Inside the tavern, light songs and graceful dances shimmered vaguely, with Immortal Light twining around the curtains and canopies everywhere. At the railings of the second and third floors, numerous middle-aged men and women drank and laughed, their gazes never straying to the scene below.

In fact, the pedestrians on the street were mostly Immortal Soldiers, and within the building, every corner was filled with experts. Streams of Immortal Consciousness landed on that particular table, ready to unleash thousands of glaring lights straight towards the plump Innate God at any sign of abnormality. However, this was not arranged by Wu Wang; the one pulling the strings behind the scenes was Liu Baiyi, Master Liu. Among the few top-tier leaders in the Human Domain, there were inevitable disagreements on how to deal with the Sleep God.

Looking at the table again, it presented a harmonious and joyous scene.

The Sleep God's plump face was plastered with the words 'desire to live.' Even if there wasn't much interesting to talk about, he could still quickly liven up the atmosphere. The Sleep God spoke with such authority about which Innate God favored beauty, which one delighted in slaughter, which one was stubborn, and which one was careless. It really seemed quite like that.

Wu Wang had set up this gathering precisely to probe the Sleep God's bottom line. Three deadly weapons were held back for now. Wu Wang would see what useful information the Sleep God himself might disclose.

"Fellow Daoist," Wu Wang tapped the tabletop and whispered, "I won't hide it from you. I'm particularly interested in several Strong Gods from your Heaven Palace, and I've always been somewhat puzzled. Why can the Star God monopolize the Northern Wilderness, yet neither the Head Manager nor the Young Master has even a scrap of territory?"

"That's because of a prior agreement between the Star God and the Heavenly Emperor," the Sleep God laughed. "As for what was agreed upon, that's not something lesser gods like us could know. Speaking of the Head Manager and Young Master, I was actually duped by the Head Manager this time."

Wu Wang replied, "Oh? How so?"

"Wu Wang... Fellow Daoist, you might not be aware."

The Sleep God sighed, then began to mutter, revealing the entire sequence of events concerning this recent ennoblement.

Initially, it was the Young Master who approached the Heavenly Emperor with a strategy. She proposed seeking reconciliation with the Human Domain before the great war. The Heavenly Emperor heeded this plan and convened several key ministers.

Wu Wang interjected with a smile, "The Heavenly Emperor's true consciousness has been asleep all along. The one that would appear in Heaven Palace now is actually the will that the Heavenly Emperor has entrusted to the Dao of Order."

The Sleep God was visibly taken aback and muttered, "Well, I'll be! How do you know this secret?"

"Ah, I've encountered the Heavenly Emperor; he told me himself."

Wu Wang picked up his cup and took a light sip.

Xiao Jian, the Grand Elder, and all the Cultivators present, of course, took Wu Wang's words as a joke.

But the Sleep God mumbled to himself, "The Dao of Order seeks you out? Are you a key element in maintaining the current order of heaven and earth? God of Spring, my apologies."

Wu Wang said with a smile, "It's just something His Majesty mentioned. However, you did not deny it, which implies that the authority in Heaven Palace currently indeed rests with the Dao of Order itself. This is quite significant news."

This was a psychological tactic, intended to make the Sleep God believe he had inadvertently revealed an important secret, thereby lowering his inner defenses.

Unexpectedly, the Sleep God showed a guileless smile, "I'm just a God of Sleep and Dreams, and my main function is to help some of the more restless Innate Gods sleep. How could I know these things? Let's drink, let's continue talking about the current matter."

"Please do tell, Fellow Daoist."

Wu Wang said with a smile and motioned for more drinks and dishes to be served.

The Sleep God picked up his cup, took a sip of the Immortal Brew, let out a long "ha," and began to continue pouring out his woes.

The Young Master offered her strategy. The Heavenly Emperor then convened several key ministers. Their purpose was to discuss peace with the Human Domain and to ennoble a member of the Shennong Family as the Fire God. This would grant him immortality, making him the true Fire God, on the condition that he return the Dao of Fire to Order.

At first, the Young Master proposed that the Dao of Fire could remain as independent as the Star Dao and the Divine Punishment Dao, not bound by Heaven Palace, to give the Human Domain peace of mind. After all, what Heaven Palace really wanted was for the Dao of Fire to supplement the Heaven and Earth Seal, eliminating the possibility of the Candle Dragon Divine Faction's return.

But as they discussed, the tone changed.

"It was the Head Manager stirring up trouble," the Sleep God sighed. "I'm just relaying what I heard. The Head Manager said that the Human Domain posed a greater threat than the Candle Dragon. He also claimed that living beings challenging divine authority would completely destroy the present order of heaven and earth. Once Heaven Palace loses its suppression over living beings, they will self-destruct through infighting, leading the world towards a dead silence."

Xiao Jian Daoist frowned and said, "This Head Manager truly..."

"And then?" Wu Wang urged.

The Sleep God's eyes became slightly blurred as he sighed, "Then, the Young Master argued fiercely with the Head Manager in front of the Heavenly Emperor. Half of Heaven Palace felt the confrontation between their Great Daos. The Dao of Order suppressed them, and the Heavenly Emperor resolved to issue a decree enfeoffing the Human Emperor of the Human Domain.

"Then the Head Manager started scheming. He insisted that a Main God should be sent to announce the decree, as that would show Heaven Palace's considerable regard for this matter.

"The Young Master, that good Deity, claimed that if an Innate God were to come to the Human Domain, they would certainly be torn apart. This would result in gratuitous losses for Heaven Palace, ensuring that this enfeoffment and negotiation would end in nothing.

"Neither Deity would give in; the siblings had never argued like this before."

Wu Wang smiled and said, "Then the Heavenly Emperor took the Head Manager's advice on that point."

"Right," the Sleep God said with a smile, though it was somewhat stiff. "And then the fifteen Main Gods with the least merit in Heaven Palace drew lots, and I, with my great fortune, hahaha..."

"Drew lots?"

The Grand Elder was full of astonishment. "For such an important matter, to actually...!"

The Sleep God sighed softly, then continued, "I've said so much because, in fact, I just want to tell everyone that I truly am one of the most useless gods in Heaven Palace. Even God positions like the God of Spring, which were consecrated later, are a bit stronger than me. As for something like causing a large group of experts to fall into deep sleep, I truly can't use that kind of Divine Skill.

"The strength of an Innate God depends on how close their Great Dao is to the source of heaven and earth; the purer the Great Dao, the stronger the Divine Spirit it births. My Dao of Sleep and Dreams is one of the hundred minor Daos that branched out from the Dao of Life after its birth, serving living beings. My Dao's profundity is exceptionally simple: 'Tired, must rest.'

"I... sigh! It's all in this cup of liquor!"

The Sleep God raised his head to drain the cup of liquor in one gulp, his eyes even glittering with tears, and he said in a low voice, "I have it so tough."

Wu Wang: ...

The performance was a tad overdone.

Since it had come to this, Wu Wang couldn't be blamed for being ruthless. Time to bring out the trump cards!

"Fellow Daoist, you really have it tough. I didn't expect being a Deity in Heaven Palace to be so stifling. Today, let's not worry about anything else... Daoist Brother Xiao Jian, please have the experts withdraw. Now that the Sleep God has spoken like this, wouldn't we be lacking empathy if we kept pressing him?"

With a soft thud, Wu Wang took out a pale yellow gourd, from which came the sound of flowing water.

"Fellow Daoist... no, Brother Sleep, I'll join you for a good drink today."

Seeing this, the Sleep God hurriedly said, "I've made a laughingstock of myself, truly embarrassed. I just got a bit carried away there, making you, Brother Feng Chun, laugh."

"Try this."

Wu Wang pulled the stopper from the gourd. A unique, strong fragrance filled the air as his finger flicked a stream of clear liquid into the cup in front of the Sleep God.

Wu Wang smiled and said, "This liquor is unique to the Human Domain; I've never shared it with anyone before. This was the reward I received from His Majesty after I broke the case of Qiong Qi sneaking into the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion and incidentally took down the fourth main hall of the Ten Evils Hall. The Human Emperor himself brewed this liquor—the Daoist Liquor! Ask Daoist Brother Xiao Jian and the Grand Elder if they have tasted it."

Both shook their heads, then looked longingly at the cup of liquor in front of the Sleep God.

"Liquor brewed by the Human Emperor?"

The Sleep God's eyes lit up. He picked up the cup to smell it, and his fair complexion began to turn a bit rosy.

He murmured, "What fine liquor, truly fine. Such Daoist Liquor is rare even in Heaven Palace."

"Come on," Wu Wang poured himself a cup and offered a toast. "Let's drink deeply of this cup."

The corners of the Sleep God's mouth twitched slightly as he muttered, "Really drink it?"

"Really drink it."

"Must drink it?"

Wu Wang smiled and said, "Drink and be merry today, and don't live so wearily!"

"You folks in the Human Domain really have all sorts of ways to persuade one to drink."

With his eyes closed, the Sleep God drank the liquor before him in one gulp. An aura of Dao charm diffused from him, which could not be faked at all.

Wu Wang extended a finger and poured another cup full. The Sleep God burped, and his fingers began to fiddle with his hair restlessly, unable to sit still.

Thus, after three or five cups of Daoist Liquor, the Sleep God's eyes became... incredibly bright!

Wu Wang also kept raising his hand to his forehead. But having drunk this Daoist Liquor with Elder Shen Nong before, he was still maintaining his reason at this moment. It was just that his head had already begun to hurt.

And unbeknownst to him, the second 'assassin' had already made its entrance.

An old crone sat behind a screen, her head lowered as she strummed the strings of a zither. Wisps of Dao rhythm had already begun to entangle the few people at the table. She was the Supreme Elder of the Xuan Nu Sect.

With these first two 'assassins,' combined with the third—the great art of appealing to the heart, original intention, and true nature—Wu Wang didn't believe that he couldn't pry open this Sleep God's mouth today.

There was no rush to ask sensitive questions at the moment; the Sleep God was still relatively sober. Wu Wang would wait for the aftereffects of the Daoist Liquor to permeate.

Wu Wang picked up a piece of sour-sweet Spirit Fish and whispered softly, "Brother Sleep, tell me, is the Young Master genuinely naive, or is it an act?"

"Her? She's just a silly girl who doesn't even know she's being used by her own brother," the Sleep God replied with a cold laugh. Picking up a handful of Spirit Fruit seeds and cracking them beside him, his tone of speech became a hundred times more assertive than before.

He said, "The Dao of Life was initially too powerful, so it split into two: the Great Dao of Lifespan and the Great Dao of Reproduction, giving birth to two Deities.

"The Heavenly Emperor had long prophesied that the Dao of Life would eventually merge again. The current problem is that the Dao of Death has not yet reached the level necessary to match the Dao of Life.

"The God of Death has been replaced several times. Each time, the incumbent god collapsed, unable to bear the anguish of living beings at the moment of their death. This Deity, who should have been a trump card for Heaven Palace, always proved unreliable.

"In fact, Divine Spirits related to living beings are prone to self-destruction.

"The Head Manager and the Young Master have long shown such signs.

"However, the Head Manager has been messing around since ancient times, suffering from backlash against him.

"The Young Master, well, she has been affected too. But because the backlash from the Great Dao of Reproduction is all pleasant and sweet, her personality has become gentler and gentler.

"The Young Master is known as the most soft-hearted of all Innate Gods.

"She is truly naive.

"This time she offered her strategies simply because she felt that the great war would lead to countless casualties among living beings, which pained her heart.

"The Young Master loves living beings because she truly adores them."

"So that's how it is." Wu Wang rubbed his reddening nose and chuckled. "You have to admit, the Young Master is quite a looker..."

"Lovely, isn't she? Beautiful, right? Hahaha! You haven't seen her true form. Her real appearance is with silvery-white long hair—that look, that aura!"

The Sleep God continued to crack seeds, making faces and winking at Wu Wang, then laughed and said, "But you can forget about it. You're way out of her league."

Beside them, Ming She frowned. "How do you know that!"

Wu Wang scolded, "Shut up! Is that how you speak to Brother Sleep?"

That was a close call to ruining the entire plan!

Ming She immediately fell silent.

The Sleep God, who had previously shown great wariness towards Ming She, now looked Ming She up and down with unconcealed disdain, even showing a hint of mockery. "Controlled by a Divine Spell? Evil Gods are truly unreliable. What use is Divine Power without a Great Dao to rely on?"

Ming She, upon hearing these words, naturally bristled with anger but was quickly hushed by Wu Wang's sharp rebukes. She could only bow her head and suppress her fury. Unbeknownst to her, she too was being influenced by the zither music, her emotions highly unstable.

Meanwhile, the Sleep God murmured, "Right, right, that's how you should train her. Where did you get that Divine Spell from?"

"It was given by our Human Emperor." Wu Wang pulled a face and muttered, "To speak disrespectfully, our Human Emperor really knows how to put me in a bind. I'm just like a brick, moved wherever I'm needed. Come on, drink!"

The Sleep God raised his cup and clinked it with Wu Wang's, then frowned and said, "Drink... If I don't drink it all, does that mean I'm looking down on you?"

As he spoke, another two or three cups of Daoist Liquor went down.

Wu Wang continued to complain about his hard life: struggling against the Ten Evils Hall, the Evil Gods, and the Head Manager, and even having to do carpentry, trimming and pruning the great tree of the Human Domain.

The Sleep God belched and chuckled, "Been used by someone, huh?"

"Can't really say that," Wu Wang replied with an implicit smile.

"What's there to be afraid of? Just say it," the Sleep God waved his hand grandly. "We're all risking our lives for these supreme gods. Who cares about our feelings? Look at them—the Heavenly Emperor of Heaven Palace, the Outer Heavenly Candle Dragon, the Human Emperor of the Human Domain—they're all the same deep down.

"They are the rulers, and we work for them.

"Little brother, it's not that I, your elder brother, am not trying to enlighten you... all that stuff is useless, you know?

"If you want to live a long, long life, there's one thing you must learn."

Wu Wang muttered, "To play it safe and just survive?"

"No, no, no. It's to slack off."

The Sleep God giggled, his fair, disheveled plump face beaming with delight. He leaned forward and whispered to Wu Wang, "Do you know when and where I, your old brother, started slacking off?"

"Right from the beginning of Heaven Palace, of course," Wu Wang said with feigned indifference.

"Heaven Palace? That's nothing! Hahahahahaha!"

The Sleep God roared with laughter, then whispered, "Go back three godly eras, when Innate Gods first appeared in this world. Your old brother, I was this!"

His chubby hand formed the number two.

"Bullshit. You were the second Innate God ever born?"

The Sleep God retorted, clearly displeased, "How is that bullshit? I was born in the second batch! In terms of seniority, I'm of the same generation as Emperor Shun!"

Xiao Jian Daoist's eyes bulged, almost drawing his sword in response.

The Sleep God had said before that he was born after the birth of living creatures; and before that, there had been several changes of godly eras, with Innate Gods constantly replacing one another.

If what he said was true!

The Sleep God snickered, seeing Wu Wang's disbelief, and continued, "I'm telling you this truthfully, what's the use of slaving away for them?

"Take the first supreme god I followed. His ultimate Great Dao was to return heaven and earth to a state of chaos, then create the Abyss, and from within the Abyss, re-establish the Great Dao.

"Then, he was defeated by the will of Order.

"Looking back now, most divine battles... *hic!* ...ended with Order ultimately triumphing over chaos. Otherwise, the world wouldn't be teeming with life as it is today.

"The second supreme god I followed, his ultimate Great Dao was to leave this realm, to completely sever his ties with this realm. And then, he killed himself.

"That's when I started to understand.

"It's all an illusion! Everything's an illusion!

"Those who came before you and are stronger, when they want you to slave away for them, they'll first dangle a carrot, make some promises. Then, when we're no longer of value, they kick us to the curb.

"For what?

"Since the third godly era, I've been hiding myself, hidden in a place where nobody can find me.

"And I can't hide completely. If you don't interact with other Divine Spirits for too long, your consciousness will fade into silence. You'll understand once your rank is higher; the Great Dao has an assimilating force on Innate Gods.

"So I found this little Dao and placed my consciousness here.

"Hehehe, I've held out for three godly eras, a full three godly eras, without telling any other Divine Spirit this secret.

"It was killing me!

"Let's drink!

"Meeting you here today, brother, we hit it off so well. Would I otherwise tell you all this?

"I... I..."

The Sleep God paused mid-sentence, opened his mouth, looked up, and saw Wu Wang's face, which was smiling, yet not quite.

The next instant, he shot to his feet, and immediately, numerous experts appeared around them.

The God said hastily, "I... I was just drunk and joking, don't take it seriously... No, are your schemes really this deep? Wu Wangzi! God of Spring! You— Stop playing that zither! And you... this liquor! There's something wrong with this liquor!"

Wu Wang calmly placed the Image Projection Bead into the Grand Elder's palm and looked at the Sleep God with a stern expression, chuckling, "After all this, let's continue drinking."

"How could I just!"

The God of Sleep and Dreams covered his eyes with his hand, slowly squatting down. He soon stood up again and returned to his original spot.

He poured himself a cup of Daoist Liquor and gritted his teeth. "Drink! Anyway, I don't want to keep messing around in Heaven Palace. The Head Manager is problematic, the Candle Dragon is about to return—the sooner I leave, the sooner I'm free!"

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