Chapter 986: Have You Attained Enlightenment?
The entire Dragon Court conceded and swore dao heart oaths that they would never attack anyone from the Four Nine Immortal Sect again. An Lin also kept his promise and let them go.
He had initially planned to take this opportunity to demand some reparations from the Dragon Court. After all, he was a bit short on money at the moment. However, the Dragon Court would probably explode if he were to do that.
He made a decision there and then that he would visit the Dragon Court and wreak some true havoc there once he became powerful enough. That would be quite a fun experience…
An Lin didn’t have to worry about any retaliation from the powerful beings of the Dragon Court. As soon as they went back on their dao heart vow, he wouldn’t even have to do anything as their dao foundations would crumble, thereby ridding them of their cultivation base.
“Up!”
An Lin waved a hand. The Large Water Ball that was debilitating Ao Meng floated into the air, where it then shrank significantly before obediently making its way back into An Lin’s storage ring.
Ao Meng was free once again, and he let loose a roar of elation.
This was a dragon roar that seemed to have vented all of his frustrations, and it was audible to those within a radius of over a hundred kilometers.
He then continued to lie sprawled on the ground.
“Father?” Ao Mingyu was a little befuddled by this.
Ao Meng slowly reverted back to his human form. His clothes were in tatters, and his body was riddled with wounds. He looked extremely disheveled and miserable as he continued to lie sprawled onto the ground.
“Father?” Ao Mingyu blinked in confusion.
“Are you blind, you stupid c*nt?! Help me up! Your father’s back has been snapped by that accursed ball, and I can’t get up!” Ao Meng transmitted his infuriated voice.
Ao Mingyu only came to his senses then and hurriedly made his way over to help Ao Meng up from the ground.
Ao Meng turned to An Lin with an expression of regal majesty. “Don’t think that this is the end. I will make you rue the day you crossed my Dragon Court!”
An Lin waved with a nonchalant smile. “Farewell, Dragon King Ao Meng.”
He had seen countless people scurrying away with their tails between their legs, leaving behind a few threatening words to recover some semblance of dignity.
As such, he really wasn’t worried, nor did he feel the need to engage in a battle of words.
This was the Dragon Court. It wasn’t enough for him to be concerned about.
Ao Meng’s chest constricted with rage upon seeing An Lin’s gloating smile, but he couldn’t do anything about it.
He let loose a cold harrumph before riding his son and flying back to the Dragon Court.
All of the Dragon Tribe cultivators scurried along behind him, not daring to utter a single word.
All of the Four Nine Immortal Sect disciples were elated to see the Dragon Tribe cultivators depart in such a humiliating manner, and all of them gathered around their hero, An Lin.
They didn’t think that the cultivators from the Dragon Court of the Eastern Seas would leave under such circ.u.mstances.
Killing the son of a dragon king was an extremely terrifying thing!
However, the situation had been completely flipped on its head by An Lin. They were initially forced to hand over both their spirit stone mine as well as Xiao Ze, but now, the Dragon Tribe cultivators were forced to let bygones be bygones, and they even had to swear dao heart vows to never harm the Four Nine Immortal Sect again. This shocking development was something no one had even dared to imagine!
But An Lin did it! Their sect leader managed to do it!
An Lin turned toward Tina. “Did you record everything?”
“Sure did! Have a look, Giant An Lin.” Tina pa.s.sed the photographic crystal to An Lin with a wide grin before adding on a compliment, “Giant An Lin, you were really cool just then!”
“Of course! Don’t you know who I am?” A smug smile appeared on An Lin’s face.
“Master… Thank you…” Xiao Ze had tears flowing down his delicate features as he approached An Lin.
“Why are you thanking me? I’m your master.”
A warm smile appeared on An Lin’s face as he ruffled Xiao Ze’s hair.
Xiao Ze spread his arms and enveloped An Lin in a tight hug. “Waah… Master, I’m so touched. Thank you for fighting for me! I thought I was going to get taken away by the Dragon Court!”
This was the first time An Lin had received such an emotional hug from Xiao Ze, and he was a little embarra.s.sed. However, this was not a bad feeling. There was a sense of accomplishment accompanying the warmth.
“Little Xiao, have you attained enlightenment from this event?” An Lin asked in a meaningful and heartfelt manner.
“Is it that the world isn’t as cold as we think and that there will be people who care for you?” Xiao Ze asked.
That was the biggest takeaway he had gotten from this event.
An Lin’s lips twitched, and he replied with a stern expression, “That’s not the point! Well, it is one of the points, but not the most critical point!”
“Then what is the most critical point?” Xiao Ze turned to An Lin with confusion on his face.
An Lin looked straight at Xiao Ze’s eyes and replied in a firm voice, “The critical point is power!”
“Power…” Xiao Ze muttered to himself.
“That’s right! Why did the Dragon Court back down? It’s because they were no match for us! Think about what the situation would’ve been like if we were unable to defeat the Dragon Court?
“We’d be getting off lightly if they settled with just taking you as their slave. In the worst-case scenario, we could all die here! We killed his son! Even if Ao Meng really did kill all of us here, the Heavenly Court would find it difficult to deliver punishment upon them.
“In this world, the weak ones would have no right to speak. If you want others to listen to you, you have to be able to make them listen to you! Only by becoming stronger than everyone else can you escape the fate of being trampled upon!”
An Lin’s words reverberated through Xiao Ze’s mind, providing him with food for thought.
That’s right, even though this appeared to be a lawful and civilized world, at its core, this was still a world where power was the most important thing. What would have happened if the Heavenly Court scouts had discovered this mine?
The Dragon Court scouts probably wouldn’t even have the courage to show up here, and the ensuing conflict would’ve never occurred.
No matter how you looked at it, everything that had taken place had happened because they were weak…
Xiao Ze raised his head with a determined expression. “Master, I’ll try my best to break through to the Return to Void Final Stage, and I won’t let anyone look down on our Four Nine Immortal Sect!”
An Lin nodded with a gratified smile. It seemed that his words had gotten through to Xiao Ze.
Liu Qianhuan made her way toward him, and her purple eyes were bright with excitement. “An Lin, you really have gotten powerful. I feel like I have to look at you differently now!”
“It was nothing, don’t make a big fuss.” An Lin’s expression was quite tranquil and calm, but the smugness in his eyes told a different story.
Liu Qianhuan pursed her lips before pointing at the mine. “Do you want to take a look?”
“Of course! This is an extremely valuable a.s.set for our sect, and it’s also our first spirit stone mine, so of course I have to have a look,” An Lin replied with a smile.
“I thought you were just going to leave everything to us and run back after taking care of things here.” Liu Qianhuan chuckled lightly.
Thus, the two of them made their way toward the spirit stone mine with the Four Nine Immortal Sect disciples trailing along behind them.
This was an extremely huge mine that stretched across around a dozen mountains. The only thing was that it was in a difficult location to excavate as a large section of the mine had materialized within the mountain, which could be easily damaged as a result. Hence, there were very strict requirements on the precision and methods of excavation.
Thankfully, Tina was an expert in this field and soon came up with a plan.
She also made a rough evaluation of the mine.
The mine had mid to high-grade spirit stones and was ready for excavation.
It held a total of a hundred and fifty million spirit stones, among which twenty million spirit stones could be mined in a year to prevent inflicting irreparable damage on the mine!
After excavating the mine for a year, it would take over a hundred years for the mine to completely replenish itself again.
However, that wasn’t really a cause for concern. This was going to be a ma.s.sive, renewable treasure vault for the Four Nine Immortal Sect!
An Lin and Liu Qianhuan were ecstatic.
The dozen or so outer-sect disciples present were also elated.
They were the ones who had discovered the spirit stone mine, and according to sect rules, they would receive handsome remuneration for their efforts as well as a chance to become core disciples!