Chapter 1473: I’ve Never Been Absent

Never in Xu Xiaolan’s wildest dreams would she have thought that she would battle the legendary Vermilion Bird one day. Phoenix Little Huang detected the danger its master was in and flew over from afar to help her.

Even though the Vermilion Bird’s power had been restricted by this special space, Xu Xiaolan was still no match for it. Even in its debilitated state, it could easily crush the average Dao Integration Stage mythological beast.

Xu Xiaolan was plunged into despair during that battle.

To put it in simpler terms, this was not even a battle. It was basically just a one-sided beating. She was constantly a hair’s breadth away from lethal danger, and it if weren’t for Little Huang relentlessly using its body to shield her from the holy beast’s attacks, she would’ve died a very ironic death of being burned alive.

It was also during this battle that Little Huang absorbed enough Holy Vermilion Flames and transcended to the Dao Integration Stage.

The phoenix let loose a proud, earsplitting cry!

They were both belted by the Vermilion Bird again.

This one-sided beating lasted for an entire day and night.

One day later…

Xu Xiaolan somehow managed to obtain the Vermilion Bird’s approval. Perhaps it was because of her never-say-die will, perhaps it was because of her exemplary aptitude, or perhaps it was because of her near-perfect Vermilion Bird bloodline… In any case, the battle concluded under rather baffling circumstances.

Sect Leader Zhu Xuze had already made up his mind to bring out the most powerful treasure within the Vermilion Bird Sect to fight the Vermilion Bird, only to discover Xu Xiaolan, her phoenix, and the Vermilion Bird sitting together and discussing dao like a happy family upon arriving at the Vermilion Bird Trial Grounds, making him wonder if he had stumbled upon an illusionary realm.

Xu Xiaolan received a lot of inspiration from that dao exchange with the Vermilion Bird, and her flame control and true intent improved by leaps and bounds.

Not only that, but she was also instated as the heir of the Vermilion Bird and was given the Vermilion Bird Divine Symbol and the Vermilion Bird Ring as a result. The Vermilion Bird Ring had been forcefully plucked from Mo Hai’s finger as that was an inherited item from the Vermilion Bird in the first place…

After that, Xu Xiaolan officially became the sole heir to the Vermilion Bird right before the astonished eyes of all of the disciples and elders of the Vermilion Bird Sect.

Even Xu Xiaolan herself felt as if this were all a dream.

However, this was reality.

“Why me?” Xu Xiaolan couldn’t help but ask.

An extremely humanized expression of melancholy appeared on the Vermilion Bird’s face upon hearing this.

It looked up into the sky and heaved a forlorn sigh, as if it was disappointed, but it was also as if it was relieved. It spread open its wings and disappeared into the distance.

The Vermilion Bird left just as quickly as it had come, not even bothering to say goodbye, which was as expected of its haughty and willful nature.

Xu Xiaolan didn’t get an answer in the end.

This event made her the undisputed number one heir to the position of the Vermilion Bird Sect sect leader.

Xu Xiaolan’s life didn’t really change because of this. She was the stand-in sect leader of the Four Nine Immortal Sect, so she really wasn’t all that interested in the Vermilion Bird Sect.

She continued to cultivate, instruct her disciples, beat up Little Huang, participate in the war, and wait for An Lin…

Of course, after receiving the acknowledgment and inheritance of the Vermilion Bird, she immediately arrived at the border of the Opposite Shore Realm to inform An Lin of the good news.

All of his friends, beast pets, disciples, and slaves also came and went.

All of them poured their hearts out to An Lin on the massive crater in the Opposite Shore Realm. Many of them often stayed with Xu Xiaolan and waited for the person that could very possibly never return.

As the war became more and more intense, many people were prohibited from making this journey by Xu Xiaolan as it was becoming far too dangerous.

Of course, Xu Xiaolan continued to regularly make this trip to wait for An Lin.

She would sneak over and stand beside the same dead log for two hours. Before she left, she would cast a restriction over the wooden cabin in order to protect it from the elements.

During the eightieth year following An Lin’s disappearance.

Xu Xiaolan arrived at the Holy Glacial Lands to take the final step. Her daos of the Vermilion Bird and the True Dragon had reached their pinnacles, and she was going to fuse those two powers of the divine dao together to embark on an unprecedented journey of Dao Integration!

Senior Shen Yin had once also attempted to integrate the dao of the Phoenix along with the dao of the True Dragon, resulting in failure that eventually led to her death.

Xu Xiaolan had accepted Shen Yin’s inheritance, and she was now attempting the same path to Dao Integration as Shen Yin once did.

She had Shen Yin’s prior experience and had learned all of Shen Yin’s lessons. At the same time, she had her own understanding of Dao Integration, and she was going to create a new dao rather than just try and force the two daos to integrate with one another.

What she was going to do was to intertwine the daos of the Vermilion Bird and the True Dragon in a corkscrew bind, allowing them to integrate with one another, but at the same time, they would also remain independent from one another.

This was going to be a whole new type of Dao Integration.

In other words, normal cultivators would only have one type of power of the divine dao following successful Dao Integration.

However, if Xu Xiaolan was to succeed in her Dao Integration, she would possess two different powers of the divine dao! This was no longer just a simple case of one plus one. It was most definitely an endeavor that had never been achieved and was even more audacious than Shen Yin’s attempt to create a brand new divine dao!

On that day, a Vermilion Bird Flame Wing over a hundred thousand feet in size transformed the Holy Glacial Lands into a scorching summer’s day.

A True Dragon roared as wind and clouds surged for tens of thousands of kilometers.

No living being knew who was integrating their dao. Some of the mighty figures could sense this development, but when they arrived at the scene, the tribulation transcender was already long gone, and they were only greeted by the sight of the severely ravaged earth.

Perhaps the tribulation transcender had perished or had simply hidden away.

No one saw the woman in the jade dress traveling to the border of the Opposite Shore Realm. She looked up at the sky excitedly as she informed a massive crater about her successful Dao Integration.

She had to tell the good news to An Lin at the first possible opportunity.

She wanted An Lin to be the first person to know about this. Even if her words received no reply, her smile was still warm enough to melt away tens of thousands of years of accumulated snow and ice.

After her successful Dao Integration, Xu Xiaolan became a secret weapon of the Four Nine Immortal Sect.

On the northern front, the Heavenly Human Tribe and Sinister Spirit Beast Cesspool armies had broken through the defensive line of the Holy Paradise and the Western Paradise, piercing into the Wind Plain State like a sharp knife

At this moment, a goddess descended upon the Wind Plain State atop a phoenix alongside over a thousand cultivators to hold off an army of hundreds of thousands, within which included a mythological beast and two Heaven Pioneer Stage Great Generals!

Xu Xiaolan became renowned as the Divine Phoenix Maiden across the entire continent following that epic battle.

The Four Nine Immortal Sect’s meteoric rise had the entire continent in shock and awe.

They had a Dao Integration Stage battleship, as well as four Dao Integration Stage super mighty figures in the form of Xiao Tu, Xiao Ze, the Divine Phoenix Maiden, and the phoenix, alongside countless Return to Void Stage and Soul Formation Stage powerful beings… The Four Nine Immortal Sect had risen to the top of the five great sects!

Xu Xiaolan was showered with accolades and revered by countless beings.

However, her life was still extremely simple and mundane. Cultivate, instruct disciples, bash Little Huang, participate in a battle, wait for An Lin, cultivate, instruct disciples, bash Little Huang, participate in a battle, wait for An Lin…

All the way up until one day.

She had finally reunited with her An Lin.

The story came to a conclusion.

An Lin listened to Xiaolan’s entire recount of the past hundred years.

The story was very long.

He listened for a very long time.

He tried to commit every single detail to memory.

It was as if he was trying to live those hundred years by Xiaolan’s side through her words…

He wanted to fill the century-long void in Xu Xiaolan’s life.

However, it was also at this moment that An Lin came to a sudden realization.

He had been absent for an entire century, but at the same time, he had never actually been absent at all.

Xu Xiaolan would come here to tell him about everything that had happened in her life.

Xu Xiaolan was waiting for An Lin every single day, and An Lin’s spirit had always been in her life.

He had never been absent.

He had merely been living in Xiaolan’s heart for the past hundred years.