NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: I like it.
"Gentlemen, there's a man outside claiming to be a disciple of the Wind Spirit Immortal Sect, coming to deal with the demon matter in Lingjue Village."
"Quickly, invite him in!"
Finally, the savior has arrived!
Magistrate Chen's face lit up with joy, and he heaved a huge sigh of relief in his heart.
...
After confirming with several heads of merchant families that the information about Lingjue Village was consistent with what he knew, Shen Mu took his leave and set off.
However, when he climbed to the top of the mountain peak three miles away from Lingjue Village, he could clearly feel that the Yin energy in Lingjue Village was extremely heavy.
Even the vegetation within two miles outside the village was withered and decayed, with withered grass and trees showing no signs of life at all.
"It's only been a little over a month since I last came here, and this place has turned into such a spooky state. That thing's growth rate is quite fierce."
Shen Mu sighed a little, then took out a Breath Concealing Talisman, attached it to himself, and put on a black spirit robe to suppress his own vitality and Yang energy until it was no different from that of ghosts.
After that, he swallowed a Qi Gathering Pill to boost the spiritual power in his body to the peak of his current realm, so that he could perform some body movement techniques that were faster but consumed more spiritual power.
"That should do it."
Whoosh!
Shen Mu seemed to have the wind under his feet. In an instant, he leaped down from the mountain peak and rushed towards the uninhabited deserted village with heavy Yin energy like a gentle breeze.
According to the low-level speedrun strategy he had figured out in the game, the best way to deal with this special dungeon was the decapitation strategy.
Because in the early stage, resources, magic treasures and such were relatively scarce and the attribute values were also low.
The difficult points for low-level cultivators here were the entanglement of countless human corpse monsters on the periphery of the village and the restriction of the Yin energy environment on the human body.
One could easily get trapped in an endless and arduous battle and be worn down to death by the sea of corpses.
To speedrun, the most ideal way was to avoid provoking all the small monsters actively, quickly hide one's breath and dodge them, directly break into the lair in the central area of the village, and kill the culprit, the corpse ghost, as quickly as possible!
Before long.
Lin Yuhe's figure appeared right after on the mountain peak.
She looked at the black figure that had already rushed into the withered area and frowned.
Damn... Did he even take pills? How could he run so fast all of a sudden.
It seems that he really wants to get that thing badly.
"If I wait for you to come out and forcibly take it from you, with your eagerness like this, you'll probably hate me to the core in the end..."
Thinking that the first person she had a common topic with in this world would hate her deeply, Lin Yuhe silently dismissed this extremely immoral idea in her heart.
"Forget it. If I can defeat that guy myself and get that thing with my own hands, you'll probably just be a bit dissatisfied with me then?"
...
On Wanxiang Peak.
Luo Qingling crossed her slender, fair, and smooth jade-like legs, propped her head up, and tapped the tabletop with her fingertips in a rather bored manner.
"Master Sect Leader, you didn't come to my place just to drink tea and chat with me, right?" She slightly raised her eyelashes and said faintly to the red-haired woman in front of her.
"I still need to talk to you properly about Lin Yuhe." Seeing that she was outspoken, Luo Qingyue also stated her purpose.
"Don't worry. Although this girl is a bit flighty and strange in temperament, her talent in formation arts is passable."
"At least... if she listens carefully here for ten or twenty years, she can eventually become a formation master above the seventh rank."
"What I want to talk about is not her cultivation talent but some other matters." Luo Qingyue took out a letter personally written by Lin Tianyun, the head of the Lin family, and pushed it in front of Luo Qingling.
"I'm sure you've heard some rumors about her when you were traveling around outside, regarding the True Phoenix Immortal Body born in the Lin family."
"Although she has excellent talent, she has been arrogant and aloof since childhood, taciturn and seldom took the initiative to communicate with others, just like an especially haughty phoenix."
"However, on a night six months ago, this haughty phoenix had a drastic change in temperament and became extremely unruly and willful."
"Her behavior style was no longer like that of a noble lady as before."
"This made Lin Tianyun extremely puzzled for a while, and he even suspected... whether she had been taken over by someone else."
"However, after a series of investigations, there was nothing unusual about her divine soul, and it was still the same as the original one."
"Helplessly, he could only temporarily attribute the reason to the factor of her peerless immortal body physique."
"But... actually, he still had a grudge about it in his heart."
"Therefore, he specially wrote me a letter, hoping that I would pay special attention to her behavior and movements during the time she is cultivating in the sect."
"To see if there are any other strange things."
After reading the letter, Luo Qingling roughly understood the situation and nodded helplessly: "Alright, I got it. I'll pay special attention."
"You'd better be really serious about it this time."
"Now that the imperial court has a new emperor, the Lin family is probably not in peace. If something major happens to Lin Yuhe while she's with us, it might trigger a struggle among the noble families."
"Humph, if it really comes to that, the Lin family may not necessarily be able to compete with our Luo family."
Luo Qingling snorted softly, seeming to have already foreseen the final result of the struggle among the noble families.
"Anyway, since you're going to be her master, it's up to you to keep an eye on her properly."
"Anyway, for you, it's just a matter of putting in a bit more effort."
To ensure the harmonious coexistence of the two major immortal cultivation families in the imperial court, Luo Qingyue earnestly gave these instructions.
"By the way, where is she now? I didn't sense her aura when I came here."
"Don't worry. She's currently out on a cultivation trial with my eldest disciple." Luo Qingling had always been aware of their whereabouts.
"Alright..."
Seeing that Luo Qingling was also quite concerned about her, Luo Qingyue got up and prepared to leave.
Before leaving, she paused for a moment and suddenly said, "I really don't understand why you insisted on taking someone with such low aptitude as an apprentice back then."
Luo Qingling slightly pursed her lips, and a somewhat obscure and strange look surged in her eyes.
"He's good-looking and caught my eye. I like him."
...
Inside Lingjue Village.
According to the route he had already planned in his mind, Shen Mu avoided those human corpses emitting a gloomy green aura all the way and quickly entered the central area of Lingjue Village.
After stepping into the central area, what stood in front of him was a strange temple that was shrouded in a cold and gloomy Yin energy, similar to a temple for worshiping immortals and gods.
This is the place, no doubt about it.
Under the black robe, Shen Mu looked around and confirmed it again, then started to set up nearly twenty relatively hidden second-grade Blazing Fire Spirit Talismans around the temple using the Wind Spirit Body Movement Technique.
Since he wanted to kill quickly, he needed to pour in a large amount of effective damage in a short time and not give it any chance to change stages.
About a quarter of an hour later.
Shen Mu finished setting up the formation and was ready to enter the temple to lure out the corpse ghost hiding inside.
"Boom!!"
Suddenly, accompanied by a loud noise of the temple roof breaking, a figure in red clothes flew out backwards from inside the temple and fell heavily onto the ground more than ten zhang away from Shen Mu.
...