155: Chapter 155 At the Foot of the Stone Building

The leader was a Middle-aged Cultivator at Qi Refining Level 6, wearing a cyan robe.

A broad-bladed sword hung from the belt at his waist.

His face was square with thick eyebrows, and his lips were pursed into a thin line. When he smiled, the corners of his mouth pulled to the sides, appearing stiff. The smile piled up on his face as if it had been pasted on.

He was followed by a man and a woman.

The man was at Qi Refining Stage 5, wearing a grey robe, with a round shield strapped to his back.

The shield's surface had three intersecting scratches, and a piece of lacquer the size of a fingernail had chipped off the edge—marks left by a Sharp Weapon.

He stood to the right of the leader, his right hand habitually resting on the hilt of the short blade at his waist, his thumb unconsciously rubbing the wrapping on the hilt.

The woman was also at Qi Refining Stage 5, holding a short staff with a pale cyan, wind-attributed jade embedded in its head.

The surface of the jade had fine cracks and was turning white, indicating that at least fifty to sixty percent of its spiritual power had been consumed.

She stood to the leader's left, half a step further away than the man, a position from which she could retreat at any moment.

"I am Zhou Yuan from Qingmu City." The Middle-aged Cultivator cupped his hands in a salute, his tone polite, his voice neither high nor low, just enough to carry across the distance. "These two are my younger brother, Zhou Xiaochuan, and my younger sister, Zhou Xiaohe. Forgive my presumption, but is Fellow Daoist also heading to the Nine-Story Stone Tower?"

As he spoke, his eyes darted to the bottom left—not looking at Lin Xuan's equipment, but at Lin Xuan's feet.

He was checking if his stance was steady and if there were any traces of spiritual power beneath his feet.

Lin Xuan glanced at him.

"Yes." He replied with only a single word.

"It is too dangerous for Fellow Daoist to travel alone." Zhou Yuan cupped his hands again, his smile unchanged. "The three of us siblings are heading to the Stone Tower to try our luck. Why not join us? There is safety in numbers." When he finished speaking, his throat bobbed as he swallowed. He was nervous.

Zhou Xiaohe added from the side, "We just saw a corpse up ahead; it looked like a Loose Cultivator, and they died quite miserably. There are quite a few Yao Beasts in this vicinity, so it is not safe to walk alone."

Her voice was clear and bright, and as she spoke, her large eyes gazed at Lin Xuan with a very sincere expression.

However, the thumb of her right hand, which held the short staff, rubbed back and forth against the staff handle, emitting a faint clicking sound between her fingernail and the base of the Spirit Stone.

Lin Xuan looked at her, then back at Zhou Yuan.

"No need." His voice was not loud, but very steady. "I am used to traveling alone."

Zhou Xiaochuan frowned. His lips moved, and his Adam's apple bobbed up, as if he wanted to speak, but Zhou Yuan raised a hand to stop him.

"It was my intrusion." Zhou Yuan nodded, stepped aside, and cleared the way.

His steps were calculated—he retreated with his right foot, and as his body turned to the side, his left hand remained pressed on the hilt of his sword. It was not an aggressive stance, but he could draw his sword at any moment.

"Please proceed, Fellow Daoist. If we meet again at the foot of the Stone Tower, I hope we can look out for one another."

Lin Xuan walked away. His footsteps on the gravel were rhythmic and steady.

He could feel three gazes stuck to his back—the heaviest one was Zhou Yuan's, staring at the space between his shoulder blades;

one was at his waist, from Zhou Xiaochuan; and one was at his feet, from Zhou Xiaohe, watching his steps.

It was not until he had walked a hundred feet away that those gazes vanished.

The prickling sensation on the skin of his neck relaxed instantly, as if someone had peeled off a piece of adhesive tape.

Lin Xuan quickened his pace. It was not because he feared them, but because he did not want to waste time. There was something wrong with those three—their positioning, the movements of their fingers, the number of times they swallowed—all indicated that they were not simply "trying their luck."

When that Zhou Xiaohe said there were "quite a few Yao Beasts," her voice had been pitched too high, as if she were reciting from a book.

After crossing two mountain ridges, the Stone Tower finally appeared in its entirety before his eyes.

Standing on the ridge, Lin Xuan saw the full view of this Legacy site for the first time.

The Nine-Story Stone Tower was built on a platform halfway up a massive stone mountain.

The stone mountain was entirely greyish-white, with no vegetation on its surface, only dense, fine lightning patterns covering the mountain—those patterns were not decorations carved on the outside, but emanated from within the rock, like the mountain's own natural veins.

The lightning patterns flickered in the sunlight, invisible from certain angles, but lighting up when directly facing the sun, like countless tiny lightning snakes sealed within the stone.

In front of the platform was an open stone square.

The stone slabs varied in size, and withered yellow grass stems grew in the gaps between them, trampled and crooked.

Dozens of Cultivators had already gathered on the square, scattered in groups of three or five.

Some sat cross-legged in meditation, with cushions or animal skins beneath them.

Some crouched together, whispering in low voices, occasionally looking up to scan the people around them.

Some were repairing their Magical Artifacts, holding palm-sized files in their hands, filing back and forth on the nicks in their sword blades, producing a faint, metallic scraping sound.

Others had set up small stalls on the edge of the square, with worn animal skins spread out displaying a few bottles of healing Medicinal Pills and several Talismans; the stall owner crouched behind the skin, fanning themselves lazily with a cattail fan.

Everyone's gaze swept toward the main entrance of the Stone Tower from time to time.

The stone gate, standing three zhang tall, was tightly shut. The door panels were carved with intricate lightning patterns that radiated from the center outward, like bolts of frozen lightning.

The material of the stone gate was different from the mountain—the mountain was greyish-white, while the stone gate was dark grey, with a metallic luster on its surface, as if cast from a single piece of refined iron.

Two stone statues crouched on either side of the gate.

Each was two people tall, carved in the likeness of an exotic beast Lin Xuan had never seen before—a leopard's body with eagle wings, its front claws resting on the stone base, hind legs crouched, and wings folded against its sides.

They held copper rings in their mouths; the surface of the rings was covered in green patina, but the rust only covered half the ring, while the other half was as clean as new, as if it had been repeatedly rubbed by something.

The exotic beast's eyes were two embedded purple crystals, refracting faint light in the sun.

Several broken stone pillars stood at the edge of the square.

The tallest one was still a zhang high, while the shortest was merely a knee-high stone stump.

The pillars were carved with primitive runes, so ancient that the runes had become blurred—eroded by wind, washed by water, and scraped by human hands, the grooves of the runes were packed with greyish-white dust.

A thick layer of dust lay on the tops of the pillars; occasionally, when the wind blew, the dust would rise and fall, forming a small cloud of grey mist in the sunlight.

Lin Xuan walked down from the hillside.

As his feet stepped onto the stone slabs of the square, the sensation was different from the rocky slopes—the area beneath the slabs was hollow, and stepping on them produced a faint, thumping echo, as if there were another space beneath.

He found a relatively secluded spot on the periphery of the square—behind a half-collapsed stone pillar.

The shadow of the stone pillar perfectly concealed his figure, and behind him was the rock face of the mountain, which had a vertical crack just wide enough for a person to squeeze into.

His view to the left and right was blocked, leaving only the front facing the square and the Stone Tower.

He leaned his back against the rock wall, sat cross-legged, and began to observe the Cultivators in the square.

There were more people than he had anticipated. Just on the square alone, there were over forty people, and even more Cultivators were arriving one after another—every so often, beams of light descended from the hillside; some landed shakily on Flying Swords, while others walked up the mountain path on foot, gasping for breath and wiping away sweat.

Their cultivation levels were uneven.

Loose Cultivators at Qi Refining Stages 3 and 4 were the most numerous, wearing worn-out robes and possessing shabby Magical Artifacts—some had chipped Flying Swords, some had shields covered in cracks, and some did not even have a decent Magical Artifact, yet they had managed to arrive here safely.