4: The Book of Lao Deng

Lin Chen was somewhat perplexed at the moment.

Lin Tianchen understood what Lin Chen was confused about, so he slowly began to speak, revealing some secrets.

The Old Deng Alliance was founded during the early years of the Federation's establishment, with only one purpose: to protect Great Accomplishment Late Bloomer type talent holders who had not yet matured, serving as their guardians and backing.

As of the current time, the Old Deng Alliance has a total of 1853 members, including 15 God Rank, 88 Ascension to God, 200 Demigod, and the rest are below Demigod.

"Child, that old dengs book is your identity proof. From now on, your backing will not only be my Suspended Mountain Lin Family, but also the Old Deng Alliance, which has 15 God Rank, will be your most solid backing."

As Lin Tianchen narrated, Lin Chen understood the purpose of joining the Old Deng Alliance.

"The old dengs book has many other functions; you can explore and use them later, but always be cautious."

Lin Tianchen cautioned Lin Chen, then led the three of them away from the magnificent space and returned to the Lin Family Villa.

Afterward, Lin Tianchen, Lin Yuan, and Luo Zhiyuan went to the study to discuss matters, leaving Lin Chen alone in the living room.

With the three adults gone, Lin Chen eagerly summoned the old dengs book located in his mental space.

"This name is quite strange."

Lin Chen complained, then began to check the abilities of the old dengs book.

The old dengs book has four major functions and two minor functions.

First, it protects the holder's soul from external evil intrusion, with a protection limit at the God Rank.

Second, it serves as identity proof, allowing the holder to obtain a Tenth Order Federal Dao Protector and enjoy priority evacuation rights in various disaster events.

Third, it is an interactive platform, allowing communication and interaction with other members to establish trade relations.

Fourth, it is a one-time life-saving trump card; in the face of certain death, it can ignore the restrictions of Upper God level and teleport the holder to the nearest Alliance God Rank.

The two minor functions are life prediction and item scanning.

Lin Chen's predicted lifespan was 228 years, which was quite normal, not much different from the Federation's average lifespan of 200 years for ordinary people; the extra 28 years were likely due to talent bonuses.

Item scanning is equivalent to carrying a free identification spell, with its database connected to the Federation's database, allowing it to identify information for virtually 99% of items in the world.

Both of these minor functions are very practical.

Upon obtaining the old dengs book, the unease deep within Lin Chen's heart dissipated; as long as he didn't court death, within the Federation, unless his lifespan was nearing its end, he could live indefinitely.

The Old Deng Alliance's slogan was just one sentence.

You might not be lively, but you must be alive.

Being alive is the greatest pursuit of all members of the Old Deng Alliance.

The first page of the old dengs book shows the holder's profile.

The second page contains the signed alliance agreement.

The third and fourth pages are function pages similar to a group chat, allowing sending and receiving messages and extracting traded items.

The fifth page is a storage space with a volume of one million cubic meters.

[Old Deng Chat Group 1853]

Ju Sanxian (Ninth Order Oldie): "Oh, after seventy years, a new person has joined."

Hu Shuo Daoist (Demigod Oldie): "And he's a little Oldie, just turned 10."

Loves Eating Mushrooms (Old Geezer Ascended to Godhood): "Wow, a little shota! Newbie, post a picture @Lin Chen."

The phrase "newbie, post a picture" seemed to trigger a key point; in the group, a large number of lurking Oldie jumped out, spamming "newbie, post a picture" and tagging Lin Chen.

Lin Chen (First Order Oldie): "... [Image]"

As Lin Chen's photo was sent out, a large group of Oldie of the grandpa, grandma, and ancestor generation jumped out, praising Lin Chen in various ways.

The entire interface refreshed quickly, with hundreds of messages flashing by in the blink of an eye.

South District Number One Handsome (Fourth Order Oldie): "You old geezers, a new person joins the group, and you're not even sending red envelopes anymore?"

Qian Duoduo (Ninth Order Oldie): "Red envelopes, where are the red envelopes?"

Most Handsome Group Leader (God Rank Oldie): "@Lin Chen, I've sent you some things privately, little fellow. I wish you eternal life."

Lin Chen silently lurked, as the moment the word "red envelope" appeared, the entire group chat derailed, and he, the protagonist, was automatically ignored.

Until a message tagged Lin Chen, he opened the private message interface and saw more than 99+ private messages in the background, which made his scalp tingle and unease surge in his heart.

He temporarily ignored the other private messages and opened the private message from the Group Leader; it contained only three items.

Most Handsome Group Leader (God Rank Oldie): "Alliance Gift [Centennial Longevity Fruit]"

Most Handsome Group Leader (God Rank Oldie): "Alliance Essentials [Covenant]"

Most Handsome Group Leader (God Rank Oldie): "Alliance Blessing [Live]"

The Centennial Longevity Fruit is a heaven and earth treasure that extends life, and one fruit can increase lifespan by two hundred years.

The Covenant had detailed content in the old dengs book, which Lin Chen did not read carefully, as the old dengs book, hundreds of pages thick, contained only functional pages for the first five, with the rest recording the content of the Covenant.

The Old Deng Alliance used hundreds of thousands of words in its Covenant to completely block the possibility of members harming each other, maintaining the purity among allies.

The final Alliance Blessing, "Live," was also truly effective; an ancient God Rank's words carried the weight of heaven's mandate, and his blessing could truly provide a rule-based enhancement buff.

After thanking the Most Handsome Group Leader, Lin Chen extracted the Centennial Longevity Fruit from the old dengs book, and while munching on the fruit, he silently lurked in the chat.

As for the private messages, he politely replied to all of them.

The private messages were all blessings, a unique way of greeting in the Old Deng Alliance; the key was that the youngest of these Oldie were all over a hundred years old, the age gap was too large, and there was nothing to talk about.

A hundred-year-old mindset is different from a ten-year-old mindset; perhaps when Lin Chen reaches a hundred years old, he will be able to communicate more smoothly with other Oldie.

Lin Chen was only 10 years old and couldn't even formally cultivate, and those Oldie didn't overstep, nor did they point fingers at his cultivation and life.

On one hand, it stemmed from their own cultivation, and on the other hand, it was because Lin Chen came from the Lin Family and had his own path to follow, not being someone without any background.

"Hehe, although I don't have a golden finger, my talent is not weaker than some golden fingers. The future is truly promising."

Lin Chen thought so, his mood joyful, and his unease dissipated.

Half an hour later, Lin Tianchen and the other two emerged from the study, all with smiles on their faces.

"Child, I'll be waiting for you at Mount Xuankong."

After Lin Tianchen finished speaking, his entire figure blurred and disappeared from the living room.

"Chener, everything is getting better."

Grandpa Lin Yuan sighed with emotion; the assets he had accumulated over thirty years of development couldn't compare to the resources and feedback brought by his grandson's extraordinary talent, which had attracted the family's attention.

The Feng City Lin Family, within the entire Suspended Mountain Lin Family system, belonged to the Seventh Elder's lineage, but because their bloodline relationship with the Seventh Elder's main lineage was very distant, they were a collateral branch within a branch, and a collateral branch within a collateral branch.

Branch Family (below Third Order), Collateral Branch Family (below Sixth Order), Collateral Main Family (Seventh Order), Branch Lineage Branch Family (Eighth Order), Branch Lineage Main Family (Ninth Order), Main Lineage Branch Family (Tenth Order), Main Lineage Main Family (Demigod Elder's Lineage), Ancestral Land Main Family (Ascension to God Family Head's Lineage).

Because the family was too large and had too many members, a strict hierarchical system had to be implemented; otherwise, the family would be too bloated and unable to concentrate resources on cultivating top-tier combat power to maintain the family's prestige.

The Feng City Lin Family originally belonged only to a collateral branch family and had already developed to the third generation; their step-by-step development involved improving their strength, and as long as they didn't fall into decline midway, relying on the family system, their path upward was very clear.

Now, relying on Lin Chen's talent, the Feng City Lin Family has been exceptionally promoted to the Branch Lineage Main Family level, and the resources required for subsequent branch construction will be borne by the Seventh Elder's lineage.

As long as the Feng City Lin Family doesn't fall behind and produces a Ninth Order within a hundred years, they will normally enjoy the treatment of a Branch Lineage Main Family; now they are just enjoying the treatment in advance.

Lin Chen didn't quite understand all those intricacies, but if Grandpa and Grandma were happy, he was happy too.

When the family gets better, he will be safer and will get better.

"Chener, originally your family treatment was Level One, but now it has been raised to Level Ten, enjoying the treatment of a core descendant of an Elder's faction, with an annual cultivation fund of one billion, and the main lineage family's resource inventory open to you."

Lin Chen was pleasantly surprised; one billion in annual cultivation funds, that was a lot.

One billion in funds could at least support an ordinary person to cultivate to the Fourth Order; if it were a genius, with high resource utilization, they could even cultivate to the Fifth Order.

Originally, Lin Chen had Level One treatment in a large clan, with an annual cultivation fund of one hundred thousand and no other support.

Within the small family led by his Grandpa and Grandma, his treatment was three million per year; there was no special privilege here, as all third-generation family members received this treatment.

Although his parents had passed away, they left behind an inheritance worth three hundred million; this money was not saved but invested by his Grandpa and Grandma to generate more money, yielding approximately ten to twenty million in profit annually.

The family also didn't split, and 3% of his Grandpa and Grandma's assets belonged to Lin Chen's deceased parents, which Lin Chen inherited, amounting to around forty million annually.

The previous Lin Chen was not short of money, having over fifty million available annually for martial arts cultivation, with cultivation at each stage maximized.

With ten million in resources accumulated per year, even a pig could become a genius, let alone Lin Chen, who was not a pig.

Therefore, even before Lin Chen could cultivate independently at the age of 12, his cultivation was naturally piled up to the peak of Martial Apprentice Seventh Layer, far surpassing his peers who were only at Martial Apprentice First or Second Layer.

In reality, Lin Chen was well aware that his initial talent was not high; it belonged to the 'better than average but not top-tier' category, only enough to be considered a small-city genius.

To shorten his development period and maximize the effect of each talent activation, he needed to consume a large amount of resources to achieve his extraordinary path.

"Chener, you really are a little money-grubber."

"Grandma, being a money-grubber is also good; all the little money comes to me."

Lin Chen deliberately acted cute and charming to downplay his desire for money.

Lin Yuan and Luo Zhiyuan didn't expose him either.

In martial arts cultivation, besides one's own talent, resources are also indispensable.

Whether it's a Dao Companion, Dharma, or Wealth, possessing just one can lead to success.

Lin Chen possessed all of them; if he didn't succeed, that would be a subversion of reality's laws.