As autumn deepened, the maple grove in Wushan Town took on a richer crimson.
Several more months had passed since his father, Hogg, last noticed his old injuries improving. Lin Yinuo had never stopped his unfailing daily check-ins. His rewards were still mostly [basic physique enhancement] and [soul dust], making his already exceptional foundation even more solid.
He knew that relying solely on the gradual changes brought by his check-ins was not enough. His father Hogg's deepest troubles lay in the secret behind the clan's decline and the bloodline he could not activate. He had to find a suitable opportunity to "reveal" the crucial information without arousing suspicion.
Today, he decided to try again.
"Check in."
[Ding! Check-in successful! Congratulations, host, on receiving [dust from an ancient library ×1]!]
Another one of these seemingly useless things... but a "library"?
Something stirred in Lin Yinuo's mind. The abandoned library in the Baruch Clan's ancestral residence was piled with neglected old books and papers. Perhaps it was just the place where secrets lay hidden. This reward seemed more like a hint.
That afternoon, Hogg guided Linley through the most basic physical training in the courtyard-holding a horse stance. Little Linley gritted his teeth, his small face flushed bright red and his legs trembling slightly, but he held on, his eyes full of stubborn resolve.
Lin Yinuo sat beneath a maple tree nearby, holding several red leaves of different shapes, seemingly playing by himself. His gaze occasionally swept over his father and younger brother, but lingered more often on the veins of the leaves in his hands.
After a while, he stood up and ran over to Hogg on his short little legs, gently tugging at his clothes.
"Father, look." Lin Yinuo raised the carefully selected maple leaves in his hands. They varied in size and ranged from pale to deep red, but their veins faintly formed a peculiar pattern resembling dragon scales. "Don't they look like... the scales in stories?"
Hogg was concentrating on correcting Linley's posture. At his words, he looked down and smiled gently. "Yes, the leaves you picked are very pretty, Yinuo." He thought little of it, taking it as nothing more than a child's innocent chatter.
Undiscouraged, Lin Yinuo pressed the largest maple leaf into Hogg's hand, then spoke in his childish voice as though talking to himself. "Red... like fire, like blood. The big ones protect the little ones..."
His voice was soft, but the words "blood" and "protect" were like a fine needle, lightly pricking a taut string deep within Hogg's heart.
Dragonblood Warriors! The clan's legacy! The glory of protecting!
Holding the warm maple leaf, Hogg looked at its faint, dragon-scale-like pattern. Then he thought of the inexplicable improvement in his old injuries after Lin Yinuo's birth, and the boy's usual composure beyond his years... at that moment, an invisible thread seemed to link all these clues together.
Could it be... that signs of our ancestors' glory would truly emerge in this generation?
He took a deep breath and crouched to meet Lin Yinuo's eyes, a barely perceptible solemnity in his tone. "Yinuo, why do you think it looks like scales? Whose blood does it look like?"
Lin Yinuo blinked his large, clear eyes and put on the slightly puzzled expression befitting a child. He pointed at Hogg, then at himself and Linley, who was still holding his horse stance, and said vaguely, "Us... warm."
"Warm..." Hogg murmured the word again, shaken to his core. Yes, once the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline is activated, its Battle Qi burns like fire! Is this child using his own childish way to describe a latent sensation deep within his bloodline?
He abruptly stood and looked toward the oldest main building in the clan's ancestral residence, kept locked year-round. The abandoned library was there as well. A thought he had suppressed for years sprang up wildly.
Perhaps there really was something there he had overlooked!
"Linley, take a break," Hogg told his sweat-drenched younger son. Then he scooped Lin Yinuo up and strode toward the ancestral residence.
Resting against his father's broad shoulder, Lin Yinuo watched the maple tree and his younger brother, still striving to hold on, recede behind them. He was silent within.
Father, I'm sorry. I can only guide you this way. But I hope this will rekindle your hope, rather than leave you dwelling on past failures. You should uncover the clan's secrets yourself.
Carrying Lin Yinuo, Hogg went straight to the main building's entrance. He took out the rust-covered key, drew a deep breath, and pushed open the heavy wooden door.
"Creeeak-"
The smell of dust rushed out to meet them. Sunlight streamed through the high windows, illuminating countless motes dancing in the air. Dust-covered furniture and old chests filled the room, while at the very back, rows of tall, cobweb-shrouded bookshelves stood in silence, like sleeping history.
Hogg carefully set Lin Yinuo down in a relatively clean spot to one side, his resolute gaze turning toward that sea of books.
"Yinuo, wait here a moment. Don't wander off." Hogg's voice held an excitement and determination that had long been absent.
He needed to reexamine this forgotten family legacy. Perhaps the answer truly lay beneath this dust, waiting for him, and for the two extraordinary sons he had brought into the world, to discover it.
Lin Yinuo nodded quietly, watching his father's tall figure disappear among the bookshelves as he began a fresh search.
Outside the window, maple leaves drifted silently down.
On that peaceful autumn afternoon, a single small maple leaf quietly set in motion a search concerning the Baruch Clan's fate.
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