456 Arrival of the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue

It was a windy autumn night, and everyone gathered in the lobby after a hard day of work.

Cold, windy days like this were perfect for staying indoors to play mahjong!

Xiao Hong had her own background music as she hummed the rhythm of the Landlords online game.

An Lin, Xu Xiaolan, Da Bai, and Xiao Chou were battling it out on the mahjong table, and the four seasons were also spectating with relish. They were clearly extremely interested in this new game they were playing.

An Lin was trying his best to maintain some sort of balance. He wanted Xu Xiaolan to be happy, even as a mortal with no cultivation base. At the same time, however, he was still looking for a way to restore her Dao foundation.

He didn't want to leave Xu Xiaolan's side to search for a way to restore her Dao foundation, only to discover upon his return that she had already passed away. He was even more averse to the idea of letting Xu Xiaolan die as a mortal while he watched on, powerless to do anything.

This was a very conflicted mindset, and it was very difficult to get the best of both worlds. Nonetheless, An Lin was doing his best.

However, the breakthrough he was waiting for came much sooner than he expected.

As everyone was playing mahjong together, An Lin's voice transmission talisman suddenly lit up.

He detected the presence and found that it was Yi Xi contacting him.

He answered the voice transmission, and his voice trembled with excitement. "Hey, Mr. Yi Xi, how's it going?"

"Haha, make sure you don't cut off the voice transmission. My Master will trace your presence and head to your location. He'll fill you in on all the specific details once he gets there."

Yi Xi's voice was tinged with a hint of relief and triumph.

An Lin's entire body began to tremble as he stood up from his chair. "Thank you, Elder Yi Xi, thank you Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue, thank you, thank you so much…"

He could read between the lines and glean the meaning behind Yi Xi's words. If there was no hope at all, then Lord Lao Zi wouldn't even bother wasting his time by coming here.

The fact that Lord Lao Zi was willing to come to him meant that there was still hope!

An Lin didn't try to tone down the volume of his voice transmission talisman, so all his beast pets, as well as Xu Xiaolan, heard the conversation.

The beast pets' eyes lit up with excitement and anticipation.

Xu Xiaolan balled her slender hands into fists as she fought to suppress her tears as well as the throbbing in her heart.

One would only understand the true importance of something after losing it.

Xu Xiaolan didn't regret sacrificing her cultivation path to save An Lin. However, that didn't mean she didn't value her cultivation path, nor did it mean she didn't care about it.

On the contrary, she was an extremely proud female. Like a phoenix flying in the sky, she wanted to soar higher than anyone, and she wanted more than anything to be able to see what lay at the end of the path of cultivation.

An Lin held one of Xu Xiaolan's clenched fists in his hand before offering her a calm smile to soothe her nerves.

However, under the facade of that calm smile, An Lin was excited beyond belief. He felt as if his head had turned into a pile of mush.

He thought about what he should do, what he should say, and what, if anything, he should give to Lord Lao Zi once he arrived…

"Oh, you're playing mahjong! I'm pretty good at this game too!" an elderly but extremely comforting voice suddenly said.

Before everyone knew it, an elderly man with flowing white hair had already appeared beside their table. Right now, he was looking down at the game of mahjong with a smile on his face. "That little brat, Nuwa, once boasted to me about how mahjong was the new big game invented in her Small World. She insisted that it was a lot of fun to play, and she insisted on playing it with myself and the other members of the Daoist Trinity. Heh, I ended up steamrolling her, and she never talked to me about mahjong ever again."

The elderly man chuckled like a triumphant child as he talked about his past victories. However, everyone around him was in a state of shock.

An Lin immediately bowed to the elderly man. "Junior An Lin pays his respects to the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue!"

Xu Xiaolan also bowed with excitement in her eyes. "Junior Xu Xiaolan pays her respects to the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue."

All the beast pets also followed suit.

As for the four seasons, they were completely petrified.

The Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue? Lord Lao Zi? The very same legendary founder of Dao in the Kingdom of the Nine States Magazines?

My god! He's an immortal among immortals!

To them, the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue was a god!

And now, their god was standing right before them!

All four maids were completely and utterly dumbfounded. They felt as if they were in a dream.

The Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue gazed at An Lin and Xu Xiaolan intently before a warm smile eventually appeared on his face. "No need to be so polite. I've already heard about your story from Yi Xi, and I can figure out the rest for myself. You're both individuals who dare to love and hate and are true to your emotions. I had nothing to do anyway, so I came here to see if I could help you."

As he spoke, he flicked a beam of white light from his fingertips. This beam of white light struck Xu Xiaolan's glabella.

An Lin's heart thumped in his chest as he stared at the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue with an expectant gaze.

The Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue was an elderly man with rosy cheeks, and he appeared to be just an average, healthy old man. However, he possessed an ethereal disposition that made him appear otherworldly to onlookers. At the same time, however, he also gave people a sense of calmness and serenity.

"Hmm… the bloodline transfusion was perfectly executed," the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue remarked. "The collapse of the Dao foundation was unavoidable, but the meridians, sea of vital energy, consciousness, and other functions all remain perfectly intact. So… there's a chance."

Whoosh…

An Lin felt a rush of blood surge to his head as his ears began ringing. The words "there's a chance" was like the most heavenly music to his ears.

Xu Xiaolan's body trembled after hearing his words, and she stared at him blankly, seemingly in a daze.

"Oh? You have another type of bloodline within your body? The True Dragon Bloodline? And it's a bloodline of extremely high purity too. That's great… The chance of success has increased by a hundredfold. We can use another type of bloodline as a guiding agent… a phoenix bloodline of high purity would be best. Then, we can use the fusion of the dual bloodlines as a catalyst to extract the Dao intent within the True Dragon Bloodline. This would then allow us to restore the Dao foundation," the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue said in a slow voice.

His words immediately ignited flames of hope in An Lin and Xu Xiaolan's hearts.

"Senior, how can we fuse the two bloodlines?" An Lin couldn't help but inquire.

"Well, the method with the greatest chance of success would obviously be to transfuse your bloodline back into Xu Xiaolan's body… In other words, return her bloodline to her… I can guarantee an eighty percent probability of success if we were to do that," the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue replied with a smile.

Xu Xiaolan and the beast pets all faltered at his words.

An Lin looked at the Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue with a calm expression. "No problem, I'll do it!"

"No! If you do that, your Dao foundation will collapse, and you'll be reduced to a mortal! I don't want to see that," Xu Xiaolan retorted with a firm expression.

"You're the one who gave me a second chance at life. The frost poison within my body has already been expelled, so why would I still keep your power?" An Lin went against Xu Xiaolan's wishes for the first time as he argued with a resolute expression.

"I said no, and that's final!" Xu Xiaolan pursed her lips in an expression that was just as staunch as An Lin's.

The Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue immediately interjected as the two of them geared up for a fight. "Don't be hasty! I only elaborated on one possibility just then… However, there are still several other methods!"

To his surprise, An Lin shook his head firmly. "There's no need to tell us any of the other methods. If this is the method with the greatest probability of success, then this is the one we'll go with. I don't want to regret the decision I make here, and I don't want to put Xiaolan at any more risk."

Xu Xiaolan immediately interjected, "Senior, don't listen to him spout nonsense! Please tell us the other methods."

"There's no need for that, Senior. I'm prepared to do as you say!"

"Senior, ignore him! Please tell us!"

The Heavenly Lord of Dao and Virtue: "…"