After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

The first level, beneath the towering tree.

The once bustling crowd was now in uproar.

Was someone just speaking?

"I heard it too."

"Lin Chu? Which Lin Chu? The one from the Lin family?"

"Nonsense! Who else could it be!"

"Close the Imperial Road? What gives him the right?"

"They're talking big about closing it off in two months!"

A burly man carrying a large axe looked on with disdain.

"Who does he think he is?"

"Yes, I admit he's amazing. He reached the forty-ninth floor, something no one has done before, but so what?"

"Don't even mention the Lin family, even the Taixu Dao Sect, or even the people from the Wugui Forbidden Land, do you think they would dare to say such arrogant things?"

He got more and more excited as he talked, and spittle flew out of his mouth.

Someone nearby cautiously chimed in.

"But... he is indeed on the top floor now, and nobody knows what's up there."

"Is it possible that he/she obtained some extraordinary opportunity?"

The burly man scoffed.

"An opportunity? You think you can take over the Imperial Path?"

As he finished speaking, he looked around and noticed that many eyes were on him.

He subconsciously straightened his chest and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up slightly; he somewhat enjoyed the feeling of being noticed.

They became even more enthusiastic.

"They even want to close off the Imperial Road? If they really go through with it, I'll twist my head off and use it as a stool for them to sit on."

"Now that he's pulled this stunt, I want to see how he'll clean up the mess in two months!"

"He's the third young master of the Lin family. Even if he can't handle the situation, the Lin family still has to back him up."

"Heh, the Taixu Spirit Realm isn't just home to the Lin family."

The discussion grew louder and louder, filling the entire open space with a buzzing sound.

At this moment, someone from another sector of the crowd who was unaware of the situation spoke up in a low voice.

"Even so, isn't he afraid of attracting unwanted attention by being so high-profile?"

After he finished speaking, the surroundings suddenly fell silent for a moment.

Even the burly man who had previously looked disdainful turned his head and stared at the speaker as if he were a fool.

"What are you talking about?"

"A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime."

"If Lin Chu really did obtain some great opportunity and left the Imperial Path, could he still hold onto it?"

A middle-aged cultivator next to him sighed and said in a low voice.

"Don't you realize that they've already gone up to the forty-ninth floor?"

"He has almost no rivals on this Imperial Road."

"As for leaving the Imperial Road?"

The middle-aged cultivator gave a bitter smile.

"Do you think those two Immortal Emperors of the Lin family are just for show?"

"The Lin family's current reputation isn't just hype; it's earned through real battles. Have you forgotten what their original profession was?"

"Back then, Lin Zhentian crossed realms to hunt down the Immortal Emperor's eldest son, and after succeeding, he still managed to escape unscathed."

An elderly man who had been silently setting up a stall nearby clicked his tongue.

"That's what makes him different from us."

"If we get something good, the first thing we think about is how to hide it and how to avoid being targeted."

"But for a behemoth like the Lin family, it's others who are afraid of them taking things from them, not the other way around for them to worry about coveting them."

"To put it bluntly, the world has never changed."

"A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime."

"But what if you weren't a commoner?"

These words weighed on everyone's heart like a stone.

Similar conversations were constantly taking place throughout Dilu.

There was shock, doubt, and sneer, but many people had already started packing their bags, wondering if they should leave Dilu first.

On the outer perimeter of the first floor, the intelligence cultivators stationed by various forces had already swiftly spread the news.

It is foreseeable that it will not be long before the Nine Realms all know about this.

……

Forty-nine floors.

Lin Chu stood on the treetop with his hands behind his back.

After saying those words, he glanced at the scene in the Imperial Road.

He observed the reactions of the cultivators on each floor.

Overall, it went pretty much as I expected.

Some people don't believe it, some people are dismissive, and some people have already started to plan how to deal with it.

But so what?

Within the Imperial Road, there is truly no one who can threaten him.

Putting everything else aside, the threshold of the forty-ninth floor alone shuts everyone out.

They don't even have the qualifications to come up, let alone anything else.

Lin Chu was about to withdraw his senses.

Suddenly, a familiar aura entered his mind.

"Um?"

Lin Chu raised an eyebrow.

This aura...

With a thought, the scene before my eyes rippled gently, like the surface of water.

The next moment, several figures clearly appeared within my perception.

It's Lin An.

There were also several elderly members of the Lin and Ji families.

They were currently deep within the forty-second floor, surrounded and being attacked by a group of strange beasts.

Moreover, he looked rather disheveled.

Lin An stood at the very front, wielding his long spear with great force, creating streaks of light.

Seven or eight old men beside him formed their own formations, and beams of light blocked the beast tide from the outside.

There seemed to be an anti-flight formation here, so they could only fight and retreat, and many of them looked exhausted.

Lin An retreated while shouting behind him.

"They're all holding firm! The formation mustn't break!"

"Hold on, everyone! We're not far from the teleportation array!"

As they were talking, hundreds more armored beasts, all black in color, pounced out from the flanks.

Lin Chuxin had a sudden thought.

A wisp of azure light descended from the void, gently enveloping Lin An and the others.

The next second, the figures who were still fighting against the beast horde disappeared from their original spots one by one.

The beast tide came up empty-handed, leaving only a mess on the ground.

Before Lin An could react, the scenery before him had completely changed.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing on a huge tree canopy, where the spiritual energy was incredibly rich.

The old men, as expected of those who had been through countless battles, reacted immediately, and the protective aura around the eight of them instantly activated.

"What happened?"

"Where?"

"Don't move!"

Lin An held his spear horizontally in front of him, circulating his spiritual energy throughout his body.

A voice came from ahead.

"Uncle An, don't be nervous."

Lin An's body stiffened.

He slowly turned his head and was met with a handsome, smiling face.

Lin Chu stood with his hands behind his back in front of everyone, dressed in white with black hair, his aura as deep and profound as an abyss.

Lin An's eyes widened.

"Third...Third Young Master!"

Several elderly people behind him also showed surprise on their faces.

"It really is the Third Young Master!"

"Where have we gotten here?"

Lin An, having experienced much, forcibly suppressed his surging emotions and quickly stepped forward, looking Lin Chu up and down several times.

"Young Master, this is wonderful!"

Back in the clan, when Lin Chu was not even a month old, he had held this little boy.

Time flies, and that infant in swaddling clothes has now reached a height they never dared to dream of.

Lin Chu smiled and said, "I'm fine. But Uncle An, what brings you all here?"

"After the eldest and second young masters returned, they reported on the matter of the Soul Devouring Clan. The clan was worried, so they sent us in to take a look."

"I was thinking about whether I could help the Third Young Master."

Lin An's face turned slightly red as he spoke.

"Unexpectedly, I was saved by the Third Young Master instead."

At his age, he brought more than twenty people with him, but now there are less than ten left.

In the end, instead of helping, they ended up getting themselves caught in the crossfire.

This old man is really losing face.