Chapter 206 Ling San Wakes Up

Chapter 206 Ling San Wakes Up

<nullb>Ling San Wakes Up

As for the matter of whether or not Lin Fu felt any shame for allying himself with his nation's mortal enemy, no, he didn't. Not one single bit.

In front of eternal benefits, his national pride meant nothing. And the biggest benefit he could possibly gain right now was with Xue Bai's head on a pike.

Handing in that trash's head to the Grand Duke could literally change Lin Fu's life trajectory. Not only were the Long Clan the true rulers of the Gen Empire, but they also had mysterious backers that even the headmaster was afraid of.

Lin Fu would be stupid not to choose them.

The saying goes, A fine bird chooses a fine tree to nest in, and Lin Fu thinks of himself as an extremely smart bird.

After all, cultivation wasn't just about brawn or talent. Brains were also extremely important!

Scheming was an important skill taught in the Gen Empire's Academy, and Lin Fu had soaked up all of those lessons like a sponge. And now his learning was coming to fruition.

'So what if you're a heaven-sent genius? You'll still die in my Lin Fu's hands!'

Away from Lin Fu's fantastical thoughts of killing Xue Bai, Mirage had just spoken up in Xue Bai's head once more.

'Xue Bai, Ling San's phantasm is starting to shape into something special now. He'll be done within the hour; just be sure to be near the boy once he wakes up. I don't want all of my work to be a wedding dress for another person. Make sure he understands where his blessings came from.' Mirage indifferently told Xue Bai.

Mirage's abilities were far too mystical to be sensed by any mortal, including Ling San. Ling San barely even had a grasp on the Qi Sea realm, so it was extremely unlikely that the boy would know it was Mirage who gave him the blessing. The boy didn't even know of Mirage's existence; how could he correlate the two?

It was more likely that Ling San would simply misunderstand the situation. Presumably, he would think it was the ghostly emperor who did all of this.

Though Xue Bai was shrouded in a thick layer of mystery and had an otherworldly aura, he was still a Bone Strengthening realm teenager. It was impossible for him to do all of the things that Ling San had just undergone.

The only reasonable train of thought for Ling San to take was to assume the ghostly emperor saw his 'talents' and gave him a fortuitous encounter. Anything else was nonsensical for Ling San to even think of.

Xue Bai was no fool and likewise didn't want his partner's efforts to be stolen by a dead man, so for the first time in a while, he stood up from his position and slowly walked over to Ling San's position.

His actions did attract Lin Fu and the other students who were still inside the secret realm, but once they saw the mysterious Prince Consort peacefully sitting next to Ling San, they calmed down. While his actions were questionable, as long as he overlooked their plot, they were fine.

Following Xue Bai's seating rearrangement, Lin Fu's lecture ended. He had told everyone all of his understandings of the Illusory Garden Formation and then some. If they still couldn't figure out how to engrave the rune, Lin Fu would be helpless.

Thankfully, only seven more people needed to pass for this round to end.

Time slowly passed, but unlike earlier, when a somber aura filled the throne room, enthusiasm did instead. Earlier, other than Ji Ruxi, Xue Bai, and Lin Fu, no one could even take the first step in engraving the Illusory Garden Formation rune, but now, after Lin Fu's lecture, everyone felt confident in their chances.

So, putting their talents to the test, everyone started their first attempts. Of course, they all met with failure, but they were all geniuses with high egos and pride. They wouldn't give up yet.

Try after try, every student in the secret realm continuously attempted to engrave the rune, with varying success across the board. The best was the student from the Kun Empire who had mocked Ji Ruxi earlier. Though he was certainly an arrogant young man, at least he had something to back it up with.

This didn't mean he succeeded, though, but he was much further along than the rest of his peers. On the third attempt, he even managed to engrave half of the rune before he lost control of his Spiritual Qi, and the half-finished rune fizzled back into the atmosphere.

In terms of rankings for how far along everyone was, beyond him were the other students of the Kun Empire. Since they were a group of like-minded individuals with a shared goal, they all constantly shared their gains with each other in hopes of finishing quicker than the two Gen Empire students.

After years of being at the bottom of the Northern Continent's rankings, the citizens of the Kun Empire have long developed a strong sense of camaraderie. So when they were faced with their mortal enemy, the Gen Empire, none of them dared to slack and instead put aside any differences they had in the past and elevated each other.

Even though they were working with Lin Fu, that didn't mean that they still liked the Gen Empire. In fact, Lin Fu's actions only made them loathe the empire even more.

How could one of the empire's greatest talents be a traitor? It was disgusting and shameful. Just being in the snake's presence made them sick. If not for Zhou Yi's orders, they wouldn't even listen to him, let alone work with him.

Moreover, forcing out the remaining two Gen Empire students would leave Xue Bai all alone without any help, which would, in turn, make their mission all the easier.

Ling San was also there, but after seeing the boy in a nearly unconscious state for nearly half a day, they all thought he had given up long ago and didn't include him in their calculations. Ling San hadn't even listened to Lin Fu's lecture. How could he possibly be a threat?

Sadly, their calculations were wrong. They merely didn't know it yet.

—

Ling San had a dream.

He lived a new life—a life without cultivation, a life without Martial Veins, and a life without struggle.

From birth until death, Ling San never absorbed even a wisp of Spiritual Qi. 62 years old, he lived that life, and throughout it, he saw many things he had never seen before.

The struggle of the mortal man, the arrogance of the cultivators, even the change of the seasons—all things that Ling San either took for granted or straight up ignored—were front and center in this life.

His life wasn't noble, exciting, or even very important to the world, but it was also because of the lack of details his life had that Ling San felt something... new. A feeling he had never felt before.

Deep within his soul, Ling San felt something well up inside of him before it took shape in his own body. The feeling was definitely weird, almost like he had suddenly gained knowledge of a limb that he had never known was there. However, now that he knew it was there, Ling San had no plans to look back.

Feeling enlightened, Ling San also felt his consciousness return to his body. Feeling a myriad of hormones running throughout his body, he knew that it was time to engrave the Illusory Garden Formation's rune.

Opening his eyes, Ling San was about to start his work only to find a pair of nebula purple eyes looking at him inquisitively.

"Prince Consort?!" Stunned, Ling San could only dumbly shout out Xue Bai's title. That and the fear of Xue Bai's mystical teleportation abilities were still imprinted in his mind, making Ling San instinctively fear him.

"You don't have to call me by the title Feng Fei gave me. Just call me Xue Bai if you'd like." Xue Bai said with a smile, ignoring the fear in Ling San's eyes.

It wasn't long ago that Xue Bai did scare off the entire Ling family, so he did remember it. Knowing that his show of strength might have scared Ling San, Xue Bai wanted to quell that fear early on in their relationship.

"No, no, no, how could I?! Marriage or not, you're still a part of the royal family. It wouldn't be good for me, a commoner, to call you by your name?" Ling San, however, was still either too scared of Xue Bai or a stickler for rules and denied Xue Bai's attempt to close their relationship.

'Well, it's fine. I'll be on this continent for a decade or so. There'll be plenty of time.' Xue Bai simply shrugged it off.

"Still, Prince Consort is a fake title. Calling me that makes me feel weird." Xue Bai said with a frown, "How about this? Call me Young Duke. It's my real title back home."

While Xue Bai didn't care much about his fake title here in the Gen Empire, it still carried a few implications that he didn't really like. The Young Duke title he had back on the Southern Continent made him remember home, though, so if Xue Bai had a choice, he would choose to be called the latter anyway.

Ling San looked hesitant at first at Xue Bai's proposal, but after seeing his stern look, he eventually gave in.

"Then, this humble commoner will be presumptuous and call the Young Duke by his title." Ling San still didn't feel like he was at the same level as Xue Bai and continued his humble persona.

Feeling slightly happy at this, Xue Bai let out a small laugh. He had a long time to grow their relationship. This was a good first step for now.

"Enough about me, though. What happened to you? You were unconscious for an awfully long amount of time. Is everything okay?" Xue Bai asked with a smile that wasn't just a smile.

Ling San didn't see Xue Bai's teasing look, though, as he instantly started to sweat once Xue Bai mentioned his unconscious state. He was never a good liar in the first place, so the second Xue Bai brought up something he wanted to hide, he broke.

"I-I have no id-id-idea what you're t-t-talking about, Y-Young Duke!" Ling San stuttered, immediately giving himself away.

Xue Bai, however, kept the same smile.

"You sure? You didn't have a weird dream or anything similar?" Xue Bai teased, further breaking Ling San's expression.

"Nope!" Ling San vehemently denied it. He wouldn't admit it even if he were beaten to death.

Seeing the boy barely even manage to keep up appearances, Xue Bai didn't say anything anymore.

He needed to do something to stop Ling San's ramblings.

So, under the horrified eyes of Ling San, Xue Bai's glabella started to glow. A few seconds passed until a small snowflake-shaped tattoo appeared in that exact spot.

"Are you still sure?"

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