Chapter 561: The Pillar of the Team, An Lin
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
It had to be said, team morale was boosted significantly following An Lin’s efforts to console everyone.
An Lin stroked Xiao Ze’s smooth, short hair as he consoled everyone while leading the way forward.
Everyone sighed internally with emotion. An Lin was suddenly so gentle and kind, to the extent that it appeared as if he were glowing with maternal love!
Even Ca.s.sidy and Merlin, who had received a beating at his hands, shared this feeling. Although An Lin had beaten them up, he wore a painful and sympathetic expression at the same time, as if he were trying to beat the redemption into their bodies!
To put it in simpler words, An Lin had beaten the c.r.a.p out of them while wearing an expression that said—”this is all for your sake”!
What a kind-hearted person…
“Hahahaha… Merlin, look at that huge centipede, the feet on either side of its body aren’t symmetrical, hahaha…” Ca.s.sidy chortled with mirth as she pointed to a mutant beast in the distance.
“Haha… Ca.s.sidy, that rock is hilarious too, it looks a lot like you…” Merlin was also having the time of his life.
He felt like he had never been so happy in his life. Everything was funny, and everything tickled his fancy.
However, their laughter was extremely insulting to Tina and Tobias.
One was wallowing in self-loathing while the other was agonizing over his lost lover. How would they feel with two people constantly chortling with mirth beside them?
An Lin was already detecting killing intent in the air…
In order to ease the tension, he turned to Ca.s.sidy and Merlin with a gentle smile. “Since you both like laughing so much, how about I tell you a joke?”
Ca.s.sidy and Merlin were ecstatic and immediately chortled in agreement.
An Lin began in a slow voice and said, “Once upon a time, there was a wolf cub who refused to eat meat and only ate a vegetarian diet, for which its parents were greatly concerned. However, they were ecstatic one day to see the lion cub chasing a rabbit! But they were immediately distraught again soon…”
“Why?” Merlin asked.
An Lin continued, “Because… the wolf cub finally managed to catch the rabbit, but it then said ‘hand over your carrot’…”
Merlin: “…”
Ca.s.sidy: “…”
An Lin continued, “A long, long time ago, there was a hide-and-seek committee, which had an extremely awesome committee leader!”
“How awesome was he?” Ca.s.sidy asked.
“A few decades pa.s.sed, and the committee leader still hadn’t been found,” An Lin replied.
Merlin: “…”
Ca.s.sidy: “…”
An Lin felt like the atmosphere was heading on the right track, so he continued, “One day, a doctor said to a patient ‘I have some good news and some bad news, which one do you want to hear first?’
“The patient thought for a moment before requesting to hear the bad news first.
“The doctor said that a forgetful doctor had been prescribing the wrong medicine to the patient, thereby resulting in severe poisoning. The condition is already incurable, and the patient only has less than a week to live!
“The patient was in complete despair upon hearing this, but they still inquired about what the good news was.
“The doctor was confused. What good news?”
The atmosphere instantly cooled down to a freezing point.
“Gasp…” Ca.s.sidy and Merlin drew a collective sharp intake of breath as their smiles froze on their faces.
This was supposed to be a joke? An Lin called this a joke?!
Thus, Ca.s.sidy and Merlin were a lot more subdued…
With a satisfied expression, An Lin nodded before continuing onward.
After traveling for a while longer, they arrived at an area where the ground was entirely golden in color.
“This is the Land of Golden Soil. If we continue down this side, we will arrive at the Land of Crystals, where there is an extremely high probability of Realm Essence Crystals appearing,” Xiao Ze said while pointing in a certain direction.
An Lin nodded before walking in the direction that Xiao Ze had pointed to.
He stepped onto the golden ground to find that it was extremely solid, as if the ground had been constructed from some sort of alloy. An Lin estimated that a Spirit Nurturing Stage cultivator would probably be unable to leave even a dent on this surface.
Boom!
A loud rumbling suddenly sounded.
The ground directly in front of An Lin and the others cracked open as golden light burst forth.
A mutant beast over a thousand feet tall with a vast aura emanating from its body appeared before everyone.
It had the body of a gigantic elephant, but its head comprised of five snakes heads, each of which emanated a frosty aura.
“Who would have thought that there would be a beast that dares to provoke us. Let’s go,” An Lin said as he rallied his troops.
Tina lowered her head without a reply, Xue Zhantian trembled in An Lin’s arms, and Xiao Ze latched on even more tightly to An Lin’s arm.
Tobias was still looking up at the starry sky while Ca.s.sidy and Merlin were grinning like idiots.
An Lin: “…”
Weren’t they all supposed to be exceptionally powerful Return to Void Stage mighty figures? Why did they not look the part at all?
An Lin finally understood why this mutant beast wasn’t scared of them; everyone had been overwhelmed by their respective emotions, to the extent that they had close to no battle intent, and their auras were completely subdued. As such, they were nowhere near as formidable as they were when they first entered this Realm of Boundless Emotion, so it was no wonder that this mutant beast labeled them as prey.
The five snakeheads turned their eyes upon An Lin and his group with greed s.h.i.+ning in their eyes. “What a powerful aura. Only the flesh and blood of powerful beings like these are worthy to become the meal of the mighty Elephant King! None of you are getting away!”
A despairing expression appeared on Xue Zhantian’s face, and he said, “It’s over, it’s all over. It said we weren’t getting away, we’re all screwed…”
Xiao Ze furrowed his brows and said, “It’s not that simple; there must be some sort of sinister plot behind all this.”
Tina tugged on An Lin’s hair with her tiny little hands, and she asked, “Giant An Lin, what do I have to do to become as outstanding as this Elephant King?”
An Lin: “…”
“Hiss!” One of the snakeheads suddenly opened its mouth, and a black, toxic mist blasted forth from within. The corrosive effect of the toxic gas was extremely potent, as evidenced by the sections of the golden ground that were beginning to melt and erode away upon making contact with the black mist.
An Lin looked around to discover that everyone was still rooted to the spot by their respective emotions, so he could only unleash his two Gundams.
The two Gundams unleashed an Ionic Deprivation Protection Formation, thereby keeping the black toxic mist at bay.
“Oh? So you’re able to offer up some resistance after all.” The Elephant King roared with laughter as one of its other snakes opened its mouth. A streak of black light burst forth, penetrating through the black mist before striking the protection formation.
Boom!
A resounding boom coupled with a sharp screeching noise reverberated through the air.
The Ionic Deprivation Protection Formation finally began to crack open under the streak of black light.
A grim expression appeared on An Lin’s face. He knew he had to end this battle quickly.
He turned to everyone with a gentle gaze and said, “Let me protect you all…”
Within his sea of vital energy, lightning began to burst forth from An Kirin’s body.
At the same time, a robe of Golden Void Lightning draped itself over An Lin’s body while golden lightning flashed and crackled.
An extremely formidable aura imbued with the power of pure Yang emanated from his body before sweeping outward in all directions.
Wings of Wind appeared on An Lin’s back as An Lin charged through the crumbling Ionic Deprivation Protection Formation before pouncing toward the mutant beast with his Evil-Slaying Sword in hand.
The black toxic mist surrounding An Lin’s body was all dispelled by the lightning from An Lin’s robe of Golden Void Lightning.
A chill instantly ran down the Elephant King’s spine. An Lin’s speed was simply too fast, and his aura was extremely powerful. The Elephant King had no choice but to unleash its most powerful attack.
All five snake mouths opened at once as toxic mist, black light, frosty ice, scorching flames, and flas.h.i.+ng lightning burst forth before converging toward An Lin all at once.
An Lin gripped his Evil-Slaying Sword. His Golden Void Lightning exploded forth around his body as he slashed his sword through the air toward the Elephant King.
Golden light flashed, and a dazzling Golden Void Lightning sword projection swept through the air with devastating destructive force before slicing the Elephant King’s attack cleanly in half.
“How could this be…”
An expression of shock and horror appeared on the Elephant King’s face. It was clearly not expecting An Lin to be able to slice through its most powerful attack.
The Golden Void Lightning sword projection continued onward before cras.h.i.+ng into the Elephant King’s ma.s.sive body and slicing it in half. The Golden Void Lightning completely exploded at this moment as an area within a radius of over a thousand feet was transformed into a sea of lightning.
The Elephant King wailed in anguish in the sea of lightning before cras.h.i.+ng to the ground, where the two halves of its ma.s.sive body were fried to a crisp in the violent explosion of lightning.
An Lin’s golden robe dissipated, and he stowed away his sword while heaving a light sigh of relief.
This Elephant King was only at the Soul Formation Pinnacle Stage, so he was still able to handle it with relative ease. But what if they encountered enemies that were even more powerful…
How was he going to be able to pull through if he encountered enemies of Return to Void Stage cultivation base?
With this concern in mind, he turned to look at the group of people behind him with heartache and affection on his face.
“So be it, let me protect you all, even if it means giving up my life…”
A faint, exasperated sigh sounded, but it was still as gentle as ever.