Lin Fan nodded in agreement to this before turning to look at Hong Long.
Hong Long was surprised by Lin Fan's gaze falling on him and seeing that he wasn't saying anything, he couldn't help asking, "What is it?"
Lin Fan looked at him in silence for a bit before saying, "We should reconstruct your body before we go there."
Hong Long was taken aback when he heard this, but then he said, "You can do that?"
Lin Fan nodded in response to this and pulled out a puppet that was shaped like a dragon.
Hong Long had a skeptical look on his face when he saw this, but when he looked more closely at the puppet, he couldn't help revealing a shocked look. That was because he could tell that this puppet wasn't a normal thing.
This puppet was made of something that he had never seen before, but he could tell that it was a special material that could accept soul fragments, helping them recover. He could even feel his power returning just by being near this puppet.
He didn't know where Lin Fan got this thing, but he had a guess who was the one that made it.
It was very likely the expert of the store, who was also Lin Fan's master.
He was confused why the expert would suddenly make this thing for him, but he chose not to question it. After all, it wasn't his place to question the intentions of the expert. All he could do was be a good pawn in the expert's plan.
Since the expert was willing to help him rebuild his body now, there was no reason for him to reject it.
So without hesitation, Hong Long allowed the soul fragment inside the dragon scale to be absorbed by the puppet.
As soon as the soul fragment was absorbed, the dragon shaped puppet started to change.
There had been no colour to this dragon shaped puppet before and it was a completely black white canvas. But the moment that Hong Long's soul fragment was absorbed by the dragon shaped puppet, it started changing colours.
It was a faint pink at first, but it became darker and darker until it became a red colour that was as red as flames.
At the same time, the small dragon shaped puppet grew in size until it was a large dragon that took up a large part of the room.
But the most shocking thing about this dragon puppet was the aura that was leaking out from it.
This aura wasn't at the level of a Ruler yet, but it was very close.
If Lin Fan hadn't thought to put up a barrier to block this aura before meeting with them, it would have caused a very large scene. After all, this was a foreign aura that appeared in the Lin Astral Empire, it would have been taken as an enemy attack.
Finally, the dragon puppet stopped growing and instead shrank.
It continued to shrink until it was the size of a human. It even transformed into the shape of a human, but it couldn't be seen clearly because there was a layer of red light around the figure.
When the red light vanished, Hong Long in his human form was standing there.
This was a figure that they were all familiar with since they had already seen him many times, but it wasn't transparent like it was normally when he was in soul form.
After combining his soul fragment with the puppet, he had an actual body now.
The only problem was that his cultivation was still weak.
Based on the aura, it was clear that Hong Long hadn't recovered his full power and was only in the World Realm. To be precise, Hong Long was currently in the Peak Sun Realm, only a step away from the Ruler Realm.
Hong Long just stood there looking at his hands, clenching them as if he was testing this new body of his. After standing there in silence for a bit, he said, "It'll take some time, but I can feel my powers recovering."
That was right, even they could feel it.
With each second that passed, the aura that came from Hong Long became stronger and stronger, as if it was slowly growing.
Lin Fan could tell at this rate that it wouldn't take him long before reaching the Ruler Realm.
So Lin Fan immediately pulled out a contract for Hong Long to sign.
Hong Long was surprised to see this contract, but when he read it, he couldn't help being surprised by what it was.
It wasn't a pet contract, but rather an employment contract for the store.
Since Lin Fan had upgraded the store, he had gained new employee slots that he still hadn't used yet. Or rather, he hadn't found anyone that he thought was worthy of using these employee slots on.
But Hong Long was definitely worthy of this.
He was a Ruler that was on the same level as Angela or Momonga at their peak.
With the puppet from the system, he was sure that he would recover to his peak as long as he had enough time.
Hong Long didn't hesitate to sign the contract presented to him.
He knew what kind of things the real owner of the store was capable of, so being under him only had benefits.
With the contract signed, Lin Fan could see Hong Long being added to the employees under the employees tab in the system menu.
With this, he had gained another powerful guard just in case anything happened.
At the same time, with the contract signed, there was no need to worry about Hong Long being exposed. Since he was now an employee, the system would hide his aura just like it did with the other three.
Since he had finished restoring his body, Lin Fan turned the topic back to the Dragon Race homeworld.
As soon as he saw that it was the Dragon Race homeworld that was the special cultivation realm, his first thought was to buy the puppet for Hong Long so he could restore his body.
That was because there was no better guide than Hong Long for this.
That was why even though he could have bought this puppet for him before, he had saved up his points to avoid buying it. It was only now that he bought it because he needed Hong Long in a restored body as a guide.
But of course, he would never actually tell Hong Long that.
Since Hong Long's body had been restored, that meant that he was able to go to the Dragon Race homeworld with Lin Fan. If he had only been in his soul form, it would be impossible for Lin Fan to release him since he would have been found by the Dragon Race experts right away.
With the protection of the system and this new body, he could easily hide his presence from being detected, so he could go with Lin Fan.
It was different for Qing Ao, Feng Ling, and Lei Ting.
Not to mention Feng Ling and Lei Ting, even Qing Ao would stick out like a sore thumb the moment that he appeared on the Dragon Race homeworld.
So there was no way for him to go, even though he was filled with determination to go.
In the end, they agreed that Qing Ao would go if he stayed in the pet storage space the entire time.
In the pet storage space, no one would find him and he would be able to see everything that was happening outside as long as Lin Fan allowed it. That was the minimum that he was willing to accept.
Of course, they didn't set off right away since Lin Fan had to handle the matters with the Lin Astral Family first.
He didn't know how long it would take him to find this Dragon Stone, so he couldn't just disappear for an undisclosed period of time. He had to come up with an excuse that would allow him to disappear for some time without people worrying.
As for the excuse that he used…he used his "master" once again.
"Your master wants you to go into closed door cultivation?" The Lin Astral Emperor asked.
Lin Fan nodded in response to this before saying, "I'll go into closed doors cultivation at the shop. I don't know how long it will take, but I ask that no one disturb me."
The Lin Astral Emperor and Lin Ao looked at each other after hearing this with doubt in their eyes, but in the end, they turned back to Lin Fan and nodded in agreement to this.
Even now, they still weren't able to get a grasp of Lin Fan's master in the store.
But they knew that he was much more powerful than they thought.
He had helped guide Lin Fan through the Beast Race invading forces right to where Lin Ao had been to help him rescue him, this was something that even the Lin Astral Emperor hadn't been able to do.
So they knew that Lin Fan's master definitely wasn't normal.
Since that master wanted to bring Lin Fan into closed door cultivation, that was a good thing because of the current situation of the Lin Astral Empire. It would keep Lin Fan safe from all the dangers that could be coming after him because of the Beast Race invasion.
Even if Lin Fan was in the capital, he wasn't 100% safe.
The only way for him to be 100% safe is to be protected by an expert of the Lin Astral Emperor's level all the time. Of course, the Lin Astral Emperor wasn't able to do that since he was busy with running the Lin Astral Empire.
So this suggestion from the master came at just the right time.
The Lin Astral Emperor even considered this master of Lin Fan's to be at the same level as him.
In the end, they agreed to Lin Fan heading into closed door cultivation, but they warned him that he had to be careful.
Lin Fan promised that he would, though he did feel a bit bad since he was technically lying to them.
After handling this matter, he prepared to go to the Dragon Race homeworld.
As for who he was bringing with him, it was the usual trio plus Hong Long.
He had been planning on leaving them there, but they insisted on going in the end.
Or rather, it was Angela who insisted on going and the other two were just dragged along by her.
Still, they were excited since the Dragon Race homeworld was also a place that they had never gone to before. After all, it wasn't as if the undead race or the spirit race were close to the Dragon Race.
It would be their first time visiting.
Once everything had been arranged, Lin Fan activated the teleport to the special cultivation realm.
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