Wu Long chuckled while the old man looked at him with caution and suspicion. There was a strange dissonance in Wu Long’s image that Zhao Xieren perceived.

He knew for a fact that this young-looking man was capable of killing him, all his instincts and years of experience told him that. But he also claimed to be truly in the Revolving Qi Realm, and was invested in his prolonged life even though it should not matter to someone with his strength.

The situation made even less sense for Liang Yuhan who absentmindedly puffed her smoking pipe while observing the conversation, temporarily withdrawing from participating.

In her view the already quite mysterious young man became a complete walking riddle, the ridiculous skills he showed in just the span of this night and this interaction between him and Zhao Xieren being a case in point.

Wu Long, on the other hand, racked his brain on how to keep this old man alive with what limited means he had now. The Death Qi enveloping Zhao Xieren was already too thick, and there were no remedies in this closed-off world that could allow him to survive much longer.

All he could do, was alleviate some pain and ease his suffering, improving the quality of his condition, but in terms of genuinely treating it or actually prolonging his life, there were simply too few options available to him now.

Not to mention that he had to at least be able to pose some threat to his opponents, otherwise keeping him barely breathing was useless as well.

“Hmm, isn’t the first condition a little hard for this old man to follow? How am I supposed to know when this feeble body will give in?”

“Hah, not knowing when your life will end is one thing, but acting recklessly and putting yourself in danger because ‘I am going to die soon anyway, so nothing is scary or matters anymore’ is a different matter. What I was referring to was the latter”

Wu Long snorted when Zhao Xieren tentatively asked about the conditions Wu Long brought up, causing the old man to scratch his cheek in shallow embarrassment as his thoughts in going to the central sea were completely seen through.

A recent memory of him screaming and laughing “I am free to do whatever I want!!! Nothing matters anyway!!! Hahaha!!!” at the top of his lungs while heading into the space storm of the central sea as a beautiful sunset was illuminating the water surface, creating a perfect backdrop, flashed through his mind.

At the time he felt it was a beautiful and liberating scene like something from a theatrical play.

Only now without the emotional beautification of that time did he understand… that scene was of a crazy old man screaming in a trembling and screeching, rather unpleasant voice which was half-covered by the roaring winds and waves with his face distorted by the effort and his pose being awkward as he struggled against the air currents and evaded loose space cracks, his robes that were supposedly ‘valiantly flapping’ were in actuality clinging to his scrawny physique, eliminating the last shred of the dignified picture he painted in his mind.

“Ehem”

Old Man Zhao cleared his throat. But the question still remained, as Wu Long’s motives were still in conflict with what the old man saw.

‘Hmm, I can’t figure it out… Is it possible…? Maybe this man is simply very kind but shy to show that and tries to give pragmatic reasons for helping me stay alive longer?’

He looked at Wu Long with a new theory in mind which he immediately decided to test.

“And what do you gain from this old man being alive exactly?” 𝘪𝘳.𝘤𝑜

“Time. I need you to stay alive for at least a year, no, even half a year would suffice. If we can keep this stalemate for at least that much it should be enough. Though if I were to be greedy, in the scenario that I gain the strength fast enough we can attack from this side while you are still capable of fighting” 𝘪𝘦.𝘤𝑜

Wu Long bluntly replied, tracing his chin in thought as he was calculating.

‘I take it back, this guy just sees me as a stopper to plug the sewers while he can prepare to clean them up. He even wants me to use the final embers of my life to fight’

“Khum! Khe-khe”

Zhao Xieren’s new, rather flowery theory met its end while Liang Yuhan started coughing as she seemingly choked when she drew on her smoking pipe, waving to the two who looked at her with questioning eyes that she was okay.

As they turned back to face each other, both in their own thoughts, she covered her mouth with her hand while lightly clearing her throat, her cheeks slightly rosy.

‘You are being too obvious, Senior!’

Madam Liang then gave a slightly resentful gaze to the old man. The changes in his expressions were too obvious for her not to notice.

Meanwhile Wu Long did not pay any attention to any of that, his mind preoccupied with the best course of action.

His thoughts shifted when he met the old man, as now he had a definite way to prolong this forced peace. He not only had to gain strength faster, but simultaneously make every effort to gain more time. This dual effort would be a much safer strategy than just focusing only on gaining strength while not having any knowledge whatsoever of how much time did he have left to prepare.

‘Hmm, so he really is not ready to face them, for whatever reason he is limited in his current capabilities’

The old man was also in deep thought as he looked at Wu Long, finally coming to terms with the confusing mix of strength and weakness.

“But what makes you think I am on your side? Did you not think I was searching for you with a nefarious purpose?”

Zhao Xieren then asked slightly grumpily. Though the question was placed genuinely as Wu Long’s line of thinking quite obviously placed them on one side, and was assuming he would cooperate.

“If that were the case you would have settled that nefarious purpose before heading into the central sea with a near-

suicidal attitude”

Wu Long calmly replied while not breaking his posture of deep thought.

“But are you not assuming I will be fighting on your side?”

“This stalemate is the answer.

You have been preserving peace, yet you don’t look like a saint who cares about the lives of the population or someone very righteous about morals to me. In fact, that could be seen from the way that you risked crushing it all by heading into the danger as if nothing mattered.

Your goal is not peace, you just don’t have any other option. You oppose the troublemakers, or at the very least do not want them to get their way, but you don’t have the strength to defeat them. So you just drag them down in a deadlock to the bitter end since you refuse to just give in”

Wu Long finally turned his gaze back to the old man, and as he spoke he could see that every word was hitting the mark from the latter’s eyes.

“Haha…hahaha, this old man has lived so long and yet my motives and actions are read so easily, it truly makes one humble, hahaha”

Zhao Xieren started laughing as Liang Yuhan narrowed her eyes with interest. It was something she knew, but never expected for him to guess based on only circumstantial details.

“So, is your curiosity satisfied? I would like to get to the second condition if that is okay”

“Information, huh?”

The old man sighed as he looked at Wu Long, and then chuckled as he took a more comfortable position.

“Sure, fire away. What do you want to know?”

“First of all, why was it that you were looking for me?”

𝘳𝘦.𝒸𝑜𝘮