92: Chapter 92 Anchor Point in a Pool of Blood

These words were like a stabilizing force, instantly calming the team's nerves which had been frayed by the series of events.

The two most burly Lin family guards did not hesitate for a moment, immediately propping up Lin Chen from the left and right.

One of them quickly crouched down, while the other carefully hoisted Lin Chen's body onto his companion's back.

This process was performed with perfect coordination, avoiding any strain on Lin Chen's right arm as much as possible.

Liu Yuan flashed to the rear, holding his short sword horizontally, his Spiritual Qi restrained, eyes fixed like a hawk on the churning mist behind them, guarding against any potential pursuers.

Liu Ruxu had already hurried to the front of the team. With one hand, she tightly gripped the iron vine rope that held everyone's lives together, and with the other, she fished out a piece of faintly glowing chalk from a small pouch. Along the way, she quickly drew inconspicuous marks on passing rocks or tree trunks—signs that only internal members of the Lin family could understand.

This was a double insurance.

Lin Chen's cheek pressed tightly against the guard's broad, sturdy back, the sweat-dampened fabric carrying the salty warmth of a body.

A piercing, bone-chilling pain surged in waves from that strange wound on his right arm, battering his nerves.

This pain was completely different from ordinary sword wounds; it wasn't the burning pain of torn flesh, but a deeper, dull ache, as if his bones and Meridians were being finely ground and torn apart by an invisible force.

He could clearly "see" internally that the Spiritual Qi within his body, when flowing through the Meridians near the wound on his right arm, encountered invisible reefs, creating a feeling of violent obstruction.

Waves of Spiritual Qi collided against the blockage point; not only did they fail to break through the barrier, but they also stirred up a series of faint "hissing" sounds that only he could hear.

The sound was like dry firewood crackling in a fierce fire, or like space itself emitting a groan under an unbearable burden.

What made his heart sink even further was that the circle of skin around the edge of the wound, which had originally been slightly smooth, now presented a strange grayish-white color.

In the dim light, that grayish-white color seemed to be slowly spreading outward, carrying a cold, lifeless texture, as if his flesh and blood were "crystallizing" inch by inch.

"Patriarch, please endure it!" Liu Ruxu's voice came from the front, tinged with anxiety.

She had evidently also noticed the deterioration of the situation through Lin Chen's increasingly pale face and the cold sweat seeping from his forehead.

She freed one hand to take a small porcelain bottle from her bosom, poured out a Medicinal Pill that emitted a rich, herbal fragrance, and took out a Talisman inscribed with a rejuvenation rune. She hurried to Lin Chen's side, intending to feed him the pill while applying the Talisman to his wound.

"Don't..." Lin Chen managed to spit out a single word with difficulty.

But it was already too late.

That valuable Grade 2 healing Medicinal Pill, as soon as it entered his mouth, transformed into a gentle medicinal force that surged along his Meridians toward the wound.

However, just as the medicinal force reached the edge of the "crystallized" area, it was as if it had been instantly swallowed by an invisible black hole, not even causing a ripple.

At the same time, the soft green halo from the rejuvenation Talisman that Liu Ruxu had activated was instantly extinguished the moment it touched the wound, as if "wiped away" by an invisible hand, having no effect whatsoever.

Liu Ruxu's pupils shrank violently, and the blood drained from her face.

Conventional healing methods had completely failed!

The hearts of everyone in the team sank to the bottom along with that extinguished green light.

No one said another word, and the speed of their retreat suddenly increased.

Following the ropes and marks left on their way in, they no longer hesitated at all, moving through the complex terrain at almost the fastest speed possible.

Every step landed on solid ground, and every turn was decisive and swift.

The thick mist churned beside them, as if countless Vicious Beasts were lurking, waiting to devour them, but at this moment, the only thought in everyone's mind was to leave this damned place as soon as possible.

Unknown how much time had passed, when the thick grayish-white before their eyes finally became thin, and a wisp of normal air mixed with the fragrance of soil filled their nostrils, everyone involuntarily let out a sigh of relief.

They had finally walked out.

The temporary camp outside the valley had been prepared by Liu Yuan in advance in a highly concealed stone cave.

He quickly set up several simple Formations at the cave entrance to isolate aura and sound, a pale cyan light screen flashing and then disappearing, completely isolating the small cave from the outside world.

Lin Chen was carefully laid flat on a dry animal skin.

At this moment, his lips were chapped, and his face was as pale as paper, but his eyes remained clear and calm.

"Ruxu, give me an empty Jade bottle." His voice was somewhat weak, but clear and logical.

Liu Ruxu immediately handed over a clean, small white jade bottle.

Lin Chen looked at his right arm.

The wound was no longer bleeding, and the circle of grayish-white crystallized area at the edge had expanded slightly compared to when they were in the mist, as if a circle of strange stone had been inlaid into his living flesh.

He mobilized the little remaining Spiritual Qi in his body, forcibly squeezing the flesh near the wound.

The intense pain made him grunt, and a drop of blood, bright red yet tinged with a strange, dark dullness, finally seeped out with difficulty from the edge of the crystallization and was precisely dripped into the Jade bottle by him.

The moment the blood fell into the Jade bottle, an incredible phenomenon occurred.

On the smooth inner wall of the Jade bottle, centered on that drop of blood, a layer of very faint, silver-gray frost, like winter window patterns, quickly condensed.

Liu Yuan had been watching with bated breath. Seeing this, he carefully picked up the Jade bottle and walked slowly to the edge of the Formation at the cave entrance.

Wisps of thin mist were seeping in through the gaps in the Formation.

He aimed the bottle opening at that wisp of mist.

The scene that followed confirmed Lin Chen's conjecture in the valley.

That drifting wisp of mist, when it was still three inches away from the bottle opening, suddenly stalled as if it had life, and then, as if it had encountered some existence that made it extremely fearful, it hurriedly turned and dissipated, avoiding it as if afraid of being too slow.

"As expected..." Liu Yuan muttered in a low voice, his eyes flashing with shock and contemplation.

Just at this moment, a burning sensation suddenly came from his bosom.

His expression changed, and he quickly took out the spirit-detention Jade bottle that was confining the special Mist Demon.

The originally cool jade bottle body was now slightly hot.

Through the translucent bottle wall, one could see the dark gray mist-like creature inside, frantically crashing against the bottle wall at an unprecedented frequency, creating ripples of energy.

The bright light point at its core was flickering violently, and its flashing frequency seemed to form some kind of strange resonance with the weak and unique spatial fluctuation coming from the wound on Lin Chen's right arm.

Lin Chen's gaze was also drawn to it.

He endured the discomfort of his body, separated a trace of extremely weak Divine Sense, and carefully probed into the Jade bottle.

As soon as his Divine Sense entered, a chaotic, violent, yet exceptionally pure tearing force came rushing at him, as if it wanted to completely crush this wisp of his Divine Sense.

And at the core of that tearing force, he clearly felt a vague intention originating from the Mist Demon, intertwined with two extreme emotions—an extreme "longing" for his blood, or rather, for a certain quality contained within the blood; at the same time, it held an instinctive "fear" of this very quality.

He suddenly retracted his Divine Sense, a sharp pain in his head, but his train of thought was instantly connected.

The rough stone ring on his thumb was now emitting a faint, warm sensation, as if lighting a weak oil lamp for him in a dark labyrinth.

The strange "crystallization" characteristic of the wound, the anomaly of his blood being able to dispel the mist, the Mist Demon's longing and fear of his blood, and this stone ring whose origin only he knew... countless clues intertwined and collided in his mind, finally merging into a clear deduction.

The mist in this valley was not naturally generated at all.

It was very likely the result of an unstable spatial barrier, causing the aura energy of some unknown "Other Realm" to leak out and mix with the local Spiritual Qi and matter of the Spirit Realm.

These so-called "Mist Demons" were likely semi-corporeal life forms nurtured by that spatial energy, existing between the virtual and the real.

And my blood... or rather, the certain quality that this stone ring, which has accompanied me for many years, has subtly imparted to my blood, seems to be able to produce a special reaction to this spatial energy.

It can temporarily "soothe" or, in other words, "dispel" this energy.

But the wound cannot heal, which shows that my own Foundation Establishment Stage restorative ability is insignificant and not worth mentioning in the face of this higher-level spatial power erosion.

"Master," Liu Yuan's voice interrupted his thoughts. He had already quickly recorded all the observed phenomena onto a Jade Slip. "The 'crystallization' near your wound is still slowly expanding. Although the speed is extremely slow, in the long run, it will inevitably damage your Meridians and Foundation. This place is not suitable for a long stay. We must immediately return to Qingxuan City and ask Madam Su... or find a more brilliant alchemist or medical cultivator to treat you."

He paused, his eyes becoming grave. "In addition, although the people from the Shadow Moon Pavilion were startled by us, they will definitely not give up. Given their style of operation, there must be eyes and ears left outside the valley. Our entry and exit this time have probably completely alerted them."

Lin Chen nodded slowly, indicating his agreement.

He propped himself up to a sitting position, pointed to the still-hot Jade bottle in Liu Yuan's hand, and ordered in a hoarse voice: "Seal it with a lead box to isolate the energy fluctuations, and keep it on your person. This thing... is the key."

Immediately, he looked at everyone: "We are retreating immediately."

Liu Yuan accepted the order and quickly sealed the restless Mist Demon, along with the Jade bottle, into a heavy lead box engraved with isolation runes.

After doing all this, he began to dismantle the camp's Formation and meticulously erased all traces of the team's stay.

Especially the patch of soil where Lin Chen's blood had dripped; he used Corpse Dissolving Powder to completely dissolve it, leaving not a single trace of abnormality.

Half an hour later, the interior of the stone cave returned to its original state, as if no one had ever been there.

The team did not choose to return directly to the official road to Qingxuan City, but instead detoured nearly a hundred miles to the west, entering a small town where ordinary people lived.

In the backyard of an inconspicuous inn in the town, they changed into ordinary clothes that had been prepared long ago, boarded an unremarkable, ordinary carriage pulled by two inferior horses, and mixed into the merchant caravans traveling south and north, driving toward Qingxuan City in low-key, separate groups.

Inside the carriage, Lin Chen leaned in the corner, wearing a large cloak that shrouded his entire person in shadows.

His right arm had been tightly wrapped by Liu Ruxu with multiple layers of bandages soaked in Spirit Spring water.

However, even so, on the outermost layer of the bandages, fine, needle-point-sized grayish-white crystals still slowly seeped out from the fibers of the fabric from time to time, flickering with a cold and strange light in the dim light.