Chapter 463 (2/2)

Hao Ren almost choked. “One hundred…”

Discussing age with this long-living race was pointless as the gap was obviously a little too huge.

Becky looked at Hao Ren, then Elizabeth, before hesitantly saying, “Actually, there’s a room now.”

Hao Ren immediately looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“The four ascetics… I mean the four masters, have now become one. The other three have gone to travel the world,” said Becky, sticking her tongue out. “So, now there’s a vacant room.”

Hao Ren was perplexed. “What? Travel the world?”

Just as Becky about to speak again, the sound of the back door opening was heard. Hao Ren turned and saw Big Beardy walking in. He was chewing a half-charred bun. Apparently, he had just finished his day of practice in the wild and he was coming back in for a nap.

Big Beardy saw Hao Ren and the others. He was slight startled before he smiled. “Oh, all of you are back! Is everything good?”

“Yeah, pretty good.” Hao Ren nodded automatically. Then, suddenly things came to mind. “Wait a second! What is all this travelling around the world about? Where are the others?”

Big Beardy smiled solemnly as though it did not concern him. “Walking the path of the goddess requires one not to be trapped in a single place. One must go out and experience the trials and tribulations of sweetness as well as sorrow in the world. It’s normal for the three of them to set out to travel the world.”

Cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s back instantly as he burst out, “Don’t you know who you are? Yet, you guys still roam around? Don’t you know you guys are otherworldlings in this world?”

Big Beardy smiled as he pointed to Vivian and the others. “Who among us is not an otherworldling here? Since they are free to move around, why aren’t we?”

His reply stifled Hao Ren’s words. There was truth in what Big Beardy said, but he still found it extremely not right. “But your case is different: you guys are from the Plane of Dreams, it—”

The bearded man smiled and interrupted him. “No matter how far we go, we’re still under the eyes of Raven, the goddess. If something happens, I wonder if you’d have trouble finding them. You even crossed the bridge of the world, didn’t you?”

Hao Ren was again stifled. Thinking for a long moment, he finally figured what was wrong: it was the four ascetics’ alien way of life! As alien as Vivian was, she had been living among the humans. As transcendent as Lily was as a husky, she had been doing pretty well among the literati. Nangong Wuyue had recently been hailed as a little pop-folk queen. Even Y’zaks looked like a nice guy when his face was covered up. They would not be easily spotted in the crowd, because their expertise was assimilation. But the four ascetics… the habit of living in the wild alone was enough to earn them a five-minute slot on the prime time news.

Hao Ren’s eyes turned, looking at the TV. He feared that the three other ascetics may suddenly popped up on the broadcast news. “Poachers have been spotted in Kekexili. The trio have been wantonly hunting the Tibetan antelopes. The suspects have good survival skills and they are now in a standoff with the anti-poaching team…”

With their living habits, a situation like that was not entirely impossible!

Big Beardy seemed to know what Hao Ren was thinking. He smiled calmly. “I know you’re worried about us being unaware of the local rules and customs, that we’ll make a mess in this world. Rest assured, since the day we learned it was not allowed to set up tent under the TV tower, we have been studying the various ways of life around the world. We don’t lack common knowledge of life on Earth. The three of them have even brought along a list of endangered species when they left…”

Hao Ren was speechless.

It seemed that the masters were indeed pretty self-aware.