Lin Chen

Lin Chen felt a burning sensation in his chest and was jolted awake from his deep sleep. He then discovered that his right wrist was shackled with iron chains, and there were more than a dozen other new disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain around him, who were chained together with steel chains covered with talismans and bound to the stone wall of the cave. Their Inner Landscape Qi was unable to move.

If it were an ordinary child, they might scream and cry in fright at this moment. However, Lin Chen is already the kind of mature teenager who has experienced the destruction of his family, being hunted down, and fleeing for his life. He has seen it all.

Finding his fellow disciples sleeping in the same bunk beside him, and realizing that everyone else seemed to be still unconscious, and that their Storage Jade had been taken away, Lin Chen guessed that this was probably not some surprise test organized by Ink Bamboo Mountain to check the disciples' aptitude and reaction ability, but rather that they had been kidnapped.

So he remained silent, squinting as he continued to feign unconsciousness, checking his surroundings and his physical condition while carefully reaching out to touch the hot, burning thing in his arms.

It looks like a piece of paper? Is it a talisman given to Qingting Sou? No, the talisman was tied to his wrist, and it's already been removed. So what is it...?

Suddenly, a sound came from the stone wall. Lin Chen immediately became careful, maintaining his breathing rhythm, and hid among the other disciples.

Sure enough, Lin Chen heard someone outside break the magic array and enter the cave, but at the same time, sounds came from three directions inside the cave.

"How about it."

"Ink Bamboo Mountain has discovered us?"

"How much longer until it gets dark?"

These three sounds were very strange, not like human voices at all. Rather than speaking, they sounded more like wild animals imitating human syllables. Some sounded like the low growls of wild animals, while others sounded like thunder.

The voice of the person who came in was relatively normal; it was a deep, hoarse male voice. He was taking a breath and speaking haltingly.

"Ink Bamboo Mountain has been attacked. Nine peak disciples are missing. The mountain is being searched."

The cave was quiet for a moment, then the three voices rang out again.

"... Nine Peaks? But we only captured people from three mountains!"

"Could it be that the Taiping Temple has other people on its side?"

"How much longer until it gets dark?"

The hoarse male voice said, "I don't know, have they found the one Taiping Temple wanted?"

"The Magic Treasure isn't responding, and none of these people are the ones she wants..."

"Damn it, another group beat us to it!"

"How much longer until it gets dark?"

The hoarse male voice hesitated, "It's not one group; it smells like two groups."

"What? There's more than one group of people?"

"Damn it, do you really underestimate our abilities? You sent so many people!"

"Damn it, how much longer until it gets dark?!"

Suddenly, a voice roared furiously, the echo reverberating through the cave and piercing Lin Chen's ears, but none of the other disciples who were under the spell and asleep were awakened.

The hoarse male voice paused for a moment, took a breath, and then roared back, "How should I know! I'm blind!"

"... He was asking if False Moon had come out yet."

The man scoffed, "Not yet, but the sky is already overcast. Let's go, I smell a group of people nearby."

"None of these people are what the Taiping Temple wants, so why don't we just eat them..."

"No, if the soul lamp goes out, Ink Bamboo Mountain will notice. Let's leave it for now and eat it when we get back."

"Okay, let's go!"

Suddenly a strong wind arose, followed by a sound in the cave, then all the sounds disappeared, and the cave became quiet.

Lin Chen waited a while longer before glancing up to confirm that there was no one left in the cave.

He immediately sat up, took out the scalding hot thing from his arms, and realized it was the fish from Li Family Village, the IOU he received for eating tofu.

Seeing his fellow disciples around him with black tears streaming down their faces, and still unconscious no matter how much he called out to them, Lin Chen guessed that it was probably the Immortal Tofu IOU that had protected him from being controlled by evil magic. But it was only a ward off evil; he was still chained to the rock wall.

Although he had only recently joined the Ink Bamboo Mountain, Lin Chen had already heard about the man-eating monsters from his senior brother. They said there was an old toad nearby that loved to eat children, devouring them batch after batch. In fact, the previous two generations of disciples had been reduced to just one. This time, he had probably run into one of them.

Lin Chen naturally couldn't just sit and wait for those monsters to come back and eat people.

Are you kidding me? If he dies, Lin Xiang will be all alone! How could he possibly die in a place like this?!

Thinking of his younger sister, Lin Chen suddenly felt a surge of motivation and courage. Although he couldn't circulate the Qi in his dantian, Lin Chen was originally a body cultivator. He tried to break the steel lock but couldn't, so he found a sharp piece of gravel on the ground, gritted his teeth, and smashed it down hard on his right arm!

Fortunately, his right arm had only recently grown and was not yet strong, so it was broken at the wrist in no time. But it still caused Lin Chen excruciating pain, and he almost fainted several times, only to be woken up by the hot tofu ticket in his arms.

However, having broken free of the restraints, the faint energy in his dantian began to circulate again, and he regained some strength enough to stand up.

So Lin Chen, panting heavily, tried to relieve the pain with breathing exercises, his head covered in cold sweat, tears and snot streaming down his face as he performed first aid. He wrapped his wrist with the ticket and tore open the hemp cloth to bandage the severed area. He didn't know if it was just psychological, but although the stinging pain at the severed arm site was intense, it eventually felt warm and less painful after prolonged stimulation.

Wiping away his tears, Lin Chen got up and tried to grope his way in the darkness toward the cave where the monsters had come and gone. Suddenly, the tofu ticket on his right wrist lit up. Following the flashing light, Lin Chen groped his way out of the cave and into the open woodland.

Wow... that loach looks so silly, is it really that powerful? You can't judge a fish by its appearance...

Lin Chen turned his head to memorize the surrounding terrain, then immediately ran towards the nearby mountain peaks to seek help from the immortals of Ink Bamboo Mountain.

By this time, it was getting dark. In the deep mountains and forests, it gets dark very quickly. Lin Chen was running on the foot of the mountain when he tripped and fell. He felt his knee was scraped and blood was flowing down his calf. His whole body ached, but he didn't dare to stop for a moment.

If he had been a step later, not only might he never have seen his sister again, but his fellow disciples who had climbed the mountain together, become disciples together, and trained together would also have perished in the demon's belly.

Although he hadn't spent much time with them, only a month or so, Lin Chen didn't want these newly made friends to die. Yes, friends, these were the first friends Lin Chen had ever made.

When Lin Chen lived in the Well Lodgings Guard, he was surrounded by the sons of the Imperial Guards. Although they were comrades in the garrison, how could the sons of generals and the sons of soldiers be treated the same?

Moreover, among the guards, only the eldest son can inherit military positions and family property. The remaining sons, who are not born in the same family, have to compete in martial arts to obtain Foundation Establishment in order to survive. Therefore, everyone of the same age is a fierce competitor. Even blood relatives and siblings will fight to the death on the arena until one of them can no longer stand up.

Lin Chen was relatively weak; most of the time, he was the one who couldn't stand up. Even his father and brothers felt ashamed of him and gradually treated him like a useless idler, too lazy to guide this good-for-nothing in his studies and martial arts. So every time Lin Chen was beaten up, he would hide in the woodshed and cry, and only Ah Xiang would come and pat his head.

But even such a useless person can make friends, because the fellow disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain all have similar experiences.

Those truly gifted chosen ones would probably be fought over by powerful figures from the moment they were born, and those truly wealthy people with family backgrounds wouldn't need to leave their homes and wander thousands of miles to become apprentices in the southern barbarians.

The young men who climbed the mountain with Lin Chen were almost all similar: ordinary people who were disliked by others, passionate young men who, even knowing their own mediocrity and weakness, did not want to give up, but wanted to try again, to fight again, Lin Chen to forge a path out of their predicament. Being with them was like standing with his own shadow.

They climbed Bamboo Mountain together! They even joined the immortal sect together! They clearly had a chance! They clearly had a chance to start their own stories! Why! Why did this happen to them again! How could they die in a place like this! Why did they have to die in a place like this?!

"Don't die! Don't die like this!"

Lin Chen cried and sprinted along the increasingly dark mountain path, where even a sliver of starlight was soon gone. He didn't know when his strength would run out, when his blood would run dry, or when his hope would be extinguished.

After running for an unknown amount of time, Lin Chen suddenly saw a light.

It was indeed a fire! Wiping away the tears and sweat from his face, Lin Chen saw in the distance that someone had started a campfire in the woods!

... At least it's not a man-eating monster, right?

Despite his exhaustion and excruciating pain, Lin Chen walked towards the fire for help. The severed part of his right arm felt as if it were burning, and his whole body was burning hot. But when he emerged from the woods, the boy stared in disbelief at the scene before him.

That wasn't a 'campfire,' but a lamp.

On the copper lampstand, a single red candle burned, but this one candle emitted an exceptionally bright red light, like a campfire, illuminating almost the entire woodland.

Around the lampstand, a screen was erected. The silk screen was painted with landscapes and stood like a gate, revealing two 'doors' through which light shone. Inside the screen, a bright red silk carpet was laid on the floor, and low tables were set up, as if it were a curtain set up for a noble family's spring outing banquet.

Suddenly the lamplight flickered, illuminating the shadowy figures on the screen. Then a gust of hot wind blew across his face, and a woman suddenly appeared in front of Lin Chen.

This was a woman who stood seven feet two inches tall, with a rosy face and red lips, and an exceptionally beautiful appearance. Three red dots were painted between her eyebrows, and her blood-red hair was not tied up in a bun, but simply tied with a silk rope. A strand of hair fell loosely from her cheek and onto her chest.

Her attire was also completely different from that of women from the Central Plains. She wore only a short, crimson jacket that resembled a bathrobe, with her chest exposed, revealing a huge... ruby necklace and a crimson demon face tattoo on her chest. She wore metal arm guards, and a huge peony was inlaid on her left shoulder armor. In her right hand, she held a five-foot-long sword!

Surprisingly, she wasn't wearing a skirt either. Instead, she was wearing a type of tight-fitting black jumpsuit that Lin Chen had never seen before. It looked like it was made of silk or satin, and it outlined the contours of her thighs in every detail.

The impact of the design was so great that Lin Chen was completely dumbfounded as he stared at the enormous... ruby necklace in front of him.

"Guardian, who has broken into the formation?"

Suddenly, voices came from the other side of the screen.

"He's a Qi Refining Stage kid. He was probably thrown in by those four Devil Seed outside to scout ahead. He's lucky he didn't die."

The woman answered his questions, but she didn't even glance at Lin Chen.

The people behind the screen became interested.

"Since he has joined my formation, he is destined to be with my cult. Duan Protector, how about I leave him here to play with?"

The Duan Protector remained noncommittal, then suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving only a lingering echo.

"I'm going to kill those Devil Seed; you're not allowed to go into battle."

Lin Chen then realized what was happening, rubbing his eyes vigorously. "A monster?"

However, the candles and screens did not disappear. Although the voluptuous 'Duan Protector' was gone, a naturally beautiful young girl appeared behind the screen.

"Hey, hey! You little crybaby, I can't go out. Come and play with me."

She looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. She wasn't dressed as strangely as the previous protector, but she wore a gilded silk dress adorned with golden feathers, which shone brightly and was incredibly gorgeous, unlike any creation of the immortals of the Central Plains.

Moreover, the girl's appearance was strange; her skin was pale, her hair was golden, and her eyes were blue and green, one blue and the other green, making her look like a ghost. Even though she was barefoot, showing her shoulders, and waving enthusiastically at Lin Chen still didn't dare to move and stood frozen in place.

"Wow... your hand is broken... no wonder you're crying like that... come here, I'll help you heal it!"

The girl squatted on the other side of the screen, smiling as she looked at Lin Chen, as if she were looking at some cute kitten or puppy.

Lin Chen gripped his severed wrist, thinking of his fellow disciples still trapped in the cave and his younger sister waiting for him to return. He forcibly suppressed his fear of the spirits and monsters of the deep mountains. "Senior, I am a disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain. I have been kidnapped by villains and am seeking my master's help. I had no intention of disturbing you. Please let me go..."

"Oh? A disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain? I see, I see!"

The girl suddenly burst into song, twirling and leaping with strange dance steps, as if stirring up a splendid gust of wind. In an instant, she spun away, and from the lampstand, with her jade-like hands, she cupped a handful of flame as if catching water, raising it high above her head. She then leaped and twirled, returning to Lin Chen's opposite side, squatting on the ground, holding the flame aloft, as if playing the role of a human-shaped candlestick.

Then the girl stared at Lin Chen, stretched her supple waist, and shone the flame she held in her hand onto the screen beside her.

"Look, aren't they the disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain you've been looking for?"

Then Lin Chen saw that, illuminated by the dim red light, a human skin, completely peeled off and dripping with blood, was revealed in the crack of the landscape screen.

"Aaaaaah--!"

Lin Chen screamed uncontrollably, feeling his lungs fill with icy air. If his legs hadn't felt like they were made of lead and he couldn't take another step, he would have desperately turned and run away.

But then a burning pain shot through his right wrist, and a powerful surge of warmth flowed into his bloodstream, instantly dispelling the chill that had enveloped him. This temporarily pulled Lin Chen back from the brink of losing control, but the boy was still so terrified that he collapsed to the ground, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

"Huh?" The girl holding the torch raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. "You can actually withstand my Primordial Spirit Technique? Could it be that you really have a connection with my Divine Sect?"

The girl sat on the silk carpet, her wrists twirling and her shoulders twisting like a golden snake in motion, playing with the red fire in her hand. The firelight shone brightly, illuminating the human skins hidden behind the surrounding screens.

"Whoosh--whoosh--"

Lin Chen trembled all over, his body swaying wildly amidst the flames and blood-red shadows. He felt a splitting headache, and his body was torn between alternating sensations of extreme heat and cold. One moment he felt like he was in an ice cave, the next he was in a blazing spring. He could only force himself to gasp for breath and force a roar.

"Who are you people?! Why did you harm my fellow disciples from Ink Bamboo Mountain?! What kind of divine sect is this?! It's nothing but a demonic sect!"

"Yes, many people call it that, but you country bumpkin, you don't even know the name of my religion? That's so unsophisticated! Well then, listen up..."

The girl tilted her head back, placed the crimson fire in her hand between her eyebrows, then clasped her hands together, touched the ground with her toes, and stood up almost lying flat on her back, twisting her waist, while chanting in a strange rhythm that sounded like reciting scriptures.

"I am Ashina Nuomin Nomin, son of the venerable wolf, Jade of Tianshan, the Ten Absolute Gods, the Blood Register Heavenly Saintess."

"Of course you can also call me Ban Yu, that's what my godfather gave me."

Ban Yu floated in mid-air, her body tilted to one side, as if lying on an invisible throne, her chin resting on her hand, tilting her head to look at Lin Chen.

"Hey, you crying brat, you're one of those Ink Bamboo Mountain disciples who were kidnapped by those Devil Seed outside, right? Were there any female disciples among your group?"

"Woman, woman, woman... what are you doing...?"

"Hehe, what are you doing? Not only have you Ink Bamboo Mountain repeatedly opposed my Divine Sect, but you also dared to harbor a traitor! Of course, we can't miss this opportunity! We must catch that traitor before anyone else! Skin her alive, drink her blood, and awaken the Saintess's Heavenly Soul!"

Ban Yu, the Saintess of the Divine Cult, was chuckling as she looked at the boy kneeling on the ground, clutching his head in Affliction. Suddenly, her laughter stopped, and she abruptly turned her head to look at the other side of the screen. With a hand seal, she pointed a finger, and a crimson flame shot out from between her brows, transforming into a rocket that pierced the dark forest. The flames exploded into the sky, instantly turning the forest into a sea of fire!

"Who dares to break my spell! Show yourself!"

Then the fire paused for a moment, followed by a howling storm. Black and white Daoist energy swept through, destroying and blasting open rows of forest Dao Breath Ban Yu!

Ban Yu turned and dodged, and the surrounding screens immediately rolled in layer upon layer, protecting her like armor. Then, she slammed her fiery palms into the screens, burning them to ashes. At the same time, she grabbed two unconscious Ink Bamboo Mountain disciples with one hand each, and transformed into a gentle breeze to deliver them to Lin Chen's side.

How come he's not dead...?

Lin Chen looked up in bewilderment and saw a female Daoist priest in white robes and black gowns emerge from the wind, forest, and sea of fire, making hand seals in a gesture of respect.

"The benevolent and merciful Goddess of the Xuan Girl of the Nine Heavens, who saves the world and pardons sins, Qin Nanxin of Emei, met her by chance and came to witness the Saintess's extraordinary skills."

The Saintess was quite straightforward; she poked her head out from deep behind the screen, stuck out her tongue, and smiled.

"Oh, so it's Qin from Emei... Hiss... I've heard so much about you! My name is Ban Yu, hey! Protector--!!! Duan Ye --!!! Help me, ahhh!!!"