One person: Starting with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, his grandmaster uncle emerges from seclusion.

He raised an eyebrow at Wang Ye and Zhuge Qing who were looking over, and even raised the chicken bone in his hand as a gesture.

on the main table.

Ma Xianhong watched this scene, his chopsticks frozen in mid-air, his lips twitching wildly.

He had originally prepared a whole host of profound topics, hoping to discuss the Great Dao with this Celestial Pivot True Person.

As a result, they didn't even bother sitting at the main table and went straight to snatch food from the children.

"This is... a high-ranking master from the Celestial Master's Mansion?"

Chou Rang, standing beside him, clutched his still-throbbing chest, his face filled with disbelief.

"Master...is this person really a master? He looks more like...like a scoundrel to me?"

Ma Xianhong took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the absurdity in his heart, and said in a deep voice:

Be careful what you say.

"This is called... returning to simplicity, having a childlike heart."

"What do you know? This is true freedom and ease."

Although he said that, Ma Xianhong was also having doubts in his heart:

Is this really a childlike heart?

This is clearly just childlike innocence and shamelessness!

the other side.

Zhang Tianyi doesn't care what others think.

He felt incredibly comfortable sitting at the children's table.

There were no hypocritical formalities, no backstabbing or probing.

They can grab whatever they want to eat, and easily fool these little brats with just a few pieces of candy.

They addressed each of them as "great-grandfather" with such affection.

"Come, come! Great-Grandpa will tell you a story!"

After finishing his chicken leg, Zhang Tianyi wiped his mouth and began to brag to the children:

"Back in the day, my great-grandfather, armed with two watermelon knives, hacked his way from Nantianmen to Penglai East Road... my eyes..."

The children listened with shining eyes and faces full of admiration.

Chapter 82 Holy crap! You're Zhou Sheng?! How did you turn into a beast?!

Biyou Village in the afternoon.

Sunlight filters through the lush foliage, dappling the stream behind the mountain.

Zhang Tianyi was sitting on a smooth, large blue stone, completely lacking any decorum.

He casually lifted the hem of his flowing Taoist robe, tying it around his waist to reveal his two long, slender, and fair legs.

A pair of feet were soaking in the cool stream, dangling idly.

"So comfortable..."

Zhang Tianyi leaned back and put his hands behind his head.

With a blade of grass he'd casually picked dangling from his mouth, he squinted contentedly.

"This is the kind of life retired cadres should have."

The stream was crystal clear, and a few oblivious little fish, attracted by the pair of white feet, curiously came over and gave them a peck.

"Zi-"

Zhang Tianyi didn't even move his toes, only releasing a very weak current.

The little fish instantly flipped belly up, as if they were drunk, and floated to the surface, drifting away dizzily with the current.

"Hey, that's too weak, not fun."

Zhang Tianyi yawned out of boredom.

Just as he was about to close his eyes and enjoy a pleasant afternoon nap.

That feeling of being watched has returned.

This gaze... was very light, very faint, yet it carried a profound depth that seemed to see through everything.

"Tsk."

Zhang Tianyi didn't open his eyes; only the blade of grass at the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Aren't you tired after watching for so long?"

"Master Dao, I know I'm handsome, but your gaze is a bit too direct, isn't it? I'm almost embarrassed."

All around was quiet, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind.

No one responded.

"Still pretending?"

Zhang Tianyi slowly opened one eye, his purple gaze piercing through the gap in his sunglasses, precisely locking onto a tree branch diagonally above his head.

There, perched, was an ordinary-looking sparrow with grayish feathers.

The sparrow was not alarmed when it realized it had been discovered.

Instead, she tilted her head, her two black bean-like eyes fixed on Zhang Tianyi without blinking.

"Fluttering—"

The sparrow suddenly spread its wings and flew down.

It did not fall to the ground, but was enveloped in mid-air by an extremely mysterious mass of Qi that seemed to distort time and space.

Zhang Tianyi was very familiar with that kind of fluctuation; it was the fluctuation of the Qimen Dunjia formation.

But his understanding was many times more profound than that of Wang Ye and Zhuge Qing.

next second.

The Qi dissipated.

An old Taoist priest, dressed in a tattered robe, with a scraggly beard and a weathered face, appeared out of nowhere on the pebbles by the stream.

He was barefoot, looking at Zhang Tianyi.

A long-lost, somewhat complex smile appeared on that weathered face.

If an ordinary person saw this scene, they would be terrified.

Zhang Tianyi was indeed startled.

He suddenly sat up straight on the large blue stone, his sunglasses almost slipping off.

He pointed at the suddenly appearing, living person, his face filled with shock:

"Holy crap?!"

"A magical transformation?!"

"Wait! That was... a sparrow?!"

Zhang Tianyi's eyes widened, as if he had discovered some incredible new species:

"The bird has come to life?!"

"Wasn't it forbidden for beings to become spirits after the founding of the People's Republic of China?!"

"You're defying the law! Is there no justice left?"

"Come on! Show me another one! Can you lay eggs?"

As he spoke, lightning crackled at Zhang Tianyi's fingertips, as if he were about to unleash a palm strike of lightning to help it overcome its tribulation.

"..."

The old Taoist priest's carefully prepared emotions were instantly ruined by this series of sarcastic remarks.

His lips twitched, and he helplessly clasped his hands in a bow, his voice hoarse:

"Second Brother... after all these years, your mouth is still as sharp as ever."

"I am Zhou Sheng."

The lightning in Zhang Tianyi's hand did not dissipate.

He squinted, looking up and down at the old Taoist priest who looked decades older than him.

The fragments of memories that had been sealed away for over seventy years began to rapidly reassemble in my mind.

After a while.

The wariness in Zhang Tianyi's eyes disappeared, replaced by surprise and bewilderment.

"Zhou Sheng?"

Zhang Tianyi pointed to the branch where the sparrow had just perched, then to Zhou Sheng, his tone filled with disbelief:

"Oh...it's you, kid."

"No, I meant you..."

Zhang Tianyi looked at him with disgust:

"How did you end up like an animal?!"

"..."

Zhou Sheng's previously somewhat sentimental expression froze completely on his face.

He took a deep breath and said with a wry smile:

"Second Senior Brother, this is not the animal realm."

"This is a new insight I've gained into the art of divination."