novelraw Chapter 414 Aftermath & Ancestor
Chapter 414 Aftermath & Ancestor
The next morning, the air in the Hua Sect was thick with a palpable tension, heavier than the usual mountain fog.
Lin Lee stepped out of his newly assigned inner-sect residence, a small but elegant stone courtyard, and immediately sensed the chaos brewing.
Other disciples of the inner sect rushed past him with pale, wide eyed expressions, their usual composure looking shattered.
Ding! Ding!! Ding!!!
The steady rhythm of morning bells, which cultivators usually called to practice, was replaced by the sharp, metallic clang of an emergency alarm... a sound typically reserved for invasions.
’It seems my timing was perfect,’ Lin Lee thought, his face impassive as he walked toward the main training square, observing the unfolding panic.
He overheard fragments of frantic conversations:
"...Elder Yao’s token shattered last night. His soul lamp is extinguished!"
"...Dead! A Jindan elder, just like that? Who would dare attack our sect?"
"...And the Treasury! I heard the Sect Master is furious. The entire third floor is empty!"
Lin Lee maintained a steady pace, his mid-level six-line Jindan core perfectly suppressed, radiating only the low-level Foundation Establishment aura he had used for his promotion trial. He looked like an eager but slightly nervous new inner disciple.
When he reached the Grand Assembly Hall, the atmosphere was suffocating. Hundreds of disciples and several remaining elders stood scattered across the hall, all looking towards the stage where the Sect Master stood.
Sect Master Tian Wei, a robust man who was himself a peak Jindan expert, was trembling not from fear, but from raw, unbridled rage. His face was blotchy red, and his powerful qi pulsed uncontrollably, causing the jade floor beneath his feet to crack.
"Silence!" Tian Wei roared, his voice amplifying across the entire mountain peak. "Last night, the Moon-Crowned Treasury, the very heart of our sect’s resources, was violated! Elder Yao, guarding the vault, was... murdered!"
A collective gasp swept through the assembly. Everyone sucked in the cold breath as the sect master confirmed the rumors of elder death and the treasury looting.
Tian Wei slammed a hand onto the marble lectern beside him, shattering it into dust.
"Hundreds of years of accumulation, our most sacred elixirs, the Seven-Star Forging materials, the Heaven-Blessing Scroll... all gone! Utterly wiped clean!"
He swept his gaze across the elders, each glance heavy with suspicion and scrutiny. "It was not an outsider! The formations were flawless. This was done by a mole, a thief hiding within our walls!"
Lin Lee standing casually with another inner disciple, his eyes narrowed, focusing not on the Sect Master’s rage, but on the three surviving Elders standing behind him. They looked grave, exchanging fearful glances.
’The Sect Master is powerful, but not capable of tracking. He is now suspecting the remaining Elders, but they haven’t done it. Anyway, the students are safe.’ Lin Lee mused internally.
Just when Lin Lee was thinking that no one will doubt a student like him. Elder Hu, an old man with a long white beard, stepped forward and spoke quietly to the Sect Master, though his voice still carried clearly in the silent hall.
"Sect Master, the situation is dire. This crime is too refined for a single person, let alone a Foundation or even a high Jindan cultivator. This person bypassed Elder Yao’s frost mist array, and slipped through the formations. We have only one option left... we must disturb the Ancestor."
Sect Master’s face twisted in hesitation, then fell silent. He knew the cost of waking their oldest protector.
"You speak of Ancestor Yuan?" Tian Wei asked, his voice now low and strained.
Elder Hu nodded solemnly. "Ancestor Yuan is the only Yuan Ying expert in the sect. His cultivation has reached the point of controlling the darkness of this whole region. He can employ the ’Shadow Tracking Technique’. A secret art that traces the residual links left by the thief on the stolen objects, no matter how faint."
Lin Lee’s expression froze, his heartbeat sped up lightly, ’Shadow Tracking Technique? Darkness? A Yuan Ying expert?’
His brow furrowed lightly, Yuan Ying expert can use spiritual based arts and it is not something to be trifled with. Though his Boundless Heaven Art was designed to manipulate time and space, fate and destiny and the Life Bead protected him from standard soul-searching, but right now his strength is extremely low. A direct investigation of Yuan Ying experts can track his actions across days.
Sect Master Tian Wei let out a long, heavy breath, the decision obviously revealed on his face, "I will personally visit the secluded peak and inform the Ancestor Yuan. Elders you go and survey the sect territory personally and search for any possible invasion of foreign entities."
As the three Elders immediately saluted and then nodded, departed for the surrounding peaks,
’Looks like soon, trouble will knock on my door,’ Lin Lee thought to himself, feeling a little troubled. His initial plan to lay low and cultivate slowly had been ruined.
He wanted to upgrade his Jindan to first line rank or even above and then break through the Yuan Ying realm slowly. Now he couldn’t risk waiting. A Yuan Ying Ancestor capable of Tracing was a threat that negated all his careful planning.
’If that Ancestor traces the theft to me, I will have to counterattack.’ Lin Lee thought, his mind racing through counter-strategies. ’I must reach top level Jindan immediately using all those treasures I stole, then I will be confident to deal with Yuan Ying. I can deal with the top Jindan like sect master with my current strength, but Yuan Ying is in another league’
After deciding that he will immediately use all the consumable treasure for his breakthrough. Lin Lee waiting silently for the sect master to leave.
After a while, the sect master dismissed the disciples and let them return to their residence, as currently the sect is in lockdown.
Back in his inner-sect courtyard, Lin Lee sealed the entire area with multiple layers of silencing and concealment formations, using high-grade talismans he had liberated from the Treasury. These were temporary, heavy-duty protections, designed to block all spiritual surveillance.
He emptied his storage pouch onto the floor: a dazzling pile of spiritual herbs, sparkling forging metals, and ten large jade bottles containing powerful Jindan-enhancing elixirs. Among them was the crucial Heaven-Blessing Scroll, which, when consumed, temporarily heightened a cultivator’s connection to the Dao, significantly aiding breakthrough comprehension.
’The only way to avoid the Ancestor’s detection is to leave the mountain peak or face him as an equal,’
Lin Lee concluded, ’Leaving is too risky; he would track me into the wilderness. I must break through here and now.’
He grabbed the most potent herbs, crushing them and forming them into a thick, glowing paste, which he quickly swallowed.
Next, he unrolled the Heaven-Blessing Scroll. After reading the use and effect of this special scroll, a surprise flashed through his face, then following the instructions he injected his qi inside it... slowly a strange rhythm spread from the scroll and covered his whole physique and his practice speed and absorption, purifying heaven and earth increased by twice then before.
As he consumed the treasures, the spiritual influx from herbs was immediate and overwhelmed his dantian. His Jindan core, already compressed and purified, spun violently. The air around him shimmered as energy poured into his body, the Boundless Heaven Art operating at maximum capacity.
The Life Bead within his spirit sea began to pulse. It also started devouring the life force from herbs and feeding it to his physique, like a constant repair mechanism, allowing his body to withstand the incredible pressure of spiritual energy.
Pop! Pop!
His veins pulsed like ropes, his skin split in places, only for the wounds to heal almost instantaneously under the Life Bead’s restorative power.
Middle Level, Jindan Achieved.
High Level, Jindan Achieved.
Top Level, Jindan Achieved.
The spiritual qi in his body roared internally as his Jindan core reached its absolute peak, glowing with an unbearable golden light. The six lines on the surface look like six small rings made from complex runes of heaven and earth.
KRAKOOM!
Suddenly a pulse spread out from his physique, the foundation of the residence shuddered.
’It seems herbs can’t increase my Jindan quality... I really have to devour other Jindan for evolution and talent.’
Lin Lee thought to himself a cold light flashed through his pupils as he opened his eyes, then thinking of the three elders and sect master. Four Jindan level experts in the sect, he shook his head,
’I don’t have any enmity with them, until they attack me first.’
On the other side,
Sect Master Tian Wei moved with the swiftness of an anxious predator toward the highest, most secluded peak of the Hua Sect mountain range. Unlike the bustling inner sect, this peak was perpetually shrouded in an unnatural, dense gray mist, and the spiritual energy here felt ancient, heavy, and cold.
He landed silently on the single, worn-out stone platform at the peak. Before him stood a plain, unadorned rock cave entrance sealed by a massive, moss-covered boulder. No light escaped from within, and no sound broke the oppressive silence. This was the dwelling of Ancestor Yuan, the sect’s foundational pillar and only Yuan Ying realm expert.
Tian Wei knelt immediately, pressing his forehead against the cold stone of the platform.
"Ancestor, your humble junior, Tian Wei, begs for an audience in this time of dire emergency!" His voice was laced with urgency and respect, but it was carefully controlled to avoid disturbing the deeper seclusion.
... Chapter End ...