Chapter 704: Coalition of Five Nations
After experiencing a substantial increase in strength, Lin Jin liked to catch the bull by its horns.
He was a straightforward person in the first place.
Using the blood ghost and ghost worms to devour the headless zombie in one bite was a simple and elegant solution. If he slew the headless zombie, its blood and death energy would surely destroy Shu Xiaolou's painting realm. Lin Jin would never adopt such a stupid and messy approach.
Other solutions shared the same issue, so after much consideration, Lin Jin settled with this one.
Of course, the headless zombie wouldn't be killed so easily. After all, due to its undead nature, it had no place in either heaven or earth.
However, the blood ghost and ghost worms were also malicious beings.
Among Lin Jin's pet beasts, Xiao Huo was a pure Yang creature of the fire attribute while the blood ghost and ghost worms were pure Yin creatures.
As they were all Yin creatures, they could restrain one another without much backlash. In addition, Lin Jin had picked up a few simple immortal spells during his time at the Immortal Cloud Sect.
For example, he could use the blood ghost's blood to create an alternate universe within itself.
Despite the size of the headless zombie, upon being devoured by the blood ghost, Lin Jin was able to seal it within the blood realm's universe.
This was how Lin Jin could permanently eliminate the headless zombie. Still, it was a pity to get rid of such a unique being. Lin Jin wanted to research it first before wiping it off the face of the earth.
After swallowing the headless zombie, the blood ghost and ghost worms were able to subdue it effortlessly. Since Lin Jin didn't need the Demon Slayer to seal the zombie anymore, he retrieved the Demon Slayer with a wave of his hand.
Despite being tainted by zombie blood, the Demon Slayer still shone brightly. It took only seconds for the sword to clean off the bloodstains on its body.
As Lin Jin held the Demon Slayer, the Clear Wind Sword hanging around his waist hummed. Then, the strangest thing happened – the Demon Slayer responded with a hum as well.
How fascinating!
Lin Jin hung the Demon Slayer at the Demon Slayer Hall inside the museum before linking up with Shu Xiaolou.
Shu Xiaolou had watched how Lin Jin easily handled the headless zombie. For a while, she was stunned before exclaiming, "Lin Jin, since when did you become so strong? Teach me what you learned!"
Lin Jin smiled.
Despite all the traveling he had done, he hadn't forgotten about her. When he was in the extraterritorial land, he specifically looked for cultivation methods for spirits and monsters.
Lin Jin didn't know much about spirit cultivation, but the immortal sects he came across all had rich backgrounds that went back thousands of years. Some had spirits who cultivated immortality in the past, so it wasn't that hard for Lin Jin to find books on this area of study.
Lin Jin even borrowed these books specifically for Shu Xiaolou.
"Let's switch a location!" Lin Jin suggested. Shu Xiaolou understood at once. With a wag of her finger, she and Lin Jin had reappeared at the first later of her painting realm.
This was the place that looked exactly like the Peach Blossom House in Heavenly Spiral Academy.
Lin Jin unloaded all the immortal books he had borrowed. Being the bookworm that Shu Xiaolou was, her face lit up upon seeing the books Lin Jin brought with him. Surprisingly, she was able to sense that Lin Jin had something urgent waiting for him.
Because of the headless zombie, it had been a few days since Shu Xiaolou entered the painting realm; she was unaware of what was happening outside.
After hearing Lin Jin's explanation, Shu Xiaolou's expression turned cold and murderous.
"Since I have returned, I'll handle it. The painting realm has been corroded by death energy to the point where even the uppermost layer is decaying. Don't go anywhere for the time being and just read these books to repair the painting realm."
Lin Jin knew that Shu Xiaolou wanted to help. However, now that he was here, there was no need for Shu Xiaolou to venture out anymore. Her predicament was just as serious and needed intensive care immediately.
Shu Xiaolou couldn't rebuke Lin Jin mainly because she realized he had become a whole new person. She decided that it was best to focus on repairing the painting realm.
As Lin Jin said, if something happened to the painting realm, Shu Xiaolou would be in huge trouble.
Lin Jin flew out of the painting realm and arrived at Heavenly Spiral Academy.
He didn't plan to waste anymore time at Heavenly Spiral Kingdom. After all, even Heavenly Spiral Kingdom had mobilized their army to aid Jade Dragon Kingdom.
Lin Jin immediately summoned a fire cloud and soared across the sky. The speed at which he traveled was multiple times faster than the white clouds he previously traveled on.
A few of the students and teachers in Heavenly Spiral Academy saw Lin Jin getting onto his flaming cloud before he disappeared into the horizon. Their jaws almost hit the ground when they saw the breakneck speed of Lin Jin's new cloud.
"I-Isn't that Teacher Lin?"
"He came back?"
"I think he's leaving. That direction should be where Jade Dragon is. I got it! Teacher Lin has come back to fight Tianzhu."
"What speed! How dazzling his fire clouds are!"
Lin Jin obviously couldn't hear their discussion.
The fire clouds were driven with Xiao Huo's strength. Xiao Huo's speed and power had seen a sharp increase thanks to its evolution, so if Lin Jin's white clouds were like a bicycle, these fire clouds were a race car.
The difference was that much.
The journey that previously took days could now be completed in less than an hour. Before long, Lin Jin had already reached the border region of Heavenly Spiral Kingdom. From the sky, he could see pillars of smoke all along the horizon, and the noise of battle coming from the cities beneath his feet.
This was happening near Heavenly Spiral's city walls. It was said that Jade Dragon's city walls, which was nearer to Grassy Continent, had already been captured by enemy forces.
Over eighty percent of Jade Dragon Kingdom's territory were caught in the chaos of war.
Lin Jin immediately descended.
At this side of the city, Jade Dragon Kingdom's defense forces had been overwhelmed. If it weren't for Heavenly Spiral's beast army coming to their aid, this place would have fallen long ago.
However, even with Heavenly Spiral Kingdom's support, the Grassy Continent coalition did not seem like they were going to fall back any time soon. Instead, they issued an ultimatum to Heavenly Spiral, to warn them against participating in the war.
No doubt, the leader of the Grassy Continent coalition was Tianzhu Kingdom. It wasn't long before Lin Jin came to learn about the other nations within the coalition. Some were his old enemies.
There was Snake Country, Westward Country, Xiang Country, and Sand Country.
The grudges he had with Snake Country and Westward Country were still fresh in Lin Jin's mind. Back then, Little Five had killed the son of Snake Country's state preceptor. Thanks to Black Crow and Madam Ghost Child's help, Snake Country almost lost its status of intermediate country.
Lin Jin's grudge with Westward Country was even bigger. One of the country's thirteen kings, King Yan, had died in Lin Jin's hands. However, that incident should have been a secret that Westward Country did not know about.
Again, nothing was absolute in this world. Lin Jin might have tried to cover up his involvement previously, but he was no longer scared of them now.
However, what Lin Jin currently knew about the Grassy Continent coalition differed from what he had been told. At first, he assumed that Tianzhu Kingdom was the only nation involved in the war. He did not expect Westward Country to join them as well.
The problem here was the fact that Westward Country was a premium country.