Chapter 90: Undercurrent

The County Test was only five days away from now. Lin Xun kept cultivating as usual, practicing martial arts in the daytime, and tempering the spiritual power, soul and skills of spiritual tattoos at night.

He did not change and adjust his pace of life because of the coming County Test. He seemed quite unhurried and calm.

However, since Shia Zhi woke up from serious injuries, she slept during the day as usual, and left alone at night. Lin Xun knew that every time the girl went out at night, a gang in this Civilian Area was bound to suffer.

All in all, Courtyard 49 did not seem very different from what it had been in the past, but there had been a number of great events happening in Donglin Town in the last few days, which had caused a sensation throughout the town.

First of all, Yao Tuohai, a big bug with high reputation, was now in Donglin Town, and he was about to take on the position of chief examiner, presiding over the upcoming County Test.

Because of the arrival of Yao Tuohai, the number of practitioners who signed up to participate in this County Test suddenly skyrocketed. The test had not started and the number of registered examinees had exceeded 8,000!

Only about half of them were the local practitioners in Donglin Town, while the other half came from other cities. All of them came here for admiring Yao Tuohai.

Because of this matter, Donglin Town suddenly became more bustling than before. At the moment in every street and lane, people were discussing about what Yao Tuohai came here for.

Meanwhile, the news that a mysterious young man arrived at Donglin Town, accompanied by members of Blood Army which had been stationing on the western border of the empire, again caused a great disturbance in Donglin Town where rumors had been everywhere.

The Blood Army!

It was an elite army whose name was well-known in the empire, and it belonged to Ning Bugui, the “Blood King” of the military department in the empire!

Ning Bugui was a legendary overmatch in the empire, and the Blood Army was a legendary army in the empire, but now some members of Blood Army formed a group to escort a young man to Donglin Town. It could be imagined what a great sensation it might cause.

Why did the members of the Blood Army come here?

Why did they escort the young man to come?

Everybody was guessing and talking, but nobody could give an exact answer.

Even the well-informed large forces in Donglin Town were confused and somewhat at a stand.

Yao Tuohai came to preside over the County Test of Donglin Town in person, but everyone knew the real purpose of Yao Tuohai was certainly not so simple.

A Blood Guard came, escorting a young man. It was even harder to know what they were up to.

All of these made the situation of Donglin Town more complicated and confusing, and the atmosphere in Donglin Town became uncanny therefore.

……

In the Keystone Business.

Mu Wansu was in a daze with a thoughtful look, and a pair of eyebrows had been knitted in a frown.

In her hand was an urgent message sent several hours ago from the headquarters of Keystone Business that was located in the imperial capital, the Forbidden City. There was, on it, however, only some obscure words,

“There will be a big shot arriving in Donglin Town these days. Be careful!”

Just because of these words, Mu Wansu became uneasy. Who was this big shot? Why even the Keystone Business headquarters was disturbed and sent out such an urgent information?

But in this information, the name of the big shot was not mentioned?

Her intuition told Mu Wansu that it was not simple!

She thought of Yao Tuohai who suddenly showed up in Donglin Town to personally preside over the County Test, as well as the young man arriving at Donglin Town escorted by a Blood Guard.

Did it mean that…they all came here for the “big shot”?

Realizing this, Mu Wansu could not help but take a deep breath. Yao Tuohai’s identity had been so formidable, and in southwestern province of the entire empire, only Governor Liu Wujun could be on a par with him.

And the identity of the youngster escorted here by the Blood Guard would not be usual. After all, the Blood Guard was a tiger-and-wolf-like division under the control of Ning Bugui! As this youngster could be escorted by the blood guard, could his status be ordinary?

If they all came for the “big shot,” then it could be inferred how terrifying the identity of the “big shot” would be.

And why would such a big shot come to Donglin Town?

The more Mu Wansu thought about it, the more restless she became. For the first time, she felt that she could not understand the situation in Donglin Town.

……

In the morning four days later.

After having breakfast, Lin Xun did not start his cultivation. He felt that his physical cultivation had hit a bottleneck again. He planned to go to Donglin Martial Practice Hall to test what degree his physical strength had achieved.

After leaving the Civilian Area and entering the busy street, Lin Xun clearly felt that, compared with the past, Donglin Town became more bustling. Practitioners could be seen everywhere, and people were talking about the County Test.

Because tomorrow morning, the County Test would kick off in Donglin School!

For the County Test, Lin Xun was not so worried. He was prepared, only waiting for the start of the test.

Soon, Lin Xun came to Donglin Martial Practice Hall. After paying 10 imperial silver coins, he was respectfully led by a footboy into the “Martial Practice Room”.

The martial practice room was large, like a small martial practice field, in which a lot of copper puppets were distributed.

The so-called copper puppet was a kind of spiritual tool made by the mechanism technique. The body of the puppet was made from hard spiritual materials and ores. Finally, spiritual tattooist would inscribe a special spiritual tattoo inside the puppet. This allowed the puppet to act autonomously through the internal mechanism and spiritual power source.

Some powerful copper puppets could even fight like real practitioners!

However, the copper puppets in Donglin Martial Practice Hall were just ordinary, and they could only carry out some simple actions. Their biggest function was to test the martial power of the practitioners.

……

While Lin Xun entered Donglin Martial Practice Hall, thousands of miles away from Donglin Town, in the depths of Three Thousand Mountains, undulating mountains were numerous, sea of clouds rolled and few people trod.

Suddenly, under the blue sky, a strange procession appeared.

At the front of the procession were a group of men in imperial court dress, but their dress was not lilac in color, but dark as night.

There were sixteen men in all, and they were divided into two groups to lead the way. Their bearing was solemn and respectful. Even when they walked in the clouds, their gestures maintained extremely concordant.

It was as if they were walking on a flat solid road instead of floating clouds in the sky. Every step, and every little move, were kept in a particular rhythm that was exactly the same!

Only practitioners in Sea Spirit Realm could fly in the sky, but not all practitioners in Sea Spirit Realm could maintain the power of walking steadily in the clouds.

Even if they could walk in the clouds, they would not be able to walk at the same pace and rhythm as these sixteen men in black court dress did.

But these sixteen men, whose cultivation had evidently reached the Sea Spirit Realm long time ago, possessing terrible power, now only played the role of pathfinders.

Behind them was a carriage.

The whole carriage was black, inscribed with numerous unintelligible spiritual taboos, enveloped in dark and quiet qi under the blue sky. It could not be figured out what kind of material it was made from.

Six black horses pulled the carriage, and their eyes were as green as will-o’-the-wisp. With a single horn on their heads, they were very like the legendary unicorns. Unicorns were white, while the six horses were pure black, just like the ghost horses running out of the hell!

Above the mountains, beneath the blue sky, a procession in black court dress and a pitch-dark horse-drawn carriage suddenly appeared. Such a scene was really shocking. It was like an unreal illusion.

Scream!

From the far end of the vault, suddenly came a loud, clear cry that resounded through the clouds. A black shadow, in a flash, came to the side of the carriage.

It was a strange black bird with four claws. Its dark wings were jet-black, and eyes were golden. Though its figure seemed to be small, it made others feel terrible and fierce.

However, just in an instant, with a bang, the black strange bird burst into an old man with a tall and slender figure unexpectedly. He wore a black court dress, and his long hair was combed quite orderly!

“Lady, I have been searching for a long time, but have not found a clue. Someone must have deliberately destroyed all traces. We came too late,” the elderly said in a mellow voice and bowed slightly. He behaved in such a refined and civil manner which was so impeccable!

“Mmm.”

“As expected,” said in a husky voice the woman in the black carriage, “I was surprised that they could put up with that event and has not taken action until now.”

The old man kept silent.

After quite a while, the husky voice arose again, “The Flamen once said that in the Three Thousand Mountains, a Peerless Treasure had showed up. Have you heard of it?”

The old man bowed and said, “Yes, it is said that Young Sword King Shie Yutang has confirmed that this treasure does not exist.”

“Oh, the little guy from Shie’s Family at Celebrity Lane in the Forbidden City?”

“Exactly.”

“This guy can also be said to have his luck.”

At this point, the husky voice suddenly stopped. Soon the curtain on one side of the black carriage was lifted and the lady in the carriage stretched out a beautiful white hand which was fine and slim.

On the impeccably defined little finger, the lady wore a ring decorated with a strange black gem which was chilling and looked like an open vertical black eye.

The beautiful finger pointed to the place far away. “What is that place ahead?”

“Lady,” said the old man, “it is Donglin Town, one of the destinations of our journey. At the present speed, we can get there in three hours.”

“Donglin Town…Interesting…”

The husky voice was somewhat ethereal. The mysterious lady seemed to have sensed something, and her words was fathomless.

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