The busy members of the Bureau of Inspection and Blessings were all momentarily stunned when they saw the fire dragon flying out of the library, not quite understanding what had happened.
As Bai Yunyun and the others walked in, they saw Gu Xiao comforting Lin Ling, whose face was completely blackened by the smoke from the fire dragon she had just released.
[Who would have thought the power would increase this much? Damn it.]
While Lin Ling’s tears fell uncontrollably, Gu Xiao distressedly helped wipe her face.
Bai Yunyun and the others stood by the door, covering their mouths and snickering.
Lin Ling instantly felt her toes curl in extreme embarrassment.
Fortunately, her tail hadn’t been burned.
Otherwise, if her fluffy tail had been scorched bald, it would probably take a long time to grow back.
[It seems I still need to control the intensity. I’d better just use a regular brush to write.]
Lin Ling looked at her filthy clothes and sighed.
“Are the other talismans this powerful as well?”
Bai Yunyun walked over to Lin Ling’s desk. Seeing some unfinished charms, she immediately thought of the talismans that had already been distributed outside and wondered if she should warn the others.
Lin Ling shook her head and wrote on the sketchpad: “I’ve reached the Law Condensing Realm, so I tried to construct the charms using my own power. It turns out I just used too much force. The ones from before were all tested by me; they aren’t this powerful.”
“Oh, I see.”
The three women nodded. Then, Bai Yunyun was the first to react.
“Eh? Boss, you’ve reached the Law Condensing Realm?”
Lin Ling puffed out her small chest with great pride, her face full of triumph.
“Comparing myself to others really is infuriating,” Zhao Yuyu wailed again, silently making a certain decision in her heart.
Bai Yunyun wanted to step forward and hug Lin Ling, hoping for some cultivation advice, but Lin Ling avoided her naturally.
In terms of cultivation realm, Lin Ling had completely surpassed Bai Yunyun’s Spirit Awakening Realm.
As long as she wanted to hide, Bai Yunyun couldn’t touch her at all.
Ignoring their mournful voices, Lin Ling sat back down at the desk and began constructing charms and talismans.
After drawing a few talismans with a brush, she would try to draw new ones using her True Essence.
Bit by bit, she hammered the foundation of her Law Condensing Realm until it was incredibly solid.
The girls’ fake crying was simply too loud. Lin Ling felt a bit helpless and had to write on the page: “I’ll help you find some good cultivation techniques in a while, okay?!”
[Anyway, I remember so many techniques from my life before last. I’ll just find some random ones for them. If that doesn’t work, I can pressure Little Ming. If he’s not short on money, his techniques shouldn’t be bad either.]
Lin Ling thought this without any psychological burden, but she suddenly paused, her beautiful eyebrows knitting together slightly.
[Lately, it seems I’ve been relying on Little Ming a bit too much.]
She shook her head, tossing these messy thoughts aside.
Lin Ling calmed her mind and continued to outline the charms.
After receiving Lin Ling’s promise, the three women were naturally overjoyed.
However, a faint trace of worry appeared on Zhao Yuyu’s face, as if she were thinking about something.
They continued to assist Lin Ling, helping to grind the cinnabar and prepare the talisman paper, then distributing the finished talismans to the other helpers in the Bureau.
***
As for Xiu Jiming, he finally arrived at the location where the Hidden Mountain Rain-Listening Tower had been attacked.
Several corpses of the Tower’s disciples lay scattered about in total disarray.
However, no corpses of True Self Realm cultivators were found.
Xiu Jiming’s brow furrowed slightly, and his heart grew increasingly heavy.
If the bodies of the True Self Realm cultivators weren’t here, it meant the demons had dragged them back for corruption.
“So slow.”
A lazy voice suddenly rang out from the very center of the attack site.
Xiu Jiming exchanged a glance with a True Self Realm cultivator.
The cultivator slowly approached that direction.
Soon, they saw a prison carriage amidst the mountain of corpses.
The pillars of the carriage were covered in sealing arrays, locking the person inside tightly.
Xiu Jiming stepped forward and said, “I heard that the Rain-Listening Tower’s mission was to escort someone back to the capital. Is it you?”
“It’s me.”
The man leaned against the iron bars of the carriage, let out a yawn, and answered lazily.
“The demons didn’t make a move on you?”
Xiu Jiming asked curiously.
“They couldn’t get in. The thing sealing me isn’t some minor array. A few mere True Self Realm demons naturally couldn’t break it,” the prisoner said cheerfully.
“I couldn’t get out either, so I had to stay here and wait for your reinforcements.”
“What exactly happened here? Who are you? Why is such a heavy array used to imprison you alone?”
Xiu Jiming held his silver-white longsword level, pointing it at the person in the carriage.
“Please, you have too many questions. I’m just a prisoner. How would I know so much?” the prisoner responded, still sounding lazy.
Xiu Jiming’s perception spread out in all directions like a tide.
He found no trace of demonic filth, and his heart grew even more solemn.
If they couldn’t interrupt the demons’ conspiracy in time, the Yuzhou Incident might happen all over again in Yunzhou.
Xiu Jiming stepped forward and slashed the prison carriage open with a single sword stroke.
Instantly, everyone present, including the prisoner, was dumbfounded.
“Old Xiu, your cultivation level right now is…” one of the accompanying cultivators stammered.
Xiu Jiming didn’t answer him. Instead, he stared at the prisoner and said, “Tell me everything you know, and I’ll spare your life.”
The man in the carriage slowly sat up straight.
Beneath his tattered prison clothes, he revealed a face that could be called handsome, though his complexion was pale and his eyes were sunken, carrying a gloominess from years of being hidden from the sun.
Although he was startled by Xiu Jiming’s powerful strength, he quickly returned to normal.
He tilted his head, looking at Xiu Jiming, and said, “Do you think I’m easily intimidated? Spare my life? You’re an official of the Bureau, which means you’re an official of the Imperial Court. There’s absolutely no way you’d kill me.”
When Xiu Jiming looked at him coldly, intending to teach him a lesson, the prisoner smiled playfully and said, “If you kill me, I’m afraid it won’t be long before the northwestern provinces of the Great Yu Dynasty collapse.”
Xiu Jiming watched him coldly before finally sheathing his sword.
“Then follow me back to the Bureau. I’ll find a way to make you talk.”
“So impatient.”
The man sighed, allowing Xiu Jiming to grab him and drag him out of the carriage like a small chick.
Even in such a pathetic state, the man still wore that uncomfortably relaxed smile on his face.
“Colleagues, do not let your guard down. Leave five people to cremate the bodies of our fellow cultivators from the Tower on the spot. The rest follow me. We will search for the demons comparable to the True Self Realm.”
Xiu Jiming locked the prisoner’s hands behind his back and lifted him up.
Just as Xiu Jiming was about to take flight with the others, the prisoner sniffed and suddenly said, “Eh? This aura… Unscathed by calamity, breaking through delusion to preserve the truth… Are you practicing the Calamity Scripture of the Delusion-Breaking Sword?”
The prisoner looked at Xiu Jiming with a hint of surprise.
Hearing this, Xiu Jiming frowned and looked back down at the prisoner.
This was the first time he had heard the name of his cultivation technique from someone else’s mouth.