Cultivation Pet Shop

After coming back from the investigation, Lin Fan was immediately pulled into a meeting with the Lin Astral Emperor and Lin Jian as he had expected.

They had already read the reports that the guards had sent back, so there were plenty of questions that they had for Lin Fan.

Once they sat down, the Lin Astral Emperor immediately asked, "How did you recognize the objects on that ship?"

That was the main thing that had puzzled them.

Lin Fan acted like he was already familiar with the things that were on the ship, which should be things that he shouldn't have seen before. He had even figured out how to power and turn on the ship like it was nothing.

This was not something that could be done just by observing things for the first time. This was a kind of recognition that came from having known these items before, a recognition that Lin Fan shouldn't have had.

So they couldn't help being suspicious.

Especially after the incident with the assassins disguising themselves.

This made them even more wary.

Though the Soul Searching Array did confirm that this was indeed Lin Fan. However, they didn't know if the enemy's techniques would become more refined and would become capable of fooling even the Soul Searching Array.

So they didn't dare assume anything.

Lin Fan had already expected this since he had been too focused on the Outer ship that he had completely forgotten to hold himself back. He had let his excitement and curiosity in seeing all of these things carry him away and he had revealed too much about himself.

So it wasn't strange that he was being questioned for it right now.

But it didn't take him long to come up with an excuse.

It was the age-old excuse that he used and that he kept using even now.

After all, it was an excuse that just worked every time since no one could see through the store or the "master" that was in it.

So he said, "It was what my master told me. He wanted me to research it, so that was why I knew everything."

"The master?" Both the Lin Astral Emperor and Lin Jian repeated after Lin Fan before knitting their brows.

When it came to the store and Lin Fan's "master", they really didn't know what to say.

Both the Lin Astral Emperor and Lin Jian had secretly gone to Lin Fan's store to scope out this "master" of his, but they hadn't been able to find a single thing. They couldn't even figure out how the spatial laws inside of the store worked.

It was as if those laws were on a completely different level from them.

So they really didn't know what to say about this "master" of Lin Fan's.

Once Lin Fan brought it up, the questioning stopped and none of them knew where to go from there.

Luckily, there was someone who knocked on the door at this time.

After thinking about it, the Lin Astral Emperor said, "Come in."

That person came forward and stood there in front of the table, waiting for something. After feeling the effects of the array on himself and then seeing the Lin Astral Emperor give a nod, he came forward to present the thing that he had been holding in his hand.

The Lin Astral Emperor was the one that took it before putting it on the table's holographic scanner to let the others see it.

This was a report on the ship that Lin Fan had brought back.

During the time that they had been in this meeting, the engineers of the Lin Astral Empire had already started working on it.

However, the report just gave the conclusion that they weren't able to find anything at all.

As Lin Fan had expected, the technology was just too advanced for them and they would need to study it for a long time to get some results. But at the same time, the engineers had been filled with excitement seeing this.

In the report, they had reported all kinds of new inspirations that they had after seeing this ship.

It seemed like the ship engineering department was going to advance by leaps and bounds from researching this Outer ship.

But of course, the Lin Astral Emperor didn't just care about that.

This Outer ship had appeared in the territory of their Lin Astral Empire, so that was a large security issue. Then there was the matter of the void law samples that had been taken by the Outers.

He wanted them to find out what the story was behind this, so the fact that there were no results was something that he couldn't accept.

He didn't take his anger out on the messenger, but he did say in a cold voice, "Get them to find out what the sample room situation is or none of them are getting their bonuses this year."

The messenger revealed a bitter smile when he heard this since he knew that this included him.

Working for the Lin Astral Family was one of the best jobs because of the benefits that it came with. The bonus was one of those benefits that attracted people the most since it was very generous.

If they lost their bonus, it could be said that they were losing more than half of their income for the year.

So this was indeed quite the heavy punishment.

The messenger didn't dare waste any time as he headed off to convey the message to the research team. But of course, his words wouldn't be as kind as the Lin Astral Emperor's since his bonus was on the line as well.

Seeing how fast the messenger left, the Lin Astral Emperor gave a satisfied nod before saying, "For now, I'll check our family to see if there have been any incidents of void laws being stolen."

Lin Fan nodded in agreement to this.

The fact that void law samples had been found on the ship was a big matter since it meant that even the Lin Astral Family had been compromised by the Outers. If even the greatest power, the Lin Astral Family was compromised, then it would mean danger for the Lin Astral Empire.

But of course, they couldn't assume anything.

There could be a chance that it was some other source that they had received this void law from. So they couldn't just assume that it was from their family and would need to check first.

If it was from a different place, that presented a different danger.

Their Lin Astral Family had relied on this void law to remain unchallenged for so long and if there was another group that had void laws, they would pose a threat to the Lin Astral Family.

So they had to find the source of this void law sample as soon as possible.

After discussing this, Lin Fan was allowed to leave the meeting room and the palace.

He went to the shop as per usual, but he didn't go and talk to the staff who were still working. He headed right to the back of the store and locked himself up in one of the back rooms.

Once he was there, he called out the system and received the reward for the mission.

Once he found that Outer ship, the system had marked the mission that it had issued cleared, so now he was receiving the reward from that.

What appeared in front of him was a strange looking lantern.

He took out the strange key that he had received from the system before and put it with the strange lantern.

There was nothing special about either of these…other than the fact that they were completely covered in rust.

Lin Fan had tried to get the rust off the key before, but he had found that it was useless.

When he tried to get the rust off the lantern, he found that it was just as futile as when he tried to get the rust off the key.

Looking at these two things that the system had given him, he couldn't understand what use they had at all.

If the system had given him another key, then he would have at least thought that these keys would be for some kind of secret and that he would only be able to open them when he had all of them. But the fact that it had given him this lantern completely confused him.

There was clearly a reason why the system was giving him these things, but…

He couldn't figure it out at all.

After thinking for a bit, he decided to inject some life energy into the lantern.

At the very least, this lantern should have a function unlike the rusted key, so he tried activating it.

As he had expected, when it received the life energy, the lantern suddenly released a green glow. However, that green glow didn't seem to do anything other than give a green hue to the things that it lit up.

The colour of the light…was almost eerie the way that it lit things up.

It was almost as if it was something that could see ghosts…

But then again, ghosts did exist in this world of cultivation.

There were even people who used ghosts as pets.

So it wasn't really that strange seeing ghosts.

But Lin Fan couldn't help feeling a bit weird about the light of this lantern, so he put it away.

Since he couldn't figure out what it did, he wouldn't think too much about it.

He was certain that it would be useful one day.