Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 227 - 220 Inevitably Part 2

Chapter 227: Chapter 220 Inevitably Part 2

The Insect Master is the common enemy of the entire Human Race. Should news of this spread, it wouldn’t merely be a problem for the Hua Family. Instead, the entire Human Sects might take action to exterminate us. By then, even as a Golden Core, I wouldn’t be able to escape annihilation.

So, I must choose between two evils.

If there’s even the slightest possibility, Hua Yunu is sure to die.

"This matter ends here, please stay for a few more days. Once the Hua Family makes its next move, the reward will be distributed," Lin Xin communicated telepathically. After he finished speaking, he felt several hostile gazes covertly fall upon him, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly who they were from.

It’s just common sense not to flaunt wealth. If it hadn’t been for this desperate situation, he wouldn’t have wanted to expose his financial power like this.

Regrettably, things don’t always go as one wishes.

After this incident was concluded, Lin Xin subtly considered leaving the Manor.

He had stayed in Spirit Heart Villa for too long, so long that he even began to regard the entire Le Fu Realm as his hometown. He had married and had children and now even grandchildren.

After the Daoist Masters dispersed, Lin Xin returned to the Inner Hall with Porcelain King. The villa’s high-ranking officials and his parents were all gathered together, ensuring the safety of their kin at all times.

Lin Zhen’s two wives stood prettily with their two little tykes. Upon seeing Lin Xin entering, the children began to babble and, perhaps intrigued by Lin Xin’s attire or for some other reason, both stretched out their arms wanting him to pick them up.

Walking over gently, Lin Xin carefully picked up one child in each arm.

"My dear little ones, you’ve grown so much."

"Thanks to Grandpa’s blessings, the kids are healthy and haven’t been sick," their mother said with happiness.

Lin Xin casually inquired about his grandson’s well-being and, as the conversation went on, he felt an unusual sensation in his heart.

What he had brought to Spirit Heart Villa was already more than enough. By now, the villa had amassed wealth that could last several lifetimes and their strength and network had penetrated deep into the Sword Sect, culminating in an influence that had fundamentally transformed. Even century-old noble families couldn’t compare.

With the rise of new villa experts like Nan Shunqing, there was less need for him to stay as the Villa Master. They were becoming self-sufficient.

"Perhaps, it’s time to retire after achieving success..." As this thought emerged in Lin Xin, it took root with an unusual persistence.

He continued to dandle his grandchildren while sitting with Porcelain King at the principal seat, making casual conversation, but his heart had already started to contemplate retirement.

The presence he brought to the villa now was more troublesome and risky rather than secure and stable.

But cultivation practice can’t forever remain in one place.

The more he comprehended and learned from the vast collection of the Two-Faced Kingdom’s scriptures, the more he felt his observation of nature was too inadequate, rendering many insights merely superficial.

"Perhaps it’s time for a journey."

No sooner had this thought appeared than it became deeply engrained in his mind.

Late in the day, after seeing Porcelain King off, he went alone to the alchemy room at dusk, continuing to nurture and feed Yin Mantuo with a bounty of resources. The Qilin move required the full cooperation of Yin Mantuo.

He was unable to quantify the Qilin’s exact power; it was not a fixed move but rather a particular state. If one was inherently strong, the state would be formidable. If one was weak, then that state would also be lesser.

Standing by the alchemy furnace, he calmed his mind and picked up some rare materials prepared for Foundation Establishment. For him at this time, ample wealth meant no worry about the unavailability of materials.

The three items laid out before him, Golden Dragon Root, River Defect Scales, and White Element Flowers, were all Third Grade treasures essential for cultivators’ Foundation Establishment. Each one was something that cultivators would risk their lives to gather.

Many cultivators only managed to use one item for Foundation Establishment, with a pitifully low success rate of barely twenty percent. But if they added the other two, the chances could soar to seventy or eighty percent.

"I’m just missing the two most critical items now." Lin Xin contemplated the materials before him. These three, along with some minor ingredients to concoct a medicated bath, could facilitate bodily transformation akin to rebirth.

Merging it with dragon bones could yield a true Dragon King foundation.

However, all of it hinged upon one crucial item.

And that was Sun Spring.

After staring at the three items for a moment, Lin Xin slowly put away the box.

"Sun Spring, the core support for every Mortal Realm. Without it as the flesh and blood, it’s impossible to construct a foundation. It seems I must make a trip back to the Sect," he reflected, considering that the natives of the Ghost Mansion had never mentioned Sun Spring. How, then, did they break through the Foundation Establishment Stage?

Gently placing the box into a secret compartment, Lin Xin turned to leave the private room.

Buzz!!

Suddenly, a bright Sword Light flashed out of nowhere, lunging straight for his throat.

The Sword Light was like an arrow from a bowstring, snow-white and needle-thin, radiating a delicate white glow.

Lin Xin urgently drew his sword to defend, thrusting forward.

Chii!

A flash of blood occurred, and as his sight blurred momentarily before clearing, he saw his own sword brutally piercing through his left hand.

Intense pain swiftly spread from the wound.

Drops of crimson blood trickled down from the wound on his palm, splattering onto the dark floor of the secret chamber, creating specks of blood.

"I....."

He vaguely saw a red figure flash by in front of him.

"Lingling!" He executed his movement technique and chased after it at high speed, only to hear bits of clear, crisp laughter.

After leaving the secret chamber and turning left in pursuit of the red figure, he found himself in a deserted corridor, with not a soul in sight, just a long white corridor.

He walked slowly down the corridor and saw on the left side several dark, glazed windows through which he could faintly make out the scenes inside the rooms.

As he passed the first room, he glanced inside involuntarily, spotting a woman in white with black hair covering her face, sitting on the bed. Her features weren’t clear, but she sat quietly on the bed, facing the window.

The second window revealed the same scene: a woman with a white dress and long black hair sitting quietly on the bed, motionless towards the window.

Lin Xin walked past four windows, each presenting the exact same scene. A woman with black hair and a white dress sitting quietly at the head of the bed, still as stone.

After walking a certain distance, he suddenly felt that something was off.

"A corridor? When did the manor get a corridor like this?" He remembered that the design of the manor couldn’t possibly include a place fitted with glazed tiles, and every area should have been guarded instead of unattended like this, where he had walked a distance without seeing any guards.

Suddenly, he turned and looked back the way he had come.

There he saw a distorted circular hole that seemed to be the entrance to this corridor. A woman in a red dress was standing at the entrance, smiling at him with an indistinct face that somewhat resembled Xiao Lingling.

Before he could react, the woman stepped backward, grabbed the twisted circular hole, and with seemingly delicate arms, started to visibly close it bit by bit.

A bad premonition surged up, and Lin Xin faintly felt that if he couldn’t quickly exit through that circular hole, he might be trapped here forever.

He wasn’t sure what this corridor was, but instinctively felt it was definitely not a good place.

With his movement technique instantly unleashed, Lin Xin suddenly burst forward, leaving a trail of afterimages as he lunged toward the woman in the red dress.

"You... don’t love me anymore?" The woman’s face was blurry, but she emitted an unclear voice.

The sound drilled into Lin Xin’s ears like a mixture of numerous shrill noises, then suddenly amplified manifold.

He endured the noise, drew his sword, and stabbed at the figure.

"You’re not Lingling!" Lin Xin roared lowly. Unbeknownst to him, his ears had begun to bleed, forming two red lines.

The sword light lengthened, piercing through the abdomen of the woman in the red dress and going straight through her.

The woman completely melted away, like a candle, quickly dissolving into a pool of red viscous liquid.

Only then did Lin Xin see that the circular hole behind her had shrunk to just over a meter wide; he leapt up, spun through the hole, and as he did, he felt as if something had brushed against his chest—a hand, or something else.

Whoosh!!!

Lin Xin suddenly opened his eyes, gasping for air like a fish out of water.

The secret chamber from earlier was still there, and he was standing in front of the three materials he had placed before.

Yet, he felt his forehead and back drenched in cold sweat, reaching up to wipe it away, his hand coming back wet.

"Just now, what was that?"

He didn’t understand, the illusions were supposed to originate from lingering spirits, which had never advanced in level, always supposedly suppressed by his cultivation, but the episode just now made him feel a disaster was imminent.

"Lingling...." He slowly lifted his hand, and on his previously injured finger, the residual, slightly rotten area had spread further down.

It crept from the tip to the pad of his finger, appearing no longer like a living being’s, the surface ashen with mottling similar to a corpse’s, and exuding a hint of rotting smell...

Putting down his hand, Lin Xin breathed heavily.

"The illusion, it’s clearly intensified...."

He felt somewhat breathless. A deep gash appeared in the palm of his left hand, like a sword wound.

Gently lifting his clothes, he realized that at some point, a blue palm imprint had appeared right on his chest.

"Impossible, my cultivation has improved, how can the illusions also intensify?"

Resting his hand on the platform, his chest heaved violently.

"Moreover, this palm imprint, it’s definitely not something an illusion could produce. If that’s the case, there’s only one possibility: the entity I encountered in the illusion might be more than just an illusion...."

He had always treated the illusions as purely fictitious, but the current signs indicated they were not just simple figments of the imagination....

"What’s making the illusions stronger?" He covered up and began to inspect his internal condition, circulating his energy slowly.

Slaughter? Or something else?

He meticulously recalled what had been different recently compared to before, having an epiphany. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)