121: Chapter 121 The Sword's Cry Shakes the Heavens

The direction the sword tip pointed was the southeast corner of the courtyard, where a rockery had been piled up to decorate the scenery.

The night breeze blew past, carrying the faint scent of herbs from the medicinal bath Su Qingyao had prepared for Lin Haoyu.

Yet Lin Chen had no heart to enjoy this tranquility at this moment; his entire focus was firmly gripped by the longsword that was vibrating slightly.

Lin Haoyu's swordsmanship was taught by him personally; his Foundation was solid, and his sword moved according to his intent. It was impossible for such a situation, where the object lost control, to occur.

Unless... there was an external force triggering it.

A warning sign, even stronger than the one in the secret room at Danyang Peak, exploded in the depths of Lin Chen's heart.

He did not make a sound to startle his son, who was blankly trying to control his sword. Instead, his right fingertip subconsciously grazed the stone ring on his thumb, and his figure, like a ghost, slid silently toward the rockery.

The dim light of the lanterns in the courtyard stretched the shadow of the rockery into a twisted and eerie shape.

Lin Chen's gaze swept over every inch of the stone crevices of the rockery like a hawk.

This was the guest courtyard he had arranged himself; he knew every blade of grass and tree by heart, and there had never been any abnormalities.

His spiritual sense spread out slowly, like a thin layer of mercury, silently covering the entire rockery.

One breath, two breaths...

Just at the moment his spiritual sense was about to sweep past, his heart gave a sudden jolt.

At the base of the rockery, beneath the most inconspicuous bluestone, he sensed an extremely faint energy fluctuation that was completely out of place with the surrounding Spiritual Qi.

This fluctuation was cold and deathly still, carrying a texture unique to minerals, and it was perfectly consistent with the source of the resonance on Lin Haoyu's sword.

Lin Chen crouched down and his fingers touched that bluestone.

It felt cold to the touch, no different from ordinary mountain stone.

He remained calm, secretly channeling a clever force into his fingertips, and gave it a gentle nudge.

The bluestone was silently moved aside, revealing the damp soil underneath.

Buried halfway in the soil was a pitch-black crystal the size of a fist.

The surface of the crystal was not smooth; instead, it was covered in complex runes that looked like they had been carved by a knife and axe. These runes were intertwined, forming an eerie Formation that Lin Chen had never seen before.

In the dim light, the black crystal seemed like a silent black hole, wanting to suck in all the light and sound around it.

Lin Chen's pupils constricted slightly.

"It's this thing! It's this that is triggering Lin Haoyu's sword!"

This was definitely not a natural object; it looked more like some kind of core for a Formation, or... a beacon.

Who could have buried this under his nose without anyone noticing?

Master Yaochen?

Or Master Xuefu?

He did not rashly use Spiritual Qi to investigate. After everything that had happened tonight, he was clearer than ever that these old monsters had endless means, and any touch of Spiritual Qi might trigger an unknown Restriction.

He slowly extended his left hand, which wore the stone ring, wanting to dig out this eerie crystal.

However, just as his fingertips were about to touch the crystal—

"Hum!"

The stone ring on his thumb suddenly became scorching hot, several times hotter than when he had sensed the tracking Formation diagram at Danyang Peak!

The black crystal seemed to be under some kind of fatal attraction; it actually floated up from the soil on its own, turned into a streak of black light, and without waiting for Lin Chen to react, shot straight toward his stone ring!

There was no impact, no sound.

The moment the black light touched the stone ring, it was like water entering a desert, instantly swallowed by the rough surface of the ring, disappearing without a trace.

Lin Chen was shocked and immediately looked inward, but found that his internal Spiritual Qi was stable and his Divine Soul was normal, as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion.

But the surface of the stone ring had gained an indescribable cold texture.

Immediately afterward, before he could carefully comprehend it, an exceptionally clear image appeared directly in his mind like a brand!

In a gloomy secret room, Master Xuefu had a ferocious expression as he carefully embedded a black crystal, identical to the one just now, into the groove of a blood-colored compass.

The compass was exactly the "tracing blood compass" he had used on Danyang Peak to identify Lin Chen, which had ended up shattering on the spot!

In the image, while embedding the crystal, Master Xuefu said coldly to a figure shrouded in a black robe beside him: "The 'Blood-Inducing Profound Crystal' of the True Blood Temple is truly overbearing. As long as this sub-crystal is implanted into the compass, and the master crystal is buried in a place he often frequents, once he gets close, the master and sub-crystals will attract each other, and his Bloodline Foundation will have nowhere to hide! By then, let's see how that old curmudgeon Master Yaochen can still protect him!"

The image flashed and disappeared.

Lin Chen, however, was struck by lightning, standing frozen in place, his back instantly soaked in cold sweat.

Blood-Inducing Profound Crystal!

He finally understood why that tracing blood compass had pointed directly at him, and why it had suddenly shattered!

That compass was not trying to detect his Bloodline at all; it was attracted by this "master crystal" buried in the courtyard!

The intense resonance of the two homologous Profound Crystals exceeded the limit the compass could withstand, which was why it had self-destructed on the spot!

What a poisonous scheme!

Master Xuefu was trying to put him to death!

What made him feel even colder was: when exactly was this master crystal buried?

After he and Su Qingyao moved in, they had never let anyone else tend to the courtyard.

Could it be... Qin Ruowei?

No, that's not right.

Lin Chen immediately rejected this guess.

If Qin Ruowei were one of Master Xuefu's people, Master Yaochen would never have used her to set up a trap.

Then, there was only one possibility left.

This crystal had already been buried here before they moved in!

This was an indiscriminate trap aimed at all the "honored guests" who stayed in the Danyang Peak guest courtyard!

Master Xuefu, this Elder of the Internal Affairs Hall of the Danxia Sect, had actually been using this method to monitor and even frame the Sect's guests all along!

Just as stormy waves were rising in Lin Chen's heart, a slender figure stumbled over the courtyard wall, carrying a heavy smell of burning and blood, and fell heavily to the ground.

"Qin Ruowei!"

Lin Chen took a step and instantly arrived by her side.

Su Qingyao and Lin Haoyu also exclaimed and gathered around.

Qin Ruowei was in an extremely wretched state at this moment. Her sleek black martial outfit had several large holes burned into it, and on her exposed arms, eerie, withered, and shriveled patterns had emerged—exactly the same as those on the Cultivators in the prison whose Spiritual Roots had been stripped!

"Bai Hong... it's the True Blood Temple deacon, Bai Hong..." Qin Ruowei gasped for air, her face completely devoid of color. She gripped Lin Chen's sleeve tightly, her eyes filled with terror. "I tracked him to the Forbidden Ground at the back mountain and discovered he was burning a pile of documents... I tried to stop him and accidentally inhaled those fumes... My Spiritual Qi, my Spiritual Root... are withering!"

Lin Chen's heart sank abruptly.

He helped Qin Ruowei up and probed her body with his Spiritual Qi. Sure enough, he discovered a sinister and eerie energy occupying her Dantian and Spiritual Root, like a maggot on a bone, crazily devouring her vitality.

This energy was of the same origin as that "Spirit-Dissolving Blood Formation," but even more overbearing!

"Qing Yao, act as Protector!" Lin Chen shouted in a low voice.

Su Qingyao had already reacted. She did not hesitate at all and took out the pot of seven-heart begonia that Master Yaochen had sent from her Storage Pouch.

She gently pinched the flower with her fingertips, took a few grains of pollen even finer than dust, her cool face full of solemnity.

She also recognized the origin of this evil energy and knew how thorny this matter was.

"Husband, this 'Spirit-Withering Powder' is a variant of the Spirit-Dissolving Blood Formation, and it is extremely vicious. I am not sure if the seven-heart begonia will be effective..." As she said this, her fingertips were already pressed against her lips, pressing out a deep white mark.

"Try it!" Lin Chen's tone was unquestionable.

Su Qingyao took a deep breath, hesitated no longer, and carefully sprinkled the few grains of pollen onto the continuously spreading withered patterns on Qin Ruowei's arm.

A strange scene occurred!

As soon as the golden pollen touched the skin, not only did it not dissolve that evil energy, but it acted like a catalyst, making those black patterns writhe even more violently!

Qin Ruowei let out a painful muffled groan, and the skin on her arm actually withered away at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's useless?" Su Qingyao's face turned deathly pale.

Lin Chen's eyes, however, were locked tightly onto those patterns, his heart pounding wildly.

After the violent writhing, those patterns did not continue to spread; instead, as if guided and reorganized by an invisible force, they slowly outlined a few crooked, fly-head-sized words on Qin Ruowei's withered arm!

"Bloodline detection falsification records hidden in..."

The handwriting stopped abruptly here; the subsequent part was blurry, as if it had been burned, making it impossible to recognize.

Lin Chen and Su Qingyao looked at each other, both seeing extreme shock in the other's eyes.

This is not poison!

Or rather, this is not just poison!

This smoke is a most vicious secret messaging technique that uses life and Spiritual Roots as ink and paper!

What Bai Hong burned was not ordinary documents at all, but a carrier recording a heaven-shaking secret!

And this pot of seven-heart begonia sent by Master Yaochen was not a gift of apology, but the only "developing agent" that could decipher this secret!

One ring after another, every step was heart-stopping!

Lin Chen had no time to think deeply about the implications of this. Seeing that Qin Ruowei's aura was getting weaker and weaker, he gritted his teeth, formed his fingers into a sword shape, tapped them on the center of Qin Ruowei's eyebrows, and channeled his pure Spiritual Qi into her.

But that evil energy was extremely stubborn; as soon as his Spiritual Qi made contact, more than half of it was devoured.

Just at this moment, while supporting Qin Ruowei, the back of Lin Chen's right hand was accidentally scratched by the tip of her hairpin, creating a small wound.

A trace of black blood oozed out from the wound.

The blood was pitch black like ink, without a hint of the smell of blood; instead, it carried a faint burnt smell. Under the dim light, it did not reflect light at all, as if it could absorb the light itself.

Lin Chen felt a shiver in his heart. Ignoring this eerie wound, he focused all his attention on countering that evil energy.

He laid Qin Ruowei flat on the ground and said to Su Qingyao in a deep voice: "Qing Yao, act as Protector! Haoyu, guard the courtyard gate; no one is allowed to approach!"

After saying this, he sat cross-legged, formed seals with both hands, and prepared to use a secret technique from his Family's Cultivation Technique to forcibly purify this energy.

Inside the courtyard, the atmosphere instantly became heavy to the extreme.

The night breeze seemed to have ceased as well, leaving only the increasingly powerful Spiritual Qi fluctuation on Lin Chen's body, engaging in a silent and dangerous confrontation with that deathly still evil energy inside Qin Ruowei's body.