After the woman left, the man turned around and said to the person who had entered earlier, "Next time, if she's here, don't blurt out our business casually."
"Yes, I understand, sir."
"Come in."
Lin Lang was from the An family. All members of the An family dressed in white robes, and he was no exception. Since childhood, he had been raised under An Susu's care.
Lin Lang had been a man of few words since childhood. He was studious, and most importantly, he was young and easy to control. Therefore, An Susu had always cultivated him as her confidant.
Over the years, An Susu had provided Lin Lang and Miao Xi with the best resources of the An family. But Miao Xi had been unpromising, and in the end, her cultivation was only half as good as Lin Lang's.
As time went by, with Lin Lang's rapid improvement in ability, his power in the An family had also grown. Everyone entering or leaving the An family would respectfully address him as "Young Master".
Lin Lang was the sharpest blade in An Susu's hand. In the early years, he had made many contributions to the An family in order to expand its power.
He had thought that he would never resent her because An Susu had raised and taught him.
But then, the Zhao family's power gradually rose. The Seven - Star Alliance, which he had built with his own hands, had found it increasingly difficult to survive under the impact of the Zhao family and Shui Yunsheng. He had thought that at this critical moment, An Susu would surely lend him a hand.
But at that crucial moment, she didn't. Instead, she had been busy dealing with the Ghost Domain, protecting the power of the An family.
If she had reached out at that time, the Seven - Star Alliance would not have ended up in such a sorry state.
Later, the Seven - Star Alliance had to huddle in a shabby building within a hundred - mile radius of the capital, Chang'an, struggling to survive. At this time, An Susu had finally come. She pretended that she had been too busy to help during that period and said that the Seven - Star Alliance could ask the An family for help if it needed anything in the future.
Lin Lang had nodded. He still obeyed because he knew that An Susu had come to this shabby building only because he was still useful.
On one occasion, the Seven - Star Alliance had a fierce conflict with Shui Yunsheng. Facing Shui Yunsheng's two major generals, Chu Wen and Chu Nuan alone, he could only barely hold his own. And then, when the Viper had arrived, outnumbered by Shui Yunsheng's forces, the Seven - Star Alliance had been forced to retreat.
But there had actually been a chance to save the situation. He had known how powerful Shui Yunsheng was. Therefore, just before Shui Yunsheng attacked the Seven - Star Alliance, he had sent someone to ask An Susu for help.
But she hadn't come. Not only that, she hadn't even sent any reinforcements.
Later, Lin Lang had managed to escape and had taken the remaining soldiers to hide temporarily. An Susu didn't even know that he had gone to her after the defeat of the Seven - Star Alliance.
At that time, the An family's mansion had been extremely quiet. He had gone straight to the pavilion, wanting to ask An Susu for help.
But, by chance, he had heard the conversation between An Susu and a woman.
"Lin Lang is a good seedling. Why didn't you go to rescue him this time?"
Lin Lang's hand, which had been about to knock on the door, slowly dropped at this question.
There was a moment of silence inside. Then An Susu said, "Senior, do you know that Lin Lang's power is very strong, and his Seven - Star Alliance has also developed very rapidly. At first, I said I would send someone to assist him in managing the alliance, but he refused."
"Oh?" The woman's voice sounded a bit surprised.
"So what do you mean?" The woman addressed as "Senior" asked again.
Lin Lang listened intently.
"Senior should know that Lin Lang is not my own child after all. I've nurtured him so carefully, regarding him as one of my great generals. But if this general has his own power and it keeps growing, do you think he will still be willing to just be a general?"
An Susu's words hit Lin Lang's heart one by one. He had been raised in the An family since childhood, and his loyalty to the An family was unmatched. He had always thought that An Susu would never doubt him, that she was like a kind elder who had cared for and taught him whole - heartedly just because of him.
He hadn't expected that she would say such things now.
"So, you deliberately didn't go to rescue the Seven - Star Alliance that day?"
"The Seven - Star Alliance is like a pair of wings for Lin Lang. That child is so capable. If his wings grow strong, he will surely fly out of my control. I might as well take advantage of Shui Yunsheng's momentum to break this child's wings. In this way, in the future, he will have to rely on the An family for survival."
An Susu's words were like a basin of cold water, pouring over Lin Lang's heart. Serving beside a powerful person was like being beside a tiger. He had thought that the person he respected was a kind "mother", but he had never expected that An Susu was even more terrifying than a tiger.
From then on, he had come with full hope but had returned in despair. He really couldn't rely on the An family, this big tree.
After that incident, Lin Lang had firmly decided to break away from the An family. Shui Yunsheng had destroyed the Seven - Star Alliance, so he was Lin Lang's enemy. Over the past few decades, Lin Lang had devoted all his energy to planning.
Finally, some time ago, the Viper had fallen into his trap. That time, Xie An had managed to escape but had been seriously injured.
But it didn't matter. He would find him and make him pay the price.
The man followed Lin Lang into the room. After a long time, they came out. The people around them had all retreated.
Lin Lang looked at the thing in his hand and slowly smiled. At this time, a leopard gently appeared beside Lin Lang. It rubbed its head against him slowly, as if trying to comfort him.
The leopard was an ancient monster, ranked very high. It was called the Dragon - Tooth Brahma Sky Leopard and was Lin Lang's contracted monster.
It was because of this leopard that he had managed to escape from that great battle.
Lin Lang reached out and stroked the head of the Dragon - Tooth Brahma Sky Leopard. He knew the monster was worried. He said, "I know she's very strong. I was careless in that fight."
That fight had happened on Shanhuazhou Peak. He had been on business there and had passed by a black market. Sensing the powerful spiritual energy there, he had gone down to investigate.
The boss of the black market, She Laoda, had also been killed by him. He had met She Laoda when he was in the An family. After all, the An family had been kind to him, so killing She Laoda was also to prevent the An family from being exposed to the public.
But he hadn't expected that the woman would be so powerful. She had seemed so young, but her strength was comparable to his.
Lin Lang had already exhausted some energy in the fight against the Viper and had underestimated the woman later, which was why he had been counter - attacked by her.
And that woman was Zhao Shuning. The reason why Zhao Shuning had felt familiar with that power was that most of Lin Lang's spiritual energy cultivation guidance had come from An Susu, and An Susu had once been guided by Ye Ling.
That was why the previous scene had happened.