Chapter 4: Trap in the Mist
The Mist Forest was a twilight realm, its twisted trees shrouded in eternal fog. Lin Xuan crouched behind a gnarled root, his gray robes blending with shadows. At the 2nd Layer of Qi Gathering, his cultivation was modest, but his cunning—forged as Mo Tianyin—made him deadly.
Black Talon's deathly qi pressed like a blade. Lin Xuan had lured the 6th Layer Qi Transformation assassin here. He inscribed a killing formation, its lines glowing like blood veins, with poison needles, crafted with silver-blue-tinted venom, hidden within.
Black Talon emerged, a shadow in black robes, daggers pulsing with deathly qi. "Boy," he rasped, "hand over the Liu Clan's art, or die slowly."
Lin Xuan smirked. "Take it from my corpse." He triggered the formation. Crimson chains snaked toward Black Talon, and a poison needle pierced his arm, slowing him. The assassin's daggers flashed, shadow blades tearing trees, but Lin Xuan's Celestial Glide wove through. A blade grazed his shoulder, but his Iron Body Art mitigated the wound. He lunged with Tooth Dagger, tearing Black Talon's thigh, blood spraying.
Black Talon summoned a shadow clone. Lin Xuan used Energy Devour, siphoning qi and weakening the clone. His Tooth Dagger pierced the assassin's shoulder. Black Talon staggered, poison and blood loss taking their toll.
"You can't stop them," Black Talon gasped. "The Zhi Clan… backed by the Hei Clan. They want that art… don't know why it's special."
Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"They think it's power," Black Talon coughed, laughing bitterly. "You're dead, boy." Lin Xuan ended him with Tooth Dagger, devouring his qi, pushing to the 3rd Layer of Qi Gathering.
Deeper in the forest, Lin Xuan found Spirit Bone Grass. He claimed the cores of a Lightning-Scaled Snake and a Horned Bear after their deaths, finding a cave with an Eclipse Sky Dragon egg and arm. Too weak to claim them, he sealed the cave with a formation. He returned to the inn, refining pills with his hidden silver-blue flame, reserving one for Liu Yang.