Chapter 1153: An Lin’s Yearning Toward the Return to Void Stage

After thoroughly abusing some single people, An Lin and Xu Xiaolan set forth on their journey again.

Long Aotian chatted briefly with the two of them before specifically inquiring about the Dragon Court’s current situation.

He was the former general of the Dragon Court’s Divine Guardian Squad, so he was quite curious about these things, but he had no intention of returning to the Dragon Court.

Shen Yin had passed away, and he was a free man, so he didn’t want to go back.

“Senior Long Aotian, you can come to the Four Nine Immortal Sect!” An Lin suggested.

“Hmm, I’m not a fan of authority. I just want to be a free, itinerant cultivator and battle with no qualms.” Long Aotian was a little hesitant about joining a sect.

Xu Xiaolan chimed in, “The Four Nine Immortal Sect is different. Even our sect leader, An Lin, doesn’t really do anything, so he’s not really going to restrict you in any way. You’ll only be an in-name member of the sect, so when there’s something going on, we fight together, but when there isn’t, you’re free to do whatever you like!”

“Th… there are no specific missions or duties?” Long Aotian was a little surprised.

An Lin patted his chest with a smile. “Of course! If you want to take on missions and duties, you can, but they’re certainly not compulsory. You can pretty much do whatever you want and go wherever you want!

“If you become an elder, we will allocate you a house and a salary as well. As long as you don’t tarnish the sect’s reputation or do anything bad, if someone wants to hurt you, you can summon the entire sect to hurt them back!”

Long Aotian fell into deep thought.

The conditions An Lin presented were extremely alluring.

The reason why he didn’t want to enter any sect was that there were too many annoying rules and responsibilities that followed.

However, it sounded like An Lin’s Four Nine Immortal Sect was a very free sect…

Furthermore, he felt like this sect was a very good prospect. In fact, it could be said that it had limitless potential. An Lin and Xu Xiaolan were both acquaintances or perhaps even friends of his, so there would be no issues with communication.

Sometimes, joining a sect was a huge cultivation opportunity. Long Aotian was very much aware of this.

“Alright, I’ll think about it, and I’ll give you my reply when we make it out of the Ancient Tai Chu Dragon Realm,” Long Aotian finally said after much thought.

An Lin and Xu Xiaolan were ecstatic to hear this. This response meant that Long Aotian was very likely to join the sect.

Having another Return to Void Final Stage mighty figure as an elder of the sect would be amazing.

The Four Nine Immortal Sect wouldn’t just accept anyone, but Long Aotian was once Shen Yin’s subordinate, and he had just saved An Lin and Xu Xiaolan, so he couldn’t be a bad person.

As such, it would be fantastic if they could recruit Long Aotian into the Four Nine Immortal Sect!

After chatting for a while longer, Long Aotian decided to bid farewell to the two of them.

He preferred to hunt and battle alone.

An Lin didn’t try to keep him, so their three-man party became a two-man party.

“Xiaolan, it’s time we look for Xiao Ze now. Even though he has thick skin, it would still be quite dangerous for him if he encounters any Return to Void Final Stage mighty figures,” An Lin said with a slightly concerned expression.

Xu Xiaolan nodded. “No problem! I can finally help out as well!”

An Lin patted Xu Xiaolan’s head with a smile. “You sure can! You’re now an invincible below Return to Void Final Stage mighty figure!”

Xu Xiaolan pouted. “I’m not even scared of Return to Void Final Stage mighty figures, so why are you saying ‘below’?”

“In that battle against Zhuo Ma, you landed a killing blow on it when it was very much a spent force. In terms of actual power, you have a lot of improvements to make. To be honest, the current you might not even be able to defeat your grandfather!”

An Lin felt like Xu Xiaolan was getting a little too inflated, so he offered a merciless reality check.

Xu Xiaolan was still unconvinced. “When I fought Zhuo Ma, I was only a rookie Return to Void Stage mighty figure. But now, I’ve absorbed Zhuo Ma’s power of dragons and am already at the Return to Void Initial Stage! I’m a lot more powerful than I was!”

An Lin opened his mouth, but he didn’t have a response to this.

Xu Xiaolan patted her chest with a smug smile. “Hence, starting from now on, please refer to me as Xu ‘invincible below Dao Integration Stage’ Xiaolan!”

An Lin: “…”

Crap, it looked like he had well and truly been overtaken by Xu Xiaolan…

Where was his dignity as the husband?

An Lin fell into deep thought.

Xu Xiaolan was feeling quite good after flexing to An Lin.

She felt like she was falling in love with this feeling.

The two of them sat on the brick as they roamed the boundless Ancient Tai Chu Dragon Realm.

Xu Xiaolan would unleash some exquisite fire and lightning sword slashes to slay some mutant beasts with Dragon Tribe bloodlines. These mutant beasts could still provide some power of dragons, but it was significantly inferior to that yielded by the cultivators from the three main Dragon Tribes.

Slaying ten Soul Formation Stage Dragon Tribe bloodline mutant beasts didn’t even provide as much power of dragons as slaying a Soul Formation Stage evil dragon.

If she were still at the Soul Formation Stage, perhaps she would have to be more cautious with her choice of prey.

However, these mutant beasts were pretty much freebies to Xu Xiaolan now.

She had reached the Return to Void Stage, and her divine sense could easily encompass a radius of over fifty kilometers. As they flew along on the brick, she had performed many instances of slaying an enemy from over fifty kilometers away for An Lin to see, making him green with envy.

“Ah… I really want to progress to the Return to Void Stage too…”

An Lin lamented as he pulled out his Evil-Slaying Sword to try and hurry it into nurturing a spirit.

Urging the Evil-Slaying Sword to nurture a spirit was An Lin’s daily mission. Setting aside whether it was actually useful or not, he had to do his part. This was like people in a family urging someone in the same family to get married. Whether it was contributing to anything was unimportant. The most important thing was that their attitude was conveyed.

An Lin was telling the Evil-Slaying Sword with his attitude: It’s time to nurture a spirit!

Evil-Slaying Sword: F*ck off!

“Xiaolan, Xiaolan, how does it feel to be a Return to Void Stage mighty figure?”

“Return to Void Stage? It feels fantastic!”

“… How so?”

“Hmm, my consciousness and vital energy have been significantly enhanced, my sea of vital energy is boundless, my senses are more powerful, my sense of space is extremely powerful, which gives me a different perspective when looking at this world, my dao intent is more powerful…”

Xu Xiaolan rattled off a massive list of pros, and An Lin was filled with anticipation as well as a little disconsolation.

Why was it so easy for Xu Xiaolan to progress to the Return to Void Stage? He had to obtain cultivation methods as well as a divine pill and a divine tool. It really wasn’t fair!

“Oh, right, can we try spatial travel?” Xu Xiaolan suddenly asked.

“Why are you thinking about trying it now? We don’t have a map of the Ancient Tai Chu Realm, nor any coordinates, so there’s no need to use spatial travel, right?” An Lin was a little perplexed.

“It’s because it’s my first time…” A faint blush appeared on Xu Xiaolan’s face. “I’m a little scared, so I want to try and master this skill with you here beside me.”

“So you’re saying if we die, at least we die together?” An Lin found this to be a little funny, but at the same time, it was quite a sweet feeling that Xu Xiaolan was offering to share this experience with him.

Xu Xiaolan glared at An Lin. “Don’t say that! I just feel safer with you by my side.”

For a Return to Void Stage mighty figure, their first attempt at spatial travel was actually a slightly dangerous endeavor.

There were some extremely unlucky mighty figures in history who had been killed by chaotic spatial turbulence due to a lack of proficiency in spatial travel.

This was like learning to drive a car. All Return to Void Stage mighty figures could drive, but newbie drivers had a much greater chance of being in an accident! She had to progress to become a veteran driver as soon as possible!

There were two general types of spatial travel—random travel or set-location travel.

Random travel was basically tearing open a spatial rift and walking around at random amid the chaos before re-emerging at a random place.

Set-location travel was, as the name suggested, where one had a set location in mind before engaging in spatial travel.

Xu Xiaolan was going to attempt the latter in this case.

“Let’s go to the summit of that mountain!” An Lin pointed to a mountain over fifty kilometers away.

“Alright.” Xu Xiaolan nodded.

She took a deep breath and experienced the rippling of space around her before abruptly tearing open a spatial rift!