Chapter 430

"Bang!"

"Thud!"

"Smack!"

After a bout of thrashing, Tang An finally loosened up her muscles.

As for the burly man from before, his face was bruised and swollen, and he lay on the ground unable to get up; one look and it was clear he had been knocked unconscious.

Tang An gave the middle finger to the black shadow on the side, then beckoned with her hand.

"Come here."

The black shadow covered its face, absolutely unwilling to go over.

"Roll over here, one..."

Compelled by Tang An's pressure, it obediently rolled over.

Yes, it really rolled over on the ground. Because it was afraid that if it didn't roll, Tang An would beat it again.

"You were hiding perfectly well, why come to pick a fight with me?"

The Outer Realm Demon Race covered its face and shook its head, refusing to say a single word.

"Are you here to see if I'm seriously injured? Or perhaps, if I'm terminally ill?"

The Outer Realm Demon Race widened its eyes, but still refused to say a single word.

"Fine then, I'll ask a different question. Where is that little ghost's head?"

"Huh?"

"Stop pretending. A perfectly fine person had their head cut off by a kite string, how could it not be found? It must have been hidden by someone wanting to pull some tricks in the dark."

The Outer Realm Demon Race didn't want to be driven by Tang An, but it seemed to think of something, and it nodded in agreement.

Thus, it began to walk Tang An like a dog walking a person.

One moment it said it was in this place, the next it said that place, and then it said it couldn't remember clearly, as if it were in the opposite direction.

Tang An tugged on the chain filled with black Qi and sighed deeply. "I put a chain on you, and you really took on the role of a dog."

"If you want to stall for time for your master, at least find a halfway decent excuse."

"Alright, consider it walking the dog to help digest my meal." Tang An released the black Qi chain and, with a wave of her hand, sucked the Outer Realm Demon Race toward her.

It seemed that through it, Tang An could see other places.

But Tang An just gave a faint smile, clenched her fist, and crushed the Outer Realm Demon Race before her until its soul scattered.

"Probing is mutual."

"When you gaze into the abyss, don't forget, the abyss is also gazing back at you."

Tang An lifted her chin slightly, and after finishing this sentence, she vanished from the spot.

As for that burly man?

He had committed similar offenses before, which was why he was targeted and driven by the succubus. So, Tang An beating him up wasn't a loss.

Anyway, he wouldn't die from lying there for the night, so let him just lie there.

When Tang An returned, Nezha was still there peeling shrimp, having already finished a whole plate.

Sun Wukong had also returned and was teasing Nezha, wanting to eat the shrimp meat Nezha had peeled, but Nezha wouldn't let him.

"Here." Seeing Tang An return, Nezha immediately gave the full plate of shrimp meat to Tang An, even blocking Sun Wukong to keep him from snatching it.

Sun Wukong covered his mouth and laughed uncontrollably; seeing Tang An had arrived, he stopped snatching and simply sat to the side to drink his wine.

"By the way, Master, when are we going back to rest?"

Tang An glanced at the time; it was already past one o'clock.

"We aren't going back. There are still a few hours left; after we've eaten and drunk our fill, I'll take you all to a place."

"Oh, right." Tang An used the jade pendant to send a voice transmission to Yang Jian. "The overall situation is settled, you come back too; we'll go together in a while."

"Understood."

"Is Master's injury really not a problem?" Sun Wukong was still somewhat worried.

"It's no problem. When people encounter happy events, their spirits are refreshed; even if the body is truly uncomfortable, thinking of such good news makes me feel as light as if I had no illness at all."

Tang An signaled the owner to keep serving dishes, and this time it was the four of them, master and disciples, drinking and chatting together.

"Master, why not tell us stories about this era? And why are you so insistent on retrieving those cultural relics?"

"And that island nation, why did it bring you such great merit?" These two sentences were asked by Yang Jian.

Tang An poured wine for them all. "If we're going to talk about this, there might not be enough time."

"But it doesn't matter, I'll pick the general situation and tell you about it properly."

"All of this must start from the fall of the last dynasty..."

The three of them listened intently as Tang An recounted those events; when she spoke of the depths of it, Tang An's eyes were also filled with hot tears.

Before, they didn't understand why Tang An's national sentiment was so heavy. Now they seemed to understand how tragic and intense the land beneath their feet had once been.

Hearing about those treasures being wantonly destroyed, plundered, and trampled upon by other nations, they were all filled with indignation.

Listening to the stories Tang An told of their ancestors' resistance, the three of them also sighed from the heart about how hard-won the current peace was.

"Master, if I, Old Sun, were to say it, those wars back then were also a feat of humans overcoming heaven."

"A country that had already been torn apart, under such difficult and harsh conditions where it was almost completely devoured, was still able to gradually recover lost territory and reignite the fire of hope."

"That event itself was a miracle that almost couldn't succeed."

Hearing this, Yang Jian remained silent, his brows tightly locked.

"Do you have any insights?" Tang An asked him.

Yang Jian looked at Tang An with a solemn expression. "I remember that Master once asked us, when Huaxia was suffering heavy damage, what were the gods doing?"

"But as of today, Master, you are already at the Half-Saint cultivation level. If you had forcibly intervened in this matter, disregarding causality, such a tragic war would never have happened."

"And with Master's personality, even if the Heavenly Dao did not allow it, you would never have sat by and watched."

"Yet the current situation is that Master was unable to intervene in time back then. The tragedy happened all the same."

Yang Jian's words caused a ringing in Tang An's ears like a thunderclap.

Yang Jian was worried, worried about what exactly happened during the thousand years Tang An spent as the Guardian, leaving her with no time to attend to the things she cared about most?

Was she unable to look after herself?

Was she seriously injured and not yet recovered?

Was she missing, in a coma? Or what?

There was no answer; no one had an answer.

Tang An was also incomparably clear that even if she fought to the death, as long as she was awake and conscious, she would definitely have intervened in this matter. Yet, as Yang Jian said, she didn't intervene? Why on earth was that?

"Ring ring~"

The sound of an alarm clock interrupted Tang An's brainstorming.

"Forget it, you can't figure out the reason for this by guessing."

"However, for me, it is a wake-up call."

"Let's go, the time has come; we should go and witness the grand event of the cultural relics coming home."

She would temporarily stop thinking about these headache-inducing matters; after all, today could be considered a day of great joy.

Tang An signaled the owner, left a gold ingot on the table, and took the three of them away.

When they reappeared, they were on the opposite side of the bustling square.

She stuffed a small red flag into each of their hands. "This is what we call a sense of ritual."

Although Yang Jian and the others were far away, their divine sense allowed them to observe better than the people crowded right in front.

"They have no intention of blocking the news."

Tang An shrugged. "This matter is indeed worth celebrating by the whole world."

"But what if other nations use this as an excuse to cause trouble?"

Tang An sneered. "I have already severed the causality between the cultural relics and other countries; they will never leave their homeland again."

"As for other nations using this as an excuse to cause trouble?"

"They'll have to see if they can still afford to provoke, or even defeat, the Huaxia of today!"