Chapter 62: When the Heavenly Dog devours the moon, the Emperor's heart returns to Yun!

"Kid, I've already joined forces with you, and you're still putting on an act?"

"Do you not consider Doggy here as one of your own?"

"If you're going to be like this, we might as well part ways. I'll head back to my Gao Lao Zhuang and go look for my Jia Baoyu."

Seeing the aggrieved look on Er Gouzi's face, Shen Lang furrowed his brows deeply. "I'm not acting. I genuinely had no idea there was a secret realm in Guiyun City!"

"You..."

Er Gouzi instinctively wanted to retort, but seeing Shen Lang's solemn expression, he swallowed the words back down.

With a grave look, he then asked, "If you didn't know about the Guiyun City secret realm, why did you come to Guiyun City in the first place?"

Hearing this, Shen Lang realized that Guiyun City was likely far more complicated than he had imagined. He immediately shared his current situation and background with Er Gouzi.

...

After a long while, upon hearing Shen Lang's self-introduction, Er Gouzi could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

"Damn it, I've boarded a pirate ship!"

Shen Lang's face darkened. "Cut the crap and tell me quickly, what is this business with the Guiyun City secret realm?"

"Sigh..."

Er Gouzi let out a sigh, resigning himself to his fate. "Legend has it that back in the Vast Heaven Divine Kingdom, there was once an immensely powerful crown prince who took the national treasure, the Emperor's Heart Stone, to explore a secret realm, and ultimately never walked out!"

"In order to find the Emperor's Heart Stone, the Vast Heaven Divine Kingdom mobilized nearly all of its resources. In the end, it was the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion who paid the price with his life and uttered a prophecy!"

"What prophecy?" Shen Lang pressed on.

"When the heavenly dog devours the moon, the Emperor's Heart returns to Guiyun; a true dragon shall be born from this, and chaos shall engulf the realm!"

Hiss...

Hearing this, Shen Lang could not help but draw a sharp intake of breath. From this prophecy, it was not difficult for him to deduce that the world was about to plunge into great chaos. However, he still could not find any mention of a secret realm existing in Guiyun City within those words.

He immediately raised an eyebrow and asked, "The Nine Provinces continent is so vast, how can you be certain that the Emperor's Heart Stone is right here in this Guiyun City?"

With a solemn expression, Er Gouzi replied, "To be honest with you, I once snuck into the scripture repository of the Vast Heaven Divine Kingdom and examined the movement trajectories of that supreme crown prince."

"I calculated that he should be right here within this city of Guiyun."

"Especially after meeting you, I've become even more convinced of my calculation!"

Looking at Er Gouzi's meaningful smile, Shen Lang was utterly numb. He truly never expected that he, a little butterfly who had time-traveled here, would stir up such massive trouble just by slightly flapping his wings.

This made Shen Lang involuntarily wonder: if he were to obtain this Emperor's Heart Stone, would Shenxiao end up regretting her actions as deeply as Huang Yiyi had?

With that thought, Shen Lang looked at Er Gouzi rather solemnly. "Are there any conditions for entering that Guiyun City secret realm?"

"It should be accessible to anyone below the Nascent Soul stage!"

---

Below the Nascent Soul stage?

Hearing this answer, Shen Lang smiled. With his current strength, anyone below the Nascent Soul stage would come only to die.

He immediately said with a relaxed tone, "Oh, wonderful! Then we can go listen to the tunes at the pleasure houses with peace of mind!"

Seeing that Shen Lang had his mind entirely set on women, Er Gouzi could not help but remind him, "Your kid's strength is decent, but true prodigies have all practiced physical cultivation techniques. To be honest, compared to actual prodigies, you still lag far behind."

"Don't let women slow down the speed of your sword-drawing!"

Recognizing that Er Gouzi was genuinely concerned about him, Shen Lang said with extreme confidence, "Rest assured, cultivation is simpler for me than eating and drinking!"

"If I wanted to breakthrough, the sheer awesomeness of it would scare you to the point of peeing your pants!"

Er Gouzi: "..."

He had lived for countless ages and had witnessed numerous peerless prodigies. But this was the first time he had ever encountered someone who could boast as shamelessly as Shen Lang.

Realizing that Shen Lang was still young and ignorant, Er Gouzi sighed. "Young people talk so recklessly. Scaring me until I pee my pants? Truly utterly clueless!"

"Oh, holy crap, are you still acting all high and mighty?"

Seeing that Shen Lang seemed unconvinced, Er Gouzi said with considerable confidence, "Doggy here might not be as good at bragging as you, but when it comes to the path of cultivation, you are nothing more than a little brother in front of me!"

"So don't put on airs in front of me. It's humiliating, understand?"

"Damn it..."

To be looked down upon by a dog—Shen Lang was displeased. He had originally planned to go to An Yiyao's place to make a breakthrough and vent the frustration in his heart along the way. But since Er Gouzi dared to look down on him, Shen Lang stated bluntly, "Care to make a bet?"

"What are you betting on?" Er Gouzi raised a brow in disdain.

"Let's bet that I can break through to the twelfth layer of Qi Refining right now and push my physical cultivation technique to the fourth stage!"

"Hah~"

Er Gouzi laughed. As an ancient monster, he had understood Shen Lang's strength thoroughly since the first time they met. He was especially well-acquainted with Shen Lang's physical cultivation.

Seeing Shen Lang utter such wild words, he said directly, "What's the stake?"

"If I lose, the spiritual stones I got from the Zhou family and this Heavenly Dragon Qi-Gathering Pill will all be yours."

"But if you lose..."

---

Shen Lang paused there, looking at Er Gouzi with a serious expression, signaling him to name his counter-stake.

Er Gouzi unhesitatingly spat out a magical artifact resembling an inkstone from his mouth and said, "If I lose, this thing goes to you!"

"System, if I recycle this trinket, how many resentment points is it worth?"

"Quasi-divine artifact Black Tiger Inkstone, recovery value of one million resentment points!"

Hearing that it was worth a million resentment points, Shen Lang's eyes lit up. He had merely wanted to teach Er Gouzi that on the path of cultivation, if he dared claim second, no one would dare claim first. He never expected Er Gouzi to be so honest and provide him with this massive amount of resentment points in one go.

Without hesitation, Shen Lang snatched the Black Tiger Inkstone and declared, "Deal!"

"You..."

Seeing Shen Lang snatch away the Black Tiger Inkstone, Er Gouzi wanted to warn him not to covet his treasure, but before the words could leave his mouth, the aura emanating from Shen Lang's body surged abruptly.

The very next second, Shen Lang's cultivation realm leaped from the eleventh layer of Qi Refining straight to the twelfth layer.

When this happened, a sudden thump echoed in Er Gouzi's heart.

*Holy crap.*

*Could it be that I just got scammed by this kid?*

While he was thinking this, a brilliant flash of light instantly erupted from Shen Lang's physique. Following that, every single muscle on his body began to pulse rhythmically as if endowed with life.

Seeing this, Er Gouzi felt his scalp tingle with numbness. "The fourth stage of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art—Indestructible Flesh!"

"What kind of monster are you, kid?!"

Seeing the expression of utter disbelief on Er Gouzi's face—to the point where his eyeballs nearly popped out—Shen Lang chuckled. "Heh, I can still break through to the thirteenth layer and the fifth stage of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art. Doggy, still want to bet?"

"Bet your grandpa! You're so freaking freakish, are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"What do you mean?" Shen Lang raised an eyebrow. He could tell that Er Gouzi wasn't cursing at him, but rather showing genuine concern. His expression immediately grew serious.

Seeing that Shen Lang seemed completely clueless, Er Gouzi gritted his back molars. "Do you have no idea what a heavenly tribulation is?!"