Chapter 562 The Covenant of Ten Thousand Years

Lin Luoran and her father are reunited finally. Their emotions are still out of control after a long time.

Mu Tiannan knows that Lin Luoran has been missing her family silently. When she stops crying and completely calms down, he asks about the whereabouts of other members of the Lins and Grandpa Mu.

The Mu family suffered heavy losses in the Earth Defense War back then. However, when he separated from his family in the Tower of Babel, his grandfather and several cousins were still alive. Grandpa Mu had protected his offspring for family’s future.

Called “Qin Xiaojiu” at that old age, Gebu realizes “the suspicious criminal” is actually the daughter of Mr. Lin. Therefore, he serves tea for them continuously, trying to change his image in the mind of Lin and Mu.

Hearing Mu Tiannan’s question, Mr. Lin wipes his tears embarra.s.singly. He says to Qin Xiaojiu, “Hurry up! Go to inform the Mu family that their third child is back!”

Mu Tiannan shakes his hand, “It’s less troublesome if I just follow him. Uncle and Luoran finally get reunited after being apart for so long. They must have a lot to talk.”

Mu Tiannan is wise to give them privacy, and then he follows Qin Xiaojiu out to meet his own family.

Lin Luoran finally calms down after crying. She looks at Qin Xiaojiu in a green old age and asks, “Who is he?”

“He is a descendant of the Qin family. Back then, Qin Nian refused to leave the earth together with us. He only asked us to take his daughter and son. His children did not have any Taoist root. After they settled down, they started their own family. Several generations later, they still had no offspring with the Taoist root for personal ability enhancement. Qin Xiaojiu is the sixth generation of Qin Nian.”

If a mortal marries another mortal, their children can hardly have the Taoist root. The Rongs who stayed on the earth are lucky enough to have Rong Xinyi after some generations.

“A happy life maybe not worse than cultivation life. It depends.”

Mr. Lin nods. He hasn’t seen Lin Luoran for hundreds of years. He think she is much more sensible now.

Lin Luoran doesn’t mention that she is now able to build the Taoist Root. She changes the topic and asks about other people.

There are so many things Mr. Lin wants to tell her. He chooses to tell her everything one by one.

When the Lin family came to this world through the Tower of Babel, they arrived in the same star. They had to take care of a lot of ordinary people in their team, but they still worked together and they soon settled down.

The news about the single Taoist root of the Five Elements was spread. Just as situations of An and Wen Guanjing were completely different—Li Xi’er’s school had been faded, and it also suffered loss in the Earth Defense War. Her school didn’t have enough power to protect her.

Li Xi’er planned to leave her school in the first place. She then wanted to join a famous school to protect others. Luodong and Cui Wanlu were both Lin Luoran’s apprentices. They always have treated Lin Luoran as a family member, and they would always be loyal to her. Famous schools rushed to enroll them as apprentices, and the two were also happy to be recruited. In this way, they could protect other people’s lives. The three people reached a consensus at that time.

However, such a behavior of join the same school had offended other schools. Therefore, these schools wanted to ruin them since they could get them. They planned to kill them so as not to benefit anyone.

There were so many people in their team, cultivators and mortals. They could not even hide like the old Taoist Hui Zhu with his Qingcheng Taoists. It’s a crisis for them. However, famous schools didn’t cooperate well. Some wanted to kill them in order to avoid future troubles, while some wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and recruit them. At this moment, they followed the crazy Taoist’s suggestion to send the ordinary people to the mortal world. Otherwise, they could never buy time for Wen Guanjing to ask Sword School to save them.

It turned to a big thing. Although Sword School wanted to shelter all three of them, it still couldn’t control the other five famous schools.

As the mediator, Sword School taught the three people to join different schools respectively and then it would be a happy ending. At that moment, they had lost many people. They couldn’t revenge them and they even had to join their enemies—Lin Luodong and others never wanted to do so. There were only three or two kittens left in Li Xi’er’s school. Her situation was only a little better than An’s.

After hiding for decades, Sword School had been under great pressure. Wen Guanjing was the chief apprentice of Sword School at the time. He tried his best to ask his school master to protect them. The school master of the Sword School felt that his talented apprentice was also a huge problem for him. However, he also couldn’t just ignore the opinion of his successor. After a close conversation with Wen Guanjing, he showed him a way to save their lives—they could enter the backup planet of Sword School. These couldn’t appear in the world of cultivation without enough strength in the future.

Without enough power, the younger generation needed time to grow up. Although relying on others was a really bad idea for them, the crazy Taoist agreed, and everyone else dared not to have any other opinions.

Pushed by his troublesome apprentice, the school master of Sword School sent them away in batches. In fact, he thought it’s also nice to help others.

For others, it’s a show that “Sword School was nice to offer help but it was betrayed”. Those people just “escaped” and disappeared under the eyes of “six best schools”.

Among them, the Prophet G.o.d School might have known it, but it seldom meddled with others’ matters. Without evidence, other famous schools couldn’t turn against Sword School just because of their suspicion. When people gradually forgot about it, Wen Guanjing found cultivators’ relatives on other planets one by one. Most of them already had their own family and offspring in the local areas. After they were all sent back to the secret planet of Sword School, Wen Guanjing of Sword School and An of Prophet G.o.d School with single Taoist root became famous gradually. At that time, the famous schools felt extremely remorseful so that they wanted to find the remaining three cultivators with single Taoist root. However, the earth cultivators had settled down in an unnamed planet. They could never find them.

The unnamed planet was a backup plan of Sword School. That Wen Guanjing said it had poor conditions was not out of modesty.

When the Lin family first arrived, the conditions were really not good. There was raged poisonous air, and monsters can be seen everywhere. They couldn’t communicate with powerful local rabbles… The crazy Taoist set up a defensive magic circle so that everyone had a base area. Little by little, a leisure Taoyuan Town was established.

“Taoist Jiang had done so much for everyone. Fortunately, after we settled down, he advanced very quickly. He successfully pa.s.sed the divinization doom more than 20 years ago and became immortal and reached the spiritual world.”

The crazy Taoist had already been in the Bearing Essence period when he was on the earth. The reason why he couldn’t break through was that he had hidden scars. After reaching the world of cultivation with abundant Reiki, it took him another four hundred years to advance from the Gathering Vitality period to Divinization period. Judging from his apt.i.tude, it’s kind of slow. Mr. Lin was right. The crazy Taoist was slowed down by them. It’s also a pity—if they had been here 20 years earlier, Baojia would be able to see the crazy Taoist again.

Mr. Lin comforts her, “The Taoist said before he pa.s.sed the doom—once you are here, the girl Baojia will also be here as well. He asked you not to slack off so that you could reunite in the spiritual world as soon as possible.”

Lin Luoran nods. It’s a good thing that the crazy Taoist became immortal. However, there are still some unfinished business. Not only Baojia wants to see him, but also the Acacia tree monster “Voiddy” and Schisandra “Yang Lisha” must also have something to “discuss” with the crazy Taoist—it’s really “timely” that he became immortal!

Mr. Lin’s tone suddenly changes, and he seems to be a little hesitant.

“Luodong and Wanlu have both succeeded in Bearing Essence. Xi’er’s personal ability is better than theirs. Yuan Ye and Zeng Tian are also fine. Your father was useless and all depended on your apprentices. As for your mother… she… she pa.s.sed away a few years after arriving in this world. ”

Mr. Lin is about to cry again. The difference between immortals and mortals had made them separated from their daughter for hundreds of years. His wife even did not have the chance to see her daughter before her death. He could solve none of these problems. He felt he was the most useless in the first few years when they arrived in the world of cultivation. Keeping hiding was terrible. Mrs. Lin took various elixirs refined by Yuan Ye to extend her life, but she was almost a hundred years old. Her mortal body couldn’t stand it, and she pa.s.sed away when they kept constantly on the run.

If Mr. Lin didn’t want to see his daughter, he would not survive. Even though he was supported by the belief that he must see his daughter again, Mr. Lin was still getting old after the crazy Taoist became immortal more than twenty years ago.

Lin Luoran held Mr. Lin’s hand. The Taoist root of three elements is not really good, but she still can not believe that Mr. Lin can’t bear essence with the resources provided by several apprentices of the Lin family in the past 400 years. Now he looks old. It must because the 500-year life span of a Bearing Essence cultivator is about to exhaust… Due to his hidden scar, since Mrs. Lin pa.s.sed away, he has lost his enterprising att.i.tude toward personal ability enhancement. Supported by the belief, he still looks older as days pa.s.s.

Mrs. Lin is not Mu Tiannan. Since Lin Luoran returned from Penglai and she knew many years had pa.s.sed and got ready for this result. However, she is too sad to say anything when she hears Mr. Lin saying that Mrs. Lin is gone.

She wants to cry, but her eyes are very dry, as if her tears have just been drained.

“Dad, in fact… I found Penglai Spirit Mountain. I also knew how to build the Taoist Root for mortals. When I came back excitedly, the earth was in 305, the New Era of the new calendar. You all disappeared…”

Lin Luoran mutters to herself. Mr. Lin hugs her bitterly.

They are both silent. Fates conspire against you, and some things are destined—the more you want to hold them tightly, the faster they will slip away.

If she hadn’t insisted on looking for Penglai Spirit Mountain at that time, the three of them would still stay together for decades. She was so greedy and tried to keep everyone, but the consequence was that she was separated from her family and friends for hundreds of years.

Lin Luoran closes her eyes. She missed the chance to see Mrs. Lin for the last time. This is the biggest regret in her life.

“Dad, I want to sweep the grave.”

Mr. Lin nods.

Mrs. Lin’s grave is in the east of Taoyuan Town, surrounded by pines and cypresses. Mrs. Lin was not buried alone here. When Lin Luoran and her father arrive, they see Mu Tiannan lending an arm to support Master Mu with a group of Mu family members in the graveyard. This is not a good place to reminisce about the old days. Master Mu only nods to Lin Luoran and his father as a greeting.

When Mrs. Lin pa.s.sed away, everyone in the Lin family was still not out of danger. There was no way to get a treasure coffin which had kept White Fairy’s body from decay for thousands of years. Thanks to Cui Wanlu’s Water Spell to make ice, Mrs. Lin’s body can be kept while they escaped.

No one suggested cremation. When Sword School came to rescue them, Wen Guanjing even found some figures to keep Mrs. Lin’s body in a thawless ice coffin.

Through the ice, Mrs. Lin seems to be sleeping.

Lin Luoran touches the coffin. At that time, if there was the ten thousand years ice to freeze time which Ye Zhao found for White Fairy, Mrs. Lin might may survive…

“If time can go back…”

“If time can go back, what do you want to do?”

Lin Luoran suddenly hears a male voice and she looks up.

With an ordinary face, the man has a long hair flowing down. A man in a simple robe appears under the cypress tree. He is looking at her quietly.

“The man in robe?!”

…

The man in robe suddenly appears in front of her. Lin Luoran has never prepared to meet him again.

As he suddenly appeared in the past, it is no exception this time.

Hearing Lin Luoran crying out involuntarily, Mr. Lin feels so strange, “Who are you calling?”

Liao and Hu Ji has told Mu Tiannan so many times. The words “the man in robe” are equal to a special warning for Mu Tiannan. However, when he follows Lin Luoran’s gaze, he only sees pines and cypresses swaying gently in the breeze. Where is the man in robe?

Lin Luoran stands up and takes two steps forward, feeling very complicated, “Can’t they see you?”

“Do you want them to see me?”

Lin Luoran nods, and the man in robe understands it. The next moment, everyone sees a man appearing under a pine.

Mu Tiannan is totally shocked.

The man in robe seems to be a little embarra.s.sed, “You have all seen me. Now could you leave us alone? I have something to tell her.”

He is peaceful and his tone is very gentle. However, it seems that no one can reject him. Mr. Lin is hesitant when he looks at his daughter. Master Mu is a sophisticated man and he asks the Mus to leave. Only Mu Tiannan still doesn’t want to leave, which even attracts the attention of the man in robe.

“You practice the blood bat technique—it is not easy for you to accomplish what you have now, and you should cherish it.”

Mu Tiannan is stunned. He learns tricks from the primitive bat monster, the black shadow Venerable. However, the man in front of him could torture the old bat and imprison it in the magnetic mountain. He could even deprive vampire bats of the chance to enhance personal ability… However, Mu Tiannan can’t flinch at this moment!

Lin Luoran grits her teeth, “Can we talk in another place?”

She doesn’t want Mu Tiannan to conflict with the man in robe, and he can’t beat the man if he irritates the man in robe. Besides, she subconsciously doesn’t want to make the man in robe angry.

The man in robe nods. Lin Luoran only has the time to apologize to Mu Tiannan with her eyes, and she disappears in place with the man in robe.

Mu Tiannan punches the tree fiercely, and the pine breaks into two pieces.

A few beams of light flash near the graveyard. Liao appears in an open s.p.a.ce with White Fairy and others.

Liao’s spiritual mind sweeps through Taoyuan Town quickly. He grabs Mu Tiannan and asks, “Where is Linny?!”

“He is here.”

Mu Tiannan only says three simple words, but they are enough to drive Liao crazy.

“You idiot!”

Liao is so disappointed at Mu Tiannan. They got the message from Sword School and rushed all the way to Luoxia Star. Wen Guanjing said that Lin Luoran had just arrived and her mother had pa.s.sed away. Liao immediately thought that the man would definitely be here at such a moment. However, he is still too late!

With a face of grief, he takes out a purple bell and smashes it into pieces. Liao also disappears instantly.

Mu Tiannan wants to chase him, but White Fairy stops him.

“Let Linny solve it herself. It won’t help if you are there.”

Most importantly, when White Fairy put the black shadow Venerable in his illusion, she saw the power of the man in robe—with a random movement of his finger, the monster bat turned into dust.

If such a man wants to do something, no one can stop him.

Mu Tiannan forces himself to calm down, but he is actually at a loss.

White Fairy sighs.

Mu Tiannan wants to be together with Linny, which is actually even more difficult than that she wants to go to the spiritual world to find Ye Zhao.

…

“You haven’t answered me yet. What do you want to do if you can go back in time?”

The man in robe takes Lin Luoran to a floating cloud. They can overlook this small unknown star from above.

Lin Luoran stares at a certain direction under the clouds and mutters, “Who can turn back time?”

The man in robe looks at the same direction. It’s just an ordinary place of this wild planet. He doesn’t know what Lin Luoran is looking at, but he still answers Lin Luoran, “You don’t need to rely on anyone, and you can do it yourself. Do you remember the star atlas in your hand? You once used it to travel back more than two thousand years ago. ”

Lin Luoran is shocked and looks up at the man in robe. He looks very relaxed, but he doesn’t seem to be telling a joke.

“I think you seem to be different from before…”

The robe chuckles, “The man in your memory is probably a soul of mine which I left in the sacred pearl.”

It’s just a soul, so it is definitely different from the real me. Just like Momo in his memory. She is also very different from the person in front of him.

Lin Luoran stares at him and says word by word, “I thought I returned to Babylon by the Tower of Babel.”

The man in robe can’t help but laugh, “The Tower of Babel and the star atlas are both mediums. What’s the difference between them? There are countless intersecting bit planes of time and s.p.a.ce in the universe. If you find the intersection nodes, you can go to any time and place. ”

Lin Luoran holds her breath, “I can also go to the node before I went to Penglai immortal world when my mother was still alive… right?”

The man in robe smiles less, “Before you choose, let me show you something.”

He wipes the blue sky in front of him with his hand, and the scenery before Lin Luoran changes drastically.

Eight planets revolve around a hot star. It is the solar system where the earth is located. Time goes back before Lin Luoran went to Penglai Spirit Mountain—

She sees her family persuading her to give up her original plan. She then stays together with her parents. A few apprentices are also around them. The atmosphere of the Lin family is very harmonious.

Her chief apprentice is successful in making elixirs and her second apprentice is fascinated by swordsmanship. Luodong continues his studies after university and he gets a Ph.D. He marries a mortal Wei Xue. Lucy Cui Wanlu is depressed at that time. Huang Weijian asks Luodong to have a fight with him. He then goes out for training and never comes back.

Life is smooth and beautiful. However, after Huaxia announces the interstellar travel plan, the Alpha Alliance invades the earth as scheduled.

Lin Luoran is only at the Bearing Essence period and she can’t play a big role in the war. After the war breaks out, Lin Luoran’s familiar friends die one after another, including Mu Tiannan who has not cultivated to be a monster. When the crazy Taoist proposes to open the Shelter of G.o.ds, the earth has almost been ruined.

Baojia is still sleeping in the Yin-Yang-Mote Circle, and Liu Zheng chooses to stay on the earth and wait for her to wake up.

Lin Luoran leads others to leave. The earth with dead energy is getting worse day by day. The dead energy finally robs all Reiki of the soul wood. Baojia stays asleep. She still doesn’t wake up when her lifespan is exhausted.

Without Lin Luoran completing the five elements, the earth is barren in the end. The earthlings completely abandon their home planet.

The dead energy on this blue planet is so strong that even mutant monsters can not survive. After a few years, the earth withers from the inside. One day, it decomposes into a pile of gravel belts rotating the sun.

The pictures presented by the man in robe are too real. The scenes are like Lin Luoran’s personal experiences.

Long after all the pictures disappear, Lin Luoran feels cold on her face.

“If I didn’t go to Penglai, would all these happen?”

“Yes.”

Time is full of variables. Every choice made by everyone has the chance to affect the future unknowingly. The difference is that some effects are invisible, while some are obvious. Apotheosizing herself, and partic.i.p.ating in the reconstruction of the earth—, Lin Luoran never thinks herself as a savior and everything just happens naturally. A hero is nothing but a product of his time.

She never expect that she actually plays such an important role. When it comes to Mu Tiannan and Baojia who may die, and the blue planet which is completely withered in the end… something is so heavy for her that she can not breathe.

“But… since I can travel to another era and return to Babylon… if I go back to the time before the catastrophe with my current personal ability… will everything be solved?”

To Lin Luoran’s disappointment, the man in robe shakes his head. He asks her a question.

“In ancient Babylon, is there another “you”? Two identical men cannot exist at the same time. It is not a big problem to be a time traveler. However, once you try to go back to the past and change your destined future, you will inevitably pay the same price as exchange.

The “you” before the catastrophe will disappear.

If your mother survives, perhaps your father will die unexpectedly.

Tao of nature is very fair. Taking the person around you with the self-cultivation technique of vampire bat as an example, he was supposed to die at 80 as a mortal with no wife and no children. He then cultivated to be a monster as a human, and his fate was changed. To fix the consequential disorder, Tao of nature killed a child with great promise of the Mu family. This was still the result blessed by merit because of his efforts of rebuilding the earth. ”

Lin Luoran takes two steps back. The child with great promise of the Mu family… is he talking about Sixie of the Mu family?

“What about you… I know you are very powerful. There wasn’t another “you” before the catastrophe. If you do something at that time, can you stop it?”

She knows that her request is extremely unreasonable. However, Lin Luoran knows subconsciously that no matter how capricious she is, the man in robe will never refuse her request.

Sure enough, his smile freezes after hearing her words. After a while, his mouth slightly upward.

“If this is what you want, then I will do it as you wish.”

The man in robe steps forward and grabs Lin Luoran’s hand, “Hold me tight.”

Lin Luoran feels that everything is unreal like a dream. The palms of the man in robe are warm. At the moment when they hold each others’ hands, memories come to her like a tide.

A long time ago, she traveled the universe, holding the same hands.

He taught her how to enhance personal ability. They spent time together day and night. Her biggest dream was that he could walk more slowly while she could walk faster and faster, so that maybe she would catch up with his unattainable figure.

Lin Luoran saw a lonely little girl. She saw the girl joining a Training Qi school.Then all members of the school were killed by a bat monster.

Faced with the threat of the monster bat, the last surviving senior apprentice couldn’t bear to witness the death of the young girl so he closed his eyes in despair. When bat monster’s hand dropped, the young girl was not torn into pieces like others.

A person held her up. He was the “G.o.d” from the sky.

She watched him killing all vampire bats. When he was about to leave, she caught up with him with her broken leg. She kept chasing him all the way, and she finally managed to stay by his side.

This kind of “chasing” had lasted for a long period of time, and something had changed as time pa.s.sed by.

She began to ask for more. However, there were some things that even he couldn’t offer. She had the emotions of a mortal. However, he had already lost certain kind of things in his lonely and infinite life.

He said that no matter who, two people could never be together forever. Just like the earth under their feet—this planet had cultivated many powerful Qi-trainers and monsters, but it would still “die” one day.

At that time, she was stubborn and she was unwilling to admit defeat. Besides, she was tired of chasing him for so long. Therefore, she made a desperate bet with him.

“You don’t care about this planet, but it is the star where I was born. Even though G.o.ds and Buddhas don’t care about this mote, I still want to save it! If I succeed, you should never mention anything that ‘two people can’t be together forever’… This is our covenant and please give me a chance, okay? ”

He knew that he had spoiled this little girl. Once she decided to do something, she would do it by all means.

“However, if you want to change the fate fixed by the star, you should pay the price even with my help to deceive Tao of nature. You will enter the reincarnation… Are you willing to do so? ”

“Yes.”

She was still as stubborn as before. When she raised her face, she was still the stubborn girl who faced the bat monster.

The robe agreed and gave her the sacred pearl s.p.a.ce as a gift.

She lost her personal ability and entered reincarnation.

The picture suddenly disappears. Lin Luoran stands speechless on the clouds.

Stubborn little girl was reluctant to give up her home planet and the man in robe. She paid the price of reincarnation and she ultimately changed the fate of the blue star.

She faltered and stumbled. Eventually, she did what she promised. He was superior but he was also touched. Coming from the Unfettered World, he is now ready to fulfill the “covenant” ten thousand years ago to give her a chance, and also to give himself a chance.

If the source of everything is the covenant between Momo and the man in robe, then who is “Lin Luoran”?

It takes time for all memories of her previous life to flow in. The man in robe does not push it. He just accompanies her quietly, just as how they got along ten thousand years ago.

A purple light flashes in front of clouds, and then Liao appears.

He is finally relieved. He didn’t just waste a treasure for nothing—he catches up!

The man in robe is still calm. Looking at Liao for a while, he seems to remember who he is.

“You shouldn’t stay in this world.”

Liao looks gloomy, “I’m not you, a man who cultivates to be ruthless. The silly girl had been with you for so many years. You actually watched her suffering from the reincarnation at the expense of her life!”

Liao’s accusations actually make the man in robe unhappy. It is very rare. If Momo hadn’t liked Liao so much, he would probably kill him at this moment—does he also feel sorry about Momo’s decision? The man in robe feels an unusual fluctuation in his mind.

“Back then, the silly girl suffered so much because of you. You still didn’t respond to her. Then why do you show up at this moment? She is not your chess piece. She should always have the opportunity to choose her own life. ”

The person in front is Liao’s savior, but he still hates him.

No matter how many good deeds the man in robe has done, Liao knows that he is actually a ruthless man! There is nothing in the world that the man in robe cares about. No matter how sincere people are and how much people offer, it is impossible to make him stop for them and respond to them with the same kindness.

From his perspective, the earth is just the cradle for nurturing heirs and he can abandon it casually.

Without the stupid girl, maybe he will never remember who “Blue Waves” is!

Blue Waves, bat monster, alien girl Jin Nan, and numerous living beings… they are just pa.s.sing travelers in the long life of the man in robe.

Momo was just a little different because he raised her himself!

The man in robe ignores Liao’s indignation, and he confirms, “So you want her to forget who she was. In this way, she will also forget me. You are even willing to make her forget who you are… However, you are still too late. ”

After the man in robe finishes talking, Lin Luoran raises her head with tears on her face.

“… Liao.”

Liao’s indignation turns into unconcealed grief. Liao’s eyes dull, and almost falls down the clouds.

It is obviously a different face. Seeing her face full of tears, the man in robe suddenly feels a thorn in his heart. He can’t help but be more gentle and speaks in an extremely soft tone.

“Finally, you are back… Momo.”