The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

The three raised their glasses and drank deeply of the lake water that had seeped into each other's blood.

They took the prison as their heaven, the jail as their earth, and the Buddha's light as their incense, and formally swore brotherhood, vowing to share both fortune and misfortune. Only Wen Ying remained, pouting and sulking to the side.

"Alright, from now on we'll share the good times and the bad, hahahahahaha!" Laughter echoed all around.

The three of them helped each other to their feet. Fen Laoshan said to Lu Xiaosan, "Old man, from now on we are family." As he spoke, he secretly pinched Lu Xiaosan's round buttocks.

Lu Xiaosan looked at Fen Laoshan with a puzzled expression, but saw that on Fen Laoshan's handsome face covered with a beard, a pair of melancholy and deep eyes were looking at him meaningfully. He exuded a masculine charm that made Lu Xiaosan unable to open his eyes.

Lu Xiaosan swallowed hard, a rare occurrence for him. "Big brother, what... what are you doing?"

The eccentric guy next to him licked his lips and laughed, "Not bad, you passed our Brother Shan's first test. Here's a pinch for you."

After saying that, Guai Badao reached out and pinched Lu Xiaosan's other round buttocks.

Lu Xiaosan was immediately filled with shock and embarrassment. He jumped back and retreated to Wen Ying's side, pointing at the two of them and exclaiming, "You, you wouldn't... be that kind of person, would you?"

Wen Ying was still angry, but she subconsciously protected Lu Xiaosan, while turning her displeased face to the side, as if she had no intention of forgiving him.

Seeing this, Fen Laoshan and Guai Badao burst into laughter again, "Hahahaha, we were just joking, we thought you liked this, hahahahaha."

After laughing, Fen Laoshan's expression turned slightly serious. He stepped forward, patted Lu Xiaosan on the shoulder, and said meaningfully, "Old man, although this sworn brotherhood only involves the three of us, you have to include your second brother too. Don't forget the sworn brotherhood promise you made today when you see him in the future."

"Hmph, it's fine to forget. If he's willing to treat you as a brother, it's not too late to bring this up later," said Weird Eight-Knife mockingly from the side.

Lu Xiaosan was still shaken by what had just happened, but he couldn't help asking, "I've never even seen this second brother before. What did he do to cause such a disagreement among you all?"

"Hmm? You should have met him before." Pink Mountain asked in confusion, then sighed, "Alright, since we're brothers now, let's tell you our story with him first."

Upon hearing someone telling a story, Wen Ying and Lu Xiaosan both gathered around at the same time.

Fen Laoshan paused for a moment, then began to tell the story in detail: "Your elder brother and I were originally disciples of the Yellow Crane Sect in Jiangcheng. More than ten years ago, we were ordered by our master to send a precious pearl to the underground palace at the bottom of East Lake."

"At the time, we were not proficient in the water absorption technique taught by our master, but we made a boastful promise to save face and readily agreed to our master's request."

“This is indeed something you guys are capable of doing…” Lu Xiaosan thought to himself.

Fen Laoshan sighed and continued, "A man has to finish the path he chooses, even if he has to crawl on his knees."

"So, we just had to bite the bullet and dive to the bottom of the lake. At first, we managed to get by with our tiny water suction technique, but as we went deeper, we found it harder and harder to resist the violent waves. And before we knew it, we all lost consciousness."

He spoke while gesturing, and his tone changed with the story, making it very vivid.

"I thought we'd just fail our mission and die in humiliation... Hahahaha." The two looked at each other and laughed in perfect unison.

"Hehehe, but Heaven still didn't take us brothers away, and eventually we woke up, hehehe."

"But when we woke up, we found that we had water shields over our heads, and in front of us was a fish-man with black, white and yellow stripes. That was your second brother, Wolf Rhino. He made these water shields for us."

"But things never go as planned. We've survived, but the precious pearl we were supposed to deliver is gone!"

"Just when we were at our wits' end, your second brother stepped forward again. He said he was willing to help us find the pearl and that we could come to the lakeside at noon tomorrow to retrieve it."

"This lake is so big, it must be so difficult to find a single pearl. How did he manage to do it?" Wen Ying asked.

“We were very curious at the time, and since we didn’t dare to go back to see our master, we stayed outside all night. When we arrived at the lake as promised the next day at noon, we found him lying on the shore, barely alive. He was still clutching that colorful bead in his hand.”

"Upon getting closer, we discovered that where his left eye had been was now a bloody hole. The colorful jewel he clutched in his hand was the fish eye he had gouged out himself..."

Lu Xiaosan and Wen Ying exclaimed simultaneously, "What! Why is he doing this?!"

Old Man Fen sighed, "We were just as surprised as you were. He said our original pearl was lost, so he had no choice but to gouge out his own eyes to give to us as the pearl..."

Wen Ying said anxiously, "Just because you couldn't find the pearl doesn't mean you have to gouge out your own eyeballs to use as a substitute, that's too much..."

Pink Mountain shook his head and said, "We asked the same question, and he said he didn't want to be like us humans, always failing to keep our promises."

Lu Xiaosan said, "Not bad, he's a real man, but his method is a bit too stupid."

"Indeed, but it was this silly method that moved us."

"And later we learned that he was the son of Ta Ye, the master of the lake's bottom palace, and that the pearl was meant to be given to his father, Ta Ye..."

"It's lamentable that Ta Ye, a father of noble birth, couldn't recognize that this precious pearl was his son's eyeball. He only casually inquired about how his son lost his left eye, and after several twists and turns, Ta Ye ended up giving your second brother's eyeball back to him as a gift..."

Wen Ying shook her head, her face bitter. "This father of mine is really..." She then fell into a reverie.

Lu Xiaosan couldn't help but ask again, "Then... cough, did Second Brother accept it?" He changed his address to Second Brother because he genuinely admired him to some extent.

Old Man Fen's expression was grave. "He naturally accepted the gift from Father, but it was, after all, his own eyeball. It wasn't appropriate to keep it by his side like a treasure all the time, so he returned it to us..."

Lu Xiaosan thought for a moment and nodded, "That's right, giving your own eyeballs to those around you as treasures."

Fen Laoshan said, "That's what we say, but we really felt bad about it. At the time, we didn't have anything to make up for him, so we could only use this eyeball as proof and become sworn brothers with him on the spot! That's how you became our second brother."

Lu Xiaosan rolled his eyes and said, "I have a feeling that he was somewhat forced into this."

He pressed further, "So what happened to him in the end? Did he really consider you all his brothers?"

Fen Laoshan looked smug. "Of course. From then on, the three of us shared both good times and bad. Later, for some reasons that are hard to explain, we left the Yellow Crane Sect and became hunters in the mountains. He taught us how to make water balloons for underwater breathing, which gave us the opportunity to pick the lotus grass from the bottom of the lake."

Wen Ying propped her head up with her hand and asked lazily, "Since he's so good to you, why do you still have disagreements with him?"

Just as Fen Laoshan was about to speak again, Guai Badao hurriedly interrupted him, "Brother Shan, let her mother tell me what happened next."

"Alright, alright! Let me tell you about it!" Lu Xiaosan said, biting his fingernails as he listened with great interest.

Then, Guai Ba Dao continued, picking up where Fen Lao Shan left off: "A few days ago, a man in black came to the mountain looking for us. He offered a large sum of money to help him pick lotus grass from the bottom of the lake and also asked to go into the water with us."

"So you dragged him down with you just for the money?"

Guai Ba Dao chuckled twice, "There's nothing I can do. Even though I've already earned enough, he gave me just too much, hahaha!" After saying that, he and Fen Lao Shan looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Lu Xiaosan sighed, "Then you deserve it?"

But the strange man quickly put away his smile and suddenly said in a serious tone, "These petty gains are secondary. The most important thing is that I noticed that the scoundrel's eyes were shifty when he spoke, and his behavior and appearance were very strange. He was obviously prepared."

"So we've decided to play along. After all, we're very familiar with the bottom of East Lake. We're not going to let him take it over, right, Brother Shan?"

Fen Laoshan nodded in approval, "Not bad."

"How about that? Aren't I awesome?"

"Awesome, awesome, awesome." Lu Xiaosan and Fen Laoshan replied casually, but Guai Badao still looked satisfied.

As Guai Badao spoke, he became increasingly agitated, slapping his thigh and exclaiming, "But that's exactly what happened! The first thing we did after reaching the bottom of the lake was to mark the location of our second brother, Wolf Rhino, and plan to coordinate a coordinated attack from both inside and outside. We were determined to catch him completely off guard!"

"And then? Tell me quickly, how did you get caught off guard?" Lu Xiaosan and Wen Ying asked excitedly from the side.

Even the eccentric Eight-Knife wasn't angry. He snorted and said arrogantly, "How could we possibly lose? Everything is going according to my plan."

“Until the very end, we took him to the place where we picked water lilies, which was also the place we had agreed upon with my second brother.”

At this point, Guai Badao's expression turned serious, and he let out a long sigh, "But who knew that not only was the wolf rhinoceros not there, but it also poisoned the lotus grass!! It made me faint the moment I touched it, that traitorous bastard, I'll curse his mother!"

"How do you know it must have been him?" Wen Ying asked.

Guai Ba Dao snorted coldly, glancing sideways as he continued, "Not to mention that only the three of us would recognize this mark, when we woke up, it was Wolf Rhinoceros who personally locked us up here!"

Lu Xiaosan was shocked. "This...this is clearly a direct confrontation."

After they finished speaking, they looked at Fen Laoshan again and saw that he had a blank expression and was silently accepting the situation.

"Could he have some kind of hidden reason?" Wen Ying asked.

The more Guai Ba Dao spoke, the angrier he became, spittle flying from the iron gag over his mouth. "Difficulties? Hmph, he and that man in black locked us up in the dungeon together, and even stole the eyeballs he gave us, handing them over to that man in black in the blink of an eye! Those were symbols of our sworn brotherhood!!!"