Heavenly Harem: Raising My Disciple With Infinite Dual Cultivation

Chapter 146: CH. 146 | The Black Skull Aura

He shot off fast, leaving Zhu City behind, heading for Xu City. The distance between the two cities wasn’t close, roughly 200 li, close to 100 kilometers.

But for someone with Lin Tian’s Nascent Soul level abilities, that was hardly an issue.

Lin Tian tore through the sky at speed, slicing through the clouds. A trail of white qi marked his path, steady booms of spiritual qi rippling out with every movement. Cultivators below could see it clearly.

They spotted him and immediately pegged him as a Nascent Soul cultivator. They felt the force of those booms, powerful and steady.

Not one of them dared get in his way. Messing with someone like that was basically asking to die.

Within minutes, Xu City came clearly into view ahead of him. A grand city, protected by massive walls, with buildings towering more than three stories high.

Even from a distance, he could feel the city’s grandeur. Dozens of people were gathered at the western gate, waiting in an orderly line for their turn to enter.

There were two separate lines.

The first was for mortals, whether they came with wooden carts or not, they were required to join the mortal line.

The second line was packed with cultivators. Lin Tian could tell them apart easily by the robes they wore.

He landed on the ground without releasing any spiritual qi, keeping a low profile while maintaining his disguise. None of the cultivators waiting in line ahead of him even glanced his way. Nobody suspected a thing.

While waiting in line, Lin Tian glanced over at the mortals in the first line. Their faces were pale, their clothes dirty and worn, their steps tired and unsteady.

It wasn’t just one or two people either. Most of the visitors entering the city looked exactly like that.

COUGH!

A middle aged woman broke into a violent coughing fit and collapsed to the ground, holding up the line, drawing curses from the people around her.

Not wanting to take the blame, she shuffled off to the side to try to catch her breath, letting someone else take her spot.

Lin Tian watched it all unfold, since the woman had ended up right near him.

She’d come carrying a toddler strapped to her back with a cloth, both hands full of belongings wrapped in a large bundle.

The middle aged woman had come with her daughter, who looked about twelve.

Seeing her mother cough up blood sent the girl into a panic, tears streaming down her face as she begged the people around them for help.

But nobody paid any attention. Everyone around them had their own business to worry about, no interest in helping the woman at all.

"Someone please help my mother."

"We’ll pay you."

"Please! Help my mother!"

Neither the mortals nor the cultivators lifted a finger to help. Not one of them even seemed to register the girl’s desperate cries for help.

Lin Tian felt something stir in him, watching how indifferent and cold everyone around him seemed to be, especially the cultivators, people who actually had the ability to heal mortal ailments and simply chose not to.

The girl looked utterly desperate, digging through the cloth bundle, tearing it open to search for the medicine pills her mother usually took. Sobbing, she kept digging through the pile of belongings.

While she searched, she caught a glimpse of someone in a black robe standing beside her.

She paused and looked up, finding a handsome black haired cultivator standing there, his eyes fixed on her mother.

"Master Immortals. Please... save my mother."

"I-I’ll give you anything," the girl said.

Lin Tian raised his hand, a white orb of spiritual qi forming at his fingertip.

With a quick motion, he extended his arm and sent the white orb straight into the woman’s body through her forehead.

Spiritual qi energy swirled around her, lifting her body off the ground into the air. Everyone in both lines caught sight of the moment, their attention snapping toward it at once.

The girl broke into a wide smile, wiping away her tears. Her eyes shone with hope as she watched her mother, praying the immortal could truly heal her.

The woman’s pale skin flushed back to life, color and vitality returning. The gray in her hair vanished, replaced by a natural, deep black.

Her clothes gradually turned clean, looking almost brand new. Her face lit up with a bright smile as she felt the immortal’s spiritual qi restoring her body.

"Mother..." the girl said, overcome with emotion.

Slowly, the spiritual qi aura wrapped around the woman began to fade.

Her feet touched the ground, and she stood upright, the tightness in her chest easing, the blood no longer rising in her throat.

She opened her eyes and looked at the immortal before her. She and her daughter immediately dropped to their knees, no longer just bowing their heads.

"Thank you for your blessing, Master Immortal."

"I’m so grateful, so lucky that you chose to save me."

Lin Tian nodded. But his qi sensing eyes caught something strange, a trace of black qi still radiating faintly from the woman’s body.

That was odd, considering his spiritual qi had already healed every symptom in her body.

"Stand up," Lin Tian said.

The woman listened, rising to her feet, looking at him. Her cheeks flushed red, her eyes soft as they met his.

Lin Tian reached his hand forward, his fingertip touching right at her forehead.

Activating a simple aura extraction technique, he pulled the black qi out of her body, drawing it up until it hovered above his open palm.

The orb of black qi twisted into the shape of a skull, its jaw chattering nonstop. Just the sight of it was enough to terrify the mortals nearby, though it didn’t faze Lin Tian at all.

This black skull aura... could this be the Body Essence Devouring Technique?

Lin Tian clenched his fist tight, a burst of qi rippling outward through the area, and the skull shaped orb shattered, leaving nothing behind.

Only Sect Moiyi would even attempt something like this. But why would they be targeting mortals?

He turned around and activated his qi sensing eyes, and saw that every single mortal standing in the first line was radiating that same black aura the woman had carried.

This couldn’t be a coincidence. That black aura afflicting them all... it was very likely the work of cultivators playing some kind of game.

"What’s wrong, Master Immortal?" the woman asked.

"Tell me," Lin Tian said, turning back to her, "Where are you from?"

"W-We’re from Zhuko Village, about 5 li from Xu City," the woman answered.

"Is anyone else suffering from the same illness as you?"

"There’s a lot of them, Master Immortal," the girl chimed in.

Lin Tian’s attention shifted to her, and he crouched down in front of her with a smile, "A lot of them?"

"Yes. There’s a lot of people in other villages dealing with the same sickness my mother had."

This isn’t simple at all. Cultivators preying on mortal lives, that’s neither ethical nor humane.

There’s only one path forward now: investigate this and get ahead of it before it spreads further.