79: Chapter 79 Using the spiritual vein as a guide, we strike straight at the heart of the enemy.

As the morning sun pierced through the thin mist of Black Wind Pass, Lin Yue stood silently at the center of the pass.

His fingertips lightly touched the Spirit Gathering main pattern drawn on the ground with cinnabar mixed with Spirit Beast blood.

Beneath the patterns, the pulsation of the grotto-heaven spirit vein was clearly discernible; it wasn't merely spiritual power transmission, but a deeper resonance.

After the World Tree devoured the Golden Core of the Lord of Black Stone City, its core sentience was awakening from slumber.

Like an ancient beast stretching its muscles and bones after a hundred years of dormancy, each pulsation made the grotto-heaven Law more complete.

The [Spiritual Vein Teleportation] icon flickered slightly in his Divine Sense.

Below, the list of covered nodes slowly scrolled. Among them, the line “Black Stone City · City Lord's Mansion Secret Chamber · Spiritual Vein Core Hub” glowed with a stable golden light, indicating confirmed positioning.

Those were fragments of memory painstakingly extracted from Li Tu's Divine Soul last night, cross-referenced with confessions from surviving Black Stone City captives, to pinpoint the exact location.

The error was no more than three feet.

“Clan Chief, the thunder dragon cannon has been dismantled.”

Lin Shi hurried over, his voice kept low, but he couldn't hide the excitement in his tone.

Behind him, four apprentices carried two specially made spirit wood crates, their walls inscribed with layers of runes for shock absorption and spiritual power leakage prevention.

“The cannon barrel, cannon mount, and spiritual power core are packed in three separate crates. They can be reassembled within a quarter of an hour upon arrival.”

Lin Yue nodded.

Lin Hu was leading the Sharp Soldiers Camp in a final inspection. The Spirit-Breaking Talismans on the thirty thunder pattern armors shimmered with a faint glow in the morning mist;

The fuses of the Explosive Flame Talismans at their waists were all replaced, and the connections sealed with Spirit Beast glue;

The arrowheads of each armor-piercing crossbow had been re-quenched in dragon soul spirit spring water, their edges glinting with a faint cyan sharpness.

No one spoke, only the crisp clinking of armor plates and the low hum of taut bowstrings.

The breaths of the thirty men were adjusting to a single frequency.

Lin Yue's gaze swept over this team.

Compared to three days ago, there was something more in their eyes.

It wasn't the arrogance of an initial victory, but the calm, almost ruthless certainty that comes after being tempered by fire and forged in steel.

“Before we depart, let's establish one more rule.”

Lin Yue spoke, his voice not loud, but it etched itself into everyone's ears like chiseling stone.

“After entering the city, the primary target is the core of the Spiritual Vein Formation.”

“No looting, no indiscriminate killing, no harassing civilians. Those who actively resist will be killed without mercy. Those who surrender on their knees will be taken into custody according to the 'Seventeen Articles for Prisoner Treatment'.”

He paused.

“Remember, we are not going to become the new Black Stone City.”

“Yes.”

Thirty voices merged into one, not fervent, but heavy as cast iron.

Lin Yue took a deep breath.

He formed a hand seal.

Golden Core spiritual power flowed from his fingertips into the main pattern on the ground.

The cinnabar lines seemed to be infused with molten gold, changing from dark red to brilliant white-gold, rapidly spreading outward, connecting, and forming a Formation.

The ground beneath their feet began to tremble.

It wasn't an earthquake; it was the grotto-heaven spirit vein responding to the summons.

A massive teleportation Formation, three zhang in diameter, roared into existence at the center of the pass.

Flowing within the formation patterns was not pure spiritual power, but the purple lightning of the thunder pattern crystal ore vein intertwined with the golden light of the dragon soul spirit spring, like two coexisting Flood Dragons, meandering along every turn of the runes.

“Everyone, into the Formation!”

Lin Hu yelled.

Thirty figures silently stepped into the range of the formation patterns, taking their positions according to the drills they had practiced many times.

The spirit wood crates were placed beside the formation eye.

Lin Yue was the last.

The dragon thunder sword was slung diagonally across his back, its thunder patterns on the hilt resonating with the formation patterns beneath his feet, emitting a low hum, like a Dragon's roar suppressed in its throat.

He lifted his foot and stepped into the center of the Formation.

“Teleport.”

The formation patterns erupted with blinding light.

It didn't shoot upwards into the sky, but collapsed inwards, as if a rift had been torn in the Void Realm, swallowing everything within the Formation.

A high-pitched shriek of Spiritual Vein airflow rushed past his ears, and his vision was fragmented by countless intertwining golden and purple light bands.

His body seemed to be falling rapidly, yet also being lifted upwards.

This was a profound experience of traversing the Spiritual Qi network of the earth veins, not flying over mountains and rivers, but “flowing through” them from the perspective of the Spiritual Vein.

Black Stone City, City Lord's Mansion Secret Chamber.

The stone walls, having not seen daylight for years, were covered with an inch-thick layer of cold moss and ash.

The skeletons hanging on the four walls were arranged in a circle, their ribs broken, skulls opened, each maintaining the struggling posture of their last moments before death.

They were the past “Spiritual Vein Sacrificers.”

After having their spiritual power extracted by the Black Fiend Formation until their oil ran dry and their lamps withered, their bones were embedded in the walls, becoming “sacrifices” to maintain the operation of this predatory Formation.

At this moment, three newly appointed sacrificers sat around a black crystal pillar in the center of the secret chamber.

The pillar was wider than an embrace, pitch black like a solidified abyss, its surface covered with layers of Spirit Devourer runes.

Spiritual power was forcibly drawn from the sacrificers' shriveled fingertips, converged into the pillar, and then flowed into the city-wide defense Formation.

“City Lord... still no news?”

The youngest of them spoke, his voice hoarse like a seventy-year-old man.

Three days ago, he was at Qi Refinement Perfection, but now he had been drained to the verge of Qi Refinement third layer.

“Shut up.”

The elder sharply interrupted, yet he couldn't help but look at the flickering black light at the top of the pillar.

“Last night, the spiritual power fluctuations from the Black Wind Pass direction... were unusually intense.”

The third person's voice wavered.

“Someone said they saw lightning form a Dragon shape, tens of zhang long...”

“Silence!”

The elder suddenly stood up, but stumbled due to excessive spiritual power loss.

“The City Lord has a black iron shield! He has been undefeated for three hundred years! Even if... even if something truly unexpected happened, this crystal pillar's base has a self-destruct Restriction.”

His voice dropped, carrying the ferocity of a dying beast.

“Igniting the core will cause the entire Black Stone City's earth vein Spiritual Qi to surge backward. By then, no one will leave alive.”

The secret chamber suddenly fell silent.

Only the faint, chewing-like sound of the crystal pillar devouring spiritual power remained.

In this dead silence, in the very center of the secret chamber, in the empty space between the crystal pillar and the bone wall, a golden-purple intertwined light pattern suddenly lit up without warning.

The light pattern rapidly expanded, instantly forming a three-zhang square teleportation Formation phantom.

The moment the formation patterns solidified, thirty figures appeared out of thin air like ghosts.

The faint glow of the thunder pattern armor simultaneously illuminated.

The arrowheads of the armor-piercing crossbows were aimed squarely at the three sacrificers in front of the crystal pillar from three directions.

The dragon thunder sword had not yet been unsheathed, but the thunder patterns on its hilt resonated with the residual energy of the teleportation Formation, emitting a low, murderous hum.

“Who are you?!”

The elder sacrificer was horrified, instinctively urging the remaining spiritual power in his body to touch the crystal pillar's defensive Restriction.

However, as his fingertip just touched the pillar, he felt a chill in his wrist.

Lin Yue had already arrived in front of him.

The dragon thunder sword remained in its sheath, but the sheathed sword precisely struck the Spiritual Vein node on his wrist.

“Click.”

A faint sound of dislocation.

The sacrificer's wrist drooped at a strange angle, and the trace of spiritual power he had just gathered dissipated without a trace, like a deflated bladder.

“I'm more familiar with this pillar's Restriction than you are.”

Lin Yue's voice was calm, his gaze sweeping over their horrified faces.

“Li Tu memorized all the defense Formation nodes of Black Stone City thirty-seven times in the grotto-heaven.”

The three sacrificers' faces turned ashen.

The youngest one's legs went soft, and he directly knelt on the ground, his forehead pressed against the cold stone slab, trembling like a sieve.

The elder's lips moved violently, as if he wanted to say something harsh, but under Lin Yue's calm, almost indifferent gaze, not a single word escaped him.

He had lived for sixty years, fighting alongside the City Lord for half his life, and had seen countless powerful enemies.

But he had never seen such eyes.

It wasn't the arrogance of a victor, nor the joy of a revenger.

It was the calmness of a judge scrutinizing a prisoner awaiting judgment.

“Spirit-Locking Chain.”

Lin Hu stepped forward, the chains in his hand glowing faintly with runes originating from the grotto-heaven.

The moment the chain links touched the sacrificer's body, the remaining spiritual power within him, polluted by the predatory Cultivation Technique, retreated in panic as if encountering a natural enemy, but was forcibly adsorbed, suppressed, and extracted by the runes.

“Ugh!”

The elder sacrificer let out a suppressed groan, and two lines of faint black liquid seeped from the corners of his eyes.

Those weren't tears, but evil impurities forcibly expelled by the purifying power of thunder.

The other two were even worse, practically dragged to the ground like dead dogs, completely collapsing the moment the chains were put on, their snot and tears flowing freely.

Lin Shi had no time to look at the captives.

He and his apprentices rushed towards the black crystal pillar, the thunder pattern chisel in his hand pressed against the connecting seam of the outermost runes on the pillar.

“Be careful, this thing has been sucking up Spiritual Vein resentment for decades, it'll explode if you touch it.”

His voice was tense, but his movements were as steady as an old craftsman carving jade.

The first rune fragment was completely peeled off.

The moment it detached from the pillar, the Spirit Devourer patterns on it suddenly lit up with a dazzling blood-red light, emitting a sharp, infant-like soul shriek.

Lin Shi, quick as lightning, immersed the entire fragment into a pre-prepared jar of dragon soul spirit spring.

“Sizzle!”

The spring water boiled, black smoke shot into the sky, and a foul stench permeated the air.

The rune fragment rapidly dissolved in the water, turning into wisps of turbid black threads, which soon completely vanished.

“Continue.”

Lin Shi wiped the spring water splashed on his face and pressed the chisel tip against the second pattern.

Meanwhile, Lin Yue's Divine Sense probed into the crystal pillar's main body.

Deep within the pillar, a black iron mother lode core, the size of a washbasin, was weakly pulsating, like the heart of some living creature.

Around it were twenty-seven main Spirit Devourer patterns, each deeply carved into the core's surface, forcibly locking and extracting its innate spirituality.

This wasn't forging.

This was imprisonment.

Lin Yue raised his hand, and the dragon thunder sword silently unsheathed three inches.

The sword's thunder light, like a wisp of silk, precisely pierced into the junction of the main Spirit Devourer pattern and the ore core body, guided by his Divine Sense. It wasn't brute force severing, but rather “incinerating” with the nature of thunder.

Wherever the thunder light passed, the Spirit Devourer patterns twisted and struggled wildly like poisonous snakes encountering a natural enemy, yet they could not escape the ultimate Yang and righteous power of annihilation.

“Crack.”

The first main pattern shattered.

The Spiritual Vein Origin Qi, imprisoned for decades, slowly seeped out through the crack, like the first drop of water from a broken dam.

“Puff!”

The air in the secret chamber suddenly cleared.

That omnipresent, swamp-like oppressive feeling noticeably loosened a bit.

Outside in the corridor, faint exclamations could be heard:

“Defense Formation! The Formation's spiritual light is weakening!”

“The city west node has lost response!”

“The City Lord's Mansion's protective shield, it shattered!”

Lin Yue ignored it.

The sword edge shifted, moving towards the second main pattern.

When he severed the seventh Spirit Devourer pattern, heavy footsteps came from the secret chamber's stone door.

Several remaining Black Stone City guards rushed into the corridor with raised swords, directly encountering the three thunder pattern armor-piercing crossbows Lin Hu had positioned by the door.

The crossbowmen's fingers on the triggers were as steady as bedrock.

“Take one more step forward, and see if these arrows can pierce your spiritual iron armor.”

Lin Hu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the calm demeanor of a predator observing its trapped prey.

The guard captain, who was at the front, saw the three sacrificers sprawled on the ground like mud, then looked at Lin Hu's thunder pattern armor, which still bore the bloodstains from Black Wind Pass.

He recognized this type of armor.

The routed soldiers who escaped from Black Wind Pass had described it repeatedly in their communication talismans.

“thunder pattern armor... thirty men forming a Formation... that young Clan Chief with the Dragon pattern sword...”

The guard captain's long saber clattered to the ground.

Behind him, the other guards almost simultaneously dropped their weapons.

A chorus of kneeling sounds.

“Lin Hu, take the captives. Imprison them according to their cultivation level.”

Lin Yue's voice came from deep within the secret chamber, still calm.

“The Foundation Establishment Cultivators, hand them over to me. The Qi Refining Cultivators, detain them first, then collectively transfer them to the mine after the battle.”

“Understood.”

Lin Hu led his men forward, the Spirit-Locking Chains clanking.

The corridor was quickly cleared.

Lin Yue sheathed his sword.

The final strike.

All twenty-seven main Spirit Devourer patterns on the crystal pillar shattered, and dense, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the pillar's surface.

Lin Shi seized the opportunity, using a specially made spirit wood clamp to reach into the largest crack, gripping the edge of the black iron mother lode core, and steadily pulling it out.

The moment the ore core left the pillar, "Boom!"

The entire secret chamber trembled violently.

It wasn't an explosion.

It was a release.

The Origin of Black Stone City's Spiritual Vein, which had been suppressed, extracted, and enslaved by the Spirit Devourer patterns for sixty-three years, lost all its restraints at this moment.

Like a hundred thousand tons of groundwater bursting through a parched crust.

Like thousands of imprisoned Dragons and snakes breaking free from their chains.

A torrent of pure, almost liquid Spiritual Qi surged out from the cavity left by the ore core!

It was not predatory, not defiled.

It was the most primitive, purest Origin Qi from before the Spiritual Vein was imprisoned.

It hadn't seen the light of day for too long.

It yearned to breathe.

The Spiritual Qi tide spread from the secret chamber, extending throughout Black Stone City.

Wherever it passed, the branch veins that had been dry for years began to flow again.

The previously dim nodes of the city wall's defensive Formation were violently flickered by this sudden influx of pure Spiritual Qi, and then completely lost control.

The defensive Formation disintegrated.

In the west of the city, the Black Stone City garrison, patrolling the streets, looked up in horror as the formation eye spirit fire, which had burned for sixty years on the city wall, slowly extinguished like a dying candle blown out by the wind.

South of the city, in the commoner district.

An old woman was squatting by her dry well, habitually lowering a wooden bucket. She hadn't drawn water from this well in thirty years.

But this time, the sound of the wooden bucket touching the well water was clear and moist.

She trembled as she pulled up the rope.

In the bucket, half a bucket of clear well water, faintly glowing with spirit light, reflected her disbelieving face.

"Water... Spirit water... The well is alive again..."

The old woman knelt by the well, holding the water in her hands, her old tears streaming down.

East of the city, in the spirit field district.

A supervisor, in charge of guarding the ore slaves, was raising his whip to strike a Qi Refinement Stage ore slave who had collapsed from hunger.

Before the second whip could fall, a warm Spiritual Qi suddenly surged from the ground beneath his feet, making him stumble.

The supervisor looked down.

The Spiritual Qi was seeping into the barren land that had been exploited by Black Stone City for decades.

On the soil's surface, a withered spirit wheat root, long dead, actually squeezed out a new green sprout from its base under the nourishment of the Spiritual Qi.

Extremely faint, extremely tiny.

But it was indeed alive.

Lord's Mansion secret chamber.

Lin Yue stood beside the remnants of the crystal pillar, from which Spiritual Qi surged, his robes flapping in the spiritual flow.

He did not rush to absorb this Origin Qi.

He merely lowered his gaze, quietly watching the power that had been imprisoned for sixty-three years finally surge towards the land it was meant to nourish.

"Clan Chief."

Lin Shi held the black iron mother lode core, his hands covered in black ash, but his eyes glowed.

"This thing... this thing is too strong! If used to refine a defensive Magical Artifact, the shield's hardness would be at least three times that of a black iron shield! And it has been imprisoned for sixty-three years; it's full of spirituality eager to break free and be properly used! This isn't a dead ore; this is a living artifact embryo!"

"Keep it safe."

Lin Yue said.

"In the future, it will become Sunset Town's new barrier."

He turned and walked towards the entrance of the secret chamber.

The stone door had already been pushed open.

In the corridor outside, Lin Hu was escorting prisoners out. Seeing Lin Yue, he immediately said:

"Clan Chief, the granaries and armories in the east and west cities are under control. Commander Zhang Yan has surrendered, saying he is willing to offer a complete map of his private Mineral Veins, only asking for..."

"Only asking for what?"

"Only asking to join Sunset Town."

Lin Hu paused.

"His exact words were: 'The Lord is dead, the Black Fiend Formation is废了, Black Stone City cannot be defended. He wants to live, and he wants his brothers to live too.'"

Lin Yue did not respond immediately.

He walked out of the corridor and stood on the steps leading to the main hall of the Lord's Mansion.

Morning light streamed in diagonally through the broken gap in the defensive Formation.

At the foot of the steps, the main hall was empty, with only a few guards stunned by the lightning glow being carried away by Sharp Soldiers Camp Cultivators.

Further away, the main gate of the Lord's Mansion stood wide open.

On the street outside the gate, Lin De's civilian appeasement team had already set up a wooden platform for speeches.

"Sunset Town's new policy: abolish the Spiritual Vein head tax! Abolish the ore slave system! Spirit fields will be allocated by household, spirit seeds will be uniformly distributed by the town treasury, and only two-tenths will be collected after the autumn harvest to maintain the city's operation!"

Lin De's voice was old but resonant.

He held a bag of newly harvested spirit grain, the grains plump and imbued with Spiritual Qi.

"This spirit grain is produced by Black Stone City itself! It doesn't belong to the Lord of Black Stone City, it's produced by this land! The land has never been anyone's private property; it only belongs to those who are willing to cultivate it!"

The crowd was silent at first.

It had been too long since they heard such words.

So long that many had forgotten there could be other possibilities for living besides being exploited.

A white-haired old man walked out of the crowd, trembling.

His eyes were sunken, and his cheekbones protruded, clearly indicating long-term malnutrition.

But his hands were steady, firmly taking the bag of spirit grain Lin De handed him.

He lowered his head and scooped up a handful of grains.

The grains slipped through his fingers, rustling.

The old man's knees buckled, and he fell to the ground.

He did not kneel towards Lin De.

He bowed heavily towards Sunset Town, towards that bag of spirit grain.

"Heaven... has eyes..."

The choked sobs, suppressed for sixty-three years, finally burst forth.

Not just one person.

It was patches of people, patches of kneeling knees, patches of suppressed wails that were distorted, broken, and could no longer be controlled.

They weren't crying for victory.

They were crying because they had finally waited.

On the steps of the Lord's Mansion, Lin Yue did not look back.

He entered the main hall and, according to Li Tu's confession, moved aside the enormous "Black Stone City Vein Map" on the wall.

Behind the map was a secret door.

There was no lock on the door.

Only a recessed, palm-sized imprint.

Lin Yue raised his hand and pressed his palm into the indentation.

The Golden Core in his Dantian gently rotated, and a wisp of warm Spiritual Qi, originating from the same source as the Grotto-Heaven, flowed out through his palm and into the core of the secret door.

"Click."

The mechanism softly clicked.

The secret door slid inward, revealing a small chamber less than a zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) in size.

In the center of the secret chamber, on a jade stone platform about a foot square, lay a palm-sized jade tablet.

The jade was warm and lustrous, not the gloomy, dark black commonly used in Black Stone City, but a clear, almost transparent moon white.

On the tablet's surface, countless hair-thin spirit patterns flowed on their own, outlining a three-dimensional projection of Black Stone City's entire Spiritual Vein network.

Main veins, branch veins, Mineral Vein points, spirit fields, defensive Formation nodes, abandoned old wells—every flow of spiritual power was clearly displayed within this small space.

Lin Yue's fingertip touched the jade tablet.

Instantly, the entire Black Stone City Spiritual Vein's sixty-three years of groaning, depletion, plunder, and imprisonment, like a bursting dam, surged into his Divine Sense through his fingertip.

It wasn't resentment.

It was a cry for help.

It was the almost instinctive cry of this land, pushed to its limits.

The Grotto-Heaven information panel suddenly popped up, characters refreshing wildly at an unprecedented speed.

[High-Rank Spiritual Vein Master Control Authority Item Detected]

[Rank: Profound Rank High Grade · Spiritual Vein Hub]

[Status: Contaminated by異種靈力 (residual Black Fiend formation patterns 61.7%), core undamaged]

[Proceed with Fusion?]

[Warning: After Fusion, the entire Black Stone City Spiritual Vein network will be permanently bound to the Grotto-Heaven Spiritual Vein network. Contaminated branch veins require active purification, estimated time: ]

Lin Yue didn't finish reading the estimated time.

His mind stirred slightly.

[Fuse.]

The jade tablet transformed into a soft white stream of light, merging into the ancestral orifice between his eyebrows.

It wasn't devouring, not seizing.

It was returning to its rightful place.

As if a wisp of remnant Divine Soul, wandering for sixty-three years, had finally found the body it was meant to guard.

The next instant, Lin Yue's Divine Sense pulsed simultaneously with Black Stone City's twenty-eight crisscrossing Spiritual Vein branches, one hundred and three Mineral Vein points, forty-seven dry wells, and eleven abandoned spirit fields.

He "saw" it.

Three zhang (approximately 10 meters) beneath the old well in the west of the city, which had just sprung water, a small branch vein, blocked for many years, was slowly clearing, Spiritual Qi soaking the dry rock layers inch by inch like melting spring water.

Beneath the slum in the south of the city, a main vein branch, forcibly cut off and suppressed by the Black Fiend Formation for sixty-three years, was now visibly breaking through the blockage of rune remnants.

In the spirit field district in the east of the city, beneath the roots of the withered spirit wheat, new green shoots had already broken through the soil.

[Fusion Complete.]

[Intermediate Grotto-Heaven (Rank: 8)]

[Spiritual Vein Coverage: Entire Black Stone City (28 new branch veins, 500 mu of cultivable spirit fields, 47 repairable abandoned Mineral Vein points)]

[Spiritual Qi Concentration: 610 (normal external environment is 1)]

[New Function: Spiritual Vein Purification (Active Skill, can clear Spiritual Vein contamination in designated areas, consumes Chaos Spiritual Qi)]

[World Tree Spirit Intelligence Core Incubation Progress: 33%]

Lin Yue opened his eyes.

The secret chamber was still that secret chamber, the jade platform still that jade platform.

But he knew that from this moment on, every Spiritual Vein beneath Black Stone City, every dry well, every inch of land awaiting recovery, was no longer masterless.

They were connected as one with Sunset Town's Spiritual Veins, with Black Wind Pass's Spiritual Veins, and with the network of World Tree roots spreading throughout the Grotto-Heaven.

From now on, their destinies were shared.

He walked out of the secret chamber, through the main hall, and down the steps.

Outside the door, the sun had just broken through the clouds, gilding the entire street in gold.

Lin Hu stood at the foot of the steps, holding a coarse porcelain bowl. Inside the bowl was freshly cooked spirit rice, accompanied by a chopstickful of stir-fried spirit vegetables.

"Clan Chief, Lin De said this was made with spirit grain produced by Black Stone City itself."

He handed over the bowl.

"The taste is a bit inferior to ours in Sunset Town, but it's fresh."

Lin Yue took the bowl.

He didn't return to the main hall, nor did he look for a stone stool.

He sat directly on the edge of the steps, the bluestone cool beneath him.

Steam rose from the rice in the bowl, mingling with the unique sweet fragrance of spirit grain, wafting in the morning breeze.

In the distance, the thunder dragon cannon on the city wall had been reassembled. Lin Shi was leading apprentices to calibrate the muzzle, the thunder pattern on the cannon body flowing with a steady golden light in the sunlight.

Further away, the crowd on the street had not yet dispersed. Lin De's preaching voice faintly reached them, interspersed with irrepressible, intermittent sobs.

Someone held the bag of spirit grain, sitting on their doorstep, repeatedly stroking the patterns on the bag.

Someone squatted by a dry well, staring blankly at the clear well water in the bucket.

A child curiously reached out to touch the thunder pattern armor on the waist of a Sharp Soldiers Camp Cultivator, only to be nervously pulled back by their mother. The Cultivator lowered his head, took off his heart-protecting mirror, squatted down, and offered it to the child to touch.

The mirror's surface reflected the child's shy smile.

Lin Yue lowered his head and took a mouthful of rice.

The spirit grain dissolved between his teeth, and the Spiritual Qi flowed silently down his throat into his Dantian, warm and gentle.

"This is just the beginning."

His voice was very soft, as if he were speaking to himself.

The dragon thunder sword leaned quietly against the stone steps beside him, its sheath's thunder patterns subdued, leaving only a faint, warm lingering heat.

On the distant city wall, the cannon's muzzle pointed towards the deeper hinterlands of Yunzhou, silent.

And deep underground, unseen by anyone, the World Tree's silvery-white roots were slowly and firmly extending, inch by inch, along the newly connected Spiritual Vein network, into the depths of this scarred land.