Qingfeng Temple.

"Miss Lin, you’ve arrived?" The Qingfeng Temple disciple guarding the gate bowed respectfully to Lin Xiaoliu as she stepped out of her carriage.

Although her speech wasn’t very fluent yet, when Lin Xiaoliu was silent, she still carried the air of a young lady from a prominent family.

Led by the hand of a female Martial Artist assigned to look after her, she walked through the main gates of Qingfeng Temple and into the training grounds behind them.

Along the way, a female disciple came forward to guide them.

"Is... my brother... here today?" Lin Xiaoliu asked simply.

The guiding disciple replied with a smile.

"The Observatory Master had to go out for some business today. He hasn’t returned yet."

Lin Xiaoliu let out a small sigh of relief, and her tense body relaxed slightly.

"Then, is Senior Sister Xia Si here?" she asked next.

"Senior Sister Xia Si has also gone out. She might not be back for a few days," the female disciple answered with regret.

"...What a shame." Lin Xiaoliu’s body relaxed even more.

Images of her brother, Lin Hui, and Senior Sister Xia Si flashed through her mind unbidden.

While she practiced her sword, she would often see Senior Sister Xia Si coming to ask her brother for guidance on Martial Arts.

She didn’t know why, but even though it was just a simple scene of him teaching Swordsmanship, watching from afar always made her feel uneasy and creeped out.

Her brother was always smiling, and so was Senior Sister Xia Si. But the smiles on their faces were very different.

Yet both sent a chill through her heart.

Just practicing her sword beside Lin Hui every day caused the torment in her heart to grow.

She had once told her big brother, Liu Wu Jun, about her feelings, but he would just pat her on the head and assume she was joking.

After all, Brother Hui was just a Martial Artist from the Outer City, an Inner Power Martial Artist. Her big brother always told her that once she grew up, she’d quickly surpass Brother Hui.

She was just young right now, so it was normal to find Brother Hui scary.

But just because Lin Xiaoliu couldn’t express herself fluently and wasn’t strong enough didn’t mean there was a problem with her perception.

In fact, during her time at Qingfeng Temple, it wasn’t just Brother Hui and Senior Sister Xia Si who felt dangerous to her.

There was also that Senior Sister named Mingxia, and many other strange people in the temple...

’I want to go home...’ Lin Xiaoliu thought, gazing at the towering main hall of Qingfeng Temple ahead.

She was actually afraid of her big brother, Liu Wu Jun, and her second sister, Liu Xiao, too. But compared to them, she was even more afraid of Brother Hui, who only seemed to be an Inner Power Martial Artist...

After entering the innermost residence and reaching the area where she usually practiced, Lin Xiaoliu had just sat down when she heard a faint commotion from outside the gate.

She knelt quietly on her cushion and began to maintain her practice sword, just as she did every day.

It was, after all, a high-quality sword from the Inner City, costing several hundred thousand coins.

But she had barely been sitting for a moment when she felt a stir of wind behind her.

Lin Xiaoliu turned to see a tall man in a black robe and a black hawk mask, who had abruptly appeared in the garden.

"You’re... Lin Xiaoliu, right?" the man said with a gentle, smiling greeting.

"Yes..."

"It seems the Observatory Master isn’t here. I’ll come back another time." The visitor was none other than Tao Xuehai, who had intended to deliver some medicine.

"Oh, right, remember to mention to the Observatory Master that I’ve already made the people who were coordinating outside the temple leave. Tell him not to worry."

"Oh... okay." Lin Xiaoliu stared blankly as Tao Xuehai silently vanished before her eyes.

*

*

*

「Outer Fog Area.」

The gray-white fog churned and roiled.

A giant white scorpion, over three meters tall and twenty meters long, was wildly waving its nine tails, frantically showing off the red, glowing stingers at their tips.

It waved them for a moment longer, and once it confirmed the person before it wasn’t making any further moves, it abruptly turned and fled. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

But it had only run a few steps, barely a dozen meters, when a familiar figure appeared before it again.

Lin Hui stood with his sword in hand, watching the nine-tailed scorpion.

"This is the fifth time... still not willing to submit?" He frowned slightly.

"Forget it. I might as well just kill it," Lin Hui sighed.

The moment he spoke, the nine-tailed scorpion opposite him froze, then its entire body slammed to the ground. With its two pincers planted, it began to frantically smash its body against the earth as if having a seizure.

The whole motion looked just like it was kowtowing.

"It actually worked!?" Lin Hui’s expression flickered. He tried a few more commands, but the nine-tailed scorpion acted like an idiot, unable to understand anything.

It was a far cry from the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon.

Apparently, the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon had been trained by the Fog God Sect, which was why it had some aptitude for language.

Lin Hui was curious about this. He wondered what methods the Fog God Sect Cultists used to slowly make the monsters of the Fog Area understand a little bit of language.

This nine-tailed scorpion before him was one of the lowest-tier monsters in the Outer Fog Area. Its shell was incredibly tough. By his estimation, it was about as strong as the Inner Strength barrier a Circulation Martial Artist could unleash at full power.

At least, that’s what it felt like when he tried to cut it.

The most disgusting thing about this creature was the stingers on its nine tails; the venom was extremely potent. Moreover, its speed and strength were on par with a High Priest.

Of course, since it had no way to counter abilities like Void Power or Divine Decisions, the nine-tailed scorpion would be useless against a High Priest.

The key, however, was its sheer numbers.

When he had been searching for monsters earlier, he could see dozens, even hundreds, with just a casual stroll.

There was one every few steps, then another every few steps after that.

The ground in that area was covered in a dense network of scorpion burrows.

After confirming the nine-tailed scorpion would obey him, Lin Hui led it all the way back to the labyrinth ruins.

Then, at the entrance to the ruins—or rather, the entrance to the passage he had cleared out himself—he had the scorpion lie down and reached out to perform a Blood Seal appraisal.

’Nine-Tailed Scorpion—One of the common monsters of the Outer Fog Area. A social creature, timid and fearful by nature, it survives by hunting underground using special organs sensitive to vibrations. Like other Destruction Level monsters from the Outer Fog Area, its shell has a thin, natural layer of Void Power on the inside, granting it some resistance to similar Void Power attacks. It can directly withstand Void Power for a short period. The venom in its stinger can ignore Void Power and Inner Strength defenses, delivering a penetrating toxic attack.

Evolvable Branches: 3.’

’Interesting... Its shell can actually resist Void Power? Is it born with Void Power? No... perhaps Void Power was the innate ability of these monsters all along, and humans just learned it and developed it further.’ Lin Hui’s thoughts shifted, and he arrived at a more plausible theory.

He walked closer to the nine-tailed scorpion lying on the ground at the entrance, examining it carefully.

The creature was just a scaled-up black scorpion. Other than the nine tails growing from its rear, it wasn’t much different from a normal one.

It had a black carapace, two large pincers that looked like clenched fists, and a segmented back with a texture like bamboo joints. Its eight legs were splayed on either side of its body, and it lay on the ground, not daring to move.

Lin Hui reached out and touched one of its legs.

It was cool, hard, and smooth, like touching a mirror.

He ran his hand along the scorpion’s shell, moving toward the back until he reached its stinger.

The stinger was a red needle, about the length of a palm and the thickness of a finger. It was located at the very tip of the tail, nestled between soft, black, keratinous parts on either side.

Looking from the outside, Lin Hui could see that the red needle was like a crystal syringe, with a fluorescent red liquid flowing inside.

This gave him the idea of extracting the scorpion’s venom.

’I’ll evolve it first. The defenders need to be properly prepared.’

Reining in his thoughts, he knew these were plans for the future. He stepped back a short distance and opened the Blood Seal’s Evolvable Branches.

’1—Giant Scorpion: A nine-tailed scorpion three times larger, with its strength and physique enhanced proportionally.’

’2—Nine-Tailed Scorpion King: The king of a colony, capable of commanding other nine-tailed scorpions. Its venom is far more potent than an ordinary one’s, and it can control parts of the terrain and travel freely underground.’

’3—Scorpion Demon: A scorpion that has become a lesser demon. Enhanced physique, enhanced venom, and slightly awakened intelligence.’

These three options represented three different evolutionary paths. Lin Hui weighed them and chose the second one.

He chose it because of its ability to travel freely underground, which offered immense flexibility.

Next was the required years for evolution: twelve.

For him now, that was merely six stalks of Purple Cloud Ganoderma.

He quickly confirmed the evolution, then had it consume the Purple Cloud Ganoderma. In less than an hour, the massive nine-tailed scorpion slowly fell into a deep sleep, and its entire body began to rapidly petrify.

Right before Lin Hui’s eyes, it turned into a black stone statue of a nine-tailed scorpion.

After several minutes, the statue began to emit sharp cracking sounds as large fissures appeared on its surface.

Soon, a nine-tailed scorpion that didn’t look much different from before appeared in front of Lin Hui.

But he quickly noticed that this "not much different" appearance was because the changes were subtle.

The venom flowing in the new nine-tailed scorpion’s stinger had turned from red to a purplish-red.

Its carapace also seemed to have a faint purple sheen that wasn’t there before, making it look even sturdier.

"From now on, you’re in charge of guarding the underground entrance and exit. Find your own food in the surrounding area. Only come to me if you really can’t find any," Lin Hui commanded through their Heart and Spirit connection.

’HISS!’ The Nine-Tailed Scorpion King responded immediately, diving headfirst into the ground.

In an instant, the ground rippled like the surface of water and swallowed it whole.

’This should be enough,’ Lin Hui calculated. The Waterman, the Purple Crystal Flame Dragon, and the Nine-Tailed Scorpion King. Three guardians should be more than enough to watch over this labyrinth-ruin base.

’Next up is the imprinting qualification. I need to screen which disciples can receive the imprint and which are not yet qualified. The Blood Seal has some free slots now, so it’s time to go back and appraise the Core Disciples one by one.’

After dealing with these miscellaneous tasks, Lin Hui planned to leave. He would go back to find loyal disciples to imprint, which would allow him to get the base running smoothly. Then, he could arrange for people to maintain the Purple Cloud Ganoderma garden built with Purple Snow Jade.

A garden of such Treasure Medicine would require the most loyal personnel. Even though Purple Cloud Ganoderma wasn’t a mainstream Treasure Medicine for Martial Arts practice, it could still significantly boost one’s energy and was very expensive. The temptation of wealth is a powerful thing; if the disciples weren’t loyal enough, they would just be growing it for others to take advantage of.

He made one final patrol of the area to check on things, and after confirming there were no issues, he turned and headed back toward the Boundary Wall.

He hadn’t gone far when he heard a tremendous, vibrating roar coming from the distance.

The earth trembled and the fog roiled.

Lin Hui stopped in his tracks. The ground around him was shaking violently. The vibrations caused loose rubble on the rocky ruins to jump and levitate into the air. A massive cloud of dust rose, blending with the fog until they were indistinguishable.

He stood quietly in place, waiting for the sound to fade into the distance.

Over the past year, he had heard these giant footsteps almost every month.

According to Xia Si, these footsteps were the sounds of enormous, mountain-sized monsters passing by.

Because these monsters were so colossal, they had nearly trampled Miyin Village into dust on several occasions.

Of course, that was just hearsay. Due to the thickness of the fog, Lin Hui had never once gotten a close look at the forms of these mountain-sized monsters.

Soon, the footsteps slowly receded and disappeared.

Only then did Lin Hui breathe a sigh of relief and quicken his pace back.

Half a day later, he returned directly to Qingfeng Temple and summoned Wang Hongshi.

"Observatory Master, what are your orders?" Wang Hongshi had now officially been appointed to the position of Chief Steward of Qingfeng Temple, a recognition of his past diligent work and service.

"Which of the top ten Core Disciples are currently at the temple? Summon them all," Lin Hui said.

He found a small training area in the rear residence, preparing to test them all one by one.