In the living room of the hotel, Yang Ling’s digitized body gradually materialized.
Lin Huang tossed him a set of god sequence relics for defense right away. Yang Ling caught them and acknowledged ownership of them by putting them on.
“To be honest, when Hong Zhuang found me, I thought all along that you couldn’t really be dead.” Lin Huang watched Yang Ling fashion a set of illusory casual attire with the defense relics, before stating calmly, “Until Spy fought me and I saw him digitizing his physical body while telling me that he had extracted that skill from your memory, only then did I believe you were truly dead.”
Yang Ling sat on the armchair to Lin Huang’s left and took a sip of the tea on the coffee table. Only then did he slowly explain, “To prevent him from damaging my digitized body right away, I divided my consciousness into nine parts. Apart from the core, the remaining eight layers actually had information hidden within them that he wanted. One of them was the technique of digitizing the physical body—he was dying to get his hands on it. I intentionally placed the digitization of the physical body in the first layer to create the illusion that the deeper the layer, the more valuable the information.
“In the end, over the past half a year or so, he was only able to decode three layers of passwords. That was much slower than I expected.
“Initially, I thought I’d set up nine layers of passwords to buy myself as much time as possible. Although I harbored a very faint wish that Hong Zhuang might grow and avenge me, I didn’t hold out much hope. I knew very well it was only a matter of time before I was well and truly dead. My purpose in transferring the Goldfinger’s remaining power to her was so that she could grow quickly, and have the ability to protect herself in the great world.
“I asked Hong Zhuang to look for you only because I was thinking of her safety. I never expected you to avenge me. After all, apart from you and me, she doesn’t know anyone else in the great world. Furthermore, you’re the only person I trust.
“What I didn’t expect was that you’d grow so fast, and to this extent!” Yang Ling subjected Lin Huang to a long, in-depth scrutiny. He was quite astounded at Lin Huang’s cultivation speed.
“Definitely a little faster than most normal people,” Lin Huang replied humbly with a faint smile.
Yang Ling could not even find the words to poke fun at this statement.
“Alright, let’s just skip all the sentimental stuff.” Seeing that Yang Ling wanted to say more, Lin Huang interrupted him, “We’ve known each other for so many years. You took good care of me in the past and helped me a lot. You can consider me killing Spy as returning the favor.”
After he finished speaking, Lin Huang took out a gold metal piece that was the size of a little finger. He flicked it toward Yang Ling with one finger.
“I’m giving back your Goldfinger.”
“What…” Yang Ling’s expression was somewhat torn.
Since Spy’s Goldfinger was Lin Huang’s loot, technically, Yang Ling ought not to take it. However, this Goldfinger had devoured his own Goldfinger before—there were even remnants of a familiar aura. He was rather unwilling to relinquish it.
When Lin Huang saw the expression on Yang Ling’s face, he knew what was going through his mind and spoke up again.
“Stop dilly-dallying. This Goldfinger belongs to you by right; I can’t use something so complicated. It will only be able to display its full abilities when it’s with you. Anyway, I have quite a number of Goldfingers now, so it doesn’t matter if I lose one or gain one.
“If you really feel guilty about it, then don’t charge me when I go to you to unseal Goldfingers and check information.”
Yang Ling was finally relieved upon hearing that. “Alright, just treat it as if I borrowed it. In the future, when I get hold of other Goldfingers, I’ll give them to you in exchange.”
“Not a problem.” After some consideration, Lin Huang did not decline. This was because if he rejected Yang Ling’s proposal, Yang Ling might not accept the gift.
“Since you’re just borrowing it, why don’t you choose one or two more?” As Lin Huang spoke, he took out the three Goldfingers that did not interest him.
Yang Ling was stunned when he saw this. Immediately he asked in astonishment, “How many Raiders did you kill?!”
He had only awakened after Lin Huang killed Spy, so he had seen him kill Black Mountain and Babble later on as well. However, he had no idea what had happened in the earlier stages of battle.
“Including Spy, I killed six of them,” Lin Huang’s tone was utterly calm as if he were talking about something insignificant.
“There are two Goldfingers that will be fairly helpful to me, so I retained them for myself. The remaining three aren’t very useful as far as I’m concerned. See if you can make use of them. If you can, take them with you. You can return them to me later on in the future.”
Lin Huang was being so generous mainly because travelers were the only ones who could use Goldfingers. Even if he kept the extra Goldfingers, he would not use them. At most, he could only use them as materials for refining. Of all the people he was close to, aside from Lin Xin, Yang Ling was the only one who could use a Goldfinger.
Yang Ling was rendered speechless at Lin Huang’s casual tone as if he were merely selling cabbages at the market. However, he scanned the Goldfingers with Divine Telekinesis anyway and checked them out in detail.
Regardless of whether it was one, two, or three items, he would still be borrowing them. Since he was already indebted to Lin Huang, a few more debts would not matter.
If he really were to encounter Goldfingers that were suitable for him and could boost his abilities or remedy his shortcomings, he would be able to grow more powerful much more rapidly if he obtained them now.
At this point, he decided not to stand on ceremony any longer.
He picked one of them after thoroughly checking them all with Divine Telekinesis.
“I’ll take this God’s soul-type Goldfinger. The strength of my God’s soul has a significant impact on my abilities.”
“Sure.” Lin Huang tossed Yang Ling the Goldfinger that he had chosen and put away the remaining two.
He had already thought of what to do with the remaining Goldfingers.
“What do you intend to do after this?” Lin Huang asked as he watched Yang Ling putting away the two Goldfingers.
“I don’t have any plans…” Yang Ling thought for a moment, then lifted his head to look at Lin Huang. “I might as well follow you now.
“Spy is dead, and I don’t have any goals at present. If you’re willing, Hong Zhuang and I will stay on and “work” for you. I can forgo a salary, but I do need to have time off.”
“Of course,” Lin Huang agreed immediately, “If you stay on with me, it’ll be more convenient if I need to get hold of you.
“There’s no need for you to work for me, though. You can just be an honorary professor. Both of you aren’t my subordinates, and you won’t be bound to me. You’ll have absolute freedom as well. You can leave any time you want.”
“Alright, it’s settled then.”
The two of them were in accord!
As far as Lin Huang was concerned, Yang Ling was an assistant who was hard to come by. For unsealing storage rings, forging identities, and some tasks involving the retrieval of secret information, Yang Ling was undoubtedly the best candidate.
He needed Yang Ling.
Meanwhile, for Yang Ling, his purpose in staying on was actually mainly to repay Lin Huang for what he had done. Not only had Lin Huang saved his life, but he had also killed Spy for him and even gave him Spy’s Goldfinger. These three things were, without a doubt, significant favors.
Now that he had been avenged, he genuinely did not have a clear goal any longer. Since it did not matter to him where he went, he would just stay on for the time being to help Lin Huang. After he had repaid the favors or when he finally had a clear goal, it still would not be too late for him to leave.
Therefore, the two of them came to an agreement very quickly.
