Su Lianxi's Bedchamber

Fire Burning Disease!

An acute outbreak!

Just as Grandpa had said, the stronger one was, the more ferociously the Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao erupted.

The great calamity of the martial path randomly selected its "lucky ones."

The scale of Qi Lin's outbreak was so terrifying that it was probably at least ten times Xiao Tao'er's. In mere moments, the pain had him wishing for death.

Xiao Tao'er had managed to hold on for half an hour, but Qi Lin felt he would die in thirty breaths!

"Ice Mystic Pills!"

In that critical instant, he used every ounce of strength to retrieve the white jade box from his void ring.

The jade box opened, and icy mist swirled out!

Qi Lin's eyes bulged. With a trembling, charred hand, he snatched up the two Ice Mystic Pills and fed them into his mouth.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

As the Ice Mystic Pills entered his mouth, two rivers of ice spread down from his throat.

Wherever they went, the burning blood flow reacted as though facing a formidable enemy. Seemingly possessed of intelligence, it let out roar after roar of rage and pain as it rapidly receded from Qi Lin's flesh, bones, Yellow Dragon Meridian, and dantian.

With every bit it retreated, Qi Lin's excruciating pain eased a little.

"It's working!"

Qi Lin had escaped death, and even his voice had gone hoarse.

He looked down and watched frost rapidly sweep over his body as the burning blood flow steadily retreated... until, at last, only a small patch remained in the little finger of his left hand.

The Ice Mystic Pills' effects were also rapidly expended in the process, leaving only a few ice crystals lingering in Qi Lin's body.

"Hm? That's not right!"

Qi Lin froze at once.

After the burning blood flow receded, the flesh, bones, meridians, and dantian throughout his body were all as good as new, without a single trace of burns.

Even his true essence hadn't evaporated.

It was as if... what had just happened had been an illusion.

"That's not normal. The damage the Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao does to flesh is irreversible. How could I be completely unharmed once it receded?"

Qi Lin frowned deeply.

Soon, he noticed a second abnormality.

The burning blood flow in his left little finger hadn't disappeared!

As a result, Qi Lin's little finger burned red like a red-hot iron rod, and even the bones inside were clearly visible.

"Two Ice Mystic Pills, and the acute outbreak still hasn't completely subsided?"

Qi Lin was utterly numb.

The next moment, something even more heart-stopping happened.

A slit suddenly tore sideways through the flesh where the fingerprint on his left little finger should have been!

Rows of crimson teeth like a shark's emerged from the slit.

It was a mouth!

Crunch! Crunch!

The mouth faced Qi Lin, grinding its crimson fangs as flames roiled around them. Although it said nothing, it seemed to be threatening and warning him.

"Fuck!"

Qi Lin was on the verge of going mad.

What the hell was this?

A little mouth had grown on the tip of his little finger?

"Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao! Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao!"

The mouth actually spoke. Though it only kept repeating those words, that was enough to make his scalp crawl.

"Decay your fucking ass!"

Confronted with something so bizarre, Qi Lin instinctively whipped out the Azure Soul Sword and slashed at his iron-rod-like little finger.

The instant he raised his sword, the burning blood flow surged through his entire left arm, and the crimson fire-mouth moved straight onto his palm. It bared its teeth at Qi Lin, as if saying, "Go on, chop!"

"You win...!"

Qi Lin gave in and put away his sword.

Fortunately, the burning blood flow and the crimson fire-mouth returned to his little finger.

Though it was still droning on about the Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao, it seemed willing to coexist peacefully with Qi Lin.

"Why is even my Fire Burning Disease different from everyone else's?"

Although Qi Lin's body was now completely fine, anyone would have mixed feelings staring wide-eyed at a little crimson fire-mouth on their own little finger.

"That's right!"

Qi Lin's eyes suddenly lit up, and he looked in the direction of the city lord's manor.

"I heard that people with a God-Inherited Bloodline never suffer from the Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao..."

"Su Lianxi, how about doing another good deed tonight?"

Outside the ancestral shrine.

As soon as Qi Lin came out, he ran into Qi Tianji.

"What were you howling about in front of the ancestors just now? Hitting puberty?" Qi Tianji looked at him strangely.

"Grandpa, I just broke through!" Qi Lin said.

Qi Tianji looked at him and fell silent for a moment before asking, "Mystic Sea Second Stage, Frost Descent?"

"Mm." Qi Lin lifted his head. "Not bad, right?"

Recalling what had happened, he remembered that the Fire Burning Disease had swallowed the remaining nine-tenths of the frost-forming pill essence. Otherwise, he would definitely have reached more than Frost Descent.

"Not bad."

Qi Tianji nodded, but then sighed softly.

"I broke through. What are you sighing for?" Qi Lin paused.

"Nothing." Qi Tianji suddenly burst out laughing without a care. "A pretty grandma just rejected me. My heart's being cut to pieces!"

"Have some dignity at your age." Qi Lin glared at him, then asked, "Grandpa, do we have a book called the Myriad Gods Sacrificial Canon?"

At that, Qi Tianji's eyes narrowed. "How do you know?"

"I think I saw it when the clan fire was burning." Qi Lin probed, "Can I take a look?"

He knew the Qitian Clan had many secrets, and some of them might not be suitable for someone his age to know.

That was why he had made something up.

"Sure." Qi Tianji took a thick tome out of his void ring. "Just read it as a story. Don't tell anyone about it. Of course, even if you did, no one would believe you."

"Mm-hmm."

Qi Lin took the Myriad Gods Sacrificial Canon and ran off like a gust of wind.

Qi Tianji watched his departing figure in silence for a long time.

That night, between one and three in the morning, at the city lord's manor.

A dark figure appeared outside Su Lianxi's bedchamber.

"The people in the city lord's manor are mostly treating Su Fengxuan in the front hall. Su Lianxi is nowhere to be seen."

It was precisely because the city lord's manor was in chaos that Qi Lin dared sneak in and fish in troubled waters.

Most of the city lord's manor's experts were gone now.

"She's not in her bedchamber either... Could she have gone straight into hiding at the Divine Strategy Manor?"

Qi Lin frowned.

Now that he had developed Fire Burning Disease, he needed Su Lianxi even more.

"Hm?"

Just then, a flash of blood-red light surged from the darkness at the very back of the city lord's manor toward the dark clouds in the sky, then vanished.

The sight of that blood-red light made Qi Lin's eyes instinctively flicker.

"She's in the God-Serving Hall!"

Qi Lin had heard Su Lianxi say that there was a God-Serving Hall behind the city lord's manor, built by the Great Cang Kingdom's Nation-Protecting Divine Church.

Su Lianxi often prayed there, beseeching the gods to bless all living beings.

"Your father's already gone round, and you're still in the mood to put on an act?"

Qi Lin sneered, his dark figure flickering as he sped toward the God-Serving Hall.

Few people ever went to the God-Serving Hall, making it easier to act.

"Spicy balls!"

Just then, a childlike voice suddenly cursed from Qi Lin's waist. "My butt's freezing! Why the hell aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? Sneaking around like a thief?"

"Shh!" Qi Lin pulled out the little black beast. "You finally decided to wake up? Keep it down. I'm in the city lord's manor."

"Oh? You've got some nerve." The little black beast hurriedly looked around with a furtive air. "Where's that woman? Strip her!"

"Forget about her for now."

As Qi Lin spoke, he held out the little finger of his left hand to the little black beast.

The finger was still scorching hot, like a red-hot iron rod. There was a tiny, bloody maw on its tip, and whenever Qi Lin looked at it, it bared its teeth at him.

"Master Fatty, do you recognize this damned thing?"

"Spicy balls!" The little black beast jumped in fright and grabbed Qi Lin's palm with its little claws. "Did you use that little finger to pick your asshole? You even picked a hemorrhoid out!"

"Hemorrhoid my ass! Isn't that a mouth?"

"Has it come to compete with me for food?"

"It was caused by Fire Burning Disease from the Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao."

"You got hit? That's what you get for hugging little girls for no reason. Karma caught up with you, huh?"

Qi Lin could tell that the little black beast had no idea what had caused the change in his finger.

"Could this mutation of the Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao have nothing to do with the series of events involving my ancestor's spirit tablet, the symbols, and the god? Are they two separate matters?"

That was all he could surmise.

"For now, I'll treat it as Fire Burning Disease. I still need a God-Inherited Bloodline to resolve it."

With that thought, he stopped dwelling on it and continued toward the God-Serving Hall.

The closer he drew to the God-Serving Hall, the more the blood vessels in his eyes writhed, as though the Hundred-Eyed God's divine meridians were being drawn to something.

Soon!

Qi Lin landed on the roof of the God-Serving Hall and lay flat, looking into the main hall.

The first thing he saw was a snow-white figure kneeling with her back to him!

She was prostrated deeply, her white dress spread across the floor like a white lotus in full bloom, the perfect curve of her buttocks faintly visible beneath it.