Hongyu's invitation

"Li Ze was killed."

"How was he killed?"

"Seems he was killed by that newcomer in the Body Opening Realm."

"How is that possible?"

People whispered in the dilapidated town beneath the dark night.

They seemed like eyes hidden in the gloom, watching everything.

He moved to another house.

Lin Tian continued cultivating the Sword Heart Body Refining Art.

After killing Senior Brother Li, he discovered that the Sword Qi spilling from the Heavenly Sword had grown sharper.

Streak after streak of Sword Qi pierced Lin Tian's body.

They cut away the impurities.

Black Qi constantly seeped from his body.

It contained not only the pill toxins from the Moon God Pill, but also impurities obstructing his cultivation.

Body refining would not increase his cultivation, but it would continually strengthen his body.

It would give him strength and a constitution far beyond those of ordinary people.

He cultivated until the first faint light of the next morning.

Lin Tian got out of bed.

He went straight to the backyard to bathe.

He noticed a graceful figure busy in the kitchen. It was Ling Qiuzi.

"My lord, the food will be ready soon."

Seeing that Lin Tian had noticed her, Ling Qiuzi dipped in a bow as she spoke.

Lin Tian noticed that the pill toxins on her face seemed to have thinned a little, revealing snow-white skin.

Her complexion was also much better than yesterday.

Lin Tian sat cross-legged on a stone chair and meditated.

The sword Dao comprehension he had acquired came in the form of memories.

In those memories, Lin Tian practiced the sword every day and every night.

With each additional year, his comprehension of the sword Dao deepened.

He had no bottlenecks.

As long as he killed enemies with his sword, he could gain sword Dao comprehension or an increase in cultivation.

As for One Sword to the Ends of the Earth, it involved nurturing momentum.

For last night's strike, he had only nurtured it for half a day.

Yet it had already reached a level where it could instantly kill someone at the Body Opening Ninth Layer.

Lin Tian felt that strike had little to do with the momentum he had nurtured.

After all, it had not been very long.

Its tremendous power came from One Sword to the Ends of the Earth itself being a very high-level sword technique.

Its initial damage was high, and after nurturing, its damage would only become more terrifying.

"My lord, the food is ready."

Ling Qiuzi brought over two steaming bowls of rice porridge and placed them on the stone table.

Lin Tian nodded.

As before, he only picked up his chopsticks after watching Ling Qiuzi take a bite first.

"Where did this food come from?"

Lin Tian asked.

He did not understand what exactly Li Musheng had captured them and brought them here for.

"There are several plots of farmland on the mountain behind us, enough for people to live on."

Ling Qiuzi spoke.

"Do you know what Li Musheng's real purpose is?" Lin Tian continued asking, looking at the runic formation in the sky.

"No, only..."

Ling Qiuzi's delicate brows furrowed slightly, and she hesitated. Seeing Lin Tian watching her, she continued:

"Only, I discovered that inside this formation, people's corpses turn into dried husks very quickly. Something must have sucked out their blood Qi."

Their blood Qi was sucked out?

Lin Tian's gaze sharpened.

Was he feeding something with martial artists' blood Qi?

Then why not kill them outright?

According to his predecessor's memories.

Some martial artists in this world, if their talent was extremely poor, would take crooked, unorthodox paths.

They slaughtered humans and refined blood pills.

They increased their cultivation by consuming blood pills.

Some powerful martial artists would even slaughter an entire great human city.

Their purpose was to refine blood pills.

It could be considered a shortcut in cultivation.

However, Li Musheng clearly was not doing this to refine blood pills.

First, there were too few people.

Blood pills refined from thousands or hundreds of people were very useful for the Mystic Pill Realm.

But at even slightly higher cultivation levels, they were essentially useless.

Li Musheng was in the Soul Palace Realm.

To refine blood pills, he would need the blood essence of at least hundreds of thousands of humans.

"Has anyone ever escaped?"

Lin Tian continued asking.

"No. If anyone escaped and made what happens here public, Li Musheng would die a wretched death!"

Ling Qiuzi spoke, biting her red lip, hatred clearly in her heart.

Lin Tian said nothing more.

He lifted his bowl and finished the porridge.

"Another bowl."

Ling Qiuzi froze briefly, then hurriedly took his bowl and went to ladle Lin Tian another serving.

"Another bowl."

Lin Tian quickly finished it.

Ling Qiuzi nodded, then brought over the entire pot.

"My lord, are you satisfied with the porridge I made?"

Seeing Lin Tian's enormous appetite, Ling Qiuzi asked tentatively.

Lin Tian merely glanced at Ling Qiuzi without answering.

This left Ling Qiuzi somewhat ill at ease.

She was still unfamiliar with Lin Tian's temperament.

Although she was grateful that Lin Tian had intervened yesterday, the misgivings in her heart had remained all along.

After eating, Lin Tian prepared to enter the forest.

But just then.

A presence appeared outside the gate.

Lin Tian narrowed his eyes slightly, the Heavenly Sword gripped in his hand.

Throughout the morning, shouts of fighting had frequently sounded outside.

Lin Tian spread his perception outward.

When battles occurred here, the martial artists did not strike to kill each other.

It was as though they feared killing their opponents.

Ling Qiuzi was accustomed to this, but fear still flashed through her eyes from time to time.

After all, her cultivation was considered very low in this town.

She had probably never had a conflict of interests with anyone.

Otherwise, she would have died long ago.

Thud!

A crisp footfall rang out.

The person outside the gate leaped straight into the small courtyard.

The newcomer was a handsome man dressed in white.

He had obvious dark circles under his eyes.

His presence was not particularly strong.

But there was clear hostility in his eyes as he looked at Lin Tian.

"Lord Bai, what brings you here?"

Ling Qiuzi hurriedly asked upon seeing the newcomer, her voice trembling slightly.

The man ignored Ling Qiuzi and instead stared straight at Lin Tian as he said:

"Newcomer, what's your name?"

Lin Tian ignored the man facing him and turned to Ling Qiuzi to ask:

"Who is he, and what realm is he in?"

A trace of conflict flashed through Ling Qiuzi's eyes. She glanced at the man, whose expression had already darkened, and said to Lin Tian:

"Lord Bai is Lady Hongyu's kept... Dao companion. His cultivation is in the Body Opening Realm."

A flicker of wariness passed through Ling Qiuzi's eyes as she continued to remind him:

"Lady Hongyu is in the Void Penetration Realm."

Lin Tian nodded. Ling Qiuzi had told him yesterday.

The strongest people here, two men and one woman, were all in the Void Penetration Realm.

This Hongyu should be that female Void Penetration Realm expert.

"What do you want with me?"

Lin Tian looked at the man opposite him and asked calmly.

Displeasure flashed through the man's eyes, and he snorted.

"My Lady Hongyu invites you to become her new favorite. As long as you go, you'll receive Sub-Pills every month, and Lady Hongyu guarantees you won't die."

Lin Tian frowned. He truly had not expected this.

This body was indeed very handsome.

But he had never expected so many women to like him.

Beside him, a complicated look flickered in Ling Qiuzi's eyes. She dipped in a bow toward Lin Tian and said:

"Congratulations, my lord."

Congratulations, my ass.

Lin Tian glanced at Ling Qiuzi and said to the man in an indifferent voice:

"I refuse."

Both the man and Ling Qiuzi froze, clearly not expecting Lin Tian to refuse.

"Boy, you're only in the Body Opening Realm. When the pill toxins flare up a month from now, you'll suffer terribly."

The man spoke coldly, expressing disdain for Lin Tian's refusal.

"If you keep lingering here, do you believe I'll make a move?"

Lin Tian turned away and spoke indifferently.

His voice was calm, but his killing intent coiled around Ling Qiuzi's and Young Master Bai's hearts as though it were tangible.

Young Master Bai's pupils contracted slightly, and he narrowed his eyes.

"Hmph. You're offered a way to live, yet you turn it down. You've got guts."

He sneered, then promptly left.

Seeing him leave, Lin Tian looked at Ling Qiuzi and asked:

"What will happen if I refuse Hongyu?"

He was considering whether he should flee.

After all, she was in the Void Penetration Realm.

Ling Qiuzi looked at Lin Tian's profile and pondered for a while before saying:

"The three Void Insight experts in this town aren't bloodthirsty people. They rarely make a move."

They rarely made a move.

Lin Tian frowned.

If one expert was not bloodthirsty, that was understandable.

But all three were not bloodthirsty.

Could they be deliberately avoiding killing?

Together with what Ling Qiuzi had said earlier.

Human corpses would quickly turn into dried husks.

Could they have deliberately refrained from killing?

After all, in the eyes of a Void Penetration Realm expert, those in the Body Opening Realm or the Mystic Pill Realm were all ants.

Ling Qiuzi's voice was gentle, and Lin Tian's sword-sharp profile was reflected in her beautiful eyes as she continued:

"Lady Hongyu has more than a dozen handsome male pets. Whenever she takes a male pet, she usually isn't too forceful."

"Once the Sub-Pill poison flares up in the men who reject her, they all go begging to become her male pets."

Was that so?

A hint of a smile played at the corners of Lin Tian's mouth.

"Repair this courtyard's walls today. I'll be back tonight."

As he spoke, he left straight through the back courtyard without waiting for Ling Qiuzi to say anything.