A few hours later, news of what had happened at Cloud Mist Ridge Market finally reached the Lin Family.
At first, the report had only been circulated among the higher-ranking members of the family, but as more details arrived, the news quickly spread throughout Dragon Yuan Mountain.
Two powerful demonic cultivators had appeared in the middle of a beast tide, one controlling countless ghosts while the other had transformed his own body into a terrifying zombie, and Guardian Zhao, who had only recently broken through to Astral Gang, had been forced into a desperate battle.
The battle itself had already been shocking enough.
What truly left everyone speechless, however, was what happened at the end.
Just when Guardian Zhao was on the verge of being killed, an unfamiliar expert had suddenly descended.
No one knew where he had come from and no one knew his identity.
According to the surviving cultivators, the expert had simply appeared in the sky and killed the two demonic cultivators with a single palm.
The news naturally caused considerable discussion within the Lin Family.
Inside the elders' council hall, several elders sat around the long table, their expressions unusually serious.
"The identity of this expert is still unknown," one elder said after reading the latest report. "From Guardian Zhao's description, the expert seemed unfamiliar with the current situation in the Eastern Region, almost as though he had been in seclusion for a very long time."
Another elder frowned.
"Did Guardian Zhao notice anything distinctive about him? His appearance, cultivation method, sect insignia, anything that could help us identify him?"
The first elder shook his head.
"He didn't."
He paused before correcting himself.
"More accurately, he couldn't."
The room became quiet.
The elder continued, "Guardian Zhao said the expert dealt with the two demonic cultivators almost instantly. He could not determine the person's exact cultivation realm, nor could he identify what sect or faction the expert belonged to."
Several elders exchanged glances.
That was precisely what made the matter troublesome.
An unknown expert was already dangerous enough.
An unknown expert who could effortlessly kill two Purple Palace demonic cultivators was even more difficult to judge.
The Head Elder finally spoke.
"Regardless of who he is, he helped Guardian Zhao and saved the lives of countless cultivators at Cloud Mist Ridge Market."
Her fingers lightly tapped the table.
"We don't need to investigate him aggressively."
Several elders nodded.
"Inform the ancestors about what happened," the Head Elder continued. "At this critical moment, the Lin Family should keep a low profile. The Dao Reaching Sect has already become our ally, and that alone is enough to attract attention from the Seven Star Palace. We should not create another source of trouble unless absolutely necessary."
"Understood."
The discussion continued for some time before gradually coming to an end.
None of them realised that the mysterious expert they were discussing was currently sitting quietly within the Lin Family.
Inside his parents' courtyard, Lin Sheng sat beneath the familiar old tree, his eyes closed as he contemplated his current cultivation.
After nearly thirteen years of wandering, he had finally returned to the Lin Family, yet instead of feeling excitement at his return, his mind was already analysing his current state.
His greatest strength at the moment remained his body.
He had already reached the Golden Body Realm through the Five Elements Body Forging Art.
His physical body had undergone an enormous transformation compared with when he had first entered the Martial Continent, and after undergoing the Heavenly Mechanism's Four-Nine Tribulation, the foundation of his Golden Body had become extraordinarily stable.
His body was already strong enough to withstand terrifying levels of force, and when combined with his immense Qi-Blood, his physical strength had reached a level that ordinary Rank 4 cultivators could not comprehend.
But Lin Sheng knew very well that strength alone was not enough.
His internal cultivation had also advanced considerably.
After continuously absorbing the smelted spiritual liquid produced by the Qi-Blood Furnace, his Innate Gang Essence had become increasingly dense, and he was already approaching the mid-stage of Astral Gang.
The problem was that he had to slow down.
The Qi-Blood Furnace could refine an enormous amount of spiritual energy, but if he allowed it to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy at full speed, the disturbance would be too obvious.
The Lin Family possessed two ancestors in seclusion.
If he suddenly began absorbing spiritual energy on an enormous scale inside Dragon Yuan Mountain, there was no guarantee that the ancestors would not notice something unusual.
Lin Sheng was not afraid of being discovered by them.
He simply did not want to reveal too much.
After all, his current identity was supposed to be that of a cultivator who had spent many years wandering through the Western Wastelands, not someone who had cultivated another completely different martial system in another world.
Therefore, he could only suppress the rate at which the Qi-Blood Furnace refined spiritual energy.
I should wait until I leave Dragon Yuan Mountain.
Once he was outside the Lin Family's territory, he could freely absorb spiritual energy and complete the breakthrough to the mid-stage of Astral Gang without worrying about attracting the ancestors' attention.
But even after reaching the mid-stage of Astral Gang, Lin Sheng knew that his actual combat power would not increase dramatically.
His energy reserves would become deeper, his stamina would improve, and his ability to maintain prolonged battles would become stronger, but his foundation was already so powerful that merely increasing the quantity of Astral Qi would not cause a qualitative transformation.
His gaze lowered.
His external cultivation was currently at the absolute peak of Blood Exchange.
The Golden Body Realm and Blood Exchange Realm had become the two pillars supporting his present combat strength.
The Golden Body provided terrifying physical strength and defence, while the Blood Exchange Realm allowed his body to maintain an enormous and vigorous supply of Qi-Blood.
When the two were combined, Lin Sheng's body had already become a terrifying weapon.
But there was another problem.
He had reached the limit of what his current external cultivation methods could provide.
He had no cultivation method for the realm beyond Golden Body.
The Five Elements Body Forging Art had brought him this far, but the subsequent path required something far more profound.
The Golden Body was not the end.
To advance further, he needed to cultivate minor divine abilities related to body refinement and use them to form divine ability seeds within his physique.
It was similar to how a Golden Core cultivator required profound divine abilities to establish the foundation for higher transformations.
The problem was that minor divine abilities were not ordinary martial techniques.
They were the foundation of the inheritance of major powers.
Even Rank 4 forces would treat such abilities as precious inheritances, let alone the truly powerful sects that possessed complete divine ability systems.
Lin Sheng could not simply walk into one of those forces and demand an inheritance.
Even if he possessed enough strength to suppress ordinary Rank 4 experts, that did not mean he could storm into a major sect, seize its inheritance and leave safely.
There would always be stronger cultivators behind such powers.
Therefore, his path of external cultivation had temporarily reached a bottleneck.
He needed resources.
He needed suitable divine abilities and he needed time. Most importantly, he needed an opportunity.
Lin Sheng slowly exhaled.
"Looks like I'll have to accumulate for a while."
He was not particularly anxious.
His current combat power had already reached an astonishing level.
Even without advancing further, he was at least comparable to a peak Rank 4 cultivator in terms of overall combat strength.
That alone was enough to allow him to walk through most places in the Eastern Region without fearing ordinary threats.
Unless he encountered a genuine Golden Core cultivator, there were very few people who could pose a serious threat to him.
And even against a Golden Core cultivator, Lin Sheng was not completely without means.
Therefore, he had no reason to desperately pursue breakthroughs.
Instead, there was something else he could focus on.
His Martial Conception.
Lin Sheng's eyes slowly closed.
Within his mind, an immense image appeared.
The earth.
The vastness of Kun Earth.
The heavy mountains, endless plains, deep valleys and countless layers of earth that seemed to extend towards infinity.
He had already completely comprehended the essence of Kun Earth.
The comprehension itself was not the problem anymore.
What he lacked was integration.
His understanding of Kun Earth had become sufficiently profound, but knowledge alone was not enough to form a true Martial Domain. The Kun Earth also hadn't reached the same level as the current Qian Heaven.
A Martial Domain was the manifestation of one's Martial Will and comprehension brought forth into the vastness of the world.
It was not merely a technique.
It was the extension of the martial artist's own understanding of the world.
Lin Sheng had already walked far enough along the path of Martial Conception.
The next step was to take everything he had comprehended and forge it into something that belonged entirely to him.
His Martial Domain.
He entered a state of emptiness.
His mind gradually became still, without thought, without distraction, without deliberately trying to comprehend anything.
He simply allowed his perception to sink deeper.
The earth beneath him seemed to become clearer.
He could feel the weight of the mountains, the slow movement of the earth veins, the silent strength contained within every stone, every grain of soil, every layer of rock buried beneath thousands of metres of earth.
The earth did not rush.
It did not struggle.
It simply existed.
Heavy, stable, enduring.
Lin Sheng's breathing became slower.
His Martial Will gradually spread from his body.
At first, it was barely perceptible.
Then the air around him began to tremble.
The soil beneath the courtyard quietly sank by a fraction of an inch, not because of pressure, but because something invisible had begun to descend upon it.
Lin Sheng remained completely motionless.
His consciousness seemed to merge with the concept of Kun Earth.
At this moment, he no longer tried to comprehend it.
He began to comprehend himself through it.
The earth could carry mountains, rivers, cities and countless living beings without asking for anything in return.
It could remain unmoving beneath the heavens for thousands of years, enduring storms, floods and the passage of countless generations.
That was the essence Lin Sheng had been searching for.
It was a form of absolute stability.
His Martial Will slowly deepened.