Boom!
At that moment, a series of thunderous noises could be heard.
"Uh... what just happened to me? It seemed like I had spaced out." Yu Chang suddenly stirred, his expression shifting in an instant from the rigidity of a wax figure to one of fluid naturalness.
"Me too, I was thinking about something and I suddenly spaced out." Shu Luoyi said with a frown.
Only then did Lin Xin’s vision gradually return to normal, recalling his own brief lapse in concentration that just occurred. As internal martial artists, such a severe distraction was not supposed to happen to them.
He immediately became alert and looked at the Resentment Talisman, which had almost completely burned up.
"There might be trouble here!" he said, standing up with a serious tone.
By now, Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi had also realized something was amiss. Neither was a fool, nor were they new disciples. Having stayed in the Sword Sect for so long, they had naturally experienced many missions.
Shu Luoyi took out one of her high-level Resentment Talismans. The white talisman paper was burning slowly, at a leisurely pace.
"Indeed, there is trouble."
"Since we have encountered it, shall we go inside and check it out?" Shu Luoyi rose to her feet and said solemnly, "The high-level Resentment Talisman is burning slowly; the resentment must not be very strong, perhaps it has recently gathered. We should be able to handle it."
"Judging from the way all three of us were inexplicably distracted just now, there must also be some kind of paralytic toxin." Yu Chang judged in a low voice.
"Leave this to me." Lin Xin, who had come out with ample funds this time, bought a large stack of the three basic types of talisman paper—Resentment Talisman, Poison-Avoidance Talisman, and Sweet Dew Talisman.
If the higher-level talismans had been available for sale, he guessed he would have purchased even more advanced talisman paper.
He spent over two thousand Jade Money on just these talismans, with hundreds of each type.
He took out three Poison-Avoidance Talismans and flicked them hard, injecting a thread of Inner Qi.
Suddenly, all three talismans ignited at once, and the air around them instantly cleared.
"There is indeed poison!" Lin Xin said gravely.
"This is the Sword Sect’s heartland, and yet someone has the audacity to cause a ruckus here, producing vengeful spirits. They’ve really got some nerve," Shu Luoyi said coldly.
With a clang, she drew her longsword and went directly toward the two-story house.
Lin Xin wanted to urge her to stop but it was too late; while they might have a way to deal with resentment, they had no means to handle vengeful spirits.
He and Yu Chang quickly got up and followed after Shu Luoyi.
With a bang, Shu Luoyi kicked open the door and walked in.
Inside the house, there was nothing, just a few tables and chairs covered in dust. The floor was full of dense footprints in the dust, suggesting someone had come in before them.
In her hand, unbeknownst to when she had it, was a green dagger, seemingly made of jade. She held the dagger firmly, appearing utterly unafraid of the vengeful spirits, quickly sweeping her gaze before striding upstairs.
Lin Xin and Yu Chang closely followed her inside. They had not yet managed to call out to her when they saw her charging to the second floor.
Strangely enough, having looked all around the two-story building, the three found nothing.
"There’s no more resentment here..."
Lin Xin once again took out a Resentment Talisman, but this time it did not ignite again.
"It might have been just a bit of leftover resentment here, which we cleared out with the Resentment Talismans," Shu Luoyi suggested with a furrowed brow.
"So what do we do now?" Lin Xin asked, seeing that she seemed very experienced.
"When our mission is completed, we can report back to the Sect. Perhaps a Qi Cultivation Stage master could find some clues."
Just as Lin Xin was about to continue the conversation, he suddenly heard a faint talking sound from outside the house.
He quickly rushed to the nearest window to look out.
What he saw made his flesh crawl.
There, in the teahouse facing the house, sat three figures in familiar clothes, speaking softly to each other.
Two of them, facing him, were unmistakably Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi. The one with his back to him was none other than his own silhouette.
"What’s going on!? What exactly is happening with the people outside?"
Lin Xin’s heart turned cold. He quickly turned to look in the direction of Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi.
But the house was empty; there was no sign of Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi.
He looked abruptly toward the door and found it eerily locked from the inside, the very door that had been kicked open earlier was now intact.
"This..." His vision started to blur again.
A multitude of white spots crowded his field of vision. He blinked hard and suddenly felt his body swaying. He was engulfed by darkness.
"Brother Lin? Brother Lin?" Yu Chang’s voice rose beside him.
When Lin Xin opened his eyes, he saw Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi looking at him blankly. To his astonishment, he found himself sitting on a stool outside the house, in the teahouse.
A cold wind blew across the surroundings, making it feel chillingly cold.
"How did you fall asleep just now?" Yu Chang said with a hint of amusement. "Are you too tired from the journey? We’d only just sat down, hadn’t spoken a few words, and you actually fell asleep."
Shu Luoyi was also frowning as she looked at him.
Lin Xin felt a chill in his heart; he had no idea what had happened.
Looking down, he saw that he was holding a pair of flint stones, exactly what the two of them had asked him to find.
"No..." Suddenly, Shu Luoyi spoke up in a low voice. "Something’s not right here..." She stood up suddenly.
"I also feel something’s not right here," Lin Xin quickly said. "It would be better for us to leave this place as soon as possible."
"Let’s go now." Shu Luoyi nodded, picked up her sword, and headed towards the stables. "My Green Jade Dagger just glowed a moment ago."
Yu Chang was about to say something, but upon hearing this, he immediately shut his mouth. He quickly stood up and hurried to follow the other two.
"But leaving this place, there’s nowhere nearby to take shelter from the rain!" After walking a few steps, he began to speak again with a hint of helplessness.
"We have to go even if there isn’t shelter! If you don’t want to go, you can stay here by yourself," Shu Luoyi said, not sparing him any face.
"Junior Sister..."
"Don’t call me Junior Sister!"
Lin Xin and the other two quickly untied their horses, mounted, and galloped towards Peacock City, braving the wind and rain.
In the midst of the storm, Lin Xin rode his horse and looked back at the lonely two-story building. As the distance increased, his eyes suddenly began to tingle again, but without the spots of white light that had obscured his vision before. The tingling quickly subsided this time.
"There’s some kind of toxin lingering here, or a curse, or something else. I’m not sure what it is," Shu Luoyi said with gravity from atop her horse. "But the fact that my Green Jade Dagger glowed means there is something nearby that could threaten me. That’s why we must go!"
Lin Xin nodded in understanding; Shu Luoyi’s family was wealthier than his, and from what he had heard along the way, she seemed like the child of a Qi Cultivator from the sect.
If she said it was so, then there must be a reason.
For some unknown reason, the further they got from the small building, the more relaxed he felt.
Not until the building was completely out of sight did Lin Xin feel as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart, and he felt much relieved.
"So, this means that it was just some residual thing causing trouble?" Yu Chang asked from horseback.
"Yes, we are only nominal disciples. This kind of thing cannot be dealt with at the Qi Refinement Realm; we just need to report it to the sect," Shu Luoyi answered simply. "I had the odd feeling just now that I’ve been in that building before?"
"Now that you say it, I felt the same..." Yu Chang also began to frown.
Both of them looked at Lin Xin.
Lin Xin nodded slightly as well.
"I felt the same as you two."
"That makes sense," said Shu Luoyi, her beautiful eyebrows tightly knitted. "I’ve heard my father say that our cultivation sects are only a weak force in this world, capable of protecting only a small region around us. There are many unknown dangers and mysteries beyond our territories, so we must always be extremely cautious when we’re out and about, without the slightest deviation. The Yin spirits and demons are constantly trying to invade our territories."
Lin Xin and Yu Chang both nodded in agreement.
The three had formed a temporary team and were unaware of each other’s true capabilities, as well as who was the strongest or the weakest—even though Shu Luoyi’s strength may not necessarily be superior to the other two.
But since these words were said by a Qi Cultivator, they were not about her strength and must have their rationale.
Lin Xin began to carefully ponder the disciples of the various sects within the Sword Sect.
He wasn’t sure about the official inner-disciples, but the nominal disciples, those of the Qi Refinement and Innate stages from Tingjian Valley, almost all relied on Talisman Paper, Jade Pendants, or other external objects to manifest their strength.
For instance, during the Yin Blood Bird mission, the disciples who didn’t have Talisman Paper were as good as ordinary people when facing resentful spirits.
Only he and a few others who had Talisman Paper and the Solar Yang Talisman Sword had been able to escape alive from the influence of resentful spirits.
Moreover, most of these cultivators were the same: without activating their Inner Qi, they weren’t much different from ordinary people. It was only when they activated their Inner Qi that their physical abilities became significantly different.
These cultivators were more like those Taoists in television shows who can’t catch ghosts without magic artifacts and various props and are weak on their own, depending only on external objects to deal with supernatural phenomena such as resentful spirits.
"I wonder what the primary methods of dealing with such situations are for Qi Cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Stage?" Lin Xin asked aloud.
"My father told me that in this age of rampant Yin spirits and rampant demons, despite our Four Sects joining forces to resist the pressure of the Demon Sect, it’s a case of ’the higher the Dao, the higher the demon.’ The Heavens are unfair, and our Righteous Path remains in an embarrassing situation. That’s why we need to learn how to protect ourselves," Shu Luoyi said somewhat sentimentally.
"Indeed, ever since the Sect Master of the Heavenly Cloud Path Sect, Zhu Rongzi, was exposed for secretly cultivating a Demon Embryo, the number-one major sect of the Righteous Path has rapidly weakened. Originally, we were not as formidable as the demons, but now we have declined to the point where we can barely protect ourselves," Yu Chang said, seeming to also be aware of some of these unofficial histories.
"If not for the mysterious ghosts in the vicinity blocking the Demon Sect, our Four Sects would probably have been destroyed already," Shu Luoyi shook her head. "Even the current peace has been achieved through the sacrifices of many senior brothers and sisters."
"I wonder where I can learn more about these significant historical events?" Lin Xin asked thoughtfully.
"There’s a scripture chamber in our sect. You can visit and browse freely when you have the time. It’s just that you need to be willing to spend time there. I only know a little about the inside story because my elders repeated it to me over and over," Shu Luoyi answered simply.
"Thanks for the tip," Lin Xin gave his thanks with a salute.
"You’re welcome."