For three days, Lin Huang stayed in the Scripture Pavilion. After browsing through thousands of ancient scrolls, he finally found a clue among dozens of historical texts of the East Spirit Realm.
The very first clue was hidden in the "Secret History of Yin Yang Valley".
According to the records in this book, over a thousand years ago, Yin Yang Valley was an absolute place of great peril. Shrouded in Evil Qi year-round, the miserable cries of crows echoed from it day and night. Whoever entered Yin Yang Valley never emerged again. At the time, Yin Yang Valley was regarded as the number one perilous land in the East Spirit Realm.
"Crows!"
Lin Huang frowned slightly in deep thought. This reminded him of the Blood Crow he had suppressed earlier.
Afterward, Lin Huang found another piece of information in the "Xuanyuan Chronicles". It recorded details about the Xuanyuan Family, not touching upon any Xin Secrets, but merely documenting the family’s history of development.
However, just the word "Xuanyuan" alone was enough to warrant Lin Huang’s utmost attention. After all, the current undisputed strongest expert in the East Spirit Realm, Xuanyuan Tibing, belonged to the Xuanyuan Family.
According to the book, the Xuanyuan Family’s first appearance in the public eye was tied to a young man named Xuanyuan Zheng.
At that time, Yin Yang Valley’s fierce reputation was widespread. Even Martial Marquis Powerhouses could forget about coming out alive once they entered. Yet, as stated in the "Xuanyuan Chronicles", Xuanyuan Zheng was a sickly, frail scholar who was too weak to even swat a fly. However, he was the one who walked out of Yin Yang Valley alive. In all the records regarding Yin Yang Valley, he was the first person to ever come out alive.
This event caused a massive sensation across the entire East Spirit Realm at the time. But three years after Xuanyuan Zheng walked out, this great perilous land of the East Spirit Realm abruptly vanished from the public eye. It was as if someone had forcefully erased it from the map.
The book also recorded that on the day before Yin Yang Valley disappeared, "Mountains and rivers shook, and the cries of crows thundered across the East Spirit Land. Blood clouds covered the sky as though the heavens were falling. The famous Martial Marquises were filled with dread, fearing that the evil of Yin Yang Valley would bring disaster to the East Spirit. Yet, once midnight passed, the mountains and rivers grew silent, and the blood clouds dissipated. Only the voice of Xuanyuan Zheng was heard: ’For the next seven hundred years, there shall be no more Yin Yang Valley!’"
Strangely enough, following the anomaly that day, there was truly no news of Yin Yang Valley for an entire seven hundred years. Over time, Yin Yang Valley was gradually forgotten by the people of the East Spirit Realm.
Reading this, Lin Huang already formed a hypothesis. He suspected that a thousand years ago, Xuanyuan Zheng employed a grand method to seal and hide the entire Yin Yang Valley, which was why it vanished without a trace. But how could a frail scholar accomplish such a feat? To erase or conceal an entire region required truly extraordinary means.
***
Subsequently, Lin Huang found another clue in "Thousand Years of Eastern Spirit: Strange Tales of the Martial Marquis". This book documented several Martial Marquis Powerhouses who had shaken the world in the East Spirit Realm over the past millennium. Their histories of growth served as both encouragement and warning for later generations. In this book, Lin Huang discovered a peerless Demon named Qiu Dali.
Qiu Dali—this name sounded extremely rustic, but not without reason. Before the age of thirty, this person was merely a woodcutter who made a living by hunting and chopping firewood. Given his life trajectory, if he had not encountered a great opportunity, he would have likely remained obscure for his entire life. However, at the age of thirty, while hunting on the outskirts of the Qinglong Mountain Range, he saved a gravely injured, dying crow.
The subsequent story unfolded as wondrously as a tale told by a storyteller. To thank the woodcutter for saving its life, the crow brought out a scroll of an Unparalleled Martial Technique from the tomb of some unknown expert. Then, it sacrificed itself, becoming the woodcutter’s Martial Soul. In the ten years that followed, the name Qiu Dali wildly spread across the entire East Spirit Realm, and his legend circulated everywhere in the Jianghu.
He began cultivating Martial Arts at thirty, stepped into the Martial Marquis Realm at thirty-five, and by forty, he was invincible in the world.
At forty-two, for some unknown reason, his temperament drastically changed, undergoing One Thought into Demon. Overnight, he slaughtered an entire Royal Family and used the flesh and blood of a hundred thousand people as a furnace to supply his cultivation. Wherever he passed, the land was filled with grief and devastation, leaving not a single blade of grass. Even when the supremely powerful Seven Sects, Six Clans, and Four Dynasties of the East Spirit Realm banded together, they were completely helpless against him.
This nightmare lasted for an entire decade. It wasn’t until ten years later that two young men suddenly rose to prominence in the East Spirit Realm. One was named Xuanyuan Changge, and the other was Jia Tiansheng. These two possessed wind and cloud Martial Souls. When fighting together, they could unleash boundless power. At the time, they engaged in a bitter battle with Qiu Dali on Wuya Peak for three days and three nights, ultimately slaying him. However, for some unknown reason, the two men committed suicide by slitting their own throats on the spot.
"Xuanyuan Changge, Jia Tiansheng?"
In the Scripture Pavilion, Lin Huang held the ancient scroll and pondered deeply. His brows gradually furrowed, knitting tighter and tighter. He muttered with a hint of speculation, "Xuanyuan? Jia?"
The suspicions in Lin Huang’s heart grew stronger. A memory suddenly flashed in his mind—when the news of the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers was exposed, Xuanyuan Tibing had appeared at the Jia Mansion. This forced Lin Huang to connect the two families together: Jia Tiansheng and Jia Wanjing, Xuanyuan Changge and Xuanyuan Tibing. Three hundred years apart, the members of these two families were always somewhat entangled with each other. Could it really just be a coincidence, or was it for something else?
As for why Xuanyuan Changge and Jia Tiansheng committed suicide, Lin Huang had some theories. He suspected that the crow Qiu Dali saved didn’t impart the Martial Technique out of gratitude. Instead, it repaid his kindness with enmity and directly possessed Qiu Dali. As for Xuanyuan Changge and Jia Tiansheng slitting their throats, it was likely because they had been invaded by the Blood Crow during their battle with Qiu Dali. Knowing they would eventually be possessed and fall into the Demon Realm over time, they valiantly chose to end their own lives.
This point could be corroborated by Jia Wanjing. Because he had suppressed a Blood Crow inside his body, Jia Wanjing’s physique had withered, and his strength had dissipated.
Furthermore, Lin Huang discovered from the "Records of Yin Yang Valley" that after Qiu Dali’s appearance, Yin Yang Valley—which had vanished for seven hundred years—emerged once again. Unlike a thousand years ago, Yin Yang Valley only appeared once every few decades, and it was no longer as fierce and terrifying as before. Although every time Yin Yang Valley emerged, it resulted in a devastating loss of life, Martial Artists gradually realized that those who made it out alive invariably became formidable experts of their regions.
Over time, rumors that Yin Yang Valley held inheritances began to spread. And this situation had continued right up to the present... So much so that not long ago, the High Priest of Piaoxue Palace was overjoyed to the point of madness upon discovering that Yin Yang Valley was about to emerge.
Thinking of this, Lin Huang couldn’t help but close the ancient scroll. A faint sense of foreboding rose in his heart; he feared that the inheritance in Yin Yang Valley was not as beautiful as people believed. After all, Lin Huang had witnessed the abilities of the Blood Crow firsthand.
In the Scripture Pavilion, near the end of his search, Lin Huang finally uncovered a trace of information regarding the Blood Spirit Hall. However, its source left him quite astonished. Because this trace of information about the Blood Spirit Hall surprisingly originated from the "East Spirit Geomancy Diary". Geomancy was Feng Shui!
This book was written over two hundred years ago by Cao Yangming, a Geomancy grandmaster of the East Spirit Realm. It documented the three hundred and seventy-two mountains and rivers he had studied throughout his life. Among them, the final Geomancy site recorded by Cao Yangming was the Qinglong Mountain Range. He had spent ten years studying the Qinglong Mountain Range. Ultimately, relying on his terrifying Geomancy skills, he discovered a Dragon-Locking Land hidden within the intertwining peaks.
The so-called Dragon-Locking Land was a terrain capable of imprisoning the East Spirit Dragon Vein. With the Dragon Vein locked, the fortune of the entire East Spirit Realm would be suppressed, and its Martial Artists would never see the light of day. For this reason, Cao Yangming single-handedly unlocked the Dragon-Locking Land.
However, he never expected that unlocking the Dragon-Locking Land would bring an unprecedented disaster to the East Spirit Realm. This was because Cao Yangming could have never imagined that the Dragon-Locking Land was actually suppressing Yin Yang Valley.
In the timeline of that era, the peerless Demon Qiu Dali had been dead for over fifty years. During that period, Yin Yang Valley had appeared twice, and both its appearances and disappearances were extremely bizarre. The disasters it brought made people pale at the mere mention of them. Yet, Cao Yangming never anticipated that he would forcefully locate Yin Yang Valley relying on his Geomancy skills—the very Yin Yang Valley that was suppressed by the East Spirit Dragon Vein and operated on a trajectory guided by the Star Constellation.
With the Dragon-Locking Land destroyed, the Dragon Vein within it escaped, and the so-called suppressing force vanished along with it. Immediately, Yin Yang Valley emerged once more. The Evil Demons within the valley swarmed out, ruthlessly massacring the world... It was recorded in the "East Spirit Chronicles" that the disaster brought by this emergence of Yin Yang Valley was more than ten times greater than before. At that time, all the river waters in the entire East Spirit Realm were dyed blood-red. Inside and outside Yin Yang Valley, corpses piled up like mountains!
Only then did Cao Yangming realize that he had caused a catastrophic disaster... Fortunately, at this time, the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers appeared!
And this time, the person who brought the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers was Xuanyuan Wuxiang—the grandson of Xuanyuan Changge, who had fought Qiu Dali to the death and committed suicide on Wuya Peak! Legend had it that Xuanyuan Wuxiang was the most powerful Fortune Teller in the East Spirit Realm over the past millennium!
After the Dragon-Locking Land was destroyed by Cao Yangming, Xuanyuan Wuxiang sensed it. Within a mere three days, he assembled the ten most famous Fortune Tellers in the East Spirit Realm at the time. Gathering the power of the ten great Fortune Tellers, Xuanyuan Wuxiang activated the Celestial Eye Divine Techniques. He tracked down the escaped Dragon Vein of the East Spirit Realm, captured it, and reconstructed the locking power of the dragon.
Subsequently, following the guidance of the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers, Xuanyuan Wuxiang established seven more confinement grounds within the East Spirit Realm, synchronizing them with the Dragon Vein to suppress Yin Yang Valley. After that, Xuanyuan Wuxiang intended to borrow the Power of Stars to forever hide the entrance to Yin Yang Valley within the vast Celestial Secret, ensuring it would never appear again.
However, just as Xuanyuan Wuxiang linked the Star Map to conceal the entrance of Yin Yang Valley, Cao Yangming appeared again! It was him again. At the most critical moment, he slaughtered the ten great Fortune Tellers assisting Xuanyuan Wuxiang one by one. This caused Xuanyuan Wuxiang to suffer a backlash from the Celestial Path, dying violently on the spot. As a result, the Star Map he had linked was left with a flaw, causing Yin Yang Valley to re-emerge every few decades.
Xuanyuan Wuxiang’s sudden death completely enraged the members of the Xuanyuan Family. They hunted Cao Yangming down for three full years. It wasn’t until Cao Yangming was on the brink of death that the Xuanyuan Family finally realized something: Cao Yangming belonged to a faction called the Blood Spirit Hall!