Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 155 - 148: Delaying, Part 2

Chapter 155: Chapter 148: Delaying, Part 2

"My wife and I shall thank Sister Dugu on behalf of our junior brother," they said.

You Xuan hurriedly pulled Ji Lu to bow in thanks.

"No need, we each take what we need," Dugu Lin said as invisible sword light appeared beneath her feet, "I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll be leaving first."

The sword light carried her and shot towards the foot of the mountain in an instant, disappearing into the vast white sea of clouds in the blink of an eye.

Ji Lu and You Xuan both sighed.

"We’ve finally gotten past this hurdle..."

"Yes... It’s one thing to cross Han Xiaolong, but to have a Qi Refiner at the pinnacle of his power fall to the Demon Path, and there are only a few at the peak in our Sect, if the higher-ups find out, they’ll be furious. A thorough investigation will inevitably implicate the junior brother," Ji Lu said with concern.

"We just have to do our best..." You Xuan comforted him.

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

A blue pigeon slowly landed on the back of Lin Xin’s hand.

He gently removed the paper scroll from the pigeon’s leg and read it. A sigh of relief came over his face.

"It seems we’ve managed to buy some time for now."

At this moment, he stood in the Lake Heart Pavilion of the Manor, the sky was gloomy, and Liu Yang stood beside him with his head bowed.

Cough cough...

Pain flared up in his chest again, and Lin Xin couldn’t help but cough a few times. The injury where he had been pierced through the chest had not yet fully healed, and this time, his use of the Mundane Fire Formation, which he himself was not able to withstand, had aggravated his condition, turning it into a chronic illness.

After seeking a doctor, they all said his organs were damaged; it was a miracle he wasn’t dead already. Now he could only recover slowly and couldn’t overexert for prolonged periods, else his life would be in jeopardy.

"Sect Master..." Liu Yang said worriedly, "Your injury..."

"It’s nothing." The paper scroll in Lin Xin’s hand burned to ash, and he released the blue pigeon. "Just an old problem."

"What does the message say?" Liu Yang asked softly.

"The matter has been suppressed for now. The higher-ups are already very dissatisfied with the actions of that faction; we won’t have any problems on our side for the time being," Lin Xin whispered.

"But the sudden disappearance of a Qi Refiner is bound to bring masters to investigate..." Although he didn’t know what realm Yuan Shihong was in, Liu Yang had an instinctual feeling that he was definitely above the second or third layer of Qi Refinement; otherwise, Sect Master wouldn’t have had such a hard battle.

"Right now, the Manor is in a state of panic. Many people are spreading rumors, saying the Villa Master has offended a high-ranking Sect figure and might be exterminated as a result."

"Let them talk," Lin Xin said indifferently. "You can step back now."

Liu Yang nodded and swiftly withdrew. The qinggong he practiced was a movement technique that Lin Xin had conceived in the shadows of his dark dwelling.

Combining the qinggong he had encountered at his Sect with insights from the Extreme Yang Scroll and the exquisite techniques from the hand records, he had arrived at a movement technique named Heart-Eye. It focused on extreme strengthening of explosive power; it lacked endurance for prolonged use, but in combination with the inner strength from the Extreme Yang Scroll propelled by a Yang Polarity Pill, the burst of speed it produced was so fast that even Flash Spirit, at the same level, would find it difficult to match. The tricky thing was that it required the practitioner’s spirit to be in sync with the movement technique, or it might lead to missteps and falls.

After Liu Yang left, Lin Xin walked out of the pavilion, finding far fewer servants along the way.

Passing over the bridge, his gaze swept below, where he thought he saw a pale, drowned woman’s face, smiling up at him from under the water.

"Hm?"

As he looked back, he indeed saw that woman’s face in the water.

She appeared to be a woman who had drowned, dressed in white, her long hair like seaweed, her face bloated and decayed, smiling eerily at him.

Whosh, with a splash, the woman suddenly surged out of the water, her hands turning into claws as she viciously lunged at him.

"Husband.... My lord...."

Shssst!

A sharp silver sword light suddenly flared.

Lin Xin’s mind seemed filled with countless screams, and waves of tearing murderous intent surged in his heart, threatening to completely engulf his rationality.

Instinctively, he drew his sword and thrust it at the woman.

Whoosh...

A breeze blew by. He suddenly remembered something, and the sword light abruptly stopped.

"Daddy... Daddy..!" came the frightened voice of little Lin Zhen.

The illusion before his eyes vanished, and when Lin Xin saw the scene before him, his pupils constricted sharply.

He was holding his longsword, its tip mere inches from Lin Zhen’s nose, just a little bit more, and he would have... almost killed his own son...

A deep chill surged through him; he sheathed his longsword and suppressed the fright in his heart, forcing out as gentle a smile as he could manage.

"Zhen’er... Why did you suddenly come here? Weren’t you practicing with your mother?"

A small bead of blood emerged from Lin Zhen’s nose, and his face was deathly pale, with his lips trembling slightly.

"Daddy... Was that a... test just now?"

"Yes..." Lin Xin managed a strained smile, "But sadly, Daddy is a bit disappointed; your movement technique has regressed. Tonight, go to your sister Hong for extra qinggong practice."

"Yes..." Understanding dawned on Lin Zhen, who had truly thought he was about to be killed just moments before. But now it seemed it was just a test by his father, albeit a harsh and realistic one. With this thought, he felt much better in his heart.

After some stern words, Lin Xin waited until Lin Zhen had left, then stood on the bridge for a while, staring blankly at his reflection below.

"It’s time to go down again..." He knew that the appearance of the illusion meant he had to go back into the fray. Otherwise, the illusions would become stronger and more difficult to bear.

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

It was the Red Leaf Forest again.

Lin Xin’s figure gently emerged from mid-air and landed on the ground.

He glanced ahead and not far away, embedded in the ground, was a Demon Talisman Seed. That mysterious drunkard had apparently left, leaving behind the Demon Talisman Seed for positioning.

As a result, he had unintentionally positioned himself to this location.

"Why can’t I see anyone else?" A trace of doubt flickered through his mind.

Logically, if he could use these Demon Talisman Seeds to position himself here, then others should also be able to come here. But he didn’t understand why there were no other people in the Red Leaf Forest.

"Strange, isn’t it?"

The woman with a ghastly pale complexion, as if she would fall over with a mere gust of wind, eerily stood beside him. The two were merely less than a meter apart.

Lin Xin’s body tensed, and he nearly couldn’t help drawing his sword.

Hearing her question, he suppressed the discomfort in his heart and nodded slightly.

"That’s because other people... they don’t dare to come." The woman’s voice was soft and gentle, as if there was only exhalation without the vibration of vocal cords.

"Don’t dare? Why?" Lin Xin surmised a guess in his heart.

"Hehehe...." The woman’s laughter was exceptionally eerie as she leisurely walked to his front, scrutinizing him from top to bottom.

"Do you know?... The leaves here were not originally red...."

Lin Xin smelled a strong, pungent stench of blood that kept invading his nostrils, causing turmoil in his heart as if he wanted to vomit, but he forcefully suppressed it.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Can’t you smell it?" The woman then extended her index finger, gently placing it at her nose, shh....

She signaled Lin Xin to be quiet.

"The air is filled with countless scents of blood... and here, deep underground, the wailing and screaming of innumerable suffering souls...." She suddenly chuckled eerily.

She laughed so hard that she seemed almost unable to contain herself, even giving off a hysterical feel.

Lin Xin was overwhelmed by her laughter. His vision blurred, and he saw the woman suddenly disappear, only to reappear sitting on a tree branch nearby, her white dress swaying with her swinging legs.

"This place is a burial ground soaked in blood... the leaves, the trunks, the soil, even the rocks, everything, as if all were soaked in fresh blood and rot. Can’t you smell it?" The woman looked at Lin Xin with a bizarre expression.

"I can’t smell it..." Lin Xin suppressed the tumult in his heart and spoke in a low voice. "Who are you? And who is he?"

In a blur, the woman reappeared by a distant tree trunk, slowly squatting down to pick up a small branch.

"You can’t smell it because you’ve become accustomed to it...."

Silently, the drunkard emerged from behind a tree, holding a new yellow wine gourd, and sat back down, pulling out the Demon Talisman Seed and sipping intermittently.

Lin Xin took a deep breath; the two people before him were definitely powerful experts far beyond him, yet both were somewhat mysterious and eerie.

This forest must have its secrets, but he didn’t believe it was as the woman had said, that all these red leaves were dyed with blood.

Since he had come back here this time, it was a good opportunity to ask some questions.

These two were definitely knowledgeable about the ghostly manor. He had tried many times to disguise himself as a double-faced person and blend in, failing time after time. Maybe he could get some answers from these two.

"I would like to ask a question."

He looked toward the pale woman.

The woman played with the twig in her hand, seemingly not listening to him at all.

"I would like to seek advice from the senior, a question." Lin Xin repeated.

The woman raised her finger, shh....

"Don’t talk...."

The nauseating stench of blood from her pervaded the air once more.

Lin Xin was startled at first, but then he remembered what she had said before. His heart suddenly understood. He stood still, pondering for a moment.

"Thank you for your guidance, senior!"

He gave a salute and turned to leave.

The woman looked at him in bewilderment and then laughed casually again.

"Another madman...."

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

Several days later....

Walking slowly on the street of the double-faced people.

Lin Xin’s head was covered with a layer of opaque black cloth, a gentle, benevolent smile on his face, dressed like a man from Jianghu, barely distinguishable from the double-faced Jianghu people in the street-side tavern who were eating and drinking heartily.

By now, he had already found the reason he was discovered.

The double-faced people have two faces, one kind, one sharp and cold, representing two personalities within their hearts. Such a benevolent smile can’t just be faked; it must come from deep within.

But more troublesome was their sense of smell; they could easily pick up the slightest of scents. Even a faint trace of a scent that a person had come into contact with days earlier could be effortlessly differentiated by them.

Lin Xin first found a stream and took a bath, cleansing the scent from his body, then casually killed someone, returned, and crafted a small Formation specifically designed to hide scents.

Modifying such a Formation was a minor issue for him, and it was easily done to deceive ordinary people.

If it weren’t for the pressing time, he had originally planned to come down after reforging the Red Flower Sword. But now, he could no longer wait... The illusions were becoming more severe, and if he delayed further, he might face consequences that even he couldn’t foresee... (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)