'Is he dangerous?' Pef wondered inward as he defaulted once more to his own tested and tried method for dealing with strangers.

Food and drinks.

The man in front on him glanced in amusement at Pef's glove, as if waiting for the glove to come up with an answer.

'Well, for one he can see me. At least Tier 11. He can also hear our internal network comms, thus probably Tier 12. You'll be fine.' the orange glove answered after a minute. This powerhouse was so much beyond dangerous that it didn't bother to calculate any combat engagement chances, or milliseconds of life remaining in case of conflict. Plus, the user would undoubtedly resolve the encounter in a favorable manner. The glove trusted Pef to do as he always did.

"Let's have a meal first, before all those questions can be solved, Senior." Pef offered with a smile, then sat down at his small table.

"Curious indeed. I rarely meet a Master of Wine, since that Dao is mostly a remnant of more civilized times." the fisherman spoke in a mild voice, then sat down at the table while eying Pef with interested eyes.

Pef poured wine for the both of them, then sipped from his cup with a sad insight. This was the last Paramita Wine bottle to ever exist, and even if he ever made a similar or better wine, it would never be this wine.

He waited until the fisherman also tasted the wine, and also realized the truth, before he spoke. "In vino veritas. It's the last bottle of Paramita Wine in existence. Let's hope we don't waste it." Pef explained in a somber tone, then gulped the whole glass of wine in one go.

The fisherman nodded and gulped his own glass as well.

"Still, you must be awful young, Little Brother. Under a million, I suspect?" the man asked in obvious curiosity.

"Yes. I'll be 46 years old, next month. Most people in Middle Heavens call me Divine Cook." Pef said with a shrug.

The man in front blinked, genuinely surprised for once. He glanced at his fishing rod, then pinched his fingers, seemingly in deep thought.

"Royal honey from the old beast bee? You must come back with your next creation, and let me taste that, Divine Cook. You don't know much about this beast, do you?" the fisherman asked with a frown.

Pef filled the glasses again, then nodded towards the man. Almost imperceptibly, the fisherman's shape transformed from a middle-aged man with calloused hands into a younger man with long fingers, like a pianist. "I know the Bee Queen is old, and quite strong. I have a comrade at the peak of Bronze Realm who seems quite afraid of this beast. He also visited here recently, a few years ago."

"I see. That man. He is right to be afraid. His skills will be useless against the Bee Queen. As for you...I'm not sure. How did you master the Universe Splitter without a Sword Soul?" the young man wondered in between small sips of priceless wine.

Pef scratched at his cheek, wondering the same thing. "I'm a bit special. I could use the Void Cutter even before I began cultivating. Which is quite a nuisance when a Heavenly Tribulation falls on a 7 years old."

The fisherman grimaced a bit guiltily. "I will fix that. Well, for the next lucky ones. As for you Divine Cook..."

Pef nodded and smiled. "The Academy." he demanded with an easy voice, then filled the wine glasses once more.

"Indeed. If you want to study Formations, you will need access to either a High House or the Celestial Academy. And your age won't be a problem, quite the reverse. Even High Houses scions only start the examinations around 300 years of age." the fisherman mused out loud, while his appearance changed once more, looking rather old and dignified now.

Pef nodded in agreement, although the information was new. It did make sense, since even with pills and aid from higher level cultivators, achieving Tier 7 was rather difficult before 300 years of age. For other people, of course. "So, the Bee Queen?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Your Eternum necklace will protect you from its mind and soul attack. The Universe Splitter will suffice to break its defense aura. But only if you can hit it. I suspect you're vastly inferior in speed." the old man said with a shaking head.

Pef raised an eyebrow. "Advice?"

Instead, the man searched in his robe and took out a small glass bottle. "Three single-use, Speed Demon Pills. If they fade out before the battle is over, you will likely die."

At his glove's urges, Pef took the bottle with both hands and bowed his head. "Many thanks, Senior. Your name?"

The fisherman laughed instead. "See you at the Academy, Little Brother.", then waved his hand, breaking the spell and sending Pef back into the real world.

'That was strange.' Pef mused inward, as his sensed focused on the glass bottle. Surprisingly, the bottle itself might have been the biggest gain of this encounter, being inscribed with a dozen Formations of bewildering quality and complexity.

Even with his 80 percent in Formation Dao, Pef could barely understand what he was seeing. Preservation Dao, containment, protection, space expansion, time freeze, reinforcement, and several more arrays that he couldn't even determine their purpose. Although it lacked sentience, the small glass bottle was certainly an artifact of the Higher Heavens, while the crisp characters and their quality put to shame even his latest Gundam suits.

'I want the bottle.' the glove answered in a serious tone.

'Excuse me?' Pef muttered confused.

'Find a way to merge it with me. I am serious, Soldier. It's Tier 12!' the orange glove exclaimed in a louder voice.

Nodding to himself, Pef attempted to store the bottle inside his glove pocket, only to find the bottle resisting his attempt with casual ease.

'Doesn't work.' he said with a sad laugh.

'Of course not. Stop looking at it like it's a small bottle. That thing can ingest the entire Middle Heavens a thousand times over. It's Tier 12, idiot!' the glove added politely. Well, maybe a bit irate.

Pef sighed and simply stuck the bottle under his belt. The wonders of the cultivation world sometimes exceeded his imagination.

Then he thought again, and dripped a drop of his blood onto the bottle's lid. He swayed and sat down, his consciousness humbled under the vast inner space inside the bottle, and the extra options provided as a rightful owner.

Until now, he believed the Seven Color Pagoda was impenetrable, because it was a Tier 11 Artifact. But the bottle could access it with ease, as if positioned above the plane of paper that marked the boundary of the pagoda. Even the secure Violet Realm was merely a cage drawing on this paper, making extracting the Taotie as easy as picking a pen from a paper, no matter how fierce the cage drawn on the paper was.

He glanced at his wife Lia, and saw the same thing with her fierce Tao Symbol. The drawing was even more complex than the Taotie cage, but still a mere drawing on paper.

Expanding his view, the entire Bee Starfield was a crayon sketch, with the terrible Bee Queen pulsing brightly as the strongest being around, and even in the entire Middle Heavens. It would be quite a dangerous opponent, to fight it straight on.

Pef flicked the deadly bee with a thought inside the Violet Realm, then took out his Taotie. No need to fight the Old Queen anymore.

"Let's go taste that honey, old badger." he said with a wide grin.

"Freedom! Tastes so sweet!" the Taotie exclaimed with a toothy grin. Pef grinned back. Training the Old Bee will take time, but a personal supply of Royal Honey would be worth it.

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