At that time, everyone in the East Spirit Realm finally realized that Cao Yangming’s unlocking of the Dragon-Locking Land was intentional. His purpose was to force Yin Yang Valley to emerge into the world.
What he hadn’t expected, however, was that Xuanyuan Wuxiang would be able to suppress and reseal Yin Yang Valley with such astonishing speed.
This incident also marked the first time the name "Blood Spirit Hall" appeared in the East Spirit Realm.
Following this, the Xuanyuan Family began to investigate the Blood Spirit Hall, only to discover its profound mystery. But a mystery was just a mystery. Having flourished in the East Spirit Realm for over seven hundred years, the Xuanyuan Family’s deep foundations were no less than those of any Sect. Even so, the deeper the Xuanyuan Family investigated, the more alarmed they became.
They discovered that the Blood Spirit Hall had secretly been established fifty years ago by Qiu Dali. The ones currently at its helm were Qiu Dali’s four major Inner Chamber Disciples.
Every member of the Blood Spirit Hall cultivated the Blood Evil Secret Technique, allowing them to condense Blood Crows from within their bodies. These crows generated a terrifying Soul Capturing Power used to manipulate others, or acted as a bridge to gradually devour a Martial Artist’s cultivation, thereby increasing their own strength.
"So this is the origin of the Blood Spirit Hall!"
Reading up to this point, Lin Huang finally understood the capabilities of the Blood Spirit Hall. Recalling the Soul Capturing Power of the Blood Crows and Jia Wanjing’s tragic encounter, even Lin Huang couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.
If it weren’t for the Celestial Asura’s innate suppression over the Blood Crows, he would have likely been reduced to a mindless puppet at someone’s beck and call long ago.
Lin Huang then continued reading.
Through the Xuanyuan Family’s investigations, they discovered that the Blood Spirit Hall had already infiltrated every major power on the continent. Whether it was the Sects, the Jianghu, or the imperial courts, members of the Blood Spirit Hall were everywhere.
The sole purpose of the Blood Spirit Hall seemed to be Yin Yang Valley.
Their methods were extremely cruel. They took pleasure in controlling people’s minds and used human flesh and blood as sacrifices for their cultivation. They would snatch souls and drain vitality without hesitation.
Enraged by this, the Xuanyuan Family displayed their sharp fangs for the first time in their seven-hundred-year history of seclusion.
Wu Budongling, wash the Jianghu in blood!
Once this order was issued, all 3,842 disciples of the Xuanyuan Family—regardless of age or gender—donned white mourning garments, took up the Xuanyuan Clan Banner, and charged into the Jianghu.
For three whole years, the members of the Xuanyuan Family tore the Blood Spirit Hall up by the roots, adopting a ruthless mindset that they would rather kill a thousand innocents by mistake than let a single culprit go. Moreover, anyone in the East Spirit Realm who committed crimes—or was deemed unfilial, unjust, merciless, unrighteous, or wicked—would be frantically hunted down by the Xuanyuan Family.
During those three years, everyone in the East Spirit Realm lived in terror. Seeing a person dressed in white mourning clothes was like seeing a ravenous beast!
However, three years of bloody slaughter also forced the Xuanyuan Family to pay a disastrously heavy price.
The entire younger generation of the family was killed in battle!
Of the elders, only eleven remained!
Of the young children, only three survived.
An illustrious and magnificent Xuanyuan Family spent three years washing the Jianghu in blood, slaughtering all the remnants of the Blood Spirit Hall and eradicating all treacherous villains. They sacrificed their entire clan to buy the East Spirit Realm a fifty-year golden age of peace.
With only a single male heir remaining, the Xuanyuan Family had suffered from a sparse lineage ever since, passing down their legacy through a single descendant for nine consecutive generations until it reached the current patriarch, Xuanyuan Tibing. Yet, Xuanyuan Tibing’s only son, Xuanyuan Sword, had died in the Dongxuan Sect. This tragedy drove Xuanyuan Tibing, at the age of thirty and in the Celestial Element Realm, to step forth Commanding a Million Soldiers and annihilate Dongxuan.
Reading up to this point, Lin Huang finally closed the book and let out a long breath of stale air. His solemn expression carried a look of reverence as he muttered, "So the East Spirit Land has been under the protection of the Xuanyuan Family for the past thousand years!"
If Lin Huang couldn’t deduce anything further from these clues, there truly would be something wrong with his intellect.
A thousand years ago, Xuanyuan Zheng appeared and sealed Yin Yang Valley for over seven hundred years.
Three hundred years ago, a generation’s Demon, Qiu Dali, wreaked havoc upon the world, and Xuanyuan Changge emerged.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, Cao Yangming unlocked the Dragon-Locking Land. Xuanyuan Wuxiang stepped forward, working tirelessly day and night to reseal Yin Yang Valley using the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers left behind by his ancestor, Xuanyuan Zheng.
Later, the Blood Spirit Hall appeared.
The members of the Xuanyuan Family sacrificed their entire clan to enforce Wu Budongling and tear the Blood Spirit Hall up by its roots.
Whenever the East Spirit Realm faced a catastrophe that plunged the people into misery, someone from this thousand-year-old family would inevitably step forward to purge the evil and restore order to East Spirit.
Lin Huang’s expression turned even more solemn. He never expected that in this world of power struggles and strife, there was still a family that strictly adhered to a true Martial Artist’s Heart, eternally guarding the East Spirit Realm.
For this cause, generations of the Xuanyuan Family valiantly marched to their deaths, not hesitating to sacrifice themselves to maintain peace in East Spirit.
Now, after all this time, the Blood Spirit Hall had risen from the ashes, clearly harboring malicious intent.
Thinking of this, Lin Huang felt a mix of anticipation and sorrow for Xuanyuan Tibing. This time, Yin Yang Valley was about to emerge again, and the Blood Spirit Hall was bound to make a comeback. When that time came, how would a solitary Xuanyuan Tibing face them alone?
PHEW...
Lin Huang let out a long breath and clenched his fists, his hatred for the Blood Spirit Hall growing a few degrees deeper.
In Lin Huang’s speculation, an evil force undoubtedly lurked within Yin Yang Valley, driving the members of the Blood Spirit Hall to constantly commit atrocities everywhere while searching for a way to break the valley’s seal.
Furthermore, how could Lin Huang ever let go of the grudge against the Blood Spirit Hall for crippling Lin Cangxue’s Martial Soul?
Lin Huang became even more certain that the man in black who had demanded the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers back at Piaoxue Palace was a member of the Blood Spirit Hall. The secret hidden within the Ancient Scroll most likely pertained to the seal on Yin Yang Valley.
"The Blood Spirit Hall is truly like a lingering Yin Soul!"
Inside the Scripture Pavilion, Lin Huang sneered, a dense killing intent flashing across his face. He never considered himself a man of great righteousness, but he was someone who would hold a grudge until his dying breath.
Merely for what the Blood Spirit Hall did to Lin Cangxue, Lin Huang would fight them to the bitter end.
During his three days in the Scripture Pavilion, Lin Huang managed to sort out his previous doubts and piece together the main thread that would determine whether the East Spirit Realm would be plunged into misery.
Jia Wanjing.
The Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers.
Blood Crows.
The Blood Spirit Hall.
Yin Yang Valley.
All of these were brought about by the Blood Spirit Hall’s search for the Ancient Scroll to break the seal on Yin Yang Valley. And the key to it all was the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers.
Thinking of the Ancient Scroll, Lin Huang smiled bitterly, feeling a heavy burden on his shoulders. What Jia Wanjing had left him was not simply a hot potato.
It was a damn super ticking time bomb!
After leaving the Scripture Pavilion, Lin Huang returned to Celestial Waterfall Cliff. Looking at the setting sun on the horizon while thinking about the Blood Spirit Hall, a look of anticipation unknowingly appeared on his face.
He was going to enter Qilin Peak tomorrow!
The man in black still hadn’t shown up. If he didn’t appear tonight, then he was definitely an Elder of Qilin Peak. Therefore, Lin Huang felt that the man in black would show himself tonight.
He could now say with certainty that the Ancient Scroll held a fatal temptation for the other party; the man in black could not afford to give up on it.
Outside the waterfall, Lin Huang stroked Fatty Bai’s Big White Cat, provoking it into letting out cries of humiliation, as if Lin Huang’s touch was an endless desecration of its body. However, Lin Huang paid it no mind, simply waiting quietly for night to fall.
The Moonlight flowed like water, and the waterfall cascaded like white silk!
When the moon reached its zenith, Lin Huang, who was cultivating, suddenly caught the faint sound of wind brushing past his ear. He then grinned, stepped out from behind the waterfall, and said, "Since you’ve shown up, why bother hiding?"
Within a few breaths, a figure walked out from the pitch-black night. Dressed entirely in ink-black, the figure blended seamlessly with the moonlit shadows. Only his two faintly glowing eyes gave away the fact that someone was standing in front of Lin Huang.
The man in black gazed at the youth before him, a hoarse chuckle echoing from beneath his dark cloak. "I truly didn’t expect you to make it through Battle Eight Directions. Congratulations are in order... Tsk tsk, you’re just as dazzling as Lin Cangxue was back then."
"What’s the point of saying all this?" Lin Huang sneered. "Do you really think I don’t know that it was the people of your Blood Spirit Hall who crippled my sister’s Martial Soul?"
The man in black’s expression changed, and the smile on his face immediately froze. His hoarse voice now carried a cold killing intent. "You actually know of the Blood Spirit Hall."
Lin Huang smiled slightly. "It seems you really are from the Blood Spirit Hall. What’s the matter, do none of you dare to show your true faces? Is cowardly hiding in dark corners your life’s creed?"
"You know too much!" The man in black revealed his murderous intent, his smile sending a shudder down one’s spine.
Lin Huang suddenly felt a terrifying aura pressing down on him. It felt like a massive mountain, making it difficult for him to even breathe, but he maintained a leisurely expression.
"If you have the guts, then kill me!"
The man in black’s expression stiffened, his eyes glaring at Lin Huang like sharp swords. However, his imposing aura subsequently receded like the tide as he snorted coldly, "Where is the Ancient Scroll of Mountains and Rivers?"
Unrushed, Lin Huang stared intently at the man in black and said, "Shouldn’t you first tell me exactly which member of the Blood Spirit Hall crippled my sister’s Martial Soul?"
"Boy, do you seriously think I’m here to make a deal with you? Do you think the Ancient Scroll is actually that important to the Blood Spirit Hall?" the man in black laughed, his tone sinister and dismissive.
"Indeed, it’s not important. As long as you have another Cao Yangming, you can find the Dragon-Locking Land without the Ancient Scroll!" Lin Huang nodded.
The man in black froze slightly. The eyes beneath his dark mask flickered with disbelief, and his hoarse voice became exceptionally cold. "You even know about Cao Yangming. It seems you’re also crystal clear on the relationship between the Ancient Scroll and Yin Yang Valley."
"Just a little bit," Lin Huang waved his hand. "You people have been plotting for hundreds of years. If you don’t get the Ancient Scroll... Tsk tsk..."
The man in black fell deep into thought.
He understood that Lin Huang already knew the significance of the Ancient Scroll to the Blood Spirit Hall. Without it, even if Yin Yang Valley appeared ten more times, it would be extremely difficult to break the seal within.
For over two hundred years, this was the first time they finally had news of the Ancient Scroll. If they didn’t seize the opportunity this time and let Yin Yang Valley disappear, who knew how long they would have to wait for the next chance.
Eventually, a chilling voice echoed from beneath the dark cloak.
"I can tell you who crippled Lin Cangxue’s Martial Soul. However, you must at least show me that the Ancient Scroll is indeed in your hands."
Seeing the man in black’s tone soften, Lin Huang merely wagged a finger and said, "Perhaps we should alter our deal to make it fair!"