The night fell,
Ye Feng, Xiao Xiao, and Qiao Ying followed Miao Feng’s directions to a three-story wooden building in the center of the farm.
The building was old but well-decorated and maintained, showing no signs of collapse.
At the moment, a considerable number of people were already gathered by the entrance on the first floor, chatting merrily. Among them were familiar faces to Ye Feng, including Wu Ye Lin, Lei Jian, and Miao Wen Jing…
“Ye Feng!”
“Ye Feng!”
“Mr. Ye!”
…
Upon their arrival, Wu Ye Lin, Lei Jian, and Miao Wen Jing immediately stepped forward to greet Ye Feng and his companions.
“Don’t all stand outside, come in, sit down, and get ready to eat!”
At this moment, Wu Ye Lan, dressed as a chef, walked to the door and cheerfully addressed everyone.
“Let’s go, Ye Feng!”
“Okay!”
…
Soon, the group entered the wooden house and was seated around a very large round table in the second-floor hall.
There weren’t many people, only a dozen or so, just enough to fill one table.
“Come, make way!”
As Wu Ye Lan brought out a fragrant pot of stewed pork trotters, the dishes were all served.
Afterward, Wu Ye Lan invited Liu Lao Tou and Miao Feng to take off their aprons and chef hats and join them. Under Wu Ye Lan’s invitation, everyone began to eat.
It was evident that the people gathered for dinner that day were all familiar with Wu Ye Lan, and they ate and drank with a sense of ease. Many people even toasted Ye Feng. Although Ye Feng didn’t know them, they were clearly not unfamiliar with him…
…
Eating, drinking, and clinking glasses, time passed by unnoticed until late into the night.
Full and content, Ye Feng was cooling off on the second-floor balcony. Having drunk quite a bit, he sat in a rattan chair, leisurely eating fruit.
Beside him sat Qiao Ying and Wu Ye Lin, who were in a similar state. Xiao Xiao, who usually drank very little, had consumed a considerable amount that evening. Coupled with her fatigue, she had already gone to sleep in the adjacent room.
“My grandfather said that twenty-seven years ago, when he first arrived here, he built this unremarkable three-story wooden house and began cultivating farmland with Senior Miao Feng… Then, the Adventurer’s Guild slowly developed…”
“Perhaps because this is a farm, with crops and livestock, it wasn’t attacked this time… This wooden house, which holds such special significance for my grandfather, was also preserved intact…”
Wu Ye Lin gently swirled the red wine in her goblet and said with emotion.
“Lin, do you have more red wine?” Qiao Ying said, draining her goblet and speaking to Wu Ye Lin.
“Uh, Qiao Ying, you want more?”
Before Wu Ye Lin could answer, Ye Feng chimed in.
Qiao Ying’s fair face was flushed crimson from the large amount of red wine she had drunk that evening, and her eyes were a bit hazy, clearly showing signs of intoxication…
“Yes!”
Qiao Ying nodded without hesitation. “This red wine drink is delicious, much better than the red wine and beer you provided earlier!”
“I…”
Ye Feng was somewhat speechless. The red wine provided by Wu Ye Lin was fifty years old. The oldest wine in his spatial inventory was only ten years old… It was naturally incomparable…
“It seems angels all like red wine… Ling Xi was like this… and drank it like a beverage…”
Looking at the slightly tipsy Qiao Ying, Ye Feng muttered to himself.
A moment later, Wu Ye Lin returned with three bottles of red wine. Qiao Ying, forgoing her glass, simply took a bottle and began to drink… occasionally pairing it with some small biscuits…
…
At midnight,
After drinking three more bottles of red wine, Qiao Ying, now quite drunk, had stumbled to Xiao Xiao’s room to sleep. Meanwhile, Wu Ye Lan had already seen off their guests.
“Ye Feng, words cannot express my gratitude!”
“I won’t forget what you’ve done for the Adventurer’s Guild. In the future, if there’s anything the Wu Ye family can do for you, just say the word, and I’ll do it without hesitation!”
With his cheeks flushed, Wu Ye Lan, holding a bottle of red wine, said to Ye Feng with a serious expression before downing the entire bottle.
“Oh, Senior Wu Ye, how much do you know about the cultivation of cultivators?”
“Why did you, an Arcanist, also encounter the heavenly tribulation?!”
Ye Feng voiced his confusion.
“This…”
Wu Ye Lan splashed cold water on his face by the pond and then sat down next to Ye Feng. “Ye Feng, there’s a long-standing rumor that arcane energy and true energy are essentially the same path! It’s actually normal for Arcanists to encounter heavenly tribulations…”
“Although I’m not entirely clear on the specifics, based on my own experience, it seems to be true!”
“Even when I was only half a step into the Epic stage, I had this feeling… Now, this feeling is even stronger…”
As he spoke, Wu Ye Lan’s left and right hands flashed with red and bright white light, respectively. Red flames crackling with lightning and wisps of white mist appeared simultaneously.
“Huh?”
Seeing what appeared in Wu Ye Lan’s hands, Ye Feng was very surprised, as the wisps of white mist in his right hand were indeed true energy.
“Ye Feng, when I was young, I also wanted to become a cultivator and tried to cultivate true energy… But I lacked a good teacher… and didn’t know how to proceed… Afterward, I focused solely on arcane energy…”
“Years ago, when I attempted to break through to the Epic stage, although I failed, I discovered that the extremely rare true energy within me and the vast majority of my arcane energy… seemed highly similar in some aspects…”
“This feeling became even more intense after I weathered the tribulation fire a few days ago and successfully advanced to the Epic stage!”
Wu Ye Lan looked at the red flames crackling with lightning in his left hand and the wisps of white mist in his right. “This similarity is very peculiar… I can hardly describe it… It’s just a feeling… If you feel it, you feel it… If you can’t explain it…”
By the end of his explanation, Wu Ye Lan scratched his head a bit sheepishly, as if he had said a lot but conveyed very little.
It was truly a case of listening to a speech that felt like no speech at all…
“Uh… alright…”
Ye Feng stared at Wu Ye Lan’s arcane energy and true energy, perceiving them for a while, and responded somewhat speechlessly, because in his perception, they were two distinct forces…
Wu Ye Lin next to them was even more bewildered, listening as if she understood something, yet not fully grasping it…
“By the way, Senior Wu Ye, do Arcanists always encounter heavenly tribulations when they are on the verge of breaking through the Diamond stage and becoming an Epic-level powerhouse?”
“Are all heavenly tribulations of the tribulation fire type?”
After a pause, Ye Feng asked again.
…