Chapter 432: It’s Hard to Be Inconspicuous
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Ji Yongfang’s tears only subsided after a long time had pa.s.sed. He pointed at An Lin and roared with rage. “An Lin! You were definitely behind this, what did you do to me?!”
“Enough!”
A thunderous yell cut off Ji Yongfang’s accusations.
“Have you not made enough of a fool out of yourself?” A middle-aged man glowered with rage.
Ji Yongfang stared blankly at the middle-aged man as a tear trickled down his face, making him look extremely pitiful. “Father, why…”
Elder Ji had been thoroughly embarra.s.sed by Ji Yongfang, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he hadn’t yet had his chance at earning the approval of the holy flame, he would’ve dragged him from the plaza already.
“This has nothing to do with An Lin, perhaps… perhaps you really were too sad for his misfortune…” Elder Ji sighed with resignation.
Ji Yongfang’s expression faltered at his words before grief welled up in his heart, and he began crying again.
Elder Ji averted his gaze and looked up into the sky; he was too embarra.s.sed to even look at his son.
All the disciples on the plaza were also exhausted from laughing, and all of them were ma.s.saging their own faces and stomachs.
Mo Hai was still chortling with mirth, and he looked at Ji Yongfang with an ironic expression of admiration. “Brother Ji, I only concede to you in the art of crying; you are truly the number one crying prodigy in the entire sect!”
Another person who was still laughing uncontrollably was Lan Yan. To begin with, her amus.e.m.e.nt threshold was extremely low, and she almost blacked out from laughing at Ji Yongfang’s pitiful display.
As she was laughing, she accused Ji Yongfang of murder as he was going to make her die of laughter.
Xu Xiaolan patted Lan Yan’s back with a resigned expression on her face in case Lan Yan actually died from excessive laughing.
“An Lin, you may step off the altar now.”
Elder Zhu spoke in a gentle voice when the plaza began to quiet down.
An Lin nodded and was just about to retrieve his Vermillion Bird Flame Wing when the Holy Vermilion Flame in the sky suddenly glowed with an extremely bright light.
Boom!
The white holy flame suddenly exploded before taking the shape of a white vermilion bird dancing in the sky.
All the elders were extremely shocked to see this, while all the disciples were looking on, completed stupefied.
“The holy flame is taking shape of its own volition? Why?” Great Elder Chen Xinran muttered to himself in shock.
An Lin was still standing on the spell altar, and he didn’t even have a chance to react before his sea of vital energy suddenly began to churn violently. The white phoenix inside let loose a joyful cry before a stream of energy flowed from its body into An Lin’s glabella. The energy then flew out from An Lin’s glabella and straight toward the golden projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing in the air.
The golden projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing slowly became more and more substantial before taking on the shape of a white feather which floated in the air.
All the disciples were completely dumbfounded, and An Lin was at a complete loss too.
“Why did it turn white, did the feather lose its color?”
“Could it be that my feather is fake, so the holy flame refuses to accept it?” An Lin suddenly asked.
Everyone rolled their eyes in unison.
Lan Yan’s laughter had just subsided but her amus.e.m.e.nt threshold was once again breached by An Lin’s words, and she almost fell over as she burst into laughter.
Some of the more experienced and knowledgeable elders were all staring at the substantial white feather in shock.
“This… Could this be a true feather of the vermilion bird?”
“There’s no mistaking the flame power fluctuations; that’s most definitely the true feather of the vermilion bird!”
“How could a true feather of the vermilion bird appear here? An Lin had clearly only released a projection!”
“A stream of power was released from his body which gave the projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing substance.”
“Who would have thought I would get to see the true feather of the vermilion bird here, looks like things are about to get interesting…”
…
The conversation between the elders was heard by everyone, and thus, most of the disciples developed an understanding of the situation.
It didn’t matter that they didn’t know what the true feather of the vermilion bird was as they could all tell it was some sort of powerful object!
All the disciples turned their eyes upon An Lin again with scorching reverence etched on their faces.
Xu Xiaolan was also looking up at him with a smile on her face as she muttered to herself, “I knew you wouldn’t exit the stage like this; that’s not your style.”
Right at this moment, the white vermilion bird in the sky opened its beak, and the true feather of the vermilion bird flew toward it before it was swallowed by the white vermilion bird!
A joyful cry rang out from the white vermilion bird’s beak before it once again transformed into a ball of holy flames.
Everything settled down again, and it was as if nothing had ever happened.
An Lin stared at the holy flame. All the disciples and elders were also staring at the holy flame as if they were all eagerly antic.i.p.ating something.
Two minutes pa.s.sed, but nothing happened…
“F*ck, you tryna dine and dash on me?!”
An Lin cussed the holy flame with an enraged expression.
“Pffft…” Many of the disciples once again burst out laughing at An Lin’s spontaneous eruption.
Lan Yan was also chortling with mirth. As she laughed, she professed her love for An Lin and talked about how she would pursue him as a Dao partner if it wasn’t for the fact that Xu Xiaolan had gotten there before her. Xu Xiaolan glared at Lan Yan before averting her gaze without replying.
What could she say? If she denied her relations.h.i.+p with An Lin, then Lan Yan might take that as an invitation to pursue An Lin. But if she was to warn her against pursuing An Lin, wasn’t that an indirect admission that there was something going on between them?
A light blush appeared on Xu Xiaolan’s face, and she could only avert her gaze as she pursed her lips in frustration.
Ji Yongfang finally stopped crying, and he made his way toward An Lin with a pair of red, swollen eyes. He was pleased to see that An Lin was still being rejected by the Holy Vermilion Flame, and he wanted to rub more salt into the wound.
However, a pillar of white light suddenly descended from the holy flame before enveloping An Lin’s body.
Boom!
Ji Yongfang was slightly feeble from crying so much, and the sudden resounding boom startled him and caused him to collapse onto the ground.
Some of the spectating disciples were also caught up in the resulting shockwave, but the elders were able to react in time so no one was injured.
Everyone stared up at An Lin, who was standing in the center of the spell altar, and all of them were at a complete loss for words.
The pillar of light didn’t inflict any damage on An Lin, and the white light only flowed into his body before manifesting itself as the purest flame power.
“Is… Is that the holy flame bestowing energy on An Lin?” a disciple muttered as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
“It does appear to be so. I’ve never seen so much energy being bestowed upon a single person by the holy flame in my hundreds of years at the Vermilion Bird Sect!” one of the core disciples exclaimed.
“How terrifying, can An Lin endure all that power?” Some disciples were expressing their concern.
If the power bestowed upon a disciple with a medial-grade projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing was like dipping a hand in a pool, and the power bestowed upon a disciple with a high-grade projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing was like dipping one’s whole body in a pool for an instant, then the power being bestowed upon An Lin was like being pelted by a fireman’s hose…
Ji Yongfang was completely dumbfounded. “How could this be, how could this be…”
An Lin was also completely dumbfounded. He looked up at the Holy Vermilion Flame and negotiated. “Please slow down, my body can’t handle it if you go too fast.”
Ji Yongfang almost vomited blood, and all the spectating disciples felt their chests constrict upon hearing this.
All the elders of the Vermilion Bird Sect also rolled their eyes but none of them intervened.
An Lin could feel the power of the holy flame flowing relentlessly into his body. His four Divine Flames absorbed the power, and they steadily grew even more powerful. An Lin could feel that his Divine Flames were progressing to the brink of evolution.
At the same time, a plume of white holy flames also appeared in his sea of vital energy.
The white phoenix in his sea of vital energy let loose a joyful cry before pouncing on the holy flame.
An Kirin’s eyes also lit up as he too pounced toward the holy flame with his mouth wide open.
The two of them had finally established a truce, but now they were fighting once again over the holy flame.
Boom boom boom…
The sea of vital energy surged as white flames burst forth and lightning flashed.
An Lin: “…”