Outside the Lin Clan's bamboo grove.
The air rushed wildly, and boundless energy from heaven and earth poured into the bamboo grove, leaving the guards stationed outside bewildered. Their expressions grew grave.
"What... what's going on?"
As Lin Clan guards, they had witnessed many things beyond ordinary people's understanding, so they were fairly good at accepting the unknown.
But this sudden, strange phenomenon left them at a loss. They didn't know how to describe what they were feeling. They were startled and curious, but more than anything, afraid.
"Captain, what should we do?"
The guards stared into the depths of the bamboo grove but didn't dare take a single step inside. Lin Zhentian had long since ordered that no one was allowed to enter, and any offender would be severely punished.
"Notify the clan head at once! Hurry!"
The captain of the guard squad was named Lin Wei. He was an Earth Origin Realm expert who had lived in the Lin Clan for decades, and he had long since learned to stay calm in a crisis. Faced with this strange occurrence, he didn't panic like his subordinates. Instead, he remained composed.
At his words, one of the guards raced toward the Lin Clan's main compound as fast as he could, panic still written across his face.
Lin Ge, the one who had caused this strange phenomenon, had no idea what was happening outside. He was immersed in the joy of having formed a Ninth-Grade Origin Pill.
He had just tested the power of his Ninth-Grade Origin Pill, and it was stronger than he had expected. He was especially astonished by the terrifying suction it produced as it refined the energy of heaven and earth.
By Lin Ge's initial estimate, it would take him only the time it took to drink a cup of tea to replenish his inner energy from empty to full—perhaps even less.
Under normal circumstances, once someone's inner energy was exhausted, replenishing it to full took a very long time—about three shichen.
Now, he could refill it in the time it took to drink a cup of tea. This not only saved him an enormous amount of time but also made his cultivation several times faster than other people's.
Put simply, under the same conditions, an ordinary person might need months, or even years, to reach Origin Pill Small Perfection. Lin Ge, however, might need only a few dozen days—or even just a few.
"System!"
At his quiet call, a screen appeared before Lin Ge, displaying information about him.
Name: Lin Ge
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Talent: Peerless Supreme Body
Realm: Early Origin Pill Realm (Ninth-Grade Origin Pill)
Weapon: Long sword
Sword Intent: Peerless Sword Intent (Early Stage)
Secondary Profession: Alchemist (Early Stage)
Looking at his stats on the panel, Lin Ge smiled with satisfaction.
He was only fourteen, yet he had already reached this level. In just a few years, he was sure his sword intent and alchemy skills would both reach the highest level.
"System has detected that the host's cultivation has advanced to the Origin Pill Realm. Upgrade commencing."
At that moment, a mechanical female voice, utterly devoid of emotion, rang out in Lin Ge's mind.
Lin Ge jumped in surprise and looked at the panel. His information had vanished, leaving only five large characters: System upgrading.
"The system can upgrade, too?"
Lin Ge was genuinely shocked. He had assumed the system would remain useless forever, yet it could actually upgrade!
"The system said it upgraded because I reached the Origin Pill Realm. Could it be that it'll keep improving as my cultivation advances?"
Lin Ge was puzzled, but there was no one he could ask. He could only ponder it by himself.
As he thought, time slowly slipped by. Before long, half an hour had passed without a sound, but Lin Ge still couldn't confirm his guess. He could only fret over it alone.
"System upgrade complete."
The emotionless mechanical female voice sounded again. Lin Ge came back to himself and looked at the panel, a glint lighting his eyes.
The system panel now had a new function in addition to character lookup: the Investigation function.
"Investigation?"
Still not quite understanding, Lin Ge opened the instructions for the new function and began to read them carefully.
By the time he finished reading the whole manual, his eyes had grown even brighter, and a strange excitement tugged at the corner of his mouth.
The Investigation function could detect all living things within thirty li of him, and it could ignore the other party's cultivation realm.
In other words, no matter whether someone was stronger than Lin Ge, he could still find them anywhere within a thirty-li radius centered on himself.
Of course, the Investigation function wasn't perfect. It had a few flaws.
For example, it required Lin Ge's inner energy to operate. The longer he kept it active, the more energy it consumed.
Also, it wasn't very precise. It could only give him an approximate location, though the margin of error wouldn't exceed ten zhang.
These two flaws weren't much of a problem for Lin Ge at present. They would be easy enough to deal with.
With the terrifying recovery ability of his Ninth-Grade Origin Pill, the amount of energy the system consumed was nothing to him. It was no trouble at all.
As for the imprecise location, that wouldn't matter much either. To him, an Origin Pill Realm cultivator, an error of ten zhang was as good as no error at all.
Lin Ge was confident that within ten zhang, no one could hide right under his nose—or get away!
"I wonder if the range of this Investigation function will keep expanding when my cultivation advances again."
Lin Ge couldn't say for sure. After all, the system wasn't intelligent. It was like the old button phones from Earth: completely lacking in intelligence, so he could only figure everything out for himself.
"I'll try it first."
With that thought, Lin Ge eagerly activated the Investigation function.
The moment he turned it on, he could clearly feel his inner energy draining away—and fast.
"You little thing!"
The rate of consumption was clearly far beyond Lin Ge's expectations. His expression immediately darkened.
At this rate, Lin Ge could hold out for half an hour at most. That was his limit.
"Damn it, what a rip-off of a system!"
Cursing under his breath, Lin Ge expanded the range of his investigation to the maximum: thirty li.
In an instant, countless dots appeared on the panel, each in a different color.
Most of the dots were white, a small number were green, and some were gray. Only a few were orange.
After thinking it over briefly, Lin Ge figured out what the different colors meant. They must represent different levels of strength.
White probably meant Body Tempering Realm cultivators, green meant Earth Origin Realm, and gray meant ordinary people who couldn't cultivate or certain wild beasts. As for orange, Lin Ge guessed it meant Heaven Origin Realm cultivators.
There were only two orange dots on the panel. They must represent the Lin Clan's only two Heaven Origin Realm experts: Lin Zhentian and Lin Xiao!
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