Cultivation begins with earning spirit stones

Chapter 109 Flying Spirit 8 Directions

Zhang Lin secretly memorized the auras of the four people: Su Wan and Shen Qing from Biluo Palace, and Meng Chen and Chu Tianxing from Zifu Immortal Sect.

The fact that each sect dispatched five Qi Refining Grand Perfection experts to investigate such a strange place suggests either an underestimation of the dangers of White Stone Town or ulterior motives.

He didn't say much, but stood quietly at the edge of the open space, waiting.

Before long, the inner curtain was lifted, and a middle-aged cultivator came out.

This man was about forty years old, with a square face, three long wisps of beard, and wore a dark green robe in the style of the patrol office, with a silver token hanging at his waist.

His cultivation level was at the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, which was equivalent to the five people present. However, the killing aura on his body was as deep as an abyss, condensed and not dissipated. When he stood there, his aura was not like that of a cultivator, but rather like that of a battlefield general who had just emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

This judgment stirred something within Zhang Lin.

The cultivators in the Patrol Division are roughly divided into two categories: one is disciples trained by sects who cultivate orthodox immortal cultivation techniques, and the other is rogue cultivators selected from the army who follow the path of killing.

Although the Deputy Director Liu in front of us comes from a prominent family, he has clearly chosen the latter path.

These people act in a completely different way from sect cultivators. They show no mercy, only adhere to rules, and are absolute in their word.

His gaze swept over everyone present, pausing slightly on Zhang Lin.

"I am Liu Yi, Deputy Director of the Patrol Division. I'm sure you three clans have already been informed that I will be in charge of this mission." His voice was not loud, but it carried an inherent authority, making people unconsciously regard him as their leader.

"Now that everyone is here, if there are no objections, let's go inside and talk."

No one objected, and they filed in one after another.

The interior was simply furnished, with a long table in the center, on which was laid a map. The map was marked with cinnabar, showing the detailed terrain of Baishi Town, including streets, houses, and water sources.

The surrounding area was reinforced with an array, preventing spiritual senses from probing in from the outside.

Liu Yi stood behind the long table and waited for everyone to sit down before getting straight to the point: "You have all probably already read about the situation in Baishi Town in the jade slip."

"I have a few more updates to add..." He pointed to a location marked as the town hall in the center of the map, "Three nights ago, shadowy figures were detected in the town, but judging from their movements, they didn't seem to be living people."

"Not a living person? Or is it a zombie?" Meng Chen asked.

"That possibility cannot be ruled out." Liu Yi raised his head, shifting his gaze from the map to slowly sweep over everyone present. "It's also possible that it's something even more troublesome."

These words made the atmosphere in the tent a bit more somber.

Liu Yi didn't dwell on the topic, and said directly, "My orders are to provide you with intelligence to help you find out the cause of the anomaly in Mingshi Town, locate the whereabouts of the two groups of missing cultivators, and, if conditions permit, eliminate the source of the anomaly."

He pointed to Meng Chen and Su Wan: "You five will split into two teams. Meng Chen will lead the team to be responsible for the eastern area of ​​the town, and Su Wan will lead the team to be responsible for the western area of ​​the town. The main task this time is to investigate the origin of those figures."

"After entering White Stone Town, contact us every two hours using a communication talisman. If you discover anything during the exploration, do not try to hold on; retreat immediately. Your own safety is the top priority."

This arrangement was swift and efficient, without a single unnecessary word.

Zhang Lin nodded to himself. This Deputy Commander Liu was indeed a veteran of the battlefield. His orders were clear and logical, and he had a good grasp of priorities.

"Any objections?" Liu Yi asked.

Meng Chen shook his head.

Su Wan also said no.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Lin suddenly spoke up: "Deputy Commander Liu, there is something I don't understand."

Liu Yi looked at him and said, "Speak."

"Previous information indicated that two groups of cultivators entered White Stone Town. The first group of three people went missing, and of the second group of five, three people went missing and two escaped."

Zhang Lin's voice was calm and unhurried. He slightly raised his eyelids to meet Liu Yi's gaze: "May I ask, did those two escaped cultivators provide any details about the situation in the town?"

The tent fell silent for a moment.

Liu Yi's silence lasted only a very short time, but Zhang Lin caught that brief pause.

That wasn't hesitation; it was more like weighing something.

"One person suffered severe damage to their consciousness and was already delirious when they were rescued. They haven't been able to utter a complete sentence since," Liu Yi's voice remained calm. "The other person only managed to say one sentence before passing out and has not yet woken up."

"Where are the two surviving cultivators now?" Zhang Lin continued to ask.

Liu Yi looked at him, his gaze now holding a scrutinizing quality: "One of them is recuperating at the Zixia City Medical Center, and the other has been sent back to his respective sect."

He paused here, then added, "The physicians of Biluo Palace once examined the injured man from Zixia City and said that some kind of extremely yin and evil power had been implanted in his spiritual consciousness, which had deeply eroded it and could not be removed by ordinary pills."

Upon hearing this, Su Wan suddenly spoke, her voice clear and cold as a spring: "I once went to Zixia City to see that fellow Daoist's injuries."

All eyes were on her.

"That evil power was extremely stubborn." Su Wan frowned slightly, as if recalling the scene at the time. "The Pure Heart and Evil Dispelling Technique of Biluo Palace can usually dispel most of the evil energy, but when used on that fellow Daoist, the effect was extremely limited. That evil power seemed to have some kind of self-awareness. After being dispelled, it condensed again in less than half a day, and was even more solid than before."

"It has its own consciousness?" Meng Chen's brows furrowed even more, and he stopped tapping his fingers on the table. "Then it's not ordinary death energy; it belongs to someone?"

"That possibility cannot be ruled out," Liu Yi continued, looking at Zhang Lin with an even stronger scrutinizing gaze. "Do you have any further questions?"

"No more," Zhang Lin shook his head.

He had already obtained the information he wanted: the source of this mission was most likely not a trap set by the Zhou family, but rather a method used by demonic cultivators.

Thinking about it, it's obvious that no matter how lawless the Zhou family is, they wouldn't dare to use the lives of three thousand people to set up a trap right under the noses of the three sects.

It seems that the Zhou family's schemes were implemented elsewhere, not in Baishi Town.

Liu Yi withdrew his gaze and said in a deep voice, "Alright, everyone get ready. We'll meet at the village gate in a quarter of an hour and depart on time."

The crowd stood up and filed out.

"Zhang Lin".

Meng Chen's voice came from behind.

Zhang Lin turned around.

Meng Chen stood with his hands behind his back, his purple brocade robe fluttering slightly in the morning breeze.

His gaze fell on Zhang Lin, and his tone was as indifferent as if he were giving a trivial instruction: "Go to the west of the town and follow Su Wan and Shen Qing. Chu Tianxing and I will handle the east of the town. That's enough."

Zhang Lin nodded without saying anything more.

The three of them left the village gate and headed west along the main road.

A thin mist hung over the mountain road.

The fog was grayish-white, unlike morning mist, and looked more like smoke left after something burned.

After walking for about the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn, the terrain gradually lowered, and the trees on both sides of the official road became increasingly sparse, replaced by patches of barren fields.

The crops in the fields had long since withered and died, the stalks lying on the ground, rotting and turning black. A few withered trees stood sparsely on the field ridges, their bare branches stretching towards the sky like withered hands.

Su Wan stopped by the field, took out a talisman from her sleeve, placed it on her forehead, closed her eyes to sense it for a moment, and then opened them, saying, "The concentration of death energy is half a percent higher than yesterday."

Shen Qing's expression was grave: "Is it still spreading?"

"It's still spreading." Su Wan put away the talisman. "Let's go into town."

The three-mile journey was over in the blink of an eye.

When Baishi Town came into view, Zhang Lin's heart sank slightly.

The town is small, with houses built against the mountain, layer upon layer, housing about several hundred households.

Most of the houses are made of blue bricks and gray tiles, while a few tall mansions are built of stone with upturned eaves, clearly belonging to wealthy families in the town.

At the entrance of the town stands a stone archway with the three large characters "Baishi Town" engraved on it, though the characters have been somewhat blurred by wind and rain.

But at this moment, the entire town was shrouded in a thin layer of grayish-white mist.

The fog wasn't thick, but it was extremely heavy, rising close to the ground, as if something underground was breathing, exhaling deathly air from the cracks in the earth.

Standing under the archway, Zhang Lin's "Ling" jade talisman in his dantian lit up, and his spiritual consciousness split into eight flying spirits that probed forward.

The deathly aura surged in like a tide, and when one's spiritual sense traveled through it, one could clearly feel a sense of stagnation.

They quickly discovered the figure mentioned in the intelligence report; it turned out to be a native of the town.

But at this moment, they showed no signs of human life.

The man was hunched over, his limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and he walked like a puppet on strings, making clicking sounds at his joints.

Its skin was grayish-white, its eyes were cloudy and white, and grayish-white mist kept escaping from its mouth.

They are not living people, but living corpses infected by death energy.

Su Wan also saw it and frowned, saying, "Infection rather than refinement... This is not a man-made array, but a mutation caused by the natural spread of death energy."

"Natural diffusion?" Shen Qing's expression changed slightly. "What level of death energy would it take to turn the entire town like this?"

Zhang Lin did not respond. The range of his Flying Spirit Exploration was ten times that of his spiritual sense, so he continued to explore deeper into the town.

More and more zombies appeared in his senses in the streets and alleys; some leaned against door frames, some squatted in corners, and some wandered aimlessly in the streets.

They no longer maintained their former postures; driven by the deathly aura, they all became mindless walking corpses.

The direction from the town hall is where the deathly aura is strongest.

As soon as Zhang Lin's flying spirit probed that area, the stinging sensation suddenly intensified.

Just as he was about to retract his flying spirit, one of the wisps suddenly detected something: deep beneath the town hall, there was a different aura.

The aura was extremely faint, almost indistinguishable amidst the deathly aura, but Zhang Lin's flying spirit clearly sensed an unusual fluctuation as it passed through that area.

It was neither deathly aura nor that of a living corpse; its aura was thick and solid, as deep and as majestic as a mountain—the true essence aura possessed only by Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Zhang Lin's pupils contracted slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he slowly withdrew his flying spirit.