Chapter 12

The night was deep.

When Lu Ting arrived at the top of the small hill, there were already many figures waiting there.

The leader, riding a fierce and magnificent scaled horse, wore a crimson cloak, his gaze as cold and sharp as a blade. He was Lian Rufeng, the head of the guards of Feiyun Village.

"How is it?" Seeing Lu Ting appear, Lian Rufeng asked directly.

"Brother, that kid is tough. I almost fell into his hands due to a moment's carelessness." Lu Ting's face was tinged with a hint of shame, and there was a strong sense of unwillingness.

Upon hearing this, Lian Rufeng and the others were all shocked. They knew that Lu Ting was a True Martial Second Level "Internal Strength" cultivator. He had only gone to probe the background of a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy, and yet he had failed?

At that moment, Lu Ting recounted the battle that had just taken place, concluding with, "Brother, your judgment was correct. I feel that kid must be the old man Xiao Tianren's helper!"

Lian Rufeng fell silent, and after a long while, he sneered, "According to what you said, that Lin Xun is just a small fry at the 'Internal Strength' level. If the old fox Xiao Tianren pins his hopes on this Lin Xun, he is being far too foolish."

Pausing, he waved his hand and said, "However, since we now know this kid's cultivation level, he is no longer worth our attention."

"Brother, why don't we take this opportunity to kill this kid and give Xiao Tianren a warning?" Lu Ting said, unwilling to let go. He was ashamed of his defeat at Lin Xun's hands and was not content to leave it at that.

"No rush. Let them live for a while longer. What we need to do now is fully integrate into the Qingyang Tribe and secure a place for ourselves. Once we do that, we can completely abandon Feiyun Village and have a place to live in the future."

Lian Rufeng took a deep breath and said with a burning gaze, "This is the most important task. Once we join the Qingyang Tribe, with our brothers' abilities, we can enter Donglin City and carve out a place for ourselves!"

Donglin City!

It was the most prosperous city beyond the Three Thousand Great Mountains, bustling with traffic and dense with people. It was a major trading hub, renowned as the trade center of the southwestern border of the Ziyao Empire.

They said that if one could establish themselves there, they would be considered a qualified citizen of the Ziyao Empire, which was far better than staying in this dangerous, impoverished village.

Thinking of this, the surrounding guards were filled with excitement and endless longing.

"Lu Ting, you and Qian Qi stay behind. Qian Qi has 'Foundation Establishment' level cultivation. The two of you can suppress anyone in the village. Remember, keep a close eye on Xiao Tianren. If you notice anything suspicious, capture that old man immediately!"

Lian Rufeng's gaze was cold as he looked at Lu Ting and another robust middle-aged man, giving orders that brooked no refusal.

Lu Ting and Qian Qi exchanged a glance and agreed.

Seeing this, Lian Rufeng nodded in satisfaction and then shouted, "Three months! At most three months! All of Feiyun Village's wealth will be in our hands! With that wealth and our status in the Qingyang Tribe, the gates of Donglin City will be open to us!"

"Let's go!"

With that, Lian Rufeng rode his scaled horse, leading his subordinates into the vast, distant mountains, quickly disappearing from sight.

Lu Ting and Qian Qi also returned to Feiyun Village under the cover of night.

...

...

In a thatched cottage.

The window was open, and a gentle night breeze blew in, refreshing and pleasant.

The brilliant starlight poured in, casting a silvery glow on the desk, enveloping the yellowed scroll and the dark gray calligraphy brush in a mysterious light.

Lin Xun gently caressed the scroll and the brush, muttering, "According to Mr. Lu, these two treasures contain a world-shaking secret. If I can unravel it, it will allow me to change my fate and completely heal the injuries in my body..."

Lin Xun had long known that when he was born, he possessed a rare and extraordinary "Primordial Spirit Vein" called "Taiyuan Swallowing the Sky," a first-rate bloodline by nature!

Such a talent was a natural cultivation prodigy, one in ten thousand. With effort, he was destined to become a generation of heavenly pride, renowned throughout the world, and awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately, just after his birth, the "Taiyuan Swallowing the Sky" Primordial Spirit Vein in his body was removed by someone, nearly costing him his life.

Even though Lin Xun, the abandoned infant, survived thanks to Mr. Lu's rescue, the removal of his Primordial Spirit Vein left irreparable damage to his meridians and acupoints.

This was why his meridians were so sluggish and fragile, making him appear mediocre in cultivation. Despite years of practice, he remained at the True Martial Second Level "Internal Strength" stage.

According to Mr. Lu, if the injuries in his body could not be healed, Lin Xun's achievements would be limited to the True Martial realm, and he would never reach higher cultivation levels.

The only bright spot was that the scroll and the brush left by Mr. Lu offered a glimmer of hope in his otherwise dark cultivation path.

It was widely acknowledged that no spirit medicine, secret technique, or legacy in the world could heal the injuries left by the removal of a "Primordial Spirit Vein."

However, Mr. Lu told Lin Xun that if he could unravel the secret hidden in the scroll and the brush, he could reverse his fate and be reborn!

The scroll and the brush lay quietly on the desk.

Lin Xun gathered his scattered thoughts, took a deep breath, and opened the yellowed scroll...

This was the first time Lin Xun had opened the ancient scroll since leaving the destroyed mine prison.

What shocking secret did it contain?

Lin Xun couldn't help but feel excited. However, when he saw the content on the first page, he was slightly taken aback.

The first page had no text, only a spirit pattern, the "Green Wood Spirit Pattern," which Lin Xun was most familiar with.

Even as a child, Lin Xun had practiced drawing this spirit pattern under Mr. Lu's guidance, and he knew its structure and essence by heart, able to draw it effortlessly.

Rustle~

Lin Xun thought for a moment and turned to the second page. There was no text either, only another spirit pattern, the "Golden Thorn Spirit Pattern," which he was also very familiar with.

Rustle~ Rustle~

Lin Xun continued flipping through the pages, but each page contained a spirit pattern he had practiced since childhood, deeply ingrained in his memory, and he could draw them with his eyes closed.

"How can this be? Could the secret Mr. Lu spoke of be hidden in these basic spirit patterns?"

After flipping through half the scroll, Lin Xun found nothing special and frowned, falling into deep thought.

If these spirit patterns were rare and of high quality, it would have been different.

However, these were the most basic spirit patterns, widely known in the world, which was puzzling.

An ancient scroll filled with the aura of time, entrusted to him by Mr. Lu in a life-or-death moment, could it be that it contained no shocking secret, but only basic spirit patterns known to everyone?

Still not giving up, Lin Xun continued flipping through the scroll until he reached the last page, where his movements suddenly paused, and his eyes narrowed.

The last page was different!

It did not contain a basic spirit pattern but a strange, mottled, incomplete, and chaotic pattern that looked nothing like a spirit pattern.

It resembled a child's random doodle, with no trace of a spirit pattern.

However, this immediately caught Lin Xun's attention. Could the shocking secret Mr. Lu spoke of be hidden in this "strange pattern"?

Lin Xun carefully examined and studied the intricate, incomplete, and mottled pattern.

Time passed unnoticed, and even though his eyes were strained, he found nothing valuable.

Lin Xun felt a bit disappointed and stared at the strange pattern, lost in thought.

The ancient scroll, filled with the aura of time, contained mostly basic spirit patterns, but the last page had a chaotic and intricate "strange pattern," which was unusual.

What did this mean?

How could he unravel the secret?

Questions flooded Lin Xun's mind.

As Lin Xun struggled to find answers, his gaze inadvertently fell on the last page, which was a different color from the others, faintly red.

He held the scroll up to the light, and on the thin page, made of an unknown material, some things he had not noticed before appeared.

Handprints!

Faint, blood-red handprints!

It seemed that a long time ago, someone had pressed their blood-stained fingers on this last page multiple times. Due to the passage of time, these blood handprints had become faint and mottled.

Lin Xun also noticed that the handprints were of different sizes and colors, clearly not from the same person or the same time.

Seeing this, a bold idea formed in Lin Xun's mind: "Could it be that a long time ago, this mysterious scroll was obtained by different cultivators at different times? They tried every means to unravel the secret of the scroll but made no progress, so they eventually used their own essence blood to try to obtain the answer?"

With this thought, Lin Xun immediately bit his fingertip and dripped a drop of essence blood onto the mysterious page.

—

PS: The Alipay code is "一路有你" (Yi Lu You Ni), which means "With You All the Way." There are no quotation marks, just these eight characters. Please remember them.