Chapter 40: Preparation

"Sister!"

Upon seeing the newcomer, the two female cultivators immediately showed expressions of joy and approached her.

Chen Lin and Zhao Zhengyuan also went over to pay their respects one after another.

Ye Jingyun nodded in greeting and then said, "Alright, everyone find a place to rest. There will likely be a major commotion tonight, and once it starts, there won't be any chance to rest!"

With that, she hurried into Yu Yuehai's room.

After Ye Jingyun left, the remaining people looked at each other in silence.

The two female cultivators, in particular, wanted to follow her but did not dare to.

At that moment, Zhao Zhengyuan suddenly spoke up, "Then I shall return to my room to rest as well!" He walked straight back to the room where he was staying.

The other man's changes were quite significant; Chen Lin noted them but did not dwell on them. Instead, he looked at the two female cultivators and said, "I am heading back too. There is an empty room over there; if you two do not wish to stay in the courtyard, you can go and rest there for a while."

Cultivators were, by nature, people who exorcised demons and caught ghosts; whether a room had seen death or not was not an issue.

He had previously visited the room of the sallow-faced female cultivator, and it was mostly empty and quite clean.

The two women nodded, but they did not move.

Chen Lin didn't bother with them further. If it weren't for Ye Jingyun's sake, he wouldn't have spoken to them at all. He was about to leave, and he had many matters to attend to.

Returning to his own room, he began to pack his belongings.

With this departure, it would either be success or death; there would be no coming back.

Large items naturally could not be taken, but he did pack his iron pot and pill furnace.

In case he ended up in the wilderness after escaping, he might still need these items; even if he couldn't refine pills, he could at least cook porridge.

He also took half a bag of spiritual rice and several buckets of water.

A cultivator in the Qi Refining stage could not survive without food or water; if he didn't bring them, he would starve.

It was a pity he hadn't managed to buy any Inedia Pills; otherwise, he wouldn't have to go through all this trouble.

With this, his storage bag was essentially full.

The remaining miscellaneous items could only be placed in the storage bag belonging to the Thunderbolt Bead, though he had specifically found a wooden box to separate the beads for easy retrieval.

Once everything was organized, he continued to nurture his newly condensed sword qi.

However, he did not test its effectiveness. Once this was used, it would need to be condensed again, and he had neither the time nor the desire to endure that kind of pain once more.

Soon, midnight arrived.

Chen Lin had long since applied Mingqing Spiritual Water to his eyes. He stood quietly by the window, waiting for the scene of red lines filling the sky.

He noticed that the two sisters had not gone to the sallow-faced woman's room to rest; instead, they had been standing under the eaves the whole time, looking up at the sky.

Clearly, they were also aware of the existence of the red lines.

It made sense; since they had been brought back by Yu Yuehai, how could they not know?

He poked his head out, wanting to see if Zhao Zhengyuan had come out. Before he could see clearly, he saw Yu Yuehai's door open. The man and Ye Jingyun walked out one after the other, carrying a strange, disc-shaped object.

"Everyone, come out!"

Yu Yuehai walked to the center of the courtyard and called out.

Chen Lin hurried outside.

Zhao Zhengyuan's door also creaked open, and he walked out with an expressionless face.

The Xia sisters also drew closer.

Just as they gathered together, Yu Yuehai tossed the disc from his hand.

The disc emitted light and rapidly expanded, growing to a diameter of a full ten feet before being controlled to land on the ground.

Only then did Chen Lin see clearly that the edge of the massive disc had grooves spaced at regular intervals.

There were five in total.

In each groove, a large spirit stone of a different color was embedded.

It was Chen Lin's first time seeing colored spirit stones, but he knew why they were like this.

These spirit stones were different from ordinary ones; while ordinary spirit stones contained attribute-less spiritual energy, these were elemental spirit stones.

For example, the red one was a fire-attribute spirit stone, the yellow one was earth-attribute, and the five colors here happened to correspond to the five elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

Clearly, these five large spirit stones were used to drive the disc, which was likely an array plate.

Such a large array plate was truly beyond his understanding, and since it could expand and contract, it was certainly at the level of a spiritual tool. Yu Yuehai was indeed quite wealthy.

"Based on the attribute of the cultivation technique each of you practices, choose the corresponding groove and stand there."

Yu Yuehai's voice rang out again.

Chen Lin froze. He glanced at Zhao Zhengyuan and the Xia sisters, seeing that they also looked somewhat confused and lost.

"Hmph, what are you waiting for? Do you not even know the attribute of your own cultivation technique!"

Yu Yuehai's tone was somewhat cold, and his voice rose in pitch.

The Xia sisters' bodies trembled, and they immediately moved to stand before the grooves for the metal and earth spirit stones, respectively.

Chen Lin also snapped to attention. He practiced the Mysterious Wood Art, which was a wood-attribute technique, so he naturally had to choose the wood-attribute groove.

He remembered that Zhao Zhengyuan practiced a fire-attribute technique; it seemed Yu Yuehai had not chosen these people at random.

Sure enough, Zhao Zhengyuan walked to the fire-attribute groove, while the final water-attribute groove was occupied by Ye Jingyun.

Five people, representing all five elements.

"Listen to my instructions later. When I say 'start,' press your hands onto the grooves and channel your mana inward to briefly replace the spiritual energy supply of the stones so I can swap them for new ones. However, it may not be necessary; the spiritual energy in this batch of stones should be sufficient."

Yu Yuehai gave a brief explanation and then fell silent, gazing quietly at the sky.

His pressure was immense, so no one dared to ask questions. The only one who dared, Ye Jingyun, was also looking up at the sky.

Chen Lin knew they were waiting for the red lines to appear, and he believed Zhao Zhengyuan and the Xia sisters knew it too.

Since Yu Yuehai had chosen them, it was impossible that he hadn't told them the truth; he must have also given them the Mingqing Spiritual Water to see the red lines.

Furthermore, the Xia sisters had not shown that pathological, sideways sneer from beginning to end, nor had Zhao Zhengyuan.

Previously, Zhao Zhengyuan had never been this normal.

This indicated that Yu Yuehai had given them something to suppress the abnormality.

Ye Jingyun surely had a way to suppress it as well; during their first meeting, the sideways sneer she displayed was likely, just like his, a deliberate act.

Standing there, Chen Lin's mind constantly replayed various past events.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Yu Yuehai was a cunning old fox, capable of living in this inconspicuous little courtyard for years. He was truly patient.

Moreover, his secrecy might not be just for the sake of escaping.

Just as he was complaining in his mind, a faint bell chime suddenly echoed from his room. At the same time, the sky was instantly filled with streaks of red lines!

Simultaneously, a massive, hazy shape manifested above the city!

Chen Lin was greatly shocked. How had this thing appeared again? And it was even clearer than the last time he had seen it; its general outline could already be vaguely discerned!

He couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation.

It was the appearance of this very thing last time that had caused him to be connected by the red lines. Now that it had appeared again, would it discover the abnormality in them and then perform a "correction" on them?