Who are you, old fellow, to fool me?

It’s no wonder the Lord of the Abyss was so shocked.

Less than ten years have passed since Zhong Qing last came to the Abyss to borrow a path, revealing his Venerable Realm cultivation.

In fact, ten years is an overstatement; Zhong Qing has only been Transmigrated for a few years in total.

But for figures like the Lord of the Abyss, whose cultivation time is counted in millions of years, a few thousand or even ten thousand years are but a nap.

So, whether it’s a few years or a few decades, there’s no difference; it’s just a blink of an eye.

To go from a Venerable to a Great Emperor in the blink of an eye—this can no longer be described as rapid progress or being a Prodigy.

It’s even more terrifying than seeing a ghost.

Zhong Qing didn’t care about all that; he chuckled, “Didn’t you say back then that when I reached the Great Emperor stage, you’d have another Opportunity to give me? Well, here I am.”

“Who the hell said I had any more Opportunity to give you?!” the Lord of the Abyss subconsciously retorted, “I said don’t bother me until you reach the Great Emperor stage!”

“Didn’t I tell you last time that the Divine Soul Liquid was my last treasure? Don’t even think about trying to get more!”

Zhong Qing said, “Oh, so I’m already a Great Emperor now, what’s wrong with bothering you?”

He didn’t believe a single stroke of what the Lord of the Abyss said about his “last treasure”; he had said the same thing last time.

However, fleecing a sheep takes time, and since they hadn’t seen each other in a while, Zhong Qing was happy to chat with him for a bit.

Lord of the Abyss: “…”

He was silent for a long while before finally speaking, “Kid, don’t joke with me.”

“Which old geezer are you, really, trying to mess with me?”

At this moment, the Lord of the Abyss was more than just shocked.

Last time, Zhong Qing Cultivated from the Myriad Laws Realm to the Venerable Realm in less than a year, which, though absurd, was still within the realm of understanding.

After all, whether it was Wanfa or Venerable, the levels involved were quite shallow, and if his Comprehension Ability was truly unprecedentedly Prodigious, it wasn’t entirely impossible.

But to Cultivate from a Venerable to a Great Emperor in the blink of an eye?

This was no longer a matter of being a Prodigy or a Genius.

It utterly defied logic; it was simply not something that could be achieved through Cultivation.

Unless a True Immortal poured all their Origin Qi into him, regardless of cost or consequence.

So, at this moment, the Lord of the Abyss began to suspect that the other party was one of his old acquaintances, deliberately manifesting an Incarnation to fool him.

Zhong Qing shrugged, “Are you serious? Do I look like some old geezer to you?”

The Lord of the Abyss fell silent again.

Zhong Qing was right.

Zhong Qing’s aura didn’t match any of his old acquaintances.

This wasn’t just about superficial Qi; at their level, they Cultivated the profound spiritual sense that reached the Origin.

If it were another old geezer disguised, he wouldn’t be able to fool his eyes.

Moreover, they feared the curse of the First Heaven, so how could they easily descend to the Lower Realm?

Furthermore, although Zhong Qing’s Origin was mysterious, the feeling of youth about him couldn’t be faked.

How could these old geezers, who had Cultivated for countless years and were filled with Death Qi, possibly feign it?

The most important point was this:

Even a True Immortal who underwent Reincarnation wouldn’t Cultivate this quickly.

Even if they were born with a Dao Fruit in their belly, it would be the same.

After this analysis, the result was… the Lord of the Abyss began to doubt his own existence.

He felt as if his entire worldview and understanding of Cultivation had been shattered.

But this was just the beginning.

Zhong Qing then spoke.

“Actually, besides fleecing… besides coming to see you, I have another question I wanted to ask you this time.”

The Lord of the Abyss was silent for a moment, then said, “Speak.”

Zhong Qing asked, “Do you know about the Immortal Alliance?”

The giant eye in the lava suddenly constricted its pupil.

“The Immortal Alliance? How do you know about them? Even if you’ve Cultivated to the Great Emperor stage, in the First Heaven… no, not even in the Second Heaven, you couldn’t possibly have come into contact with the Immortal Alliance.”

“Well, about that…”

Zhong Qing scratched the back of his head, “Actually, a few days ago, I already met someone from the Immortal Alliance in the Second Heaven. He invited me to join the Immortal Alliance in the Eighth Heaven.”

“I don’t really know much about this Immortal Alliance, so I thought with your knowledge, you might know something.”

“What did you say?” The entire Abyss shook again.

This made Fire Drought and Green Ghost, who were guarding outside, extremely alarmed.

“What’s happening today? Has something gone wrong with Master’s Cultivation?”

Inside the Abyss, in the lava river, the Lord of the Abyss took a long time to calm down, his giant eye staring intently at Zhong Qing.

“Are you telling the truth?”

Zhong Qing nodded, “Why would I lie to you?”

The Lord of the Abyss didn’t disbelieve Zhong Qing; after all, if it weren’t for that, he wouldn’t have been able to contact the Immortal Alliance, which was far away in the Eighth Heaven.

In the Second Heaven, fewer than a handful of people even knew of the Immortal Alliance’s existence.

And those people wouldn’t reveal it casually.

After a moment of silence, the Lord of the Abyss said, “Even if you’ve Cultivated to the Great Emperor stage and can contact people from the Immortal Alliance, with your current cultivation, you shouldn’t be qualified to join the Immortal Alliance.”

Zhong Qing stroked his chin and said, “Hmm, he said I seem to be some kind of Immortal Seed, so he invited me to join the Immortal Alliance.”

“Immortal Seed?”

The lava river vibrated again, and the flowing magma transformed into a thousand-zhang crimson giant wave, churning endlessly.

“No wonder… no wonder you Cultivated so quickly. So you’re an Immortal Seed… No, even as an Immortal Seed, your rate of progress is far too unnatural. It must be that you have some secret I don’t know about… But that doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Since you are an Immortal Seed, you can achieve True Immortal status without going through the Pseudo Immortal Nine Revolutions within the current Nine Heavens. The Immortal Alliance naturally wouldn’t miss out.”

The giant lava eye seemed to be speaking to Zhong Qing, yet also muttering to itself.

Zhong Qing said, “It seems you really do know quite a bit about this Immortal Alliance.”

The Lord of the Abyss calmed down, let out a soft hmph, and after a moment, finally spoke, “Kid, since you’re going to the Eighth Heaven to the Immortal Alliance, there are some things I have to tell you.”

Zhong Qing nodded, “I also have some questions I want to ask. Do you want to go first, or should I?”

The Lord of the Abyss said indifferently, “Ask whatever you want to ask.”

Zhong Qing began by asking, “Everyone I know says that this First Heaven is cursed and will cut off the path to Immortality.”

“I also heard that this First Heaven was originally an Immortal Artifact called the Fengtian Hall. The person who invited me to join the Immortal Alliance also mentioned the Origin of the Nine Heavens.”

“If the Nine Heavens were formed together, then why is only the First Heaven cursed, and who cursed it?”

“Since the First Heaven has a curse, why are you still here? Aren’t you afraid of the curse? And, is there any way to resolve that curse?”

Actually, compared to the Origin of the Nine Heavens, this was the question Zhong Qing was most concerned about.

For no other reason than that several of his Personal Disciples, and even he himself, were all born in the First Heaven.