Return to Bailian County

The Inner Vision Divine Ability's inner scenery showed a segment of lotus root suddenly dissipating.

Lin Le also felt a burning heat surge through his spine again.

Standing in the sunlight, Lin Le felt the Yang Qi growing, and after a short while, he shook his head slightly. "Still half short."

The worst-case scenario had happened: each segment of Spiritual Root required double the lotus root segments of the previous one.

However, considering the rarity of top-grade Spiritual Roots, Lin Le felt this was normal, as they were one in a million.

If one could use forty to fifty thousand lives to forge a top-grade Spiritual Root, many influential families would likely be willing.

After all, a top-grade Spiritual Root guaranteed entry into the White Jade Capital, a place renowned even in the provincial capital, with few who could compare.

The ship will reach its destination naturally; Lin Le stopped thinking about Spiritual Roots and focused his attention on the Earth-attributed lotus seed.

According to the information, the Earth-attributed lotus seed's function wasn't much different from the human-attributed lotus seed. Both could be used to accelerate progress or trigger an epiphany, though the Earth-attributed lotus seed seemed to be "more real."

'More real?' Lin Le glanced at his own body and chose to use it, targeting the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training.

This was the only martial art he hadn't perfected yet.

One thought, one year. For this past year, Lin Le had honed himself with the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training.

He flicked his body and clenched his fists, feeling a bit weak. He initially thought it was the weakness from his strong body returning to a slightly weaker state during the acceleration.

But when he felt his stomach sending hunger signals, Lin Le knew that wasn't the case.

Lin Le began to devour the cooked wolf meat. As soon as the meat hit his stomach, it was rapidly digested, converting into nutrients that nourished his body.

Lin Le felt an itch all over his body, as if something was growing.

After eating two to three hundred catties of meat, Lin Le finally stopped.

He pressed his sternum and, through his skin and flesh, felt that there were no gaps between his ribs.

Bone Structure: Iron Plate Ribs.

His fists clenched with power, veins bulging like long snakes coiled around his arms.

Bone Structure: Coiled Dragon Tendons.

His eight forms of Martial Bone had already reached High-grade Martial Bone.

If ordinary people knew, they would undoubtedly be utterly shocked.

It was simply too fast. After all, even if an ordinary person was lucky enough to achieve martial perfection, it would still take two to three months to change their Bone Structure.

And Lin Le? In less than a month, he had gone from lower-to-mid-grade Bone Structure directly to High-grade Martial Bone, something unheard of!

'Only four lines left.' Lin Le thought. Then, he circulated his Blood Essence, and the Blood Qi Wolf Smoke shot up five feet high.

'After eating the wolf meat, it should reach seven feet.' Lin Le estimated.

Lin Le stayed in Qiao Lin Village for two more days, finishing all the wolf meat.

"Take care of yourself, Da Huang," Lin Le patted the head of the large yellow dog.

"Awooo!" The large yellow dog nodded.

Lin Le set off with his luggage.

Two days later, Lin Le appeared before a county town.

'I'm back.' Lin Le looked at the three large characters "Bailian County" on the town gate plaque and let out a long breath.

"Name, place of origin," a city guard said to Lin Le as he was about to enter.

Lin Le's appearance had also changed from his original. He had a flat nose bridge, a double chin, and was generally unattractive.

"Lin Le, No. 16, Lane 3, Willow Lake Street." Lin Le took out the household registration he had been carrying.

This item was equivalent to an ID card. Without it, being classified as a refugee was the least of his worries; in worse cases, he could be captured and sold into slavery.

"You're from the city, go ahead." The city guard glanced at the household registration and let Lin Le in.

Lin Le walked again on the familiar yet unfamiliar avenue. Familiar because he had walked it many times; unfamiliar because he and the previous Lin Le could hardly be considered the same person.

Following the path from his memory, Lin Le arrived at a door.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Le pushed the door open and walked in.

It was a courtyard with two entrances and two exits, with a market price of about five hundred taels, but now it was probably not even worth a hundred taels.

This was because people had died here, at least four of them.

Lin Le knew this clearly because he had watched them die.

Standing in front of the dilapidated main house, Lin Le looked at the bloodstains that were still there. The veins on his body couldn't help but bulge like angry dragons, his eyes gradually filling with blood, and his heart began to pound wildly.

Taking several deep breaths, Lin Le stuck out his tongue to lick away the bloodstains on his lips and turned towards the study.

As he had expected, it was a mess. The books on the shelves were gone, and even the brushes and ink were not spared.

Perhaps the constables had taken them, or perhaps it was some thief, but Lin Le didn't care much now.

Looking at a pillar in the room, Lin Le reached out with a claw and twisted it, tearing off a large chunk of the wooden pillar.

Lin Le's father was a Huangting cultivator. Although he only had a single Wood Spiritual Root and his cultivation was only at the First Layer, he could already use some minor spells.

For example, he could hide items within a whole piece of wood.

Lin Le took out a piece of Yellow Silk and a piece of White Silk from inside. These were his father's dying instructions to him.

If he were to achieve anything in the future, become a cultivator, or if any descendant possessed a Spiritual Root, then they could retrieve this heirloom.

Otherwise, taking it would be useless and only increase the danger to their lives.

Lin Le unfolded the Yellow Silk and saw that it was covered in densely packed small characters. After silently reading it, Lin Le realized it was a Qi Refining Manual.

The Twelve Layers of Qi Refining were divided as follows: the First Layer was True Qi, Layers Two to Six were the Qi of the Five Elements (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth), Layers Seven and Eight were the Qi of Yin and Yang, Layers Nine and Ten were the Qi of Purity and Turbidity, the Eleventh Layer was the birth of Mana, and the Twelfth Layer was the forging of the Dao Foundation.

Among these, the Qi of the Five Elements required for Layers Two to Six could be ordinary Qi of the Five Elements or special Qi of the Five Elements.

Using special Qi of the Five Elements naturally offered benefits that ordinary Qi of the Five Elements did not possess, such as strengthening the body, enhancing spiritual perception, and even causing the Spiritual Root to mutate.

The Qi Refining Manual recorded the methods for the birth or refinement of various special Qi of the Five Elements.

This item could be considered the most crucial foundation of a cultivator family.

Lin Le never expected his father to possess such a thing. Looking at the hundreds of special Qi of the Five Elements recorded on it, he suspected it was something only a major sect would have.

'This single piece of Yellow Silk alone is probably enough to buy the entire Bailian County,' Lin Le thought to himself with emotion, then frowned. 'Was that fox after this piece of Yellow Silk?'

But it didn't seem like it. If it were truly after this Yellow Silk, there would have been no way he could have escaped from a cultivator at that time.

Shaking his head, Lin Le didn't dwell on it. Once he killed it, everything would become clear.

Lin Le tried to tear the Yellow Silk, but his arms, which had now gained two thousand jin of immense strength, were completely unable to do anything to it.

Even infusing it with Blood Qi had no effect.

Lin Le could only carefully put away the Yellow Silk. Then he looked at the White Silk, which recorded a Qi Guiding Realm technique, the Qi Gathering Art.

Lin Le read it carefully and discovered that it was a method usable by any Spiritual Root. Even cultivators in the Body Refining Realm could use their Blood Qi to practice it, which could slow down the decline of their Blood Essence.

'Practicing it seems harmless enough,' Lin Le mused.

With a Qi Refining Manual, he could store more Yang Qi in his body, which would be beneficial and harmless to his body refinement.

Carrying the items, Lin Le left his home. Reporting his name at the city gate was inconsequential; the common soldiers only recognized tokens, not people, and didn't register them. They would forget in the blink of an eye.

However, staying here to live would easily attract the attention of those with ulterior motives. Although he hadn't felt anyone tailing him on the way, Lin Le knew that living here would easily lead to rumors spreading.

If those rumors alerted the people behind the scenes, it would be troublesome.