The Endless Promise

128. Hell Of No Return

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After Bailong's bold declaration, the Sky Emperor cleared out the guests and excused himself, leaving Bailong and Tianlong alone in an awkward silence.

This silence didn't last long however, as Bailong wasn't one for silences, and Tianlong sputtered out his tea when Bailong said,

"I sounded confident right? Aiya, I lied... I was just guessing!"

"You-!" Tianlong glared between sputters. "How can you lie to the Sky Emperor?!"

"Shhhh! What if we get caught?!"

"'We'?!!"

"Aren't we *'two grasshoppers on the same rope'?"

(*They're in the same boat)

"We most certainly are not!"

But Bailong waved him away. "Anyways, calm down, calm down! We have two thousand years to figure it out!"

"Two thousand years go by in a blink!"

"Yes! But we can have fun adventures trying to solve it!"

Tianlong was incredulous, his irises darting left and right in disbelief. "He's crazy... You're crazy! This is an issue even Lord Medicine can't solve!"

"Heh! Don't worry about such things! I can boldly put my words here:

"You've just met the greatest healer you'll ever meet...!"

After which he appeared some distance away, studying a solid gold pillar. "Tsk tsk tsk... Too ostentatious! Call me 'Bailong'! Can I call you Tianlong? A-Tian? 'Xiaotian'? All three?!"

Tianlong scowled. "Wait... Why have you been speaking without honorifics? Even if we ignore my title, I still senior you!"

"Ei?! Didn't you just say 'two thousand years go by in a blink'?" *shrug* "How then can I acknowledge the mere three years separating us?!"

"You-!!!"

And through near-endless banter, two friends were somehow formed...!

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Hundreds of years flew by and Bailong and Tianlong grew unbelievably close, as they both journeyed on quest after quest to find a cure, or to carry out several missions for the Sky Emperor, fighting the demons who managed to approach Sky Realm's outlands.

As they journeyed, Tianlong would often lose hope, but Bailong would snap him out of it, pulling him out of his shell and dragging him off to explore the joys of the mortal realm.

"Ehehe, you can look, but not touch!" Bailong warned when Tianlong's eyes roamed towards some scantily-clad women on the balcony of a rustic flower house. "Your father will kill me if I smear his precious Crown Prince!"

"You -!"

The two became so inseparable in those early years, that quite often, Immortal Kai Zhen would appear to drag Bailong away...

"Some disciple you are!" Immortal Kai Zhen complained. "I don't frown on friendship, but one must not be distracted from their goals! Come! List how many new ventures you've embarked on in the last hundred years...!!"

For Old man Bao, he had simply tweaked Bailong's own reverse-talismans, using them to forcefully summon Bailong to his presence.

"Old man Bao! What kind of trick is this?!" Bailong asked, to which Old man Bao scoffed.

"Hmph. Genius runs in our family... You have about a millennia to go before you can ride on this old man's head!"

However, there were times when Bailong simply vanished for months or even years...