154: Chapter 154 Fellow Taoist Stays

When Lin Xuan rose from the fine sand in the cave, the faint glow of the fluorescent moss had not yet completely faded.

The layer of pale blue moss on the cave walls was much dimmer than last night, as if a candle that had burned all night had finally reached the point of exhaustion.

Fine sand rustled down from the folds of his robes, landing on the sandy ground at his feet with a faint, whispering sound.

He lowered his head to look at his palms—clinching his fingers into a fist and then releasing them.

The residual purple electric arcs between his knuckles crackled softly, casting fragmented shadows on the dim cave walls, flickering like a few fireflies struggling in the cracks of the stone.

The Spiritual Qi of Qi Refining Stage 7 had been surging through his Meridians for an entire night.

From the initial raging torrent to the current steady strength, the agitation from his recent Breakthrough had largely subsided.

The thunder seed in his Dantian had solidified further since last night; the new thunder patterns on its surface had turned from blurry to distinct. Each marking looked as if it had been carved into purple jade with a knife, uniform in depth and sharp at the edges.

He sat cross-legged and circulated the Origin Returning Qi Concealment Formula.

The Spiritual Qi from the Origin Returning Qi Concealment Formula surged out from his Dantian, covering its surface like a thin veil.

The veil felt cool, spreading outward along the inner walls of his Meridians, wrapping tightly around the aura of Qi Refining Stage 7 layer by layer.

The outer shell of Qi Refining Level 6 solidified into form, and he concealed his cultivation base to Qi Refining Level 6.

Lin Xuan squeezed sideways out of the rock crevice.

The crevice was narrow; as his shoulder brushed against the stone wall, a layer of grayish-white stone dust was scraped off, landing on his shoulder before sliding off.

The light outside the crevice stung his eyes, causing him to squint and his pupils to contract.

Outside the Stone Forest, the daylight was perfect.

Pale purple sunlight slanted down from the east, stretching the shadows of the stone pillars long and thin. The shadows of a dozen or so pillars formed a blurry fence across the gravel ground.

The wind passed through the stone pillars, and the wailing sound from those holes was much quieter than last night, as if it had finally grown tired after blowing all night.

Lin Xuan raised his hand to shield his eyes and looked toward the north.

That pale purple pillar of light was right before his eyes.

The outline of the Nine-Story Stone Tower at the base of the light pillar was clearly discernible—the bottom three levels were gold, the middle three were cyan, and the top three were purple. The color of each level was distinctly clear in the sunlight.

The giant eye from last night had vanished without a trace, leaving only the stone tower standing silently on the skyline, as if it had never opened at all.

The Silver-Backed Bull stood up from beside the rock crevice, and the gravel dust clinging to its thick hide fell off with a clatter.

A night of keeping watch had left a hint of fatigue in its dark golden pupils, with a few bloodshot veins appearing in the whites of its eyes, but it still stood steadily, its four legs planted on the ground like four stone pillars.

Lin Xuan patted its nose bridge, his fingertips touching the rough, dry skin and the hard bone plate beneath it.

"You've worked hard." He recalled the Silver-Backed Bull back into the Spirit-Taming Tower Space.

The Pangolin burrowed out from underground. The soil on its scales was still fresh, carrying a damp, raw earthy scent.

It circled around his feet, its scales brushing against his boot, conveying a thought of safety—there were no abnormalities underground, the rock layers were solid, and there were no other living creatures within a hundred zhang.

"Let's go." Lin Xuan set off.

The terrain at the edge of the Stone Forest began to rise.

The gravel underfoot was gradually replaced by large slabs of rock. The surface of these rock slabs bore traces of water erosion—grooves of varying depths extended from high to low. The edges of the grooves were smooth, unlike the roughness caused by wind erosion; they had been polished by flowing water over long years.

A thin layer of pale purple fine sand had accumulated in the grooves, crunching as he stepped on it. The sand grains rolled between his boot soles and the stone slabs, feeling like stepping on a layer of crushed shells.

The slope was not steep, but with every step, he could feel the concentration of thunder-attribute Spiritual Qi in the air rising.

It wasn't the kind of sudden, intense rush, but a gradually increasing pressure—like walking from a dry outdoor area into a humid bathhouse; at first, there was only a slight chill on the skin, but only after walking deep inside did one realize their clothes were already soaked.

The purple thunder seed in his Dantian was vibrating slightly, not with the panicked beating triggered by pressure, but with a steady, rhythmic pulsation, as if responding to a call from the same source.

After walking for about half an hour, Lin Xuan stopped at a turn in the mountain ridge.

A hundred zhang ahead, a corpse lay across the middle of the road.

It was fresh.

The corpse was lying prone on the ground, its back slashed from the shoulder blade to the lumbar spine by some kind of Sharp Weapon.

The tear in the magical robe was neat, with no frayed edges on the fabric. The skin and flesh inside had been sliced cleanly, revealing the stark white spine.

The spine was broken in two, with bone fragments protruding from the wound. The cross-section was bright white, and the bone marrow was still moist.

The edges of the wound were charred and curled, but not from fire—char marks from fire were deep on the outside and shallow on the inside, with blurry edges. The char marks on this wound were shallow on the outside and deep on the inside, with sharp edges. The carbonized layer was only a thin film, beneath which was cooked, grayish-white muscle.

Carbonization after a thunder spell strike. A single-target thunder spell with extremely high penetrating power.

A fatal strike, clean and efficient.

The blood was still wet, slowly seeping out from beneath the corpse and staining a patch of gravel red.

The edges of the bloodstain were slowly drying, turning from bright red to dark red, but the pool at the very center was still moist, shimmering with a viscous luster in the sunlight.

A severed hand lay three steps away, the fingers still maintaining a sword-gripping posture—five fingers curled, thumb pressed against the index finger, with thick calluses on the inside of the palm, a sign of years of holding a sword. The sword was already gone.

The corpse was still warm.

Lin Xuan narrowed his eyes. The person who struck had a high level of thunder spell cultivation, at least Qi Refining Level 6 or higher. Furthermore, this person knew how to use thunder spells to kill—not striking the head, not using large-area coverage, but precisely attacking the torso.

A thunder spell to the head would blow the skull apart and splatter brains everywhere; a coverage attack would cause large-scale carbonization and irregular tearing.

But this corpse had only one wound; the thunder force was entirely concentrated in the blade-like slash, entering from the shoulder blade and exiting at the lumbar spine, piercing through the entire chest cavity.

The victim's heart and lungs had been cooked directly by the thunder force. There were no signs of struggle at the edges of the wound, indicating that the strike came too fast—so fast that the person had died before they could even react.

Time of death was less than an hour. The killer had taken their Magical Artifact and belongings, leaving calmly.

Lin Xuan did not approach the corpse. He detoured ten zhang and cut across from the other side of the slope.

Killing is forbidden within the Secret Realm; those who kill will be expelled and teleported out of the Secret Realm by the Secret Realm itself.

This was the rule announced by the formation spirit when he entered. But rules are rules, and people are people.

There is always a way to circumvent the rules, or the benefits are great enough to violate them.

After walking less than three li, voices came from ahead.

"Fellow Daoist, stay your step."

Lin Xuan stopped. The voice came from the slope on the right.

He turned his head to look—three Cultivators were walking down from the slope, their feet crunching on the gravel slope surface.

The leader took the largest steps, each one causing gravel to slide down a little, making a faint clattering sound.

The two people behind took smaller steps, following in the leader's footprints.

The three of them were in a triangular formation, spaced five zhang apart—a standard alert formation.

The leader was positioned at the front, with a flanker on each side, allowing them to react immediately regardless of which direction trouble came from.