Chapter Eighty-Nine: Seeking Medicine

“Lin Feng! Come out now! I tell you, no matter how long you hide, I will never give up on you. I won’t believe you can spend your life cowering like a frightened turtle!”

At the entrance to the subterranean vault, Qian Youyou roared, commanding and arrogant. Behind her came Master Guo, still badly wounded and not yet recovered, along with the mercenaries she had newly hired.

Luo Qian-kun stepped in front of Qian, his expression unyielding.
“Miss Qian, Grandmaster Lin is in seclusion. No one is to see him. You’d better leave at once, or don’t blame me for being impolite.”

For a month, Luo had been standing guard in the mountains, almost maddened by the confinement. So many easy targets now brought right to him—he could hardly wait to try his hand.

“Hmph. Impolite?” she sneered. “Show me your idea of disrespect! Master Guo is still too wounded to fight, but my newly recruited mercenaries are no men paid to sit idle. If you value your life, move aside!”

With a flick of her jade-like wrist, the mercenaries behind her drew close-combat daggers.
All the weapons smuggled in a month ago had already been snapped to pieces in the vault long before. The hastily gathered mercenaries had nothing else besides their daggers.

“Mercenaries?” Luo gave a dry laugh.
He had long wanted to teach this lofty, self-important young lady a lesson.

In the past month his martial attainment had surged to the peak of internal force and then into the opening stage of the Transformative Realm. Such a realm was something he had never dared imagine before he met Lin Feng. Yet now he was full of a swelling, intoxicating strength.

His form blurred for an instant. A torn ribbon of afterimage remained on the wind, and a sharp, chilling whine split the air as Luo stopped behind a mercenary wielding a steel cleaver.

“The Luo Family Seal!”

The family art that once had been his hidden trump card now flowed as naturally as breathing. He pressed a finger-seal into the man’s back-heart point. The broad-shouldered white mercenary, like a sheep caught in a cyclone, was hurled backward before he could even turn to see what struck him, slamming hard into the ground.

A spray of blood came with him, and he collapsed unconscious.

“Whoever dares touch me is asking for death! Galen—strike with all your strength. No hesitation, live or die!”

Priding herself on dominance, Qian Youyou could scarcely believe Luo gave her no respect, yet he was beating her men in front of her own eyes. She ordered all the mercenaries to commit fully, even to kill Luo if need be.

Yet this proud young lady had clearly overestimated her subordinates and underestimated Luo’s power.

Luo showed no fear; if anything, he seemed exhilarated.
He had not fought in so long that if he did not beat a few shameless brutes, his bones felt as though they would rust.

“Crack—”
“Whoosh—”
“Boom—”

In less than ten minutes, more than twenty mercenaries lay spread across the ground, each moaning and each badly hurt, not one left standing.

“You worthless lot,” she spat, “you can’t even beat a single yellow-skinned brute. What use are you?”

Qian Youyou went on cursing as if she had forgotten she herself was also of the same blood. After all, overseas Chinese were still Han at heart, however much she had absorbed Western ideas.

Flushed with fury after being publicly bested by Luo, she pulled out a pistol and tried to shoot him dead.
Luo was no novice. In a flash faster than a startled heartbeat, he snatched the gun by the back of it and sent an open palm across her face.

“Slash!”

The blow was heavy. Her right cheek swelled at once, blood welling at the corner of her mouth.

“You…”

For the first time since childhood, no one had laid a hand on her. Now a mere martial youth from the mainland dared strike her. Was there no justice left in this world?
A lowborn man striking a highborn lady—an outrage beyond measure.

She trembled with rage, almost bursting.

At that moment, Master Guo had long forgotten her; he stood frozen in shock, staring at Luo.

The cultivation refinement was no trifling matter. In just one month, Luo Qian-kun had crossed a boundary most mortals spend lifetimes failing to surpass. He had become a master of the Transformative Realm.

A master of that stage—whether in the Xia lands or on Earth—would be counted among the strongest fighters.

“What kind of force does Lin Feng carry that his men are so gifted?”

Just as Luo was about to strike Qian Youyou again, a voice as clear as dawnwater suddenly sounded in his mind.

“Luo Qian-kun, I have opened one corner of the formation. Bring Miss Qian inside first!”

The voice was peculiar: it did not enter through his ears—it came straight into his mind.

“What? Grandmaster Lin has sent his voice into my thoughts? This is… heart-transmission!”

Luo was stunned. Heart-transmission was said to be a divine ability possessed only by enlightened sages.

To think Grandmaster Lin had mastered such a gift in a single month.

Truly, he is something beyond mortal men.

“Yes,” the voice replied. “Do not make a fuss. Simply do as I instruct.”

“Yes.”

The others stared at Luo as if he were speaking to himself. Only Master Guo narrowed his eyes, sensing something strange in the air.

Luo cast Qian another look, a little unwillingly.
“Miss Qian, Grandmaster Lin invites you in. As for the rest, let them wait outside.”

“No! I must ensure her safety!” Master Guo interjected at once.

“Unnecessary,” Luo said, “if he had intended to kill me, he would have done so a month ago. Why wait this long? I don’t believe he has the nerve to harm me.”

As though she had forgotten the public humiliation, Qian Youyou lifted her waist and instantly resumed her proud, haughty, almost princess-like posture, stepping into the pit.

After a long walk, she finally reached the central chamber.

Lin Feng sat there cross-legged beside the altar. Golden threads converged from all directions, gathering above his head in nine lotus blossoms.

The giant corpse of the demon that had once lain by the altar had vanished. Only one massive heart remained, glowing with golden radiance and floating above the altar.

The sight made Qian Youyou draw in a sharp breath of cold air.

The memory of Lin Feng’s single sword stroke that had killed that demon only a month ago flashed through her mind.

Still, pride held fast. With a cold look, she ignored everything and said, “Lin Feng, if you surrender all the spirit treasures to me, I can overlook everything. I can even recommend you to Master Liu Xingyun of the Southern Ocean. To become his disciple is every aspirant’s dream. Do not squander this once-in-millennia chance.”

Lin Feng gave her a glance and gave a short, cold laugh.
“Liu Xingyun? He does not even qualify as my teacher. As for the spirit treasures you want—they’re behind the altar. If you have the courage, take them yourself.”

After Lin’s rebuke, Qian’s anger flared, but she was outmatched in force and had to lower her head.

She held her temper and said, “Then how about I buy them? How does a hundred million sound? In your whole life, you’ve never seen that much money, have you?”

As an overseas Chinese, she had long been steeped in Western thought and still regarded the mainland as chaotic and barbaric, its people mostly rude villagers unacquainted with the world.

One hundred million was a sum most of them never saw in an entire lifetime.

“A hundred million?” she scoffed. “You hold yourself in too high regard. Even if a thousand billion lay before my eyes, I would not care. Much less a hundred million. Tell me why you absolutely must have these spirit items, and I might consider it.”

“….”

Qian Youyou bit back a retort. She had never expected this mainlander of Lin Feng to be so stubbornly old-school.

“Fine! Since matters have come this far, I won’t hide it anymore. My grandfather needs spirit treasures to renew his life. For the sake of the family, I must find them for him.”

“Renew his life?”

Lin Feng looked down, one brow lifting.
Not one item in the whole vault could prolong human life. The heart of the Seven-Star Demon-Sealing Array was for subduing and containing demons—how could it have anything to do with longevity herbs?

To use these spirit relics for life extension is a fool’s dream.
Not only do these relics have no prolonging power at all, but a half-dead mortal could never withstand the force of such ten-thousand-year alchemy.

To extend life?
At best, the body would explode before one died.