36: Chapter 36 Quenching

The Lingxiao Capital spirit message talisman was still warm at his fingertips. Boss Qian's two brief but information-dense messages were like two ice picks, piercing the faint peace that had just accumulated in the quiet room.

"Crimson Feast... pregnant beast blood sacrifice... advancing the timeline..."

Lin Yuan slowly loosened his fingers, which were gripping the talisman so tightly his knuckles had turned white. He stood still, the constant glimmer of the leyline quiet room reflecting on his calm yet suddenly sharp profile. In his mind, all the information fragments he had previously obtained began to spin, collide, and piece together frantically—

Mr. Mo's "ten thousand infant banner" plan required the "purest and most resentful" child souls as its core, the resentment of ten thousand spirits as the banner's surface, and the essence blood of leylines or living beings as the energy source. Now, he was using the "Crimson Feast," a crazy cult adept at blood sacrifices and summoning, as his vanguard, paving the way with extreme blood sacrifices involving the concept of "gestation." The purpose was obvious: either to accelerate the completion of a key link in the "ten thousand infant banner," or to prepare for some more dangerous arrival or summoning to deal with potential variables (such as the death of the Black Fiend and the emergence of Lin Yuan as a "variable").

And the North District old pier, far from the city center, with complex traffic and weak surveillance, was the ideal location for such a dirty ritual.

"Advancing the timeline..." Lin Yuan repeated in a low voice. What did this mean? It meant that Mr. Mo might have sensed something, or his plan had reached a node that required acceleration. It also meant that the time left for Lin Yuan to maneuver and grow had been compressed once again!

He walked to the center of the quiet room and sat cross-legged, but he did not immediately enter meditation. Instead, he closed his eyes and began a cold, deduction of the situation that discarded all wishful thinking.

Enemy:

1. Mr. Mo (Primary threat): Clear goals (ten thousand infant banner, Lin Yuan's divinity and spark), vicious and devious methods (Curse Soul Seal, vein-locking nail, cult manipulation), unfathomable strength, and actions are accelerating.

2. Crimson Feast cult (Vanguard/Tool): Crazy, cruel, unscrupulous, adept at blood sacrifices and summoning, possibly capable of creating chaos and panic in a short time; a useful and easily discarded knife in Mr. Mo's hand.

3. Lingxiao Capital/Tianji Pavilion (Potential threat and monitor): Systematic, technical, aimed at "control" and "research," currently in the evaluation and probing stage, but with a strict monitoring network, and may adjust strategies from "observation" to "intervention" due to Lin Yuan's "abnormal" performance.

Self:

1. Strength: Recovering from serious injury, combat power only restored to 30-40%. faith reserve extremely lacking (0.025). Void God Spark just ignited, characteristics emerging but weak. New Earth Vein Arts are superficial, the containment field still needs digestion.

2. Resources: Dr. Li's protection and limited technical support; Boss Qian's intelligence and commercial channels; the micro Land Nourishing Array initially established at Luoxia Mountain (fragile stronghold); initial commercial relationships and aspiration power sources like "Cross-border Selection."

3. Weaknesses: soul seal-ridden, activity still recovering; debt countdown approaching; lack of powerful attack and defense means; weak intelligence network.

Priority (Adjusted):

1. Survival (Absolute priority): Deal with Mr. Mo's accelerating threat, avoid direct capture or killing.

2. Remove/Suppress soul seal (Key): Get rid of the most fatal tracking and curse.

3. Acquire enough faith points to pay the first installment of divine breath (Urgent): Avoid default on debt leading to divinity liquidation.

4. Establish safe stronghold and sustainable power source (Long-term): Luoxia Mountain plan needs to accelerate, but cannot be rash.

Strategy Adjustment:

· Passive defense to limited active interference: Cannot sit and wait for Mr. Mo to complete his layout. Must use the chaos and attention caused by the "Crimson Feast" entering the city to conduct limited, covert counter-reconnaissance and interference to delay his progress.

· Dual-track acceleration: Commercial Optimization (earning money and high-quality aspiration power) and Luoxia Mountain stronghold construction (obtaining leyline resources and hidden base) must accelerate simultaneously.

· Leverage and Misdirection: Continue to use the potential conflict between "Lingxiao Capital" and Mr. Mo, as well as the panic created by the "Crimson Feast," to confuse the line of sight and gain space for himself.

The deduction finished, Lin Yuan opened his eyes. There was no longer any hesitation or confusion in them, only a near-cold clarity and decisiveness.

He first picked up the cyan jade slip and carefully studied the parts about the "Earth Qi Warning Array" and "Simple Maze Array" again. Then, he took out a blank talisman paper and used his fingertips to dip into the cinnabar mixed with a small amount of his own spiritual blood prepared in the quiet room, and began to draw.

It was not an attack talisman, nor a defensive array. What he was drawing was an extremely ingenious, composite "Information Disturbance and Trajectory Forgery Talisman."

The core of the talisman was his subtle imitation of the energy fluctuations of the "Curse Soul Seal" (based on his close-range "feeling" these days), while the outer layer was wrapped in disguised fluctuations pointing to the common blood sacrifice residue of the "Crimson Feast." On the outermost layer, he used the newly learned leyline qi-restraining patterns to cover it slightly, making the signals it emitted weak, chaotic, and full of contradictions, just like the traces left by an "unknown object" stained with multiple evil auras that was trying to hide itself.

He carefully sealed the completed talisman into a special jade box that could slowly release the internal aura.

Next, he sent an encrypted reply to Boss Qian via the spirit message talisman:

"Understood. Three points: One, I need the most detailed locations, times, and characteristics of ritual residues (if any) of the 'Crimson Feast's' last three activities (including last night). Two, keep an eye on whether there is an abnormal amount of 'ning-shen jade,' 'soul-settling incense,' or 'evil-breaking gold essence' flowing out of the black market. Three, I have a 'small gift' that needs to be anonymously dropped at the abandoned warehouse area two kilometers east of the old pier in the North District, near the sewer outlet (coordinates to be sent later). Please arrange for absolutely reliable new faces to drop it off and leave immediately, do not stay, do not look back. The reward will be deducted from subsequent payments."

After doing this, he took the stamina-strengthening pill left by Dr. Li and began to regulate his breath with all his might, digesting the medicinal power, and attempting to guide the leyline energy to accelerate the recovery of his severely overdrawn soul power. He knew that the next actions required him to maintain a relatively good state in a short time.

One day later, Lin Yuan received Boss Qian's reply. The message was concise: "One, the data has been sent to your encrypted mailbox. Two, a small amount of 'ning-shen jade' was anonymously purchased on the black market, sources are mixed, difficult to track. Three, the 'gift' has been dropped as specified, and the executor has safely evacuated. Also, the second installment from General Manager Zhao has arrived. As per your request, half has been converted into faith points (2.5 points), and half left as cash. Faith points have been transferred to your anonymous beacon."

Lin Yuan immediately checked the encrypted mailbox. Inside was the information Boss Qian collected through special channels: besides last night's beast blood sacrifice at the old pier (residue of a large amount of dirty blood and twisted sacrificial runes, the official has sealed it off, characterizing it as "done by an extreme animal abuse gang"), there were two small-scale blood sacrifices in the suburbs in the past two days, using slaughterhouse waste blood mixed with some hallucinogenic herbs. The rituals were relatively simple, more like "practicing" or "warming up." The locations were all biased towards the water or underground spaces.

"'Crimson Feast' is getting familiar with the environment, setting up nodes, preparing for a larger-scale ritual..." Lin Yuan judged. Mr. Mo was likely using them to lay out the prototype of a large-scale blood sacrifice summoning array in specific locations of the city!

He did not delay and left the tomb quiet room again. This time his goal was clear: straight to Luoxia Mountain.

Under the cover of night, he came to the "Heartbroken Land" with ease. The micro Land Nourishing Array was still running slowly, and the point of spiritual light in the center seemed to be slightly brighter than three days ago. He did not disturb the old man keeping watch and began to work silently.

First, according to Dr. Li's list, he mixed the several minerals (quartz fragments, magnetic powder, a small amount of hematite sand) and herbs (mugwort ash, arborvitae leaf powder) he brought in specific proportions. With that point of spiritual light as the center, he outlined a circle of more complex composite array patterns on the periphery of the Land Nourishing Array, aimed at "reinforcement" and "early warning." When the array patterns took shape, they emitted a faint earthy yellow halo, which then disappeared into the ground. Lin Yuan could feel that the "field" of this small area had become slightly thicker, and it had gained a kind of extremely sensitive "tactile sense"—any existence with obvious malice or violent energy disturbance intruding into this range would cause slight fluctuations in the array and, through the leyline connection, send him a warning (within a certain distance).

Next, he took out the jade box containing the "Information Disturbance Talisman." He did not open it but buried it at a "gap" on the edge of the Land Nourishing Array where the earth qi was relatively active. The flow of earth qi here would slowly wash over the jade box, bringing out the forged, mixed aura inside bit by bit, merging it into the surrounding environment, and spreading it further away with the faint pulse of the leylines.

In this way, if enemies skilled in tracking or perception (whether Mr. Mo's people or "Lingxiao Capital") searched this area, they would most likely be interfered with by these forged, contradictory "traces," making it difficult to accurately judge whether Lin Yuan had really stayed here for a long time, and might even misjudge this place as just a temporary stop or a discarded item location for some evil existence.

This was the first layer of active defense he added to this fragile stronghold—an information fog.

After doing this, it was almost dawn. Lin Yuan did not leave but walked to the point of spiritual light and sat cross-legged. He needed to verify an idea.

He pressed his hand gently on the glowing soil, his mind sinking into the Void God Spark, mobilizing "Leyline Affinity" and "Authority of Order." But this time, his goal was not "dredging" or "awakening," but trying... "resonance" and "tempering."

He carefully guided the trace of awakened Earth Spirit vitality, as well as the extremely sparse free natural energy of the surrounding mountains and forests gathered by the Land Nourishing Array, letting them flow slowly through his palms and seep into his meridians at a specific frequency and path.

This was not rough absorption, but a gentle "exchange" and "tempering." When the Earth Spirit vitality and natural energy flowed through his riddled meridians, which possessed strong tolerance due to the "Void" characteristic, they would take away a little of his most stubborn injury accumulation and soul fatigue; at the same time, the faint "Order" and "Optimization" intent from the Void God Spark hidden in his meridians, as well as his own tenacious vitality, would feed back a trace of "activity" and "logic" to the energy flowing through.

After the energy completed a tiny cycle, most of it returned to the earth to nourish the Earth Spirit; a tiny part was left by his body and soul, turning into the purest nourishment. Although the improvement brought by each cycle was negligible, it was gentle, continuous, and could establish a deeper symbiotic relationship with the Earth Spirit.

More importantly, during this process, Lin Yuan felt that the activity of the "Curse Soul Seal" in the depths of his soul seemed to be slightly suppressed by the special energy carried in this cycle, which fused "Ruins Fire Order" and "Earth Spirit Vitality"! Although the effect was far inferior to Dr. Li's pill, this provided a brand new, sustainable suppression idea!

"Sure enough... the soul seal is essentially a type of malignant 'rule accumulation' and 'energy pollution.' Earth Spirit vitality represents 'life' and 'nourishment,' Ruins Fire Order represents 'combing' and 'reconstruction.' The combination of the two can naturally produce a 'purification' and 'dilution' effect on it!" Lin Yuan was thrilled. This might be the direction Dr. Li mentioned, relying on the growth of his own path to fight against the soul seal!

He was immersed in this slow and effective "tempering" until the east turned white, and then he left quietly.

Back in the tomb quiet room, he felt his state was much better than yesterday. The fatigue of the soul was reduced, and the coldness of the soul seal seemed to have faded a little. The faith reserve reached 2.525 due to the supplement of General Manager Zhao's funds. Although still poor, at least it was no longer "endangered."

He turned on the computer and began to process the second-stage deepening plan for the "Cross-border Selection" project, and replied to the email from General Manager Zhao regarding the European branch consultation, agreeing on the time for the preliminary online diagnosis. At the same time, he sent Zhang Qiming a new proposal for "Team Energy Field Deep Optimization and Performance Incentive Mechanism Design," which raised the service depth and price by a notch. Zhang Qiming replied quickly, expressing great interest and asked to meet him next week.

The commercial engine began to accelerate.

Three days passed quickly in a highly tense, multi-line rhythm.

During the day, Lin Yuan studied arts, promoted business, and remotely maintained the Luoxia Mountain stronghold (fine-tuning the array through leyline sensing); at night, he went out quietly, using the intelligence provided by Boss Qian and his own concealment ability to conduct long-distance, extremely careful reconnaissance on the areas where the "Crimson Feast" might be active.

He avoided all core locations that might have ritual residues or cultist gatherings, only walking on the edges, using a modified energy detector (Dr. Li's technology) to capture the abnormal evil energy fluctuations escaping in the air, recording their frequency, intensity, and distribution characteristics. At the same time, he was also observing the reaction of "Lingxiao Capital" to these events—he found that after the old pier incident, the municipal monitoring equipment at several key nodes in the North District had been quietly upgraded, and some seemingly ordinary vehicles and pedestrians had also increased.

Late on the fourth day, when Lin Yuan communicated briefly with Boss Qian through encrypted channels again, Boss Qian brought disturbing new news:

"Brother Lin, the 'ning-shen jade' you wanted to check has a lead. It's not circulating on the black market, but 'stolen' from several regular, century-old traditional Chinese medicine shops and antique shops! The method is very professional, didn't trigger alarms, didn't leave traces, as if the things disappeared by themselves. The theft times were all within the last week. Also..."

Boss Qian paused, his voice lower: "My people planted in the pier area reported that late last night, a few people in hoodies with unclear faces unloaded several tightly wrapped long boxes from a closed truck driving from the direction of the 'Summer Palace' and transported them into an abandoned cold storage warehouse near the old pier. The boxes were not big, but the people moving them were struggling, and... he smelled a faint, bloody smell like formalin mixed with rust."

Stealing ning-shen jade (material for stabilizing the soul) from old shops... heavy, blood-smelling boxes transported from the "Summer Palace"...

Lin Yuan's heart sank little by little.

Mr. Mo was not only using the "Crimson Feast" to set up arrays and blood sacrifices, he was also preparing more things. Could those in the boxes be... some kind of "material" needed to refine the "ten thousand infant banner"? Or a "medium" needed for a more terrifying ritual?

And stealing ning-shen jade was likely related to his attempt to strengthen the soul seal control or perform evil spells that required stabilizing the soul.

"The storm is coming..." Lin Yuan ended the communication and stood in front of the window of the quiet room (although there was no window, he faced the stone wall as if he could see the night sky outside through the rock layer).

His preparations were far from enough.

But the enemy would not wait for him to be ready.

He must be faster.

Turning around, he walked towards the cushion, his eyes sharp as a blade that was about to be unsheathed and had been initially tempered by earth fire.

The countdown was ticking: 20 days 03 hours 18 minutes.

Time was really running out.

And he had to temper a sharp edge capable of splitting a line of survival before the storm completely descended.