The scene was taken inside the castle of the prominent Lin Noble family of the Han Empire late at night.
"My lady, push! It's about to..." a midwife among the three said, briskly. "I can see the baby's head. Push-push harder... One last push!"
The beautiful woman lying on the bed moaned rhythmically each time as her cries were heard, sounding increasingly louder and louder. She made another harder push with the loudest cry and finally; the baby came out.
(Flashback!) After Donghai Lin drank the Meng Po soup* and disappeared from the underworld, and when he regained his consciousness, darkness filled his vision. He tried to move his body and speak, but failed.
Then he heard a lady's melodious voice, saying: "Lord Husband, I think I'm pregnant!"
"Xuan er, that's a piece of good news. Finally, we can have our second child." A male voice replied.
Then Donghai Lin heard the two cheers and the sound of their kissing and the first thought that came to his mind was, 'So, they are going to be my parents and I'll be their 2nd child. That's pretty cool!
While in his previous life on earth, he was the only child, and he had always fantasized about having siblings when he saw other children playing and fooling around with their siblings; he envied them.
He heard the man say, "Xuan er, I wish it were a boy."
"No, it'll be a girl. We've already had a son. This time I believe it's a girl." Then the lady responded and Donghai felt her hand caressing him through her belly.
'Aah! It feels so good….. But, sorry to disappoint you ma. Pa is right.' Donghai Lin thought.
"Whatever. We should tell dad about this great news." The man suggested.
The lady agreed, and Donghai heard them walking out.
'So, I'm going to stay here in this dark place for another 9 months. This is going to be the most tedious period of this new life.'
Suddenly a realization struck him and he thought, 'Right, I still have the memories of all the eight immortals. Why don't I find a proper cultivation technique from their inherent memories and start learning or cultivating the same way MCs in Xianxia novels did in their mothers' wombs?... Let's try it then.'
He then focused his consciousness and started searching for the eight white wine drops in his soul-sea*. Even though he is still a fetus, he still has the consciousness of his early life and memories, as Granny Meng Po's Forgetfulness Soup failed to erase the memories of his previous lives and also of what happened in the Underworld.
After a while, he saw eight drops of colorless wine and the brilliant-looking white soul of Hui Láng residing in a colorless wine drop.
First, he sent his consciousness into a wine drop and he perceived multiple flashes of memories of a Drunken Immortal's inherent memories for at least 200 years of his life.
And for some incomprehensible reasons, he somehow managed to digest all the flashes of images and comprehend them all. Maybe it had something to do with the cleansing of his soul consciousness with the Eight Drunken Immortals' wines.
In those flashes of memories, he saw a middle-aged man's thrilling adventure, riding a donkey in a reverse manner in his life before he attained immortality. Initially, he saw his self-made drunken martial style and in a later part he also saw his cultivation technique, but he only considered that those things weren't applicable to him in his current state as a fetus.
As he retrieved his consciousness and put it into another wine drop and repeated the process, the outcome was the same; he didn't find even one cultivation technique that was workable for him. In the same way, he browsed the next five wine drops, but the outcome was the same.
He still wasn't dispirited at all, as only the wine drop which encased Hui Láng's soul remained. He sent his consciousness into it and also saw the flashes of memories of the sole female Drunken Immortal He Xiangu and, after reading all the memories, he screamed in his head, 'Hell no! I'm never going to practice her technique.'
However, it was too late, as all of them had already been etched in his memory.
And it turned out that Immortal He used her charm and flirtations to conceal her short-range attacks while fighting.
'Hmm, I still haven't come across any of the techniques I had anticipated finding in their memories.' He pondered while his consciousness was still inside Immortal He's drop of wine.
As he was even thinking of giving up, suddenly Hui Láng's soul* inside the wine reacted and moved toward his consciousness.
At that time, Donghai Lin perceived flashes of memories like before.
As opposed to the last time, this time it began with a black fluffy puppy, and its escapades of growth after activating its bloodline, which Donghai Lin continued to perceive for over fifteen minutes and that was just his memory for 500 years. Luckily, he saw a powerful body cultivation technique that he could practice.
But as he kept browsing Hui Láng's memories, he saw a really exciting scene when the Black Dog turned over 657 years of age.
Once, as the Black Dog lay lazily over a giant stone and basked in the sun, he heard squabbling from some passers-by. They were even so loud, to begin with, which disturbed his silent evening nap. The Dog stood on his four limbs, glanced toward the source of voices, and saw eight strange-looking humans. And he yelped, "Humans! You're trespassing in my territory. Be gone before I kill you."
Donghai Lin saw that those eight humans were actually the Eight Drunken Immortals.
"Oh, a talking dog!" Immortal He Xiangu, the sole lady among them, exclaimed.
And then the next moment she appeared beside the Dog and said, picking up the dog in her embrace. "Wow, it's so cute too."
"Hey, lady, put me down right now or I'm going to bite you to death." The dog barked at her.
But on seeing his cat-sized body and feeling the fluffiness, Immortal He was even more enamored, and she said, "Little guy, from today onward, follow me. This big sister will take care of you."
"Who cares?" The Dog scoffed at her and tried to get free of her grasp, but all of his efforts were in vain because the lady's strength was unfathomably stronger than his.
"Little Guy, there's no point in struggling." Immortal He said, taking out an osmanthus cake.
Immediately, the dog began sniffing the air, and the osmanthus cake caught all of his attention.
"It's for you. Why don't you take a bite?" Immortal He said and brought the cake before his mouth as she made a jovial smile.
After taking a nibble, the black dog wolfed down the cake in a matter of seconds.
"Big sister, that's the most delicious thing that I have ever eaten." The Dog said, "Can I have one more?"
Immortal He took out two more osmanthus cakes and gave them to the dog.
"Did you have a name yet, little fella?" She asked.
"None that I know of." The Dog responded as he nibbled the cake.
"well, from today onward you will follow me and then your name will be Hui Láng." Immortal He said.
"Okay, the name Hui Láng, sounds great!" The Dog agreed while he continued eating his cakes.
All this time, the other seven were observing the little drama curiously and all of them had a similar thought in their mind, which was that they were going to have a pet follower.
"Hey, He'er, about our earlier discussion. I've got an idea." Immortal Le, the cripple suggested.
On hearing that, all the others turned their attention to him.
"How about this since this talking dog….." Immortal Le, the cripple said, but cut off abruptly before he finished his words.
"He has a name." Immortal He interjected.
"Of course," Immortal Le, the cripple, continued, correcting himself. "In light of the fact that our Hui Láng is joining us on our pilgrimage today, I suggest we let him be the judge and let him decide which wine is the best every time we make a new wine."
Yes, earlier they were quarreling among them regarding this matter.
"Good idea! I agree." Immortal He responded.
And the others also agreed as they too presented the dog with various of their best sweets and foods to gain his trust.
And from that day onward, Hui Láng became their wine taster.
Donghai Lin also retracted his consciousness and wondered, 'So this is how he met those Eight.'