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Since the Void God's ghost was gone, there was no reason for him to stay here any longer.
So Lin Fan opened up the screen that he hadn't seen in a long time.
It was the system screen that would allow him to go back to the Lin Astral Empire.
When he opened it, there was a notification from the system that stated that he had completed the secret mission of this special cultivation realm.
There was a reward given for this, but Lin Fan just wasn't in the mood for this.
As he stared at the screen in front of him, there were many thoughts that were passing in his mind.
Finally, he couldn't help asking, "Just what are you planning?"
There was no response from the system, but Lin Fan couldn't help feeling that the screen in front of him trembled a bit.
It was almost as if it was a trick of the eye, but he could have sworn that he saw a tremble from the screen in front of him.
Seeing that the system wouldn't say anything else, Lin Fan didn't bother playing with it.
After all, there were more important things for him to do right now.
So he brought up the screen that would bring him back and he pressed the button. Though if he really wanted to, he could have just gone back with a thought.
But he wanted some kind of symbolism now that he was returning after being gone for so long.
There was a flash of white light before he disappeared on the spot.
When the flash of white light faded, Lin Fan found that he was in the same back room as before. This room was the same as before and it didn't seem like anything had changed.
But that wasn't strange since this was the store that was managed by the system.
Even if he was gone for a long time, it would take care of itself so that he wouldn't have to worry about anything.
The one difference was when he opened the door, there were loud sounds that hit him.
It was the sound of customers who were trying to buy things.
Now that was strange since he knew what time it was. It was late in the afternoon, when his store was about to close.
Usually during this time, there wouldn't be a single customer in his store.
After all, people didn't trust his goods, so there weren't that many people that bought them in the first place. Other than the training spots that he offered, people wouldn't buy anything else from his store.
When he came out of the back, he was surprised to see just how many people were there.
The store was almost completely filled as people scrambled around the workers that were trying to fill the shelves still.
He couldn't help being surprised by this scene.
But then he was pulled out of this thought by someone that called out, "Boss, is that you?"
Lin Fan turned to see Lin Hong standing there behind the counter with sweat on his face. He looked completely different from how he had looked before…he seemed like he had gotten much chubbier…
Lin Fan really couldn't get over how much he had changed during the time that he was gone.
But then Lin Hong called out again, "Boss, can you help us? There's just too many people here."
Lin Fan was pulled out of his daze when he heard this.
He looked at the crowd that was in the store and gave a nod before heading over to the counter where Lin Hong was.
Together, the two of them slowly took care of the crowd that had gathered in the store.
When it was over, they were able to close the store.
When the store was closed, all of the employees came over and Lin Fan couldn't help being surprised.
After all, all of the people that were working in his store were his cousins from the Lin Astral Family, so they were people that he was somewhat familiar with.
But at the same time, he couldn't help being surprised because they all looked different from how he remembered them.
This was a true testament of the five years that he had missed.
Over time, they had all changed.
The one that had changed the most was Lin Hong.
He had gone from a strapping young man to this pile of blubber that was in front of him.
It was almost as if there wasn't a single trace of the previous Lin Hong in the current Lin Hong.
Lin Fan really couldn't help wondering what had happened to Lin Hong that he had become like this.
When he was asked this, Lin Hong revealed a bitter smile before saying, "Cousin, it's been a long five years. All of us have changed from the past, we're no longer the same people as before."
After saying this, he gave a sigh.
Lin Fan couldn't help knitting his brows since it didn't seem like this was a good thing…
It was almost as if something bad had happened to all of them and if something bad happened to these members of the Lin Astral Family…it would mean that something bad had happened to the entire Lin Astral Empire.
When he had left, the Lin Astral Empire was being attacked by the Beast Race.
Could it be that things had taken a turn for the worse?
Lin Fan looked at Lin Hong and asked, "Is it the Beast Race?"
When the Beast Race was mentioned, not just Lin Hong, but all of the cousins couldn't help jolting.
It was as if the Beast Race was a term that held a lot of trauma for them…
Seeing the way that Lin Fan looked at him, Lin Hong gave a sigh and said, "While you were gone, the Beast Race didn't relent in their attacks. As members of the Lin Astral Family, naturally we were expected to go out and do our parts…but…"
His voice trailed off when he said this and his eyes turned distant as if he was remembering some kind of trauma.
It wasn't just Lin Hong who was acting this way, the other cousins were all acting the same.
It was clear that they had all suffered some kind of trauma on the battlefield.
After a long period of silence, Lin Hong said with a sigh, "The battlefield is much more different than we thought. It isn't a place of glory, but rather a place of slaughter and madness."
His voice was filled with an intense emotion that showed just how much what he had experienced had affected him.
This caused Lin Fan to knit his brows even more.
Could it be that the Lin Astral Empire had found itself in a very bad situation while he was gone?
If that was the case, he really didn't know what to do with himself.
At the same time, weren't the five sacred beast races supposed to help the Lin Astral Empire while he was away?
That was what he had arranged before going to the special cultivation realm…
There were many questions that were going through his head, but he was interrupted by Lin Hong who said, "So in the end, I decided to focus myself on helping the people of our Lin Astral Empire another way."
His expression changed to fill with a bit of excitement as he said, "Cousin, you never told us just how effective the things sold in your store are. It's so powerful that even the elders of our Lin Astral Family can't help wanting more of it."
He went on to continue bragging about the things in Lin Fan's store which just made him reveal a bitter smile.
Of course he knew how effective the things in his store were, but no one was willing to believe him back then which was why they hadn't sold.
It turned out that these cousins of his had tried them themselves and that had proven how effective they were.
With this guarantee from the Lin Astral Family itself, naturally people trusted the items in Lin Fan's store more.
Once they had a taste of it, they naturally couldn't stop themselves just like with the training spots.
So it took no time for his store to start selling out each day.
During the time that he had been away, the system had been automatically filling up the store from the cultivation realms that he had already turned into farms.
It was a bit rough, but the system had been able to pull through, especially since it made some improvements to the farms that he had.
So just like this, his store was able to restock even though he wasn't there.
Lin Fan was about to ask a few more questions to his cousins, but there was a group that suddenly came in.
This group was in full armour and they clearly looked like soldiers.
When they appeared, even his cousins couldn't help looking a bit afraid of them which surprised Lin Fan.
After all, their positions as members of the Lin Astral Family should be higher than the position of any soldiers.
The soldiers ignored this and came up in front of Lin Fan.
After giving him a strange look, the leader of this group unrolled the scroll in their hand and said, "Madame General requests the Lin Astral Prince to come meet her at once. She also states that if you come late, there will be consequences."
Lin Fan was caught off guard when he heard this, but he could guess who this message was from.
But the soldier had just called them 'Madame General'...when did she become a general?
Just what had happened in the past five years?
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