Time rewound to three hours earlier.
Lu Qingshan looked at Mu Shan's status panel, his gaze sharpening.
He noticed a small detail.
In the NPC name field, the demon hunter called Mu Shan was displayed as Ma Shan.
Lying about one's name was nothing unusual.
When drifting through the martial world, who didn't keep one or two aliases close for protection?
The problem lay with the surname.
Mu Shan's real surname was Ma.
And by coincidence, the Lin Family's longtime rival in Yuanshan City was the Ma Family.
A coincidence?
Lu Qingshan did not quite believe it.
His experience playing "Nine Heavens" had taught him one truth: anything that looked like a coincidence was a pit the game designers had dug for the players!
Thus, to verify his suspicions, Lu Qingshan used the Heavenly Eye Technique to inspect every remaining demon hunter one by one.
Strangely enough, aside from the demon hunter named Liu Ai, every other demon hunter was above the sixth level of Qi Refining.
Yet during Lin He's earlier routine questioning, the highest cultivation anyone had reported was merely the sixth level of Qi Refining.
—including Lu Qingshan, who had also concealed his true cultivation from Lin He.
Among these cultivators who had lied about their cultivation, the Gu Cultivator who called himself Wu Xinyuan but was actually Ma Yuan stood out the most.
The tenth level of Qi Refining.
How could a cultivator at the tenth level of Qi Refining possibly care about a mere task worth thirty First-grade Spirit Stones?
Once suspicion had taken root, Lu Qingshan only needed to observe a little before easily discovering that the private exchanges and movements of these demon hunters who had falsified their cultivation revealed one thing.
They had known each other all along, and Ma Yuan was faintly their leader.
The situation was crystal clear.
Lu Qingshan's eyes flickered.
Half an hour earlier.
When Lin He had been preparing to survey the terrain and find a suitable place to make camp.
Lu Qingshan had casually walked over to Lin He's side.
Lin He caught sight of Lu Qingshan from the corner of his eye and asked politely, "What can I do for you, Fellow Daoist?"
"Steward Lin, I have a question. Has the Lin Family offended someone recently?" Lu Qingshan wore a smile, but his words were startling.
Lin He sensed the deeper meaning in Lu Qingshan's words, and his heart jolted. "Why do you ask, Fellow Daoist?"
Lu Qingshan said with a chuckle, "It is nothing major. I simply feel that with a reward of thirty First-grade Spirit Stones, it does not seem realistic to hire demon hunters with such high cultivation."
Lin He frowned.
Qi Refining cultivators had yet to master the ability to project their divine sense, so unless they cultivated some special spell, they simply could not determine another cultivator's level of cultivation.
"You mean?"
Lu Qingshan nodded. "I know a detection spell that can roughly detect the spiritual energy fluctuations on a cultivator's body, thereby determining their cultivation level.
With nothing better to do, I tried it on the demon hunters. I found that they were all rather highly cultivated, and the spiritual energy fluctuations coming from Wu Xinyuan even surpassed yours by quite a bit, Steward Lin."
Lin He's expression changed.
Lu Qingshan had hinted so plainly. If he still could not recognize the gravity of the matter, then he would have lived all these years in vain.
Lin He cupped his hands slightly toward Lu Qingshan. "Thank you first for the warning, Fellow Daoist."
Lu Qingshan glanced at Ma Shan and Ma Yuan, who were acting furtively not far away, and said as if nothing had happened, "You are too polite, Steward Lin."
Lu Qingshan turned and left.
After pondering for a moment, Lin He put on an act as though nothing had happened. He walked over to the carriage and quietly said something to the person inside.
To outsiders, this looked perfectly normal. They likely assumed he was reporting something to the Lin Family's young lady.
Soon afterward, the Lin Family's young lady handed out a Storage Bag from within the carriage.
Lin He accepted the Storage Bag, took out several Formation Flags, and instructed the Lin Family cultivators to set them up.
They were merely Formation Flags for an ungraded warning formation.
Ma Yuan, who had been watching Lin He all along, slightly withdrew his attention upon seeing this.
Lin He, who should have been utterly incapable of resistance, was now holding a Formation Flag and controlling fire snakes that continuously ravaged his Dark Sting Golden Bee Gu.
Several red beams shot into the sky from all around them.
This was the first-grade Fire Snake Formation that had been set up in advance.
Ma Yuan could not believe it.
He had not noticed when Lin He had set up the Fire Snake Formation at all.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Ma Yuan shuddered and realized. "The Formation Flags you had your cultivators set up earlier were not for some so-called warning formation at all—they were the Formation Flags for this formation!"
Lin He nodded. "You guessed correctly. Your Ma Family truly laid deep schemes. Had Fellow Daoist Lu not warned me beforehand and allowed me to prepare, I fear I would have fallen for your trick by now."
At that thought, a chill flashed through Lin He's heart.
The Ma Family had coveted the Lin Family's Azure Stone mine vein for a long time, and the Lin Family was naturally well aware of it.
However, while the Ma Family's overall strength surpassed the Lin Family's by quite a bit, they had only one Foundation Establishment cultivator, just like the Lin Family. Thus, the Ma Family did not dare act rashly.
After all, when Foundation Establishment cultivators fought, victory and defeat were truly hard to predict. If both sides were left wounded, allowing other families to reap the fisherman's profit, it would be like trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it.
On top of that, there was the deterrence of the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City.
Thus, the Ma Family had kept its restless heart suppressed all these years.
But now that the Lin Family head was nearing the end of his lifespan, if they could sever the connection between the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City and the Lin Family of Yuanshan City, then would this Azure Stone mine vein not be firmly in the Ma Family's grasp?
The Lin Family of Zhenjiang City had dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators and even several Golden Core cultivators. To the Ma Family, they were absolutely a colossal behemoth.
If the Lin Family of Yuanshan City truly held tight to that thick thigh, then even with a hundred times the courage, the Ma Family would not dare entertain any reckless thoughts.
Unfortunately, the Lin Family of Yuanshan City did not even count as a branch of the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City.
Their family head, Lin Qitian, had originally been the son of a Foundation Establishment clan elder from the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City.
Lin Qitian had committed some mistakes and violated the family rules, and was therefore expelled from the Lineage.
After Lin Qitian had drifted to Yuanshan City, years of management had actually allowed him to spread branches and leaves, establishing a foundation that was no small enterprise in Yuanshan City.
Once he had gained a modest foundation, Lin Qitian thought of returning to his ancestral roots. Thus, he brought Azure Stone as a stepping stone and returned to Zhenjiang City, where he contacted the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City once more.
The Lin Family of Zhenjiang City was wealthy and powerful. Though they did not look down on Azure Stone, they certainly would not slap their own face and accept Lin Qitian again over a mere bit of Azure Stone.
Yet under the persuasion of his clan-elder father, although they ultimately still did not acknowledge Lin Qitian's identity, they reluctantly acquiesced to the tribute offered by the Lin Family of Yuanshan City.
Every three years, Lin Qitian offered a large batch of Azure Stone as tribute to the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City, while the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City correspondingly provided the Lin Family of Yuanshan City with certain pills and Spirit Artifacts that were difficult to buy on the market as resource support.
That was all.
The family head's clan-elder father had already passed away many years ago. Within the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City, there had long been no one who would speak for them.
If this tribute were disrupted again, then the fragile connection between our Lin Family of Yuanshan City and the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City, maintained by Azure Stone, would likely be severed as well.
At that thought, Lin He could not help feeling a lingering fear, along with a trace of relief.
Fortunately, Lu Qingshan had discovered that something was wrong with these demon hunters. Otherwise, they would likely have suffered a disastrous defeat this time.
Before you continue