Chapter 399: The Otherworldly Miasma and Favor

"My name is Chen Qingye," the man said, offering a casual nod. "And the little one out back is my son, Chen Yuan."

Long Ming leaned back into his wooden chair, swirling his teacup. "So, Brother Chen, what brings an expert like you to a corner like Flying Eagle City?"

"The Stone Tower is opening soon," Chen Qingye replied, his rugged face growing serious. "Everyone knows it holds ancient heavenly treasures. I decided to try my luck and see if there’s an herb inside that can fix my boy’s body. Passing through here, a junior of mine mentioned that this antique shop had a few decent things, so I came to check it out."

Long Ming chuckled and raised a hand, gesturing for him to stop. "Alright, no need to pile on the sweet talk. We just run an honest little business here."

Just then, Ah Fu led Chen Yuan back into the front hall. The little boy had a bit more color in his cheeks, smiling happily as he trotted over to his father.

Long Ming looked at the boy and gestured warmly. "Little brother, come here for a second."

Chen Yuan blinked his wide, curious eyes and walked over. Long Ming gently took hold of the boy’s thin wrist, pretending to just check his pulse.

"Tell big brother," Long Ming asked with an easy smile, "what kind of things do you like? What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Chen Yuan scratched his head, puffing out his small chest with pride. "I want to travel across all the continents, see every corner of the world, and become a grand array formation master!"

"An array formation master, huh? Now that’s a lofty dream." Long Ming laughed, amused by the boy’s pure excitement.

Beneath the playful banter, Long Ming quietly tapped into his Heavenly Revelation Eyes. His pupils deepened, like a frozen pool of the great north, directly scanning Chen Yuan’s meridians and internal organs.

Suddenly, Long Ming’s lazy smile vanished. His face fell cold.

In the deepest recesses of the boy’s dried-out meridians, clinging to his life foundation, sat an eerie black residue. It pulsed with an unholy rhythm, mutating as it slowly devoured the boy’s vitality like an insatiable parasite.

The aura was chillingly familiar. Long Ming’s soul twitched. It carried the exact same putrid, twisted mark of the otherworldly entities he had confronted back in the Heavenly Fountain Palace and the Azure Sun Secret Realm.

Though this was merely a remnant that had grafted itself onto Chen Yuan’s bloodline, it was unmistakably from beyond the Primordial Chaos Realm.

Long Ming immediately dropped Chen Yuan’s wrist and stood up without a word.

Feng Xinye, who was watching from the side, instantly felt the sudden tension. She took a step toward him. "Hey, Long Ming, what’s wrong?"

"Wait here, Princess," Long Ming said placidly, his tone flat and emotionless. "I just need some fresh air."

Before she could question him, he turned and walked upstairs.

Stepping out onto the wooden balcony, Long Ming leaned against the railing and closed his eyes. The cool wind brushed against his face as his mind worked at lightning speed. He calculated every possibility, yet the conclusion remained terrifyingly consistent.

No wonder even someone like Gu Yishuang couldn’t understand the ailment. It’s not that he’s incompetent, but otherworldly monsters are simply unheard of in most planes. Long Ming knew about it only because he’d already encountered them twice.

Honestly? I’d rather stay away from them, Long Ming muttered inwardly.

Suddenly, the temperature on the balcony plunged to freezing cold.

A shadow flickered, and Chen Qingye materialized right behind Long Ming. The man’s previous weary demeanor was gone, replaced by a gaze burning with raw agitation and fierce desperation.

"Shopkeeper," Chen Qingye’s voice was hoarse, trembling slightly. "You saw something, didn’t you? What’s in my son?"

Long Ming kept his back turned, trying to act oblivious as he scratched the back of his neck. "Brother Chen, what are you talking about? I already told you, the boy just has an excess of Yin energy—"

Before the word could fully leave his mouth, the surrounding space violently twisted.

In a fraction of an instant, the balcony, the sunlight, and the city disappeared, plunging into a limitless void. Long Ming found himself standing in complete, pitch-black darkness.

There was no sound, no light, and no physical direction. An unending abyss of pure black swallowed every trace of reality, suffocating the mind like an ocean in darkest night. The terrifying law weighed heavily upon his head, ready to rip apart any intruder’s mind.

Long Ming stood straight in the center of the void. He let out a slow, steady breath and spoke into the empty dark.

"What an impressive comprehension of the Grand Dao of Darkness," Long Ming commented casually, his tone unbothered. "Cold enough to peel away a man’s divine sense, shred his spirit into fine pieces, and bury a soul so deep beneath the abyss that it could never crawl back out."

Buzz!

The pitch-black shroud shattered like glass.

Reality crashed back into place. Long Ming was still standing on the balcony, his elbow resting casually on the wooden railing. Standing a few paces away was Chen Qingye, staring at Long Ming with wide, deeply shocked eyes.

"To remain entirely unbothered within my Dao Domain, the Lightless Void..." Chen Qingye swallowed hard, looking at the youth before him as if he were an ancient monster. "Young Master, you are truly someone who’s hiding more than he’s showing."

Long Ming smiled faintly and cupped his fists with graceful composure. "Brother Chen praises me too much. It was only because you carried zero killing intent. If you truly wanted me dead, my bones would already be dust."

Yet beneath his calm exterior, Long Ming was sweating cold bullets.

’Damn! He finally agreed! I hope he didn’t see through me.’ Long Ming cursed inside as he relaxed his tense body. His ass clenched so bad that he could bet of cracking a spirit jade with it

He wasn’t lying to himself. If it weren’t for his Desolate Immortal Aura neutralizing the crushing pressure of a Dao Refining Realm cultivator, paired with the fact that his Nether Dragon Void Devouring Physique had already made him fearfully familiar with the laws of bottomless abyssal darkness, his primordial spirit would have collapsed in an instant. That was the true power of a Dao Refining Realm monster’s domain!

Chen Qingye stared at Long Ming for a long moment, then stepped forward, lowered his head, and bowed deeply with both fists cupped.

"Young Master Long, I was rude, and I beg your forgiveness. But I’m begging you for my boy," Chen Qingye said, his voice cracking with sheer emotion. "If you have a way to save Yuan’er, I will do anything you ask. That is my solemn promise as a Great Elder."

Great Elder was a title formally given to a Dao Refining Realm cultivator.

Long Ming sighed softly, waving his hand to make him stand up.

"I won’t lie to you, Brother Chen. I do recognize the root of the problem. But the treatment? I can’t guarantee anything right now. It’s deeply tangled within his life meridians. If you want to keep him stable, you can leave him at my shop for a while so I can keep an eye on him and test a few safe methods."

Hearing that there was finally a thread of hope, Chen Qingye looked like a drowning man grabbing a raft. "Thank you! Thank you, Young Master!"

Long Ming rubbed his chin, suddenly curious about the man’s identity. He tilted his head. "By the way, Brother Chen... you possess such a pure Dao Domain of stealth and darkness. What line of work are you actually specialized in?"

Chen Qingye paused, feeling a bit awkward under Long Ming’s gaze. He reached up, scratched his messy hair with an embarrassed grin, and muttered:

"Well... assassination?"