Monster Paradise

Lin Huang had taken no more than half an hour to settle the matter with the Union Government. Now, he rushed back to Wanbao City without delay.

When he returned to the hotel, both Lin Xin and the Witch were not in the room.

After deploying a wave of Divine Telekinesis, he located the two ladies at a nearby commercial district shopping for clothes while drinking milk tea. He hesitated slightly for a moment, then decided not to disturb the two ladies and their shopping.

Leaving the hotel, he walked straight into a nearby café, ordered a cup of black coffee, and sat down to look up the news and browse social platforms.

Although the Union Government had banned all news about the Peaceful Ocean three days ago, it was still the most talked-about matter online and its popularity had yet to die down.

Around midday, Lin Huang looked at the time. “It’s almost 12, the two girls should be about done with their shopping.”

Using Divine Telekinesis again, he discovered the two ladies trying on shoes at a shoe shop.

Lin Huang switched off the web page on his Emperor’s Heart Ring and appeared with a flash at the entrance of the shoe shop before walking directly toward the two ladies.

“Bro?!” Lin Xin was visibly astonished seeing Lin Huang appear all of a sudden—she did not expect Lin Huang to be back so soon. Little did she know, Lin Huang had already returned to Wanbao City over three hours ago. “You’re back so soon?”

“I returned as soon as I settled the matter.” Lin Huang nodded with a smile. “After you ladies are done browsing this shop, let’s have lunch.”

“Okay!” Lin Xin readily nodded.

The two women tried on shoes for a while and eventually bought a pair each. After Lin Huang settled the bill for them, he turned to the two women. “What would you like to have for lunch?”

“We saw a hotpot restaurant just now. There were quite a number of people lining up. I’d reckon it must taste pretty good,” Lin Xin suggested.

“What about you, Little Witch? What would you like to eat?” Lin Huang craned his neck to look at the Witch next to Lin Xin.

“I’m okay with anything.” The Witch did not offer an opinion, for a Card Monster like her did not need to eat or drink at all. Moreover, due to the fiend-like tendencies which haunted her, she had extreme tastes when it came to food preferences. She liked to drink blood and eat her meat raw, her favorite being sashimi made from the offal of mammals. However, she could not share these sorts of preferences in front of Lin Huang and Lin Xin.

Thankfully, offal was also served in hotpot, albeit boiled, but this was still within the boundary of the Witch’s food preferences.

Seeing that the Witch did not object, it was decided then that they would have hotpot for lunch.

Lin Huang brought the two ladies upstairs and quickly found the hotpot restaurant Lin Xin mentioned on the sixth floor. There was still a long queue at the entrance.

The three of them had to wait for more than half an hour for their hotpot and finished their food at around one. Lin Huang initially thought that he could return to the hotel immediately. However, the two ladies who had eaten to their hearts’ content began strolling around the commercial district again enthusiastically, and this time they insisted on dragging Lin Huang along with them.

The three of them wandered around until the skies turned dark. When they finally returned to the hotel, Lin Huang felt like he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

As night fell, the two ladies started fussing about wanting to have supper. Lin Huang was adamant on not leaving the hotel and managed to send them away on their own after a fair amount of effort.

In the days in Wanbao City that followed, Lin Huang was dragged along every day by the two ladies to window-shop until the end of the daylight hours. He was starting to regret summoning the Witch.

Initially, when Lin Xin was all by herself, she did not have much interest in window-shopping. In the month and a half that the siblings had been touring around, there were times when it was Lin Huang who had to drag her out for a stroll. Who could have known that, now that she had the Witch as her close friend, Lin Xin completely let herself go to enjoy herself.

The three of them lingered in Wanbao City for five days before finally leaving. Within this short period of five days, not counting the Witch’s purchases, the amount of stuff that Lin Xin alone had bought was several times more than her purchases in the last month and a half.

After leaving Wanbao City, Lin Huang resisted the urge to send back the Witch and instead continued accompanying the two ladies to tour around for more than a week, before finally receiving news about Lin Xuan coming out of closed-door cultivation.

As soon as Lin Xuan came out of closed-door cultivation, he got in touch with Lin Huang.

“Bro, I’ve leveled-up to True God.” These were the first words Lin Xuan said to Lin Huang the moment the communicator got through.

After nearly two months of closed-door cultivation, Lin Xuan finally succeeded in a breakthrough to the True God level.

Upon hearing this, Lin Huang looked at the projection of Lin Xuan in front of him with a gratified expression. “Well done, boy! You’re the first person in the gravel world to level-up to True God since the new era!”

“Two months ago, Xin Er told me that we’ll wait for you to come out of closed-door cultivation before returning to Winter City together to stay for a few days.” Lin Huang said with a smile. “It’s already the end of December and it’ll be a new year in just a couple of days. Although there’s still some time before the end of the year, we can celebrate New Year’s Day in Winter City.

“Since you’ve already come out of closed-door cultivation, Xin Er and I will finish up our trip here in these two days and hurry over to Winter City. Let’s meet up there then.”

“Okay!” Lin Xuan agreed without much hesitation.

After ending the conversation with Lin Xuan, Lin Huang immediately contacted Lin Xin who was out shopping.

As soon as she received the news about Lin Xuan coming out of closed-door cultivation, Lin Xin dragged the Witch along with her and hurried back to the hotel.

“Xiaoxuan has really come out of closed-door cultivation?” The moment she returned to the hotel, the first thing Lin Xin did when she saw Lin Huang was to shriek this question.

“It’s true.” Lin Huang nodded.

“Have you told him about going back to Winter City together?” Lin Xin asked instantly.

When she spoke to Lin Huang through the communicator a while ago, Lin Xin immediately rushed back after hearing the news about Lin Xuan coming out of closed-door cultivation. They had not gotten to discussing other matters.

“I’ve told him.”

“What did Xiaoxuan say?” Lin Xin pressed.

“He said ‘okay’.” Lin Huang repeated Lin Xuan’s exact words.

“Then…are we going back to Winter city now?” Lin Xin asked with an eager expression.

“There’s no need to rush. I’ve already told him that we’ll wrap things up here in these two days and go there to meet up. We can stay there until New Year’s Day. There’s still more than a week between now and New Year’s Day.” Lin Huang explained cheerfully.

“There’s nothing to wrap up. I’ll pop over to the bathroom and pack all my toiletries. Then we can leave.” With that, Lin Xin sprinted to the bathroom.

Only then did Lin Huang turn his attention to the Witch who was still rooted to the same spot. “Little Witch, your holiday ends today then.”

With that, the Witch nodded and burst spontaneously into golden specks of light, before transforming into a card in Lin Huang’s hands.

He was returning the card to his inner world when Lin Xin emerged from the bathroom with her toiletries packed.

“You really are an impatient one.” Lin Huang shook his head with a resigned smile.

“I haven’t been to Winter City in nearly a year. I went back once in February at the end of the Lunar New Year and cleaned the house. But I didn’t even stay and returned to Emperor City on the same day itself.” Lin Xin said all this mildly, but Lin Huang could detect some bitterness.

“Alright, let’s stay there a few days longer this time then.” After saying this, Lin Huang quickly checked out of their hotel room on the Heart Network before summoning a Dimensional Whirlpool with a wave of his hand. He clutched Lin Xin along with him and stepped into it.

In the next moment, the two of them stepped out from the Whirlpool onto thick piles of snow.

Looking at snowflakes fluttering down the sky, as well as the three-story villa not too far away, Lin Huang was slightly lost for words. It was like he had returned to that wintery Lunar New Year four years ago…