"I know." Lin Fan sighed inwardly. He hadn't expected so much time to pass. If he could have, he would have returned much earlier.
"Where's Ak?" he asked.
The Pope replied, "I don't know. I've been dead for so long, how would I know where he went?"
Lin Fan was just asking casually, without any other meaning. This kind of inquiry was just a habitual, foolish act, asking unimportant questions.
Finally, Pope Burke noticed the current Pope. "Rise."
The current Pope, who had been kneeling for a long time, breathed a sigh of relief. He finally noticed me. That wasn't easy. The ground is so cold, it's making my heart chatter.
"Thank you, Pope the Thirteenth." The current Pope was very respectful to Burke. The ancient and long-gone Pope had led the Church of Light to its peak. He often read the autobiography of Pope the Thirteenth late at night and gained much insight from it. In his mind, Pope the Thirteenth was great, a beacon of light for all.
Burke had a lot to say to Lin Fan. Therefore, he directly ignored the current Pope, not even acknowledging his presence. I don't have time to waste with you. He still needed to have a good chat with Lin Fan. His decision back then was indeed correct.
Seeing the message left behind, even a stone would be moved.
Look… Lin Fan had actually revived him. His rebirth had arrived. Just thinking about it made him feel incredibly excited. Perhaps this was the power of friendship.
In the underground palace, the place where they had once secretly conversed…
"Who is this…?" Burke looked at Old Zhang, noticing that he was quite close to Lin Fan, even holding his arm. Such an intimate gesture gave him a sense of crisis.
Lin Fan said, "His name is Old Zhang. He's my best friend."
Hearing these words, Burke felt a pang of envy in his heart.
Best friend. These two words were his lifelong pursuit. How he wished Lin Fan would introduce him to others in the same way.
"This is Mother Hen, my good friend and part-time pet."
"His name is Ginseng, same as Mother Hen."
"This is the Dragon God, the ancestor of the Dragon Clan. He came here with me to find my daughter."
Burke nodded, pretending to understand. So that's how it is.
"Lin Fan, I don't know where Ke Lan is now. I just asked the current Pope, and he said Ke Lan left here a long, long time ago. As for where she is now, no one knows. It might be related to the invasion of the Outer Demons," Burke said.
Lin Fan said, "Let's go to the Abyss and take a look."
"Alright. Since you left, Akmonde and I have been working on the relationship between the Abyss and the various races. After hundreds of years, we finally resolved the hatred between the races. But did you do something… regrettable here? Leave behind some romantic entanglement?" Burke inquired tentatively.
Lin Fan was puzzled, not understanding what Burke meant. "No."
Old Zhang whispered, "Did you cheat on Mu Qing?"
"I didn't."
"Mm, I believe you." Old Zhang nodded seriously, his expression showing absolute trust, without a trace of doubt.
The Evil Chicken's eyes gleamed, as if it had heard some great secret. As expected, being undercover has its benefits. I can learn so many secrets.
The Dragon God didn't care about this kind of thing at all. So what if he did? What does it have to do with me?
Burke said, "Oh, then maybe I was mistaken." He didn't continue on this topic. To become Lin Fan's good friend, he had to learn to know when to stop. Asking too much was not good behavior and would only give Lin Fan a headache, damaging their relationship.
Afterwards, they descended into the Abyss. The Abyss now was not as terrifying as it had been initially. It could coexist peacefully with the human race. The mentality of the Abyssal races was much better than before.
It had even become a tourist attraction. Humans could visit the Abyss, and Abyssal races could live in the human world.
Outside, the resurrection of Pope the Thirteenth and the arrival of the Father of Light caused a huge sensation. Countless people flocked to the Temple of Light, wanting to catch a glimpse of the Father's holy countenance.
However, they came in vain. The Father they wanted to see had already gone to the Abyss.
"I didn't expect the Abyss to develop like this. It seems Ak really put in a lot of effort," Burke sighed. Even when he died, he hadn't seen the Abyss like this, completely indistinguishable from the human world. Thinking back to the Abyss of the past, it was truly a hellish existence.
The Abyssal aura shrouded everything, and ordinary humans who entered would be corroded by it, becoming violent, bloody, and cruel.
Now that the Abyss had become like this, Ke Lan must have also contributed a lot. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to purify this dark Abyssal aura.
They arrived at the place where Akmonde resided. They didn't sense Ak's presence; he had clearly left long ago. But there was an aura very similar to Akmonde's, as if it had been inherited.
"Who!" As soon as they appeared, a figure emerged, looking somewhat like Akmonde, but with a gentler temperament.
"I am Pope Burke the Thirteenth. Are you Akmonde's descendant?" Burke asked.
Before he died, he learned that Akmonde was with a female lord of the Abyss. Under normal circumstances, as a lord of the Abyss, he wouldn't engage in romantic love. But after spending so long in the human world, Ak's heart had changed. Perhaps falling in love wasn't a bad idea.
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"Pope the Thirteenth…" The current Abyssal Lord pondered, then exclaimed, "You are the human Pope Burke my father mentioned. Aren't you dead? How can you still be alive?"
Burke said, "How can you say that, child? Your father and I are friends. You should address me as Uncle."
The current Abyssal Lord didn't speak. He knew Burke had been dead for a long time. In terms of lifespan, the other party wasn't even as old as him, not even a fraction.
"I have lived in the Abyss for over one hundred thousand years." The implication was that he was older than Burke. Calling him Uncle Burke seemed a bit inappropriate.
"Is this Ak's child?" Lin Fan asked.
Burke said, "Yes, this is Ak's child. You left too early, so you didn't see him."
Lin Fan nodded with satisfaction. "Mm, indeed not bad, but this child seems impolite."
"Hm?" The current Abyssal Lord looked at Lin Fan, his eyes narrowing slightly, as if thinking, Who is this guy, daring to say I'm impolite?
Burke smiled. "This is your father's good friend. You should have heard your father mention him. His name is Lin Fan, Ke Lan's father. You child, how can you be so impolite in front of your Uncle Lin? If your father knew, he would beat you to death."
Burke was now clearly an old fox, his words smooth and manipulative.