The girl was slender, dressed in a pink skirt with a messy hem. Because of her series of actions just now, the fabric was slowly falling in an uncoordinated manner.
A few traces of redness on her fair cheeks slowly faded, but they could not hide the sweat sliding down her neck, and her nose still emitted unsteady hurried breaths.
Her fragrant sweat dripped, her expression still panicked, like a kitten doing something bad suddenly startled—fidgety and alert.
In Xu Lin’s eyes, the spiritual energy around Jiang Luo surged like a tide. It wasn’t powerful, but rather extremely chaotic, as if even she herself couldn’t grasp or control it.
It was a strange situation. Spiritual energy was nurtured by the cultivator, yet at this moment it was beyond her control.
Inside the room, he could faintly feel a lingering moisture in the air.
Sensing Xu Lin’s gaze, especially when she noticed him staring near her long skirt, Jiang Luo immediately became alert. One hand unconsciously pressed down on her skirt as she slightly turned sideways, trying to cover it up.
“Who is this guy? He doesn’t seem to be from the sect.”
Because of the nature of their cultivation techniques, people of the Dusk Sun Sect always had traces of demonic aura on them, but Xu Lin was clean, and didn’t even seem to have any cultivation base.
“He’s the Sect Master’s guest. I think he was brought back together with the Saintess,” one person explained.
“Brought back with Senior Sister?” Jiang Luo looked at Xu Lin with suspicion. “No, that face… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”
Xu Lin let out an unexpected sighing laugh, which only made Jiang Luo more confused. She looked at him as if he were a strange person.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing, nothing. I just thought of something funny.” Xu Lin couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Luo again.
Jiang Luo naturally noticed. “What’s wrong with you, punk?”
She was furious—this guy was clearly laughing at her.
But the more she reacted, the harder it was for Xu Lin to suppress his smile.
“You’re asking for a beating!”
Jiang Luo raised her hand, about to strike Xu Lin, but was immediately stopped by the two people beside him.
“Junior Sister, this is the Sect Master’s guest. Without the Sect Master’s orders, it’s best not to act rashly.”
They weren’t doing this for Xu Lin’s sake, but because if something happened to him, they would face punishment from the Sect Master.
Hearing that it was Xi Ranchen’s intention, Jiang Luo didn’t want to make things difficult for them, but she still pouted and glared at Xu Lin.
“Hmph.”
She snorted lightly, then turned and walked away.
Seeing Jiang Luo leave, the two stepped back one pace, stood outside the door, and returned to their previous cold and stern state.
“Young Master, please rest well.”
After saying that, they closed the door without any delay, leaving Xu Lin alone in the room.
“This Dusk Sun Sect is really strange,” Xu Lin complained.
After being tossed around all day, Xu Lin felt nothing but exhaustion. He had just lain down on the bed when the next second he immediately sat up again.
Xu Lin touched the edge of the bed and felt a patch of dampness.
He lightly rubbed his fingers together. The liquid, like water stains, was crystal clear and sticky, slightly cool and refreshing, giving off a subtle odor.
Xu Lin casually wiped his hand on his clothes, disbelief on his face.
“That girl wasn’t cultivating on this bed, was she?”
***
The next day, at noon, the sun hung directly overhead.
Xu Lin had just woken up from a dazed sleep when he was summoned by Xi Ranchen.
Facing Xi Ranchen, who sat in the main seat of the hall, Xu Lin was both speechless and helpless.
“What exactly do you want? I helped your Saintess, so why not just let me go peacefully? Why do you have to torment me like this?”
The Demon Sect didn’t refer to any specific sect, but all these people had one thing in common: they acted strangely, appearing like madmen to ordinary people.
Xi Ranchen propped her cheek with one hand, looking down from her lofty position with a smile on her lips, watching Xu Lin as if he were a plaything.
After a moment, she spoke softly.
“Xu Lin, Big Senior Brother of Green Cliff Peak, Vast Dao Sect. A year ago, your cultivation base inexplicably plummeted, your root bone was completely ruined, unable to cultivate again. You voluntarily resigned from the title of Big Senior Brother and left the sect.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Lin dropped his casual demeanor and became serious.
“Did I get it right, Young Master Xu?”
“Great methods, Sect Master Xi. You investigated everything in one night.”
With the Dusk Sun Sect’s influence, it wasn’t hard to find out about a person. The problem was, how could internal matters of the Vast Dao Sect—a sect that was irreconcilable with the Dusk Sun Sect—be so easily known?
The incident of his leaving the sect was already a year old. In the eyes of cultivators, that wasn’t a long time, but logically, the Dusk Sun Sect couldn’t have figured it out so quickly.
“That’s not something you need to worry about.”
Xi Ranchen found Xu Lin more and more interesting.
“I’m curious though—you were the head of a peak, even the appointed Peak Master. How did you suddenly lose all your cultivation and have your root bone ruined? Could there have been a major accident?”
“Cultivation is inherently defying the heavens. Perhaps I wasn’t worthy of Heaven’s Will’s approval, so this happened.”
“Is that really the case?”
Xi Ranchen snorted coldly, her condescension unmistakable. Her eyes were deep, as if she wanted to see through Xu Lin.
Without what happened last night, Xi Ranchen might have believed that explanation two or three parts.
Now, she felt that Xu Lin was definitely more than what her investigation had revealed.
Xi Ranchen kept one hand on her cheek, while the index finger of her other hand tapped the armrest. She casually recited, “First forge bones, second condense essence, third return spirit. True Mystery crosses three steps. Seventh ascends heavenly firmament, eighth opens orifices. Ninth responds to heaven and earth, crossing life and death. Tenth escapes reincarnation, surpassing sage. One step ascends, treading the immortal gate.”
Xu Lin was no stranger to this poem—in fact, no one in the entire cultivation world was strangers to it. Each line of the poem corresponded to a different cultivation realm.
Bone Forging Realm, Essence Coagulation Realm, Spirit Returning Realm, True Mystery Realm, Heavenly Firmament Realm, Orifice Entering Realm, Life and Death Realm, Sage Entering Realm, True Immortal Realm.
“Rumor has it that before your realm fell, you were at the third stage of True Mystery Realm. But judging by your current state, I think it’s more than that.”
The True Mystery Realm was a watershed in cultivation. Other realms only had one stage, but the True Mystery Realm had three. Only after crossing all three could one enter the Heavenly Firmament Realm.
Some people could cross these three thresholds in a short time, while others might spend a very long time, even their entire lives, stuck in the True Mystery Realm with no further progress.
Yang Yao was called the Saintess, a prodigy among her peers, and she had only just entered the third stage of True Mystery Realm. She was already far ahead of her generation.
“Sect Master Xi loves to joke. I’ve long lost all my cultivation. How could I be what you describe?”
Xu Lin tried hard to calm his mind, doing his best not to reveal any cracks in front of Xi Ranchen.
Anticipating that Xu Lin would say this, she let out a cold laugh, stood up, and took a step forward.
In an instant, an invisible pressure enveloped the entire hall, pressing down on Xu Lin within it.
Xu Lin felt his body heavy, as if laden with a burden, hard to bear.
The true essence hidden deep inside him, forced and uncontrollable, burst out to resist Xi Ranchen’s pressure.
“Life and Death Realm.”
Xu Lin raised his eyes with difficulty to look at Xi Ranchen, his expression grave.
This Dusk Sun Sect Sect Master had already crossed the thunder tribulation. Her own Dao principles had been recognized by heaven and earth, allowing her to step into the Life and Death Realm.
This woman simply wanted to use realm pressure to suppress him, using this most straightforward method to test whether he really had no cultivation.
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