"You're amazing, Little White! At first, I thought you were just bragging! I never imagined you were really this powerful!"
"Did something happen?" Chun Tao looked bewildered. Lin Ran had told her to wait in the carriage earlier, so she had missed seeing his true form.
"Senior, what realm are you currently in?"
"We sacred beasts cultivate differently from you cultivators, but I can thrash great cultivators in the Tribulation Transcendence Realm. Unless a god appears, I'm invincible!"
"If only I could be as powerful as you someday, Senior! No, no, even a tenth as powerful would be enough!" Li Susu said with a look of longing.
"Both of you have the potential to become gods. Don't belittle yourselves. Susu, you're the daughter of the ancient goddess Chuhuang, while Little Jinjin was born with a demonic body."
Tantai Jin and Li Susu were stunned. So the two of them were actually that badass?
"I'm the daughter of the goddess Chuhuang?"
"Yes. When we reach the Mo River in a couple of days, you'll have a chance to see your mother. Remember to make the most of it."
"My mother isn't dead?"
"Gods exist eternally in this world. They merely merged their bodies into this world. As long as someone still remembers them, they remain alive."
The most shocked of all was Chun Tao. What had happened? In just this little while, she had discovered that everyone around her was a big shot, and she, a little chubby maid, was the only mortal!
Two days later, beside the Mo River, Lin Ran parted the rushing waters with a thought and led the three of them into Ming Ye's Prajna Floating Life.
To Chen Xiu's surprise, he still looked the same. As for Chun Tao, she had become a maid attending Sang Jiu. Well, Chun Tao was simply destined to be a maid.
After experiencing Ming Ye's Prajna Floating Life, Tantai Jin looked at Li Susu with a complicated expression. Noticing something amiss in Tantai Jin's gaze, Lin Ran examined him and discovered that his Seven Emotions Tree had already revived!
Dandan Jin was now a normal person, with his own joy, anger, sorrow, and delight.
"So this is what happiness feels like? Before, I only knew about it, but I couldn't feel it."
"Do you hate Tian Huan?" Lin Ran asked the three of them.
"Of course! It was all because of her that this tragedy happened," Chun Tao answered first.
"If I told you that your ending, Little Jinjin and Ye Xiwu, was no better than Ming Ye and Sang Jiu's, would you believe me?"
"Your words naturally have their reasons, Senior, even if we don't understand them yet."
"You can think of me as someone who transmigrated from the future. This world is both real and false, just like this Prajna Floating Life. In the future I saw, you and Little Jinjin fell in love, but because Ye Bingchang interfered, your grandmother was poisoned to death, all the men of the Ye family died in battle, and you fell into utter despair and chose to kill yourself. And this foolish boy entered the Nether River alone and searched for you for five hundred years," Lin Ran told Li Susu.
"If we also understand the present as someone's Prajna Floating Life, all I did was make Ye Bingchang leave ahead of time. You'll see her again in the future. If she still refuses to repent, I'll have no choice but to kill her."
"Mm, thank you, Little White, for doing so much for us." Li Susu rubbed her cheek against Lin Ran's large head.
"I came here with a goal too: the Devil God's three demonic artifacts and the Evil Bone. I'm taking them away. Leaving them here would only bring disaster anyway. Only by completely destroying the Evil Bone can we prevent the Devil God from reviving again."
"All right. It's only thanks to the great formation Ming Ye laid down that I can tell you these things. Now you understand the situation. Once we've settled matters in Jing Kingdom, I'll find you some cultivation techniques. Cultivate diligently. I'll also be leaving for a while."
"Senior, you're leaving?" Li Susu couldn't help hugging Lin Ran tighter. He rolled his eyes at her, shrank his body, and climbed onto her shoulder.
"You'll know when the time comes."
Lin Ran brought them back to shore, boarded the carriage, and continued toward Jing Kingdom.
Lin Ran was still rather curious. What he had done had affected Tantai Minglang quite a bit. At this point, the King of Jing should have only just died. He wondered whether Tantai Minglang had ascended the throne yet.
Two days later, as the carriage slowly entered Jing Kingdom, Li Susu was the first to jump out. She had grown tired of spending every day in the carriage.
"Little White, Tantai Jin, let's have a look around and see how things are in Jing Kingdom while we're at it."
Lin Ran didn't answer; he was fast asleep. Tantai Jin nodded, and Li Susu gave a radiant smile that left him staring in a daze.
"Tantai Jin?" Li Susu waved her hand in confusion. Tantai Jin blushed and hurriedly turned his head away.
"Wow! Tantai Jin, you're actually blushing! Looks like it's really just as Little White said. You have the seven emotions and six desires now!"
Tantai Jin nodded and was about to speak when the Evil Bone inside him suddenly stirred. Its power also jolted Lin Ran awake, and he looked Tantai Jin over in shock and uncertainty.
"Senior, I can barely control myself anymore! The Evil Bone is taking over my body!"
"So be it! I'll extract the Evil Bone, then. Bear with it!"
Lin Ran no longer held back. Vast sacred beast power poured into Tantai Jin's body, wrapping the Evil Bone in layer upon layer. As Lin Ran exerted his strength, the Evil Bone struggled constantly, but he still slowly stripped it out of Tantai Jin's body.
Li Susu stared fixedly at the Evil Bone. Although she had seen it in the Prajna Floating Life, she still found it terrifying.
As Lin Ran put the Evil Bone into the system space, Tantai Jin spat out a mouthful of blood. Li Susu hurriedly supported the weakened Tantai Jin, looking at him with concern.
Lin Ran spent a thousand origin points to exchange for a pill. After Tantai Jin took it, his aura visibly recovered to its peak.
With a thought, Lin Ran teleported Nian Baiyu over and introduced them to one another. Tantai Jin was quite surprised to learn Nian Baiyu's identity, while Nian Baiyu was excited as hell.
"Little Jinjin, do you want to play at being emperor for a few days? Once we find a suitable candidate, you can just pass the throne to him."
"I'll do as you say, Senior."
"All right, then you can be emperor for now."
Lin Ran and the others spent the next two days enjoying themselves in Jing Kingdom. On the third day, Lin Ran assumed his true form and brought Tantai Jin to Jing Kingdom's imperial palace.
"Fu Yu, what realm is this tiger demon in?" Tantai Minglang asked Fu Yu beside him, trembling. Fu Yu was even more frightened than he was.
Although their auras were completely opposite, an inexplicable intuition told her that the terrifying beast before her was the tiger demon that had escaped back then!
"Your Majesty, this tiger demon's strength is unfathomable. I'd better take you away and flee first!"
Lin Ran slammed a paw down, smashing Fu Yu and Tantai Minglang into nothing, leaving not even their bones behind. His tiger eyes fixed on the other ministers.
"You've all seen Tantai Minglang's conduct these past few days. He was no wise ruler, so the throne will pass to the King of Jing's youngest son, Tantai Jin. Who objects?"
"I ob-" Before several ministers could even finish speaking, Lin Ran snuffed out their lives.
"All right. Since no one objects, get on with preparing for the coronation."
After speaking, Lin Ran slowly shrank his massive body, jumped onto Tantai Jin's shoulder, and left with him. He had finished establishing Tantai Jin's authority; Lin Ran trusted him to handle the rest.