Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 38: The Secret, Part Two

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: The Secret, Part Two

Lin Xin also knew what he meant; so many people had died. If they didn’t go to the graveyard to collect Yin Blood, then the great price they paid and the great risks they had taken would have all been in vain.

But when he thought of the uncanniness just now, he weighed the pros and cons. With the Solar Yang Talisman Sword in hand, he had lived through such weirdness several times already. What was there to be afraid of!?

With that thought, he quickly followed Kong Yuhui towards the graveyard.

Jiang Yue’er and Cheng Ruofei were even less daring to leave the men’s side; they simply couldn’t act alone at such a time. Both were wearing white and green dresses, which by now were soaked with sweat at the back and chest, subtly revealing the enticing lines of their undergarments underneath.

Yet Lin Xin and his companion had no intention of appreciating the sight, as they hurried towards the graveyard.

All along the way, Kong Yuhui kept whistling, but there was never any response. His expression grew uglier by the second.

The entire town and the graveyard, so many subordinates lay in ambush, yet not one was to be seen; it seemed as if only the four of them were alive.

Arriving at the graveyard.

The slope was deserted, not a single figure in the Redwood Forest.

Kong Yuhui took out a small porcelain bottle from his bosom, gave it a gentle shake, and immediately a thick fragrance wafted out.

Instantly, an extremely dense red mist appeared above the entire Redwood Forest.

"So many!"

Kong Yuhui exclaimed, tossing a porcelain bottle to Lin Xin and each of the two girls.

"Collect the Yin Blood quickly!"

Lin Xin followed his lead, opened the porcelain bottle, gave it a gentle shake, and immediately a thick fragrance drifted out as well.

Jiang Yue’er and Cheng Ruofei did the same.

In an instant, the entire sky filled with blood mist crazily surged into the four porcelain bottles like living creatures.

Hisss...

The red mist and the porcelain bottles made a faint frictional noise; it seemed like the mist would never be fully absorbed, endlessly pouring in.

The four of them stood still holding their bottles, hearts pounding with trepidation, waiting for the red mist to be absorbed.

"Here they come!" Suddenly, Kong Yuhui uttered a low shout.

Several red dots flashed before Lin Xin’s eyes, seemingly eight in total.

The red dots traced eight red lines, piercing into the four porcelain bottles with unerring accuracy.

"Cap them!" Kong Yuhui urgently called out loudly.

They quickly stuffed the stoppers back in, regardless of the massive red mist still pouring into the bottles.

Just then, several more blood-red lines swooped down from the sky, charging straight towards the porcelain bottles.

Lin Xin saw it clearly; this time, those red lines were actually a headless crow drenched in blood red!

Where the crow’s head should have been was just a bloody neck, the wound revealing the muscles and bones inside twitching slightly.

"That’s the Yin Blood Bird!" Kong Yuhui warned, "Be careful, they are extremely poisonous!"

Without needing his warning, Lin Xin, holding the Solar Yang Talisman Sword, infused it with Inner Strength. He wasn’t as fast as the Yin Blood Bird, but the Solar Yang Talisman Sword ignited a Fire Ring indiscriminately all around. As long as the Fire Ring was fast enough.

"Explode!"

He uttered a low shout.

Boom!!

Intense yellow flames exploded, forming a Fire Ring that spread out in all directions.

The claws of the Yin Blood Bird hadn’t even touched the porcelain bottle when they were hit full-on by the flames, thrown far away, turning into heaps of charred flesh.

On the other side, Jiang Yue’er was in a sorry state, rolling around on the grass, driven to desperation by the Yin Blood Bird. In her hand, she held a Jade Pendant, from which wafts of White Light emanated. The Yin Blood Bird seemed quite afraid of the white smoke, not daring to press too close, or she would have been dead many times over.

Cheng Ruofei, however, was jogging towards Lin Xin.

She was smart enough to know that Lin Xin could help, with the Yin Blood Bird hot on her heels.

Lin Xin’s expression unchanged, charged forward, grabbing Cheng Ruofei and pressed her tightly against himself.

"Close your eyes!" he growled.

Following his command, Cheng Ruofei hurriedly shut her eyes, their bodies pressed closely together. Her full chest was completely squashed against Lin Xin’s body.

Boom!!

Another Fire Ring exploded, dealing with the second Yin Blood Bird.

When the Solar Yang Talisman Sword set off the Fire Ring, there was a narrow gap at the center that allowed the sword bearer to avoid it. Lin Xin achieved this by intentionally raising the sword, positioning himself behind the hilt, creating that effect.

But that space was very tight, so he had to bring Cheng Ruofei as close to himself as possible.

Crack.

Another Yin Blood Bird fell to the ground, utterly scorched.

Kong Yuhui stood nearby, his sword tip slowly emerging from the Yin Blood Bird’s body. He then quickly moved towards Jiang Yue’er, the sword’s tip flashing with a White Light, shooting out at an incredible speed, firmly impaling the last Yin Blood Bird.

"Enough! Let’s get out of here! The Yin Blood Birds can’t be killed in the red mist!"

He roared, turning to run.

Lin Xin let go of Cheng Ruofei, who quickly helped Jiang Yue’er up, and the three of them dashed out of the red mist at high speed.

Behind them, the wounds on the four Yin Blood Birds healed rapidly, shedding the charred flesh, and their bare wings trembled as if ready to take flight once again.

Rushing out of the area shrouded in red mist, the four Yin Blood Birds charged out after them like arrows.

Lin Xin’s face was stern as he turned back and struck with his sword again.

Boom!!

The fire ring exploded, blasting four Yin Blood Birds at once, hurling them far away.

This time, however, they were not within the red mist zone. Their wounds showed no signs of healing again.

Lin Xin hurriedly picked up the four bird corpses upon seeing this.

"Let’s go!"

Kong Yuhui shouted loudly.

Cheng Ruofei and Jiang Yue’er also stopped to wait for him, as they had come to understand that without him, Kong Yuhui might turn on them at any moment.

Lin Xin was about to reply when he suddenly heard a large flapping of wings from behind him, within the red mist.

"Damn it!"

He broke out in goosebumps all over and started running towards Kong Yuhui’s direction.

The four of them sprinted desperately away from the town.

Behind them, hundreds of Yin Blood Birds shot out like arrows from the dense red mist, in relentless pursuit.

The Yin Blood Birds, like arrows piercing through the red mist, chased them for several hundred meters before slowly decelerating, turning back to the direction of the mist.

Lin Xin, gasping for air and sweating profusely, finally caught up with Kong Yuhui and the others who had slowed down.

The four continued along the carriage path, surrounded by grey-white ruins on either side.

"We haven’t completely left the town’s boundary yet if we continue this way,"

declared Kong Yuhui coldly, "We must get as far away from here as possible tonight!"

Without further ado, Lin Xin and the others hastened their pace.

They traveled non-stop throughout the night, taking short breaks intermittently, until dawn gradually broke. Only then did they find a large rock by the road to sit and rest.

After a night of running, Kong Yuhui, who was initially neat and composed, was grimy with sweat, his hair a tangled mess, bereft of his usual dashing demeanor.

Jiang Yue’er and Cheng Ruofei, both originally dressed daintily, were now in a sorry state, their dresses smeared with dirt and littered with bits of grass, their neatly hemmed skirts torn to facilitate running, their fair faces streaked with dirt.

Lin Xin wiped his forehead, which was slick with dried sweat, and felt the sticky area where his collar met his neck.

"Our baggage is all on the carriage. Let’s head to the nearest town to hire a carriage and go straight back," he said in a low voice.

"Too many people died this time," Kong Yuhui stated grimly.

"So, how should we handle the aftermath?" Lin Xin queried, looking at him. "Since you’ve decided to do this, you must have a full plan and be prepared."

"The original plan was foolproof. I didn’t expect all my men to disappear," retorted Kong Yuhui bitterly as he planted his sword sheath into the ground in front of him. "For now, we’ll blame the accident entirely on the town’s malice."

"What exactly is up with that town?" Cheng Ruofei interjected.

This was something that both Lin Xin and Jiang Yue’er wanted to know as well.

Kong Yuhui shook his head slightly.

"That town... it’s actually a natural Formation that accumulates Yin Blood! The Yin Blood Birds are spawned from it. Originally, the Formation was inactive and harmless, but an accidental incident thirty years ago triggered it. Most of the people in the town vanished without a trace."

"Like we saw, leaving only their clothes?" Lin Xin asked softly.

"Yes, just like that," Kong Yuhui confirmed with a nod, "Afterwards, high-level experts went to investigate, but they couldn’t discover anything. They simply declared it a mortal-restricted area allowing only a few and sect disciples to enter in small numbers for mission training, warning them not to enter in large groups."

"However, it is said that conscious resentful spirits exist. I suspect it has something to do with that Song Zhen, so I targeted him for questioning. And as you know, to no avail."

"Originally, how did you know about the Yin Blood?" Lin Xin suddenly asked again.

"A senior female disciple on my team came to me in the middle of the night and told me," Kong Yuhui casually replied. "What about it?"

In the middle of the night?

Lin Xin’s brow furrowed. He now had some clues; it seemed the real aim of the town’s malice was to cause the disciples who entered to slaughter each other, using Yin Blood as bait to increase the town’s death toll...

"What were the death and injury rates on your previous expeditions?" he delved further.

"It was my first time on this mission. I came with five people, two died. The second time... twelve came, eight died," Kong Yuhui answered succinctly. "This time, I brought more than twenty of my family’s subordinates, and now only three of us are left... but, we obtained eight drops of Yin Blood!"

His eyes glinted with a faint fervor as he spoke, yet he seemed largely unconcerned about the many deaths.

Lin Xin felt a chill in his heart.

"Eight drops, how should we divide them?"

He glanced at Cheng Ruofei and Jiang Yue’er. They promptly took out the porcelain bottles in their hands and handed them over to him.

Lin Xin took each bottle in turn, his gaze falling on Kong Yuhui.

Kong Yuhui, likewise, was intently watching him.

"One drop of Yin Blood, just two months to assimilate, and one below the Fourth Layer can boost their Inner Qi by one layer..."

"That’s amazing!" Lin Xin was startled, realizing just how beneficial Yin Blood was! Then there were eight drops of Yin Blood here.

"Half each!" Kong Yuhui bluntly proposed.

"Alright!"

Lin Xin didn’t hesitate and immediately nodded in agreement.

"You’ve put in a lot of effort, and you alone have invested things like the Poisonous Fragrance, not to mention all the deaths. Honestly, you’ve lost out," he candidly said.

"Yin Blood’s effects are minimal above the Fourth Layer, and I only need two drops to reach the Fourth Layer. Any excess would be significantly less effective, so I plan to use it to request an elder brother for Alchemy," Kong Yuhui stated earnestly. "Besides, having more friends opens more paths, and with Brother Lin’s strength, you won’t always remain unnoticed. Although we’re not exceptional geniuses, if we work diligently, we’re bound to succeed in Qi Cultivation one day!"

His words, filled with conviction, drew sidelong glances from Cheng Ruofei and Jiang Yue’er.