Before Zuo Lin'an left, he gave one last reminder.
“Remember to retrieve the specter item.”
“Alright.”
His figure quickly vanished from the spot, leaving only Feng Xingyun and the old Daoist behind.
Along with them was Lin Xiaolei, who was still lying unconscious on the ground.
Feng Xingyun walked over slowly and retrieved the specter item, the 【Withered Leaf】.
“Wake him up. It will make things easier.”
“I still need to explain some things about specter dungeons and the supernatural world to you both in a moment.”
The old Daoist nodded. A spark of electricity crackled at his fingertip, and he poked Lin Xiaolei with it.
Lin Xiaolei's entire body convulsed before he slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing out of his mouth was...
“You senile old man, shocking me again!”
However, he quickly snapped out of it.
“Holy crap! I...”
Lin Xiaolei leaped to his feet.
“I'm back? Grandfather, what is this...”
The old Daoist sighed.
“We failed to clear the dungeon. We have to stay behind as puppets.”
Lin Xiaolei blinked, still a bit dazed.
“We're... puppets?”
Feng Xingyun was about to take the Withered Leaf and look for the vase, but several small paper puppets soon ran out of the withered forest in the distance, carrying a vase between them.
The very last paper puppet trailed behind them, dragging a withered branch.
The old Daoist led Lin Xiaolei closer.
“I must trouble the steward to explain the situation to us.”
Even now, the old Daoist had not entirely given up on leaving.
Although he had felt an indescribable change wash over his body the moment they failed to clear the dungeon, he still harbored a sliver of hope.
Feng Xingyun saw right through him, but he didn't rush to point it out. Instead, he directly explained many things regarding the supernatural world to them.
He spoke especially of specter dungeons and the various worlds.
“The previous one was a Wuxia World. I was originally a native of that world who was selected by a specter dungeon to become a player. In the end, I failed to clear it and became a dungeon puppet.”
Lin Xiaolei's eyes widened.
“A Wuxia World?”
“Then... does that mean there's qinggong and stuff? What about divine techniques, like a flaming palm or an icy palm?”
He looked incredibly excited.
Feng Xingyun patiently explained, “Indeed, there are similar things. Many worlds have completely different power systems, and your world is categorized as the 【Paranormal World】.”
The old Daoist stood to the side, looking somewhat dazed.
A Wuxia World?
No wonder he was so powerful; he was actually an expert who practiced martial arts.
And their own world was called the Paranormal World.
If that was the case, did it mean they truly could never return?
Lin Xiaolei, on the other hand, didn't feel anything particularly devastating. Perhaps because he was young, he was far more adaptable to new environments.
To him, it was already wonderful that his grandfather was still alive.
Even better, he was still alive too.
“Brother Feng, will my grandfather and I be able to stay exactly as we are forever from now on?”
Feng Xingyun nodded. “Yes.”
Lin Xiaolei continued to press.
“Then are you a dungeon NPC right now? Can we become like you too?”
Feng Xingyun didn't deny it.
“Indeed you can, but you'll have to wait until the next world.”
Lin Xiaolei instantly looked a bit dejected.
“Huh? Why is that?”
Feng Xingyun thought for a moment.
“The Young Master explained it to me before.”
“He said it's to prevent players who failed to clear the dungeon in their own world from giving away secret information about the supernatural world to other players while acting as NPCs.”
“I'm sure not many would actually do that, but just to be safe, a blanket ban was put in place. If you want to act as NPCs, you'll have to wait until the next world.”
Lin Xiaolei said helplessly, “Alright then.”
He then turned to look at the old Daoist, who was standing to the side with a deeply worried expression.
“Grandfather, what's wrong?”
“Even though we've become dungeon puppets, we've basically entered a whole new world. We won't have to bust our humps catching ghosts anymore.”
“Plus, we're immortal now!”
“It's a pity you're already old, Grandfather, so you'll have to stay an old man forever. But it's fine! I'll always be a young twenty-year-old lad.”
“How about I take care of you from now on?”
The old Daoist didn't get angry at Lin Xiaolei's cheeky grin. He simply sighed again.
“I know all of that.”
Lin Xiaolei frowned. “Then what are you so worried about?”
The old Daoist slapped his thigh.
“What else could I be worried about?”
“I've spent decades building up my family savings! I have top-quality jade and emeralds worth hundreds of millions! I even have over a dozen gold bars!”
“And all my precious treasures!”
“You little brat, do you have any idea how much effort I put into gathering those treasures, and how much money I spent?”
His expression was wild with agitation as he gave Lin Xiaolei a good thumping.
“Gone!!”
“They're all gone!!”
Lin Xiaolei quickly scrambled away, shielding his head.
“Ow, stop hitting me!”
The old Daoist didn't actually want to beat him up. He stopped after a few light thumps.
“You worthless brat! I buried a lot of those things in a box beneath the woodshed back home. If you had cleared the dungeon, those were supposed to be your inheritance.”
Hearing this, Lin Xiaolei felt quite helpless as well, but what could he do?
Jade and emeralds?
Over a dozen gold bars?
While those were extremely valuable, for people of their stature, money was something others would eagerly hand over to them in heaps anyway.
Oh, right!
Lin Xiaolei suddenly remembered his grandfather mentioning that the box also contained many of their sect's heritages, some of which even his grandfather hadn't fully mastered.
Wait...
If so, did his grandfather still have all those unlearned techniques memorized in his head?
Feng Xingyun saw this play out, and though he felt a bit of pity, there was still work to be done.
“Alright, what's done is done. It's useless to dwell on it.”
“Follow me to the mountainside. It's a mess over there and needs to be cleaned up. Before the next dungeon opens, we must wipe away all trace of what happened.”
The grandfather and grandson had no choice. In the end, they could only miserably follow Feng Xingyun to the mountainside to do manual labor.
After Zuo Lin'an left the dungeon's boundaries, he quickly returned to his residence.
Just as he got back, however, he suddenly noticed Xu Youyou lingering at the edge of the white mist in his outer ring, occasionally poking at it.
Was he trying to get in?
Zuo Lin'an was somewhat surprised.
Wasn't Xu Youyou supposed to go to the training base to acquire his second rule?
Logically speaking, it shouldn't be time for him to return yet.
Even so, he opened a path through the mist, allowing the other party to enter.
But what Zuo Lin'an never expected was that Xu Youyou actually came rolling in flat on the ground.
Even Zuo Lin'an couldn't help but look shocked at this sight.
“You...”
“What are you doing?”
The guy looked as though his soul had been sucked out.
“Don't tell me you failed?”
If things had gone smoothly, Xu Youyou should have been ecstatic, like a child who had just been given candy. Yet here he was, looking completely dead inside.
Could something unexpected have happened?
For instance, maybe after entering Sin Hunter City, he had forgotten that he couldn't use his specter aura to keep the criminal alive, and had accidentally ended them instantly.
Xu Youyou rolled all the way over, sat up to grab Zuo Lin'an's leg, and let out a loud wail before beginning to pour out his woes.
Rate on N.U.
