This was a voice that was ice cold and filled with an underlying rage, but it was also a voice that was familiar.
When everyone turned to look in the direction that it came from, they saw a young black haired man standing at one of the doors that led into this room. Behind him were four other people who all had their hands over their mouths as they tried to cover up their laughter.
Lin Fan's group of three were confused why the great elder had this kind of tone with them because last time, he was very friendly.
But they were only confused for a second because Lulu gave them an explanation right away.
After being surprised for a bit, she suddenly said, "Daddy, what are you doing here?"
When they heard her say the word "daddy", they immediately understood what was happening. However, when they looked at the great elder, they really couldn't imagine him being anyone's dad because he looked so young.
When the great elder heard Lulu calling out to him, he immediately turned to her with a smile and said, "Baby, you must have been afraid. Come and let daddy hold you."
Without even looking at Mo Ze Chen, he pushed him aside and went forward to take Lulu in his arms.
Lulu also reciprocated this hug because it had been a long time since she had last seen her dad, but then she realized how embarrassing it was and tried to break free as she said, "Daddy, stop it. There are other people here."
The great elder gave a soft snort and said, "What's wrong with a dad showing concern about his daughter?"
But in the end, she still broke free.
After breaking free, she awkwardly stood there for a few seconds, but then she still went over to where Mo Ze Chen was lying on the ground. She reached out her hand and said, "Are you alright?"
Seeing this, Mo Ze Chen revealed a smile and said, "I'm alright."
But when he reached his hand out to take Lulu's outstretched hand, the great elder immediately came between them and slapped Mo Ze Chen's hand away.
Lulu was surprised by the great elder appearing in front of her, but before she could say a thing, the great elder said, "You shouldn't pick things off the ground, they're dirty."
After saying that, the great elder turned to Mo Ze Chen with a cold look, but he still didn't say anything.
Mo Ze Chen could guess what he wanted to say, but he could only reveal an awkward smile.
In the end, it was Lulu who broke the silence by saying, "Daddy, I'll get angry."
When the great elder heard this, his cold expression immediately collapsed as he said with a fearful look, "Baby, don't be angry. Daddy was just doing what was best for you."
Lulu pouted her lips and turned her head without saying a thing.
During this time, the great elder coldly glared at Mo Ze Chen, but then he immediately went back to trying to coax Lulu to stop being mad at him.
On the side, the four elders, Lin Fan, and Wang Jian were all just watching the fun.
But of course, that didn't last long since the great elder knew that he couldn't keep doing this since there was something else that he had to do first.
Once he stopped trying to coax Lulu, he turned to look at Lin Fan and Wang Jian and without a word he raised his hand covered in a golden glow. That golden glow quickly turned into a ball of golden light that suddenly shot out in their direction.
It had been so sudden that neither Lin Fan or Wang Jian could react to it and when they did react to it, it was already too late.
That ball of golden light smashed right into Wang Jian's face and without any pause, he collapsed onto the ground, losing consciousness.
Lin Fan raised a brow at this, but he could understand why the great elder did this.
As far as he was concerned, he didn't care what happened to the rest of the people here since most of them were his competitors and they had their own agendas. As long as he and his people were safe, that was fine to him.
Well, it would be hard to say if Mo Ze Chen would be safe against the great elder, but he seemed safe for now.
Once Wang Jian was knocked out, the great elder asked Lin Fan, "What are your plans now?"
Lin Fan thought about it for a bit before saying, "How many experts do you have?"
The great elder revealed a smile and said, "That depends on how many True Soul Realm Experts are out there."
Lin Fan also said with a smile, "Too many to deal with."
The great elder gave a sigh while shaking his head before saying, "Our plans now are to seal ourselves off to give ourselves time to become stronger, so whatever you have in mind, we won't be able to help you."
Lin Fan gave a nod before saying, "That's perfectly fine because I need some time to build up my power as well. Before that, there won't be anything for you to do. I just hope that you'll help me when the time comes."
The great elder gave a nod and said, "As long as you can help our village find its place in the world."
With that, the pact between them was sealed.
Right now, the only experts that this village had were the five elders in the room, the rest were all either in the Embryo Soul Realm or the Child Soul Realm. As for the five elders in the room, only the great elder was in the peak Nascent Soul Realm, as for the rest, they were all in the low Nascent Soul Realm except for the slightly chubby elder who was in the mid Nascent Soul Realm.
These elders had increased their cultivation after expelling out the yin energy because they were different from the normal ghosts. The yin energy that had been placed into them had actually been put there to restrict them instead of increasing their cultivation since they were already strong enough to begin with. In fact, they had been too strong for Huang Xiao Hou to control properly, which was why he had given them this yin energy.
The yin energy clashed with their existing laws and decreased their cultivation until they had reached the level they had been at as ghosts.
However, now that they had been freed of this yin energy, they had been able to absorb the yin energy which had not only helped them recover their cultivation, it also helped their cultivation become stronger.
Right now, it would only take a bit more for the great elder to break through into the True Soul Realm.
As long as they had one single True Soul Realm Expert, it would be enough for them to negotiate with the other forces outside. It was just like the situation with Qing Ao, as long as he as a True Soul Realm Expert existed, no one was willing to invest into dealing with him and they gave him some territory to placate him.
So what this village needed most was time for the great elder to reach the True Soul Realm.
But the elders could also feel the potential that Lin Fan had since he had defeated someone who they never thought they had a chance against. Not to mention that they had seen his potential in the trial earlier, so they knew that he was much more talented than any one of them.
As long as they followed him, they were certain that he would bring them far beyond just this upper realm.
So they had already secretly made the decision to follow Lin Fan just like Mo Ze Chen had already done.
But after this was decided, the great elder went back to trying to coax Lulu, but when he turned around, he found that she was gone.
When he turned back to Mo Ze Chen, he found that he was gone as well.
Looking around, he saw the two of them in a corner by themselves and Lulu had taken some gauze as she began helping Mo Ze Chen patch up his wounds.
There weren't that many wounds since there wasn't anything physically dangerous in this final trial, but Mo Ze Chen was playing it up by acting much more injured than he actually was.
The entire time, Lulu had been carefully wrapping the gauze up over his "injuries", even though she already knew that he wasn't injured. However, this was her first time being this close with a man and naturally she was curious about the other gender since she was in the prime of her youth.
She might have been over a thousand years old chronologically, but she had been sealed most of the time which had slowed down the development of her body, so she was around the same age as Mo Ze Chen. However, she had never had a relationship with a man because of her father, so this was her first time seeing something like this.
When the great elder saw this, he immediately came over to separate them and he began treating Mo Ze Chen even worse.
However, Mo Ze Chen didn't fight back and just accepted this because he wanted the great elder's approval.
After all, he wasn't just planning on dating Lulu, he was planning on marrying her!