"It’s you!"
Staring at the dripping wet young man in front of him, Lin Huang felt an overwhelming urge to punch his face. If it weren’t for this guy, the Sea of Karma Flower would already be in his hands.
"Hmm?" Lu Han uttered, looking somewhat confused.
"It’s nothing!" Lin Huang waved his hand, looking at the latter with disgust. His mind began to race, plotting how to snatch the Sea of Karma Flower back from this guy.
Fighting was out of the question; Lu Han’s Realm was vastly higher than his. He considered using the Array Puppet. That might actually work!
"Do you need something from me?" Lin Huang asked.
Lu Han stared earnestly at Lin Huang and pointed at what Lin Huang was sitting on. "You slept in my bed!" he said, his tone laced with a chilling frost.
In the rather plain room, Lin Huang stared wide-eyed at Lu Han for a full quarter of an hour. Then, forcing a composed expression, he got out of bed and limped out of the room, while a herd of wild horses seemingly stampeded through his mind, leaving him utterly bewildered.
"Pay up!" Lu Han suddenly chased after him, holding out a hand as he spoke with cold indifference.
"What?" Lin Huang doubted his own ears.
"I built this courtyard. You stayed for a night, so you have to pay," Lu Han said meticulously. "If you want to keep staying here, I can rent you the room next door for only one hundred taels of silver a day."
"Are you out of your mind?" Lin Huang asked in astonishment. "In the Great Xia Dynasty, a night at a top-tier tavern would only cost fifty taels of silver. Yet this dilapidated little courtyard costs one hundred taels?"
"I don’t have money, so I need to collect it!" Lu Han pursed his lips, stating it as if it were a matter of course.
Lin Huang patted his forehead, feeling a bit disoriented. He wondered, "This guy claims he has no money?"
Had he not seen this guy at the Xuese Auction, Lin Huang might have actually believed Lu Han was broke based on his attire. However... for someone who casually bid twenty-eight million gold coins for the Sea of Karma Flower to claim he had no money? What absolute shamelessness!
"I don’t have any money!" Lin Huang said bluntly. "But you can take my life if you want!"
If this guy were truly poor, Lin Huang wouldn’t mind paying. But with the kind of fortune he was secretly hoarding... Looking at the latter feigning poverty, Lin Huang found his face even more punchable.
"Then you can owe it to me for now. For every hundred taels you owe, the interest is ten taels a day!" Lu Han said calculatingly.
"Calculate it however you want!" Lin Huang said dismissively; he fully intended to dodge the debt anyway.
"Are you really that desperate for money?" Lin Huang suddenly turned his head and asked.
Lu Han thought for a moment before nodding.
"Then how about I buy one valuable item from you for one million gold coins. Deal?" Lin Huang probed.
"Not for sale!" Lu Han immediately refused. Taking two steps back, he stared warily at Lin Huang, his eyes flashing with newfound sharpness. "I only have one valuable thing on me, and it is not for sale!"
"Five million!" Lin Huang continued.
"Not for sale!"
"Ten million!"
"Get lost!" Lu Han shouted after a short moment of contemplation, gripping a rusted iron spear in his hand.
"Twenty million!" Lin Huang persisted relentlessly while summoning his Array Puppet, which stood beside him like an iron tower. So what if it came to a fight? Who was afraid of whom? If letting the Array Puppet strike once could exchange for the Sea of Karma Flower, it would be an absolute steal!
Hearing the offer of twenty million, Lu Han took a deep breath, his gaze losing its focus. He was clearly tempted—in fact, he had been tempted ever since Lin Huang said ten million.
But... he genuinely did not want to sell it.
He hadn’t expected Lin Huang to be a wealthy patron either. What if he sold it to him first and then snatched it back? Lu Han looked at the lump of iron beside Lin Huang and sighed. That Array Puppet seemed incredibly powerful.
Seeing Lu Han’s hesitation, Lin Huang frowned. Gritting his teeth, he continued, "Twenty-five..."
"Shut up!" Lu Han fiercely barked before Lin Huang could finish. Then, much to Lin Huang’s astonishment, he grabbed his iron spear and fled the room. He needed to escape this place of temptation that was throwing his mind into chaos.
"Thirty million!" Lin Huang bellowed at Lu Han’s retreating back.
THUD!
Lu Han tripped and tumbled before scrambling toward Celestial Waterfall Cliff.
After Lu Han’s figure disappeared, Lin Huang calmed down, a hint of lamentation on his face. Not even a price of thirty million could make Lu Han let go. To obtain the Sea of Karma Flower, he would probably have to resort to brute force.
But if he robbed him in broad daylight... Lin Huang thought of the latter’s identity. He appeared to wear coarse hemp garments and looked tanned and dull, completely unfit for any grand stage. But how could an ordinary person casually pull out twenty-eight million gold coins? How could an ordinary person make Fengg Wanli risk his life to save him, even if it meant using his own body to take a direct palm strike from White Impermanence? Furthermore, there was that necklace in his possession, which could be exchanged for a promise from Xuanyuan Tibing. How could someone with such a necklace have a simple background?
He feared there was a colossal entity backing him. The kind that could scare people to death.
"I’ll just have to figure out a way later!" Lin Huang shook his head helplessly. He couldn’t rush this matter; he had to uncover the guy’s true identity or make him sell it willingly.
For the next few days, Lin Huang stayed at the bottom of Celestial Waterfall Cliff. Since his body had not yet recovered, he could only use his free time to sort out his future direction in Martial Arts.
Currently, the techniques he cultivated were few and far between.
The Great Vajra Technique.
Three Thousand Miles, Slaying Kunlun, and Shooting the Celestial Wolf!
The Thousand Spirits Sword Formation.
And lastly, his Martial Soul Divine Techniques.
The Great Vajra Technique was merely an Upper Grade of Yellow Tier cultivation technique, so its intrinsic power had flaws. Even though Lin Huang had cultivated it to the Mahayana Realm, it was beginning to show signs of weakness against Martial Artists at the Earth Element Realm.
As for the three stances—Three Thousand Miles, Slaying Kunlun, and Shooting the Celestial Wolf—they were the embryonic forms of the Godslaying One Slash. Using just one of them or simple combinations of them produced a power that could not compare to the true Godslaying One Slash at all.
As for the Thousand Spirits Sword Formation... cultivating Arrays was simply too complex and mentally draining. Lin Huang could currently only control dozens of strands of Sword Qi to form the Ten Spirit Sword Formation. Unless he became a Second-Level Array Master, he ultimately couldn’t contend with Earth Element Realm Martial Artists using this.
Finally, there were the Martial Soul Divine Techniques within his body.
The Celestial Asura Martial Soul Divine Technique was Asura’s Fury, which could instantly boost his combat power by four times. However, at his current limit, he could only activate a two-fold state. It would take time before he could unlock the four-fold enhancement.
Moreover, regarding the Martial Soul Celestial Asura, Lin Huang harbored two concerns. First was the advancement of the Celestial Asura. After all, Buddha God’s Relics were incredibly rare items that could only be chanced upon, never sought out. He had no idea where to find the next Buddha God’s Relic. Second, why did continental records state that all Martial Artists who obtained a Buddha God’s Relic eventually fell into the Demon Realm?
Once one fell into the Demon Realm, there would likely be no turning back. They would become utter killing machines, permanently sinking into Eternal Hell, unable to free themselves.
After meticulously sorting through these matters for a long time, Lin Huang found he could only smile helplessly. He had no clue how to address the issue of falling into the Demon Realm right now. He could only work hard to locate the next Buddha God’s Relic. The issue with the Thousand Spirits Sword Formation could only be solved by grinding over time.
He planned to abandon the Great Vajra Technique.
As for the three stances—Three Thousand Miles, Slaying Kunlun, and Shooting the Celestial Wolf—they were the Martial Techniques that Lin Huang most urgently needed to fuse right now. Only by truly reproducing the power of the Godslaying One Slash could he establish a firm footing in Piaoxue Palace. And only then would he have the ability to protect Lin Cangxue.
After all, it was the Godslaying One Slash. Lin Huang was confident that in his hands, it would definitely transcend an ordinary person’s understanding of Earth-Tier Martial Techniques. Because that Martial Technique was deeply rooted in his very soul.
Aside from that, Lin Huang also had some designs on Piaoxue Palace’s Martial Technique, Art of Kingship and Domination, as well as Snow Falling on Earth.
Originally, Lin Huang didn’t pay much attention to these two Martial Technique scrolls. But after seeing Lin Cangxue execute Snow Falling on Earth, he had an idea. Lin Cangxue had executed Snow Falling on Earth using a sword, and its power was no weaker than the Godslaying One Slash! Moreover, Lin Huang felt that Snow Falling on Earth should be executed with a saber. Specifically, with the Brocade Spring Blade-style Demon-Suppressing Blade in his hand. It was a bizarre feeling, and Lin Huang couldn’t explain the reasoning behind it.
As for the Martial Technique, Art of Kingship and Domination, Lin Cangxue had told him about it.
The Martial Technique of Kingship.
The Martial Technique of Dominance.
Combined, they formed the Art of Kingship and Domination, which possessed the might of a Quasi-Earth Tier Martial Skill and could even rival an Earth-Tier Martial Technique. According to Lin Cangxue, the Mo Brothers from the Law Enforcement Hall, who had followed Elder Tie Wuxin that day, cultivated Kingship and Dominance individually.
The two were biological brothers who shared a telepathic connection. When Kingship and Dominance were executed together, it was as if one person possessed both Martial Techniques simultaneously. Even Xie Qinghou, the current number one in the Inner Sect, wouldn’t dare meet their edge head-on. It should be known that Xie Qinghou had already touched upon the Celestial Element Realm, whereas the Mo Brothers were merely at the Earth Element Seventh Heaven.
However, resolving all of this would take time. Right now, all Lin Huang could do was cultivate the Godslaying One Slash and his Arrays.
Seven days later, his injuries fully healed, Lin Huang plunged headlong into the waterfall.
BOOM!
With a resounding boom, the moment Lin Huang stood beneath the waterfall, the terrifying cascade washed him into the Dark River. It took him a full half a cup of tea’s time to resurface, shivering violently from the cold. Not far away, Lu Han opened his eyes, glanced at Lin Huang, and then closed them again to continue his cultivation.
Lin Huang, on the other hand, was completely locked in a battle with the waterfall. He was washed into the Dark River time and time again, only to climb back beneath the waterfall each time. He repeated this endlessly, without a single moment of rest.
On the first day, Lin Huang was washed into the Cold Pool over seven hundred times. On the second day, over nine hundred times. On the third day, three hundred times.
By the fourth day, Lin Huang could barely hold his ground beneath the waterfall for several quarters of an hour, only being washed down into the Dark River a few dozen times.
By the sixth day, Lin Huang could fully stand beneath the waterfall, though he shivered uncontrollably, feeling as if his body no longer belonged to him.
Seven days later, Lin Huang was finally able to perform simple saber swings beneath the waterfall. However, his posture was just like it had been at Thousand Feet Cliff—wobbly and unsteady, resembling a little brat struggling to lift a giant sword.
This situation persisted for half a month.
Half a month later, while practicing his Saber Technique beneath the waterfall, Lin Huang suddenly let out a long howl. His face brimming with pleasant surprise, he threw his saber aside and sprinted out of Celestial Waterfall Cliff like a cheetah, heading straight for the courtyard.
He was about to step into the Earth Element Realm!