Tai Chuan eyed Gu Dao, “Why do you call him Boss Bu? I call him Big Brother.”
“Heh, when I started calling him Boss Bu, you were still lost in some corner. Tell me, which sounds grander—Boss Bu or Big Brother?” Gu Dao said with the air of a seasoned beast.
Tai Chuan thought for a moment, nodding, “Boss Bu does sound grander.”
“See, little brother? I taught you how to address the boss, so you ought to share something with me. Fair’s fair,” Gu Dao said eagerly.
Tai Chuan hesitated, then carved his insights into a jade slip and handed it over. “These are my thoughts and experiences from proving the dao three times. Take it. Also, my cultivation’s higher—you can’t call me little brother. I’m the elder brother.”
Gu Dao carefully pocketed the slip, then patted Tai Chuan with a paw. “Little brother, you’re still young. Many top sage beasts beg to call me elder brother, and I’d refuse. Heh, know why?”
“Why?” Tai Chuan asked instinctively.
Gu Dao said coolly, “Some things you can’t handle, but I can. I’ve seen too much, fought life and death with Boss Bu and the mistress, through countless trials. Take today—your cultivation’s higher, right? So why didn’t Boss Bu have you show me around, but me show you?”
“You know the city,” Tai Chuan said.
Gu Dao smirked, “Really? One sweep of your divine sense, and it’s all clear. Need a guide? Boss Bu’s point was clear: you’re strong but lack experience. He wants me to broaden yours, and also for you to share cultivation tips—a mutual boost.”
Unfamiliar with Gu Dao’s ways, Tai Chuan mulled it over and thought it made sense. “Elder brother, please guide me,” he said earnestly.
Gu Dao waved a paw, “No need for formalities between brothers. Let’s hit the city.”
Gu Dao’s mere eighth-grade divine beast status stemmed from rarely cultivating, spending most of his time roaming Longevity Sage Dao City. It felt like old times in Moubei Market, with everyone respectfully calling him Brother Gu Dao. This vanity kept him from training, yet the city’s stellar environment pushed him to eighth grade without effort.
Tai Chuan, always diligent, had seen bustling places but never wandered like this. Under Gu Dao’s lead, they sampled top wines, delicacies, and exotic foods, reveling in the city’s offerings.
Tai Chuan saw Gu Dao’s clout—every shop and tavern greeted him as Brother Gu Dao with deference. The more they roamed, the more Tai Chuan bought into Gu Dao’s elder brother status. Strength aside, Gu Dao outshone him in every other way. As Gu Dao put it, Tai Chuan “couldn’t handle it.” Gu Dao, meanwhile, commanded respect and treats wherever he went.
…
The Great Desolate Divine Realm was safer than any law-bound mortal world, monitored by arrays that swiftly caught wrongdoers, hauled off by the Divine Suppression Bureau. Lan Xiaobu’s prestige as Dao Lord was immense, even absent, as everyone knew this peaceful cultivation haven existed because of him. Among countless divine realms, which matched this security and comfort?
After over a month, Lan Xiaobu was loath to leave, save for the Eternal Lands. Life here was idyllic—cultivate when you wished, wander when you didn’t. But he knew the realm’s safety hinged on Great Cosmos Sage’s unrecovered strength. Once restored, that fiend would turn it into his playground. Beyond him, Great Dream Sage, who’d visited, and the Eternal being from Frostview Desert Sea—likely Space Sage, whose array disc Lan Xiaobu took—were no saints either.
Even without Great Cosmos, Eternal Sages from the Eternal Lands could whimsically erase this plane. Offended foes like Seven Realms Sage Meng Qi, Indestructible Sage Zhuang Yincheng, and Huang Buzhi could each effortlessly crush the realm.
To keep the Great Desolate Divine Realm secure forever, letting its cultivators thrive in peace, Lan Xiaobu had to reach the Eternal Lands and claim a foothold, ensuring no Eternal Sage dared unleash cataclysms or strip a plane’s destiny at will.
He began reinforcing the realm’s protective arrays alone, not involving Destiny or Blood River Sages. With array skills surpassing ninth-grade divine array emperors, using a destiny array disc as the core, he crafted defenses and trap-kill arrays even a Ninth Turn Sage couldn’t easily breach.
Finished, Lan Xiaobu left to fetch Zuo Wanyin. With his mastery of domains and rules, reaching True Ruins Continent shouldn’t be hard.
To avoid disturbing the realm’s void domain, he traveled far before tearing the void. Rift after rift, then entire void planes, yet after a month, he sensed Earth’s domain but not True Ruins Continent’s.
Having been there, he knew it intimately. If he tore into its domain, he’d sense its rules. Another month passed, and exhausted, he collapsed, forced to give up. He wondered if True Ruins existed anymore—how else could he tear thousands of domains without finding it?
With his strength, merely accessing its plane would let him sense it if it still stood. He’d crossed its plane but felt nothing.
Resting days, pale-faced, Lan Xiaobu ceased trying. Either True Ruins was destroyed or hidden. A low-level cultivation domain was unlikely to be concealed, suggesting it was gone.
The thought paled him further. He prayed Zuo Wanyin had ascended to the Immortal Realm before any destruction, with her talent and his resources making it feasible in under a century.
He could only hope she’d ascended or True Ruins was hidden.
Standing in the void a full day, he sighed and returned to the Great Desolate Divine Realm.
Spending nearly half a year with Luo Caishi and Su Cen, he left each a world before heading to Blooming Love Sage Dao City.
That time clarified the Eternal Lands’ stakes for the realm. Without Lan Xiaobu reaching Eternal Realm, they’d have no future. So, after he left, both dove into frenzied cultivation, their battle experience and trials already honed, needing only higher cultivation to grow.
…
At Blooming Love Sage Dao City, Lan Xiaobu messaged Destiny and Blood River Sages, and summoned Tai Chuan, who’d been gallivanting with Gu Dao.
“Gu Dao, return to Longevity Sage Dao City and cultivate in seclusion. An eighth-grade divine beast trailing me is just asking to die,” Lan Xiaobu said, unmoved by Gu Dao’s pleading look.
Gu Dao could only stay in the Longevity Realm if he followed, and cultivating there was inferior to the Great Desolate Divine Realm.
“Yes, Boss Bu,” Gu Dao mumbled, his earlier swagger before Tai Chuan gone. Low cultivation indeed earned the boss’s disdain. To rise, he had to prove sage beast status soon, or be stuck in this corner forever.
