Chapter 56 The Blind Craftsman, Refining His Heart and Understanding the Killing Array in the Mortal World!
In Qingyun City, the noisy and bustling antique market was left behind by Lin Yuan.
He walked leisurely along a quiet alley paved with bluestone slabs, hands behind his back. In the street behind him, the news that Zhuge Xing, the Saint Candidate of the Nine Palaces Holy Land in the Central Plains, along with over a dozen powerful experts, had been flattened into a mural by a "gust of wind" would likely soon explode across the Eastern Wasteland. However, to Lin Yuan, it was nothing more than brushing off a speck of dust from his shoulder.
"People in the cultivation world are always talking about fighting and killing; their lives aren't as authentic as the smoke and fire of this Mortal World."
Lin Yuan looked up at the sky. The originally clear sky had gathered a layer of light clouds, and a fine spring rain began to fall without warning, drifting down like silk threads and veiling the ancient city in a hazy poetic atmosphere.
He walked forward along the alley and stopped in front of a somewhat dilapidated old shop with a plaque that read "Xue's Wood Carvings," stepping under the wide bamboo shed outside to take shelter from the rain.
A faint scent of pine and cypress permeated the shop.
Under the shed sat an old man with white hair, dressed in coarse linen clothes. His eyes were tightly shut, clearly blind, but his hands, covered in callouses and scars from carving knives, held a knife with extreme steadiness, moving swiftly across a piece of ordinary boxwood.
At the old man's feet, a young girl of about seven or eight years old crouched by a small stove, working hard with a cattail leaf fan to fan the fire. A pot of coarse tea was bubbling on the stove. The girl's clothes were ragged, she was barefoot, and her small face was covered in gray wood shavings, but her eyes were exceptionally bright.
Lin Yuan stood there quietly, watching the blind old man carve.
The old man's knife technique possessed no spiritual energy, yet it carried a strange rhythm. With every strike of the knife, it seemed to strip away the excess life from the wood, finally leaving behind a Vicious Beast with a ferocious appearance but full of spirit.
Just then, the little girl noticed Lin Yuan. She was startled for a moment, then timidly stood up, picked up a chipped coarse porcelain bowl from beside the stove, poured a bowl of hot tea, and handed it to Lin Yuan with trembling hands.
"Big brother... have some tea to ward off the cold." The little girl's voice was very soft, as if she were afraid of disturbing her grandfather's carving.
Lin Yuan was slightly stunned, looking at the coarse tea with old foam and then at the little girl's feet, which were red from the cold.
He took the tea but didn't drink it, instead looking at the old man.
In that instant, within the trajectory of the blind old man's rising and falling knife, he captured a trace of an extremely terrifying resonance.
Each cut was not carving, but "execution."
Each piece of wood was not taking shape, but "sealing."
[You observe a Mortal blind artisan carving bone and stripping flesh, gaining insight into the principles of slaughtering array patterns and life stripping.]
[You have comprehended the supreme true explanation of Formations — "Nine Nether Spirit Slaughtering Absolute Formation"!]
A ripple arose in Lin Yuan's heart. Who could have imagined that a Mortal blind artisan in a deep alley of Qingyun City could, through decades of carving, unconsciously align with some of the most primitive Dao of slaughtering Formations.
"Lass, this guest... is an extraordinary person, do not neglect him." The blind old man suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse, and the knife in his hand stopped.
"Grandpa, the big brother just came to take shelter from the rain." The little girl ran over and wiped the sweat from the old man.
The old man shook his head and turned his weathered face. Though he couldn't see, he seemed to be gazing at Lin Yuan: "When the guest stood there just now, the 'vicious aura' in my shop dissipated. I have carved three thousand Vicious Beasts in my life, and this is the first time I've seen someone who can make a Vicious Beast bow its head."
Just as Lin Yuan was about to speak, a clamor of footsteps came from the end of the alley, accompanied by insults and the sound of things being smashed.
"Where's that old blind man? Hasn't that little brat been caught yet?"
Several burly men with ferocious faces rushed in carrying iron rods. The leader was reeking of alcohol, with a "Qingyun Gang" token hanging from his waist; he was a hooligan at the third level of the Qi Refining Stage.
"Old Man Xue, if you don't pay back the gambling debts your dead son left behind today, we're taking this girl away to sell her to Wanhua Pavilion to settle the account!"
The little girl's face turned pale with fear, and she suddenly threw herself into the old man's arms, trembling all over. The old man's withered hands tightly protected his granddaughter, his voice shaking: "Sirs... please give us a few more days, my wood carvings haven't been sold yet..."
"To hell with your wood carvings!" The hooligan leader kicked over the charcoal stove, and scalding tea water spilled all over the ground.
He sneered and reached out to grab the little girl, but suddenly realized that a scholar in a moon-white robe had appeared before him at some unknown time.
Lin Yuan still held the chipped porcelain bowl, his gaze lazy: "This tea isn't finished yet, and the fire has been extinguished. That's very impolite."
"Where did this sour scholar come from? Get lost!" The hooligan leader was furious, swinging his iron rod towards Lin Yuan's head.
Lin Yuan didn't even lift a hand; just as the iron rod was about to hit his head, the ten thousand "Dragon Elephant Particles" inside his body trembled slightly.
"Buzz!"
A gravitational field that ordinary people couldn't possibly perceive instantly enveloped the burly men. In the eyes of the onlookers, the hooligans seemed to be suddenly possessed; the iron rods in their hands bounced back inexplicably and smashed heavily against their own legs.
"Ouch!"
"My leg!"
The burly men all knelt on the ground in unison, the sound of their kneecaps shattering clearly audible in the fine rain. They discovered with horror that they were completely unable to move; the scholar before them clearly hadn't moved, yet he gave them a sense of oppression as if facing an abyss.
"Scram."
The heavy pressure instantly vanished, and the hooligans fled out of the alley in a panic, crawling and rolling.
Although the old man was blind, his hearing was sharp. He felt the "momentum" that was enough to make heaven and earth lose their color just now. He stood up shakily and pulled the little girl to kneel on the ground.
"Thank you, Immortal Revered Master, for saving our lives! I know my time is short, and this girl... this girl has a bitter life..." The old man's tone was mournful; he realized in that instant that only this great Buddha before him could protect the child.
Before the old man could finish, he suddenly coughed violently, and a splash of black blood seeped from his chest. He had held on for many years, but under the erosion of the Formation principles known as "vicious aura," his lamp had long since run out of oil.
"Grandpa!" The little girl cried heart-wrenchingly.
The old man stroked her head and said with his last bit of strength: "Xiao Yuer, kowtow to the Immortal Revered Master! This is your only way to live!"
The little girl looked at her grandfather, who was gradually losing his life, and then at Lin Yuan, who remained calm and unruffled. Though she was young, she showed an amazing determination at this moment.
She turned around and kowtowed heavily to Lin Yuan.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
Every kowtow hit the bluestone slab solidly, and blood instantly seeped from her forehead.
"I beg the Immortal Revered Master to take me as your Disciple! Xiao Yuer is not afraid of hardship, Xiao Yuer can do laundry and cook, I beg the Immortal Revered Master to give me a way to live!"
Lin Yuan looked at the little girl with blood on her forehead and a gaze that was as resilient as embers coming back to life.
According to his principle of "hiding until the end of time," taking a Disciple was the most troublesome thing. Karma would be entwined, and trouble would be constant. But the cause of that bowl of tea just now, and the insight into the killing Formation that the blind old man had inadvertently given him, left him somewhat helpless.
[You observe a child requesting to be a Disciple, gaining insight into the principles of a pure heart and the Karma between Revered Master and Disciple.]
[You have comprehended the Karma technique — "Red Dust Thread"!]
Lin Yuan sighed. Some Karma, the more you try to avoid it, the deeper it becomes.
He reached out and gently pressed his hand on the little girl's head.
In an instant, an extremely gentle Dragon Elephant life force that could bring the dead back to life flowed from his fingertips into the little girl's body, instantly washing away the Impurities within her and reshaping her skeletal structure.
Her skin, which had been sallow from hunger and cold, instantly became translucent like jade.
"I, Lin Yuan, have never liked taking Disciples; I find it troublesome."
Lin Yuan withdrew his hand, his voice sounding ethereal and distant in the fine rain. "But since you have performed these three kowtows and treated me to a bowl of tea, from this day forward, you shall be my, Lin Yuan's, first great Disciple."
"In this life in the Mortal World, I shall protect you."
The little girl was stunned, then tears burst from her eyes as she bowed heavily again: "Revered Master is above, please accept your Disciple Xiao Yuer's bow!"
The rusty iron sword [zhutian] at Lin Yuan's waist seemed to sense its Revered Master's state of mind at this moment, letting out an extremely faint but soul-piercing hum that reached the Nine Nether.
He looked at the blind old man on the ground; with a flick of his finger, a wisp of immortal light swept the remains into the ground, turning it into a piece of pure land.
"Let's go, Xiao Yuer. Revered Master will take you to buy some candied haws."
Lin Yuan put his hands behind his back again, his moon-white robe remaining dry in the rain.
Behind him, there was now a little girl with a clean face and eyes that were gradually brightening.
No one could have imagined that the future "Blood Sea Empress" who would slaughter through the heavens and make myriad worlds tremble was, on this day, just a little follower following her Revered Master to buy candied haws in the rain.