The little fox looked up in the direction Lin Yu had gone; his figure was almost at the village entrance, about to blend into the everyday life of the village.
It wanted to chase after him and say something more, but felt embarrassed, so it could only stand there and watch Lin Yu's figure completely disappear at the village entrance.
Only after Lin Yu was out of sight did the little fox, carrying the spirit fruit, turn and dart into the forest.
This time, instead of leading the way slowly as it had before, it transformed into a streak of red lightning and sped towards its lair.
It needed to quickly hide this precious spiritual fruit.
One of these things is worth several years of its cultivation, so it can't bear to eat it and must hide it well. If a thief steals it, it will cry its heart out.
Meanwhile, Lin Yu walked into the village outside the mountains.
Under the old tree at the village entrance, several farmers were tidying up their farm tools. Seeing him dressed in a blue robe and with a handsome appearance, they all cast curious glances at him.
A little girl with pigtails ran over carrying a half-basket of wild vegetables, looked up at him, and asked, "Big brother, are you from the mountains? It's getting dark, there are wild animals in the mountains, please be careful."
Lin Yu smiled and patted the little girl's head, "Thank you, little girl. I'm out of the mountains now."
The smoke from the village chimneys grew thicker, and the aroma of food wafted over on the wind.
Lin Yu found a farmer's family willing to take him in and stayed for the night.
The earthen bed in the farmer's house was warm. Lin Yu sat cross-legged on the bed, gazing at the moonlight outside the window, his fingertips gently tapping the edge of the bed.
He has been out there gaining experience for almost a year. He traveled from the Central Plains and Suzhou to Hangzhou, and then north from Nanjing. He has witnessed the chaos of war and experienced the full spectrum of human emotions.
"One more year, and I'll have to go back and face those imperial corpses," Lin Yu murmured softly.
These are the real threats; if even one of them escapes, the entire area will become a no-man's land.
His fingertips unconsciously caressed the golden bead in his palm. The Dark Bodhisattva inside had long been tamed by him and had become a powerful assistant in detecting evil energy.
As dawn broke, Lin Yu secretly left a few silver coins behind, then bid farewell to the farmer and continued his journey north.
The further north you go, the stronger the smell of gunpowder becomes in the air. You can often see refugees on the roadside, dressed in rags and looking emaciated.
After that incident, and the complete fall of the North, Xiao Rizi's influence in the North grew increasingly rampant.
Now they even supported the last emperor to establish the Puppet Manchukuo. Those remnants of the Manchu Qing dynasty who dream of restoration are willing to let wolves into the house for the sake of power, completely disregarding the lives of the people.
Upon reaching the outskirts of Xidu, Lin Yu stopped, made hand seals, and activated the sect's secret feng shui aura-observing technique.
He closed his eyes slightly, opened the Heavenly Eye on his forehead, and his Spiritual Power transformed into invisible threads, spreading towards the mountains and rivers to the north.
A moment later, Lin Yu suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze filled with shock. The fortune of the North was in complete chaos!
The earth's veins, which were originally surging like dragons, have fractured in many places; the Spirit Vein of famous mountains and rivers are entangled in black energy, and their spiritual energy has dissipated completely.
Even the dragon vein, which was supposed to protect the region, seemed to have had its limbs severed, and was on the verge of death.
"Someone is destroying the earth's veins and dragon veins!" Lin Yu gritted his teeth. He had seen records in the sect's books that evil cultivators could destroy the earth's veins and sever a country's fortune so that their own forces could take advantage of the situation.
He flew in the direction where the evil aura was strongest, and finally stopped above the Marshal's Mansion Fengtian City.
With a sweep of his Divine Sense, Lin Yu's expression grew even colder. The feng shui of the Marshal's Mansion had been completely altered. What was originally a place of great wealth and prosperity had now become a fierce formation of "Nine Snakes Fight the Dragon"!
Many small buildings suddenly appeared around the area, and these buildings became pieces in the formation. Many houses in the mansion were altered, especially a round log nailed in the very center of the mansion, which was covered with formation patterns.
All of this points directly at the Marshal's Mansion.
Nine streams of black energy, like nine venomous snakes, coiled around the Golden Dragon of Fortune of fortune in the Marshal's Mansion, slowly gnawing at its scales and causing it to wither away day by day.
Lin Yu also noticed that some buildings had a chrysanthemum symbol on them.
"The Kujikuji Sect!" Lin Yu instantly thought of the sect mentioned in the book. The Kujikuji Sect was skilled in feng shui and evil arts, and specialized in destroying the earth's veins. It was obviously something that Xiao Rizi had brought from his native land.
Lin Yu, hidden in the clouds above the Marshal's Mansion, watched the daily life and the puppet Manchukuo officials coming and going inside, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
He took out the golden bead, and the phantom of the Dark Bodhisattva appeared inside it. Sensing the evil energy outside, it couldn't help but tremble.
Clearly, it coveted this rich, malevolent energy.
Lin Yu threw the bead, which instantly transformed into a streak of light and flew towards the Marshal's Mansion.
The golden bead pierced through the clouds like a dark golden streak, precisely entering the round log in the very center of the Marshal's Mansion.
The surface of the log was covered with twisted black patterns. As soon as the bead was inserted, the patterns began to flash violently, like a venomous snake that had been stimulated, surging out bursts of thick, dark, and malevolent energy.
The Dark Bodhisattva inside the bead sensed this evil energy and instantly became agitated, its scarlet eyes shining astonishingly bright behind the bead's surface.
It is inherently righteous in its evil, and in terms of the purity of its evil, probably no one can compare to it.
Previously suppressed by Lin Yu's Golden Light of Merit, it could no longer restrain itself. Now, upon contact with such pure evil energy, it pounced on its prey like a hungry wolf, immediately releasing its own aura and entwining with the evil energy within the log.
Lin Yu hovered above the clouds, his Primordial Spirit locked onto the log, watching the bead gradually devour the evil energy.
This log is the eye of the "Nine Snakes Fight the Dragon Formation," where the formation's patterns draw in evil spirits from the earth's veins.
If the evil spirits are forcibly broken, they may spread out of control and affect the surrounding people.
By allowing the Dark Bodhisattva to absorb the evil energy, the array's core can be controlled, and the evil energy can be used to nourish it. Once the Dark Bodhisattva has absorbed all the evil energy, the array's core will collapse on its own, achieving two goals at once.
Inside the Grand Marshal's Mansion below, several Kujiku Sect cultivators dressed in kimonos and wearing chrysanthemum-patterned tokens at their waists were patrolling around a round log.
They witnessed the unusual movement of the log with their own eyes, and their expressions instantly changed. "Oh no, the formation has malfunctioned!"
You must know that if this evil formation goes wrong, they will be affected and tainted by the black energy within.
At best, it brings bad luck; at worst, it leads to death and the end of one's life.
Therefore, they dared not act rashly at the slightest sign of unusual activity.
One of them stepped forward, his fingertips carefully pressing against the log, but was repelled by a surge of malevolent energy. He exclaimed in surprise, "No, this isn't the aura of my sect!"
He sensed the black aura clinging to his fingertips and realized it wasn't from the Kujikuji Sect.
"Enemy attack!"
The men instantly drew their short knives from their waists, the blades covered in evil runes, and warily looked around.
Lin Yu concealed his presence, and they searched the entire marshal's mansion but couldn't find a single person. They could only watch helplessly as the array patterns on the log grew dimmer and dimmer, and the nine black wisps that had been swirling above the mansion gradually thinned out.
Above the clouds, Lin Yu looked down at the panicked Kujiku Sect cultivators and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.
He made a hand seal with his fingertips, sending a thought to the golden bead.
It is only permitted to absorb evil energy, and the innocent must not be harmed. Although the Dark Bodhisattva within the bead is bloodthirsty, it dares not disobey Lin Yu's orders.
He could only honestly focus on absorbing the evil energy, and his aura grew stronger and stronger as he absorbed the evil energy, making the balance between the three energies of Buddhism, Demon, and Tao more and more stable.