83: Immovable Wisdom King Mantra

"No!" Lin Jingyu raised his head abruptly, looking at the stunned and anxious Lin Lingkuang. His voice was low and hoarse, yet resolute, carrying an unquestionable determination that sounded like clashing metal: "We haven't reached the end of the road yet! How can you think of running?"

The chess game hasn't been decided yet; it's still unknown who will emerge victorious!

His gaze was like lightning, sweeping over the unconscious and dying Family Head on the bed, then seemingly piercing through the walls to see those two old dogs, the Grand Elder and the Third Elder.

Each word, like an oath, hammered onto the floor: "We... still have a chance! The Grand Elder... the Third Elder... as long as those two don't die, I cannot sleep!"

Saying such things in front of Lin Lingkuang was like a bolt from the blue.

He winced in pain, looking at the youth before him whose Aura was soaring to the clouds, and suddenly clenched his fists.

To hell with the Elders, screw them!

...

Sunlight struggled to pierce through the thick veil of night, painting the window lattice in cold shades of gray and white. The room was filled with a heavy medicinal scent and a faint, lingering smell of blood, mixed with the chill of dawn, making it hard to breathe.

On the bed, Lin Lingshan's face, originally as pale as gold paper, finally struggled to reveal a trace of faint color, as if withered wood meeting spring, yet it was so fragile it seemed it would dissipate the next moment.

His eyelids trembled violently, as if burdened by a heavy weight, and after struggling for a long time, he slowly opened them a crack.

Those eyes, once as sharp as a hawk's and capable of piercing through a person's heart, were now murky and filled with spiderweb-like bloodshot veins.

His sunken eye sockets were filled with a deep, marrow-seeping exhaustion, as if his Soul had been extracted, leaving only a broken shell.

He turned his eyeballs blankly, his gaze sluggishly sweeping over the unfamiliar ceiling and simple furnishings, finally focusing with difficulty on the youth by the bed, whose brows held a trace of fatigue but whose eyes remained firm.

"Who are you...?"

A raspy monosyllable, like sandpaper rubbing against decaying wood, squeezed out from his cracked lips, so faint it was almost drowned out by the weak birdsong outside the window.

Deep within his consciousness, only the harsh, cruel laughter of the black-clad devil Cultivator as he fled and the boundless darkness echoed, followed by the descent into unconsciousness.

"Family Head, it's me, Lin Jingyu."

Lin Jingyu's heart suddenly relaxed; the Family Head had awakened, and his nerves, which had been taut all night, could finally ease slightly.

He quickly stood up, his movements gentle yet swift as he poured a bowl of warm water from the ceramic pot kept warm nearby, carefully bringing it to Lin Lingshan's lips, his voice filled with deep concern: "Please, have some water first."

Lin Lingshan did not take the bowl, but stared fixedly at Lin Jingyu's young face, which already revealed a few firm contours.

In his murky eyes, extremely complex emotions surged—an unshakable guilt, a sorrow like a boulder crushing his chest that almost suffocated him, and a deep-seated helplessness and sharp pain from being mercilessly toyed with by fate.

This voice... he remembered! The ancestral hall Family meeting!

That youth who, under the mountain-like pressure, faced the aggressiveness of the Grand Elder and the Third Elder, stiffening his neck, not retreating a single step, his eyes as stubborn as a lone wolf, all just to protect the younger sister behind him!

His lips trembled, moving several times, his Adam's apple rolling with difficulty, before he squeezed out broken words from his dry throat: "Sorry... sorry... Jingyu... the Lin Family... failed you siblings... and... failed myself... cough, cough, cough..."

Violent coughing interrupted his unfinished words, a sweet, bloody taste surged in his throat, and the smell of rust filled the air.

These words were disjointed, even incoherent, but Lin Jingyu understood instantly. The Family Head was blaming himself.

Blaming himself for being the Lin Family's last "pillar of support," now that his Foundation was destroyed, his spiritual power dissipated, and he had almost become a cripple.

He no longer had the strength to suppress the restless monsters and demons within the Family, nor the power to stop the Grand Elder's high-sounding, "alliance"-named, but actually Family-selling, treacherous actions!

Even more, he blamed himself for being unable to protect this gutsy junior before him!

A thick, nauseating smell of blood spread in his mouth. Lin Lingshan closed his eyes in pain, feeling utterly hopeless, a massive sense of powerlessness completely drowning him.

Last night... it would have been better to just die fighting under that Devil Head! At least it would have been a glorious death, and he could go to the underworld to apologize to his ancestors.

That would be better than this moment, dragging this broken body, watching helplessly as the Family slid into the abyss, watching these innocent clansmen.

Especially a gutsy junior like Jingyu, sinking into the quagmire without the ability to help; this clear-headed pain was a hundred times worse than death!

"Family Head," Lin Jingyu decisively changed the subject, his voice steady and powerful, carrying a sense of admiration and reverence: "Last night, you, with the body of a Qi Refining Sixth Layer Cultivator, stood firm against a Qi Refining Seventh Layer devil Cultivator without retreating; that was already turning the tide! If you hadn't fought to the death, risking your life, how could that Devil Head have retreated so easily? The entire Lin Family would likely have been bathed in blood, with corpses strewn everywhere!"

His words were not empty, nor were they mere consolation.

Devil Cultivators kill to refine their cultivation, and they possess terrifying magical artifacts like the Soul-Devouring Banner, which can trap a Cultivator's Soul within. Becoming a Soul slave meant suffering torment day and night, never to be reborn.

Without Lin Lingshan blocking them, the Lin Family would surely have been swept and bloodied. Even though Lin Lingshan was now half-crippled, his Aura withered, his Foundation broken, and his body covered in wounds, he remained the Family Head, the controller of the Lin Family. He himself was a banner, a sharp sword hanging over the heads of the Grand Elder and the others. As long as he had a breath left, on the surface, the Grand Elder would have to be cautious and dare not be too unscrupulous! This was the invisible deterrent brought by the status of Family Head.

Upon hearing this, Lin Lingshan's heart, riddled with holes from the gnawing of pain, seemed to be injected with a faint warm current. Yes, at least... he had protected them for a moment, preventing the Lin Family from being completely destroyed by that Devil Head. This thought, though small, was like a firefly in the darkness, faint yet real.

"Family Head," Lin Jingyu shifted the topic, his tone carrying just the right amount of curiosity and the inquisitive nature befitting a youth: "That golden, glowing Cultivation Technique you displayed last night, its might was earth-shattering, truly like a Heavenly God descending to earth! Wherever the golden light reached, even the Devil Head's black mist trembled! Such an ultimate technique, I don't seem to have ever seen it in the library?"

He skillfully guided the conversation, both expressing his admiration for the strong and avoiding those heavy realities.

Lin Lingshan took a deep breath, trying to calm his surging blood, but it triggered his severe internal injuries, causing another round of heart-wrenching, stifled coughing, and his body began to tremble violently.

Trembling, he struggled to fumble for the Storage Pouch that had accompanied him for many years at his waist, his fingers shaking as he untied the opening and groped for a few Medicinal Pills that emitted a bitter, medicinal fragrance, stuffing them into his mouth without even looking.

The Medicinal Pill melted upon entering his mouth, and a warm, gentle medicinal power slowly spread. He closed his eyes to regulate his breath for a moment, and his chaotic breath, like boiling water, finally calmed down slightly, and the deathly gray pallor on his face faded a little.

When he opened his eyes again, he looked at Lin Jingyu with complex eyes, containing memories, regret, helplessness, and finally, it turned into a long sigh.

After a moment of silence, he spoke slowly, his voice still hoarse but with a bit more vicissitude and reminiscence: "That Cultivation Technique—is named the Immovable Wisdom King Art. It was a chance Opportunity I obtained when I was young, during an extremely dangerous journey, where I survived by the skin of my teeth..."

His gaze turned toward the hazy dawn light outside the window, as if traveling through time and space: "Calling it an Opportunity is because it is indeed incomparably powerful. Calling it a misfortune... heh, perhaps it was also my greed, overestimating myself..."

He paused, a bone-deep regret flashing in his eyes, "I originally had a Three Spiritual Root Aptitude; although not top-tier, it was already the best in the Lin Family. If I had followed the steps to Cultivate the Evergreen Art inherited by the Family, coupled with the bias of Family resources, a dozen years ago..."

"...perhaps, no, definitely, I would have been able to break through to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, truly possessing the capital to protect the Lin Family and stand firm in this chaotic world."