Chapter 152: Wind Rising, Clouds Surging

The Lin family mansion's study was in disarray, as if robbed, with a mess all over the floor.

Lin Feng's hair was a mess, he sat limp on the carpet, clutching a shard of porcelain tightly, blood dripping from between his fingers, yet he showed no reaction.

"Trash! All of them are trash!" he shouted until his voice cracked, then grabbed a bronze animal ornament nearby and smashed it hard against the opposite wall with a thud.

"Zhou Qian has been defeated! That immortal old thing has fallen! The Lin family is finished! Completely finished!"

Slow footsteps came from outside. Several collateral elders of the Lin family, wearing feigned concern, sauntered in.

The leader, with a fake smile, said: "Family Head, looking at you like this… you probably can't bear this burden of the Lin family. For the family's future, I think you should… rest."

Lin Feng jerked his head up, eyes blood-red, staring at these old profiteers exploiting the fire, his lips trembling, yet he couldn't utter a word.

……

At the same time, in a remote corner of the capital, Zhang Jun spread a wrinkled map on the table, his finger jabbing hard at a stretch of rolling hills outside the city.

"The bronze piece and that broken stone point to this place." He turned his head to look at Lin Xue.

Lin Xue leaned in, watching his fingertip trace the penciled‑circled area on the map.

"It's not close to the city; on the map it looks like a desolate mountain where even birds don't defecate." The recently acquired inheritance information mentioned this place in just a sentence or two.

It said the underground energy veins here are a bit strange, as if a little‑known branch of the Medicine Sect once stayed here long ago, then something happened and it was completely abandoned.

"Everyone out there is watching; if we just swagger out, it's no different from delivering our heads to them." Lin Xue analyzed the situation.

"We have to give these bastards something to do." Zhang Jun curled the corner of his mouth in a wicked smile.

"The Qin family wants to watch the tigers fight from the mountain, Zhou Qian that old dog wants to kill us, and those hiding in rat holes looking to profit… fine, let them first fight each other to the death."

The two put their heads together, muttering for a while, and a plan gradually took shape.

The next day, as the sky just began to whiten, Liu San ye's small courtyard returned to its former tranquility.

The old man leaned back in the recliner, his complexion much rosier, squinting in the sun, his spirit and vigor noticeably different from before. On the small table beside him sat a few medicine bottles left by Zhang Jun before his departure, and a palm‑sized formation disk said to ward off minor evils and calamities.

Old Man Hu from the alley also dragged over a stool to keep them company; the two elders chatted intermittently about household trifles, with no one mentioning where Zhang Jun and Lin Xue had gone.

Just as Zhang Jun and Lin Xue silently left the capital, several unrelated circles in the city suddenly heard rumors about the "Medicine Sect's great treasure reappearing."

The rumors were detailed and convincing. At one moment they said the treasure was hidden in an abandoned large warehouse in the southern part of the city, with the key tucked beneath the third shelf; at another they claimed the real clue actually pointed to an inconspicuous old bookstall in Pan Family Garden in the western city, requiring a special notch to line up.

Some even swore they had personally seen, in a highly private high‑end club the previous night, silhouettes resembling Zhang Jun and Lin Xue, accompanied by several experts.

On the Qin family's side, upon receiving the news Qin Yueyao didn't even frown, she simply gave a light order to send people out to investigate these baseless rumors.

The various spies who had been hiding in the dark, thinking themselves concealed, could no longer sit still; they were all led by these suddenly appearing "clues" to wander the city aimlessly. At a more concealed underground outpost, Zhou Qian had just used the sinister "Soul‑devouring Banner", expending much of his already scant vital energy, barely catching a faint, fleeting trace of qi, when he received a subordinate's "intelligence report" about the southern warehouse.

"Hmph! Still trying to run?" Zhou Qian's deathly face twisted into a ferocious grin; his meager shamanic power flickered, and he immediately issued an order,

"Send people to the southern part of the city! Dig that warehouse three feet deep! Even if we can't catch them, we must force them out of their rat holes!"

Meanwhile, Zhang Jun and Lin Xue were currently driving out of the urban area.

Outside the car window, the city's clamor faded completely; the air was filled with the heavy scent of plants and damp soil.

Zhang Jun gripped the steering wheel, feeling the jolt as the wheels rolled over the gravel road. Lin Xue sat in the passenger seat, eyes closed, carefully sensing the unique qi of this mountain region. The qi here is utterly different from the yin‑evil, resentful qi beneath the White Pagoda Temple, carrying a kind of indescribable peace.

"Do you feel it?" Zhang Jun glanced at her and asked.

"Mm." Lin Xue opened her eyes, looking at the dense forest flashing past the window, "This place… is strange."

The vehicle continued deeper into the mountains, the road worsening until it was almost nonexistent.

Zhang Jun's bronze piece on his chest stayed warm, its heat growing more noticeable as they went deeper. Lin Xue's azure crystal in her palm continuously emitted a soft, steady glow. The two objects pointed unmistakably in the same direction.

The off‑road vehicle jolted as if it might fall apart; the old trees on either side were twisted and gnarled, their thick trunks and dense leaves almost blocking the sky, only speckles of light struggling through to fall on the ground littered with dead branches and leaves.

Zhang Jun gripped the steering wheel tightly as the wheels rolled over a protruding stone, causing the vehicle to lurch suddenly.

"Damn, this broken car—if we don't fix it up when we get back, we'll be vomiting our breakfast from the shaking." He muttered curses.

Beside him, Lin Xue kept her eyes closed, the azure crystal in her palm growing brighter; suddenly she opened her eyes.

"It should be right around here."

"The car definitely can't go further; we have to get out and walk."

Immediately the two opened the car doors and jumped out. A richer, humid air tinged with the smell of decaying leaves hit them.

Around them the trees took on even stranger forms, twisted and knotted like silent giants; thick vines clung like snakes to the trunks, while the ground was carpeted with a deep layer of rotted leaves accumulated over who knows how many years, soft underfoot and emitting a faint "pū pū" sound.

"Tsk, this ghostly place looks like no spot for the living." Zhang Jun glanced left and right, his hand instinctively moving to his waist where he kept his weapon.

Lin Xue nodded silently, placing the azure crystal in her palm. Its light shone especially bright in the dim forest, penetrating the layers of branches and leaves, steadily pointing deep into the woods.

"Follow it."