Chapter 290 - The Dragon Princess’ Decision
“But isn’t my bloodline already beyond salvation… Not even my father could do anything, do you really have a purification method?” Bei Lian’s eyes were wide with incredulity.
An Lin nodded earnestly. “Just because your father is unable to do it doesn’t mean no one else can. I obtained this method from Senior Shen Yin, so it’s definitely reliable!”
“Senior Shen Yin… Are you referring to the Heavenly Dragon Maiden of the dragon tribe?!” Bei Lian’s mouth fell open as if she was listening to some startling revelation.
Shen Yin was the closest person to reaching Dao Integration Stage in the Dragon Court for the past ten thousand years. If she had chosen to achieve the Dao of the True Dragon, she would have probably easily succeeded. Her legendary tales cemented her as a revered figure in Dragon Court history as well as Bei Lian’s idol. How could she remain calm when An Lin told her the bloodline purification method was obtained from none other than her idol?
“That’s her.” An Lin nodded. “I managed to obtain this bloodline purification method through a chance encounter with Shen Yin. Come with me, we’ll talk somewhere else.”
An Lin leaped onto Da Bai and flew away in the other direction as Bei Lian followed behind with a dazed expression, seemingly still in the process of digesting all this information.
They came to a small hill which was quite secluded and peaceful, with only the chirping of birds and the calls of bugs as background noise.
“Hmm, this place is not bad for doing something sneaky.” An Lin looked around him and nodded with satisfaction.
Bei Lian: “…”
“Big Brother An, there’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing, why do you have to describe it in such an uncouth manner? Woof!” Da Bai sighed in exasperation.
Bam!
Da Bai copped another punch to the head.
“Anyone can criticize me in this aspect except for you! A perverted dog like you has no right to say anything about me!” An Lin snapped.
“Woof! A crooked stick will always have a crooked shadow; a dog can only follow the example set by its owner!” Da Bai retorted.
An Lin’s chest tightened at his retort. For f*ck’s sake, Da Bai was damaging both their reputations with his words!
A light smile appeared on Bei Lian’s face as she looked at the quarreling pair before her.
She had already recovered from her initial shock and although she was quite excited, she still decided to wait in silence as she looked at An Lin with anticipation reflected in her beautiful eyes.
An Lin couldn’t help but blush under Bei Lian’s unwavering gaze and coughed awkwardly. “Alright, quit playing around, let’s get down to business!”
He pulled out a series of items from his storage ring as he spoke.
“This is the Thousand Year Moon Sinking Wood I obtained from the Green Island; this is the Ancient Purple Vine and True Blood of the Winged Dragon I obtained from the ancient battleground of the Dragon Court; this is the Dark Ice Crystal I obtained from the Frosty Ice Island; Barren Flaming Bones from the Soaring Snake Volcano; Divine White Herb from the Demonic Venerate Island…”
Bei Lian looked on in silence as An Lin pulled out item after item from his storage ring. All the items possessed extremely powerful energy fluctuations and it could be deduced from their outward appearance that these were all extraordinary medicinal ingredients. Especially when she saw the Ancient Purple Vine and the True Blood of the Winged Dragon, her heart trembled violently in shock.
She had heard about them from Yin Yu. Weren’t these the exact items An Lin was searching for when he decided to go to the ancient battlegrounds? So that was why… That was why An Lin had decided to venture into the ancient battlegrounds to collect these two items; it was all in an effort to rectify her bloodline.
“Alright, that’s everything. I’m going to arrange a bloodline purification spell formation with Xiao Chou’s help in a short while. You don’t have to do anything except meditate in the center of the spell formation and activate your True Dragon cultivation method.” An Lin’s expression became a lot more serious as he proceeded to the business end of things.
The spell formation was extremely complicated to arrange. After all, this was not an average spell formation. It required not only the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth to maintain but also the injection of energy from a hundred thousand vital stones.
Just the spell formation alone took two hours to prepare and immediately afterward, it was time to activate the spell formation.
An Lin and Xiao Chou stood on either side of the spell formation as its main operators and injected their vital energy into the spell formation to initiate its activation.
As the spell formation was set into motion, the projection of an ancient golden dragon appeared within, which then stood between heaven and earth, emitting boundless dragon might. The essence within all the medicinal ingredients was also extracted as they formed a series of thin streams, before flowing into Bei Lian and nurturing her diluted bloodline.
It was extremely simple to destroy something but much more difficult to repair it to its original condition. This was like the difference between smashing an extremely valuable vase compared to gathering the pieces and restoring the vase; the difference in the level of difficulty was like night and day.
The next step was to purify Bei Lian’s bloodline and eliminate all the impurities. This step was akin to gathering all the vase fragments.
Following that, they had to reactivate the bloodline and revive it from its dormant state. This was the equivalent of merging all the vase fragments back together and restoring the vase to its former glory; it was the final miraculous step that would complete the whole bloodline purification process.
Before they knew it, they had already progressed to the final step. The spell formation began to shudder violently as the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth and all the energy within the spirit stones quickly flowed into the spell formation, making the projection of the golden dragon appear more substantial and life-like.
All the medicinal ingredients quickly withered away as their energy was absorbed by the golden dragon projection, before being injected into Bei Lian’s body through the spell formation.
After a long while, a joyful dragon’s roar erupted throughout heaven and earth.
It was as if the roar was announcing to the world— the Dragon Princess had returned!!
The aloof and confident Dragon Princess was back.
Bei Lian stood up and experienced the vast bloodline power surging within her body.
The power within her bloodline was even more substantial than the time before she used the bloodline dilution mystic technique.
An Lin fell to the ground, sweating profusely as he swallowed an Energy Restoring Pill.
His body hadn’t had a chance to fully recover and after expending so much energy, his legs completely gave out from under him in exhaustion.
“Haha, Dragon Princess, you should’ve never doubted me, I succeeded, didn’t I?” An Lin laughed heartily.
In all honesty, he was still quite anxious prior to initiating the process. He had all the theoretical knowledge, but he had never put it into practice after all, so who knew what potential mishaps could occur?
But after hearing the dragon’s roar, An Lin knew he had succeeded.
Bei Lian looked down at An Lin with a complex expression.
She had sacrificed her bloodline purity to save An Lin’s life, but she did not think too much of it at that time. Never would she have thought that An Lin would visit her after a short span of only around a dozen days with all the medicinal ingredients required to rectify her bloodline. He had essentially given her a second chance at life.
“Thank you.”
Bei Lian didn’t know what to say and only managed to utter those two words after much thought.
An Lin waved his hand with a smile. “There’s no need to thank me. If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve died in Bo Lan City!
“This is to repay you for saving my life. My life is pretty valuable too so it’s not going to be easy to repay this debt. Hmm… I don’t seem to have anything of value I can give to you right now, but I’m going to become a mighty figure one day, and my name will be known by everyone in the continent. When that day comes, I’ll be sure to look out for you!”
Bei Lian pursed her lips in an amused smile. “Alright, then I’ll be counting on you.”
An Lin nodded with a justified expression. “What do you plan to do next?”
Bei Lian was, of course, aware of what An Lin was asking. Now that she had rectified her bloodline, she could recover her status at the Dragon Court so long as she wished to do so.
But… did she really want to go back?
As per the saying, “misfortune tests the sincerity of relationships”.
After everyone learned of the fact that the purity of her bloodline had been diluted and that her cultivation progress would probably stall for the rest of her life, her brothers and sisters all turned their backs on her with the exception of Yin Yu. They didn’t even bother to offer up any words of consolation, and her father even went as far as to ignore her wishes and forcefully arranged an engagement with Xia Ze.
She had always known deep in her heart that this was what her family was truly like, but when their harsh personality traits truly manifested themselves, she felt extremely disheartened and disappointed. In a family like this, where there was no love and bloodline was valued above all else, was this really a family worth going back to?
“I don’t want to go back.” Bei Lian took a deep breath and smiled.
If she left the Dragon Court, she would lose all her cultivation resources, including cultivation method, pills, spirit stones, materials, everything. She would become an itinerant cultivator with no support or backing whatsoever…
However, she was determined to abide by her decision.
An Lin was very supportive of her decision. This was a modern-day society for f*ck’s sake! How could there still be arranged marriages in the cultivating world? Just this one event alone was enough for An Lin to form an extremely negative impression of the Dragon Court.
In any case, weren’t arranged marriages illegal!
“An Lin, please pass on a message to Yin Yu when you go to the Dragon Court. Tell her that my bloodline has already recovered and that I plan to travel the continent for a few years. Tell her not to worry and to keep this a secret.”
“Aren’t you going to tell her all this yourself?”
“No, emotions are non-renewable resources. I’ve already given her an emotional farewell, it’d be a waste of resources to stage another.”
“…, I have no response to that.”
“This is where we part then, I hope we are fated to meet again someday!”
“Farewell, Dragon Princess.”
Bei Lian looked back at An Lin with a gentle expression. There seemed to a thousand things she wanted to say, but all the words in her heart manifested themselves into a dazzling smile as she waved her hand in farewell and flew away into the distance.
A new figure had just squeezed his way into her heart, to which she plastered the label of “like”.