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Chapter 388: The National Seal
🕑 Added 2024-10-24 07:07:29 +0000 UTCZhao Yunzhong struggled to breathe, his mouth opening and closing in an attempt to take in air. Summoning his last bit of strength, he pointed toward the distance and rasped, "The... the..."
Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes rolled back, and he fell unconscious.
Lin Xiao immediately checked his condition, finding that Zhao Yunzhong’s heart meridian had suffered severe trauma. His internal organs were bleeding profusely. Without delay, Lin Xiao took out a healing pill given to him by Sun Yigao before departing and channeled his own spiritual energy to help repair Zhao Yunzhong’s injuries.
Gradually, Zhao Yunzhong’s pallor, which had turned a deathly shade of green, started to improve. His consciousness returned slightly as his internal spiritual energy began to circulate, attempting to heal his body. However, with such grave injuries, a full recovery would take time unless aided by someone with a far higher cultivation level.
Lin Xiao had done his part by administering the pill and stabilizing Zhao Yunzhong’s condition. Continuing to channel more energy wouldn’t speed up his recovery. Seeing that Zhao Yunzhong’s spiritual energy was now functioning autonomously, Lin Xiao stopped his efforts.
With Zhao Yunzhong injured, Yuan Jinsheng had descended into the mine alone, leaving Lin Xiao as the only one above ground. The aftermath of the distant explosion had yet to settle fully. Amidst the lingering dust, Lin Xiao faintly spotted an object glowing softly as it slowly descended to the ground.
Extending his spiritual sense, Lin Xiao probed toward the glowing object. However, no matter how hard he tried, his spiritual sense was unable to penetrate the radiant layer surrounding it.
After pondering for a moment, Lin Xiao placed Zhao Yunzhong inside the protective formation he had set up around the Destruction Stone Mines, allowing him to rest safely while his body healed. A mist appeared from the void, and under Lin Xiao’s control, it enveloped Zhao Yunzhong’s unconscious form, gently carrying him inside the array.
Lin Xiao, on high alert, swiftly made his way toward the epicenter of the disturbance.
Judging by Zhao Yunzhong's urgent gesture toward that direction, it seemed he knew something about the explosion.
The site of the blast lay within the perimeter of Lin Xiao’s formation. With his current cultivation at the Golden Core stage, it didn’t take him long to reach the location at full speed.
As Lin Xiao approached, his thoughts lingered on the mass of red lights he had seen earlier in the central underground chamber. He had believed the system-produced sealing formation would be impenetrable, yet someone had managed to slip inside unnoticed. Thankfully, his precautionary measures had worked, otherwise, he would have no clue about the intruders or their numbers.
Lost in thought, Lin Xiao soon arrived at the scene of the explosion.
Dust still hung thick in the air, obscuring visibility and covering the entire area in a grayish haze. Lin Xiao waved his sleeve, and with a sweeping motion, the dust was blown away, revealing the true state of the explosion’s epicenter.
The area had once been a sparse forest, now completely leveled, forming a large crater in the ground. In the center of the crater lay a fat, severely injured man. His body was covered in wounds, a mixture of blood and dirt clinging to his skin. One of his arms and both legs were barely attached to his torso.
His clothes, now tattered and indistinguishable, appeared to have once been quite luxurious. Cautiously scanning the surroundings, Lin Xiao approached the man while keeping a watchful eye on the glowing object that had just landed nearby.
He knelt down to examine the man’s injuries, and to his surprise, discovered that the man’s internal organs were utterly ruined, with violent spiritual energy rampaging uncontrollably inside his body. His dantian was completely shattered.
If the man had been conscious and had a strong enough cultivation base to manage the berserk spiritual energy, he might have had a slim chance of survival. However, the man was only at the Qi Refining stage. Unless Lin Xiao was willing to sacrifice his own cultivation to reconstruct the man’s organs and repair his dantian, there was little hope.
Even setting aside the question of willingness, this man was clearly no ally. Unlike Zhao Yunzhong and Yuan Jinsheng, who had entered the formation by force, this man had appeared out of nowhere, much like the remnants involved in the Destruction Stone incident. Given the circumstances, he was likely an enemy.
Still, Lin Xiao infused a small amount of spiritual energy into the man, hoping for some answers. The man’s eyes fluttered open weakly, and he gave a wry smile when he saw only a stranger standing before him.
His gaze shifted toward the glowing object nearby, and with great effort, he parted his cracked lips, struggling to speak, "The... the national seal... mustn’t... fall... into the hands of... the Destruction... Destruction..."
Before he could finish, his head slumped to the side, and he died.
As his life slipped away, a faint grayish aura emerged from his body and drifted toward the glowing object that had landed earlier.
Lin Xiao stood in silence for a moment, watching the gray aura enter the object. The protective glow around it gradually faded, revealing what lay inside.
It was a square jade seal, translucent and intricately carved with a dragon’s head.
Lin Xiao used object manipulation to lift the seal and turned it over. On the underside, four characters were etched into the jade: "Seal of Huan You Kingdom."
His eyes shifted back to the now-dead man.
"So, this was the former king of Huan You Kingdom who conspired with the Destruction Stones," Lin Xiao thought. He wondered how the man had ended up in such a state. Having crossed through Lin Xiao’s formation, the former king and his cohorts should have been safe, at least temporarily. Yet here he lay, broken and defeated.
As he mused over these thoughts, Lin Xiao picked up the national seal from the ground.
For hundreds of years, the Seal of Huan You Kingdom had been in the hands of the Zhao royal family. It was only after the regime change that the seal was stolen. Now that it had come into his possession, it would be fitting to return it to Zhao Yunzhong once the man recovered. This would be a rightful restoration.
The moment Lin Xiao held the seal, a peculiar sensation coursed through his body, or rather, directly into his Sea of Consciousness.
Over the past year, as his spiritual awareness had grown, Lin Xiao’s Sea of Consciousness had gradually expanded and solidified. Now, his Sea of Consciousness resembled a vast and brilliant starry sky.
As Elder Liao had once explained, most cultivators' Seas of Consciousness appeared as vague manifestations of single objects. However, Lin Xiao’s was an entire starry expanse, far beyond the norm. Not only him, but Jiang Youfu and Sun Yigao, who had also successfully built their foundations through the Ben Yuan Heart Sutra, displayed similarly unique Seas of Consciousness.
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