259: After many years, I will definitely return

Fatty Zhang lay on the ground, sleeping like a dead pig, with a trace of satisfied drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

The scene just now, where the world was being destroyed one moment and calm the next, had clearly exceeded his meager range of understanding. His brain chose the most direct protection mechanism—a forced shutdown.

Zhao Linger did not look at him.

Her entire heart and mind were focused on the man before her.

He stood there quietly, his green robes the same, his face the same.

But Zhao Linger felt as if she were looking up at a divine mountain that cut across eternity.

That invisible sense of distance was even stronger than before, so strong it made her suffocate.

Reshaping mountains and rivers with a wave of his hand.

Commanding the Heavenly Dao with a single thought.

Was this... really the Lin Fan she knew?

Was he truly the youth who would slack off in the back mountains, bicker with her over trivial matters, and stand in front of her even when covered in blood when she encountered danger?

An indescribable bitterness and bewilderment flooded her heart.

She was afraid.

Not of his god-like power, but that she could no longer hold onto him.

He belonged above the Nine Heavens, while she was but a speck of dust in the Mortal world.

Lin Fan looked at her.

He watched as the tears she had just suppressed welled up uncontrollably once more.

He understood all her fear and insecurity.

That chasm named "Godhood" was something he had established himself; now, it was time for him to tear it down personally.

He no longer used any transcendent power.

He simply took two steps forward like the most ordinary Mortal and stood before her.

Then, he raised his hand and gently wiped away the rolling tear on her cheek with his fingertip.

The movement was very light, very soft.

Carrying a familiar warmth.

“Silly girl.”

His voice no longer held that majesty of commanding the world with words; only the purest, inseparable tenderness remained.

“I said, we're going home.”

“This is just the Qingyun Sect, not our home.”

“Our home is in another place. A place... where no one can hurt you, and we can be together forever.”

Zhao Linger's body trembled slightly.

She stared at him blankly, looking into his clear eyes that reflected her own figure.

The tenderness in those eyes was not a facade.

The preciousness at the bottom of his gaze was not a lie.

The deity seemed to have disappeared again.

Standing before her was still her Lin Fan.

The iceberg of fear in her heart began to melt.

She sniffled, forcing herself not to let her tears burst forth again.

She reached out her trembling hands, not to embrace him, but silently to straighten his lapel, which had become slightly disheveled during the previous battle.

Smoothing the wrinkles on his collar.

Straightening the sash at his waist.

Her movements were very slow and serious, as if she were performing the most sacred task in the world.

She wanted to use this method to tell herself, and him.

No matter what you have become, man or god.

You are still mine.

Lin Fan stood quietly, letting her tidy his clothes.

He could feel the slight chill and trembling of her fingertips.

He could also feel her heart, which feigned strength but was actually fragile and insecure.

“Linger.”

He spoke softly.

“Mm.”

Zhao Linger kept her head lowered, not daring to look at him, only responding with a soft nasal sound.

“Wait for me to return.”

Lin Fan said, “Once I build our home in the Spirit Realm, I will come back for you.”

Zhao Linger's hand tidying his clothes paused slightly.

She looked up, her swollen eyes reflecting the moonlight and Lin Fan's figure.

She didn't say “I'll wait for you.”

She just looked at him and said word by word, with an unprecedentedly serious tone:

“No.”

“I will go find you.”

“I will Cultivate hard, I will achieve Ascension on my own, and I will walk before you with dignity.”

She didn't want to be his burden.

Even less did she want to be a canary that could only wait passively, protected under his wings.

She wanted to become someone who could stand side by side with him.

Lin Fan looked at the stubbornness and determination in her eyes; he was stunned for a moment, then an incredibly brilliant, heartfelt smile blossomed on his face.

“Good.”

He nodded heavily.

“I'll wait for you.”

This was his Zhao Linger.

Always so resilient, always so clever.

However, at this tender moment.

A sudden change occurred!

Lin Fan's body flickered violently without any warning.

Like a reflection in water hit by a pebble, it became illusory and unreal.

Sizzle—

The air beside him was like a fragile mirror, and pitch-black cracks appeared out of thin air!

An invisible, extremely heavy pressure squeezed in from all directions.

The entire world was rejecting him!

The Law was roaring, and space was wailing.

This fragile world of the Lower Realm could no longer bear the existence of this “foreign object,” not even for a single second!

“Lin Fan!”

Zhao Linger's face turned pale instantly, and she instinctively grabbed his arm tightly.

But half of her hand passed directly through Lin Fan's body, as if grabbing at a phantom.

Lin Fan's brow finally furrowed.

He knew he couldn't wait any longer.

If he stayed for even one more breath, he might be forcibly torn apart by the violent Law power of this world, or ejected directly, causing the coordinates for his return to the Spirit Realm to become completely chaotic.

The consequences would be unimaginable.

He reached back and grasped Zhao Linger's hand, pulling her in front of him to steady her.

“Time is up.”

His voice was still calm, but it carried a trace of unquestionable decisiveness.

He turned his head and glanced at Fatty Zhang, who was still sleeping on the ground.

He flicked his finger.

A soft white light sank into the space between Fatty Zhang's eyebrows.

Fatty Zhang jolted and suddenly sat up from the ground, looking around blankly.

“What... what's happening? An earthquake?”

When he saw Lin Fan's body starting to become semi-transparent and the hideous spatial cracks around him, he was completely stunned.

“Lin... Brother Lin! You... you're leaving?!”

Fatty Zhang scrambled over, his face filled with panic and reluctance.

Lin Fan looked at him, a helpless smile appearing on his face.

“Take care of yourself, and take care of her.”

He said no more, only raising his hand to pat Fatty Zhang's shoulder firmly, just like before.

“Brother Lin!”

Fatty Zhang wanted to say more, but found an irresistible force gently pushing him away.

Lin Fan took one last deep look at Zhao Linger.

That one look contained a thousand words.

Reluctance, apology, expectation, and above all, a promise.

Zhao Linger bit her lip hard, using all her strength to keep herself from crying out.

She nodded to him forcefully.

Lin Fan smiled.

He turned resolutely.

He didn't look at anyone else again.

He simply and calmly raised his foot toward the space in front of him that was constantly cracking and healing.

Then, he took a step forward.

No earth-shattering momentum.

No dazzling brilliance.

His figure simply vanished into thin air.

As if he had never appeared.

After he left, the rejection force that had made the entire world tremble vanished without a trace instantly.

The spatial cracks slowly mended.

The night wind became gentle once again.

Atop the main peak of Qingyun, only Zhao Linger remained standing in a daze, and Fatty Zhang was wailing loudly... Meanwhile.

Within the endless Void Realm.

Inside a miniature space enveloped by chaotic airflow, only about the size of a thatched hut.

Lin Fan's figure emerged, staggering.

As soon as he steadied himself, before he could even catch his breath, his expression changed drastically.

Crack—

A huge fissure opened in the ground beneath his feet.

Above his head, the “sky”—pieces of crystal-like barriers—were peeling off and shattering.

The entire space was falling apart!

This Mustard Seed World, which served as his coordinates for traveling between the Spirit Realm and the Lower Realm, had reached the brink of collapse because it had endured the energy impact of him forcibly descending and then returning with his terrifying power!

At this moment, after the consumption of traversing the world barriers, the energy within Lin Fan's body was less than one-tenth of its original amount.

Oh no.