"Senior Brother Lin, don't worry."
Elder Chu gave a slight nod, then transformed into a streak of light that shot skyward, heading straight for the edge of the mountain range to prevent anyone from secretly escaping.
Elder Lin also soared high in the heavens, his cold gaze, sharp as an eagle's, scanning around him.
...
Lu Lin was rushing through the mountain forest.
"It seems the battle with the Mingxue Beast King is over," he thought to himself.
There had been no signs of magical combat in the sky for a long time. Along the way, he had seen many corpses of Mingxue Beasts and had taken the opportunity to extract the milky-white flesh from their bodies, accumulating quite some Training Time.
"Someone's coming."
Lu Lin suddenly stopped and looked up, seeing a streak of light speeding toward him from the distant sky.
A cultivator!
Instantly alert, he secretly summoned his Qi and Blood, ready to strike at any moment.
A young man in a dark green robe hovered above him, standing on a leaf-shaped magical tool, looking down at him with a cold gaze.
"Having survived the Mingxue Beasts? You have rather good luck."
The dark-green-robed young man murmured to himself, then pointed toward the depths of the mountain, his tone indifferent. "Go over there and gather. The Elders have given the orders, be quick about it."
With that, he turned into a bolt of light that vanished off into the sky.
"It seems the two Foundation Establishment experts are going to thoroughly investigate the disappearance of the Skeleton Nether Flower..."
Lu Lin's heart sank.
He wasn't worried about the Skeleton Nether Flower—it had long since turned to ashes. Even a Foundation Establishment expert, no matter how powerful, wouldn't be able to trace it back to him.
What concerned him was his own Realm.
Before entering the mountain, he was only at the Body Tempering Sixth Level, but now he had reached the Body Tempering Ninth Level.
Foundation Establishment cultivators were incredibly perceptive. If they remembered his previous Realm yet saw right through the current him, it would spell disaster.
He had to find a way to hide it.
"With my Perfection mastery, the Self-Concealment Technique can deceive a Qi Refining cultivator, but it likely won't hold up against a Foundation Establishment cultivator... What should I do?"
Thoughts raced through Lu Lin's mind. Looking for a superior technique at this point was unrealistic.
There was no other alternative.
"Channel in!"
Gritting his teeth, he channeled his accumulated Training Time into the Self-Concealment Technique, though he had long since attained Perfection in it.
He had long wanted to test whether a technique in which he had hit the limit could be deduced. But before, he had always been short on Training Time, so he had delayed it.
Now, he had no other choice.
[Your Perfection mastery of the Self-Concealment Technique has left no room for further headway. Unwilling to accept this, you retire to a secluded place and immerse yourself in hard training, contemplating the technique year after year. The first year, you gain nothing; the second year, still nothing; the third year, no progress is made...]
[As you lose track of time in the mountain, fifteen years pass in the blink of an eye. In that year, a sudden inspiration strikes you during the hundreds of times you execute the technique. Overjoyed, you cling to it tightly.]
[The sixteenth year, that inspiration comes into focus.]
[The twentieth year, the concept in your mind gradually takes shape.]
[The thirtieth year, heaven rewards the diligent. At last, your inspiration matures into a new technique---- 'Spirit-Concealing Art', elevating the Self-Concealment Technique to new heights.]
[Spirit-Concealing Art: Conceal the spirit within, steady as a deep pond or a towering mountain; Concentrate on one thing, still as an ancient well. External matters cannot disturb the heart, the myriad phenomena cannot move the spirit.]
It worked!
Lu Lin was overjoyed.
Upon activating it, his Qi and Blood immediately receded and lay dormant, making him appear like an ordinary mortal. With a thought, he could freely change his aura from the Body Tempering First Level to the Ninth Level.
It wasn't just his Qi and Blood—even his "soul and spirits" could be completely concealed. Pushing it to the limit, he felt no different than a withered tree; it was a slice of cake to deceive even a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"Good, good, good!"
Lu Lin praised inwardly.
Those thirty years of Training Time were well spent.
Not only that, but he had also confirmed a hypothesis: even without the follow-up training method, as long as he invested time, a mastered technique could be further developed.
"Should I try to deduce the 'Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art' as well?"
The thought crossed his mind, but he immediately dismissed it.
The Self-Concealment Technique was a common, inferior technique, cheap and widely circulated. Developing it still took thirty years. The Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art, however, was an Inherence Blood Qi Realm martial art. The time required to evolve it would undoubtedly be staggering.
Right now, Training Time was too precious to squander like that.
He had to put this matter aside for now.
He maintained his aura at the Body Tempering Sixth Level and hurried deeper into the mountain.
As he approached the Mingxue Beast King's lair once more, he saw that forty to fifty people had already gathered there, most of them warriors.
It seemed he wasn't the only warrior who had survived.
High in the sky, the male Foundation Establishment expert swept his cold gaze over the crowd, indifferent yet imposing.
Like the others, Lu Lin wore an expression of anxiety and unease.
As time passed, more and more people arrived to assemble, eventually reaching over seventy.
At that moment, streaks of light flew in from all directions, landing and revealing themselves as Qi Refining disciples.
Finally, Elder Chu pelted back from the distance.
"Is everyone here?"
Elder Lin's voice carried from afar, authoritative and icy.
"Master!"
A stunningly beautiful female cultivator in her twenties came forward on her magical tool, replying respectfully, "The entire mountain range has been searched. All survivors are here."
"What about Yu An and Yao Yuan?" Elder Lin asked coldly.
"Reporting to Master, we haven't seen any trace of them. This disciple suspects... they may have been killed by the Mingxue Beasts."
"Whether they're alive or dead, we must find it out," Elder Lin's tone grew even colder.
"Yes, yes..." the female disciple replied repeatedly.
Elder Lin shifted his gaze to the crowd, his powerful spiritual sense surging out like a tide, sweeping over the scene.
Lu Lin felt something intangible envelop him, reeking of arrogance and seemingly able to penetrate everything.
"So this is the spiritual sense of a Foundation Establishment expert..."
He thought to himself, not daring to be the slightest bit careless. He pushed the Spirit-Concealing Art to the limits, keeping the fluctuations of his Qi and Blood steadily at the Body Tempering Sixth Level.
Fortunately, the spiritual sense didn't linger on him for long, moving away after just two breaths.
A moment later, Elder Lin spoke again,
"All disciples, take out your storage bags for inspection."
His gaze fell on the Qi Refining cultivators.
As for the martial artists, they had no storage bags. Under his spiritual sense, nothing could be hidden. It was impossible for them to have concealed the Skeleton Nether Flower on their persons.
Only storage bags could shield from spiritual sense.
Some disciples exchanged glances, their expressions hesitant.
Who didn't have a few secrets? And those secrets were often hidden in the storage bags.
Handing over a storage bag was like stripping naked for another person's benefit.
But under the gaze of the Demonic Sect Foundation Establishment expert, no one dared to refuse.
To refuse was to die.
In the end, all the disciples surrendered their storage bags.
After inspecting them one by one, Elder Lin's expression grew increasingly grim.
Nothing!
"Senior Brother Lin, there are only two possibilities in this matter."
Elder Chu quietly transmitted a telepathic message.
"Speak."
"First, an outsider infiltrated the mountain and took advantage of the chaos to steal the Skeleton Nether Flower."
"Second, one of these disciples secretly obtained it and hid it somewhere, planning to bide his time and retrieve it later."
Elder Chu laid out a calm analysis.
Elder Lin offered a mild nod. He had thought of these two possibilities as well.
If it was the second, it would be easier to handle. They just needed to keep a close watch on these disciples and station people covertly around the Siming mountain, waiting for the right moment.
What worried him was the first possibility.
If an outsider had taken it, then he had simply labored in vain for someone else's benefit.
As for the warriors hiding the flower... he hadn't even considered it.
In the territory of the Demonic Sect, warriors weren't allowed to leave their designated areas without permission. Once they returned this time, they might have no chance to leave for years. Even if they had obtained the Skeleton Nether Flower, they would have no opportunity to come back and retrieve it.