The Prodigies War

That day, Lin Xun left the imperial city.

Before leaving, he was presented with a gold-plated token, signifying his qualification to represent the Great Qian Dynasty in the True Martial Contest held between the three major dynasties.

This was scheduled to take place in three months.

To the youth of the Great Qian Dynasty, the imperial city was the ultimate dream—a place of unparalleled prosperity and splendor.

As for Lin Xun, he had already achieved his goal so there was no other reason for him to stay around.

He mounted a reddish-brown horse and set off for Dragon Abyss City to continue his training.

“I wonder where Miss Xuanyue, Xuan Jiuyin, and Ling Kezi are now...”

Along the way, he thought of Jintian Xuanyue and the others and couldn’t help but sigh.

After entering the cycle of reincarnation, everyone had assumed a new identity. In this True Martial World, finding someone was as difficult as searching for a needle in a haystack.

Lin Xun was in no hurry and just let his horse roam as it pleased. He enjoyed the scenic views along the way, dined on mist and dew, and allowed himself to completely relax his mind and body.

He climbed mountains to hunt tigers and leopards, and ventured into forest to gather aeth herbs, embracing a leisurely and peaceful lifestyle.

Along the way, he observed that the law power governing this world was extremely mysterious, or perhaps exceptionally stable. It firmly suppressed the perceptive abilities of all living beings, making it difficult for cultivators to uncover the profound secrets and truths of the great dao within this world.

“In this world, the True Martial Stage is the limit. You can imagine how strange this place is...”

Late in the evening, as Lin Xun was lost in thought, he noticed a town in the distance. Without hesitation, he steered his horse toward it, hoping to find a place to stay for the night as darkness had already fallen.

However, as soon as he entered the town, a pungent smell of blood hit him.

He narrowed his eyes at the corpses lying in pools of blood across the street—elderly, young children, and frail women...

Without exception, they were all slaughtered in cruel ways; it was a horrific sight.

Clip-clop.

The huge town was eerily silent, with only the rhythmic clatter of his horse’s hooves echoing through the stillness.

Later, Lin Xun dismounted and walked forward slowly.

“Yo, another person came.” A burst of laughter rang out.

A figure appeared at the window on the second floor of a restaurant ahead, soon followed by more figures emerging one after another from other windows.

There were seven or eight of them, both men and women, all in their teens, their faces marked by indifference and coldness.

Lin Xun came to a stop, his eyes turning cold and inscrutable.

Although his spirit power was suppressed, his consciousness forged through years of fighting and killing remained sharp. It allowed him to immediately sense that those people most likely did not belong to this world—just like him!

“Do you guys want to guess if there’s an unawakened ‘reincarnator’ lurking inside that little fellow?” A young man in a silver robe grinned.

“Why guess? We’ll know after we kill him,” a woman uttered coldly.

With a swift movement, she leaped down from the second floor of the restaurant.

She was tall and slender, wielding a curved blade, her gaze as cold as ice.

Remaining calm, Lin Xun gently patted the horse beside him. It neighed in response before galloping away and vanishing down the street.

Then, Lin Xun asked aloud, “Before you take action, can I ask why you killed everyone in this city?”

“A man about to die does not need to know so much!”

As the tall woman charged over, the curved blade in her hand emitted a ray of cold, blinding light, slicing through the air with a sharp, ripping sound.

Lin Xun remained rooted in place, and with a swift motion, he snatched the curved blade from his opponent’s hand. With a flick of his wrist, the blade reversed direction and swept away in a sharp arc.

Pu!

The tall woman’s head hurled into the air, spurting scarlet blood everywhere.

In the blink of an eye, the tall woman had died on the spot!

“Junior Sister!”

The expressions of the silver-robed young man and his group changed dramatically. They all descended from the second floor and looking at the tall woman’s headless body, their faces darkened.

“Who are you?” the silver-robed youth asked through gritted teeth.

Lin Xun cast an expressionless glance at him. “Your junior sister is right. A man about to die does not need to know so much!”

Before his voice faded, he suddenly moved.

Shua!

He was like an arrow released from a bowstring. His lean and nimble figure tore through the air with astonishing speed, charging towards the silver-robed youth and the others.

“Die!”

The silver-robed youth and his group reacted with remarkable speed, each radiating an aura much greater than that of Qian Yuanba, one of the Ten Great Talents.

However, as they exchanged blows, the silver-robed youth and others quickly realized just how terrifying their opponent truly was!

With every swing of Lin Xun’s blade, a spray of scarlet blood would splatter through the air, followed by someone collapsing lifelessly to the ground, either with their head severed or their torso split open.

He killed like he was slaughtering chickens!

The battlefield was filled with nothing but thudding sounds, like the chilling notes of souls being harvested.

Within moments, the young man in the silver robe was the only one left.

Holding the blood-dripping curved blade in his hand, Lin Xun looked at the man nonchalantly and said, “Now, can we have a chat?”

Scared witless, the silver-robed youth nodded frantically, “As long as you let me live, I promise to answer any questions you have.”

Lin Xun questioned directly, “Why did you kill the people in this town?”

The silver-robed youth took a deep breath before he answered, “Fellow Daoist, you’re asking a question you already know the answer to. This is a world of reincarnation. All life here is transformed by the laws of reincarnation and time, so they are not real people. Since that’s the case, even if we kill them all, it won’t be a big deal.”

Lin Xun frowned. The silver-robed youth’s indifference towards life disgusted him.

He asked again, “Those were all defenseless ordinary people. If you are killing people, there has to be a reason.”

The silver-robed youth paused in silence for a moment before saying, “We are practicing a cultivation technique that requires the blood and souls of living beings to temper our cultivation.”

Seeing Lin Xun’s face darken, he quickly explained, “But don’t worry, Fellow Daoist, we only do this in the True Martial World. If we were in the Ancient Nebula Road, we would definitely not do something like this. This world is too barren, lacking aeth veins and divine herbs. Advancing on the path of cultivation here is incredibly difficult…”

As he finished speaking, his voice was tinged with frustration.

The True Martial World was nothing like the magnificent worlds in the starry sky; it was practically a barren wasteland.

The most terrifying part was that, although reincarnators might have awakened their consciousness, their past cultivation, memories, and inherited powers appear to have been completely erased.

This meant that in their cultivation journey, they had nothing to rely on and had to invest all their time and effort to gather cultivation arts and resources necessary for their progress.

The silver-robed youth assumed that, after saying this, Lin Xun would understand and forgive him. After all, they were all reincarnators, enduring the same hardships and sharing similar experiences.

However, who would have thought that his words were met with a swift slash of the sharp blade?

“Fellow Daoist, you…”

Before the silver-robed youth could finish his words, he was already beheaded.

“If you have no compassion for other living beings, then your existence is nothing but a harm to the world.”

Lin Xun tossed away the blood-stained curved blade in his hand and turned around and left.

Clip-clop…

Before long, the clatter of horse hooves faded, leaving only silence in the bloodstained town.

After this encounter, Lin Xun came to realize that when those ‘reincarnators’ from across the starry sky awakened their consciousness, it would inevitably bring about all kinds of changes in the True Martial World.

Whether good or bad, no one knew.

The only thing that Lin Xun could do was to focus on his own matters and do what he could within his ability.

Ten days later.

Weary from his travels, Lin Xun made his way back to Dragon Abyss City on horseback.

As soon as he walked through the city gate, someone recognized him.

“Quickly look, the Su Clan’s Third Young Master is back!”

“It really is him!”

“Tsk tsk, I heard that he destroyed the cultivation of the Seventh Prince of Great Qian!”

“Who would have thought that the third young master of the Su Clan, who was unable to cultivate, would transform into a powerful master overnight and fight his way into the forbidden grounds of ​​the imperial palace alone to avenge his brother?”

Clamor filled the street as many turned to look at Lin Xun, their expressions a mix of surprise, bewilderment, and disbelief.

Lin Xun realized what he had done in the imperial capital had already spread throughout Dragon Abyss City.

Despite that, he did not care.

The fact that he was capable of cultivating would sooner or later be discovered by members of the Su Clan; it was impossible to keep it hidden forever.

Lin Xun returned to the clan as if nothing had happened, handing the reddish-brown horse to the awaiting servant before making his way to the main hall.

A steward accompanied him, beaming with joy, his gaze was so fiery that it seemed capable of melting anything.

Moreover, along the way, every clansman, maid or servant they ran into would greet him warmly.

Clearly, they knew that the Third Young Master was no longer the same as before.

For the real Su Qinghan, this situation would have been overwhelming, even flattering, but Lin Xun…

…considered it trivial.

“Third Young Master, yesterday, someone who claimed to be your friend came to visit and is now in the main hall, chatting with the head of the clan,” said the steward in a low voice.

Lin Xun stopped. “Friend?”

The steward looked taken aback. “Yes, he also claimed that you asked him to come to the clan residence.”

Lin Xun narrowed his dark eyes. “I understand.”

As he said that, he quickened his pace.

When he came to the main hall, the head of the clan, Su Yunhai, the eldest son, Su Qingchou, and other important figures of the clan were chatting with a yellow-robed youth.

When Lin Xun appeared, Su Yunhai, Su Qingchou, and the rest stood up abruptly, their faces filled with surprise, delight, and a hint of disbelief.

Obviously, they knew what had happened in the imperial city, and they also knew about Lin Xun’s feat of destroying Qian Yuanba’s cultivation.

However, even when Lin Xun was standing before them, they were still in disbelief.

When Lin Xun suddenly left and announced that he was going to avenge his second brother Su Qingfeng, everyone thought that he had gone mad out of desperation.

The Su Clan had dispatched a lot of people to search for him.

However, who would have thought that, ten days later, they would receive news about what had happened in the imperial city of Great Qian.

At first, no one believed it and everyone thought it was fake.

Later, once the news was confirmed, the Su Clan was finally convinced, but their hearts remained filled with many questions.

However, until Lin Xun returned, they had to keep them to themselves.

Now, Lin Xun had finally returned!

Lin Xun had no idea that his return would stir so many thoughts and emotions within the Su Clan, both old and young.

The moment he stepped into the main hall, he turned his gaze towards the unfamiliar-looking young man in the yellow robe.

At the same time, his ‘friend’ also looked up at him.