After questioning her carefully, Chen Lin had Han Shenliu leave.
The expenditure of eleven hundred Nightmare Coins left Han Shenliu deeply remorseful, but Chen Lin said nothing against her. Instead, he reassured her and would still honor his earlier promise.
It was not her fault.
Clearly, that black toad was the former Golden Toad. For some unknown reason, he had become a gatekeeper, and he surely remembered the aura of Chen Lin's Fishing Rod. After noticing that Han Shenliu might be connected to Chen Lin, he had deliberately targeted her.
As for why he had suddenly become a gatekeeper when he had clearly already begun transforming into a Qi Luck Guardian, there was no way to know. Perhaps the original Qi Luck Guardian had not died after all, or had come back to life.
Chen Lin shook his head helplessly.
Golden Toad's failure to become a Guardian was good news for him. A Guardian was so powerful that he might be able to strike at Chen Lin from afar through a medium. For that reason, Chen Lin had kept his Fishing Rod sealed with a special treasure in recent years.
But the Gambling Fortune Lake Scenario had changed, and Golden Toad had become its gatekeeper. Exploring this scenario again would be difficult.
Perhaps obtaining a peerage rank would make Golden Toad more wary of him.
After muttering this to himself, Chen Lin stopped dwelling on it.
Since this path was blocked, he would set it aside for now. There were plenty of Medium Objects connected to the Nightmare Realm; he could explore others first.
He then continued studying the Transformation Technique, along with the two Dao Arts, Five Thunders Smite the Crown and Blade of Destiny.
Time flew by.
One day, while studying the Transformation Technique with his body transformed