Deep within Black Blood Stockade's most central underground chamber.
At the very center of the room, great heaps of Primeval Stones were being drained of their essence at a terrifying rate — crumbling into pools of ash-grey powder that sifted down with a soft, ceaseless rustle.
A long while later.
"Hooo—"
Seated cross-legged, Lin Xingyuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and snapped his eyes open.
Those eyes, once tinged with a certain timidity, now blazed with an undisguisable joy and a sharp, keen light.
The Primeval Sea within his aperture had risen from its initial thinness and settled, firm and stable, at an entirely new water line.
"Rank 1 middle stage... I did it!"
Lin Xingyuan clenched his fists in excitement.
Just over a month.
From a mortal who had only just opened his aperture, he had crossed the barrier of the Rank 1 initial stage without the slightest obstruction and stepped straight into the middle stage.
"Well done."
Lin Cang gazed at the youth before him. A deeply satisfied smile spread across his rock-hard face.
He rose to his feet, walked to Lin Xingyuan, and gave the boy's shoulder a heavy pat with his broad hand, his words earnest and weighty.
"Xingyuan, on the path of a Gu Master, A-grade aptitude is indeed the foundation upon which you stand. It lets you leave others countless miles behind before the race even begins. But geniuses in this world are as plentiful as fish crossing a river. Those who ultimately reach the summit rely not on talent alone, but on brilliance and temperament. A master leads you through the gate — the cultivation is your own."
Lin Cang clasped his hands behind his back, a trace of reminiscence for bygone years surfacing in his eyes.
"Back in my day, I was stuck at the bottleneck of the Rank 3 peak stage for a full decade and more. In the end, it was only through a moment of sudden enlightenment between life and death that I forced open the gate to Rank 4."
"So remember — guard against arrogance and impatience. Never shut yourself away to cultivate in isolation."
At this, Lin Cang's tone turned severe, edged with cold.
"And remember above all the truth that a tall tree catches the wind. Before your wings are fully grown, before you possess the absolute ability to protect yourself, you must never be brazen or overbearing — lest you provoke the venomous snakes lurking in the shadows and be strangled in your cradle."
"This disciple will remember the master's teachings!"
A chill ran through Lin Xingyuan's heart, and he hastily bowed his head low in acceptance.
Looking at this respectful, sensible A-grade genius of boundless potential before him, Lin Cang could not stop a flicker of deeply complicated feeling — a silent, hidden sigh — from crossing the depths of his eyes.
As the head of the clan, how could he not have noticed the increasingly twisted, brooding state of mind his own nephew Lin Feng had fallen into these past weeks?
From once being the moon around which all stars orbited, to now a door no one bothered to approach — Lin Feng's pride was being ground down, piece by piece.
Feng'er, oh Feng'er...
Lin Cang murmured silently in his heart.
It is not that your uncle is cold-hearted. But before the century-old foundation of this clan and a future powerhouse of the Rank 5 realm, the grievance of any single individual must give way.
He stood in the highest position. He had to weigh the future of all Black Blood Stockade in the balance.
Under the crushing weight of such absolute potential, he could only choose to stake every chip he had on Lin Xingyuan.
His one hope now was that Lin Feng would be a little wiser, a little more sensible.
Just as your father Lin Zhen, back then, clearly had the strength to contend for the Patriarch's seat — yet in the end recognized reality, willingly stepped back into the shadows, and devoted himself heart and soul to assisting me...
Lin Cang prayed inwardly that Lin Feng, too, could accept this cruel fate — and obediently become a stepping stone for Lin Xingyuan's future dominion over the Southern Border.
Hmmm—
Just as Lin Cang was about to say something more, a well-concealed Sound Transmission Gu suddenly gave off a sharp, urgent tremor.
Lin Cang's expression froze. His divine sense plunged into it in an instant.
The very next second, the face that had still carried a trace of warmth turned utterly grim.
"Stay here. Consolidate your cultivation on your own. Without my command, do not take a single step out of this chamber."
Casting down those hurried words, Lin Cang did not even spare the time to explain further. He turned on his heel and strode out of the underground chamber in long, hurried steps.
...
Moments later, within Black Blood Stockade's council hall.
The atmosphere was oppressive as the deep sea before a storm — suffocating, near unbearable.
Grand Elder Lin Zhen, along with several elders who held real power, had all arrived.
Every face was written over with the utmost gravity.
"Speak! What exactly did you uncover?"
Lin Cang strode to the seat of honor and sat down with commanding force, dispensing with all pleasantries. He fixed his glare on the elder in charge of intelligence below and demanded harshly.
The intelligence elder wiped the cold sweat from his brow, stepped quickly forward, and spoke in a voice carrying an undisguised tremor.
"Reporting to the Patriarch! Some days ago, the hidden agents we planted on White Bone Stockade's outer perimeter risked their lives to send back an urgent report. In the deep rear of White Bone Stockade, they discovered extremely abnormal activity!"
"The enemy is transporting vast quantities of single-use damage Gu worms — covertly, and at high intensity. Every kind of Gu worm piled up like mountains! And their personnel movements are extraordinarily frequent. Large numbers of combat Gu Masters are massing along the defensive line near our border!"
The intelligence elder swallowed hard and threw out the most lethal point of doubt.
"And most critically... White Bone Stockade's Patriarch, Li Mang, has not appeared in any public setting for a full half-month and more!"
The moment those words left his mouth, a wave of sharply indrawn breaths swept through the hall.
"White Bone Stockade — they're about to make a major move!"
Lin Cang narrowed his eyes and let out a cold snort, a flicker of contempt crossing his gaze.
"It seems the news of our clan's A-grade genius has utterly shattered that old ghost Li Mang's nerve. He knows his days are numbered — a cornered dog leaping over the wall!"
Hearing the Patriarch frame it this way, a hawkish elder to one side immediately voiced his agreement, a fervent will to battle igniting in his eyes.
"Patriarch, there is no cause for alarm! In my view, this move by White Bone Stockade is nothing but the empty bluster of a crossbow at the end of its bolt's flight! You are now a Rank 4 powerhouse, and our clan holds an absolute advantage in high-end combat strength! Since they wish to fight, why not go along with the current and turn their scheme against them — march our army straight to their border and swallow them whole in one stroke! And in doing so, greatly magnify the illustrious name of our Black Blood Stockade!"
"Indeed! White Bone Stockade's strength on paper is no match for us at all!"
"Fight! Seize their territory — it will make for the perfect stockpile of cultivation resources for Xingyuan's future!"
Several elders chimed in one after another. The confidence brought by a Rank 4 Patriarch had bred in them a kind of blind optimism.
Yet amid this impassioned clamor for war, Grand Elder Lin Zhen — who had been seated at Lin Cang's side in silence throughout — kept his brow tightly knit, his face heavy with deep worry.
"We must not act rashly."
Lin Zhen spoke in a low, grave voice, a bucket of cold water dousing the fervor of the room.
"Gentlemen, you underestimate Li Mang far too much. That is an old dog that bites without so much as a bark! He has always conducted himself with extreme caution and venom."
Lin Zhen turned to Lin Cang, his gaze weighty. "Patriarch — if he did not hold absolute certainty, or a lethal trump card in hand capable of overturning the board, then with that old dog's temperament, he would never dare mobilize materials on such an open, sweeping scale while we have a Rank 4 cultivator holding the fort!"
Indeed. Li Mang was no fool. To force a war knowing he could not win ran entirely contrary to his nature of pursuing gain and avoiding harm.
Lin Cang paced back and forth across the hall for a long while, his mind furiously running through every possibility.
"Lin Zhen is right. This matter is absolutely not as simple as it appears."
Lin Cang halted abruptly and issued his orders with decisive resolve.
"Relay my command! The entire stockade is to enter the highest state of alert at once! External Affairs Hall — dispatch your most elite scouts immediately to those surrounding minor clans and small stockades within a hundred li. I want their every movement investigated down to the last detail!"
Then a ruthless light flashed through Lin Cang's eyes.
"And I will make contact with the 'brothers' myself, to prepare for what's to come."
"Hmph! I'd like to see just what fine opera Li Mang intends to stage for me this time!"
As Lin Cang's commands rolled out one after another, the vast war machine of Black Blood Stockade finally began to grind and rumble into motion amid the oppressive atmosphere.
The all-out war between Black Blood Stockade and White Bone Stockade was like a bowstring drawn to its absolute limit — one touch away from loosing.
This remote corner of the Southern Border had fallen wholly beneath the heavy pall of death and war.
Night descended like an enormous sheet of black cloth, smothering Black Blood Stockade tight.
The cold wind of late autumn swept the fallen leaves along the ground, wailing mournfully through the empty streets.
Lin Mu, draped in a black robe that melted into the darkness, moved like a weightless specter, cutting straight across the greater part of the stockade.
At last, he came to a halt before a lavish courtyard blanketed in a thick layer of dust.
This was Lin Feng's residence.
Lin Mu raised his eyes to the tightly shut gate, then slowly lifted his hand.
Knock. Knock. Knock.