Chapter 109: Return to Earth

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: Return to Earth

After dinner, Shen Yun didn’t linger in romantic farewells. It wasn’t as if they wouldn’t see each other again.

With Xiaojiu, Xiaojie, and a certain cat-eared girl in tow, he stepped onto the Teleportation Array.

"If anything happens, have someone notify me," Shen Yun said finally. "Although we can’t make phone calls, writing letters should be fine."

"If I write to you, will you write back?" Vierlia blinked.

"Of course," Shen Yun said with a smile.

Then, he watched as her eyes visibly lit up. He wondered, "Is she going to write to me every day?"

Anyway, under Vierlia’s watchful gaze, he activated the Teleportation Array. With a faint flash of light, they were back on Earth.

It wasn’t long before Director Lu rushed over.

"Mr. Shen, uh..." He suddenly noticed Erin hiding behind Shen Yun.

"Lu Hang, let me introduce you. This is the Half-Beastman, Erin," Shen Yun said, directly addressing Director Lu by his first name.

Lu Hang’s heart tightened. He wondered if she was a representative sent by the non-human Alliance. He immediately straightened his clothes, revealed a gentle smile, and speaking in the language of the Otherworld, said, "Hello, welcome to Hua Xia."

In response, Erin extended her right hand. SNIKT. Sharp claws popped right out of her fingertips.

"Retract them. Don’t go baring your claws at the drop of a hat," Shen Yun said, giving her head a light thwack.

"Meow..."

Looking a bit wronged, Erin pulled her hand back, continuing to hide behind Shen Yun. It was simply in a wildcat’s nature to issue a warning when meeting strangers.

"Mr. Shen, she is..." Lu Hang seemed to realize that this Half-Beastman wasn’t quite what he had assumed.

"Yeah, she’s a maid they gave me," Shen Yun said with a helpless expression. "I killed the Demon King and saved a beastman tribe, so they pledged their loyalty to me. She’s sort of a part of the allegiance ceremony."

"I see..." Lu Hang felt a twinge of envy but understood the situation. Then, he blinked as realization struck and blurted out, "You’ve already killed the Demon King?!"

After all, the very existence of the Demon King was why they hadn’t dared to send large numbers of personnel to Otherworld Number Two, terrified the Demon King would discover this teleportation point. How had it happened in the mere three or four days they hadn’t been in contact? The Demon King was just... dead?

"Mhm." Shen Yun looked completely unfazed. "Didn’t I mention it before? I said I’d look for an opportunity to strike back if possible."

"But this is..." Lu Hang was still struggling to believe it, but he took a deep breath. "In that case, the people from the Holy Hall are also..."

"Yeah, wiped them all out," Shen Yun said with a smile, stepping down from the Teleportation Array. "I was in a rush earlier, so I didn’t explain in detail. Because I made a minor breakthrough, I just wiped out all the enemies in one fell swoop over the past two days. Now, I’m planning to move back to Earth for a while. Oh, right—have you guys properly handled the Jade I sent over earlier?"

He had previously only left a brief message saying it was something incredibly important. Seeing Lu Hang rushing over now, he figured the director must have grasped the Information within it.

"Yes, it has been classified as top secret and securely sealed away." Lu Hang finally recovered from his shock, unable to resist giving a thumbs up. "You are truly incredible. I thought that Jade was our biggest haul to date, but I never imagined... that you had actually solved every single problem."

With this development, the interactions with Violet could be expanded even further. Those Sky-Splitting Crystals alone were extraordinarily important. They could even attempt to merge and upgrade the two Bronze Halls.

"Let’s walk and talk," Shen Yun said, patting his shoulder with a chuckle. "The Demon King wasn’t actually that strong. His strength didn’t make him a true Void God."

They then walked out of the Bronze Hall and took the subway to the surface. During the ride, Shen Yun gave a rough recount of the past few days’ events: from killing numerous Paladins to rescuing the cat tribe’s Patriarch, then the surprise attack on the Yibi Imperial Capital where he confirmed the Demon King’s identity, and finally, laying an ambush in advance to annihilate all the enemies in a single blow.

"Sometimes, I truly feel like you’re the main character in a novel," Lu Hang couldn’t help but sigh in awe. "You’re like an unstoppable force, slaughtering gods and buddhas alike, completely unrivaled on your path."

Even though Shen Yun made it sound simple, it was all built upon a foundation of absolute power. As an ordinary Cultivator, Lu Hang genuinely felt fortunate. When the sky fell, there was a tall giant like Shen Yun holding it up and blocking every crisis. It was truly reassuring.

"Although I succeeded by a stroke of luck this time, it also brought me into contact with a vastly broader world." Shen Yun, however, didn’t dare grow complacent. He shook his head. "I’ll go into detail about some of the more important Information later. In short, we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us."

"My Lord," Xiaojie said, suddenly stepping forward upon hearing this. "I shall fight for you to the bitter end!"

"Haha," Shen Yun chuckled, reaching out to pat his shoulder.

This was Lu Hang’s first time actually seeing Xiaojie; he had only known of his existence from the files. Seeing him now, he was indeed every bit as fierce and powerful as described. His mere appearance was enough to strike fear into anyone’s heart, to say nothing of his top-tier Golden Core cultivation base and strength. It wasn’t that the higher-ups didn’t care about this man’s identity. The problem was that even if such a powerhouse, who had pledged his absolute loyalty to Shen Yun, had some ulterior motive, no one other than Shen Yun could keep him in check anyway.

"Mr. Shen." Lu Hang suddenly thought of something and stepped closer. "During the time you were away, a few things happened on Earth. You’ll find out once you get back. Also, it would be best not to expose this gentleman’s true strength."

"I understand," Shen Yun nodded. He wondered what exactly had happened on Earth. Looking at Lu Hang’s expression, it didn’t seem like anything overly urgent; otherwise, they would have sent someone to notify him. Afterward, Shen Yun handed over the Lord of Holy Light’s manual to him as well, before boarding a flight home.

Meanwhile, Xiaojiu began picking up the internet signals, compiling the important news stories. She then displayed them on a tablet and handed it to Shen Yun. The number one trending headline was: [Community with a Shared Future for Mankind in the Spiritual Power Era Officially Established!]

Spearheaded by Hua Xia, over ninety percent of the nations worldwide had joined. It was designed to discuss international order and laws related to Spiritual Power, the developmental direction of human civilization, and even issues concerning the sharing of legacies and patents for Spiritual Power research. No matter how you looked at it, this could be considered the most crucial step the globe had taken toward peaceful development since the dawn of the Spiritual Qi revival era.

Shen Yun’s previous bluffing had played an undeniable role in this. The very first thing this Spiritual Power shared community did upon its establishment was jointly denounce crimes committed by Spiritual Power Cultivators. The practice of Black Mages was strictly regulated, and there was even a high alert against warmongering ideologies. Shen Yun breathed a small sigh of relief. If he had to face the threat of the Otherworld while simultaneously dealing with wars on Earth, it would be far too annoying.

He then looked at the second piece of Information: [What is Master Thunder’s true strength? Special guest, Master Miaoyun of Wudang, takes you on a deep dive to find out.]

"This is..." Shen Yun stared at the hundreds of millions of views under the video, feeling a bit awkward. Of all the people they could have invited, they just had to invite Miao Yun. He didn’t even need to open it to imagine what the scene would look like. Sure enough, upon clicking it, Miao Yun’s unique, soft, and mellow voice floated out.

"He is very, very incredible. Fellow Daoist Thunder’s realm and strength are completely different from ours. He has reached an entirely different level; he could even be my master.

"To be specific, he could probably defeat the three of us effortlessly on his own.

"A couple? Oh, no, although I do admire Fellow Daoist Thunder very much.

"Confess his feelings? No way, why would Fellow Daoist Thunder confess to me? ...Even hypothetically, it’s impossible..."

Shen Yun watched all the way to the end before finally sighing in relief. Even though the second half of the discussion had unsurprisingly devolved entirely into gossip, Miao Yun was fairly reliable. She hadn’t leaked a single bit of Information about Xiaojiu or Vierlia. Just as he was about to close the video and read the next piece of Information, Xiaojiu suddenly reached out and opened the comment section. Then... Shen Yun’s mouth twitched as he read the comments.

"Ahhhh, Miao Yun is so pitiful."

"Her admiration is practically overflowing."

"If this isn’t love... then romance doesn’t exist in this world."

"Wuwuwu, Mom, I’m heartbroken! What do I do when my romantic rival can crush me with a single finger?!"

"Condemn that scum, Shen Yun! How could he leave our Miao Yun hanging like this?! Our goddess Miao Yun admires you so much; go confess to her right now, you lucky bastard!"

"..."

Just looking at these top-voted comments, and then at the horrifying number of views and likes, Shen Yun could already imagine what kind of image he had on the internet. There was simply no clearing his name! Miao Yun’s admiration was truly just pure admiration, damn it!

"Master, since you’re already in this situation anyway," Xiaojiu said, leaning in with a cheeky grin, "why don’t you pull Miao Yun into your bed too? A soft girl like her is super rare, you know."

"Stop messing around," Shen Yun said, lightly pinching Xiaojiu’s cheek and feigning a fierce glare. "What do you mean, ’since I’m already in this situation’? Can you show your Master a little respect? If you keep this up, I’m going to get mad."

Although he was a bit carefree and didn’t agonize over matters of the heart, he still possessed a basic moral bottom line. That girl, Miao Yun, was wholeheartedly devoted to the Dao. She truly only viewed him as a trustworthy fellow Daoist and a senior in cultivation. If he entertained those kinds of inappropriate thoughts about her, he wouldn’t even be fit to be her friend.

"I’m just joking." Xiaojiu wrinkled her cute nose. She grabbed Shen Yun’s hand, nuzzled her cheek against his palm, and her eyes curved into crescent moons. "Xiaojiu really doesn’t want another person fighting for room in the bed."

"That’s more like it." Shen Yun showed a hint of helplessness, but his eyes were full of tender affection. A man’s heart could perhaps truly be divided into many, many pieces. But there would always be one part that remained the softest.

No one’s eyes could hide their emotions from Xiaojiu. She shrank her neck back, suddenly and inadvertently revealing a trace of the purest, most genuine blush. Then, she gently leaned against Shen Yun and lowered her head to scroll through the tablet.

"Next article, next article, Master..."