Martial Dao Melting Furnace Level Insufficient

At this moment, more and more martial artists from the Demon Sect rushed over, and soon a dozen or so had gathered.

After receiving their orders, half of them flashed away and swiftly chased in the direction Brother Leopard had fled, while the rest began carefully inspecting the scene, checking the "injuries" of Lu Lin and the others.

One man crouched down, placed his fingers on Lu Lin's wrist to check his pulse, then reported to the black-skirted girl, "Reporting to the Immortal Master, only this man is injured and unconscious, and still has breath. As for the others... all are dead."

Just then, Lu Lin let out a perfectly timed muffled groan of pain and "slowly woke." He immediately showed a look of terror and bewilderment, struggling as if to rise and stand guard, but seemed to tug at the "injury" on his chest. His face instantly turned deathly pale from the pain, cold sweat beading on his skin.

"Fuck... Did I hit myself a little too hard just now...? I'll have to go lighter next time." Lu Lin grimaced from the pain. This part really was not an act; for the sake of realism, that punch had genuinely not been light.

The black-skirted girl's indifferent gaze swept over Lu Lin, her cool voice giving no hint of joy or anger. "You were lucky. Being knocked unconscious right at the start actually let you pick up your little life."

"Immortal Master, how should these thieves be dealt with?" a steward asked for instructions, pointing at Shi Xiao and the others, who had been pinned to the ground by Flame Arrows and were nearly unconscious.

"Take them all back!" the girl said coldly. "Interrogate them strictly! Pry open their mouths and find out whether there is anyone else behind them, and exactly how many parasites who eat from the inside and help outsiders are still hidden within our Demon Sect!"

"Yes!" everyone bowed and accepted the order.

"I will personally report this incident to the sect. There is no need for you to interfere with what follows." The black-skirted girl gave Lu Lin one last glance and instructed, "Bring that boy back as well and treat his injuries."

With that, the tip of her foot lightly touched the roof eave, and her figure drifted away like willow catkins in the wind, vanishing into the night in the blink of an eye.

Only after the girl left did the atmosphere at the scene ease.

Everyone immediately set to work, restraining Shi Xiao and the other captives and taking them away. A plump steward with a rather amiable-looking face helped Lu Lin up, brought him back to the Demon Sect's stronghold in the city, and gave him a healing pill.

Inside the quiet guest room.

After Lu Lin swallowed the pill, he felt a gentle warm current quickly spread through the injured area of his chest, soothing it back and forth. It was incomparably comfortable, and even the severe pain of his broken bone lessened by more than half.

Once his injury had eased slightly, he was finally able to calm down and carefully sort through the sequence of this incident.

Based on the fragmented conversation between the black-skirted girl and Brother Leopard, combined with his own initial suspicions, the truth was no longer difficult to infer.

There was a traitor among the Demon Sect's miscellaneous martial artists, colluding with bandits outside to specifically ambush fellow sect members who went down the mountain on errands and seize their wealth.

The sect's Immortal Masters had noticed something, so they had laid this trap.

And these eleven martial artists who had gone down the mountain had been used from beginning to end as chess pieces, bait meant to lure out the traitor and the mastermind behind them!

As for whether they lived or died... no one cared.

Cannon fodder. Consumables, that was all.

If you died, then that was your fate. If you did not, then you were lucky.

Having figured out all the key points, Lu Lin's expression could not help but darken.

This was the Blood Baleful Demon Sect. This was the status of martial artists in the world of immortal cultivation.

In the past, he had only heard of it, but this time, he had experienced it personally, truly and clearly reduced to a chess piece within a vast machine, one that could be sacrificed at will.

This feeling of having his fate held in another's hands, of life and death not being up to himself, was extremely unpleasant, as if a heavy, icy boulder were pressing down hard on his heart.

At the same time, this was also the first time he had personally witnessed a head-on confrontation between an immortal cultivator and martial artists. That enormous gap, like a heavenly chasm, was far greater than he had imagined.

"My strength... is still far from enough! Only by obtaining greater power, power strong enough to shatter every shackle, can I break free of these chains pressing in from all directions..."

Lu Lin took several deep breaths in succession, forcibly suppressing his surging emotions. His gaze once again became calm and resolute.

Blood Baleful City, inside a secluded, dim dead-end alley.

The black-skirted girl's face was covered in frost as she stared at Brother Leopard's cold corpse on the ground, as well as the three wooden pill boxes that had been opened and were now completely empty inside.

The spiritual power around her fluctuated violently from anger, releasing a suffocating pressure that left the surrounding stewards at the ninth and tenth layers of Body Tempering not even daring to breathe loudly.

Mere Blood Qi Pills and Tendon Refining Pills would have been one thing; they were only mortal pills. But that section of Blood Flame Deer antler was a true spiritual item, a precious material that could be used to refine spiritual pills needed by immortal cultivators. Its value could topple cities, far beyond what those martial artist pills could compare to.

The silence lasted for a long while, and the chill in the air almost seemed about to congeal into ice.

"It seems... behind these thieves, there is still a big fish hidden, most likely an immortal cultivator among the Rogue Cultivators." The black-skirted girl's voice was as cold as a blade. "Search! Dig three feet into the ground if you must, but drag out that rat hiding in the dark!"

"Yes!" The stewards felt as if they had received amnesty, bowing as they accepted the order. Their figures flickered one after another, and they quickly disappeared into the alleys.

"You had better not let me find you..." The girl lightly bit her pearly teeth, squeezing out an extremely icy murmur from between her cherry lips. "Otherwise, I will grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes!"

Early the next morning.

The reinforcements dispatched by the Demon Sect arrived, escorting several dozen newly abducted miscellaneous martial artists as they set off for the Black Iron Vein.

Lu Lin also followed in the group and returned with them.

The several dozen new youths were mostly between fifteen and twenty years old. Every one of them wore a look of confusion and terror, like lambs waiting for slaughter, driven forward with no knowledge at all of their future fate.

After arriving at the mine vein, Lu Lin immediately found the Goatee Steward and reported the "perilous" experience that had occurred yesterday in Blood Baleful City.

"I already know about this matter." The Goatee Steward waved a hand, his tone flat, as if he had long since received the news. "You brat really are quite lucky to have picked your life back up. I'll grant you one day off today. Go back and rest properly."

"Many thanks, Steward." Lu Lin withdrew and returned to his own cramped communal bunkroom.

After shutting the door tightly and confirming that there was no one around, he moved his thoughts, and a brown pill the size of a longan, giving off a strange medicinal fragrance, appeared in his palm.

It was precisely the Tendon Refining Pill, a pill that could assist in tempering the tendons and muscles and speed up cultivation, its value even higher than that of a Blood Qi Pill.

"What a pity. I don't have any cultivation time right now, so I can't test its effects... I'll wait until I mine some Spirit Stones tomorrow." He suppressed the urge to try it immediately and put the Tendon Refining Pill away.

Afterward, the section of Blood Flame Deer antler, crimson in color and still faintly warm, appeared in his hand.

However, the instant the antler entered his hand, Lu Lin froze!

Because information was actually transmitted from the Martial Dao Melting Furnace, and several lines of text surfaced clearly in his mind:

[Medium-grade spiritual energy discovered!]

[The Martial Dao Melting Furnace's current level is insufficient. Unable to absorb and exchange!]

[Conditions required for the Martial Dao Melting Furnace to upgrade: one hundred jin of Copper Essence, three Low-grade Spirit Stones.]

[After upgrading, it can absorb medium-grade spiritual energy and exchange it for more cultivation time. At the same time, the inner space's range will also expand significantly.]

"Upgrade?" Lu Lin was greatly astonished.

Absorbing the spiritual energy in this antler actually required upgrading the Martial Dao Melting Furnace first? This truly exceeded his expectations.

But the benefits after upgrading made his heart stir in an instant.

Leaving aside the fact that it could absorb higher-grade energy and exchange it for more time, the expansion of the inner space alone was something that had to be done.

Right now, the inner space was only one chi in length, width, and height. It was far too cramped. It could only store small items like books and pills; even a slightly larger box could not be stuffed inside. Its usefulness was extremely limited.

If it could be expanded, he could hardly imagine how many times more convenient his future actions would become.

Treasures like storage pouches could only be used by immortal cultivators who possessed spiritual power. No one would ever imagine that he, a mere martial artist, could actually possess a storage ability that was formless and intangible, moving according to his will.

This would be an enormous trump card capable of reversing the situation at a critical moment.

Only... the materials required for this upgrade were truly not easy to obtain.

Copper Essence—he had heard of it.

Though this item was not a spiritual material exclusively used by cultivators, its value was extremely high, far surpassing black iron. Its market price was around three hundred taels of silver per jin, equivalent to one Inferior Spirit Stone.

These one hundred jin of Copper Essence were indeed a huge sum, but as long as he patiently mined, he could eventually save enough.

But those three Low-grade Spirit Stones were going to be difficult. Those were true Spirit Stones, containing pure spiritual power without the slightest impurity. They were hard currency among immortal cultivators. Where was he, a martial artist, supposed to get them?

"I heard... in those rich mining zones of the Black Iron Vein controlled by gangs, Low-grade Spirit Stones were once dug out..." Lu Lin's gaze flickered as he pondered inwardly. "Looks like once my cultivation improves a little more, I'll have to find a way to make a trip to the rich mining zones."

There was no hope of upgrading in the short term, so Lu Lin could only put the Blood Flame Deer antler back into the inner space, then get into bed and rest.

The next day, Lu Lin once again picked up his iron pickaxe, slung the bamboo basket over his back, and went deep into the mine tunnel.

Although his injuries had not fully recovered, they no longer hindered him from mining.

Clang!

The iron pickaxe fell heavily, and a large chunk of rock peeled away in response.

After his trip to Blood Baleful City, his strength had soared once more, making mining even more effortless. His efficiency far surpassed what it had been before.

Before long, he successfully obtained one Inferior Spirit Stone.

Time flowed by. The sun's shadow slanted west. By evening, Lu Lin had mined a total of six Inferior Spirit Stones and exchanged them all for cultivation time.

"It's time to test the effects of these Tendon Refining Pills."

A trace of anticipation flashed through Lu Lin's eyes. Without the slightest hesitation, he took out the three Tendon Refining Pills and swallowed them in one gulp.