During those days, Lyu Liang was very comfortable. Although he still had not a clue about recovering his cultivation, he could return to his clan and live together with his family, which made him pretty happy.
Maybe because the clansmen in his Lyu family had a life-and-death fight with people in the Nether Big World, the survivors seemed to be very united! No one treated Lyu Liang bad for his mortal body, whereas they all tried to protect him and help him wholeheartedly.
Time flew and half a year had pa.s.sed. During that period, there were indeed some malicious people coming to make trouble, but they had been either beaten off by people of the Sword Character Immortal Palace and the Xuan Nyu Sect on the periphery, or killed directly by Yang Ying!
Though being unable to cultivate, Lyu Liang unexpectedly found that the cultivation of the Holy Soul Order seemed to be much easier or finer than before. Within half a year, he'd already improved by thirty percent from a small achievement on his legs, which was a great surprise to him.
After another half year, Fatty came to the Lyu family unexpectedly. And he was actually able to turn into a fat boy with the look of a little kid! According to him, the old Fierce Chaotic Emperor was afraid that his baby son would have a hard time with Lyu Liang, who was a mortal then, so he directly used the most valuable magic treasures and methods to promote the small chaos's cultivation abruptly to the Early-stage of Demon Emperor. With this kind of cultivation and his own talents, he was a perfect bodyguard for Lyu Liang at the moment.
In addition, Fatty also brought inspiring news to Lyu Liang: Zhu Yu got the Dragon-Teeth Dagger successfully. At that moment, he'd already come out of the historical remains safely and joined his friends of the families from the Remote Antiquity.
What surprised him most was the result of the Immortals' Contest.
Huangfu Gang, a seeded player in that contest, had overcome every opponent during the process and finally defeated brother and sister Liu one after the other to reach the finals. His opponent at that moment was none other than Zheng Xuan, who had been itching to fight with him!
But the highly antic.i.p.ated decisive battle was ended in advance with Huangfu Gang disappearing mysteriously at the night right before the contest. As they couldn't find him anywhere, the judges all agreed that Zheng Xuan was the champion.
The second place and the third place were brother and sister Liu. However, even with three guarantees beforehand, something unexpected still happened: There was no Eternal Heaven Fire in the Treasure House!
As they three stared dumbfounded, the manager of the Treasure House told them that there had been two Eternal Heaven Fires, but they were taken away by two powerful figures from the s.p.a.ce of G.o.ddess Nyu Wa. They had to search for more to add to the Treasure House.
As there was a time limit for the prize of the Immortals' Contest, there was nothing they could do about it, so they took something else in the end.
Lyu Liang heard this and had to drop it anyway. At last, he got it together and comforted himself, ‘When I recover my cultivation, I will come up with a way to go to the Heaven Realm and the s.p.a.ce of G.o.ddess Nyu Wa for a reckoning!'
His friends from the families of the Remote Antiquity all returned to the s.p.a.ce of G.o.ddess Nyu Wa at that time and started to look for methods to recover Lyu Liang's cultivation, except that Zhu Yu went to the Pangu Origin world to get the last two Million-Spirits Blood Pearls. The mother and son of a wild beast had a sensitive ident.i.ty, so they went away together with brother and sister Liu.
After about another month, the fully recovered Lyu Xinyun went to the Lyu family, which occupied all the people in that family, including Lyu Liang, for quite a while.
Brother and sister met and certainly had a lot to speak of. They finally finished telling each other everything that happened to themselves in five days, which even counted the time of sleep and rest.
Among all the things, what Lyu Liang cared about most was Zhang Ran's betrayal. Lyu Xinyun had told him a secret that no one knew.
…
Soon after Lyu Liang's disappearance from the Chaotic World, the Sword Character Immortal Palace and the Xuan Nyu Sect strengthened the communication with each other. Among the people who'd been most familiar with Lyu Liang, it could be said that Zhang Ran and Lyu Xinyun knew each other pretty well.
When Lyu Liang got into trouble that day, Zhang Ran was a.s.signed as a communicator to exchange some Mind Mantras and mnemonics with the Xuan Nyu Sect. That kind of thing was usually done by some disciple that the founding father of Sword Character trusted. Although he didn't know much about Zhang Ran, he was quite familiar with the things about the Trio on Back Mountain. Therefore, he naturally considered that optimistic junior disciple as a man to count on.
That was the third time that Zhang Ran was entrusted to do that kind of thing. The receivers for the first two times were all Venerables in the Xuan Nyu Sect, which were four in total there. However, Zhang Ran insisted on seeing Lyu Xinyun afterwards, saying that he had something to talk about Lyu Liang with her. The four Venerables knew well about Zhang Ran's condition, so they didn't think much of that.
When the Chaotic World and the Nether Big World were fighting fiercely, the Xuan Nyu Fairy had brought the four Venerables to the main battlefield, except that the Divided Souls of the Venerables were guarding outside the Xuan Nyu Sect.
Lyu Xinyun had a charming body that was suitable to cultivate the Great Manual of the Heavenly Enchantment, so she had already been officially accepted by the Xuan Nyu Fairy as a pro-disciple. If everything went well, she would be trained as the future Sect Leader of Xuan Nyu Sect.
When Lyu Xinyun heard that Zhang Ran arrived with the news about Lyu Liang, she became delighted at once without the slightest doubt. The four Venerables also didn't think anything of it and let them meet individually.
But then Lyu Xinyun was controlled by Zhang Ran in a weird way, which caused her giving the Great Manual of Heavenly Enchantment that had been hidden secretly to him!
Later, the Divided Souls of the four Venerables arrived. Shocked at the scene, they cooperated with Lyu Xinyun who was awake then to try to take back the Collection Highlight.
To everyone's surprise, Zhang Ran's cultivation abruptly rose to a striking level from the peak of Gold Core stage! Within the time of only a few breaths, the Divided Souls of the four Venerables just vanished one by one.
As for Lyu Xinyun, Zhang Ran hurt her badly, but he helped her steady the Divine Soul before leaving and also forced her to take a secret medicinal pill to recover her cultivation. After finishing that, he was gone.
If Zhang Ran hadn't done those things, Lyu Xinyun could only have the same result with the Divided Souls of the four Venerables afterwards. In a way, Zhang Ran had actually kept Lyu Xinyun alive in the end!
At that point, Lyu Liang sighed with emotion. He knew that Zhang Ran hadn't killed Lyu Xinyun, possibly because of their history in the past. As to the reason he had hidden himself so deeply and suddenly turned against them to take the Collection Highlight of Xuan Nyu Sect, they wouldn't understand unless they met him in person in the future.
…
One night, Lyu Liang went to bed early as usual. But as soon as he fell asleep and was in a daze, he suddenly quivered! His sixth sense developed with his previous cultivation was suddenly on alert!
Lyu Liang rose at once and opened his eyes. He was startled at the first sight and then his face showed an extremely complex expression.
The scene in front of him was not the Lyu family at all and was already replaced by the herb garden in the Back Mountain of the Sword Character Immortal Palace! What's more, there was a wooden table full of excellent wine and delicious dishes, while two pairs of chopsticks and cups and saucers were also ready. At that moment, Zhang Ran was standing on the side and had an expression of excitement, guilt and more of complexity.
Seeing that Lyu Liang was awake, he said lightly, “Boss, I'm here, sorry…” Then he bowed deeply to the ground.
Lyu Liang got up and said after a sigh, “Well, fine. Xinyun now has already recovered. As you did not kill her then, I don't hate you that much. I don't care who you are and why you are here. I just want to ask: The happiness of the ‘Trio on Back Mountain' in those days, is that true for you?”
Zhang Ran suddenly shuddered at his words. The he got up and smiled lightly with his eyes full of tears, saying, “That's the happiest time in my life. You are my boss, and you will always be!”
Hearing this, Lyu Liang also smiled lightly. He sat on one side of the table first and made a gesture as ‘please', saying, “Sit. Now only you and I are here without the old gentleman, but the old rules shouldn't be omitted! I think you are here not only to offer an apology and talk about old times. We can talk as we eat!”
Zhang Ran was grateful for Lyu Liang's att.i.tude. He smiled at him and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked as sincere as before, which made Lyu Liang feel as if their happy days had happened a long time ago. Lyu Liang wondered in his heart, ‘Is he really the man who has made a mess in the Xuan Nyu Sect?'
“Boss, I can tell you everything now! I'm indeed Zhang Ran, but my real ident.i.ty is one of the Saint G.o.ds in the h.e.l.l Organization. My nickname is ‘Chi Liu'! I used to hide my real ident.i.ty in the Sword Character Immortal Palace in those days and my first priority was to get the Great Manual of the Heavenly Enchantment!” Zhang Ran said seriously. Then he continued, “About my organization, please forgive me, boss! I can't say too much.”
As to the h.e.l.l Organization, Lyu Liang used to search inside Anye Tianlong's remnant soul. He only knew that it was a secret organization, but never heard anything good or bad about it in his daily life.
But the skinny monk who wanted to kill him in the Jibo Territory recently was sure to be a member of that organization, who seemed to want to get something from him.
Lyu Liang nodded and said softly, “I met a monk of your organization before in the Jibo Territory. He has really terrifying cultivation. If it were not for an Immortal General called ‘Sky Holding' who saved me, we would never get the chance to drink and chat here. He intended to take something from me. And this time you are here also for this?”
Zhang Ran looked more complex now. He took a gulp and suddenly stood up to fall on his knees, saying, “Boss! Your Great Manual of Divine Soul is indeed a thing our organization is determined to obtain! The monk is also a Saint G.o.d like me, but I really didn't know that he dared mess with you! Now he is already driven away by ‘Sky Holding'. And what he did is also against the rules of the organization, so he would definitely be punished. I don't think he will come to you anymore!”
Lyu Liang was stunned. The first thing that came to his mind was the Five Acts of Heaven Soul from the Freedom Immortal Emperor. ‘Was that the reason he kept an eye on him?'
Lyu Liang thought about it for a while and said, “Well, what do I need to do to give it to you? Is searching my soul the only way for you to get it?”
Zhang Ran was struck by his words, as he didn't expect that his boss would be so cooperative. He said in a trembling voice, “Boss! There is no need to search your soul. I have a unique secret method, which enables me to get what I want without hurting you even a little bit. You just need to relax and cooperate with me!”
Lyu Liang laughed helplessly and said, “I'm now just a mortal. Even if you force me to cooperate with you, there is nothing I could do about it.”
With a solemn expression, Zhang Ran said deeply, “You are my boss at all events! My task the organization a.s.signed me to do is important, but the friendship with boss is important, too! If I force you to cooperate with me in order to fulfil the task, I will never be happy again for the rest of my rest life, even when I realize the dream of the organization!”
Lyu Liang just had never thought he would resist. Once Zhang Ran got it, the h.e.l.l Organization would give up spying on him. It was better than another unscrupulous Saint G.o.d getting to him suddenly. It was nothing if he died, but that might get his family and friends involved. The Immortal Generals were going to stop being his bodyguards someday anyway.
But Lyu Liang had seen some unimaginable eagerness in Zhang Ran's eyes. That was a thirst for friendship and a pure emotion of being afraid of losing a friend. If it represented his feelings to him as a ‘Boss', that showed that it might be the only tenderness and pure land left inside him.
Later, Lyu Liang was in a daze for a moment after Zhang Ran recited some incantations, but he became awake after a few breaths. At the moment, Zhang Ran was so excited that he was on his knees and kept kowtowing to him.
Lyu Liang pulled him up hurriedly, but before he opened his mouth, Zhang Ran asked deeply with his eyes full of sharpness, “Boss! Do you want to join the h.e.l.l Organization? You are totally qualified! Besides, there will be no problem for you to recover your cultivation in the organization! With your talents, you will definitely be able to become a Saint G.o.d like me, or you will be even stronger than me!”