Chapter Twelve: Subduing Yunshan, Nalan Yanran's Astonishment

“Break through to the Douzong realm? Is that all you aspire to?”
“Right now, I can give you the chance to grow even stronger. Even breaking through to the Dou Saint realm will no longer be a challenge. Are you interested?”
Lin An gazed at Yun Shan and suddenly spoke.
“You’re not Kun Yu? Who are you... Wait, could you be Lin An?”
Yun Shan felt his mind falter, and soon a notion so absurd came to him that even he hesitated to believe it.
Kun Yu hadn’t succeeded in seizing Lin An’s body? Instead, Lin An had dealt with Kun Yu?
“That’s right, I am Lin An.”
Within this Palace of Yama, Lin An was king, so he admitted it without hesitation.
Yun Shan stared blankly at Lin An. Despite his long years, never had he encountered such a fantastical event.
A Douzong powerhouse killed by a youngster who had only just broken through to the Dou Practitioner realm?
If he were to recount this, no one would believe him; it was pure fantasy.
After a while, Yun Shan gradually accepted the truth.
He knew Lin An harbored secrets—great secrets.
If Lin An could slay Kun Yu and remain calm, then he must have immense confidence in his own strength.
“What do you want me to do?”
Yun Shan neither refused nor agreed immediately; he wished to know Lin An’s intentions.
“Become my most loyal servant, and I shall lead you to the summit of the Dou Qi Continent.”
Lin An spoke indifferently, as though discussing a trivial matter.
“You...”
Yun Shan wanted to rebuke him loudly, but suddenly felt a terrifying power descend upon him, rendering him motionless.
At that moment, Yun Shan realized that Lin An before him was no longer the junior he once expected to bow and scrape.
Now that all pretenses were dropped, Lin An certainly had no patience to play ancestor and disciple with him.
Yun Shan had no doubt that if Lin An wished to take his life, a single thought would suffice.

He wasn’t ready to die yet. He still yearned for breakthroughs and greater power; otherwise, he wouldn’t have accepted the Soul Hall’s aid, or become their lackey.
Now, however, his partner had become Lin An.
As long as his ambitions could be fulfilled, such demands hardly mattered.
“Speak, what do you want me to do?”
Yun Shan’s face flickered between emotions, then finally regained composure.
“The first step is, of course, to kill you.”
As soon as the words fell, a divine light flashed. Before Yun Shan could react, he was horrified to find his soul had left his body.
“Have I... died?”
Yun Shan examined his state. It was said that only those with immense spiritual power or high-level alchemists could escape with their soul if their body was destroyed.
He was well aware of his own realm, yet he hadn’t expected that even he could appear in this form after his body was destroyed.
“Now, you could say you are dead, or you could say you are not.
Just remember, your life and death are now entirely at my whim.”
Lin An finished speaking, and Yun Shan found himself able to move freely. Soon, he returned to his body.
The sensation was strange—he’d felt dead moments ago, but now, back in his flesh, that feeling vanished.
Lin An then used Soul Points to help Yun Shan break through to the One-Star Douzong realm.
He spent a thousand Soul Points.
Seeing Yun Shan break through so easily, Lin An felt a surge of frustration.
Helping Yun Shan advance from Nine-Star Dou Emperor to Douzong had only cost a thousand Soul Points, whereas breaking through himself to the Dou Practitioner realm required three thousand.
Lin An didn’t hesitate to abandon that idea.
Soul Points were better reserved for upgrading the Palace of Yama.
He looked forward to the extraordinary abilities the upgraded palace would possess.
“For now, stay here and cultivate. When I need you, I’ll call you out.”
Seeing Yun Shan’s shocked expression, Lin An led him out of the Palace of Yama, devouring the lingering Yin energy as he went.

He had already spent a long time here with Yun Shan; it was time to leave.
Yun Shan dared not slacken, watching Lin An depart from his presence.
He had contemplated resisting, but found that before Lin An, he couldn’t even muster the will to rebel. Lin An held the power to decide his fate at any moment.
Yun Shan now knew that escaping Lin An’s control would be nearly impossible for the rest of his life.
Yet, if Lin An truly achieved what he promised, then all of this would be worth it.
Lin An returned to his own courtyard, washed thoroughly, changed into fresh clothes, and headed for the back mountain.
These past days had been fraught with peril.
Had it not been for the system, and the fact that Yun Shan and Kun Yu had never considered him—a mere weakling not even at One-Star Dou Practitioner level—a threat, he might have died at any moment.
Of course, fortune favors the bold. Without this ordeal, not to mention the Soul Points and the new subordinate Yun Shan, simply breaking through to Nine-Star Dou Practitioner made this journey worthwhile.
“Junior brother, I heard that Ancestor Yun Shan took you away? I was afraid something had happened to you. Now that you’re back, I’m relieved.”
During her recent cultivation, Nalan Yanran had been distracted, clearly worried about Lin An.
Ancestor Yun Shan had been in seclusion for a long time; even she had met him only a few times, and not even her master Yun Yun knew why Yun Shan had summoned Lin An.
Days passed without news, and Nalan Yanran even considered asking her master Yun Yun to go and check on Lin An at Yun Shan’s abode.
“What trouble could I have gotten into?
It was just that Ancestor saw my talent and took a liking to me, so he brought me to his cave to help me break through to the Dou Practitioner realm.
Later, he even gave me elixirs and helped me advance to Nine-Star Dou Practitioner.”
After Lin An finished speaking, Nalan Yanran was shocked to discover that her junior brother had already broken through to the Nine-Star Dou Practitioner realm.
How could she not be amazed?
She had progressed slowly, aided by her master’s elixirs, finally reaching Two-Star Dou Practitioner after her breakthrough.
She had thought that, even with her master’s guidance and her own talent, Lin An wouldn’t catch up to her so quickly.
But who could have imagined that in just a few days, her junior brother had advanced to Nine-Star Dou Practitioner, and would soon break through to Dou Master.