegis shield...
"Hoo!~"
Ye Feng let out a soft breath, deciding not to dwell on it. He turned to the Martial God, who was roasting a beef skewer, and asked, "By the way, Spiritual Old Man, what's your name? You're not actually called Spiritual Old Man, are you?"
Hearing this, Little Xiao, Bai Xi, Yue Yan, Yue Fei Xue, Ling Xi, Leng Yue, Qiao Ying, and Shuang all turned their curious gazes towards the Martial God. They had heard many legends about him but had never known his name...
"Oh, my name is Lu Ren!"
As he spoke, the Martial God sprinkled his specially prepared spices onto the beef skewers.
"Lu... Ren... So that's how it is... It wasn't a hallucination back then... I misheard..."
"What a rip-off..."
Ye Feng muttered to himself upon hearing the Martial God's name.
"Ye Feng, what's wrong?"
Bai Xi looked at Ye Feng's troubled and annoyed expression with some bewilderment, as did the other girls.
"When I was talking about the orphanage... the teacher asked me who the Spiritual Old Man at the orphanage was, and I said it was a woman... because I was scared at the orphanage at the time and didn't hear clearly... The Spiritual Old Man also flew away on his sword... I was completely stunned..."
"I didn't quite hear the name the Spiritual Old Man said... I could only vaguely describe it..."
"After that, the school started spreading rumors that I went to a haunted orphanage to find a woman..."
Thinking of this, Ye Feng felt speechless.
"Hahaha!~"
...
After listening to Ye Feng's explanation, Bai Xi and the others couldn't help but burst into laughter... The image of a younger, flustered, awkward, and exasperated Ye Feng flashed through their minds.
"Right, Spiritual Old Man, do you know what's going on with Little Xiao?"
After the girls teased him for a bit, Ye Feng spoke again. "Little Xiao's cultivation... seems to have no bottlenecks... I, on the other hand, cultivate until I'm half dead... barely clinging to life..."
"That little girl... it's likely that by chance, she consumed the Sky-Piercing Jade. Before encountering the heavenly tribulation, she won't have any bottlenecks or obstacles..."
The Martial God glanced at Little Xiao, who was happily eating roasted gluten, and replied.
"Sky-Piercing Jade... What's that?"
"That's a long story... Have you heard of the Orchid Jade Tree...?"
...
The next day,
After breakfast, Ye Feng and his companions embarked on their journey to the "Feng" base.
After all, a considerable amount of time had passed since they left. While Bing and the others should have been able to deduce the outcome from the dissipating dark domain, their prolonged absence would still cause them worry...
To Ye Feng and the others' surprise, the Martial God actually proposed to accompany them.
...
As Ye Feng, Little Xiao, and the others rapidly advanced towards the "Feng" base,
On the other side,
Within a range of treacherous, continuous mountain peaks, although the weather was frigid and the land was covered in ice for miles, the snow and ice had begun to melt...
At this moment, a middle-aged man with extensive burn scars on his face, a deformed arm, and leaning on a cane stood before a tombstone, holding a bouquet of chrysanthemums. It was Yue Miao.
"Xiao Ni, Ya Ya, Kolarji, or rather, Yourmos is dead. You can finally rest in peace!"
A smile touched Yue Miao's scarred face, his eyes welling up with tears...
...
On another side,
Thanks to Ye Feng, the ocean paradise, which was once a desert, had transformed into a lush oasis.
Although it had been almost completely frozen due to the dark domain, the snow and ice were starting to melt, and many people were busily working with joy.
A woman with a curvaceous figure and an aura of mature charm gazed out absently in the direction where the dark domain had receded. This woman was Xue Yuli, whom Ye Feng had met in the desert.
Previously, Yourmos, in order to let the world witness Ye Feng and the others being defeated by the main gods and trampled like ants, had used the power of the Dark God Book to project the scene of the battle on the ice fields onto the dark domain...
Although Yourmos had later turned off the projection... many people, including Xue Yuli, learned of the man who dared to challenge the gods...
"I never imagined that the young man I met in the desert would one day grow to dare... and be able to challenge the gods... It seems he even won..."