1358 The Best Son. The Best Brother.

What was wrong with failing? No failure could stop Ling Lan’s drive towards the top. The learning s.p.a.ce was only a tool that would help her to the top, but on the road to the top, the constant variable was always her.

Ling Lan walked up with determination and pushed the large door that stopped her from entering the learning s.p.a.ce for all this time.

Unexpectedly, the doors that were heavy as mountains in the past, were easily pushed open. Ling Lan had already prepared for her to fail. So, when the doors opened right before her, the grand scene dumbfounded Ling Lan.

“Why are you standing there staring at nothing?” Instructor Number One’s calm and soothing voice echoed in her ears.

This was a voice that Ling Lan couldn’t be anymore familiar with, a voice that Ling Lan would think about in her dreams. Hearing that voice she so dearly missed broke down Ling Lan’s hardened heart. “I-Instructor Number One!”

Tears quickly dropped down from the corners of Ling Lan’s eyes. Those were tears of happiness, and a rare show of weakness because Ling Lan finally saw someone she could depend on.

“Come in.” Seeing a heartbroken Ling Lan, Instructor Number One’s voice was still very calm, but Ling Lan seemed to hear a soft sigh as well.

“Yes, sir.” Ling Lan immediately disappeared from where she stood, and appeared in Instructor Number One’s dimension.

On top of a mountain, Instructor Number One was currently sitting on a stone slab meditating with his eyes closed.

Sensing Ling Lan’s arrival, he slowly opened his eyes and said, “You were too reckless to use the Heart of Imperial in your mindscape. Next time, don’t be so reckless.”

Even with Number One’s reprimand, Ling Lan still answered him with a genuine smile, “Yes, Instructor Number One.”

“Although the result isn’t bad, it would still affect your development somewhat in the future. I’m sure you understand already.” Instructor Number One looked at Ling Lan. A look of astonishment pa.s.sed through his eyes in an instant.

“Yes. Having two domain concepts is already a restriction for advancing into the G.o.d-realm. Now there’s another unknown concept that doesn’t belong to me adding to the mix. If I can’t resolve this issue, then I would forever stay within the imperial realm, never having the chance to advance to the G.o.d-realm.” Ling Lan spoke out her realizations.

“As long as you know,” replied Instructor Number One. “This can be a blessing or a misfortune. It just depends on how you resolve it.”

“Thank you for the pointers, Instructor Number One,” said Ling Lan gratefully. Other than her father, Ling Xiao, and her mother, Lan Luofeng, the instructors in the learning s.p.a.ce were the only ones who gave her pointers selflessly.

“However, being able to break through into the learning s.p.a.ce so quickly is great for Little Four. Good job.” After seeing Ling Lan had learned her lesson, Instructor Number One praised her. Instructor Number One knew that reprimanding and praising sometimes need to be used in tandem. That was why he didn’t forget to praise the effort Ling Lan had put in.

“Little Four?” Ling Lan’s heart skipped a beat. She already found it weird that Little Four hadn’t actually came to her after she had been in the learning s.p.a.ce for so long. Normally, after not seeing her for so long, Little Four would immediately jump on her and ask for hugs and kisses the moment she stepped in.

“Come with me.” Instructor Number One stood up and used his finger to slash the air to open up a tear in the dimension.

Ling Lan followed Instructor Number One apprehensively into the tear. While Ling Lan was thinking of the worst case scenarios in her head, she arrived at the dimension Little Four was sleeping in.

After seeing Little Four laying in the air silently with bands of light around his body supplying him with energy, Ling Lan felt her heart ache as tears uncontrollably came down her face. Her voice turned hoa.r.s.e. “What happened?”

“Come with me.” Instructor Number One didn’t answer her and only gestured to Ling Lan to continue to follow him into the next dimension.

In this dimension, there were two cores giving off light. The first core was bright but gave off a somewhat odd feeling. The other core was dim and lifeless as if it was going to flicker out of existence in the next second.

Ling Lan felt the energy presences given off by these two cores. The familiar feeling caused tears to fall from her eyes again.

“This is my father’s and Xie Yi’s.” Her intuition about her father was correct. But, what surprised her even more was that Xie Yi was still alive. She couldn’t be even more happy than she was currently. It was also because the chance of Xie Yi surviving from that explosion was so slim that her Profound Insight couldn’t actually detect Xie Yi’s life signal. Ling Lan had always thought that Xie Yi had actually left them. Luo Lang was heartbroken, but so was she. However, as the Boss, she couldn’t let herself give in to that feeling of loss and vent the pain in her heart. She could only silently endure all of it in her heart.

“Yes. When Little Four saw your father self-destructing to save your life, he rushed over in an attempt to grab ahold of his spiritual power just like how he did in your past life. But he neglected to factor in how weak your spiritual power was when compared to your father’s. Your father’s spiritual power is of a different existence. The outcome of trying to take in more than he could handle was backlash. He was lucky that he didn’t fully collapse from it.” Instructor Number One finally told Ling Lan the reason why Little Four was unconscious.

“Little Four, you are the best son and brother my parents and I could ask for,” Ling Lan said proudly with tears in her eyes.

Back when she said her parents would be Little Four’s parents and Little Four would be her only younger brother, she was being sincere. She thought Little Four didn’t understand such emotions and feelings. Perhaps the father and mother he had mentioned were only seen in books and that he actually didn’t understand feelings of child and parent and how one could die for the other. Now it seemed that she was wrong. Not only did Little Four understand it, he also did it was well. He was a better human than she could ever be. She was still the child that her father and mother worried about while Little Four already protected their father.

“Son? Brother?” Shock pa.s.sed through Instructor Number One’s eyes. He had always thought that Little Four putting his life on the line to take in Ling Xiao’s spiritual power core was because of Ling Lan. He thought Little Four didn’t want Ling Lan to become sad, evolving to a point where he only acknowledged Ling Lan. Now it seemed that wasn’t the case. Could Majesty Four actually have evolved to the point where he possessed emotions and feelings?

“Yes, Little Four is my younger brother and my parents’ son, Ling s.h.i.+.” Ling Lan finally understood that Little Four gave himself this name because of her. (Note: Although four in Chinese is p.r.o.nounced ‘si’, ‘s.h.i.+’ is likely used here because ‘si’ does not sound as good; reason was not mentioned by author)

Little Four really did want to be her parents’ son, and her younger brother. He didn’t just say it randomly.

Instructor Number One was silent for a short while and then sighed, “If that’s the case, then Ling Lan, I will leave Little Four in your care in the future. Don’t let him down.”

Perhaps Majesty Four no longer needed them to watch him. With Ling Lan here, Majesty Four would not evolve down the wrong path.

Ling Lan was the disciple Number One had nurtured with great care, a disciple he prized the most. Although Number One never said it out loud, he still trusted Ling Lan with the depth of his heart. He believed that Ling Lan would definitely not disappoint him.

“Yes, Instructor Number One.” Ling Lan nodded deeply. Even if Instructor Number One didn’t say anything to her, she still wouldn’t let Little Four down in this life.

“You’ve seen everything now so you now know everyone’s situations are all quite dire.” Instructor Number One temporarily stopped talking about Little Four and pointed towards the two cores.