Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 107 - 106 Good Affinity Part 2

Chapter 107: Chapter 106 Good Affinity Part 2

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, several years have passed.

Lin Xin’s "Minor Return to Origin" technique required painstaking effort and progressed very slowly. At such a high level, it required ten days of cultivation practice to make even a little progress. This was even with the amplification provided by a suppressing formation.

In the blink of an eye, he was already thirty years old. Little Lin Zhen was also nine years old.

Spirit Heart Villa gradually developed into a colossal entity dominating the Happy Prefecture. In these years, the five top experts under the Villa’s command had established quite a few merits. Lin Xin forcibly improved each of them to inner family experts with the Blood Pill method, although they were all only at the first layer, and advancement was extremely difficult. Nevertheless, their joy was boundless. Additionally, due to the Villa’s formations, they were even more loyal to Lin Xin.

For many of the grievances and troubles within the Happy Prefecture, Lin Xin did not take action himself but had the five of them take the newly recruited experts to suppress them one by one. After all, with his Luminous Talisman Stones and Luminous Talisman Swords, they only needed a little inner Qi to activate and were extremely convenient to use.

This had become a unique feature of his Spirit Heart Villa.

Over the years, Lin Xin’s cultivation level had also risen to the seventh layer, but afterward, there seemed to be no sign of progress. It appeared he had hit a bottleneck.

Whether it was taking amplifying elixirs, various treasures, or using formations for enhancement, his cultivation level seemed to have solidified, stagnating in place. The Sect had also given up on him, and even Old Lady Yu, who had high hopes for him, gradually became disappointed and no longer paid much attention to him.

Lin Xin, however, was happy to enjoy the peace, making significant gains in his study of formations every day.

He had basically mastered all the basic formations, and he had also learned more than half of the mid-level formations that required Spirit Jade, well ahead of time. However, he was frustrated by the inability to study them—without Qi Cultivation, there was no spiritual energy, and he couldn’t make use of Spirit Jade. Therefore, the only formations he could use were the few owned by the Sect.

Huang Shan had entered the great perfection of the ninth layer and was taken as a disciple by another senior of the Formation Hall. He would often come to the Villa to ask for various talisman artifacts.

Mainly Luminous Talisman Artifacts. Among the few formations that do not require Spirit Jade, this one had the most practical power.

Over time, the Sect also learned about the effectiveness and power of the Luminous Talisman Artifacts made by Lin Xin. They too began trying to make them, but even the Foundation Establishment Stage formation masters could at most make two talisman swords a day before becoming completely exhausted. The mental strain was too great, requiring half a month to recover, which ultimately proved to be a loss rather than a gain. They had no choice but to attribute it to Lin Xin’s exceptional talent.

And the Luminous Talisman Swords and Stones became the signature product of Spirit Heart Villa, in high demand and short supply. The Villa thus grew increasingly wealthy, accumulating more and more resources, becoming almost as rich as a country in a few years’ time.

Because of this, the Sect no longer assigned Lin Xin to participate in various dangerous missions, allowing him to make talisman artifacts in the Villa. However, they prohibited him from revealing too much to the outside world, only providing a fixed annual supply to the Sect.

With Lin Xin’s efficiency, making ten blades a day was no issue, yet he simply made one each day, leisurely accumulating them while living a leisurely life. He also heavily invested in buying treasures of heaven and earth, and various formations that did not require Spirit Jade, as well as Demon Talisman Seeds...

Life at the Villa was mostly boring, with strange and terrifying events not happening all the time. Within the entire Happy Prefecture, having one incident a year was considered quite remarkable.

What needed special attention was the infiltration of demon cultivators and monsters from the borders.

However, since the last assassination attempt failed, neither Red Mansion nor Silver Cave followed up.

******************

Snowflakes fluttered down, and the bamboo forest was covered with thick layers of snow. The branches and leaves drooped under its weight, with everything shrouded in white.

In the snow, within the bamboo forest, the only place free from the thick snow was a small square pavilion with a pointed roof.

Inside the brown pavilion, Lin Xin kneeled on a cushion, in front of him a charcoal stove with steaming hot black tea boiling on top. The scalding steam spurted out of the teapot, billowing upwards.

Gongsun Li sat opposite him, this old man who had been in the Villa for almost ten years now seemed even older. His hair and beard had completely turned white, his face had many more wrinkles, and his vitality had declined significantly.

Beside the two, a young girl in a red cotton coat with a jade necklace led a little boy around ten years old, playing in the snow. Their laughter as they played, making snowmen one minute, having snowball fights the next, was continuous and joyous.

"Lao Li, you’re ninety this year, right?" Lin Xin felt somewhat sentimental.

"Yes, ninety-one already. I don’t know how much longer I can serve the Villa." Gongsun Li sighed softly, coughing a few times.

"You’re still vigorous in your old age. You’ve done too much for the Villa over the years. You completely can hand over the responsibilities to Xiaohong and the others," Lin Xin said evenly. "Isn’t it better to enjoy your days in peace with Xue’er?"

"I don’t feel at ease about Ou Yinghong..." Gongsun Li spoke softly, lifting the teapot to pour himself and Lin Xin half a cup each, "They’ve only been in the Villa for a few years, many things are not handled well, and they could offend many forces..."

"Does my Spirit Heart Villa still need to fear offending secular powers?" Lin Xin laughed. Now in his early thirties, his face no longer carried its former youthfulness, replaced instead by a middle-aged man’s composure and grace. Over the years, spending time with his wife in arts and leisure had calmed his disposition even further.

"Still, it’s not good... The moon waxes and wanes, and the Villa can’t always remain so strong. There will be times of decline... Having good relationships will prevent too many people from kicking us when we’re down," Gongsun Li sighed. The past decade had made him view the Villa as a part of himself and his granddaughter—a home—to the extent that he truly had the Villa’s best interests at heart.

"You have a point," Lin Xin nodded in agreement. "It’s also good to leave some leeway for others and for ourselves."