Entering the Game Himself, Cutting Down the Savage Foe
Inside the secret chamber, Lin Chen sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, three Jade Boxes laid out before him.
In the middle Jade Box, the three-hundred-year-old silvermoon grass lay quietly, radiating gentle yet immense spiritual energy. It was a treasure capable of strengthening his foundations, nourishing his vitality, and directly raising his cultivation.
The Jade Boxes on either side held the two crimson flame ginseng roots, each more than two hundred and fifty years old.
They were crimson throughout, their bodies like solidified flames—superb aids for tempering the flesh and breaking through bottlenecks.
"With the three-hundred-year-old silvermoon grass as the main ingredient and the crimson flame ginseng as support, I should be able to take my cultivation another step higher."
Lin Chen nodded slightly. These three spirit herbs would save him several years of idling in the Miasma Forest.
"What a pity. If these three spirit herbs were refined into pills, they might even let me charge straight into the ninth level of the Spirit Martial Realm."
Lin Chen weighed the possibilities, then stopped hesitating.
He picked up the silvermoon grass, carefully plucked a leaf shimmering with silver light, and placed it in his mouth to refine it, beginning his secluded cultivation.
A month later, Lin Chen emerged from seclusion and set off on his return journey.
The coachman remained as taciturn as ever. After respectfully bowing to Lin Chen, he cracked his whip and drove off.
The carriage followed the mountain road. As they left the Herb Garden and entered a stretch of mountain forest, the light began to dim.
At first, everything was normal: insects chirped, birds called, and mountain breezes swept through the woods. But as the carriage entered a narrow stretch flanked by steep cliffs, something suddenly changed—
Every sound stopped dead.
The insects, the birds, even the wind vanished without a trace in an instant. A deathly silence settled over the world, leaving only the rumble of wheels against the road, stark and unnaturally clear.
Inside the carriage, Lin Chen, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them. He lifted the curtain and stepped down.
The coachman pulled on the reins, vigilance appearing on his dark face. Turning back, he said quietly, "Young patriarch, something's wrong."
"I know. Head back first. Leave this to me."
Lin Chen spoke calmly.
He had thought his baiting tactic would fail. Now it seemed the old methods still worked best.
No, this was more of an open stratagem. After all, apart from Lin Chen himself, the Lin Family really had laid no traps.
He was the trap!
"Yes."
The coachman answered respectfully without hesitation, immediately abandoning the carriage and fleeing. He was only a Body Tempering Realm martial artist, after all. Staying would be fucking useless; he could not even take a blade for Lin Chen. Better to run back and fetch reinforcements.
"Come out."
As the coachman left, Lin Chen's gaze settled on an ancient tree in the distance.
"Hmph. Sharp senses."
With a low snort, a figure slowly emerged from behind the ancient tree. He was tall and burly, dressed in coarse gray cloth, with a brutal face and a hideous scar running from the corner of his left eye to the corner of his mouth.
Most chilling of all were his eyes: cold and savage, like a jackal that had fixed on its prey.
"Hu Yuan the Butcher."
Lin Chen identified him.
As the saying went, a man might be given the wrong name, but never the wrong nickname.
Hu Yuan had earned the name "Butcher" through his ruthless cruelty, slaughtering people like dogs. His hands were stained with no fewer than a hundred lives, including many elderly people, the weak, and women. His crimes had filled the measure of evil and towered to the heavens.
Yet after the Blackwind Stronghold had been wiped out, he had not fled. Instead, he sought revenge against the Lin Family and the Li Family, acting as though he shared a deep brotherly bond with Li Baichuan. That surprised Lin Chen greatly.
Lin Chen could only take it as snakes and rats sharing a nest, a fox mourning the death of a rabbit.
Across from him, Hu Yuan grinned, pulling his scar into an even more hideous shape. "Young master of the Lin Family, I've been waiting a long time for you."
Hu Yuan's voice was hoarse and grating, like scraping sandpaper.
"For more than a year, I've skulked from place to place like a stray dog, thinking of revenge day and night. At last, you left the city alone. How could I miss this chance?"
He licked his lips.
"But I'm a cautious man. Last time you came to the Herb Garden, I held back. I was afraid of an ambush."
When he said the words "only son," Lin Chen thought he heard a distinct note of resentment in his voice, though perhaps he had imagined it.
"You're only the beginning. I'll make both the Lin Family and the Li Family pay a terrible price!"
The moment his words fell, a violent aura erupted around Hu Yuan. He unleashed his eighth-level Spirit Martial Realm cultivation without reservation, his force whipping up dust and sending dead leaves flying.
"Die!"
Hu Yuan abruptly lunged forward, bringing his saber straight down at Lin Chen!
At the instant the blade's gleam was about to reach him—
A streak of lightning cut through the air, illuminating the dim, silent mountain forest.
Then Hu Yuan felt an exceptionally concentrated force strike his blade, deflecting his supposedly certain blow just enough to send it past Lin Chen's side. It cleaved into the ground instead, opening a trench several feet long.
"What?!"
Hu Yuan's pupils contracted, and he snapped his gaze toward Lin Chen.
Lin Chen's aura had changed completely.
No longer restrained, his eighth-level Spirit Martial Realm cultivation surged forth, even more robust than Hu Yuan's.
"You hid your cultivation?!"
"No, impossible! You're not Lin Chen! Are you that old bastard Lin Xuan? What trick are you using to fool my eyes?"
Shocked and furious, Hu Yuan could not begin to imagine that this extraordinarily powerful cultivation, faintly surpassing his own, belonged to the youth before him.
How old could he possibly be?
Hu Yuan had cultivated for over a hundred years, enduring countless hardships before slowly climbing to the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm. Within the territory of Kaiyang City, he was confident he ranked among the top five!
Lin Chen did not answer. Instead, he grinned, revealing his stark white teeth.
"That cultivation method of yours is rather strange. It can even alter the light, like a spider spinning its web, slowly drawing people under your control without them noticing."
"A pity."
"Before my sword, all of it is an illusion!"
With a single thought, sword intent soared into the sky, unstoppable in its sharpness. It sliced straight through the layer of gloom shrouding the mountain forest, and sunlight immediately filtered through the canopy, scattering bright specks across the ground.
Having done that, Lin Chen strode forward with his sword in hand, slashing straight at Hu Yuan the Butcher!
A bloody battle erupted in the mountain forest.
Within an extremely brief exchange, Hu Yuan was covered in blood and gravely wounded.
Both were at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm, but their combat strength differed by two full tiers. How could Hu Yuan possibly stand against him?
In the end, Hu Yuan drove all his spiritual energy to its peak and unleashed his signature ultimate technique, Blood Fiend Ghost Slash, hoping to carve out a chance at survival.
But with a single ordinary sword stroke, Lin Chen cut down the blood fiend ghost and severed Hu Yuan the Butcher's head.
"Before absolute strength, any tricks are nothing more than a mantis raising its arms to stop a chariot."
Lin Chen murmured to himself.
He walked over and searched the corpse. Once he was certain he had missed nothing, he flicked a finger, sending a spark onto the body and reducing it to ashes.
"This forest is secluded and peaceful, with good feng shui. You certainly picked yourself a fine spot."
Lin Chen clicked his tongue, then turned and left.