After moving a decent distance away, Lin Fan finally slowed down and let go of the girl's hand.
He and Brainy made sure that there was no one around before relaxing.
Lin Fan turned to the girl and seeing that she was still a bit wary of him, he said, "Don't worry, it's fine now, we can be considered acquaintances. I was the person who received Lord Mu's last recommendation slot."
At this, the girl revealed a look of recognition as she carefully examined Lin Fan's face. After a while, she said, "You were the one that Yang Kai picked a fight with."
Lin Fan found it a bit awkward being referred to as that, but he said with a nod, "That's right, I'm that guy."
The girl finally calmed down and let out a sigh of relief.
After calming down, the girl shyly looked at Lin Fan, like she was looking him over and for some reason Lin Fan felt strangely awkward about it. That was because she was actually using her spiritual sense to check out Lin Fan's body, but he didn't know that.
Lin Fan didn't know what to do, but the girl suddenly said after a while, "My name is Zi Ling, what's yours?"
Lin Fan very happily jumped at this chance to end this awkward conversation, "I'm Lin Fan. So what happened back there?"
Zi Ling fell into thought before she said while trembling a bit, "At first they said that they wanted to help me, but then when I let my guard down, they suddenly had me pinned against the trees…"
Lin Fan could see that she was uncomfortable with this topic, so he quickly changed the topic to something he was curious about, "With your cultivation, why did Lord Mu give you a recommendation? Isn't that sending you to your death?"
Zi Ling gave a sigh, "It's not like that. My ancestor once saved Lord Mu's life and he's trying to repay my family by giving us this recommendation spot. While it is dangerous and he has told us many times, our family insisted on sending me in. After all, this is the inheritance of a Legendary Realm Expert, one that even went to an upper realm. If I could obtain this, it would completely change the world for me and my family."
Lin Fan asked with a voice of doubt, "Even if it means death?"
Zi Ling said with a helpless smile, "Sometimes death is better. An expert like you wouldn't understand what it's like to suffer under the foot of others."
Lin Fan couldn't help sympathizing with her, "Actually, I'm not an expert, I'm just a normal person like you."
Zi Ling laughed at this, "There's no need to pity me, you're clearly a great expert with how you easily took care of those three."
Lin Fan was happy to see her relaxing, so he said with a smile, "Actually, I'm not as great as you think I am. Until recently, I wasn't even able to cultivate, but I was lucky enough to get an encounter that changed my life. Everything I have now is all because I was lucky enough to meet this encounter…"
At that, Lin Fan suddenly stopped talking.
Even he didn't know why he was sharing this much. Maybe it was because he could see the past owner of this body in Zi Ling. He had the memories of the past owner, so he could tell how hard it was being unable to cultivate in this world of cultivation.
Zi Ling saw how Lin Fan suddenly stopped and while she was curious, she didn't keep asking him about this. She suddenly changed the topic.
Just like this, they sat there and chatted for a while, but after an hour, Brainy suddenly noticed something.
The three seeds that it had left in the three men had suddenly withered when they died.
Brainy had sent a few beasts with low cultivations to watch them and after Brainy saw the three of them meet up with the larger group, the three of them had suddenly clutched their chests where their hearts were before dropping to the ground.
Within seconds, their breaths had stopped and their eyes had diluted as they turned into corpses.
Seeing their comrades suddenly die in front of them, the larger group immediately put up their guard, but they couldn't find anything.
Of course, they wouldn't suspect that a few Iron and Bronze Realm beasts that were wandering around would actually be watching them.
Brainy's seeds had already fully developed inside the three men, so Brainy could have taken control of them, but it had no idea why these three men had suddenly died. All that it knew was that there was a miniature explosion in their hearts before their hearts were ripped to pieces, killing them instantly.
Brainy tried to think of possible reasons why these three men had died, but it couldn't think of a single feasible reason. They had just suddenly died without a single warning sign.
Brainy didn't even have time to implant seeds into the larger group with the three men.
But as the larger group went to bury the three men, Brainy took this drop in their guard to let a few Iron Realm beasts approach, releasing seeds into the larger group. Now Brainy just had to wait for those seeds to develop before taking over.
Just from watching them, Brainy could tell that there were at least twenty people in this group and there were three of them in the Gold Realm.
Now that Brainy was in the Gold Realm, if it was given time, it could wipe out this group with its parasite seeds, but Brainy chose to report it to Lin Fan first.
When Brainy sent a mental message, Lin Fan excused himself and went to the side.
When Lin Fan left, Zi Ling's eyes turned sharp as she watched him leave. She knew the reason why he left, but she was curious why he knew what happened to those three men.
They were already several kilometers away, yet Lin Fan was able to know when they had died. What kind of ability did Lin Fan have?
When Lin Fan came to the side, Brainy told him what had happened and he was just as confused as Brainy.
Lin Fan asked Brainy for every detail, but he still couldn't figure out what had happened. But since it had happened, the only thing he could do now was take care of the larger group directly since he couldn't take care of them from the inside like he had planned.
Of course, if he waited for Brainy's new parasite seeds to develop, he could just take care of them that way, but there was a time limit on this trial and he didn't have that much time to waste.
So he went back to Zi Ling and said, "Miss Zi, I have something to take care of, so I have to head off for a bit. Do you mind waiting here while I handle my business?"
Zi Ling suddenly revealed a slightly frightened look as she said in a stuttering voice, "Are, are you abandoning me, me here?"
Lin Fan quickly shook his hands as he assured her, "No, no, I just have some business to take care of. I will be leaving one of my pets here to protect Miss Zi while I'm away, that is if Miss Zi is willing to trust me."
With a snap of his finger, Lin Fan called out Rocky.
Rocky had only been born for over a month, but Rocky had already reached the Gold Realm, a fact that frustrated Brainy.
Even though they were both mutated beasts, for some reason, Rocky's cultivation grew at a faster rate compared to Brainy.
Rocky had also grown as its cultivation grew and now it was already two meters tall at its full size, but it preferred to remain in its small form whenever it was with Lin Fan.
Seeing the tiny pile of rocks become a small golem, Zi Ling couldn't help revealing a smile when she saw how cute it was.
She patted Rocky on the head and Rocky was very happy about being patted on the head as it rubbed its head against her palms.
Seeing that Zi Ling had accepted Rocky and that Rocky was happy to guard her, Lin Fan gave her a few more words of comfort before disappearing.
Once Lin Fan had disappeared, Zi Ling revealed a faint smile with a deep meaning.