Spiritual Fiend Undercurrents, Supreme Grade Palm Seals 'Blazing Sun, Netherworld, Heart Guardian, Dragon Might'

Spiritual Tide Undercurrents, Traces of Sorcery,

Surprised as he was, Mass Grave Hill was ultimately a sinister place, not somewhere to linger.

Lin Zhao bent down and searched the other corpse wearing a ghost-face mask, finding only a little over twenty taels in loose silver—judging by the look of it, the man had been an impoverished wandering warrior.

As a high-ranking warrior, he had possessed only this meager fortune. It was truly shabby!

After taking stock, Lin Zhao had seized more than 3,400 taels in banknotes and loose silver, along with two fine horses.

"A horse does not grow fat without night grass, and a man does not grow rich without windfall wealth!" Only now did Lin Zhao truly realize that the money he had earned through his blacksmithing livelihood and estate harvests was merely a drop in the bucket compared to this "Gaining Wealth from the Jianghu"!

But upon second thought, he quickly suppressed his greed. "I cannot become addicted to this path! If I commit too many robberies, one day I'll capsize in a gutter. It's better to focus on honest work."

He bundled up all the weapons and armor on the ground, loaded them onto the horses' backs, then swung himself onto the middle-aged man's magnificent Dark Steed.

Muttering to himself, he said, "I had no wish to act personally, but you happened to serve beneath Duke Wei. Then you cannot blame Lin." With that, he spurred his horse toward Night Raven Tower's Northern Garrison City stronghold.

Under cover of darkness, Lin Zhao silently infiltrated the stronghold, only to find the courtyard thick with cobwebs and layered in dust. It had long since been abandoned, leaving behind only an eerie, deathly stillness.

"What is Night Raven Tower planning? Could they truly be sending a top expert? Their 'Diamond-Rank Assassin,' capable of contending with a Heavenly Gang Realm Grandmaster Warrior, or an even more formidable 'Night Raven Tower Master'?" Unable to fathom their intentions, Lin Zhao did not dare linger. Under the moonlight, he rode out of Northern Garrison City and headed straight for Lin Family Fortress.

This journey's gains had far exceeded his expectations.

He had only hoped to purchase a usable martial art manual, yet he had unexpectedly obtained a treasure like the Spirit Taming Secret Record. Compared with it, the Iron Rhinoceros Technique and Brute Ox Technique had become mere supporting players, hardly worth mentioning.

After returning safely to Lin Family Fortress, Lin Zhao first tossed the seized weapons to the forging workshop for the craftsmen to dismantle and melt down. Then, unable to wait any longer, he slipped into the Secret Room and took out the yellowed Spirit Taming Secret Record for careful study. Though the ink on the ancient parchment had faded somewhat, the words remained clearly legible:

"While all under heaven bask in the imperial grace of the Ming Dynasty and live in peaceful prosperity, we of the Four Great Clans have fought endless battles to the death in the shadows against terrifying fiends regarded as mere 'jianghu legends.'

"Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the 'Spiritual Fiend Energy' that had lain dormant between heaven and earth for a century has quietly revived.

"Unfortunately, only we of the Four Great Clans know of this strange disturbance in mysterious energy.

"Our ancestors repeatedly submitted memorials to the imperial court, seeking to make the revival of Spiritual Fiend Energy known to all and begging for the return of those Sorcery Warriors exiled because of the 'Sorcery Dispute,' so that we might resist the calamity of the Spiritual Tide together.

"But the court denounced our ancestors as 'sorcery remnants spreading demonic lies to deceive the masses.' From then on, we could only hide within the jianghu and shoulder this responsibility alone.

"Yet I know well that one day, when Spiritual Fiend Energy sweeps across the world and the mysterious energy barrier between the otherworld and the present world cracks open, those 'Otherworldly Fiends' that the court fears and the imperial family dreads will surely return.

"Paper can never wrap fire. Once the people witness wicked fiends running rampant with their own eyes, the court will certainly regret it beyond measure.

"And the ones capable of saving all this will not be the imperial family secluded deep within the palace, nor the useless government officials, but the Sorcery Warriors who, before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, angered the Founding Emperor and requested exile to the [Realm of Unfettered Intent]!

"I, Wen Shijie, the Wen Clan's last 'Spirit Taming Warrior,' together with my close friend Kang Tianyou—the Kang Clan's last 'Exorcist Warrior'—was unfortunately trapped in a Spiritual Fiend secret realm while joining forces to slay an Otherworldly Fiend.

"My friend has fallen, and I too am spent, with little time left.

"When I left home, my clan's bloodline descendants were still swaddled infants. Carrying out my old friend's final wish, I recorded in this scroll all my lifelong insights into the Kang Clan's 'Blazing Sun Palm Seal' and 'Netherworld Palm Seal,' as well as my Wen Clan's 'Heart Guardian Palm Seal' and 'Dragon Might Palm Seal.'

"If a fated person obtains this secret record, I hope they can find the descendants of the Wen and Kang families and deliver it to them. You will surely receive a generous reward then. If you cannot find them, this item is no more than a sheet of waste paper to you. Remember well: do not force yourself to cultivate it, lest your Internal Energy fall into disorder!

"—Wen Shijie, ninth year of Zhengtong, Ming Dynasty, Grain Rain."

After reading every word and sentence, Lin Zhao felt that this thin parchment scroll contained an astonishing amount of information.

"First, this secret record is not some sorcery inheritance, but the Four Great Clans' special palm seal techniques—activated through special Internal Energy. They require no bloodline, but they do need matching cultivation methods. They can be considered among the pinnacle techniques of high-level martial arts.

"Though they cannot compare to Divine Grade internal arts, they excel at restraining Spiritual Fiend creatures and are rare 'fiend-banishing techniques' in the jianghu.

"Second, the so-called 'Spiritual Tide' is the revival of Spiritual Fiend Energy between heaven and earth.

"Those 'otherworldly existences' are the Otherworldly Fiends that enter through Spiritual Fiend rifts.

"The imperial family is not entirely ignorant; it simply refuses to acknowledge the truth and even exiled the Sorcery Warriors capable of fighting fiends... The court's thoughts are indeed complicated.

"Lastly, Sorcery Warriors do exist, but they went to the [Realm of Unfettered Intent] as early as the founding of the dynasty—that is a mysterious energy realm independent of the present world. Its entrances are hidden within ordinary things: perhaps a bronze bell in an ancient temple, a wooden box in an old residence, or even an old book. Yet without a Sorcery Warrior to guide them, ordinary people can never find it."

"As for the Four Great Clans: the Spirit Taming Warriors of the Wen Clan, the Exorcist Warriors of the Kang Clan, the Demon Suppressing Warriors of the Fan Clan, and the Monster Slaying Warriors of the Deng Clan... The Fan and Deng Clans vanished two hundred years ago. The last heirs of the Wen and Kang Clans were also from a century ago. Who knows whether any descendants still live?"

Stroking his chin, Lin Zhao murmured to himself as the path ahead gradually became clear in his heart. Directly seeking legendary reclusive sorcerers such as the Hermit Luo and Gu Yuewei, whom the jianghu spoke of, would be like fishing for a needle in the sea. But finding the descendants of the Wen and Kang Clans still had some possibility—after all, only a century had passed, and there was a fair chance their bloodlines had continued.

Having settled on a direction, Lin Zhao felt increasingly pleased. His gaze fell upon the four palm seal techniques recorded in the latter half of the scroll, and anticipation flashed in his eyes. "Since the Proficiency Panel can ignore bloodline restrictions and allow me to cultivate all kinds of bloodline internal arts, then these palm seal techniques powered by Internal Energy should be cultivable too, shouldn't they?"

Up to now, Lin Zhao had practiced numerous internal cultivation methods and had never shown any signs of deviation.

Whenever any abnormal sign appeared, he immediately stopped cultivating. Everything had remained normal so far. This was likely a hidden effect of the Proficiency Panel.

Lin Zhao intended to first master the seal incantations in this Spirit Taming Secret Record, then return it to the descendants of the Wen or Kang Clan.

Among the Four Symbols Palm Seals, the Kang Clan had passed down the "Blazing Sun Seal" and "Netherworld Seal."

The Blazing Sun Seal could release scorching Internal Energy from the palm, carrying medicinal powder into explosive streams of flame. Its power depended on two factors. The first was bloodline compatibility: the purer the Kang Clan bloodline, the greater its compatibility with the Internal Energy circulation method within the seal incantation, and the fiercer the flames.

However, the Kang Clan's bloodline had grown thinner with each generation, their Internal Energy compatibility declining by the day, and the technique's power weakening generation after generation.

They had once attempted to avert this through marriages between close relatives, until several generations of deformed children were born and the clan finally accepted this unchangeable reality.

The other factor determining the Flame Current's power was the depth of cultivation.

The deeper one's cultivation, the more abundant the Internal Energy one could mobilize through the seal incantation, and the more powerful the Flame Current became.

In essence, seal incantations were simplified methods for using Supreme Grade martial techniques.

The "Blazing Sun Seal" was in fact a weakened seal incantation version of the Supreme Grade jianghu martial technique, the "Heaven Burning Palm."

Meanwhile, the "Netherworld Seal" was a simplified version of the advanced secret art, the "Corpse Control Art."

The latter could use special Internal Energy to control freshly dead bodies, while the former could only inject cold Internal Energy into existing corpses to drive their movements. Such controlled objects were called "Walking Corpse Puppets." Their combat strength depended on the corpse's strength in life, though they would inevitably be somewhat weaker than before death. They were suitable as cannon fodder.

The Wen Clan's "Heart Guardian Seal" was a simplified seal incantation version of the Supreme Grade martial technique "Body Protecting Aura." It could gather Internal Energy around the body to form a protective layer of energy, strongly resisting physical attacks while also warding off the cold invasion of wicked fiends.

The final "Dragon Might Seal" was the Wen Clan's offensive seal incantation. It was said that it required the blood of a Scaled Earth Dragon as a catalyst to perform.

Whether it was a mountain forest old dragon, a sub-dragon variant, or even a mixed-blood dragon descendant, any would do. The purer the strange beast's blood and vitality, the greater the power.

Yet the Wen Clan usually used the blood of Scaled Earth Dragons from the Taihang Mountains—mundane strange beasts that did not even qualify as mixed-blood dragon descendants. What shocked Lin Zhao was that this method could actually barely work.

From this, the Wen Clan inferred that Scaled Earth Dragons might be the surviving bloodline left behind by the union of ancient mixed-blood dragon descendants and ordinary mortal beasts.

Scaled Earth Dragon blood itself was not rare. Hunters in the Taihang Mountains could often obtain it, and its yield was far greater than Pangolin Dragon Essence. Lin Zhao did not need to worry about lacking it.

The Dragon Might Seal was a special Internal Energy attack. It could use the blood and vitality of strange beasts to intimidate an enemy's mind, even striking directly at the cold Internal Energy source of those who practiced wicked arts. It posed the greatest threat to wicked fiends!

It was the Wen Clan's trump card, which was why their family was also known as Spirit Taming Warriors.

Among the four great families within the Ming Dynasty, all but the Kang Clan had their own specialties: the Wen Clan excelled against wicked fiends, the Fan Clan specialized in countering strange beasts and demons, and the Deng Clan could command the Demon Race.

The Kang Clan, meanwhile, was more broadly skilled and could deal with all manner of wicked fiends.

"Blazing Sun, Netherworld, Heart Guardian, Dragon Might."

"Which should I cultivate first?" Lin Zhao muttered.

"Forget it. I'll learn them all first, then see which seal incantation's materials are easiest to obtain. That will become my main cultivation path."

Lin Zhao immediately began studying the hand seals and Internal Energy circulation techniques of the palm seals.

"Unfortunately, the Spirit Suppressing Secret Record contains no Mind Calming Meditation Method. If it did, perhaps I could attempt cultivation and prepare early to become a Spirit Suppressing Warrior."

Though he had not become a Spirit Taming Warrior, based on the intelligence he had gathered and the records in the Spirit Suppressing Secret Record, Spirit Taming Warriors cultivated three great foundations. First was the "Mind Calming Meditation Method," which could temper the mind. Second was "Internal Energy," the source of power for performing seal incantations. Third was the "Internal Energy Circulation Diagram," the "core" that transformed Internal Energy into various seal incantations.

Spellcasting materials were merely mediums; not every seal incantation required external objects.

Obtaining the seal incantations had already satisfied Lin Zhao completely.

He immediately began studying the hand seals of the Four Symbols Palm Seals. From initial awkwardness to growing proficiency, Lin Zhao gradually grasped the crucial points of Internal Energy circulation within them.

In his mind, the cultivation principles of the Four Symbols Palm Seals continuously imprinted themselves as time passed. Lin Zhao forgot food and sleep, devoting himself entirely to his practice.

Only when hunger gnawed at his stomach did he suddenly realize that he had immersed himself in seal incantation cultivation for an entire day.

Opening the Proficiency Panel, he found that none of the palm seals had yet reached the entry level.

"Looks like the time isn't ripe yet. Perhaps to be recorded by the Proficiency Panel, I need to successfully activate Internal Energy with spellcasting materials. Otherwise, no matter how familiar I become with the hand movements, I still won't be able to perform the seal incantations successfully."

Lin Zhao rose and stretched his limbs, ordering the household servants to search everywhere for spellcasting materials.

Among the materials currently required by the Four Symbols Palm Seals, the only ones he could gather with his present means were those for the "Blazing Sun Seal": Sulfur Stone Powder, Oak Charcoal Powder, and Ash from Hundred-Year-Old Grave Bones.

"Is this some fire-attack medicinal catalyst used by Spirit Taming Warriors?" Lin Zhao laughed.

As for the "Dragon Might Seal," besides Scaled Earth Dragon blood, it also required "Wicked Bone Fragments," or bone powder left behind after practitioners of wicked arts died.

The problem was that it remained uncertain whether Lin Zhao could defeat one at all, much less obtain Wicked Bone Fragments.

"If I can kill a wicked fiend with my own hands, what would I need the Dragon Might Seal for?" Lin Zhao did not know whether to laugh or cry.

The "Netherworld Seal" required "Icy Marrow," something that could only condense inside living creatures eroded by wicked cold in the bitterly frigid lands of the far north. Lin Zhao had never even heard of it.

As for such creatures, he had a guess: the "Cold Fiend Corpse Fiends" appearing in the bitterly cold lands of the Nurgan Regional Military Command in the far north. According to wandering warriors who had survived by sheer luck, they were very likely a strange species capable of condensing Icy Marrow.

And the "Heart Guardian Seal," which defensive warriors like Lin Zhao craved most, required a material called "Radiant Stone."

This seemed to be, like Mithril and Mystic Iron Gold, something produced by fallen meteorites from beyond the heavens. Yet it was even rarer than those two, so rare that Lin Zhao had never heard of it.

Without spellcasting materials, Lin Zhao could only set aside the seal incantations for the moment and continue cultivating his internal arts.

Several days later, the materials for the Blazing Sun Seal were finally gathered, and Lin Zhao could at last attempt to activate the seal incantation.

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