Four months earlier...
A pitch-black night.
The Li Clan of Divine Wood City.
Lin Yunzhi's face was swollen and bruised, covered in wounds seeping with blood.
He struggled to open his eyes, fury and determination flickering in them.
Haoyun Li searched Lin Yunzhi from head to toe without the slightest courtesy and pulled out a square, blood-red Jade Tablet. Even in his hand, it felt extraordinary, clearly no ordinary object.
Greed showed in his eyes as he looked at the treasure in his hand. He grinned. "This Jade Tablet looks extraordinary. It must be a treasure. It's mine now."
Lin Yunzhi gritted his teeth and said bitterly, "If you don't give it back, you'll die!"
"Ha ha ha... You're just a mortal, and you dare threaten your Fourth Uncle?" Haoyun Li clearly paid no heed to Lin Yunzhi's threat. He sneered and slapped him hard, the fierce wind of his palm whipping through the air.
The slap sent Lin Yunzhi flying.
Haoyun Li took the opportunity to kick Lin Yunzhi twice, sending him tumbling to the ground, curled up in pain.
Blood trickled from the corner of Lin Yunzhi's mouth, but a stubborn light still shone in his eyes.
Thousands of people in the Lin Family had been slaughtered by Azure Scale Hall for the sake of this one Blood-Patterned Jade Tablet.
How could he let such a treasure fall into someone else's hands?
Late that night...
A black-feathered falcon spiraled down, using the cover of darkness to land silently in the Li Family's beast pen.
A mortal was being held in the beast pen: Lin Yunzhi.
Though he knew some Martial Arts, no one thought much of him. There wasn't even a single guard in the beast pen.
Lin Yunzhi's face was bruised, and blood still stained the corner of his mouth.
Tang Yindong approached him and asked with concern, "Yunzhi, are you all right?"
Lin Yunzhi struggled to his feet, wiped the blood from his mouth, and fixed his gaze on Tang Yindong. His voice was firm. "Help me kill someone."
Tang Yindong froze for a moment, then said with a troubled look, "The Li Family is a Cultivation Family of the Five Poisons Sect. We have to act carefully. They have more than one expert in the Spirit Refining Realm."
"He has to die. He stole the Blood-Patterned Jade Tablet. We have to get it back." Lin Yunzhi's face twisted with rage.
At those words, Tang Yindong's pupils suddenly contracted. A storm of fury rose in his own heart, too.
A bright moon hung high over the Li Clan of Divine Wood City.
Beneath its silver glow, Haoyun Li sat alone on a bamboo stool. One hand fiddled with the Blood-Patterned Jade Tablet he'd just acquired, while the other scratched his toes.
The patterns on the Blood-Patterned Jade Tablet were intricate and tangled, like a maze.
Moonlight shone on the tablet, bringing out a faint red hue and making it seem all the more extraordinary.
A woman's voice came from inside the room, tinged with annoyance. "It's so late. Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Old woman, you go to bed first. I still have things to do." Haoyun Li didn't answer her properly; he remained focused on studying the Jade Tablet in his hand.
Just then, under the moonlight's steady gaze, the patterns on the Jade Tablet gradually began to glow. Faint red characters appeared before Haoyun Li's eyes. He read them out one by one: "Blood bones emerge, vengeful spirits awaken. Unite with my mind and spirit, and forge my supreme power..."
Haoyun Li's heart leaped!
He knew he'd stumbled upon a treasure. This Jade Tablet was definitely no ordinary object.
Suddenly!
A gale roared overhead.
A huge shadow suddenly plunged from the sky, and the black-feathered falcon's talons pierced straight through him...
"Which rat dares trespass here?" A vast divine sense locked onto the black-feathered falcon. "You dare wreak havoc in the Li Family? Prepare to die!"
Before the words had even faded, the figure shot straight toward the falcon in midair.
The black-feathered falcon seemed to sense the danger, too. It immediately beat its wings and fled at full speed.
Black Mountain.
In the forest.
Li Shuidao tapped the medicine bottle in his hand. There wasn't a single Detoxification Pill left.
That idiot Tang Yindong had eaten all his Detoxification Pills.
The pills couldn't truly dispel poison; they only diluted its potency, and the medicine was highly addictive.
Tang Yindong had become a complete fool. There was no way to get another word out of him.
From now on, he'd be a happy fool, crawling through these mountains and woods on his broken hands and feet.
How cruel!
A benevolent man should have a kind heart and a swift blade!
A merciful light flashed in Li Shuidao's eyes. His sword glimmered, a streak of silver cold light flashed past, and Tang Yindong's head fell to the ground, blood spraying into the air.
He tied Tang Yindong's head to his waist with a rope. He could take it back to Li Shuiting to offer in sacrifice to Fourth Uncle's spirit in heaven. At least that would be making use of the waste.
"Ruoxue, it's all right now. Let's go home." Li Shuidao carried Xia Ruoxue as he made his way through the forest.
In an instant, they had disappeared from sight.
Divine Wood City.
The Li Family.
A small courtyard at home.
Li Shuidao and Xia Ruoxue sat together, quietly savoring the tea in their cups.
The warm fragrance of tea filled the air, creating a peaceful, cozy atmosphere.
Li Shuidao poured tea for Xia Ruoxue himself, his eyes revealing a hint of tenderness and concern.
Gradually...
A tacit understanding settled between them.
"You suddenly wanted to go traveling. Was something in particular influencing you?" Li Shuidao asked out of the blue.
Xia Ruoxue furrowed her brows and shook her head. It was admittedly baffling that she was Lin Yunzhi's Spirit Companion, but she truly had wanted to change her surroundings and nurture new life. That was why she had wanted to go traveling.
"I don't know..." Xia Ruoxue said softly. Even she wasn't sure whether Lin Yunzhi had somehow influenced her.
Li Shuidao fell silent for a long while,
then continued, "You were born into the martial world. Did you ever learn any special internal cultivation techniques?"
According to Li Shuidao's guess, Xia Ruoxue couldn't have become Lin Yunzhi's Spirit Companion for no reason. There had to be a cause.
At his question, Xia Ruoxue recalled her past. After a long silence, she said, "I grew up in a fishing village. It was once struck by a plague, and I was the only one in the entire village who survived. My adoptive father taught me a Martial Art, but it was just an ordinary martial art from the jianghu, the Thirteen Falling Phoenix Blades. It wasn't any special internal cultivation technique."
Not a cultivation technique!?
Li Shuidao had thought Xia Ruoxue had become an indispensable Spirit Companion to the Blood Demon White Bone Technique because she had practiced some special cultivation technique. Now it seemed that wasn't the case. Perhaps it had something to do with that plague.
"Xue'er, could you tell me more about the plague you suffered as a child?" Li Shuidao asked.
Xia Ruoxue closed her eyes and quietly recalled those events from long ago. She spoke softly. "It was a time when the entire village was gripped by panic. The plague swept through and claimed countless lives. I was only a confused child of four or five back then. I knew nothing..."
"The plague lasted only a short time, perhaps just one day. The villagers died one after another. They'd be walking along, then suddenly stop breathing. The plague took my parents, too, and I became an orphan..."
Li Shuidao furrowed his brows slightly. "A plague couldn't spread that quickly. Did it ever break out again? Did it spread to other places afterward?"
"I never heard of it."
"There may be something strange about that plague."
"You think it was related to the Blood Demon White Bone Technique?" Xia Ruoxue had listened to the entire exchange while Li Shuidao questioned Tang Yindong. She could more or less guess what had happened.
Li Shuidao nodded. "A plague like that must have a source. It couldn't have appeared for no reason. And in a single day, only one person in that entire fishing village survived. You traveled around afterward without spreading a new plague. I think there's probably something strange about this..."
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