Vol 6 Chapter 30: Dinner Time
"Why would an Immortal Emperor choose a guy like you?"
Zhu Yan’s power had skyrocketed recently, and he no longer feared fighting a mid-Seeking the Way stage cultivator.
Those dozen or so immortal thunderbolts had given him plenty of confidence.
However, Zhu Yan was a grateful man who valued feelings and loyalty; in an instant the elderly man in Tang attire had already found his fatal weakness.
Earth’s environment simply wasn’t suited for him to go all-out in hand-to-hand combat.
He had too many people he cared about. If any of them were harmed or killed because of him, Zhu Yan knew he could never forgive himself, and his subsequent pursuit of the Dao would surely fail.
What he feared most had arrived: among the competitors there was one unscrupulous demonic cultivator. In an instant, Zhu Yan didn’t know what to do.
Although he had left many contingency plans to protect his master and fellow disciples, those backups simply could not withstand a demonic cultivator at the Seeking the Way stage.
"If you’re willing to trust me... then your fight can begin."
"Lin Jing...?" Seeing Lin Jing, Zhu Yan almost forgot about this guy. Although Lin Jing was also a Heaven's Mandate competitor, the last time they met they had agreed that any dispute would be resolved in the stars. That showed Lin Jing, despite a fearsome reputation as an enemy of all worlds in the cultivation community, was essentially on the same side as Zhu Yan—fundamentally different from the elder in Tang clothing.
"Good." Zhu Yan understood Lin Jing intended to sit back and watch while he and the Tang-clad elder weakened each other, but as long as the sect on Earth didn’t get involved, that was the best outcome in his view.
"Then thank you, Brother Lin." Zhu Yan cupped his fist and entrusted the Earth behind him to Lin Jing’s protection.
"Don’t mention it." Lin Jing waved his hand.
"Where did you come from again?" Seeing Lin Jing so brazenly declare he would block his plan, the Tang-clad elder’s brow tightened... An early Void Mystical stage cultivator was far weaker than this young Daoist.
Were these two teaming up against him?
He couldn’t help but laugh. The other two transmigrators—one early Void Mystical, one complete Void Mystical—were Heaven's Mandate competitors. Although they hadn’t originally chosen him, the Tang-clad elder felt they were effectively in his grasp now.
At the same time, Lin Jing had the same thought as the Tang-clad elder.
This Heaven's Mandate... the power it added was indeed extraordinary.
The last time Lin Jing saw Zhu Yan, ignoring the Longevity Body issue and judging purely by combat power, the other could only be considered an ordinary peak talent of the Origin Realm—nowhere near a mid-level prodigy like Administration Hall’s lord Yan Yunshuang.
After all, Yan Yunshuang, as a Five Thunder Immortal Physique, was born with five kinds of immortal thunder. Provided he didn’t meet one of the rare monsters in the Origin Realm, his strength was terrifying.
Before Lin Jing, none of the lightning inside Zhu Yan had reached Immortal-grade.
But now it was completely different. The other’s body contained no fewer than a dozen immortal thunderbolts; that single change instantaneously lifted his tier beyond prodigies like the Star Longevity Crane, even rivaling or surpassing the Heavenly Demon Sacred Son.
Of course, in the Tang-clad elder’s eyes that level still meant little—at best, he was just a lightning-attribute Dragon Carp.
Still, for the other’s Heaven's Mandate to have been fused for only half an hour and already produce such sweeping power changes was astonishing. If there hadn’t been enough time to fully develop the Heaven's Mandate, the increase would normally be much smaller.
For now, Tang-clad elder did not view the first transmigrator, the early Void Mystical elder, as a true opponent; this made him feel even less pressured.
A Longevity Body plus an acquired later-life blood-immortal physique—their biggest advantage might simply be higher cultivation, but for him, that was nothing. Whether he could defeat even one of them with a single avatar still required consideration.
The only thing to be cautious about now was whether the other side had hidden trump cards.
After all, Earth had yielded many valuable things that he had obtained; if his opponents had secured some as well, that could still cause trouble.
That was why Lin Jing first planned to observe the situation.
Besides, he could let his pet beasts and avatars go first. As long as the beast tamer himself remained unharmed, the overall picture wouldn’t be affected.
Lin Jing’s indifference infuriated the Tang-clad elder—he had never encountered such a casual Void Mystical cultivator.
"Then let’s see if you two truly have the ability." he sneered.
"Haha."
He split in two, both reaching the Seeking the Way stage, yet his avatars remained intact.
The Seeking the Way avatar appeared and the elder’s true body rushed straight for Zhu Yan to seize the Heaven's Mandate, while the blood-essence avatar charged straight at Lin Jing, intending to teach Lin Jing a lesson.
"Can... you hand it over to me?"
A soft but resolute voice sounded in Lin Jing’s ear, and Lin Jing gave an affirmative nod.
The Star Longevity Crane.
This crane must have seen that the Tang-clad elder cultivated the Blood Path and recalled its own enemy, the Blood Prison Demon God, which made it want to strike back.
A faint starlight spread.
The Star Longevity Crane flew out from a rippling void.
"Just a lowly early Void Mystical beast dares to stop me?" The blood avatar of the Tang-clad elder sneered, not taking the Star Longevity Crane seriously.
But in the next instant his eyes went green. From the arriving crane he sensed a strong nourishing aura. The crane had merged with divine pills and swallowed a Divine Physique Pill; combined with its Longevity flesh, it suddenly stirred the Tang-clad elder.
Eating this crane might send his Longevity Body into a complete breakthrough and transform it into an immortal body!
His perception was not wrong—under Lin Jing’s nurturing, the Star Longevity Crane already possessed Immortal-grade bloodline. If a Longevity Body consumed it, the boost would indeed be enormous—but only if the eater had the strength to take advantage of it.
"Array, rise." An early Seeking the Way against an early Void Mystical should have been an absolute crush, but to the blood avatar’s astonishment, the crane sent by Lin Jing produced an immortal artifact formation banner!
An immortal artifact itself wasn’t unusual, but the strange thing was that this early Void Mystical crane’s own magic power was all Immortal Power, not lower-tier energies from the lower realms. With a massive injection of Immortal Power, the banner spat out countless crane feathers that formed a grand formation!
It was unbelievable: a Time Dao massive array.
Ever since his pet beasts could all generate Immortal Power, Lin Jing had assigned each of them an immortal artifact. The one given to the Star Longevity Crane was naturally the Time Dao Immortal Banner that Kun Jie had gifted—perfectly suited to its attributes.
Inside the array, as the Time Flow Rate altered, time on the blood avatar seemed to slow by a hundredfold, though the panic in its eyes remained vivid.
"Lin Jing... that Daoist just called you Lin Jing. I remember hearing when I went to the Meteor Sea that you were the beast tamer who, together with the Cultivation Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Realm, fought over the Origin Realm’s immortal power and monopolized the lower realm’s Origin Sources for five centuries..."
"So you’re that legendary demon!!"
"You actually know of me? Well-informed indeed." Lin Jing tapped his chair.
"Dinner’s served."
The Void Mystical Domain manifested, and a horde of mosquito beasts poured out from their nests, scorching hot as they eyed the immobilized blood avatar. One frog that had sneaked in blinked dumbly and looked around, bewildered—where was this place?