At an inn in Liuyun Town, morning sunlight streamed through the window, brightening the room.
Lin Yunzhi slowly came to, only to find thin ropes wrapped around him, leaving him unable to move. He tried to cry out, but not a sound came from his throat.
Two people in black stood in the room, a man and a woman. Both wore specially made bamboo-panel masks, making them seem utterly mysterious.
One of the mysterious figures held a white porcelain bowl filled with yellow medicinal liquid. He walked up to Lin Yunzhi and began forcing him to drink it.
Lin Yunzhi was terrified. He struggled to break free, but the ropes binding him only tightened, leaving him no way to escape. All he could do was watch helplessly as the man poured the liquid from the bowl into his mouth.
As the medicine went down, a strange sensation quickly spread through Lin Yunzhi's body. He felt as if he were soaring among the clouds, overcome with pleasure, yet somewhat dazed.
Before long, a bizarre expression appeared on Lin Yunzhi's face—a carefree, self-satisfied grin. He closed his eyes, as if he had entered an Immortal Realm.
The mysterious figure wearing the bamboo-panel mask silently watched Lin Yunzhi. As the medicine's effects took hold, only cold, profound indifference showed in his eyes.
Lost in a boundless haze, Lin Yunzhi became a fool who answered every question.
Holding the blood-scripted Jade Tablet, Li Shuidao began by asking where it had come from...
Seventeen years earlier.
To break through the cultivation bottleneck at the late stage of the Spirit Refining Realm, Lin Yuanxiu, the old master of the Lin family, sought out hidden places and mysteries, and ventured into an ancient tomb.
The tomb was no ordinary place. It clearly bore the traces of cultivators. Its interior was riddled with mechanisms and traps.
Seven Spirit Refining Realm cultivators from Azure Scale Hall entered. Deep inside the tomb, its mechanisms unleashed wind and thunder one moment, then brought mountains crashing down the next. Every step was fraught with danger.
In the end, only three survived. Old Master Lin Yuanxiu also obtained a blood-red Jade Tablet.
The Jade Tablet was red all the way through. Though it looked ordinary, Old Master Lin Yuanxiu treated it as a priceless treasure, keeping its existence secret as he studied it over and over...
After some time...
Old Master Lin Yuanxiu discovered that if he poured his Mana into the blood-patterned Jade Tablet and sank it into a well under the moonlight, he could decipher its secrets.
Whenever moonlight filled the well and the water's surface lay still, a strange change would occur.
Faint writing appeared on the surface of the well. Old Master Lin Yuanxiu recorded it, and eventually obtained the complete inheritance of the Blood Demon White Bone Technique.
The Blood Demon White Bone Technique was a powerful demonic cultivation method.
Even the few scattered words in its inheritance revealed a glimpse of its power.
Cultivating the technique allowed one to possess a White Bone Blood Slave. In battle, the White Bone Blood Slave could transform into a blood-light demonic beast, enter an enemy's body, and absorb the enemy's life force and the essence of their blood. It would then send the converted power to its cultivator, rapidly increasing their strength.
But Lin Yuanxiu had no way to cultivate the technique himself.
Cultivating the Blood Demon White Bone Technique required a White Bone Blood Slave as one's Spirit Companion. His Spirit Companion, however, was an Azure Scale Beast three zhang long. A Spirit Companion could not be changed, much to Lin Yuanxiu's regret.
Lin family ancestral hall.
Secret meeting room.
Red candlelight fell upon the solemn faces of Lin Yuanxiu and several family elders.
Lin Yuanxiu's voice was low and firm. "The secret of the Blood Demon White Bone Technique must remain with us, the family elders. You must never let it out. Now, which of the family's younger generation should cultivate this technique..."
The elders nodded in silence. After pondering for a while, they reached a decision together: Lin Yunzhi, the Lin family's Direct Lineage heir, was the most suitable candidate to cultivate the Blood Demon White Bone Technique.
To cultivate the Blood Demon White Bone Technique, one first had to obtain a White Bone Blood Slave.
The process of creating a White Bone Blood Slave was extremely complicated. It required not only a large amount of spiritual materials to construct an array, but also the blood sacrifice of a thousand living souls. Their resentment had to be infused into a living person. Ten years later, that person would be tortured to death. Only then would the thousand souls erupt and merge with their bone marrow, creating a White Bone Blood Slave.
"When the blood bones emerge, the resentful spirits awaken. Unite with my mind and spirit, and become my greatest strength..."
It was precisely because the process was so complicated that Lin Yuanxiu had no choice but to tell the family elders the truth.
Coming clean with the elders would let him draw on the family's resources and eventually create a White Bone Blood Slave, but it also planted the seeds of the family's destruction.
After all, everyone had their own selfish motives...
A small fishing village of more than a thousand people in Cangzhou.
Late at night...
An altar stood silently in the middle of the village.
As usual, Xia Ruoxue slept beside her family. Yet at that very moment, the course of her fate began to change.
Lin family cultivators secretly carried four- or five-year-old Xia Ruoxue to the altar.
The altar had a high section and a low one. On the high section stood a little boy named Lin Yunzhi, while Xia Ruoxue was placed below.
Lin Yunzhi was still young and knew nothing of the family's secret. He thought the ritual was just a children's game.
Lin Yunzhi stared at Xia Ruoxue's tiny face without blinking, and a vague, childish affection stirred in his heart.
The fishing village lay quiet in the morning.
As usual, the little girl Xia Ruoxue rubbed her eyes and woke in her family's arms.
At the table, her parents and family silently prepared breakfast for her, their faces shrouded in a heavy gray gloom.
But the fishing village's peace was shattered by one anguished wail after another.
Starting at dawn, the elderly villagers began to fall, one after another.
Their loved ones could only moan helplessly, tears filling their eyes.
A scene of chaos unfolded before Xia Ruoxue. People were stunned and helpless; some even began to break down.
They supported one another, but could do nothing to stop death from spreading.
Gradually...
Grief and pain enveloped the entire village. Every sob seemed to be a defiant cry against fate.
By evening, Xia Ruoxue stood alone in the ruined wasteland. She stared at the fallen villagers as helplessness and deep despair surged within her, as if she were trapped in a pitch-black fog.
Just then, an old man, gray-haired and kind, came to her side.
He slowly reached out and gently wiped the tears from her face. "This is a terrible plague. From now on, I'll be your adoptive father. You can come live with me, child."
The old man's voice was gentle yet firm, and his eyes brimmed with hope and compassion.
His name was Lin Yuanxiu. He was the Lin family's leader—and the one who had set all of this in motion.
Lin Yunzhi recounted the whole story in fits and starts...
Hearing what had happened in the fishing village, a surge of grief and fury suddenly welled up in Xia Ruoxue's heart.
She remembered, one by one, her parents, family, brothers, and sisters falling beside her. Pain and despair surged through her like a tide, and she felt as if she were trapped in a mad nightmare.
Her eyes burned with fury. The mask was ripped from her face, and the saber in her hand flashed coldly. She had completely lost control.
"Ah!" A roar rang out, brimming with the pain of betrayal and hurt.
Splurt!
One stab, then another—every blow plunged into his belly.
Though caught in a hallucination, Lin Yunzhi felt no pain. Instead, he kept grinning foolishly.
"Xue'er, if you kill him now, he'll die in bliss. He won't feel a thing. Let me do it," Li Shuidao said with compassion.
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