Spiritual Formation Master? Spiritual Formation?
Upon hearing the innkeeper’s words, Lin Chen no longer wanted to ridicule him. For that kind of low-level defensive spiritual formation, Lin Chen could easily set up hundreds in a single day.
However, thinking about the situation inside and outside the shop, he couldn’t help but suspect that the small shop was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Thus, under the excited gaze of Mu Qingxuan, he took out a hundred low-grade spirit stones and handed them to the innkeeper.
It seemed that they had merely booked one room, and Mu Qingxuan, somewhat excited at the thought of being able to spend the night alone with Lin Chen, was incredibly happy.
"Honorable guest... the food will cost an additional ten low-grade spirit stones..."
The innkeeper looked at Lin Chen with a cunning smile. If it weren’t for the mystery of the inn, Lin Chen would have almost burst out cursing, thinking that this was absolutely a rip-off; the food actually cost ten low-grade spirit stones—it was outright robbery.
After Lin Chen took out another ten low-grade spirit stones, the innkeeper finally left, satisfied.
Lin Chen’s behavior and the innkeeper’s mannerisms were noticed by some other people, who smiled ruefully and thought that Lin Chen must be someone new to this place.
Shortly after, Lin Chen and Mu Qingxuan found a vacant table under the outdoor canopy of the shop, and the innkeeper quickly brought them their food. They had barely started eating when they suddenly saw a gray-clothed rider on a spirit steed charging quickly toward the inn.
The gray-clothed man had many wounds on his body and seemed to have been seriously injured, appearing as though he were fleeing for his life.
With the inn in sight, a gleam of joy appeared in his eyes. However, just as he was less than ten meters away from the inn, a flying dagger swept through the air, and the gray-clothed man on the spirit steed had his head cut off in the blink of an eye.
Outside the canopy, the onlookers had not seen clearly who had thrown the flying dagger. They were even more clueless as to how the gray-clothed man had been killed. They only knew that a flying dagger was involved, and they hadn’t even seen what the flying dagger looked like—it seemed to be transparent.
"Horse-Slaying Flying Dagger! This is one of the assassination unique skills of Moon Shadow Pavilion. Could it be that this man was being pursued by the Moon Shadow Pavilion!?"
Lin Chen’s mind was still replaying the scene of the flying dagger killing the gray-clothed man. While others hadn’t seen clearly, Lin Chen had clearly caught the face of the person who made the move; it was a customer who was also eating under the canopy just moments ago.
That person actually possessed such mysterious movement techniques, able to kill the gray-clothed man on the spirit steed without being noticed by the people under the canopy, a testament to the advanced level of their movement technique.
After killing the gray-clothed man on the spirit steed, that person then fled to the south of the inn.
Some curious guests came to the gray-clothed man’s corpse to inspect how the man died and casually looted his belongings. Scavenging from the dead was a common activity for these folk, whose blades were often coated in blood, and they were oblivious to when their own corpses might be scavenged by others.
Lin Chen was also among the crowd. He bent down to examine the wounds on the gray-clothed man—a stab to the throat, and from the look of the cut, it was indeed the Horse-Slaying Flying Dagger of Moon Shadow Pavilion.
Lin Chen felt heavy at heart. The Moon Shadow Pavilion was an assassin organization from the Eastern Domain, specialized in the art of assassination. Generally, those who were on their assassination list were targets of high-price bounties.
But the Moon Shadow Pavilion was far away from this place, and it wasn’t a power within the Great Flame Dynasty’s influence. What were they doing in such a remote location?
From the clothing of the gray-clothed man, he seemed to belong to a third-rate force called Hua Sect.
Lin Chen remembered that the Hua Sect was a vassal force of the Jade Cauldron Sect. The highest cultivation among the Hua Sect was probably only at the Melding Earth Realm. How could they have drawn the attention of someone from the Moon Shadow Pavilion? It seemed like an unprofitable business.
Lin Chen couldn’t help but think that things were probably not that simple. The person who had taken action earlier moved in an unpredictable manner and was definitely a powerhouse.
To send such an assassin to kill an ordinary person would be complete overkill.
Lin Chen gave Mu Qingxuan some instructions, telling her to go upstairs and rest after eating, and not to come out casually. Then, he left the tent and the inn, following in the direction of the south.
After applying a Swiftness Talisman to himself, Lin Chen managed to barely catch up with the assassin’s pace. As he pursued, he grew increasingly alarmed because if it weren’t for the aid of the Swiftness Talisman, he actually wouldn’t have been able to catch up with the other person.
Having cultivated the Primordial Transformation Art, Lin Chen was able to conceal his own aura as well as track others’. So, as he followed, the assassin was completely unaware of his presence.
After chasing for nearly two hours and almost a hundred miles, the assassin finally stopped at a dilapidated temple.
This place was already under the jurisdiction of Cloud Sky City, only ten miles away from the main city. The closer Lin Chen got to the city, the more he felt that the situation was not so simple.
After arriving at the temple, the assassin, seeming very confident in his movement technique, didn’t even look around to check if he was being followed before entering directly.
Meanwhile, Lin Chen flew up and landed on a large tree outside the temple, concealing his aura and secretly watching every move inside the temple.
To Lin Chen’s surprise, there was light inside the dilapidated temple. After the assassin entered, a group of people suddenly appeared.
There were about a dozen people in the temple, all dressed in black like the assassin with the unpredictable movement technique.
The leader was an elderly man with graying hair, leaning on a curved walking stick.
"Don’t worry, boss. Those who escaped from Hua Sect were all weak and have been completely dealt with; none were left alive,"
the previous assassin respectfully greeted the old man and responded indifferently.
"Well done. With this, we now have control over the entire Hua Sect. We just wait for the right moment. As soon as we receive Wang Qi’s message, you all will act together and take over Cloud Sky City as well. If we can capture Cloud Sky City, it will be greatly advantageous for us."
The elder nodded and then issued new orders to the previous assassin.
Lin Chen, hidden in the tree, listened to the assassins’ conversation and was immensely shocked.
If what they said was true, Hua Sect had already fallen into the hands of these assassins. How come Jade Cauldron Sect received no information about this, or did that happen after Lin Chen had left Jade Cauldron Sect? ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel⁂fire.net
Also, were these people actually planning to make a move against Cloud Sky City?
Cloud Sky City was a major city in the Eastern Domain, with power far beyond that of Hua Sect. These people actually dared to contemplate such a plan.
However, just as Lin Chen was shocked, the old man in the temple seemed to notice something. His palm shimmered with the illusion of Spiritual Light as he struck towards the tree where Lin Chen was hiding.