Within the inner landscape of the Inner Vision Divine Ability, a segment of lotus root suddenly vanished.
Lin Le felt a scorching heat rise along his spine once more.
Standing beneath the sun, Lin Le sensed yang qi growing within him. Before long, he shook his head slightly. "Still half short."
The least desirable outcome had come to pass. Each segment of spiritual root required twice as many lotus roots as the one before it.
But considering how scarce supreme-grade spiritual roots were, Lin Le felt that was only natural. After all, there was not one in a million.
If sacrificing forty or fifty thousand lives could produce a supreme-grade spiritual root, many Aristocratic Clans and great houses would probably be willing to do it.
One had to know that a supreme-grade spiritual root guaranteed entry into the White Jade Capital. Such figures were illustrious even in provincial cities, with few able to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
When the boat reached the bridge, it would naturally straighten out. Lin Le stopped dwelling on spiritual roots and turned his attention to the Human Dao lotus seed.
According to its description, this Human Dao lotus seed was not much different from the Human Dao lotus seed. Both could be used to accelerate cultivation or trigger enlightenment, but the Human Dao lotus seed seemed to be more real.
More real? Lin Le glanced over his body and chose to use it. The target he selected was the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training.
This was the only martial art he possessed that had yet to reach completion.
One thought became one year. Throughout that year, Lin Le honed himself through the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training.
When he came back to himself, Lin Le clenched his fists and felt somewhat weak. At first, he thought it was the weakness of returning from a powerful body to a slightly weaker one during the acceleration.
But when his stomach sent out pangs of hunger, Lin Le realized that was not the case.
Lin Le began wolfing down the cooked wolf meat. The instant the meat entered his stomach, it was rapidly digested and transformed into nourishment that fed back into his flesh.
Lin Le felt itchy all over, as though something were growing inside him.
Only after eating two or three hundred jin of meat in one go did Lin Le stop.
He pressed on his breastbone. Through skin and flesh, he could feel that there were no longer any gaps between his ribs.
Bone Structure: Iron Plate Ribs.
He clenched both fists and exerted force. His veins bulged like Great Serpents clinging to his arms.
Bone Structure: Coiling Dragon Tendons.
Of the eight martial bones, he had already attained High-grade Martial Bone.
If ordinary people learned of this, they would surely be shocked beyond measure.
It was simply too fast. Even if an ordinary person was fortunate enough to bring their martial arts to completion, it would still take two or three months to alter their bone structure.
But Lin Le? In less than a month, he had gone directly from mediocre bone structure to High-grade Martial Bone. It was utterly unheard of!
Only four elements remain. Lin Le thought. Then his blood qi circulated, and Blood Qi Wolf Smoke shot straight up to a height of five chi.
After I finish the wolf meat, it should reach seven chi, Lin Le estimated.
Lin Le remained in Qiaolin Village for another two days before finishing all the wolf meat.
"Take good care of yourself, Big Yellow." Lin Le patted Big Yellow Dog on the head.
"Aw!" Big 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 characters, "Bailian County," on the city gate's plaque and let out a long breath.
"Name and place of registration." A city guard addressed Lin Le, who was about to enter the city.
Lin Le no longer wore his original face. He had a collapsed nose bridge, a double chin, and an utterly ordinary, ugly appearance.
"Lin Le. Sixteen, Third Alley, Willow Lake Street." Lin Le took out the household registration document he always carried on him.
This thing was equivalent to an identity card. Without it, being classified as a vagrant was the least of one's worries. In worse cases, one might be seized and sold directly into slavery.
"City resident? Go on in." The city guard took one look at the registration document and let Lin Le pass.
Lin Le once more walked down that familiar yet unfamiliar main road. It was familiar because he had traveled it many times; unfamiliar because he and the former Lin Le could hardly be considered the same person.
Following the route preserved in his memories, Lin Le arrived before a gate.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Le pushed it open and walked inside.
It was a courtyard with two entrances and two exits. Its market value had once been around five hundred taels, but now it was probably not worth even one hundred.
Because people had died here. At least four people had died.
Why was Lin Le so certain? Naturally, because he had watched them die.
Standing before the damaged main hall, Lin Le stared at the bloodstains that remained to this day. The veins across his body tensed like enraged dragons, bloodshot veins slowly crawled into the whites of his eyes, and his heartbeat began to race wildly.
After taking several deep breaths with effort, Lin Le licked the bloodstain from his lips and turned toward the study.
Just as expected, it was a complete mess. The books from the shelves had all been taken away; even the brushes and ink had not been spared.
Perhaps the constables had taken them, or perhaps some thief had, but Lin Le did not care much at the moment.
Looking at a pillar in the room, Lin Le reached out, clawed, and twisted. A large chunk of the wooden pillar was torn straight off.
Lin Le's father had been a Yellow Court cultivator. Though he possessed only one segment of Wood Spiritual Root and had reached only the First Layer, he could still use a few minor spells.
For example, hiding certain objects inside a whole piece of wood.
Lin Le took out a strip of Yellow Silk and a strip of White Silk from within. This was what his father had entrusted to him before his death.
Only if one day he made something of himself and became a cultivator, or if someone among his descendants developed a spiritual root, could they come and retrieve these inherited items.
Otherwise, taking them would be useless and would only increase the danger to their lives.
Lin Le unfolded the Yellow Silk. It was covered in densely packed tiny writing. Only after silently reading it did Lin Le learn that it was a Qi Refining Manual.
The Twelve Layers of Qi Refining consisted of true qi at the First Layer; refining the Qi of the Five Elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—at Layers Two through Six; refining the Qi of Yin and Yang at Layers Seven and Eight; refining the Qi of Purity and Turbidity at Layers Nine and Ten; giving rise to dharma power at the Eleventh Layer; and forging the Dao Foundation at the Twelfth Layer.
The Qi of the Five Elements required from Layers Two through Six could be ordinary Qi of the Five Elements or special Qi of the Five Elements.
Special Qi of the Five Elements naturally possessed benefits that ordinary Qi of the Five Elements did not, such as strengthening the body, enhancing spiritual perception, and even causing spiritual roots to mutate.
And the Qi Refining Manual recorded the methods by which various special Qi of the Five Elements were born or refined.
This thing could be called the most important foundation of a cultivator lineage.
Lin Le had not expected his father to possess such a thing. And judging by the more than one hundred kinds of special Qi of the Five Elements recorded upon it, it was likely something only a great sect would possess.
This strip of Yellow Silk alone could probably buy the entirety of Bailian County, Lin Le marveled inwardly. Then he frowned. Could that fox have come for this Yellow Silk?
But that did not seem right either. If it had truly been after this strip of Yellow Silk, there was no way he could have escaped with his life from beneath a cultivator's hand back then.
Shaking his head, Lin Le did not think further. Once he killed it, everything would become clear.
Lin Le tried tearing the Yellow Silk, but even his arms, now possessing the enormous strength of two thousand jin, could do nothing to it.
The same held true even when he infused it with blood qi.
Lin Le could only put the Yellow Silk away. He then looked toward the White Silk, which contained a cultivation method for the Qi Guiding Realm: the Qi Gathering Art.
Lin Le read it carefully and discovered that this was a method usable by any spiritual root. Even those in the Body Refining Realm could cultivate it with blood qi to slow the decline of their vitality.
Practicing it seems harmless enough, Lin Le pondered.
With a qi refining art, he could store more yang qi within his body. It would bring nothing but benefits to his body refinement.
Carrying the items, Lin Le left the house. It did not matter much that he had reported his name at the city gate. Those blockheaded soldiers recognized tokens, not faces; they would not register him, and would forget him in the blink of an eye.
But living here made it easy for those with ulterior motives to notice him. Though Lin Le had not sensed anyone tailing him on the road, he knew that as long as he lived here, rumors would easily spread.
It would be bad if those words alerted the people behind the scenes.
Before you continue