Chapter 39 – 39: The Beginning and the End
Time rewound three hours earlier.

Lu Qingshan’s gaze hardened as he looked at Mu Shan’s attribute panel.

He noticed a small detail.

In the NPC name column, the demon hunter called Mu Shan was displayed as Ma Shan.

Falsifying one’s name was not unusual.

When you’re adrift in the jianghu, who doesn’t prepare a few aliases for protection?

But the issue lies with the surname.

Mu Shan’s real surname was Ma.

It was a curious coincidence that the Lin Family’s longtime nemesis in Yuanshan City happened to be the Ma Family.

Just a coincidence?

Lu Qingshan was not very convinced.

Experiences from the game “Nine Heavens” taught him one thing: any incident that looks like a coincidence is usually a trap laid by the game designers for the players!

Therefore, to confirm his suspicions, Lu Qingshan used his Heavenly Eye Technique to probe each of the remaining demon hunters one by one.

Strangely enough, with the exception of a demon hunter called Liu Ai, the cultivation of all the other demon hunters was above the sixth level of Qi Refinement.

During Lin He’s routine questioning earlier, the highest cultivation level anyone claimed to have was the sixth level of Qi Refinement.

–Including Lu Qingshan, who also concealed his true cultivation level from Lin He.

Among these cultivators who lied about their cultivation levels, the one who called himself Wu Xinyuan but was actually Ma Yuan, the Gu Cultivator, was the most striking.

Qi Refinement tenth level.

How could a Qi Refining Cultivator at the tenth level still be interested in a mere task offering thirty first-grade spirit stones as a reward?

With suspicions aroused, Lu Qingshan, after a brief observation, easily discovered that these demon hunters who reported false cultivation levels had some private exchanges and movements that revealed one piece of information.

They were acquainted with each other before this, and even seemed to implicitly regard Ma Yuan as their leader.

This situation was clear at a glance.

Lu Qingshan’s eyes flickered.

…

An hour ago.

When Lin He was preparing to survey the terrain to find a suitable encampment spot,

Lu Qingshan unintentionally walked up to Lin He.

Catching sight of Lu Qingshan out of the corner of his eye, Lin He politely asked, “Is there something you need, fellow Daoist?”

“Steward Lin, I have a question. Has the Lin Family recently offended someone?” Lu Qingshan asked with a smile, yet his words were incredibly startling.

Lin He felt a jolt in his heart as he perceived the deeper meaning behind Lu Qingshan’s question, “Why do you ask, fellow Daoist?”

Lu Qingshan responded cheerfully, “It’s nothing serious, I just feel that hiring these high-cultivation demon hunters for a reward of thirty first-grade spirit stones doesn’t seem realistic.”

Lin He frowned.

Qi Refining Cultivators haven’t yet mastered the ability of “External Divine Sense”, so unless they cultivate a special spell, it’s impossible to know the level of a cultivator’s cultivation.

“What do you mean?”

Lu Qingshan nodded, “I possess a detection spell that can roughly gauge the fluctuation of spiritual power on a cultivator, thereby determining their level of cultivation.

With nothing better to do, I tried the spell on the demon hunters and found their cultivation to be quite high. The spiritual power fluctuation from Wu Xinyuan was even significantly stronger than that of Steward Lin.”

Lin He’s complexion changed.

With Lu Qingshan hinting so heavily, if he still couldn’t realize the gravity of the situation, he would have lived his years in vain.

Lin He gave Lu Qingshan a slight bow of his hands, “Thank you for the warning, fellow Daoist.”

Lu Qingshan glanced at Ma Shan and Ma Yuan, who were sneaking around not far away, and said nonchalantly, “Manager Lin, you’re too kind.”

Lu Qingshan turned and left.

After pondering for a moment, Lin He, appearing as if nothing had happened, walked over to the carriage and whispered something to someone inside.

To the onlookers, this seemed normal, probably reporting something to Miss Lin of the Lin family.

Suddenly, Miss Lin handed a storage bag out of the carriage.

Lin He took the storage bag, took out several formation flags from it, and ordered the Lin family cultivators to set the flags up.

It was just an ungraded Guardian Formation.

Ma Yuan, who had been closely observing Lin He’s movements, somewhat relaxed his vigilant gaze upon seeing this.

…

…

Lin He, who was supposed to be completely defenseless, was now holding a formation flag, controlling the Fire Serpents, and relentlessly ravaging his covert Golden Bee Gu.

Bright red glows shot up from all around.

They were from a First Grade Formation, the Fire Serpent Formation, that had been laid out in advance.

Ma Yuan couldn’t believe his eyes.

He had no idea when Lin He had set up the Fire Serpent Formation.

Suddenly, Ma Yuan, as if realizing something, shuddered violently and came to a realization, “The formation flags you had your cultivators set up earlier were not some Guardian Formation at all, but the formation flags for this formation!”

Lin He nodded, “You’re right. The Ma Family indeed has deep schemes. If it weren’t for Daoist Lu’s prior warning, which made me take precautions, I’m afraid I would have fallen into your trap by now.”

At that thought, a chill flashed through Lin He’s heart.

The Ma Family had long coveted the Lin Family’s Green Light Stone veins, and this was, of course, crystal clear to the Lin family.

Although the Ma Family was overall much stronger than the Lin Family, they only had one Foundation Establishment Cultivator, just like the Lin Family, so they did not dare to act rashly.

After all, fighting between Foundation Establishment Cultivators was unpredictable. If both sides were injured in the conflict, it would only benefit other families, akin to ‘trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice used to lure it’.

Moreover, there was also the deterrence of the Lin Family in Zhenjiang City.

Therefore, the Ma Family had suppressed their restless hearts for years.

But now with the impending demise of the Lin Family Head, if the connection between the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City and Yuanshan City could be severed, then the Green Light Stone vein would almost certainly fall into the hands of the Ma Family.

The Lin Family of Zhenjiang City, with dozens of Foundation Establishment Cultivators and several Golden Core Cultivators, was definitely a behemoth for the Ma Family.

If the Lin Family of Yuanshan City truly held tight to this powerful support, the Ma Family wouldn’t dare to make any reckless moves even if they had a hundred times the guts.

Unfortunately, the Lin Family of Yuanshan City couldn’t even be considered a branch of the Lin Family in Zhenjiang City.

Their Family Head, Lin Qitian, was originally the son of a Foundation Establishment elder from the Lin Family in Zhenjiang City.

Lin Qitian had committed some mistakes and violated family rules, resulting in his expulsion from the family.

After his exile to Yuanshan City, Lin Qitian, through years of hard work, had actually flourished, establishing a not-so-small base of operations relative to Yuanshan City.

Once he had established a small base, Lin Qitian thought of returning to his roots, so he took Green Light Stone as a knocking brick and went back to Zhenjiang City, reconnecting with the Lin Family there.

The Lin Family in Zhenjiang City, wealthy and powerful as they were, wouldn’t exactly covet Green Light Stone, but they certainly wouldn’t slap their own face and readmit Lin Qitian just for some Green Light Stone.

However, with his elder father’s persuasion, even though Lin Qitian’s status was not acknowledged in the end, the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City grudgingly accepted the contributions from the Lin Family of Yuanshan City.

Every three years, Lin Qitian contributed a large batch of Green Light Stone to the Lin Family in Zhenjiang City, and in return, the Lin Family would provide the Lin Family in Yuanshan City with some pills and magic artifacts that were difficult to acquire on the market as resource support.

And that was that.

Lin Qitian’s elder father had passed away many years ago, and there were no longer any influential voices in the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City who could speak for them.

If their contribution was disturbed again this time, the already tenuous link between the Lin Family of Yuanshan City and the Lin Family of Zhenjiang City, based on Green Light Stone, would probably break.

At this thought, Lin He couldn’t help feeling a trace of fear and a sense of relief.

Fortunately, it was Lu Qingshan who discovered the oddity with these demon hunters; otherwise, they might have really been doomed this time.