Chapter 215: Chapter 205: Rumors 7
With his mind full of ideas, Lin Hui made a quick trip back to Qingfeng Temple, then returned to the Purple Crystal Ruins and brought out the Waterman.
After confirming the Purple Crystal Purgatory Tyrannosaurus was still sound asleep, Lin Hui quickly opened his bag... and took out a Purple Cloud Ganoderma.
He decided to use Purple Cloud Ganoderma again. Yun Lingzhi was better used to make up for small deficits in years, so as not to be too wasteful.
One stalk of Purple Cloud Ganoderma could shorten the Blood Seal’s duration by nearly two years. After Lin Hui consumed four stalks, he quickly followed up with three Yun Lingzhi.
Thus, the Blood Seal timer that had just appeared was quickly eliminated again.
The Tyrannosaurus’s body, lying on the ground, began to tremble violently.
Large, pure Purple Crystal formations began to pierce through and arch out from under the Tyrannosaurus’s skin. Soon, it had transformed the beast into a ball of Purple Crystal.
About ten seconds later.
Lin Hui stood in the vast, empty underground hall of the Purple Crystal cave, looking at the Purple Crystal Tyrannosaurus he had moved over.
At that moment, the giant Purple Crystal sphere that the Purple Crystal Tyrannosaurus had become was already showing large cracks.
With a CRACKING sound, large amounts of purple crystals fell off and shattered.
ROAR!!
A large monster covered in purple-black scales, resembling a stegosaurus, charged out from within the crystals in a single step.
The three horns on the monster’s head were made of an even deeper-colored Purple Crystal.
Its eyes continuously emitted a faint purple glow.
It was five or six meters tall and over ten meters long. The contours of its muscles were clearly defined, and it looked incredibly intimidating just standing there.
PFFT.
The moment this Purple Crystal Flame Dragon finished evolving, it immediately lowered its head respectfully toward Lin Hui, standing perfectly still.
"Not bad." Lin Hui sized up the behemoth he had spent nine years of Blood Seal time to evolve.
According to the Blood Seal’s description, it would be absolutely loyal to him, and he had great faith in the Blood Seal’s function. But as for how strong this big guy actually was, he’d need to find a test subject.
"Can you understand me?" he asked aloud.
"..." The Purple Crystal Flame Dragon nodded.
"Good. Follow me out of the cave," Lin Hui ordered.
As for its combat power, it wasn’t like he was relying on the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon for battle anyway. The creature’s greatest use was still to provide Qingfeng Temple with a sufficient supply of Purple Crystal for Body Tempering.
To date, this type of Purple Crystal, which could be used for Body Tempering, had brought rapid development and strengthening to the entire Qingfeng Temple. The increase in the number of people breaking through to the Inner Power Realm was partly due to its influence.
Furthermore, when it came to practicing the Typhoon Swordsmanship, the progress speed with Purple Crystal was nearly double that without it. Thus, Lin Hui had no choice but to take this matter seriously.
Leading the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon, they sprinted all the way until dusk. Only then did the man and the dragon safely arrive at the maze ruins in the Outer Fog Area.
The moment the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon passed through the Boundary Wall, it began to tremble all over, its expression extremely tense, as if a natural predator could leap out at any moment and devour it.
It only relaxed slightly after entering the safe clearing that Lin Hui had created.
"Drill down into the ground here, dig yourself a hole, and go to sleep. Turn into a Purple Crystal vein. Don’t move around unless you have to, and contact me directly if there are any problems," Lin Hui commanded.
The Purple Crystal Flame Dragon obediently nodded, then stood in the middle of the clearing and tapped the ground with its forehoof.
WHOOSH! Its entire massive body instantly disintegrated, shattering into a large amount of purple crystal powder, which then burrowed into the ground from the spot it had tapped.
A dozen or so minutes later.
Lin Hui felt a nascent roar from the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon echo in his mind.
’ROAR!’ (It’s done.)
Although it was just a howl, Lin Hui inexplicably understood the meaning it contained.
He tried to use his Heart and Spirit to mimic the way the sound was transmitted and send a message back.
The sensation was similar to transmitting his voice with Inner Strength, but there was a difference.
The key to transmitting with Heart and Spirit was to imagine the sound originating from between the eyebrows and to have a precise grasp of the direction and distance.
And unlike transmitting his voice with Inner Strength, Lin Hui wasn’t sure if this method had even worked or if the other party had heard him; he could only wait for a reaction.
Transmitting his voice with Inner Strength was different; that could genuinely create sound waves by vibrating the air at a designated location.
He gave it a try, and sure enough, the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon underground responded.
’ROOAR~!’ (Understood.)
’Can you hear me?’ Lin Hui tried transmitting with his Heart and Spirit again. The feeling of directly conversing through consciousness using his Heart and Spirit was novel to him.
This seemed to be a special ability he had acquired after cultivating the Illusionary Performance Technique to a certain level and after his Heart and Spirit had been significantly enhanced by his new Body Tempering grade.
He had never had this kind of connection with the Waterman or anything like it before.
But now he could vaguely feel a faint, blurry connection, like a thin thread, linking him to the Waterman and the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon.
’ROOAR~!’ (Yes!)
’Can you hear me?’
’ROAR!’ (Yes!)
’Can.....’
’ROAR!’ (Yes....???!)
After repeating this hundreds of times, the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon, drained of energy, hid underground and fell silent.
Lin Hui, on the other hand, was satisfied. He had confirmed the usage, limits, transmission method, and personal energy consumption of communicating with his Heart and Spirit.
’I have guardians now, but it’s not enough...’
He walked to the edge of the clearing, near the wall, drew Ruyi, and made a light slash.
SHINK!
A huge gash was instantly cut into the stone wall.
But he didn’t stop, instead continuing to ceaselessly carve away at the maze’s stone walls.
These hard stone walls, which had existed for who knows how many years and which even the monsters of the Outer Fog Area couldn’t damage, were now like tofu under the destructive power of his Wind Calamity, crumbling and shattering with every strike.
Ten-odd minutes later.
Lin Hui looked at the cubic pool he had just dug out and sighed with emotion.
’If I’d had this kind of destructive power before, I wouldn’t have needed a whole year to excavate this place.’
Afterward, he ordered the Waterman to get into the pool and not to casually take on its human form to frighten people.
’HISS!’ (Okay!)
The Waterman also replied in his mind.
’Next, I need to catch some Fog Area monsters that are strong but obedient... and then evolve them.’
Lin Hui thought about the situation around the maze.
This Outer Fog Area was close to the Boundary Wall, and there were mainly three types of monsters residing there.
The Skull People near Lost Sound Village.
The Nine-Tailed Scorpions near the Corrupt God Cult.
And the Illusory Shadow Cats that lived near the maze’s exterior.
This information came from his disciple, Xia Si. That guy had lived here for many years and knew the surroundings like the back of his hand.
After some thought, Lin Hui decided to check out the Skull People first.
In his travels back and forth over the past year, he had encountered this type of monster before.
But because he was too fast, the monsters had barely reacted before realizing he was already gone, so a fight had never broken out.
This time, however, Lin Hui planned to personally test their combat prowess.
To see if he could beat them into submission.
*
*
*
「In Qingfu Town, several hundred kilometers from Xinyu Town.」
On a stretch of desolate wilderness at the edge of town, a dilapidated temple stood amidst twisted, dead trees and cracked, blackened earth.
At this moment, the reinforcement team from Qingfeng Temple was passing through Qingfu Town on the main road, heading toward the site of the last conflict.
The team consisted of twenty people, led by Chen Sui, the former senior disciple of Qingfeng Temple. Although he was no longer number one, his Cultivation had long since reached Inner Power Perfection.
With the help of Purple Crystal and the abundance of resources and medicines within the sect, he was also living a blessed life he could never have imagined before.
In the old Qingfeng Temple, how could one possibly earn hundreds of thousands of coins from a single mission so easily?
It was only because the current Qingfeng Temple was stronger and more famous that various surrounding great clans and merchant guilds were proactively approaching them to post high-paying missions.
A top-ten expert like him, with his high-ranking strength, could easily earn a reward of over 300,000 just by picking any random mission.
With more money, buying medicine was naturally easier. With resources in place, coupled with the Observatory Master perfecting their Swordsmanship, it was only logical that his progress was much greater than before.
Besides him, three other Inner Power Perfection experts accompanied the group.
This incident, where Hongfei Gate killed and injured Qingfeng Temple disciples, was an extremely rare accident that hadn’t happened in years.
Therefore, after discussing with the Elder, Wang Hongshi expressed that they were taking it very seriously. They immediately dispatched five Inner Power Martial Artists, with the rest being High-grade Body Tempering Disciples, to handle the situation.
As the team moved in a snake-like formation, quickly crossing the wilderness...
Suddenly, Chen Sui raised a hand, signaling a halt.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
The twenty members, their Body Techniques incredibly fast, came to an abrupt stop. All eyes quickly focused on him.
Chen Sui scanned the surroundings.
"Who’s there? You’ve been lurking and following us. What is your purpose?"
The five Inner Power Martial Artists present all cultivated their own Secret Techniques, but he alone, having reached the peak of his Inner Strength with no further room for advancement, had begun cultivating the Illusionary Performance Technique taught by Lin Hui.
This Illusionary Performance Technique was a version that had been evolved by the Blood Seal and then simplified again before being taught.
However, the fundamental Void Shocking Spirit was still part of it. After learning it, Chen Sui found that he had an unexpectedly strong affinity for the Cultivation Technique, and his progress was extremely fast.
Now, his Mental Power was much stronger than before, and as a result, his five senses were also far more acute.
He had immediately detected the stalkers lying in ambush around them.
"Qingfeng Temple’s talent is not bad, to be able to detect our traces from so far away... Impressive!"
At this moment, figures clad in black slowly emerged from behind the dilapidated temple.
There were six of them in total, all dressed in black robes and black coronets, with metal gloves on their hands.
Among the six, the one walking at the very front was clearly a white-haired old man, his face covered in dark red scars, giving him a rather ferocious appearance.
The one who had just spoken was this very person.
"I am Xiang Yuntao of Hongfei Gate. I have been waiting for you for a long time."
"Hongfei Gate? You dare to show yourselves?! The audacity!!" Chen Sui was instantly enraged upon hearing this.
They had killed a disciple and injured Qiu Yiren, yet instead of running, this group dared to intercept them.
"When one does something, one naturally investigates the possible consequences first," Xiang Yuntao said with a smile. "Qingfeng Temple has oppressed Ten Thousand Medicine Mountain Villa for far too long. My Hongfei Gate has merely done what any righteous person would do." Xiang Yuntao clenched his fists, and with a CLICK, a pair of sharp, silver claws sprang from the backs of his hands.
"Quite the ’consequences’... It seems you had a plan all along, certain you could take us down?" Chen Sui’s heart sank.
’Our group’s Body Technique is extremely fast, and we haven’t stopped at all along the way. For the enemy to have still grasped our route means there has to be a spy from their side within the sect—a spy who can reveal our real-time location.’
"Isn’t it obvious?" Xiang Yuntao laughed and, with a wave of his hand, the five people behind him unleashed their Body Techniques and lunged toward the members of Qingfeng Temple.
Amidst the CLANG CLANG of drawing swords, the two sides immediately rushed at each other. The clash of claws and Longswords rang out.
Just as the two sides began to fight in earnest, on the roof of a dilapidated stone house in the distance, several men and women in black robes stood watching the show.
"Master, what is the Pavilion thinking? Qingfeng Temple has a powerful background, and its Observatory Master is strong. Even if our influence has expanded to their borders, there’s no need to resort to arms immediately, is there? That Great Priest Liu from the Rain Palace is not someone to be trifled with," one of them, a fair-skinned girl who looked no older than her teens, said with a look of confusion as she gazed at the battlefield.
"This isn’t the Pavilion’s will, but the will of someone higher up—that Young Master of the Su family. Great Priest Liu will be dealt with by his own counterparts. Our Carefree Pavilion just needs to do what’s expected of us at our level," the gray-haired man standing in front said calmly.
"This is a coordinated, top-to-bottom offensive specifically targeting Great Priest Liu Wu Jun. Although Great Priest Liu is strong, there are many who depend on him. By attacking the places he is bound to save, we will surely throw him into a state of panic and disarray," a white-haired old man at the side said with a smile, his hands clasped behind his back.
"The Young Master has been preparing this operation for a long time. Now that it has been launched, we must ensure Liu Wu Jun is so overwhelmed he can’t attend to everything at once, throwing his mind into chaos, so that he ultimately underperforms at the exchange conference."
