Chapter 548 Prime of Time
“It’s really a bargain that these fresh cherries only cost 18 crystal coins per pound! Don’t be so picky, girl!”
On a busy street, a hawker has successfully persuaded a young woman with a ponytail to buy two pounds of cherries. She then walks towards Dongting Lake. Getting in a small boat, the young woman heads for a large painted pleasure boat in the middle of the lake. Today is the Day of Revealing Divine declared by the federal. It is the annual unlocking day of the Dongting Lake. The lake is very bust while antique painted pleasure boat is moving slowly. Many believers who go to Mount Jun to serve incense all love this ancient water vehicle.
The breeze blows the bangs on the young woman’s forehead, and her beautiful face is revealed.
She jumps on the painted pleasure boat in a few steps.
The two-story painted pleasure boat is very busy, and the cherries brought by the young woman are soon empty.
The young woman grabs a few cherries in a hurry, “You guys! Save some for Aunt Lin, ok?”
Yang Lisha leaning on the railing of the painted pleasure boat is feeding the fish, “She always has enough fruit to eat!”
Recently, Yang Lisha humanizes again while Voiddy is around her. Yang Lisha feels extremely good about it. Her rosy cheeks also make her look even younger.
Others all agree with her. Lin Luoran’s portable s.p.a.ce is rich in various fruit and vegetables in all seasons of the year. The products are very delicious and all foodies are jealous of her.
Han Weiya disagrees with what the female monster says, “The key point is not the fruit but our intention! Hey, where are Aunt Lin and Hu Ji?”
Liao says sourly, “It is hard to keep a woman at home. She and the smelly fox have been to Jinling.”
Han Weiya knows that Uncle Mu has been in Jinling since the Earth’s environment became stable. She heard that he was looking for some Chaos Spirit Pool to solve his half-monster and half-demon physique problem. It has been more than ten years but there is still no news. If Aunt Lin doesn’t check it every year to make sure that his breath is still in Jinling, everyone will be extremely worried.
Now it is the end of spring and the beginning of summer in the new calendar year 405, the season when cherries have just been on the market.
It has been almost ninety years since Bape Alliance declared defeat to the Earth Federation, and it is less than a year before Bermuda’s secret land opens again.
Han Weiya still looks like a girl, but she has already lost two of the most important people in her life. Han Kuisheng pa.s.sed away peacefully when he was 120 years old. Under his ruling, the Hans family had been much stronger than before. Due to his only daughter had other pursuits, it took him ten years to choose a nice person from the Hans family as the heir.
Pang Xianzhong and his wife were a married couple very much in love. Mrs. Pang died at the age of eighty-one, which was the fifth year after Pang Xianzhong retired as the number one man. After making arrangements for his wife’s funeral, Pang Xianzhong shut his door and locked himself in the house. He pa.s.sed away in the following autumn. “Mr. Pang” pushed the post-war Earth Federation to a rapid development orbit, and he was highly respected by his people. He didn’t have any children. In order to offer sacrifice to him, the Federation buried he and his wife together in the cemetery by the Dongting Lake following Pang Xianzhong’s last wish.
Han Weiya once went to offer incense in the middle of the night. She felt lucky that she had not done anything that year. The couple knew each other when they both had no power and fortune. They shared weal and woe and resisted the temptation when they were in power. Finally, they had a happy ending that everyone admired.
Rong Xihe had rejected Lin Luoran’s proposal. He had an accident on an uninhabited planet when opening up the territory for “Li In”. In the same year, his grandson was born. Eight years later, people found he had the Taoist root. The Rongs had a close relationship with the Lins family for hundreds of years, and one of the Rongs finally set foot on the road of personal ability enhancement.
After the victory of the war, Judith and Shukina still stayed in Dongting City. Judith courted Shukina for five years, and the prince and the princess finally became a real couple. In the seventh year, their first son was born. Queen Windsor was far away in Nami. She couldn’t help but made the Great Wish to train her silly brother’s son as a qualified royal heir. She sent the royal fleet to pick up this family of three which had been away from homeland for many years.
The interstellar journey was long. When Judith left, he knew that he and his friends on the earth might never see each other again in this life. The fat prince had lost a lot of weight because of the laborious work of being a father. He cried and shed bitter tears.
Shukina held their son while comforted her husband—because Lin Luoran and others have a long lifespan, ordinary people like her and Judith will always be remembered even after hundreds of years.
In their memory, neither she nor he would grow old, which was the most brilliant years of their lives.
When Judith left, he glanced at Han Weiya with a little nostalgia. Princess Shukina was quite jealous but she didn’t freak out.
“I used to…”
Shukina made a gesture to tell him to stop, “I know.”
She knew the prince’s crash on Han Weiya earlier. She also knew that he was moved by her action of staying on the earth so he began to pay attention to her.
She also knew that on the night when he decided to court her, he once stared at Han Weiya’s window in a daze in the middle of the night. Shukina was still not sure about his real motivation—was he really moved by her at that time? Did he know that Han Weiya had a lover in her heart? Did he want to let her go because he realized the huge barrier between an immortal and a mortal?
But what’s the point? Han Weiya was the prince’s first dream lover who he had had a crush on. She was the woman who could fulfill all his fantasies.
However, “Shukina Bolan” is the present and future of the prince.
After her death, she would be buried with Judith and granted the long t.i.tle of the Nami Royal Family. Together with him in the picturesque Nami Royal Cemetery, they would witness the changes and golden years quietly.
Their one-year-old son started to cry. Judith was so busy handling his son that he felt less sad about their separation.
After defeating Bape Alliance, the Earth Federation was formally known to alliance of the galaxy.
Some forces wanted to do something bad to the Earth Federation. When they had such kinds of ideas, weird events would happen to their star territories. Together with the deterrence of the Nami Alliance in the distance, they had to give up their invasion plan.
There was an invisible web as sensitive as spider silk, which was everywhere and could capture all their unruly thoughts.
Mu Tiannan’s Blood Line Club was expanding wildly. Whenever there was turmoil, he could immediately notice it. Many “weird events” that shocked the unruly forces were done by him and Hu Ji.
His stubbornness and earnestness impressed Liao, and Hu Ji was not hostile to him anymore.
Mu Tiannan’s background might be unreliable and it might be impossible for him to cultivate his personal ability. However, King Hu also had to admit that it was really moving when one person was very committed to another one. Putting himself in Mu Tiannan’s shoes, Hu Ji felt that he couldn’t be so nice to Linny. Maybe Liao could do it. However, he didn’t do it out of a “romantic relationship” that might disappear quickly.
Mu Tiannan once thought that he could be very frank when he faced Black Tortoise again under its deep gaze which could penetrate everything. He had promised to “protect her for a hundred years”. He had proved that it was not a random joke.
It was the effort of everyone that helped the Earth Federation survive the most fragile ten years after the war—as the weak one that had overcome the strong one, the earth even got time to take a break and then armed itself to the teeth a little bit by a little bit. It had the power to protect itself and it was gradually becoming stronger.
Someone had carried the heavy burden for Lin Luoran. Therefore, she spent all her time on earth reconstruction and self-cultivation.
In the 405th year of the new calendar, earthlings had driven the mutant monsters to depopulated land, forming a distinct barrier with the human world.
In human habitations, the scorched land was covered with green little by little. The water source was gradually purified. In areas around human cities, ordinary people were no longer afraid of mutant monsters, and they did not have to wear air purification devices.
The smoke and dust shrouded above the earth still existed. However, people living on the earth could already see the starry sky on a night with excellent weather. Such a scene only happened in the written records.
Earthlings had already explored the universe. However, the imperfect night sky above their home planet was more touching than anything else.
The earth people had never given up on restoring green plants, and part of the dead energy had been eliminated. Therefore, the thin ozone layer around the earth had restored.
Lin Luoran was delighted with such slow changes. In 400 years in the New Era, Liu Qingdai officially handed over the position of oracle to the young “faithful girl” in the Lius family. At that time, Liu Qingdai’s hair had turned gray, but her face was ruddy without wrinkles. She still had a young face blessed by time.
She knew that it was the power of faith.
Lin Luoran had seen that young faithful girl. She was an energetic and enviable young girl.
In the 395th year of the new calendar, the Bermuda secret land was about to open. Lin Luoran asked Mu Tiannan to leave trivial matters aside. She drove him to Jinling.
Liao said that the spring in Jinling underground palace was the unique Chaos Spirit Spring in the world. If Mu Tiannan missed it, he would hardly meet the opportunity to solve his problem with his physique.
Lin Luoran asked curiously what Chaos Spirit Spring was.
“At the beginning of Chaos, there was no difference between good and evil. The spring could shape things. If people chose to become a demon, it would give them boundless devil power. If they chose to be good, it would purify the evil thoughts in their mind. No matter demons, monsters, or Qi-trainers, a determined one could always be enlightened in the spring and find the way he or she wanted. ”
Liao mysteriously added, “This kind of Spirit Spring doesn’t exist in the spiritual world or the immortal world. It was the blessing of Tao of nature for the mortal world.”
Lin Luoran thought of Xin Yuanping and herself.
Xin Yuanping had paranoid hatred in her heart, so she became a demon when the pool was polluted.
Lin Luoran was unwilling to give up the obsession in her heart. When she was in desperation, her bones and flesh were rotten in the blood pool, and she came out as a Laying Foundation cultivator.
Liao said that when she and Xin Yuanping entered the Spirit Spring, the spring water was contaminated by hostility. They were “enlightened” easily, so they did not gain high achievement when they came out.
However, after purification by Buddhism and cultivation for so many years, Mu Tiannan went down to the Spirit Spring as a half-monster and half-demon. Even Liao could not know whether Mu Tiannan could come out smoothly.
If Mu Tiannan couldn’t see through it himself, he would sleep in the pool for the rest of his life. He would be delirious and become a tragic creature that could not die or live. But if he could get rid of everything and then come out, this half-monster and half-demon that the world could not tolerate may have his own unique “Tao”.
Could Mu Tiannan come out?
No one could guarantee it.
Lin Luoran went to see him every year. She always returned with disappointment in the first nine years.
In the past 100 years, her personal ability had gradually improved. Although she deliberately slowed down the speed of her personal ability enhancement, she had broken through from the Gathering Vitality period to the Divinization period. Lin Luoran had worried that she would directly become immortal and enter the spiritual world. She might miss the chance to see the Lins family in this way. However, the Divinization Doom did not come as she imagined. She had never been through the Divinization Doom, so she was not a true Divinization cultivator even with her personal ability.
Liao looked at her mysteriously. Lin Luoran only thought that it was because she still didn’t have the Earth element. It must because the fifth petal between her Gathering Vitality’s eyebrows had not yet been filled.
Baojia was second only to her in terms of personal ability.
One hundred years ago, she was in the middle period of Bearing Essence. Forties years ago, she succeeded in entering the Gathering Vitality period. Her doom was not a small deal. It even made Dragon King Seal in Dongting City tremble. After the Gathering Vitality, every step was difficult for her. Forty years later, Baojia was still in the middle period of the Gathering Vitality and could not breakthrough.
According to Bai Qingxue, Lin Luoran and Qin Baojia should be proud of themselves for their personal ability enhancement speed which was impressive even in Tang Dynasty with abundant Reiki.
The former “White Fairy” gave up her personal ability and restarted personal ability enhancement. State of mind had never been a problem for her. In about one hundred years, she had cultivated from the middle Training Qi period to the later Bearing Essence period. Lin Luoran thought that maybe she could really meet Ye Zhao in the spiritual world as she wished with such great effort.
As for Ma Shuangshuang and others, Lin Luoran insisted that they had to build a solid foundation. She only gave them some spirit stones but didn’t allow them to take the unnecessary elixir.
Ma Shuangshuang was only in the Bearing Essence period. Han Weiya cultivated the Tao of Bolus and she was only second to Ma Shuangshuang in personal ability.
Troubled by trivial matters, Colin had always been a little worse than Ma Yiming. He was still wandering in the Laying Foundation period, looking for an opportunity to breakthrough. Due to the difference in personal ability, Ma Shuangshuang and Han Weiya still looked young while Colin and Ma Yiming was kind of old. They were waiting for the day of Bearing Essence. At that time, they could take on a new look and become two handsome men again.
Rong Xihe’s grandson had the worst personal ability.
He shouldered the expectation of the Rongs for generations, and his state of mind was weighed down. Therefore, his personal ability enhancement was not smooth.
There was also something that made Lin Luoran happy. A few years ago, the prawn of Dragon Palace finally became intelligent and could speak with the strong support of Lin Luoran. Lin Luoran wrote its name on the Dragon King goldware and she felt really relieved. The former Dragon King had entrusted her, and she finally completed the mission. She now had paid for apotheosizing herself.
Bai Qingxue once returned to the Misty Peak and took out the other half of the treasure. Lin Luoran didn’t ask what it was. As the time for the opening of Bermuda’s secret land approached, Lin Luoran had been focusing on Jinling.
The Tower of Babel only opened once in one hundred years. If Mu Tiannan was left behind, his only way out was to become immortal in the spiritual world in the future. However, it was not the place which Lin Luoran and others were going to.
Moreover, no one could guarantee that the Upper Land for Mu Tiannan as a half-monster and half-demon would definitely be the spiritual world.
Outside Jinling city—
Hu Ji yawns lazily, and the lazy temperament fits this beautiful young boy well. It actually adds some charm to him.
According to Liao, King Hu finally looks like a fox monster in recent years. His single-edged eyes squint and then he can take people’s breath away. However, Lin Luoran feels that Hu Ji is a little bit girly. She is worried that King Hu will eventually be of androgyny.
Hu Ji is so angry that he vomits blood. He really wants to beat Lin Luoran up. When a nine-tailed fox humanizes, it has the opportunity to choose to be a man or a woman. He became a beautiful boy because of Lin Luoran—how can she be so shameless! The Acacia tree monster fits the word “androgyny” much more than he does. However, everyone just praises her for her handsome look when she wears men’s clothing. They have never questioned the mental health of “Voiddy”.
Why does King Hu always get hurt?
Hu Ji insists that everyone is jealous of him for how young he is. A hundred years later, he still looks as young as before.
“Hey, if Mu can’t come out, will you stay and wait for him?”
Lin Luoran lowers her head and smiles, “He will never want me to give up the chance of the reopening of the Tower of Babel for him. So he will definitely come out.”
Hu Ji rolls his eyes. Linny has been tight-lipped. No one can know what she thinks of Mu Tiannan now.
Lin Luoran just smiles. Judging from Mu’s stubborn temperament, she doesn’t think the Chaos Spirit Spring can trap him.
Paranoid people sometimes get stuck. However, Qingluan immortal in the Penglai immortal world also said that paranoia is also the reason why a cultivator can be firm and not brave.
Jinling City is also under reconstruction recently. Lin Luoran and Hu Ji are now guarding the mountain outside the city. Lin Luoran feels the pulsation from the ground in silence.
From dawn to darkness, and then to dawn again.
Lin Luoran and Hu Ji have waited on the mountain for almost half a month. One night, they are looking at the surface of Spirit Spring. At this moment, an old locust tree that has been dead for many years suddenly blooms. Lin Luoran finally has a smile on her face.
Hu Ji is also moved.
The Green Wood crown he is wearing also keenly captures the vitality at that moment.
The vitality is very weak with monsterous Reiki. However, there is absolutely no b.l.o.o.d.y feeling.
Mu really did it?
The moon is in the middle of the sky. Mu Tiannan has slept for ten years, and the first person he sees when he leaves Spirit Spring is Lin Luoran, which makes him feel unspeakable joy.
He is still wearing black clothes, with broken arm. Mu Tiannan hasn’t been exposed to the sun for a long time, so his face is white with a jade texture. Walking slowly in the moon, he even eclipses Hu Ji.
Hu Ji is a teenager with a very good appearance and temperament. People always feel pleasant to see such a young man.
Mu Tiannan is a mature young man. When he blinks, no one can see through him, but he can bring people peace and trust.
Lin Luoran freezes. She suddenly recalls the impetuous and unreasonable playboy in the past who accused her of stealing the ginseng seed when he pa.s.sed by her. That teenager has turned into such a man. If Master Mu knows it, he will be very pleased.
“What kind of state are you in now?”
The hostility on his body has disappeared, so the blood poison should have been resolved. He is surrounded with pure monster power which is not worse than Hu Ji.
Mu Tiannan shrugs, “Probably the Tao of nature wants to test how far can a human go by cultivating as a monster. It is my state you can see now.”
Cultivators train Qi into the body, using Reiki to shape their flesh and blood with the state of mind. That’s the way they prove Tao.
Mu Tiannan was seduced by Devil Inside in the pool. The darkness he had experienced for hundreds of years wanted to lure him to become a devil. He felt that monsters might be more acceptable than demons. Enlightened in the spirit spring, Mu Tiannan finally decided to dissipate his devil power. Qi-trainers absorb Reiki to evolve themselves while monsters devour moon essence with the power of stars to refine their body. When monsters are humanized, they can absorb Reiki again. Doesn’t it mean that Reiki and the power of the stars are not in conflict?
The two are likely to have the same source, but the appearance is different.
Since then, why human beings can’t absorb the power of stars for evolution?
When Mu Tiannan figured it out, the inner bolus of the monster nationality appeared in his body. The road he was going to take was to be the first to cultivate to be a monster. His future was uncertain, but there was always a glimmer of hope.
Mu Tiannan has thought it very thoroughly in Spirit Spring. Lin Luoran is totally persuaded and expresses no objection.
When the three return to Dongting, they all know that the time for them to leave the earth is approaching.
Before that, Lin Luoran has to go to the Lost Land to get the Earth Element and the coordinates of Lins.
Liao is a little worried that Black Tortoise may eat its words, so he insists on going there with her. Thinking of the hidden danger of the old bat, Mu Tiannan also wants to go with them.
Everyone is eager to go together and Lin Luoran almost has a headache. Eventually, she goes to Bermuda waters with Mu Tiannan and Liao in the moonlight.
The opening of secret land goes smoothly. When Lin Luoran and others appear again, they are near the southwest of Lost Land.
Black Tortoise said that they had to get to the center by themselves.
Liao dislikes how the old tortoise mystifies things. Lin Luoran is so tired of his chatter that she wants to plug his mouth with something.
Facing the current strength of the three, the big monsters in the downturn don’t have the nerve to confront them. The three of Lin Luoran travel very smoothly all the way. She has been to the secret land three times. Only this time, she seems to be here to see the scenery. From time to time, she picks flowers and plants. It’s so free and leisure.
One day, the three of them pa.s.s by the magnetic mountain. The battle between the old bat and the second primordial spirit has lasted for a hundred years. They feel the breath of Lin Luoran and others. The two primordial spirits stop fighting for the first time and command a group of vampire bats to attack them.
Lin Luoran can’t figure out why the old bat hates her so much and insists on killing her.
Liao sneers. He briefly talks about the grudge between the old bat and the robe.
“He made the blood bats nationality lose the chance to become intelligent forever and destroyed their possibility of personal ability enhancement. He also trapped the old bat in the magnetic mountain as a living dead. It is really torture. You can’t blame the monster bat for becoming a psychopath and biting anyone it meets, not to mention that you have inherited the sacred pearl. The old bat naturally regards you as an eyesore.”
The old bat’s eyesore is not only Lin Luoran, but also Mu Tiannan. This despicable human broke his own arm to survive after it had taken so many efforts to develop him as a future body for hundreds of years. It hates him no less than Lin Luoran.
When Liao speaks, the black shadow Venerable is awakened by such a familiar voice and exclaims repeatedly, “It’s you… it’s you! I see… Haha, I finally understand it… I really regret that I didn’t kill her the moment I saw her! ”
The huge hatred in its words makes Lin Luoran shiver.
“Uncle Liao, is it your old friend? You know so much about the old story of the primitive world…”
Liao picks his ears while says confidently, “It must confuse me with someone else.”
Lin Luoran doesn’t think so. She feels that she is about to know Liao’s ident.i.ty. However, Mu Tiannan diverts her attention.
“Let’s keep moving. If we kill it, it actually means freedom for it.”
Liao gives Mu Tiannan a thumbs up quietly, and Mu Tiannan accepts it calmly. Yes, from the information that Hu Ji deliberately revealed from time to time, Mu Tiannan has gradually known the truth about the mystery of Lin Luoran’s ident.i.ty, including the so-called “covenant”. All information was indirectly revealed by Liao. Apparently, Liao is not on the camp of that unattainable existence.
Mu Tiannan admits that he is greedy. He wanted to protect Lin Luoran in the first place. However, he wants to keep Lin Luoran now.
Since Liao is helping him, he has to work hard to deserve it.
Diverting Lin Luoran’s attention and ignoring the mad curses of the old bat, they arrive in the center of Lost Land as scheduled.
Black Tortoise opens its eyes lazily. Seeing the warning in Liao’s eyes, it feels a little helpless.
Why are some people always so stubborn? Although that man is its big benefactor, that silly girl is actually the one who he is most grateful for.
Black Tortoise is not in the opposite position with Liao. It only hopes that the silly girl can have a chance to choose her own life by herself.
“Finally, you are here.” Black Tortoise nods to Lin Luoran. Lin Luoran suddenly feels it is kind of familiar in a weird sense. She doesn’t have the time to think about it, and Black Tortoise asks her again.
“Did you really think about it? The five elements you gather will eventually serve as the foundation for the earth’s rejuvenation. Even the s.p.a.ce you have cultivated for hundreds of years will not be preserved. In this case, are you still willing to keep going?”