Chapter 1469: Xiaolan’s Hundred Year Story (First Part)
Near the Lan Lin Cabin.
“I built this house for you. I was thinking that you would know I’ve been waiting for you here when you come back and see this house.” Xu Xiaolan made her way over to the cabin with An Lin’s hand in hers. “But I didn’t think that you would return to the Tai Chu Continent near the Falling Dragon Abyss.”
An Lin sighed with emotion. “Life sure works in some wonderful ways sometimes. I had only just come back, and you guys were coincidentally taking care of the Falling Dragon Abyss base. This shows that we really are connected by fate!”
A thought seemed to have suddenly occurred to Xu Xiaolan, and a smile appeared on her face. “What did you think of me fighting while riding a phoenix?”
“My only thought at that time was: My wife is super bad*ss!” An Lin gave an honest admission.
Xu Xiaolan faltered slightly upon hearing this. How many years had it been since she had last heard An Lin’s shameless words? This nostalgic scene brought back so many memories.
Tears welled up in her eyes again, and she wiped at her eyes with embarrassment. Never did she think that she would become such a crybaby someday.
An Lin’s heart throbbed with pain upon seeing this, and he held onto Xu Xiaolan’s hand with an earnest expression. “Xiaolan, you can beat me up if you need to release some pent-up emotions!”
Xu Xiaolan burst into laughter at the sight of An Lin’s serious expression. “I’m too powerful now. I might accidentally kill you.”
An Lin was a little scared. Xiaolan really was extremely powerful now!
“By the way, Xiaolan, you’re progressing way too quickly! Even if a hundred years have passed, I’m sure it’s unheard of for anyone to progress from the Return to Void Initial Stage to the Dao Integration Stage in a hundred years.” An Lin was a little curious.
The two of them sat down, and Xu Xiaolan brewed some tea as they continued to chat.
Xu Xiaolan could see the envy and astonishment in An Lin’s eyes, and a small, smug smile appeared on her face. “It’s a long story. I’ve encountered quite a few miraculous opportunities during these last hundred years.”
Thus, she began to recount her experiences in the past hundred years.
This was quite a long story.
An Lin listened very intently. He wanted to know how Xiaolan lived and what she did during the hundred years in which he was away.
The first decade was rather mundane.
Xiaolan refused to believe that An Lin had died, so she situated the Flame Pavilion of the Four Nine Immortal Sect here in this glacial wasteland.
All she did every day was cultivate, instruct her disciples, wait for An Lin, cultivate, instruct her disciples, wait for An Lin, wait for An Lin, wait for An Lin, wait for An Lin, wait for An Lin…
That was basically it.
Perhaps the heavy psychological blow that had been inflicted upon her instilled her with a certain belief, and her dao heart became clearer and firmer. As a result, her cultivation base motored along, and she progressed to the Return to Void Intermediate Stage after just ten years.
After progressing to the Return to Void Intermediate Stage, her life didn’t really change much. She was still cultivating, instructing her disciples, waiting for An Lin… The only thing worth mentioning was that Xu Xiaolan had become Ye Ling’s fill-in Master.
Ye Ling possessed extraordinarily terrifying aptitude. She had progressed to the Soul Formation Stage eleven years later when she was only eighteen!
Ye Ling was already at the Soul Formation Stage when she first attended The United University of Cultivation, and this had shocked the entire school. She was a legendary figure in the school who even managed to outdo the records that An Lin and Xu Xiaolan had set. She entered the University Hall of Fame, dominated the Immortal Rankings Board for five consecutive years, progressed to the Return to Void Stage in her fourth year, and also cleared all one hundred levels of the Immortal Spirit Tower…
It was like she was using hacks during those few years, and all of the students rated her as a legendary prodigy the likes of which was only slightly inferior to An Lin and Xu Xiaolan.
On the night of her graduation.
Ye Ling knelt down before An Lin’s statue in the University Hall of Fame and cried for an entire night.
As she wept, she was telling the statue that she had always been working very hard so that she would not bring shame to her master. She prayed for An Lin’s spirit on the other side and told the statue that she was going to carry his legacy following his death.
An Lin’s lips twitched upon hearing that last part about his dead spirit.
Xu Xiaolan found this to be quite funny, and she explained that no one else knew about what Ye Ling had done that day. She only managed to find out Ye Ling’s little secret for herself as she had surreptitiously followed Ye Ling after her graduation ceremony. Ye Ling’s dedication toward her master had greatly moved her.
Xu Xiaolan intentionally kept a secret from An Lin when recounting this event.
When Ye Ling was weeping before An Lin’s statue that day, she also couldn’t hold back her tears as she looked on from a corner.
Following Ye Ling’s graduation, she came to wait for her master here along with Xu Xiaolan.
Her rate of cultivation was extremely fast, even faster than Xu Xiaolan and An Lin at the same stage.
However, an old daoist priest with a cow’s nose suddenly appeared one day.
This was the very same daoist priest who had guided Ye Ling to look for An Lin. He said that Ye Ling was progressing too quickly and that she needed to slow down, or she was going to die when she tried to break through to the Dao Integration Stage!
He didn’t say that Ye Ling didn’t have the aptitude to progress to the Dao Integration Stage. It was just that progressing too quickly would make her dao foundation unstable, which would prove to be fatal in the future.
Thus, Ye Ling slowed down in her rate of cultivation and remained at the pinnacle of the Return to Void Initial Stage even after several decades.
Xu Xiaolan’s life was still quite mundane. Cultivate, instruct disciples, wait for An Lin…
The death of the Heavenly Time God seemed to have dealt a heavy blow to the Heavenly Dao, and no more disasters struck for a long time.
During this period of respite, countless prodigies appeared all over the Tai Chu Continent, creating many legends.
Xu Xiaolan and Ye Ling seemed to have disappeared from the public eye. People would still discuss their past legends, but they rarely ever made any news headlines anymore.
During the fortieth year following An Lin’s disappearance.
Divine Flames erupted into the sky within the Phoenix Small World.
The phoenix egg had hatched.
The proud phoenix soared through the heavens, unwilling to concede to any other living being.
Xu Xiaolan told the phoenix that it was An Lin’s beast pet, its name was Little Huang, and that it had to a good, obedient phoenix.
The phoenix was dumbstruck by the fact that its name was Little Huang. It then labeled the name as trash and absolutely disgraceful. It also had no idea of who An Lin was.
All of these indicated that the beast pet contract had no effect on it.
It was as if An Lin really had died.
The phoenix was like a naughty child who insisted on wreaking havoc everywhere and refused to listen to anyone.
Xu Xiaolan was enraged and fought the phoenix.
The newborn phoenix was very weak. It was only at the Return to Void Stage, and it was soon pummeled into submission by Xu Xiaolan.
After that, Xu Xiaolan was injured, and her blood somehow made the phoenix concede to her, and the phoenix begged her to create a beast pet contract with it.
Xu Xiaolan speculated that this was due to the essential power of the Vermilion Bird within her blood, and she was able to easily subdue the phoenix.
Thus, phoenix Little Huang became her beast pet following a rather baffling set of circumstances.
The Four Nine Immortal Sect’s new phoenix created another massive stir across the entire Tai Chu Continent.
Xu Xiaolan didn’t really care much. She continued to cultivate, instruct her disciples, bash Little Huang, and wait for An Lin.
All the way up until one day, an extremely terrifying change took place in this world.
…