Chapter 28 – The Unseen Hand of Fate

Lynn Naya didn’t fully believe the red-robed girl when she said that the senior brother could keep the Dao Palace stable for at least twenty years. She wanted to know if he was really that powerful, but no matter how she asked, the girl refused to reveal anything else.

Since the girl wouldn’t talk, Lynn Naya had no choice but to take a different approach. She asked for the name of the person who caused the whole mess.

Shan Youwei.

She mentally made a note of the name and immediately entered a cultivation state after finishing her meal.

Perhaps because the shield had been shattered, she felt that the spiritual energy in the herb forest was much denser than usual. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of her cultivation method, her cultivation speed didn’t increase by much.

The thought of her cultivation method reminded Lynn Naya of the storage bag she had picked up. She wondered if there were any better cultivation methods inside. She felt there was a good chance there would be.

Looking back at the scene, the cultivators who went to battle before the shield shattered were not weak. Generally, the higher the cultivation, the better the items in the storage bag.

But the storm hadn’t passed yet. She had to be patient and wait.

Seven days later, after confirming that no one was looking for the storage bag, Lynn Naya found a time to open it in the underground space of the tree hollow.

As she expected, the storage bag of the Dao Palace disciple was indeed quite full. There was a small pile of spirit stones that shone brightly on the ground. She counted them and found there were 207 spirit stonesin total. At her current rate of two spirit stones a month, she could use them for a very long time.

Besides the spirit stones, there was a large pile of beast hides. The hides were of various materials, and the only thing they had in common was that they all gave off a faint spiritual energy.

Next to the hides were a stack of talismans and some cinnabar, beast blood, a writing brush, and some talisman paper.

These things wouldn’t mean much on their own, but together, Lynn Naya immediately thought of one of the four arts of cultivation: talisman-making.

To confirm her thoughts, Lynn Naya started to look through the pile of jade slips.

Soon, a look of joy appeared on her face.

She found them!

Introduction to Talisman Theory, Detailed Explanations and Demonstrations of Basic Talismans, and On the Importance of Talisman-making Techniques. These three books and a Grade 1 Talisman Master’s identity token were enough to confirm that the original owner of this storage bag was a Talisman Master.

It was said that mastering any of the four cultivation arts would lead to a life of wealth. But alchemy and artifact forging were too expensive, while talisman and formation arts required talent.

But for Lynn Naya, none of this was a problem. With her status panel and endless lifespan, she would be able to reach the pinnacle just by grinding.

Her idea of trying to make pills came from this, but she never expected a much more convenient art to come to her first.

“Senior Sun, I will continue your legacy. If any of your descendants have a talent for talisman-making in the future, I will return it to them.” The storage bag had the original owner’s identity token. The owner’s name was Sun Jianxing, and he was at the seventh layer of Qi Condensation. The rest was unknown and would need to be investigated later.

After she calmed down, Lynn Naya continued to check the remaining items. There were seven or eight bottles of pills and dozens of medicinal herbs, but she didn’t know what they were, so she put them aside.

As for the weapons, spiritual robes, and spiritual artifacts, she couldn’t show them to anyone, so she didn’t bother with them for now.

There were also some martial arts in the jade slips, but she didn’t have a weapon, and the one in the storage bag couldn’t be taken out. She would need a secluded place to practice, so she put those aside as well.

Finally, Lynn Naya found a cultivation method called the Supreme Spirit-Guiding Art. What was even more important was that this method was divided into three parts: Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, and Core Formation. She had the Qi Condensation part, and the other two parts were probably in the Dao Palace.

Regardless of the other two parts, this Qi Condensation part was definitely better than her current Evergreen Technique.

After checking all the items in the storage bag, Lynn Naya saw that the time was right and took out the Supreme Spirit-Guiding Art to cultivate.

Unlike the time when she had no foundation and it took her months to draw spiritual energy into her body, Lynn Naya, who was already at the third layer of Qi Condensation, only took half an hour to get started on the new cultivation method.

The new cultivation method was much more complex than the Evergreen Technique, but the cultivation speed was noticeably faster.

Before, it would take her eleven days to gain a single point of experience, even with spirit stones. But with the new cultivation method, her experience bar grew quickly. After only two days, Lynn Naya saw the experience bar on her status panel move.

One point of experience in two days… This was a speed she couldn’t have imagined before. The only downside was the faster consumption of spirit stones.

Lynn Naya looked at the spirit stones that had been drained and turned to dust in just two days. It hurt a little, but it also felt good.

One point of experience in two days means I’ll reach the fourth layer of Qi Condensation in six months at most.

To cultivate as fast as she could, Lynn Naya didn’t even return to her shelter at the bottom of the mountain. She told the Xue couple to help her look after the Zhang family’s son and lived in the tree hollow in the herb forest.

Of course, she didn’t just cultivate in the tree hollow. She also used the space to practice talisman-making.

Talismans had many uses for self-defense, like the Light Body Talisman for running away, the Five Thunder Talisman for long-range attacks, the Exorcism Talisman to ward off evil spirits, and the Diamond Talisman that could make a person invincible for ten breaths. If she could make these talismans, she would have a lot more ways to protect herself.

Knowing that she was still too weak, Lynn Naya decided to do both. By day, she was an ordinary medicinal farmer at the foot of Mount Yu. By night, she hid in the underground chamber of the tree hollow to learn how to make talismans.

It had to be said that talisman-making required a lot of talent.

According to the talisman theory, the Grade 1 low-grade Cleanse Talisman was the most basic and simplest talisman. A beginner could make one in about twenty to thirty attempts.

Lynn Naya, after spending six or seven days reading the three books that Sun Jianxing had left behind, had already ruined thirty talisman papers and still hadn’t made a single talisman.

Pfft… Another talisman paper burst into flames in Lynn Naya’s hands. She looked at the destroyed paper and felt a headache coming on.

Who would have thought? She originally wanted to grind to raise her skill level, but in the past ten days, she had destroyed thirty-one talisman papers, and her status panel had only gained three experience points.

At this rate, she would have to practice a thousand times to get to Grade 1?

The thought of that number made Lynn Naya’s scalp tingle.

She could draw the talismans, but she was worried that the talisman paper, cinnabar, and spiritual ink would run out. If that happened, she would have to find more materials.

The four arts of cultivation, indeed. The difficulty was at max level.

But because it was so rare, it was also valuable. She decided to go back and read Senior Sun’s notes.

Time passed quickly with Lynn Naya cultivating during the day and drawing talismans at night. Two months later, ZhouYuan gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

On the day of Zhou Yuan’s big event, Scarface Qing somehow found a bunch of bird eggs and dyed them red to bring them to Lynn Naya as a sign of good fortune.

Because Scarface Qing had helped Zhou Feibai clean up the aftermath of the beast attack, and many of the people in the Hall of External Affairs had died, and because he now had a connection with Zhou Feibai, Scarface Qing had become one of the twelve hall masters of the Hall of External Affairs twenty years ahead of schedule. He was now in charge of the western district, where Lynn Naya and the others lived.

“She gave birth?” Lynn Naya received the eggs and followed Scarface Qing down the mountain.

She had been back a couple of times in the past two months, but the changes at the foot of the mountain were still small. The shantytown was now made up of low shelters.

It wasn’t that people didn’t want to live in better houses. They were just scared. They were scared that the homes they had worked so hard to build would be leveled by a random battle. The harvest was also greatly reduced this year, and countless farmlands were destroyed. Without the food, this winter would be very difficult.

A certain exchange had become widespread because of this.

“If you don’t build a house, what will you do in winter?”

“I won’t live to see winter.”

When Lynn Naya heard that, she was sad for a whole day.

It’s just so hopeless.

Life felt like a bitter juice, with not even a hint of self-deceiving sweetness.

When they arrived at Scarface Qing’s “house,” it looked a little better because of the pregnant woman, but it was still just a small, low house.

Lynn Naya stood outside for a moment, then gave the bird eggs to the three children playing outside. She then said to Scarface Qing, “Since it’s still summer, let’s build a house.”

“The steward of the Dao Palace said they would arrange housing for us later…” Scarface Qing stopped talking halfway through. It felt pointless. If they were going to arrange housing, they would have done it already. He then looked at Lynn Naya. “If you think we can do it, I’ll gather some people this afternoon.”

Lynn Naya knew he was asking her if she had any “inside information.”

The only inside information she had was about the senior brother who still hadn’t appeared. She hadn’t heard anything about his return in the past two months, and she didn’t want to wait any longer.

“People have to live. If you don’t feel safe on the ground, then dig an underground space. Our last plan worked out pretty well.” Lynn Naya said. The spiritual barrier in the sky would block most of the attacks, and the ground could withstand some smaller impacts. When they encountered something it couldn’t handle, it wouldn’t matter where they were. “Last time, we dug ten meters deep. We can dig even deeper this time. See if you can find some people who know how to dig, like those tomb robbers. We’ll do our best, and then we’ll leave the rest to fate.”

“…” Scarface Qing frowned for a long time. Then he slapped the dust off his pants, asked Xue Yong’s wife to look after his wife, and left in a hurry.

That afternoon, a lot of people came to Scarface Qing’s house. The group of people was in the courtyard, arguing and spitting for the entire afternoon. At night, they started to work on the side of Scarface Qing’s wooden house, digging underground.

Above ground, Scarface Qing also had something to discuss with Lynn Naya and Xue Yong. “I was thinking, since we’re building houses anyway, why don’t the three of us connect our houses and have a big courtyard in the middle? We can share the underground space so we can look out for each other if anything happens.”

“Sounds good.” Lynn Naya said. She had no objections. In fact, it was their two families who took care of most of her daily needs.

“I agree too.” Xue Yong said. He also knew about Scarface Qing’s underground plan and was full of fighting spirit.

Once the three of them agreed, the rest was simple.

Scarface Qing didn’t hide what they were doing. And because the project was so big, he followed Lynn Naya’s suggestion and used food to recruit people to help day and night.

The constant sounds of clanging quickly caught the attention of others. When some of them heard about Scarface Qing’sunderground plan, their eyes lit up, and they also wanted to join in.

People were often like grass under a heavy rock. When there was no rain or dew, they would remain lifeless, but if you gave them a little water, they would come back to life.

As the fire of rebuilding spread from Lynn Naya’s three families to the surrounding areas, the genius Yanxi, whom Lynn Naya had been curious about for a long time, finally returned to the Dao Palace…