Chapter 519 - 295: Secrets of the Extreme South, Magical Treasure Refining
Chapter 519: Chapter 295: Secrets of the Extreme South, Magical Treasure Refining
"If you’re honest enough, I might just spare your life."
Lin Changheng chuckled softly, his words casual, but his eyes held no hint of amusement.
Upon hearing this, the scrawny cultivator who had been kowtowing nonstop felt an initial surge of joy, thinking he might have passed this trial. But in the next instant, he grasped the underlying meaning, and his face turned ashen.
"Ye-yes, yes..."
The cultivator stammered, "What is it that you wish to know, Senior?"
Throughout the exchange, he never dared to raise his head, keeping his forehead pressed against the ground. He knew that as long as he didn’t see his captor’s face, he might still have a chance to live. The moment he did, however, he would be giving the man a reason to kill him and destroy the evidence. Then, there would be no hope of survival.
"So, care to guess why I didn’t grab you sooner, or later, but at this exact moment?"
Lin Changheng, unconcerned with the man’s thoughts, simply asked in return with a soft laugh.
He had the leisurely air of a cat toying with a mouse.
As soon as he spoke, the scrawny cultivator’s shoulders began to tremble violently. It was unclear whether his words had struck a nerve or if the man was simply overcome with fear.
The smile on Lin Changheng’s lips twisted into a sneer. His gaze sharpened as he stared at the man. "Speak. Who sent you? Or should I say... who do you work for, and what is your goal?"
"I..."
After a moment of internal struggle, the scrawny cultivator finally clenched his jaw, resolved to speak. But as the first word left his lips, something suddenly went wrong!
His eyes bulged violently, his pupils instantly filled and torn apart by countless erupting black rays! A sinister and frenzied aura exploded from the center of his forehead without warning.
’Not good!’
Lin Changheng’s expression changed drastically. ’To think such a vicious and decisive Restriction was planted deep within his Divine Soul!’
He reacted with lightning speed. In the split second before the scrawny cultivator’s aura dissipated and his body went limp, Lin Changheng’s right hand formed a sword-finger. Wreathed in a brilliant Spiritual Light, it shot towards the man’s forehead!
Simultaneously, he made a beckoning gesture with his other hand, unleashing a Secret Skill.
—Soul Search!
’If he couldn’t keep the man alive, then he would forcibly seize the last fragments of his Divine Soul before it completely shattered!’
However, the moment his Divine Sense broke into the man’s sea of consciousness, he was met with an apocalyptic scene.
Pitch-black, chain-like Curse Runes coiled around the remnant soul like Vines, frantically strangling and burning it with a sickening SIZZLE. Memory fragments, like paper tossed into a raging fire, curled, blackened, and turned to ash in an instant.
Lin Changheng’s Divine Sense formed an invisible hand. Ignoring the backlash from the cursed flames, it forcibly seized the few largest fragments.
But his grasp closed on nothing but an empty void.
All the memories, all the key information regarding his "master" and "purpose," had already been wiped clean. All that remained were a few insignificant thoughts about Cultivation and some blurry images of recent Magical Combat.
BOOM!
Just as he shifted his focus to probe the source of the curse, the remnant Divine Soul’s core let out a final, pained cry. It shattered completely, and along with the pitch-black Curse Runes, dissolved into fragments of Soul Power that dissipated into the air.
Lin Changheng withdrew his finger. A faint wisp of black energy lingered on its tip before being instantly dispersed by his Protective Magical Power.
His expression was grim as he looked down at the corpse, which was rapidly losing all vitality and slumping like a sack of rags.
’So ruthless in their methods, so meticulous in their planning... The person behind this is no simple character.’
He stood motionless as the valley wind swept in, carrying with it the faint scent of blood and the oppressive weight of the conspiracy before him.
Furthermore, those pitch-black, chain-like Curse Runes felt familiar to Lin Changheng.
After a moment of careful thought, he pinpointed the memory.
’That’s it!’
It was the very same Soul-Eroding Seal he had discovered back in the Golden Sand Marketplace. Back then, it had clung to his arm like a festering disease, and only after he nurtured his Red Sky Profound Flame into a Tier Three True Flame was he able to annihilate it.
The feeling these Curse Runes gave him now was remarkably similar to the Soul-Eroding Seal; they seemed to share the same origin.
Which meant—
"Demon Cultivators... are also involved in this."
Lin Changheng’s gaze hardened as a thousand thoughts raced through his mind.
’Could someone among the Immortal City’s True Inheritance disciples be colluding with Demon Cultivators? Are they targeting Bai Hengwan, and I just got caught in the crossfire? Did they plant a Demon Seal on me at some point, aiming to eliminate one of Bai Hengwan’s powerful allies?’
After all, he was exceedingly cautious. He never courted trouble and had never had any contact—or even the opportunity for contact—with Demon Cultivators. It was impossible for him to have brought this kind of trouble upon himself.
’I just don’t know who the mastermind is. Is it that Senior Brother Bai Hengwan, whom I’ve never even met? Or is it that "Yang Zhenchuan" I only encountered once?’
Lin Changheng’s expression darkened as he tried to work it out. He didn’t have enough information to be certain, but then he suddenly smiled. ’Why do I even need proof?’
The moment he sensed any malice, he just needed to find an opportunity to kill them.
He suffered from a profound lack of security. When it came to people or things that could threaten him, the best solution was always annihilation.
With a flick of his wrist, he drew the Storage Bag from the corpse into his hand and began to inspect its contents. Inside, he found a Restriction Token. Lin Changheng recognized it instantly—it granted access to the outskirts of Fusheng Lake.
This further confirmed his suspicions.
He also found a transparent Jade Slab, as thin as a cicada’s wing. He pinched it between his fingers. It was clearly a type of Jade Scroll for carrying information, but its form made it much harder to detect during a handoff.
It was designed to be passed from the Messenger to his contact as they brushed past one another.