"Sigh... when will I finally meet an opponent who actually carries some weight?"
Looking down at the cooling corpse of Ying Changkong, Xiao Lin couldn't help but vent a bit of "lonely-at-the-top" frustration. Of course, given his cautious nature, he wasn't exactly looking for a life-and-death struggle.
Xiao Lin's favorite kind of battle was a crushing victory. He had no interest in being the protagonist who gets looked down upon only to "slap faces" later. If an opponent was a level above him, he didn't just want to match them; he wanted to be two, three, or five levels higher. If someone could cross five major realms to beat him, then fine—he'd take the loss. But in this world? That was a statistical impossibility.
Xiao Lin stripped the Storage Ring from Ying Changkong's finger and began a systematic, silent clearing of the rest of the Black Eagle Bandits. By the time he slipped out of their camp, not a single soul remained breathing. The nearby Luo Yan forces were none the wiser.
Back in the Xiao Clan camp, Xiao Lin sat cross-legged, feigning deep meditation. No one suspected that their "One-Star Dou Wang" had just erased a regional power from the map.
The harvest from Ying Changkong was staggering. Unlike other experts who left their treasures at home, a paranoid bandit leader like Ying Changkong carried his entire life's savings on his person. He trusted no one—not even his own lieutenants.
The "Black Eagle" Treasury included:
- Liquid Wealth: Gold and assets totaling five to six times the current net worth of the entire Xiao Clan.
- Cultivation Manuals: One High-Level Xuan Tier Qi Method and one High-Level Xuan Tier Dou Qi (Technique).
- Alchemical Reserves: Several Grade 5 pills, including three Dou Ling Pills (capable of raising a Dou Wang's strength by one star).
Raw Materials: Rare medicinal herbs and high-level Monster Cores.
"Murder and arson really do bring a golden belt," Xiao Lin whispered, feeling quite pleased. He planned to keep the rarest herbs for himself and donate the rest to Xiao Dongcheng to bolster the clan's foundation. With these resources, the Xiao Clan wouldn't just be the strongest in Wu Tan City; they would become a heavyweight in the entire Jia Ma Empire.
The following morning, the Jia Ma coalition departed the ruins in a disciplined formation. It wasn't until they were long gone that the Luo Yan forces discovered the carnage at the Black Eagle camp.
The sight of a Dou Huang and his entire elite guard erased without a single alarm being triggered sent a shockwave of terror through the Luo Yan camp.
"A Dou Zong... it has to be a Dou Zong," the Luo Yan Imperial Ancestor concluded, his face pale as he surveyed the silent tents.
Yan Luotian, still coughing blood from his earlier fight with Yun Shan, stood beside him. His face was a ghostly white. "But we have no Dou Zong in Luo Yan. If such a monster exists, they must belong to... Jia Ma."
The logic was flawless in their minds:
Only a Dou Zong could kill a Dou Huang and his army silently.
The only two main players were Jia Ma and Luo Yan.
Therefore, Jia Ma has a hidden Dou Zong.
"It must be an ancient, dying Dou Zong," the Imperial Ancestor theorized. "Someone hidden in the shadows of the Yun Lan Sect or the Imperial Family who only acts to eliminate high-level threats to their empire. That's why they didn't participate in the main looting—they only have enough strength for one decisive strike."
Yan Luotian nodded, feeling a chill. He had planned to eventually kill Ying Changkong himself once he reached the Dou Zong realm to seize his riches. Now, a "ghost" from Jia Ma had beaten him to it.
The Luo Yan high command decided to keep the details of the "Dou Zong" involvement a secret. They didn't want to demoralize their own people, and they certainly didn't want to give Jia Ma free publicity by praising their hidden protector. They simply announced that the Black Eagle Bandits were gone—a fact that, ironically, made most of the Luo Yan citizens quite happy.
Xiao Lin, heading back to the capital, had no idea his "cleanup" had accidentally created a terrifying legend of a "Hidden Jia Ma Patriarch."
Sometimes, Xiao Lin thought, the best lies are the ones other people tell for you.
Xiao Lin remained blissfully unaware of the wild "over-thinking" occurring within the high command of the Luo Yan Empire. He didn't care if they thought a dying Dou Zong had killed Ying Changkong; in fact, the more they hallucinated, the safer he was.
Upon returning to the Xiao Clan, Xiao Lin ensured that the survivors were handsomely rewarded. For the families of the three fallen Da Dou Shis, he provided compensation that would ensure their prosperity for generations. This was the burden of a leader—to turn sacrifice into a legacy.
However, the true shock came when Xiao Lin handed over the "spoils" from the Black Eagle's storage ring to Xiao Dongcheng. The old Clan Head's eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. The resources inside—gold, pills, and rare materials—were equivalent to five or six times the entire current net worth of the Xiao Clan.
"Xiao Lin... did you rob a Dou Huang tomb?" Xiao Dongcheng stammered.
Xiao Lin simply smiled and offered no explanation. Dongcheng, wise enough to know when to stop prying, didn't push. He knew everything Xiao Lin did was for the clan. From that day on, the trust between the two was absolute. Dongcheng began preparing to eventually hand over the mantle of Clan Head, content to let Xiao Lin steer the ship into the unknown.
With the influx of wealth, Xiao Lin launched a two-pronged strategy to fix the Xiao Clan's greatest weakness: The lack of Alchemists.
- External Recruitment: Hiring established alchemists with high salaries.
- Internal Cultivation: Selecting clan members with the "Wood-within-Fire" elemental affinity to become apprentices.
Even as a Dou Wang clan, sending members to the Alchemist Association as apprentices required an "extravagant" amount of resources. If not for the bandit's hoard, the Xiao Clan would have gone bankrupt just paying the tuition. But under Xiao Lin's shadow, the clan began to stabilize, transforming from a mere martial family into a multi-faceted power.
While his son, Xiao Zhan, progressed rapidly thanks to the Foundation Building Elixirs, Xiao Lin retreated to the back mountains to focus on his dual path.
In the span of a year and three months:
Dou Qi Cultivation: He reached the Peak of 9-Star Dou Huang. He was now, without question, the strongest man in the Jia Ma Empire—surpassing Yun Shan in both depth of energy and raw talent.
Spirit Array Mastery: He spent his nights deconstructing the Nine Foundations to create his own blueprints.
One crisp evening in the back mountains, Xiao Lin sat in total silence. Slowly, brilliant white crystalline shards began to manifest around his body—Spirit Seals.
One, ten, twenty... the count climbed steadily. His Heavenly State Soul hummed with power as he pushed the boundaries of his concentration. When the count hit forty, the air itself seemed to vibrate with a resonant frequency.
"Rank 2 Spirit Array Master... complete!"
According to the ancient records of Zhen Lao, reaching forty seals officially promoted him to Rank 2. But Xiao Lin didn't stop there. He wanted to test the "logic" he had spent a year deducing.
With a thought, the forty seals danced through the air, locking into a complex, interlocking geometric pattern.
"Spirit Array: Gathering Qi! "
As the array activated, the ambient Dou Qi of the mountains—usually a calm stream—suddenly turned into a raging whirlpool, funneling directly toward the center of the array where Xiao Lin sat.