106: Chapter 106 Sword Technique as Bait

He paused the tip of his brush at the last broken pattern, the ink on his fingertip still holding a trace of warmth.

He had specifically requested this animal skin paper from Chu Yun; its texture was rough, it was aged, and it was the most common type found in shops under the Zhao Family, used for recording mine entry and exit accounts.

As for this ink, it was mixed with a bit of dregs left over from Su Qingyao's Alchemy, carrying an extremely faint, burnt smell that was difficult for ordinary people to detect.

Every detail was a hook.

Lin Chen did not immediately put away this "generous gift." Instead, he laid it flat on the desk and, by the candlelight, gently brushed his fingertips over the "Sword Manual" he had written himself.

Rather than a Sword Manual, it was more like an invitation to death.

"Ring Spirit," he whispered in his Sea of Consciousness, "Begin implantation."

[Command confirmed. Beginning Law pollution on target 'Pseudo-Qinghe Sword Manual Incomplete Manual'.]

The stone ring on his thumb glowed slightly, and an invisible ripple, thousands of times finer than a strand of hair, shot out from the ring's surface, precisely enveloping the piece of animal skin paper.

In Lin Chen's perception, every ink character and every pattern on the paper was instantly imbued with a layer of extremely subtle spatial interference runes.

These runes were usually dormant, but as soon as any Spiritual Qi—whether from Divine Sense probing or attempts at rubbing or copying—tried to analyze their internal structure, they would be instantly activated.

The result would not be a simple distortion of the text; instead, it would amplify and warp the injected Spiritual Qi in an extreme manner, eventually igniting the animal skin paper itself and leaving behind a highly directional, fake Spiritual Qi echo in the ashes.

[Law pollution complete. Spiritual Qi echo has been set to 'Zhao Clan Tampering' frequency.]

The Ring Spirit's voice was cold and efficient.

Lin Chen nodded with satisfaction. He carefully rolled up the Incomplete Manual, tied it with a piece of ordinary twine, and tossed it casually onto the corner of the table, as if it were nothing more than worthless waste paper.

After doing all this, he turned to his son, who had been standing quietly to the side, his aura as steady as a mountain.

"Haoyu, how much of the Sword Intent in that monument have you comprehended?" he asked.

"I can feel that the Sword Intent has always been in my Sword Seed, just locked away."

"Tonight, it was opened a crack." As he spoke, he slowly extended his right hand, palm upward.

A trace of imperceptible silvery-white sword radiance appeared in his palm. The sword radiance was extremely faint, yet it caused the air in the secret chamber to suddenly turn cold, and a layer of fine white frost even condensed on the walls.

Lin Chen's gaze fell on that wisp of sword radiance, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He could feel that the Law power contained within this sword radiance had a subtle, homologous resonance with the "Qinghe" rune simulated by the ice silk arm guard on his right arm.

Just then, the stone door of the secret chamber was knocked three times lightly; this was Chu Yun's signal.

"Enter."

Chu Yun pushed the door open and entered, his expression grave. He walked quickly to Lin Chen and lowered his voice: "Clan Chief, Young Master has sent someone to deliver a message."

"So soon?" Lin Chen's lips curled slightly, as if everything were within his grasp.

"It is not a message, it is an invitation." Chu Yun presented a beautifully crafted invitation, "The old servant beside him delivered it personally, saying that Young Master Cui wants to have an 'open and honest' talk with you before dawn at the Yuelai Tea House in the south of the city. He also said... he brought enough sincerity."

Lin Chen took the invitation and rubbed his fingertips over it. The gilded cover felt smooth, revealing an undisguised urgency.

"Sincerity?" He chuckled softly, his gaze falling on the scroll of animal skin paper at the corner of the table, "Chu Yun, reply to him and say I will arrive in a quarter of an hour. Also, let that 'mouse' from the Zhao Family see clearly what I am bringing out with me."

"Understood." Chu Yun took the order and turned to leave quickly.

A quarter of an hour later, Lin Chen changed into an ordinary blue cloth robe, stuffed the scroll of animal skin paper casually into his sleeve, and walked out of the Geng No. 9 Courtyard alone.

The night was deep, and the cold wind was like a knife.

The moment he stepped out of the courtyard gate, under a dark corner a hundred yards away, the Zhao Family spy disguised as a beggar flashed a sharp gleam in his eyes, locking his gaze tightly onto Lin Chen's bulging sleeve.

He saw the corner of that scroll of animal skin paper, the rough texture, and the faint patterns on it that were of the same origin as the Zhao Family's account book paper.

Almost at the same time, an encrypted message was silently transmitted back to the Zhao Family mansion through the sub-mother plate hidden in his sleeve.

Yuelai Tea House, second-floor private room.

Young Master Cui sat by the window alone. The tea in front of him had gone completely cold, but he did not even notice.

From the moment he received that blood-letter ultimatum from the Council of Elders, the anxiety and madness in his heart had spread like a wildfire.

Expelled from the main lineage!

These four words were a humiliation he, as a favored son of heaven, could absolutely not bear.

Footsteps sounded at the top of the stairs. Lin Chen walked up unhurriedly, pulled out the chair opposite Young Master Cui and sat down, took out the scroll of animal skin paper from his sleeve, and tossed it on the table.

"The 'sincerity' Young Master Cui wanted, I have brought."

Young Master Cui's breath hitched, his gaze nailed to the scroll of animal skin paper, as if his entire future were hidden inside it.

He reached out with a trembling hand. The moment his fingertips touched the rough animal skin, his whole body was struck by lightning, and he pulled back sharply.

He saw it—a small patch of ink exposed in the gap where the twine was tied.

It was the incomplete stroke of the character "Change"; the flow of the brush, the force of the pause, even the slight flying white... He would never misidentify it!

That was his grandfather's handwriting!

It was the unique annotation style found only in the rare books in the Cui Clan's Scripture Pavilion that only the Clan Chief and a few Elders were allowed to read!

So, the broken monument from that year had not been lost; it had been intentionally abandoned by his grandfather after he used some secret method to tamper with the key information inside it!

At this moment, the last trace of doubt in Young Master Cui's heart vanished. This was definitely the real thing!

He looked up, his eyes bloodshot, staring fixedly at Lin Chen: "Name your price."

Lin Chen held up three fingers.

"Three thousand Spirit Stones? Or thirty thousand?" Young Master Cui gritted his teeth.

"Three Spiritual Veins, plus the land deeds for all your Cui Family's shops in Jieyin City," Lin Chen's tone was as flat as if he were discussing the weather, "And, a 'Blood-Drawing' of a direct Cui Clan Bloodline; my son needs it to completely suppress the Sword Intent in the monument."

Young Master Cui stood up abruptly, his chest heaving violently. The Spiritual Pressure of a Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivator spilled out uncontrollably, shattering the teacup on the table.

"Lin Chen, do not push me too far!"

"Young Master Cui, it is you who needs it, not me." Lin Chen stroked the stone ring on his thumb and said slowly, "I will give you ten breaths to consider. After ten breaths, I will go find Deacon Zhao. I think his interest in this item will be no less than yours."

"You!" Young Master Cui shouted, veins bulging on his forehead.

Lin Chen remained unmoved, just slowly beginning to count: "Ten... Nine..."

When he counted to "Three," Young Master Cui slumped back down, as if all his strength had been drained. He pulled a Storage Ring and a jade bottle engraved with blood-colored runes from his robes and slammed them onto the table.

"The Spiritual Vein land deeds are inside, and this is the Blood-Drawing of my Cui Clan! But the shop land deeds will take time to transfer!"

Lin Chen put away the items, stood up, and pushed the scroll of animal skin paper over.

"Deal."

He turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

Young Master Cui gripped the scroll of animal skin paper tightly, as if clutching a life-saving straw.

He did not check it immediately. Instead, he rushed down the tea house at top speed, jumped into the carriage that had been prepared long ago, and shouted sternly: "Return to the mansion! Fast!"

The carriage galloped wildly on the silent street, the wheels crushing the bluestone slabs and making a harsh sound.

Just as the carriage was about to drive out of the South City street entrance, a figure descended from the sky like a ghost, crashing into the front of the carriage with a boom, causing the ground to crack.

"Young Master Cui, hand over the item!"

Deacon Zhao held a black long spear, his body exuding a violent aura. Behind him, dozens of Zhao Family black-armored guards surged out from the alleyways on both sides, surrounding the carriage.

"Deacon Zhao! You dare to rob me?" Young Master Cui's face was ashen as he lifted the carriage curtain.

"Rob you? So what?" Deacon Zhao sneered, "My Zhao Family found out that the scoundrel Lin Chen stole the secret scroll from my Zhao Clan's ancestral hall. Now it is caught red-handed! If you are sensible, hand over the stolen goods, otherwise, do not blame my spear for being ruthless!"

Before his words even faded, he had already rushed out like a cannonball, stabbing the carriage with his spear.

The old servant beside Young Master Cui shouted in anger and summoned a shield Magical Artifact, but it was pierced through by Deacon Zhao's spear.

Violent Spiritual Qi exploded, and the entire carriage was instantly torn to pieces.

Young Master Cui rolled out of the wreckage in a sorry state, and the animal skin scroll in his arms flew out of his grasp.

Deacon Zhao...

However, just as his fingertips were about to touch the scroll, a sudden change occurred!

"Boom!"

The scroll of animal skin paper exploded without warning, and a mass of miserable green flames shot up into the sky, instantly swallowing it.

In the midst of the fire, an extremely strange Spiritual Qi fluctuation spread out with a boom, and the fluctuation pointed precisely in one direction—the ancestral hall of the Zhao Family mansion.

All the Zhao Family guards present, including Deacon Zhao himself, felt the jade plaque representing their identity at their waists heat up suddenly.

This Spiritual Qi fluctuation was of the same origin as the half-broken monument enshrined in the Zhao Family's ancestral hall!

Deacon Zhao was completely stunned.

How is this possible?

What Lin Chen gave to Young Master Cui was actually really something of the Zhao Family?

And it was destroyed by his own hand?

The firelight dissipated, and the animal skin paper had turned to ash, leaving only a shallow, charred mark on the ground. The shape of the mark was vaguely a distorted character "Zhao."

Meanwhile, in the wasteland in the western suburbs.

"Madam Clan Chief! It is bad!" Chu Yun's voice carried unprecedented horror as he pointed to the Formation Plate floating in front of him, "The Spiritual Vein... the Spiritual Vein has suddenly changed course!"

Qin Ruowei and the others hurried over, only to see that on the Formation Plate, the blue light band representing the underground Spiritual Vein had made a hard ninety-degree turn, like a crazed Dragon, extending straight towards another direction.

Chu Yun pointed to the light spot that the light band finally pointed to, his voice trembling: "That is... that is the dungeon of Jieyin City!"

Almost the moment Chu Yun's voice fell, a thunderous boom suddenly came from the east of the city, in the direction of the Zhao Family's Profound Gold mine.

A dazzling firelight shot into the sky, illuminating half the night sky as if it were day.

Immediately after, the earth shook violently, and a violent Spiritual Qi shockwave swept over.

"Someone blew up the Zhao Family's mine!"

In the withered forest, a Cui Family spy ran to Young Master Cui, who was dejected because the Sword Manual had been destroyed, crawling and tumbling.

"Young Lord! It is... it is the Clan Chief! The Clan Chief led the death squads and launched a night raid on the Zhao Family mine, blowing up an abandoned mine tunnel!"

Young Master Cui looked up abruptly: "What?"

"In that mine tunnel... are our Elders who have been missing for ten years! The Grand Elder... he is clutching a Formation Plate tightly in his hand. It is that Formation Plate that has been secretly diverting the Spiritual Qi from the Spiritual Vein in the western suburbs to the Zhao Family's mine vein!"

Young Master Cui stood there in a daze. Countless clues connected in his mind, and he understood everything in an instant.

The Zhao Family!

It was the Zhao Family that imprisoned the Elders and stole the Luck of the Cui Family!

And he had been going crazy for that so-called "Sword Manual" that the Zhao Family had deliberately thrown out!

"Ah—!" He let out a beast-like roar to the sky, his eyes blood-red, and led the remnants of his forces, rushing towards the Profound Gold mine like a madman.

Jieyin City was in complete chaos.

Geng No. 9 Courtyard, inside the secret chamber.

Lin Chen sat quietly on a meditation cushion; the chaos outside seemed to have nothing to do with him.

He was inspecting the "arm guard" on his right arm that was constantly evolving.

On the arm guard woven from ice silk, the originally simulated "Qinghe" rune was quietly undergoing changes, becoming more complex and profound.

Streams of pure restorative energy slowly seeped into his Meridians; although slow, they were unswervingly repairing the wounds torn by the power of space.

Suddenly, the runes on the surface of the arm guard flashed violently, converging into a line of ancient divine text that was imprinted directly into his Sea of Consciousness.

[Detected "Zangtian Abyss" spatial tide resonance... Frequency calibration complete...]

[Warning: The optimal infiltration period will begin in seventy-two hours.]

Immediately after, another stream of information flooded in.

[Detected Golden Core level Spiritual Qi fluctuation, approaching the outer coordinate area of "Zangtian Abyss" at high speed. Identity determination: Zhao Clan retainer.]

The Zhao Family knows too? So fast!

Lin Chen's heart sank. The secret of Zangtian Abyss was far more complex than he had imagined; he must not let the Zhao Family get there first.

He had to set off immediately.

Just as he was about to get up, the ice silk arm guard on his right arm tightened without warning, causing a sharp pain in his arm.

The force was immense, as if it were about to break his bones.

Under the violent contraction, the form of the arm guard changed, and the strands of silk at the very front forcibly retracted, revealing the rough stone ring he had been wearing on his thumb.