Cultivation Pet Shop

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Since he had been summoned, Lin Fan didn't resist following the soldiers that had arrived.

When he came out of the store, he found that everyone was looking away from their group.

It was as if they were trying to avoid attracting the attention of these soldiers that were guiding him. It was almost as if they were terrified of these soldiers who were currently with him.

But there didn't seem to be anything terrifying about them as far as he could tell.

So he was curious, why was everyone acting this way?

However, there was also something else that caught his attention.

It was the state of the city in front of him.

In the past, when he had walked down this street, there were far more people that were out shopping. Even if it was late in the evening like it was now, there were still plenty of people that were out on the street.

But now there was barely anyone here.

When he looked at the different stores closely, he saw that they didn't have the same shine that they did before.

He couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with this place, but…it almost seemed that the city in front of him was no longer as prosperous as before.

But that shouldn't be…

This was the capital of the Lin Astral Empire, the place where all of its wealth was concentrated.

It shouldn't be like this.

Even if the Beast Race was attacking, that shouldn't have affected the Lin Astral Empire that much since they were an Astral Empire. They had the accumulation of many generations to combat the Beast Race, so they shouldn't have been pushed so far that even the capital was suffering.

However, the facts were there in front of him.

Since even the capital was suffering, adding in the appearances of his cousins from earlier, it should mean that the Lin Astral Empire really was suffering in the fight against the Beast Race…

Just what had happened?

Lin Fan was escorted over to a carriage that quickly brought him to the Lin Astral Empire's palace.

But he wasn't brought the usual way.

He had thought that he would meet the Lin Astral Emperor along with the general who had summoned him, but the soldiers were bringing him to another place that he was familiar with.

This was the part of the palace that he had been given when he had first arrived, these were his private quarters.

When they reached the entrance to these private quarters, the soldiers stopped and stood at the entrance like guards. The leader of these soldiers who had given Lin Fan the message said, "The general is waiting inside for you."

Lin Fan gave a nod before walking in.

The moment that he entered, he felt a powerful pressure fall onto him.

Even if he had reached the Ruler Realm, this pressure was something that was hard for him to resist.

It was like he had suddenly been frozen in a block of ice and he couldn't move an inch.

But there was also a bittersweet smile that appeared on his face when he felt this pressure.

That was because this was a pressure that he was familiar with.

He had been on the receiving end of this pressure more than once, so he couldn't be more familiar with it.

When he was expecting to be hit…there was a sudden pair of arms that grabbed him and a face that dived into his chest.

Lin Fan was frozen for a second since he clearly didn't expect this, but then with that same bittersweet smile, his arms came around her to take her in his embrace. The two of them just stood there like that for a while before Angela finally pulled her head out.

Then in a not so sweet moment, she raised her hand to slap him across the face and sent him flying.

Lin Fan landed against the wall and then fell to the ground.

When he looked up at her again, he had a bitter smile on his face.

Angela looked at him with narrowed eyes before saying, "Where did you go? It took you this long to come back?"

Lin Fan raised his hands to show that he surrendered before saying, "It's a long story."

She kept glaring at him, but then she crossed her arms and sat down at the table before looking back at him to say, "Explain."

Lin Fan was about to stand up and walk over as well, but he felt the pressure falling on him again.

He knew what this meant, so he didn't try to get up again. Instead, he changed his position so that he was on his knees and had his head bowed.

He didn't have to do this, but he knew that this would make it easier for him.

In this position, Lin Fan told them about everything that happened.

That's right, 'them'.

It wasn't just Angela who was sitting at this table, there was also Yuki, Momonga, and Zi Ling who were sitting there looking down at him.

When he was finished, there was only silence that followed.

Then he could feel the spiritual senses falling onto him.

They searched his body as if they were trying to find something, but he didn't resist and let them do what they wanted.

Once they were done, he felt the pressure on him relieving and he was able to lift his head again.

Lin Fan was about to stand up and join them at the table, but Angela suddenly lifted a hand and then pointed down.

Seeing this, he knew that she was still angry, so he sat down on his knees in the normal position.

Since they weren't saying anything, Lin Fan asked, "What happened while I was gone?"

Everyone looked away when he asked this, but in the end, it was Momonga who told him everything.

In the first two years, everything progressed normally.

The Lin Astral Empire was able to push back the Beast Race since there were plenty of experts in the Lin Astral Empire and they received the support of the other Astral Empires nearby.

But then it all changed in the third year.

The Beast Race suddenly invaded three different Astral Empires at the same time.

No one knew where the Beast Race had found so many troops for this, but the beast waves came and there was no denying it.

When this happened, the other Astral Empires had no choice but to withdraw their support to help these three Astral Empires that had been invaded.

The Lin Astral Empire suffered a little from this, but they knew that this was for the best.

After all, the alliance of Astral Empires was all about supporting the human race.

Since the situation in the Lin Astral Empire had already stabilized, the forces of the human race were better used in helping these three Astral Empires that had been invaded.

But it wasn't the end there.

Five more Astral Empires were invaded in that year and ten more Astral Empires were invaded by the next.

No one understood just where all of these beasts had come from, but they had no choice but to defend their own territories. So all of the support from the Astral Empires disappeared and the Lin Astral Empire was left to face this on their own.

They were able to hold on, but that was where Angela came in.

She and the rest of their group had lived a peaceful life before this, but seeing that the Lin Astral Empire was in danger, she couldn't just sit still anymore.

After all, this was Lin Fan's family that was in danger.

She volunteered as a general which surprised the Lin Astral Emperor, but since he knew how important she was to Lin Fan, he gave her that chance.

She surprised him completely by changing the tide of the war.

With her precise predictions, she was able to figure out exactly what the plans of the Beast Race were.

Every time that they fought, the troops of the Lin Astral Empire would have the jump on the Beast Race.

After many different wins, everyone started looking at Angela differently. There was no longer the doubt that they had when she first volunteered and even veteran generals gave her respect.

With Angela at the helm, they started slowly pushing back the Beast Race and reclaiming territory that had been lost.

But that all changed just six months ago.

That was when the Beast Race beasts started using powers that no one had seen before.

These were laws that no one was familiar with and they did things that no one expected, so they were completely caught off guard. At the same time, since these were powers that they were unfamiliar with, it wasn't as if they could decipher them and fight back.

So again and again, the Lin Astral Empire's troops suffered losses and were pushed back.

Even with Angela's intelligence, they weren't able to figure out a single thing.

That was because the laws that these Beast Race troops used were completely foreign to them.

It could even be said that they seemed like they came from a completely different world…

For those that knew the secrets of the world, it wasn't hard for them to guess what had happened.

Outers.

The Beast Race had definitely made contact with the Outers and worked out some kind of cooperation deal with them.

That was the only way that they would be able to obtain this kind of power.

Lin Fan couldn't help deeply knitting his brows when he heard this.