However, Xiao Yan did not detect any fighting spirit on the newcomer; he was either an ordinary person or a powerful expert.
Of course, Xiao Yan felt it must be the latter, because such a handsome person, coupled with his sudden appearance here, could not possibly be an ordinary person.
"This junior, Xiao Yan, greets senior." Without saying a word, Xiao Yan hurriedly bowed.
Although it was a bit strange that this senior would say they were from the same hometown, I just assumed that the senior was also from Wutan City.
"Not bad, he's really a promising talent." Lin Qing stared at Xiao Yan with shining eyes.
"Senior, may I ask your name? I don't think I've ever seen you before in Wutan City." Xiao Yan felt goosebumps all over from Lin Qing's stare.
"Senior, are you perhaps gay?" Xiao Yan thought to himself.
"My name is Lin Qing. Your talent is truly one in a thousand years," Lin Qing said with a smile.
"Senior is too kind. Everyone in Wutan City knows my reputation as a good-for-nothing," Xiao Yan said self-deprecatingly.
"Haha, you're not a piece of trash. Do you know why all your battle qi disappears?" Lin Qing said with a loud laugh.
Upon hearing this, Yao Chen inside the ring was startled and thought to himself, "Have I been discovered? But I didn't sense any fluctuations of battle qi on this person."
"Could he be a Dou Zun? Impossible, how could a Dou Zun appear in this small place?"
Yao Chen could only believe that Lin Qing was an ordinary person, or that he possessed some kind of treasure that could conceal his aura.
Before his death, Yao Chen was at the peak of the Ninth Rank Dou Zun. Although he is now in a soul state, he still possesses the strength of a Dou Zong.
Xiao Yan, who had been feeling down, immediately perked up and said, "Senior, do you know why my Dou Qi disappeared? Please tell me."
Lin Qing smiled without saying a word, and slowly extended his right hand. At that moment, the ring on Xiao Yan's hand instantly detached and flew into Lin Qing's hand.
"Oh no, this guy is definitely a Dou Zun! I've been discovered!" Yao Chen, who was hiding in the ring, suddenly changed his expression and tried to escape from the ring.
However, he discovered that he could not mobilize even a trace of his fighting spirit, and he immediately became dejected, his face turning extremely pale.
"Senior, is there something wrong with this ring?" Xiao Yan asked, looking at the ring left by his mother.
Lin Qing said noncommittally, "That's right, it's this ring that caused your battle aura to disappear and your cultivation to regress."
Xiao Yan was somewhat incredulous and said, "This... no way, this ring is a strange object left to me by my mother."
"If you don't believe me, try cultivating right now and you'll see." After Lin Qing finished speaking, he waved his hand, and instantly, the battle qi on the mountaintop became more than ten times denser.
"Such rich Dou Qi, Senior!" A hint of shock flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes. He glanced at Lin Qing, then immediately sat cross-legged and began to absorb the Dou Qi.
In just a few minutes, Xiao Yan, who originally only had the third level of Dou Qi, suddenly broke through to the fourth level of Dou Qi.
Time passed second by second, and Xiao Yan's cultivation level was breaking through step by step.
He progressed through the fifth, sixth, and seventh levels of fighting power, until he reached the eighth level, at which point he finally stopped.
Half an hour had already passed. Although Xiao Yan could continue to break through, he hadn't forgotten that there was a senior waiting for him.
"Senior, I really... my Dou Qi hasn't disappeared. I've reached the eighth level of Dou Qi." Xiao Yan stood up from the ground, trembling all over.
Three years, a full three nightmarish years, I was insulted and cursed by the entire clan, insulted by the entire city, and even humiliated by my fiancée.
Now, none of that matters anymore. He, Xiao Yan, that peerless genius, is back.
Tears of joy streamed down Xiao Yan's face, but his expression was one of determination and confidence.
Lin Qing nodded and said, "Now you believe me, right?"
"Thank you so much, senior. I will repay this great kindness in the future." Xiao Yan knelt down and slammed his head into the ground, blood spurting out.
"Get up, there's no need for such a grand gesture. Wipe your wounds, you're bleeding." An invisible force lifted Xiao Yan up.
A tissue was tossed to him, and Xiao Yan caught it instinctively. He looked at the tissue in his hand and then tried to wipe the blood from his forehead.
Suddenly, Xiao Yan's eyes bulged out, his gaze widening in horror, as if he had discovered something of immense magnitude.
"You, you, this..." Xiao Yan's tongue seemed to be tied in knots, and he couldn't even speak.
Seeing this, Lin Qing asked in confusion, "Xiao Yan? What's wrong?"
Chapter 444 Tears in My Eyes (Please subscribe, vote for monthly tickets, and recommend this book)
"Senior, do you think Peking duck from the capital is delicious?" Xiao Yan, who was stammering a second ago, suddenly changed his tune the next second.
"Delicious," Lin Qing said subconsciously, then immediately realized what he meant, shook his head, and smiled without saying a word.
"Indeed, this tissue is from Quanjude." Xiao Yan said, pointing to the three large characters "Quanjude" printed on the tissue.
Lin Qing touched his nose, smiled, and didn't say anything. This tissue was indeed taken from Quanjude.
Last time I ate Peking duck at Quanjude, I took some tissues to wipe my mouth, and I still had a few left unused, so I habitually put them away.
Lin Qing had a lot of similar tissues in his storage space, just like in other restaurants. There was nothing he could do about it; he just couldn't break this habit. Little did he expect that Xiao Yan would discover them.
"No wonder the senior said from the beginning that the fellow villager was really from Earth?"
"Also, how did you know that I also traveled from Earth?"
"Senior, do you know how to get back to Earth?"
"senior"
"Alright, alright, you're asking so many questions all at once, how am I supposed to answer them all?" Lin Qing quickly stopped Xiao Yan from turning into a 'ten thousand whys' machine.
"First of all, I am an Earthling, but I did not come from Earth; I came from another world."
"Secondly, because, as the saying goes, 'Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, never underestimate a young man's potential,' which comes from Chapter 46 of The Scholars."
"Third, even I am searching for a way back to Earth, so asking is pointless." Lin Qing answered Xiao Yan's three questions in one breath.
"So that's what you discovered. Of course, how could an Earth proverb possibly appear on the Dou Qi Continent?"
"By the way, senior, you mentioned other worlds? Are there other worlds around here? Are they like the Dou Qi Continent? Back to Earth? Then, senior, do you have any clues?"
Xiao Yan then raised three questions once again.
"It's different, but it's still a transcendent world. The strongest people there are even stronger than Dou Di." Lin Qing didn't bother to answer the rest of the questions.
"What? Stronger than a Dou Di?" The strongest person Xiao Yan had ever met was Ge Ye, the seven-star Dou Shi, who had previously broken off their engagement.
He couldn't even imagine the strength of a Dou Di, but he knew that it was incredibly powerful.
"Alright, let's put other things aside for now. Would you be willing to become my disciple? Your talent is one in a thousand years." Lin Qing got down to business.
"Disciple Xiao Yan greets Master." Xiao Yan knelt down on both knees and kowtowed once more.
Lin Qing: "Get up. The problem of your battle aura disappearing has been resolved. The priority is to improve your strength."
"Yes, Master. By the way, Master, from what year did you travel back in time, and how many years have you already passed?"
"I traveled back to 2009, and it's been fifteen years now," Xiao Yan asked curiously.
Perhaps because he came from the same place as Lin Qing, and had just become an apprentice, he was less reserved.
"I time-traveled from 2018, so it's been over a hundred years!" Lin Qing pondered, stroking his chin.
Xiao Yan exclaimed in surprise, "Master, you are already over a hundred years old? How come you look only in your twenties?"
"hehe."
"By the way, Master, why did my fighting spirit disappear?" Three years... these three years have been incredibly difficult. Xiao Yan really wanted to know what caused it.
Upon hearing this, Lin Qing opened his palm, revealing the ring. He then probed with his spiritual energy, enveloping the medicinal dust, and pinched the ring between his right thumb and forefinger.
Yao Chen's soul was immediately pulled out. He had white hair, but his face was exceptionally handsome, making him look like a dashing older man.
The lower half of its body is a cloud of mist, which looks rather unsettling.
"You explain it!" Lin Qing said gently.
"Are you a human or a ghost?" Xiao Yan was startled by Yao Chen's sudden appearance.
"Um, my name is Yao Chen. May I ask your honorable name, senior?" Yao Chen had not heard their conversation because he had been trapped by Lin Qing earlier.
"Lin Qing, you wouldn't understand even if I told you. Explain why my disciple's fighting spirit disappeared over the past three years, and why his cultivation level regressed," Lin Qing said calmly.
Yao Chen's forehead was covered in cold sweat. He thought to himself, "I can't afford to offend him. He must be a Dou Zun or even a Dou Sheng. I never expected that Xiao Yan would become his disciple."
"Little one, thank you for your offerings over the past three years. Otherwise, I'm afraid I would still be in a deep slumber," Yao Chen said to Xiao Yan with a smile.
He thought to himself, "Alas, what a pity. The little guy has actually become someone else's apprentice. However, I can teach Xiao Yan alchemy. This 'senior' probably doesn't know how to make pills, right?"
"Offering?" Xiao Yan blinked in confusion, and after a moment, his face suddenly darkened.
The chilling words were forced out through clenched teeth: "Was it you who caused the battle qi to mysteriously disappear from my body?"
"I had no choice, little one, please don't blame me." Yao Chen looked a little embarrassed and secretly glanced at Lin Qing, only to find that he was still smiling.
"Fuck your mother!" Xiao Yan suddenly jumped up like a madman, his face contorted with rage.
His fighting spirit rose on his fist, and without saying a word, he blasted it directly at the floating medicinal dust.
Yao Chen didn't even dodge, letting Xiao Yan's fist come at him. However, Xiao Yan's fist passed right through Yao Chen, causing him to stumble and almost fall to the ground.
He glanced at Lin Qing, who was still smiling, and breathed a sigh of relief. He now knew that this powerful figure definitely needed him.
"Hehe, little brat, there's no need to be so furious, is there? It's just that he absorbed three years' worth of your Dou Qi." The transparent old man smiled as he stared at the dumbfounded Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan's lips twitched, and his voice suppressed anger:
"Old man, since you're hiding in the ring, you should know how much ridicule you've brought me because you absorbed my battle energy, right?"
"If Master hadn't caught you today, wouldn't I have been a useless person for the rest of my life?" Although Xiao Yan had calmed down, he was still extremely angry.
"But haven't you grown through these three years of ridicule? Do you think you could have had this level of forbearance and mental fortitude three years ago?"
With a noncommittal smile, Yao Chen said calmly.
With a furrowed brow, Xiao Yan's mood gradually calmed down. He remembered that his talent had returned and that he had become the disciple of a powerful figure, who was also from his hometown.
He felt rejuvenated and comfortable, and the hateful old man in front of him didn't seem so bad anymore.
Chapter 445 Becoming an Apprentice (Please subscribe, vote for monthly tickets, and recommend!)
Some things, you only realize their value when you lose them! And when you get them back, you cherish them even more! Lin Qing suddenly spoke up, "Xiao Yan, the culprit is here. What do you want to do with him?"