Chapter 657: A Day Trip to Tianshen Sect

Su Lin had once, out of boredom, imagined certain scenarios.

He wondered what kind of conversation might occur if he ever met his girlfriend's parents.

By the way, his favorite among them was "Take this card and leave my daughter," but when faced with questions like "Will you go after my younger aunt?", he still felt it was too ahead of its time.

However, Victoria had deflected this topic with a joke.

"By the way, have you ever used a similar magic to meet your self from another timeline?" Victoria asked, smiling as if casually.

"My self from the Parallel World?" Su Lin thought for a moment and said: "Extinct."

This was a story that made you weep at the smell and grieve at the hearing.

A dangerous individual of the Su Lin species, seeking greater strength, slaughtered his Parallel World counterparts, collecting all their energy, and was the sole survivor as the last hope of the Su Lin clan.

"Something like that happened?!" Victoria was slightly surprised.

Yes, something like that happened, but Su Lin Benlin would one day make that bastard pay in blood.

For example, burning him to ashes on a cross.

"Yes, only one remains," Victoria sighed helplessly: "Then there's nothing to be done."

"Nothing to be done?" Su Lin was puzzled.

Just then, a group of Yi Leinas emerged from a tunnel created by the Zhutiancheng token, carrying large and small bags, all containing rather precious items.

This level of spending must have generated enormous GDP for Ye Lao's income this year.

Maybe enough to buy a new Mercedes.

"You're here too?" One Yi Leina walked over to Victoria's side; seeing Su Lin there, she took an golden apple from a paper bag and smiled: "For you."

"Thank you, Dark-hearted Yi Leina." Su Lin observed and noticed her mental state was slightly more stable than yesterday:

"The subsequent therapy can be concluded early—congratulations on your recovery."

For those with a happy original family, spending time with long-absent relatives is more effective than intervention therapy.

"You can still tell the difference, even though she seems perfectly normal?"

"There are slight differences in magic power and details."

Su Lin took a bite of the apple, felt his strength return, and cast a suspicious glance.

This thing

Isn't it a specialty of the Type-Moon Universe?

Did the Chaldeans open a fruit shop at Zhutiancheng?

"This one's for you," another Yi Leina approached and pulled out a peach.

This one is the Depressed Yi Leina.

Gradually, five Yi Leinas gave him fruits or small items; the others showed no reaction.

After all, only these three patients—the Gelatin, the Zombie, and the three Negative Energy Aggregates—had frequent visits, so Victoria's earlier worries were unnecessary.

"Oh? Doesn't Mom have anything?" Victoria laughed.

"Of course she does!"

A group of Yi Leinas gathered around.

Su Lin held the clearly Heavenly Court-produced Peaches of Immortality, looked at Yi Leina standing with arms crossed, matching her father's stern expression, and said:

"I've changed my opinion of you—you're willing to pay such high salaries to others?"

He suspected this shrewd witch was merely putting on a harmonious family act in front of her parents, and had been extorted by the other Yi Leinas.

But wasn't this woman saying she'd run out of money?

"Tell those people to stop," Yi Leina messaged: "Stop giving them things."

Admirers?

Yi Leina: "They go there for free every time, and this time someone even paid behind them."

Su Lin: "???"

Yi Leina: "They say as long as Your Majesty is happy, it's all the Master's will. Ye Fan also said you already paid for it—just deduct it from your dividends."

That money-grubbing me is about to collapse."

So all this is being deducted from my company's corporate account and my personal dividends?

He opened the chat group and sent Ye Fan a question mark, and immediately received a reply: "You're welcome."

Su Lin's gaze grew distant, a mouthful of old blood stuck in his throat.

He seemed to understand why Yi Leina's parents had this misunderstanding.

"Thinking about it carefully, you seem very rich," Yi Leina suddenly narrowed her eyes, dissatisfied:

"If you're going to use your extra money to launch a financial assault on them, why not use it to keep me instead?"

"Where's your sense of independence as a woman?" Su Lin asked.

"Can I eat it?"

This woman has zero morals.

Xiao Yan: "Teacher Yan Sen, it's been a while since I've seen Xiao Xiao—is she doing well at Tianshen Sect?"

Teacher Yan Sen: "Your daughter is exceptionally gifted; her initial cultivation enlightenment is nearly complete."

Coincidentally, I plan to bring my students to Tianyi Sect—some of them are ready to enter the Jing Hua Qi stage; first, to seek methods for treating Dao injuries for several fellow Daoists.

Second, to ask the elders to impart foundational teachings to them."

Meng Qi: "I've caught a cold. @Su Lin, you take my class today."

Su Lin: "?"

Lu Mingfei: "Wait a moment—I'm about to dig out the principal!"

Kleine: "?"

Crack—!

A black hexagonal coffin was dragged out from the dirt that had been dug apart; in the past, the old Lu Mingfei would have been exhausted like a dead dog doing this.

Now it's different—he doesn't even need to lift a finger; a single thought is enough to control the Five Elements.

But then again.

After all, he was the one who buried the principal himself; he should be the one to dig him up.

"Brother, do you think he'll say, 'You won't let me die, but you won't let me live,' then shoot lasers from his eyes?" Lu Mingze joked, sitting atop the cross-shaped tombstone bearing Anghe's name.

"If he had Kryptonian blood, he'd have slaughtered all the Dragonkind long ago." Lu Mingfei pried open the coffin.

White hair, a three-piece suit, polished Oxford shoes, an eternally unfading alchemical rose pinned to his chest—the old man lay still inside.

"You know he's not a Kryptonian; at best, he's just a handsome old man with superpowers."

Lu Mingze swung his legs, a smile on his lips, and asked: "So why don't you show him some respect and let our old friend rest in peace?"

"He doesn't need your sympathy—because of your existence and mine, he lost all chance of avenging the Dragonkind."

"He can't help you with anything, and you don't really need him anyway."

Lu Mingfei fell silent, turned back, and looked out over the small hill with its open view—the city laid bare, along with a manor and a vast blue ocean.

That was where, in the last century, Anghe's friends—including Mei Nek Caster—fell in battle.

Amid the morning smoke, Anghe crawled out of the collapsed cellar and walked for a long time before seeing Mei Nek Caster standing in the mist, leaning on the Atkan longblade.

He ran toward Mei Nek—and the instant he touched him, Mei Nek crumbled into dust.

Anghe dug his friends out of the pile of corpses with his bare hands and burned them to ashes.

"I gave him a weapon capable of killing all the Dragon Kings," Lu Mingze spread his hands and said:

"But in the end, that weapon pierced his own heart. That's what they call the capriciousness of fate."

In a world where humans, Dragonkind, and half-breeds coexisted in peace, Anghe could not refute whether such a world should exist—but for this old man whose life had been sustained by the fire of vengeance,

the fire in his heart went out.

"I know," Lu Mingfei turned back to look at Anghe in the coffin and said: "But I still want to bring him back."

"Why?" Lu Mingze's lips curled slightly as he tilted his head. "Do you want him to accept your charity and your whims?"

"I hesitated for a long time, but now I've figured it out—probably because I have a bit of OCD, and I just can't accept this ending, so—" Lu Mingfei smiled.

He pulled out a cigar from his pocket, lit it, and under Lu Mingze's gaze, let the smile fade from his lips, his eyes turning cold.

"He must live."

The instant his golden pupils ignited, a will swept over the entire world.

Black petals, blown from nowhere, dyed the sky the color of eternal night; the air's temperature plummeted, freezing to the bone as if entering the legendary realm of the Underworld.

Silent and motionless, like a Chaplin silent film, in black and white, the old man's chest suddenly began to heave violently.

As if waking from a nightmare, his battle-hardened instincts caused his body, barely restored, to jolt upright in an instant.

"Lu…" Anghe's throat was hoarse; as his memory returned, a flicker of sorrow passed through his eyes: "I told you—"

"Principal," Lu Mingfei interrupted coolly.

Anghe froze. That familiar yet alien young man stared at him coldly, radiating an aura he had never felt before.

That gaze—

He had seen it many times on Dragonkind; only a King possessed such a gaze!

So this is how it is… After all these years… that dead kid with the lion in his eyes has finally returned to his rightful place.

Anghe's gaze grew sharp, and a wave of disappointment surged within him.

Lu Mingfei stepped forward quickly, arriving beside the coffin; Anghe's disappointment slowly gave way to anticipation, his hand hidden beneath the white flowers reaching for the folding knife beside him.

But before he could react—

Lu Mingfei suddenly crouched down, his face lighting up with a pleading smile, and offered the cigar with both hands:

"Have a smoke."

"Come on, this way!" Lu Mingfei led a group of people out through the portal, dragging his whole entourage along.

Su Lin lay on a rocking chair, watching familiar faces grow more numerous on the Water Mirror Peak training ground, and suddenly felt a pang at how fast time had passed.

"Long time no see, Teacher Daye," Su Lin greeted.

"I'm not your teacher!" Xia Mi's face flushed crimson.

Facing today's inexplicable cosplay of Liang Gong Chunri by the female version of Lu Mingfei, Su Lin glanced at Chu Zihang behind her and asked:

"Are you married?"

"We're still discussing the date," Chu Zihang said.

"Don't tell him everything!" Xia Mi stomped on Chu Zihang's foot.

This déjà vu confirmed for Su Lin once again that all these Dragon Kings inherited some trait of Nidhogg—like gaming, being otaku, anime obsession, lechery, brother fixation…

Anghe bowed slightly: "Long time no see, Lord of Light."

He swirled a glass of wine, exchanged a few pleasantries with Su Lin, then, tipsy, wandered off to chat with his long-absent students.

"I plan to make the principal the headmaster—he can also teach new students and rookies in combat, swordsmanship, and killing techniques," Lu Mingfei said.

"How did you convince him?"

Su Lin had expected Anghe to pull out a Desert Eagle and blow his brains out to prove his resolve that humans and Dragonkind could not coexist.

"I told him the entire world is on the brink of collapse," Lu Mingfei said solemnly:

"A dark force is invading the myriad realms—not just planets, but even the cosmos itself cannot escape."

"Once they fixate on a world, even those steeped in myth and legend will be dragged into hell and destroyed."

"To resist these invaders, we must begin cultivating new power now."

"I hope you're not talking about our own World Devourers," Su Lin said, expressionless.

Lu Mingfei blinked, his face falling, and said, "I'm talking about the Abyss and the Cycle Space!"

"I also promised to help him resurrect one specific person if he serves five full years."

The new crisis and the shared enemy indeed gave Anre a reason, plus the temptation of "Headmaster, you don't want Mei Nek to lie cold in his grave, do you?"

It seems this guy's mind has become much sharper too.

Anre, with years of teaching and administrative experience, can indeed help handle many matters.

Especially with Teacher Yan Sen, who takes the sect's affairs very seriously.

Even Su Lin, the wounded man on the verge of soul dispersal and total annihilation, was dragged over for the first teacher-student meeting.

Humming

Inside the chat group, several messages arrived.

Meng Qi: "@Su Lin, why are the Heavenly Court and the Three Teachings all using the Ten-Thousand-Worlds Communication Token to contact me for official business?!"

Ignore this message.

Lord Haotian isn't searching for Yuanshi Tianzun; after all, Yuanshi Tianzun will eventually become Lord Haotian.

Song Shuhang: "Dear seniors, we've gone into the Cycle Space to carry out a mission; we regret we cannot participate in the Tianshen Sect and Tianyi Sect's teachings."

Zhang Chuyan: "Please forgive us, seniors! I'm cosplaying as Wu Gen Sheng!"

Shi Hao: "When did this happen?"

Song Shuhang: "Just now. Since we previously joined Friend Zhang Heng's team but didn't enter the instance dungeon together, we contacted him afterward and proposed compensation."

"Coincidentally, Elder Huiye said she has a B-rank instance dungeon access pass and can join non-fixed teams."

Song Shuhang and the others thought it perfect to use it for training and improving their strength—they couldn't rely on the seniors and big shots to carry them through every time.

They just didn't expect Teacher Yan Sen to choose today for this.

Zhongli: "No wonder. Though this was caused by force majeure, the shortage in team members likely affected them too."

Inside the Cycle Space.

Zhang Heng looked at his teammates, 'Zheng Zha', and several others; he'd already decided to let it go, since teammates suddenly pulling the plug wasn't unheard of.

After all, their team had survived just fine.

But the woman traveling with Zheng Zha suggested they enter another instance dungeon together.

"By the way, what instance dungeon does this access pass correspond to?" Song Shuhang put away the chat group and turned to Huiye, who was preparing.

"Obtained from Su Lin. Let me check…" Before clicking to use it, Huiye glanced at the description: "Final Destination."

Song Shuhang: "?"