Ling Lan lifted her right hand and waved at the Heart of Imperial. The hovering Heart of Imperial seemed to be attracted to her hand as it flew gently into her grasp.

Ling Lan closed her fingers gently. She held the Heart of Imperial in her hand.

“Such a pure and clean imperial domain concept energy.” Ling Lan observed the Heart of Imperial. As she admired it, she felt a little puzzled too. “I don't understand why Lord Gen didn't choose to absorb it directly but instead, left it here.”

“Maybe he can't absorb it because their concept didn't complement each other. He might get injured if he tried to absorb it forcefully,” Li Lanfeng thought for a moment before replying.

“You make sense. Since we can't find the answer, let's bring it back,” Ling Lan replied in an even tone. “After we make an agreement with the 13 Lords, I'll find some time to a.n.a.lyse it. We'll know the answer by then.”

Worry flashed past Li Lanfeng's eyes. But, he still nodded. As for Luo Lang, anything Boss said was correct. The thought that a.n.a.lysing the Heart of Imperial was dangerous never crossed his mind.

The three of them went back on the same path. When they reached the swamp again, Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang were flabbergasted by the scene in front of them.

The swamp wasn't a swamp anymore. It had turned into a gigantic dry ‘reed field'. The entire place was covered with and densely populated with reed. The characteristic of a swamp was nowhere to be seen. Plus, these ‘reeds' were durable and soft. They were dancing around casually in the wind.

The four haughty poisonous creatures were also nowhere to be seen. They wondered if they were dead or Little White had swallowed them into its stomach.

“Is this Little White's original form?” Luo Lang asked in surprise. He suddenly remembered something. “I remember now. They are the tentacles at the bottom of the river on Planet Juhao.”

Luo Lang remembered the time when their entire mecha clan was beaten up badly by Little White. In the end, Boss killed it with his beam gun. Did this mean that Boss didn't kill Little White in the past and even brought it back as a pet?

Luo Lang's thoughts were all written on his face. It was so easy to guess what he was thinking. Ling Lan nodded. “Yes. The one that died before you was his clone.

“So these are all Little White's clones.” Li Lanfeng looked at the soft reeds in front of him. When he recalled their fight in the past, he felt his hairs standing on end. He believed that if someone entered this reed pool accidentally, they would die a horrible death. They wouldn't even have any bones left because he could see the tiny slit opening on the stem of the reeds that looked like a clean set of sharp teeth. Those were fatal weapons that could kill people without spilling a drop of blood. Anyone would die if they met them.

When Little White saw its master returning, a white round ball flew out of the ‘reed field' and jumped into Ling Lan's arms directly.

“Rawr…” (Master, I took care of those creatures.)

“Pfft~” Little White spit out four black round b.a.l.l.s from its mouth and looked at Ling Lan in antic.i.p.ation.

The black round b.a.l.l.s had a sinister domain concept energy to them. Ling Lan felt the energy and understood that these must be the heart of the concept of the four poisonous creatures. Their concept energy was messy and not pure. It even gave off a sinister aura that made people uncomfortable.

Ling Lan patted Little White's big head and replied, “You can use them. This kind of thing is not suitable for us.”

All the concepts in this world had their set of rules. Although many animals were able to evolve into powerful creatures, they couldn't be subst.i.tuted. For instance, if Ling Lan and her comrades wanted to find a shortcut to increase their strength, they could only look for the Heart of Imperial from a human to increase their strength. They couldn't use the Heart of Concept from another species. Anyone that tried to challenge this rule would be injured heavily.

Ling Lan wasn't so arrogant to think that she could challenge this rule that had been around for many centuries. Plus, she already had a Heart of Imperial. Thus, she didn't care about those from the poisonous creatures. She would rather give them to Little White to increase its strength. It might be able to help her in the future.

Little White was elated at Ling Lan's words. Other creatures might have to reconsider before devouring these Heart of Concept but for Little White, a bugged character who could swallow anything, even if you gave it a human's Heart of Imperial, it would be able to stomach it.

Little White quickly finished gobbled up the four black round b.a.l.l.s. Then, it jumped onto Ling Lan's shoulder like nothing had happened. It felt as though the four black b.a.l.l.s were four pieces of sweets.

Ling Lan shook her head. At first, she wanted to use Little White as reference but it seemed like she found the wrong creature.

“Erm, Little White, are you not going to retrieve your clones?” Luo Lang reminded Little White when he noticed that it was starting to fall asleep in Ling Lan's shoulder without any intention of removing the huge ‘reed field'.

Little White was unhappy that someone disturbed its beauty sleep. It rolled its eyes at Luo Lang and made a few sounds. Then, it turned its back to Luo Lang and ignored him.

“Huh? What did it say?” Luo Lang looked at Li Lanfeng with tears all over his face. Sob, he couldn't understand Little White's language.

“Well… Little White says that there's ample nutrients in this swamp so his clones can grow quickly here while protecting the rainbow palace. It can kill two birds with one stone.” How could he tell Luo Lang what Little White really said? In actual fact, Little White said, “Retrieve my clones? Are you an idiot? That is a stupid question.” Li Lanfeng felt mentally exhausted. He had a hard time trying to maintain a good relations.h.i.+p between his comrades.

Ling Lan smiled at Li Lanfeng. As a strategist, his intelligence wasn't suited to work in human relations so it must be hard for him to think of a reasonable excuse for Luo Lang. However, since he seemed like he was capable of it, she would let him handle all of her personal relations.h.i.+ps. Plus, Ling Lan was used to using Li Lanfeng too.

If Li Lanfeng knew Ling Lan thoughts, would he feel helpless or happy? No matter what the answer was, it couldn't be denied that Li Lanfeng was getting more important in Ling Lan's mind.

The three of them returned to the hall of the rainbow palace. Just as they arrived, the five guardians were slowly waking up. They were astounded when they saw Ling Lan who was sitting on the ice throne and smiling at them.

“Since you agreed to surrender, I have to give you some gifts,” Ling Lan said calmly.

If that excruciating pain was their gift, they would rather not have it. The five guardians cursed silently in their hearts. However, on the surface, they appeared respectful, not daring to show any signs of discontent. They were afraid that they would get some more of those gifts.

“Go back and feel it properly. You will like it.” Ling Lan saw through their thoughts immediately. Her Profound Insight was too powerful. It was impossible for any weaker people to hide their real feelings in front of her. But, Ling Lan didn't mind it. She kept the five guardians because she needed them for manual labour so in her mind, they just needed to be obedient. If they didn't bow down to her sincerely, it wouldn't affect her.

The five guardians' faces started twitching when they heard Ling Lan telling them that they would like this excruciating pain. Did she think that they were m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.ts?

They would never expect that in the future, they would really like this agent just like what Ling Lan said. They even hoped that they could drink it every day. However, at that time, it would only be given based on their merits, which would cause them to put in all their efforts into completing all the missions Ling Lan a.s.signed them, afraid that if they didn't do well, their merits would be cut and they wouldn't get the gene agent they desired.