135 Strange Injury
Seeing the token that Liu Hongshan had thrown to the ground, Lin Ran’s expression couldn’t help but turn solemn.
A moment later, Lin Ran picked up the token and hung it on his waist. He first went to check on Brother Hong and his lackeys.
It was not because he was concerned about them, but because these people had sneaked into Mount Sword. If they died here, their corpses had to be dealt with as soon as possible to prevent any unnecessary trouble.
Unexpectedly, Lin Ran found something strange.
These people were all still alive, but they had varying degrees of external injuries.
There were deep and shallow wounds, but they were not fatal. With the help of internal energy, a martial artist’s body would recover in at most ten days.
The strange thing was that they were injured and unconscious. Their internal energy was supposed to be surging at its strongest, but Lin Ran couldn’t feel any internal energy fluctuations from them.
It was as if they were all ordinary people who had never practiced martial arts.
Lin Ran squatted down and placed his hand on Brother Hong’s chest.
This burly man had the highest cultivation level among this group of people. Even if they had all exhausted their internal energy, at this distance and with Lin Ran’s sharp senses, he would definitely be able to sense some internal energy fluctuations.
But this time, there was still nothing.
Lin Ran narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. He transferred a trace of internal energy to Brother Hong from his palm. Then, he saw some small wounds on Brother Hong’s body begin to stop bleeding.
This phenomenon proved that Brother Hong still had cultivation. However, for some reason, all the internal energy in his body was exhausted.
“Could it be that they fought a tough battle with Liu Hongshan?”
Lin Ran guessed. However, he quickly shook his head. These people weren’t a match for Liu Hongshan at all.
After thinking for a while, Lin Ran put this question to the back of his mind. After all, he had more important things to do now.
Before he left, he had to check if there was anything that could expose his identity.
After a few flashes, Lin Ran arrived at the shrine.
In the yard, on the peach tree that was as big as three people, something that looked like a “door” had opened at some point. There was a small space inside. Although it was empty now, one could tell that a sword had once been placed here.
Lin Ran sighed with a complicated expression. Then, he checked his surroundings to make sure that there were no clues left behind. After that, he slashed out a sword energy that swept past the ground, flattening the footprints left behind by the three of them.
After doing all this, Lin Ran took off the token on his waist. The veins on the back of his hand suddenly bulged, and with a bang, the token was crushed into pieces!
Almost at the same time, a muffled horn sounded from all directions. A translucent barrier quickly spread out under the morning sun, forming a translucent barrier in the blink of an eye that trapped more than a hundred peaks of Mount Sword!
This was the true form of the mountain-protecting array formation. Once an accident happened, as long as the mountain guardian shattered the token, this array formation would be completely activated. At the same time, the Grand Council in the palace would be alerted immediately.
Although this protective shield was as thin as a cicada’s wing, it was ridiculously powerful. This array formation used the earth energy of the entire Mount Sword as the source of the array formation. The difficulty of forcefully breaking the array formation was equivalent to shattering all the hundred peaks of Mount Sword!
Even the current Lin Ran would take a few days to break the array formation by force. At that time, the army of the Heavenly Saint Dynasty would have already surrounded this place.
Lin Ran looked at the array formation in a daze. After a moment, he sighed. Then, his figure flashed a few times and he returned to the residence of the mountain guardian.
After transferring a trace of internal energy to Brother Hong and the others to save their lives, Lin Ran sat on the ground and summoned the Yin-Yang Sword to wipe it.
When his fingertips brushed past the sword, Lin Ran suddenly exclaimed and raised the Yin-Yang Sword to his eyes to take a closer look. He realized that there was a gap on the white sword that represented the righteous side!
The gap was not big, at most the size of half a grain of rice. However, this was a divine weapon that had been nurtured in Mount Sword for countless years. Before Lin Ran obtained it, it had been tempered by the aura of good and evil. Its strength had long surpassed that of ordinary divine swords!
Most importantly, the last time Lin Ran used the Yin-Yang Sword, there was no gap on the sword. In other words, this gap had just been made.
Thinking of how Liu Hongshan just struck the sword with the Dragon Roar Dagger, Lin Ran’s expression couldn’t help but turn solemn.
“Is it because of the Dragon Roar Dagger? Or is it because of his extraordinary strength? If it’s the former, it’s easy, but if it’s the latter…”
Lin Ran frowned slightly and pondered. Suddenly, he heard powerful footsteps approaching.
He turned around and saw a group of white-armored warriors running over. The armor on their bodies rubbed against each other as they ran, making cracking sounds. It sounded like this armor was not light, but it did not seem to affect their speed at all.
In the blink of an eye, the pair of white-armored warriors ran forward. The person in the lead was covered in a white veil, revealing only his eyes and thick eyebrows.
Seeing Lin Ran, the man’s eyes immediately revealed vigilance. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and asked coldly, “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“I’m Lin Ran, the commander of the palace guards.”
As Lin Ran spoke, he stood up and took out the token of the guard commander and handed it over.
“So it’s Lord Lin!”
After that person looked at the token, the vigilance in his eyes immediately dissipated. He let go of the hilt of his sword and cupped his hands. “I’m Shen Rulin, the deputy general of the Five Elements Imperial Guards!”
Lin Ran had never heard of the “Five Elements Imperial Guards”, but he was no longer surprised to discover another secret of the Heavenly Saint Dynasty.
After realizing that the other party was of a higher official ranking than him, Lin Ran cupped his hands and returned the greeting. “So it’s Lord Shen! Sorry for being rude!”
Shen Rulin began to be vigilant of his surroundings. “Lord Lin, you’re the commander of the guards in the palace. Why are you here? What happened here?”
Lin Ran said casually, “I was once a mountain guardian here. I came to visit my old friend. I didn’t expect to bump into someone who wanted to steal the divine sword. My friend and I resisted desperately, but we were too weak.”
“In the end, I activated the mountain-protecting array formation, but that thief still escaped. My friend was also injured by him.”
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