Mountain wind whipped pine needles across the branches of the old locust tree, and Ye Fan stopped three steps away from the stone bench. He could hear the sound of his own heartbeat—on the night of his downfall in his past life, the bronze mirror at the assassin's waist had gleamed coldly in the moonlight. Right now, half of that very mirror hung at the gray-robed old man's waist, and even the direction of the cracks was identical to his memory down to the slightest detail.
"The Little Friend's Inner World is trembling?" Old Man Li raised his wine jar and took a sip, a sharp glint hidden in the corners of his cloudy eyes. "Twenty years. I've finally waited for you to attain the Longevity Realm." He tapped the stone table with his knuckles, sending pine needles rustling into the wine jar. "When the Jiuxiao Huanpei in your embrace was undergoing blood-bonding, I already knew you were that person reincarnated."
Ye Fan's throat bobbed. He could feel the Jiuxiao Huanpei within his Inner World burning hot along his meridians, the newly emerged golden patterns slithering toward the center like living creatures, intertwining with the Dao seed star maps left behind by the four women into a faint, shimmering light.
Chapter 268