Chapter 307: Killing Intent

Lingyun did not return from outside until the sun had set. When he walked into the living room, Luo Yexi and the others were all there, clearly waiting for his return.

"Master, are you... alright?" Seeing Lingyun walk in, Luo Yexi walked quickly to him and asked with some concern.

Lingyun smiled and patted her head: "Don't worry, I'm fine, you don't need to worry."

Seeing Lingyun like this, Luo Yexi breathed a slight sigh of relief, then placed a piece of iron she was holding into Lingyun's hand.

"What is this?" Lingyun looked at the piece of iron in his hand with some curiosity.

"This is what Xiao Xiaoxiao left behind. She said it was something her younger sister was clutching at the time, thinking there might be some clues," Luo Yexi said.

Lingyun was silent for a moment, then put away the piece of iron: "I understand. If this piece of iron is truly related to the person who attacked Youruo, it will not be difficult to find that person through it."

Lingyun took the iron piece and returned to his room. With a wave of his hand, heavy restrictions rose up in the room, isolating it from the outside world.

Looking at the room sealed by the restrictions, Kirito asked with some worry: "Ye Xi, will Lingyun be alright?"

"Master has his own sense of propriety in everything he does; he won't act recklessly," Luo Yexi comforted her.

However, she was also worried in her heart. After all, because she had been injured, Lingyun had dared to flatten the Listening Heaven Tower. Now that his childhood friend had been plotted against and killed, she found it hard to imagine what Lingyun might do because of this.

Inside the room, only the whistling of strong winds could be heard. The Source Power around Lingyun boiled frantically, continuously pouring into this plain, unremarkable piece of iron. Under the infusion of Source Power, the iron piece actually began to flicker with dots of fluorescent light, evolving in an incredible direction.

Lingyun's complexion was somewhat pale, and beads of sweat flowed down from his temples, but he paid no attention to it, only staring fixedly at the iron piece in his hand. Lingyun's current strength was immensely powerful, as he had already stepped into the Golden Core Realm; that he would appear in such a state under these circumstances showed just how great his consumption was.

Ruoxi, who was in the Cloud Realm, felt pained watching him, but she did not speak to stop him, only silently converting the power of the Cloud Realm into Source Power and transmitting it into Lingyun's body to replenish his consumption.

As the Source Power continued to pour in, a trace of extremely faint aura was gradually stripped from the iron piece. This aura was extremely thin; if Lingyun had not been continuously pouring Source Power into the iron piece, extracting this trace of aura would have been nearly as difficult as ascending to heaven.

After extracting all the residual aura from the iron piece, Lingyun finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. He took out a jade bottle, placed this trace of aura inside, and then set a seal on the outside to prevent the aura from dissipating.

After finishing this, Lingyun casually threw the iron piece into the Cloud Realm and began to recover his depleted Source Power. Countless Heaven and Earth Origin Qi were forcibly gathered by Lingyun, forming a huge vortex around him. If it weren't for the fact that the shackles of this world had gradually opened and the Heaven and Earth Origin Qi was constantly increasing, Lingyun's method would have been enough to drain the Heaven and Earth Origin Qi within a radius of dozens of miles in one go. At the same time, the Heaven and Earth Origin Qi in the Cloud Realm also flowed out continuously, supplementing Lingyun's consumption.

It took a full hour before Lingyun opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air; the Origin Qi vortex around him also slowly dissipated. Lingyun stretched his body and let out a long breath. Although the consumption this time was not small, his gains were equally significant; he had taken another step forward in the Golden Core Realm.

After resting for a short while, Lingyun took out the small jade bottle, retrieved the thin wisp of aura from it, and began to study it carefully.

"Hmm? What is this?" As soon as he studied this wisp of aura, Lingyun's brows furrowed instantly. He discovered that this aura actually gave him a familiar feeling.

Lingyun flipped his hand, and another wisp of aura appeared in his palm; it was the aura he had previously extracted from the tracking mark of that Vampire. These two wisps of aura were almost identical, only the strength of the people who left them behind was different.

Afterwards, Lingyun couldn't help but recall what Liu Xuan had said before: that Vampire Duke was originally a Dark Mage proficient in curses. Later, for some unknown reason, that Dark Mage transformed himself into a Vampire and, in a very short time, rose to the rank of Duke, becoming one of the figures behind the scenes of the Dark Council.

"I suppose that Dark Mage discovered Youruo's heaven-defying talent, so he transformed himself into a Vampire, plundered Youruo's bloodline abilities, and then used Youruo's bloodline power to charge into the Duke Realm," a cold light flashed in Lingyun's eyes.

Vampires can improve their abilities by consuming blood; that the Dark Mage rose directly to Duke through Youruo's blood shows just how strong Youruo's bloodline ability was.

Lingyun clapped his hands together, fusing the two auras, then waved one hand, and a circular ring of light appeared before him. The ring of light rotated continuously, finally transforming into a small model of Earth, hovering in front of Lingyun. This item was a gift Youruo had sent to Lingyun; it could use the power of the Heavenly Dao to perform a certain degree of searching, though the range was somewhat vague and it could not perform precise positioning.

Lingyun threw the wisp of aura in his hand directly into the Earth model. The Earth model suddenly spun, emitting a blue light, and then a red area appeared on the model, while this red area was also constantly moving.

"Following this trajectory, is he coming for me?" Lingyun recalled that tracking mark, a cold smile curling the corners of his mouth, his eyes filled with killing intent. "I haven't even gone to find you yet, and now you've found your way to me."

With a "click," the room door was pushed open, and Lingyun's figure appeared before everyone.

"Ling-kun, how is the situation? Did you find the murderer?" Busujima Saeko asked.

"The murderer has been found, but this is not an easy guy to deal with; we still need more information," Lingyun nodded.

"Not an easy opponent? Does the other party have a background, or do they possess great strength themselves?" Luo Yexi asked.

"You remember when Liu Xuan brought two Elders of the Lingxu Sect to the door before," Lingyun said.

"I remember, they were cursed by a Duke-level Vampire," Luo Yexi nodded. "Wait, no, Vampire... Master, do you mean the murderer is that Vampire?"

"That's right. If Youruo's talent is truly as strong as Xiao Xiaoxiao said, then using Youruo's bloodline power to enter the Duke Realm is not a difficult problem," Lingyun nodded. "However, we still need more information now. I don't think there will be any problem asking Chen Jing for help with this."

"A Duke-level Vampire, huh? I'm very interested," Esdeath licked her lips, a flash of excitement in her eyes.

"If we are dealing with a Vampire Duke, the other party might have many blood servants. If it's just you alone, it might be a bit inconvenient. Let's act together when the time comes," Lingqi leaned toward Lingyun and said softly.

"He is coming straight for me now; it must be because I broke that curse earlier that he has his eyes on me," Lingyun spread his hands.

"Then he is truly throwing himself into the net," a flash of light crossed the eyes of everyone present.

"Let's prepare, and then find an opportunity to capture him. We might be able to find out the truth of what happened back then," Lingyun nodded, a deep killing intent flashing in his eyes.

At the same time, on a plane flying to Beijing, a middle-aged man couldn't help but feel a chill rise in his heart. Just as he wanted to investigate the source of this chill, the chill disappeared.

"It must have been an illusion. With my current abilities, apart from those old monsters in the Hidden Sects, who else could do anything to me? Could it be those people from the Holy See? Hmph, do they think I'm still as easy to bully as I was back then? If they dare to come, I'll make sure they never return!" The man snorted coldly and stopped considering the problem.