Volume One, Chapter One Hundred Fourteen: An Old Ox Craves Tender Grass

Tu Zhe stood in the void outside the planet Datong, gazing at the sea of stars in the northern sky.

Beautiful?

The vast expanse of the cosmos held the twelve signs of the zodiac—the very constellations that young men and women in his previous life loved to use to calculate personality, fate, marriage, and love: Leo, Aries, Gemini, Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Pisces, and Aquarius. There were also over twenty northern constellations like Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, and Canes Venatici, each with its own unique form, all breathtakingly beautiful.

Who said the starry sky was silent and lonely?

Looking at those constellations of all sizes, the gorgeous nebulae, and the brilliant stars, who could say they weren't manifestations modeled by the gods after the shapes of deities, demons, humans, beasts, spirits, and monsters?

This was merely the North Polar Star Region, yet it contained infinite space, countless planets, and the various stories—or even myths—playing out upon them.

Tu Zhe was filled with deep emotion.

When he was a human on Earth in his past life, he first had to labor just to scrape together a living. By the time he was full and finally able to turn his eyes toward the sky, he was already nearing the end of his days.

Such a fleeting life—it barely lasted as long as a dream or a theatrical performance for the beings of other worlds, during which time they experienced the full cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death.

The tragedy of Earthlings was that while they took pride in their few thousand years of civilization, the summer vacation of an extraterrestrial had not even drawn to a close.

Beautiful?

Yes, beautiful enough, but also cruel enough.

The problem was, given that they were all intelligent beings, why was there such a vast disparity in terms of time alone?

He remembered that when he was in university, bored out of his mind, he loved to hole up in the library or run to the Imperial Archives to read obscure ancient texts. He recalled records suggesting that in ancient times, the lifespan of Earthlings was actually quite long, with some reaching as many as eighty thousand years. At the time, he had laughed and said, "Damn it, can you stop writing myths as if they were history?"

Looking at it now, it wasn't the ancients who were talking nonsense; it was his own ignorance.

But how was one to understand the decline from a lifespan of eighty thousand years down to a mere hundred? What exactly happened to cause such a drastic change in the lifespan of Earthlings?

Why, in the hell, why?

Just as Tu Zhe was lost in these wild thoughts, a vast stretch of brilliant, colorful clouds suddenly appeared in the distant sky. Flowers rained down from the heavens, celestial music echoed from afar, and a procession of carriages approached leisurely.

Tu Zhe had originally intended to leave, as being too close to Datong might lead to unnecessary associations if someone passed by. Thus, holding his puppy, he led Little Lei Lei, the three demonesses, and the various Demon Dragon Guards to meet them, as if they had been heading in that direction all along.

And so, Tu Zhe’s head began to ache.

In the silent void, it was nearly impossible for two parties to cross paths in such a vast star field. But since they had met, it was equally impossible for one side not to draw the attention of the other.

The opposing side’s procession was far more ostentatious than Tu Zhe’s. There were thousands of attendant celestial maidens, and their heavily armed guard numbered nearly ten thousand. In the center, on a seven-treasure flower carriage pulled by a unicorn, sat a beauty with a distinct exotic flair.

The beauty had a high nose and deep-set eyes, with prominent cheekbones and forehead. Her lips were full, and her skin was relatively dark. Yet, on this woman’s face, these features combined with a natural harmony; to move or trim even a fraction would destroy the overall aesthetic. In particular, her pair of infinitely alluring eyes looked like two deep pools of wine rather than water.

The puppy commented from the side, "Hey, hey, hey, too tall, too perky. Whose is this? Better be careful when going out, lest she be 'taken' by someone."

The three demonesses couldn't help but compare themselves to this beauty, finding that they couldn't truly surpass her, but surely they weren't inferior either? As for the Demon Dragon Guards, they stared straight ahead, feigning indifference to beauty, though it was hard to guess if there was any "activity" beneath their armor.

The real question was: did she come from the Naga clan, famous for their dragon-like lust?

Tu Zhe’s own heart wasn't exactly pure either. He cast sidelong glances at the crotches of his Demon Dragon Guards, his inner thoughts wicked while his outward demeanor remained solemn. He was certainly not a man whose inside matched his outside; he was neither noble nor pure.

At that moment, a man on horseback broke away from the opposing guard, reined in his horse, leveled his spear, and shouted, "Halt!"

Long Er stepped forward, facing the man, and shouted back, "Who goes there? Why do you block the path of our Sovereign?"

The man, a burly figure as dark as charcoal, was annoyed to see that Long Er's aura did not fall short of his own. He leveled his spear, sparks flying, and sneered, "Even a jar has two ears. You should ask who our Empress is. To show disrespect to the Empress is to court death!"

Tu Zhe realized that this "Empress" was none other than the unreliable mother of Andromeda, the mistress of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Tu Zhe had read widely in his past life and knew a bit about the myths of various races; he truly didn't care for this scatterbrained beauty.

*Damn it, you consider yourself the most beautiful woman in all the heavens and worlds?*

It wasn't bragging, but even without mentioning his own women like Yueyi, the three demonesses were not inferior to her in appearance, let alone in brainpower. Calling her a "vase" was a compliment; she was nothing more than a troublemaking waste of space.

*Dammit, I’ve never seen anyone so heartless that they would sacrifice their own precious daughter to a sea monster just to escape the humiliation of the Whale Monster! What kind of person is this?*

Tu Zhe’s lazy, roguish nature flared up, and he decided to toy with this Empress.

After whispering into the puppy’s ear for a while, the puppy squinted and laughed, "You’re the worst, you rogue, but I like it! Tee-hee!"

Tu Zhe set the puppy down, hurriedly stepped forward to restrain the agitated Long Er, and gazed at Empress Cassiopeia with an expression of deep, infatuated shock. He cried out, "Oh my heavens, oh my earth, oh my gods, oh my goodness! Have the heavens allowed me to witness the most beautiful, elegant, and noble Empress Cassiopeia, the greatest beauty in all the realms? Is this real? Tell me, my peerless Empress, is it truly you standing before me?" As he spoke, he kept rubbing his eyes.

Cassiopeia had already been intrigued by this young man, and upon hearing this, she was overjoyed. She smiled and asked, "Are you one of my little daughter’s men? Why haven't I seen you before?"

Tu Zhe introduced his "true identity" and laid on the flattery thick, making Cassiopeia feel as if her bones were turning to mush.

The dark-skinned woman couldn't help but ask where the "little Sovereign" was headed, and if he didn't mind, would he like to join her to see her daughter, Andromeda?

As she spoke, the charm at the corners of her eyes and brows leaked out involuntarily, her seductive glances frequent—she was practically ready to pull Chairman Tu into her arms for some wanton pleasure.

The infinite allure and desire in Cassiopeia’s eyes made the puppy mutter, "Thirty is lively, forty is wild, fifty is right at the peak of the wave—waves upon waves, rolling on and on."