At this time, True Monarch White’s voice spread from the bamboo flute in Song Shuhang’s hand, “Fellow Daoist Shuhang, are you there? I was so bored that I decided to cultivate a bit. I have no idea where I am right now. Have you already discovered my current position? I was planning to destroy this layer of stone and come out.”

　　Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Hello, Senior. I’m right beside you.”

　　“…” True Monarch White was extremely embarrassed right now.

　　“Senior, you can come out. Right, should I go and hide somewhere while you destroy the outer layer?” Song Shuhang asked.

　　“Hm. You’ll be fine as long as you stay at a distance of ten meters. I can control the strength of the explosion,” True Monarch White said while brimming with confidence.

　　Ten meters? Song Shuhang took around twenty steps back.

　　This should be around ten meters, right? At this time, he turned his head and noticed that the monster dog Doudou had quietly retreated more than a hundred meters. His small tail was still swinging left and right.

　　Song Shuhang thought of True Monarch White’s confident reply and then looked at Doudou’s expressionless face. He didn’t hesitate even a moment and quickly followed in Doudou’s footsteps, retreating more than a hundred meters!

　　“It seems you have some brains after all. Woof!” Doudou said with a laugh.

　　“I think there is a reason for you to retreat so far. However, Senior True Monarch White was also very confident. And he’s a powerful expert too. He should be able to control the power of the explosion, right? Why did you retreat over a hundred meters?” Song Shuhang asked in a low voice.

　　“Hehe. Did I ever say that he couldn’t control the power of the explosion?” Doudou said while swinging his tail. “I’m hiding for another reason. I don’t want to be f*cked over by True Monarch White!”

　　While they were speaking, True Monarch White’s statue exploded!

　　The power of the explosion was indeed big. It was comparable to a ‘mountain gun’ opening fire. The whole ground shook under its power. [1]

　　True Monarch White’s ability to control his power was really outstanding. Although the pieces of the statue flew in all directions, none of them fell outside the radius of ten meters.

　　After destroying the outer layer made of stone, True Monarch White’s main body was finally out in the open.

　　That was the form of an immortal that had been banished to the mortal world. His pitch-black hair was scattered behind his back. His eyes were as bright as stars, capable of moving every man. His white clothes were still fluttering due to the aftermath of the explosion, and on top of them were carved many complicated formations. Ripples of energy were constantly circulating around his body, making him appear even more like a celestial being that wasn’t from this world.

　　Song Shuhang sighed with emotion. The real True Monarch White was even more handsome compared to the illusion in the Nameless Temple.

　　Hm, one had to note that even if he hadn’t washed his long hair for more than 150 years, it was still as soft as before. Even his white gown was still fair and clean after 150 years.

　　The hair being as soft as before could be attributed to the cultivator’s realm reaching a certain stage. After achieving a certain cultivation level, dust wouldn’t be able to dirty your hair anymore. As for the clothes… it should be thanks to one of those ‘body purifying spells’, right? Ugh, wait. I meant ‘clothes purifying spells’. One of those magic arts to keep your clothes clean. [2]

　　Having such a magic art was really useful. You wouldn’t need to wash your clothes anymore. And with just a small incantation, your clothes would return as new in a ‘swish’, how awesome was that?

　　Especially during winter, it would be really important in that time of the year. Song Shuhang still remembered last year’s December and the pain he felt when washing his winter clothes. His hands had frozen to the point of becoming numb.

　　We’re getting sidetracked.

　　Song Shuhang carefully looked at Senior True Monarch White… since he could perfectly control his power and limit the range of the explosion to ten meters, why had Doudou retreated to a distance of over a hundred meters?

　　At this time, True Monarch White raised his finger and made a daoist gesture toward the faraway Song Shuhang, “Hello, Fellow Daoist Shuhang!”

　　Song Shuhang was unaware of these procedures. Therefore, he could only copy True Monarch White’s posture and reply, “Hello, Senior True Monarch White.”

　　“Where are we going now? It seems that the world has changed a lot in these 150 years. Be it those strange carriages that brought me out of the temple, or the houses and the clothes… it seems that there have been more changes in these 150 years compared to the previous millennia!” True Monarch White said with a faint smile.

　　This smile was capable of causing the downfall of a nation! One was simply unable to move their eyes away!

　　“First, we’ll go to Jiangnan College Town. If you don’t mind, for the time being, you can stay in the multi-storied building bought by Senior Medicine Master. At the appointed time, I’ll bring you around to make you familiar with the modern world,” Song Shuhang said.

　　“Fine. Fellow Daoist Shuhang, I’ll leave the arrangements to you,” True Monarch White smiled once again. His bright and smiling face was very handsome.

　　Then, True Monarch White’s vision fell on Doudou’s body, “Little Doudou, long time no see.”

　　“Woof, woof. Senior White, it’s been a long time indeed,” Doudou said with two woofs.

　　True Monarch White said, “Is True Monarch Yellow Mountain still in good health?”

　　“Yellow Mountain is fine. He’s making preparations to break through to the Seventh Stage Venerable Realm,” Doudou replied. When talking about True Monarch Yellow Mountain, he was gnashing his teeth.

　　“Very good. It seems that True Monarch Yellow Mountain didn’t waste time and diligently cultivated. He’ll break through to the Venerable Realm without problems,” True Monarch White replied. Afterwards, he moved toward Song Shuhang.

　　While walking, his eyes suddenly turned dim, as if he was thinking about something.

　　“F*ck, True Monarch White is distracted!” All the hair on Doudou’s tail stood up.

　　“?” Song Shuhang was confused.

　　Doudou had yet to finish his sentence when True Monarch White stumbled upon something and fell on the ground!

　　Song Shuhang could swear that there weren’t any obstacles on the ground that could make him stumble!

　　This meant that he had the inborn ability of ‘randomly stumbling and falling on the ground’! [3]

　　If an average man were to fall on the ground, he would only need to get up and pat away the dust from his clothes. At most, he would scrape himself a bit.

　　But if the one falling on the ground was someone like True Monarch White…

　　“Boom!”

　　An ear-splitting explosion immediately followed. Its might was several folds higher compared to the explosion he had caused when coming out of the statue.

　　A lot of dust was arising from True Monarch White’s position.

　　After a while, Song Shuhang opened his eyes and looked at the place where True Monarch White had fallen. Unexpectedly, there was a huge hole! It was the same as a crater left behind by a meteorite!

　　Doudou quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “Closing up for 150 years isn’t a joking matter. This hole is actually so big. Luckily, I had retreated to a distance of over a hundred meters. Otherwise, I would have fallen into the hole. But looking at this bottomless pit, maybe… True Monarch White is not True Monarch White anymore, but is already Venerable White?”

　　Song Shuhang also swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “Doudou, don’t lie to me. Does Senior True Monarch White have the habit of frequently falling on the ground?”

　　“Don’t worry!” Doudou tried to comfort him, “True Monarch White is prone to fall on the ground only when he’s thinking about something and gets distracted.”

　　However, Doudou wouldn’t absolutely tell Song Shuhang that True Monarch White could get distracted at any time. In just a single day, he could get distracted hundreds of times!

　　“He is prone to fall when distracted?” Song Shuhang immediately thought of a scene: He is casually strolling on the streets with True Monarch White, introducing him to modern inventions while at it. Then, True Monarch gets distracted because thinking about something and falls on the ground…

　　Boom!

　　True Monarch White’s height was around 1.82 meters. If we ignore other factors and he falls on the ground at average speed, how many square meters large would be the trauma left on Song Shuhang?

　　At the time, maybe they could only explain it as a sudden ‘subsidence of the earth’.

　　He had to pay attention to True Monarch White’s state all the times and be sure to stop him from carelessly falling on the ground.

　　A senior in a daze wasn’t fearful.

　　A powerful senior wasn’t fearful.

　　A person that would randomly fall on the ground wasn’t fearful.

　　However, a powerful senior in a daze that would randomly fall on the ground was something very fearful. It was literally a loose cannon!

　　Your chances of getting injured were very high!

　　“Ah?” At this time, True Monarch White crawled from the hole. He calmly patted his clothes, as if nothing had happened. His clothes were still as white as snow. It seemed that this white gown really had a special feature that kept it clean and protected from dust.

　　“I was thinking of something that happened when I was closing up and got distracted. Hehe,” True Monarch White looked at Song Shuhang and Doudou, laughing somewhat embarrassedly.

　　Then, he raised his finger to his forehead and lightly shouted, “Ground Leveling Spell!”

　　After this light shout, the soil near the hole started to move on its own. Then, it quickly filled and leveled up the hole. Seeing how proficient he was with this technique, Song Shuhang deducted that True Monarch White must have used it quite a lot in the past!

　　***

　　After covering up the hole, True Monarch White said, “Problem solved. Should we go?”

　　“Fine. Doudou and I will go ahead and show you the way. You can just follow behind us!” Song Shuhang replied.

　　Doudou quietly enlarged his body till it reached the length of five meters. Song Shuhang quickly climbed on his back.

　　“Hey, wait! I’ll also ride on Doudou,” True Monarch White suddenly said. “My life-bound flying sword was stolen when I was closing up. Therefore, I can’t ride it and follow behind you. After a few days, when I’m more familiar with the modern world thanks to fellow daoist Song Shuhang, I’ll go and search for it!”

　　Song Shuhang, “…”

　　His flying sword was stolen by someone? Senior, just what the hell happened when you were closing up?

　　Doudou’s dog face also twitched. Then, he heaved a sigh and enlarged his body once again.

　　True Monarch White smiled and jumped on Doudou’s back, “Little Doudou, I’ll have to trouble you this time! Wait for me to open those buried treasures, and I’ll give you some good food.”

　　Doudou immediately said, “I want some thousand years cherry.”

　　“Sure. I also want to look how many fruits will have grown on that cherry tree in these 150 years,” True Monarch White said straightforwardly.

　　Doudou was very satisfied as he flew into the sky while carrying Song Shuhang and True Monarch White. Their destination was Jiangnan College Town.

　　***

　　On the road, Song Shuhang asked curiously, “Senior, why did you turn into a statue? And where were you exactly closing up?”

　　“It’s a long story. The place where I was closing up was destroyed due to special circumstances,” True Monarch White sighed with emotion.

　　The monster dog Doudou asked somewhat puzzled, “The place where you were closing up should have had at least 300 defensive formations. What kind of ‘special circumstances’ was able to destroy it?”

　　“The heavenly tribulation,” True Monarch White shrugged his shoulders. “I had closed up for only 50 years when I broke through and had to face the heavenly tribulation! The might of that heavenly tribulation was enormous. In just a few minutes, it completely destroyed my 300 defensive formations. Afterwards, it smashed to smithereens the place where I was closing up.”

　　Suddenly breaking through while in deep meditation? This was both a very happy and tragical way of breaking through…