After hearing this news, An Lin and the others bade farewell to their family and friends on Earth.
“Dad, wait for me. The next time we meet, I’m taking you to the Tai Chu Continent.” An Lin embraced the man before him with a smile.
He had already decided that he would take his father to the Tai Chu Continent prior to his graduation.
The cultivation environment on the Tai Chu Continent was much better than the cultivation environment on Earth.
Furthermore, if An Mingchuan came to the Four Nine Immortal Sect, all of the pavilion lords would be able to help him out with his cultivation too, and it would undoubtedly be immensely beneficial to him.
“Fake Daoist Priest, don’t forget about me!” Tian Lingling raised her hand as a reminder.
An Lin ruffled Tian Lingling’s hair with a smile. “You have to cultivate hard. It would be embarrassing if you can’t even pass our sect’s entrance trials.”
“Tch!” Tian Lingling rolled her eyes. “You’re looking down on the number one young prodigy on Earth!”
An Lin nodded upon hearing this. “I am indeed.”
Tian Lingling: “???”
What followed was a torrential storm of angry, little fists.
After attaining his initial success stage body of the War God, Tian Lingling’s “attacks” could no longer inflict any pain upon him, and their battle of words concluded with Tian Lingling massaging her sore hands.
After a series of farewells…
An Lin, Xuanyuan Cheng, Da Bai, and Tina made their way toward the Heavenly Court’s spatial teleportation point to depart from Earth.
After returning to The United University of Cultivation, the first thing An Lin did was naturally to go look for Xu Xiaolan.
Xu Xiaolan reported her earnings for the past few days to An Lin with elation on her face. The average price of her dishes had stabilized to over two hundred thousand spirit stones per dish, and there were over two hundred thousand spirit stones of profit for each dish.
An Lin was quite elated to hear this too.
His current net worth had reached sixty-six million spirit stones, taking him closer and closer to his target of a hundred million.
Xu Xiaolan seemed to have fallen in love with cooking as she volunteered to take over the cooking duties from now on.
In her words, she explained that she seemed to have fallen in love with the intent realm special effects, which eventuated the moment she completed each dish.
An Lin didn’t really mind either way. If that was what Xiaolan wanted to do, then he would give her his full support.
Life returned back to normal again.
An Lin began to reapply himself to his studies.
His homeroom teacher, Sword Immortal Ling Xiao, was ecstatic. He had been heartbroken that both of the top prodigies in his class would rather cook than attend his classes!
An Lin and Xu Xiaolan had made a name for themselves in the Heavenly Court with their cooking, and this was something that was certainly worthy of celebration. However, he felt like there was something wrong.
Only after An Lin began attending classes again did Sword Immortal Ling Xiao figure out exactly what was amiss.
An Lin and Xu Xiaolan had become the role models for all of the students in The United University of Cultivation, and they were greatly revered figures. Hence, was it going to be the case that everyone would want to follow in their footsteps and begin cooking instead of cultivating?!
That would be a disaster!
However, this concern was resolved when An Lin began attending classes again.
“Even the bad*ss Student An Lin is working hard on his studies and cultivation, so what excuse do all of you have to slack off?” Some of the teachers were using An Lin’s return as a means of encouraging the students in their classes to work harder.
And it worked! All of the students had their fighting spirits ignited, and all of them followed in Student An Lin’s example to cultivate harder.
An Lin was once one of the worst-performing students in his class, but he completely turned that around during the mid-semester exams.
He scored full marks in pill refinement, immortal spells, practical combat, dao realm…
An Lin nodded with a tranquil expression at the sight of all of these satisfying exam papers. Not bad.
Before he knew it, half a month had passed.
One day, some news arrived from the Four Nine Immortal Sect, which drove a wedge into his serene lifestyle.
“Bad news, An Lin! Our spirit stone mine scouts have engaged in a conflict with cultivators from the Dragon Court of the Eastern Seas in the territory of the Flying Ball Tribe!” Liu Qianhuan’s voice sounded.
An Lin had some recollection of the Flying Ball Tribe. This was a decently sized tribe located to the East of the Kingdom of the Nine States.
“So what? It’s just some conflict. We’ll just settle everything in whatever way required.” An Lin didn’t think much of this news.
“But… Xiao Ze killed one of the Dragon King’s sons!” Liu Qianhuan’s panicked voice sounded.
“Gasp…” An Lin drew a sharp intake of breath. “Which Dragon King?”
Liu Qianhuan replied exasperatedly, “Which other Dragon King could there be? The Dragon King from the Dragon Court of the Eastern Seas!”
An Lin sprang to his feet upon hearing this. “Tell me what happened!”
Liu Qianhuan provided a detailed account.
“Our spirit stone mine scouts discovered a large mine in a secluded area of the Flying Ball Tribe’s territory, but news of this was unwittingly disclosed. The spirit stone mine scouts from the Dragon Court of the Eastern Seas immediately arrived on the scene, announcing that they were the ones who found the mine first and tried to chase away our scouts before forcefully making a mark on the mine in order to claim it.
“Our scouts immediately reported the situation back to us, and Xiao Ze flared up before arriving at the scene. A large spirit stone mine was a priceless resource, so we couldn’t just give up on it.
“The Dragon King’s second son, Ao Shuyu, also arrived on the scene, and a conflict took place between Xiao Ze and Ao Shuyu with regard to the ownership rights of the mine. No one expected Ao Shuyu to be so weak, and Xiao Ze accidentally killed him with one strike.”
An Lin: “…”
Holy f*ck… He killed the Dragon King’s second son just like that?
This was a Return to Void Stage mighty figure! How was he so fragile?
An Lin felt like he needed to organize his thoughts.
Even though the Dragon King had about a dozen children, it didn’t mean that he didn’t care about them.
Ao Shuyu’s aptitude wasn’t great, but he had superb luck, and only through a series of opportunities did he barely manage to progress to the Return to Void Stage, where he had remained for a long time at the Return to Void Initial Stage.
Hence, it made sense that Xiao Ze was able to accidentally kill him with one strike.
An Lin could believe this, but it didn’t mean that the Dragon King would as well! Even if the Dragon King believed that it was accidental manslaughter, it wasn’t like he would just back down anyway.
It was quite normal for casualties to arise during conflicts in the cultivating world, but things would become complicated when one of the casualties was someone with high status and position. Even though An Lin’s side was justified in their actions, things could not be resolved through talking sense alone.
“Little Na, Little Tian, come with me!”
An Lin brought along Tina and Xue Zhantian to the site of the incident.
“Liu Qianhuan, did the Dragon Court of the Eastern Seas state any conditions for us?” An Lin asked.
Liu Qianhuan replied, “They made some very ridiculous demands.
“Seeing as our sect has the backing of the Heavenly Court, the Dragon King has decided against demanding Xiao Ze’s life in exchange for his son’s. However, he demanded Xiao Ze to become an eternal slave to the Dragon Court of the Eastern Seas.
“He has also demanded that we are to back off from the fight for the spirit stone mine in the Flying Ball Tribe territory. Heh, they’re basically asking for Xiao Ze to be their lapdog AND they’re taking our mine…”
Liu Qianhuan’s voice was tinged with rage as she spoke.
An Lin’s expression completely darkened upon hearing this.
Make Xiao Ze the slave of the Dragon Court?
Hehe… Don’t they know who Xiao Ze’s Master is?!
