That evening, Lin Ran left a letter and departed. The letter said, roughly, that he was off to roam the world in search of cultivation arts, with no set date for his return.
In fact, Lin Ran really did travel the world. This world had more than just the Sheng Kingdom and the Jing Kingdom. He wandered from place to place, occasionally catching monsters and slaying demons. With his strength, no target he set his sights on could escape.
But he was not the sort to kill every one he encountered. Many monsters, and even demons, bore no blood debts. Some even sheltered the people of an area and actually possessed merit! Whenever he encountered monsters like these, Lin Ran would chat with them, gaining quite a few insights.
Not all monsters were evil, and not all humans were good. Along his journey, Lin Ran slaughtered more wicked people than monsters.
As a result, though Lin Ran, the tiger, was absent from the martial world, legends of him circulated everywhere within it. The most sensational was how he stormed an immortal sect and swept up all its cultivation arts. In the eyes of the sect's disciples, Lin Ran was an out-and-out ferocious tiger!
After collecting the cultivation arts, Lin Ran combined them, with System's help, into the Ten Thousand Immortals Art, suitable for widespread cultivation.
Time flew by as he wandered, and Lin Ran's state of mind grew ever more profound. Having seen more, his mental state naturally rose, with something of the air of one who had seen through the mortal world.
Three years later, Lin Ran returned to the Jing Kingdom with an adorable little girl. He had picked up Linglong during his travels. As for why he had returned now, the reason was simple: he could not keep traveling! His sacred beast body was about to take that next step, and he was terribly sleepy every day! If Linglong had not been carrying him, he would have returned long ago.
"Linglong, this is the Jing Kingdom I told you about. Come on, let's go inside and find your Sister Susu and Brother Jin."
"Okay, Master!" Linglong said in her sweet, childish voice, darting into the Jing Kingdom.
After three years of change, the Jing Kingdom was far more prosperous than before he left. Linglong took out her little purse and bought two sugar figurines, keeping one for herself and holding the other to Lin Ran's mouth as he lay on her shoulder.
Everyone on the street smiled faintly at Linglong's actions.
Before long, Linglong reached the palace gates. This little girl was not to be underestimated. She had already embarked on the path of cultivation and was currently at Foundation Establishment.
Learning that someone was trying to force their way into the palace, a large group of guards gathered. Public order in the Jing Kingdom had been quite good these past three years, so someone trespassing into the palace was quite a novelty.
The guards frowned as they looked at the little girl before them and the strange beast on her shoulder.
Just then, a figure rushed over at tremendous speed. His face lit up at the sight of Linglong and Lin Ran, and he dismissed all the guards. The newcomer was naturally Tantai Jin.
"Long time no see, Little Jinjin."
"Long time no see, Senior."
"Little White!" Li Susu arrived then too. She reached out and took Lin Ran into her arms, rubbing her pretty face against him again and again.
"Who's this? She's so adorable!"
"Her name is Linglong. She's a disciple I took in during my travels. Don't underestimate her-she has an innate immortal body! If you two don't cultivate diligently, you really won't be her match. From now on, she'll cultivate alongside you two. Take good care of her."
"Linglong, this is your Brother Jin, and this is your Sister Susu."
"Brother Jin! Sister Susu!" Linglong called in her sweet, childish voice, prompting Li Susu to cup her little face and kiss her twice.
He passed the cultivation arts he had prepared for the two of them to them, and the jade slips containing the arts merged directly into their seas of consciousness.
Over the following days, Tantai Jin selected someone from the Yiyue Clan to serve as ruler of the Jing Kingdom. Li Susu also returned to the Ye Residence to bid farewell to the Ye Family. By then, everyone at the Ye Residence had begun cultivating the Ten Thousand Immortals Art too.
It had to be mentioned here that Tantai Jin and Li Susu had already fallen in love. Tantai Jin himself could not explain it clearly. Perhaps, after coming from the Sheng Kingdom's palace to the Ye Residence, he had finally lived the peaceful life he had dreamed of, leading him to fall in love with Ye Xiwu. Perhaps it was the care Li Susu showed him after transmigrating, or the influence of Prajna Floating Life, or the time they had spent together day and night over these three years. In any case, the two had fallen in love.
Once everything was arranged, Lin Ran took Li Susu, Tantai Jin, and Linglong to a mountain summit.
"Do you remember what I once told you?"
Li Susu and Tantai Jin looked a little puzzled, clearly not quite understanding what Lin Ran meant.
"This place can be seen as someone's Prajna Floating Life. Now, I'm going to send Susu back to where you came from! Of course, I'll bring Little Jinjin to find you."
A trace of confusion flashed through Li Susu's eyes, but she still chose to trust Lin Ran.
The sacred beast mark on Lin Ran's forehead flashed, and a thousand-meter-tall white tiger phantom manifested. With a furious roar, a spacetime passage appeared. Lin Ran nodded at Li Susu and sent her into it.
When the white tiger phantom dispersed, Li Susu was nowhere to be seen.
"Little Jinjin, take Linglong and cultivate diligently for these five hundred years. Five hundred years from now, I'll take you to find her."
"Thank you, Senior!"
"No need for thanks. Aren't we friends?"
"Of course we're friends. From the moment I met you, Senior, I considered you a friend."
"Good, then. I'm about to break through, and I'll fall into a deep sleep during that time. Unless you need something, don't disturb me."
Lin Ran laid down a great formation on the summit, cutting it off from everything outside. He left the two of them a token; only someone holding it could pass through the formation.
After Tantai Jin left with Linglong, Lin Ran stopped restraining himself. As he fell asleep, the system began drawing on the power of heaven and earth to help him shed his old flesh and bones and complete his transformation.
Originally, reaching sacred beast body greater accomplishment might have taken hundreds of thousands of years. With System's help, Lin Ran greatly shortened that period.
Five hundred years later, the day Lin Ran had agreed upon with the two arrived. Two figures flew swiftly over from afar.
"Brother, do you think Master will come out of seclusion today?" a pretty figure asked. Over these five hundred years, Linglong had grown into a young woman. Her aura was unfathomable, like a banished immortal descending into the world.
"Hard to say. Let's wait and see!" Tantai Jin said calmly, his aura likewise as deep as an abyss and vast as the sea.
That evening, the moment the sun sank behind the mountain summit, Lin Ran slowly opened his eyes. A white tiger phantom a hundred thousand feet tall abruptly manifested, and the overwhelming pressure of a sacred beast swept out wildly. Tantai Jin's and Linglong's expressions changed, and they hurriedly circulated their cultivation to resist the pressure Lin Ran released.
Sweeping out his divine sense, Lin Ran was startled to discover that Dandan Jin and Linglong were waiting for him at the foot of the mountain. In a flash, he appeared before them.
"Master, I've already broken through to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage! Isn't Linglong amazing?" Linglong threw herself onto Lin Ran, rubbing her little head against him over and over.
"Very good, very good! You broke through to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage in five hundred years, and your foundations are solid too. Just what I'd expect of an innate immortal body."
"Little Jinjin has done well too. You're about to break through to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage as well. You've far exceeded my expectations!"
"Let's go. It's time. I'll take you to look around the Nether River. We should be able to meet someone connected to us by fate there."
With a thought from Lin Ran, the three vanished instantly. The next moment, three figures appeared in the Nether River.
The Nether River was quite different from what Lin Ran had imagined. Its environment was extremely harsh, and many broken souls wandered within it. Barring any surprises, these souls would ultimately be corroded away completely by the waters of the Nether River.
Lin Ran told the two to wait, then leaped into the Nether River to search for the God-Slaying Crossbow. Under System's guidance, he obtained the demonic artifact, the God-Slaying Crossbow, without so much as the effort of blowing away dust.
The passage of time was completely imperceptible within the Nether River. Lin Ran and the other two had no idea how long they waited before Immortal Zhaoyou finally arrived. A mischievous glint flashed through Lin Ran's eyes, and he promptly knocked Linglong and Tantai Jin unconscious, concealing their cultivation realms.
Immortal Zhaoyou was rather puzzled. Wasn't there supposed to be one person? Why were there an extra person and a tiger? Helpless, he could only take all three back with him. He did not notice the little tiger in Linglong's arms secretly open his eyes and look him over.