When Lin Fan opened his eyes, he couldn't help being in a daze for a few seconds as his mind was still groggy.
Then he suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked around himself, looking for the figure of the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor. However, no matter where he looked, he found that it was just him in this hall.
There was on one else here at all.
Lin Fan couldn't help turning to look at the coffin, but it was as empty as the rest of this place.
Only when he looked down on the ground did he find…that there was a pile of dust on the ground beside where he had woken up.
He didn't know where this dust had come from, but he couldn't help finding it strange.
After all, there hadn't been a single speck of dust in this place before.
So where did this pile of dust suddenly come from?
As he was completely lost, the system suddenly said, "Host, the threat has been eliminated."
Lin Fan couldn't help being shocked when he heard this as his chin suddenly dropped. He just stood there with his mouth wide open, looking like an idiot as he didn't know what to say.
It was unknown how long passed before he finally muttered, "You saved me?"
The system replied in the same mechanical voice, "The system cannot protect the host from bodily harm, but the God of Earth has attached the system to the host's soul to protect it. If there are any threats to the host's soul, the system will eliminate it."
"Ha…" That was the only sound that Lin Fan could make when he heard this.
In the end, he had still been saved by the system.
He wasn't surprised that the system was able to deal with the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor because the system was something that was made by a god. Even if the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor was a powerful cultivator, that didn't mean that he was a match for a god.
In front of something that a god created, he was nothing more than an ant.
So it was only natural that the system would come out on top.
What shocked him was that the system had this function and he never knew about it. Moreover, what shocked him even more was that the system would step in at this point.
The lingering feeling of death really weighed on his mind.
He had edged too close to the line this time and if it hadn't been for the miracle of the system bailing him out, he would have been dead.
This was something that really terrified him.
He had always thought that he had been a cautious person, but it seemed like he hadn't been cautious enough.
He never thought that there would be things in this world that would prevent him from entering the Pet Storage Space like this.
He had thought that as long as he had the Pet Storage Space, there was nothing in this world that could truly threaten his life. But it turned out that he was wrong, completely wrong.
If it was just this one time, then perhaps he wouldn't have to worry, but he knew that it wouldn't be just this one time.
This world was filled with many strange things that he didn't know about, so he couldn't just pretend that this was a one time fluke. He had to consider the possibility of someone else using poison against him like this in the future…
As he was lost deep in thought, the system suddenly said, "Host, do you wish to accept the soul fragments from the intruder?"
Lin Fan was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when he heard this and his mouth opened wide in shock.
He just stood there in a daze for a minute before suddenly asking the system, "What is this soul fragment? Is it similar to Ming Ze's soul fragments from before?"
The system said, "Correct. This is a soul fragment without a consciousness since it has already been erased by the system. The soul fragments only contain the memories of the enemy and something else special that the system has found."
"Something else special?" Lin Fan couldn't help repeating.
But since the system hadn't said that it was something bad for him, he didn't think that it would be bad for him.
The system had just saved him from his death, so it wasn't as if it would put him in danger again.
Even if he couldn't trust everything in this world, he would still trust the system in the end.
The system was one with him, so it would never betray him.
So Lin Fan said with a nod, "Alright, give me the soul fragments."
The system said, "Confirmed. Now integrating the soul fragments into the host."
As soon as the system said this, Lin Fan fell deep into those memories.
It was just like before when he integrated Ming Ze's soul fragments.
He was watching the memories of the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor like they were a movie and slowly integrating them into his own mind.
As he watched them, he couldn't help thinking…
What a piece of s***!
This Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor was even worse than he had thought he was.
The Mark of the Hidden Dragon, it was nothing more than a tool for him to find suitable bodies to steal and the crisis of the sect was something that he had made up. He was the one that had created this Hidden Dragon Trial and it was testing for all the things that he needed in a body.
Though even if they were killed in the trial, he normally still took over their bodies since they were the fated ones chosen by the Mark of the Hidden Dragon.
That was also why the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor had looked so young and had such a high level of cultivation.
When he had started the Hidden Dragon Sect all those years ago, he had only been in the Foundation Realm. Even a hundred years ago when the Hidden Dragon Sect had closed itself, he had still been in the Foundation Realm.
It had only been in the past hundred years that he had broken through after preparing everything in the long history of the Hidden Dragon Sect.
The Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor had found a special artifact and had used that to create the appearance of a powerful cultivator, tricking people into joining the Hidden Dragon Sect that he had created.
The reason why he had created the Mark of the Hidden Dragon and had possessed those four that came before Lin Fan was because…of his special cultivation technique.
He needed five people that were connected to him by fate and with each body that he possessed, he would break through to the next level.
With the first body, he reached the Qi Condensation Realm.
With the second body, he reached the Golden Core Realm.
With the third body, he reached the Soul Building Realm.
With the fourth body, he reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
One realm per possession, that was how his cultivation technique worked.
Once he took over Lin Fan's body, he would have reached the Soul Formation Realm.
However, that wasn't the end of the cultivation technique.
But possessing five different bodies, he would take over the providence of these five bodies and would possess a destiny beyond any genius. He would have a foundation that would surpass even the greatest geniuses of this world and would be able to break through the limits of this world to reach the immortal realm.
That was what all the sects had been aiming for and in the history of this cultivation world, there had only been a handful of people who had succeeded.
In the end, his plan failed because it caught Lin Fan who already had the protection of a god.
Even with everything that he had gained from this cultivation technique and his long planning, it meant nothing when compared to the power of a god.
After going through the memories, one of Lin Fan's questions had finally been answered.
He had been curious how both the people in Brilliant Light City and this Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor had such advanced technology.
When he looked through the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor's memories, he found his answer.
It was all because he had bought technology from traders that had smuggled it out of the machine realm.
Lin Fan had heard about how there were other realms in this world, but he never knew what other realms there were. The only other continent that he had heard about was the magic continent.
But now there was also this machine continent that he learned about from the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor's memories.
It turned out that this was the continent that was far beyond all the other continents in terms of technology and had been the source of all this advanced tech.
Though this was just what they had been able to smuggle out and not the real advanced tech that this machine continent possessed.
Lin Fan couldn't help being curious about what the real technology of this machine continent was.
Could it be that they were advanced enough to have laser guns and teleportation machines?
But if they were so advanced, why did they remain on this continent and not explore out into space?
While it answered one question, there were many more questions that suddenly filled Lin Fan's mind after he learned of the existence of this machine continent.
Still, this wasn't the time for him to think about that, so he threw that thought out of his mind.
After sorting out the memories, Lin Fan suddenly stood up and started walking towards the dragon statue.
There was still the fact that the Hidden Dragon Sect was outside of this trial and if they learned that their ancestor no longer existed, it would be unknown how they would treat him. However, he was certain that he wouldn't be treated kindly by them…
After all, he learned that they had been manipulated by the Hidden Dragon Sect ancestor the entire time.
That was why they had been so urgent about him entering the Hidden Dragon Trial.
While they didn't know everything and only had orders from the ancestor to send him in, it showed that they had been under the full command of the ancestor.
Now that the ancestor had been blasted to dust by the system…
So Lin Fan had to take care of some things before he could leave this place.
After reaching the dragon statue, Lin Fan suddenly pressed one of the talons on its back claw.
As soon as he pressed this, with the sound of rocks scrapping, there was a door that opened on the belly of the dragon.