UGB Chapter 130 Master Arrives
Chapter 130 Master Arrives
Qingluo City has three markets: Tianbao Pavilion in the east is the largest, Wanbaolou in the west is the second largest, and Baicaotang in the south is the smallest.
The Tianbao Pavilion auction is held every six months. There are still three months until the next auction. It is hosted by Tianbao Pavilion and co-organized by several major merchants in the city. The venue is on the third floor of Tianbao Pavilion in the east of the city. A special bidding hall will be open at that time.
A deposit of 500 spirit stones is required for entry, which will be refunded after the auction ends. This is to prevent anyone from maliciously bidding and then running away.
Five hundred spirit stones were nothing to him.
Zhang Lin sat in the room for a while longer, putting aside the matter of the Thick Earth Black Jade Tablet for the time being, and turned to think about another matter.
He killed six people in Liangjie Mountain and seized the Zhou family's immortal boat. The Zhou family must be furious at this moment.
Zhou Huaili's life tablet shattered, Zhou Mingyuan's life tablet shattered, and the life tablets of the three outer disciples also shattered.
The seven life tablets shattered one after another on the same night. The ancestral hall elder of the Zhou family must have been terrified and reported it to the clan elders overnight.
Zhou Huai-ren was probably already restless. If Zhou Ming-xuan also sent back a message from the sect and learned that Zhang Lin's life tablet was intact, it would be tantamount to telling the Zhou family clearly that he was the one who killed him.
Returning to one's clan at this time would be tantamount to walking into a trap.
The power struggle between the master-disciple lineage and the aristocratic family lineage is not something a mere Qi Refining stage disciple like him can interfere with.
If he goes back now, not only will he not be able to help his master, but he will also become a target for the aristocratic families.
If the Zhou family takes action against him at the elders' meeting, Lu Yuanshan won't be able to protect him even if he wants to. After all, seven lives are at stake. Even if it's self-defense, he won't escape a trial by the criminal justice department.
But it's not like there's no solution at all.
Zhang Lin took out the communication jade talisman he had seized from Zhou Huaili from his storage bag, probed it with his spiritual sense, and carefully examined the contents recorded within.
The Zhou family's secret jade talisman contains a detailed record of how Zhou Mingxuan instructed Zhou Huaili to intercept and kill the sect's disciples, including when, where, who, and what happened.
There were even records of spiritual communication between Zhou Huaili and Zhou Mingxuan, written in black and white, with not a single word missing.
Zhang Lin read the contents of the jade talisman again from beginning to end to make sure nothing was missed before he felt relieved.
This evidence is enough to leave the Zhou family speechless in court.
No matter how powerful a clan is, it would not dare to openly protect an inner disciple who hires a hitman to commit murder, otherwise it would be going against the rules of the entire sect.
Lu Yuanshan is right. With this jade talisman in hand, even if the matter goes to the sect leader, we will be in an invincible position.
But the prerequisite is that he has to return to the sect alive.
Zhang Lin pondered for a moment, then took out a blank jade slip and copied a portion of the key content from the jade talisman.
He kept the original with him and gave the copy to his master so that he could roughly know the contents of the jade slip.
He picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote a few lines on a piece of plain paper, detailing the course of the battle at Liangjie Mountain, Zhou Huaili's identity, and the contents of the secret jade talisman.
The handwriting is neat, the language is concise, and there is no embellishment or exaggeration.
After writing, he folded the plain paper and sealed it together with the copy of the jade talisman into a communication jade talisman with its own small space.
This is a specially made communication jade talisman of the Danxia Sect, which contains a self-destruction restriction and image feedback, making it useless for others to intercept.
The communication jade talisman transformed into a beam of white light, bursting through the window and flying towards the direction of Cuiping Peak of Danxia Sect.
Next, it's time to wait.
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Three days have passed in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Lin sat in meditation in his room. Outside the window, it was almost dusk, and the twilight slowly enveloped Qingluo City like a thin veil.
The hustle and bustle of the street gradually subsided, and the lights on the merchant ships in the distance lit up one after another, making the river water shimmer.
He rarely went out during these three days, only going to the front hall for breakfast in the early morning to listen to the idle chatter of the rogue monks, and spending the rest of the time in quiet meditation in his room.
The inn had little spiritual energy, so meditation yielded little result. He then focused his energy on two other things.
First, we repeatedly studied the auction catalog obtained from the Du Heng jade slips, verifying the condition, use, and market price of each item to gain a thorough understanding.
Secondly, by circulating the "Treatise on the Response of the Supreme Being" to nourish one's spiritual consciousness, one can slowly replenish the divine thoughts consumed in the battle at Liangjie Mountain, while repeatedly tempering and refining them.
The recovery of spiritual consciousness is much slower than that of true qi.
In that battle, he used two spiritual artifacts, the Soul-Suppressing Bell and the Blood Fiend Banner, and also used the extremely energy-consuming secret technique "Hidden Scenery Dance," which nearly exhausted his spiritual consciousness.
After three days of rest, I've only recovered about 60-70%. To fully recover, it will probably take another seven or eight days.
Just as he was about to circulate his true energy for another cycle, his spiritual sense suddenly detected a familiar aura.
The aura came from the southeast at great speed. It paused briefly outside the protective array of Qingluo City, seemingly to determine its location, before flying straight towards the south of the city.
In the spiritual perception, the aura was as thick as a mountain and as steady as an abyss. The spiritual energy around him rose and fell slowly like the tide. Although he only showed the cultivation level of Foundation Establishment, the deep and oppressive feeling was far beyond that of ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.
It's Master.
Zhang Lin suddenly opened his eyes, got up from the bed, and quickly walked to the window.
He released a wisp of his aura to guide Lu Yuanshan.
He pushed open the window, and the city of Qingluo came into view in the twilight. The houses with gray tiles and white walls stood in rows, and the river meandered through the city like a snake. In the distance, the tall buildings of Tianbao Pavilion were gilded with a layer of gold in the afterglow of the setting sun.
A figure in a green robe descended from the sky and landed in the courtyard of the inn.
The newcomer was dressed in a blue Taoist robe, with a thin face and three long strands of beard hanging down his chest. He was none other than Lu Yuanshan, the peak master of Cuiping Peak.
He stood with his hands behind his back, his robes fluttering slightly in the night breeze. No spiritual energy leaked from his body, yet he exuded an aura of authority without anger.
Several rogue cultivators who were about to leave the courtyard were intimidated by his imposing aura and retreated to the side, lowering their heads and not daring to look him in the eye.
"Master," Zhang Lin greeted him from downstairs, bowing with clasped hands, "Why did you come in person?"
Lu Yuanshan looked him up and down, his gaze lingering on his face for a moment before sweeping over his body to make sure he was unharmed, before nodding slightly.
He stepped up the stairs, his steps steady and firm, each step solid, the wooden stairs creaking softly beneath his feet.
"Are you alright?" Lu Yuanshan entered the room, sat down at the table, and glanced around the small guest room.
The room was simply furnished with a bed, a table, a chair, and a copper basin in the corner, the water of which had cooled down.
He frowned slightly, as if he thought the place was too shabby, but ultimately said nothing.
"He's fine now." Zhang Lin sat down opposite him, picked up the teapot on the table, poured a cup of spiritual tea, and offered it to him.
He bought this spiritual tea from the market in Qingluo City. It was of ordinary quality, but better than nothing.
Lu Yuanshan took the teacup but didn't drink from it; he simply held it in his palm and played with it.
He was silent for a moment before speaking: "The contents of your message are of great importance. I was worried that the message jade talisman might be intercepted and destroyed en route, so I went there myself."
Zhang Lin nodded upon hearing this. This was also what he was worried about. He thought the visitor would be a steward or a senior brother, but he did not expect it to be Lu Yuanshan in person.
"Master, you must have had a long journey." Zhang Lin took out the secret jade talisman from his storage bag and presented it with both hands. "This is the Zhou family's secret jade talisman that we seized from Zhou Huaili. It records the entire process of Zhou Mingxuan ordering him to intercept and kill his disciple, without missing a single word."
Lu Yuanshan took the jade talisman and probed it with his spiritual sense.
The room fell silent.