Chương 63: Chapter 47 — A Mysterious Elder

The girl looked down at the disturbed soil at the base of the tree.

"That core is worth a considerable amount, you know," she said.

"Normally people struggle to keep it intact, but you have been very, very fortunate." The girl stepped off the rock and stood on the ordinary ground, which made her considerably shorter.

"Consider it as a gesture of friendship between our respective interests," she nodded, and she clicked her fingers. Lin Che's voice was freed from its shackles.

"Who—who are you?" he managed to ask, choosing this question instead of the thousand other questions he had for her.

"One of your elders-in-law," replied Elder Wong, her hands clasped around her sacrum.

"And a good friend of someone who may be of use to you. She's called Old Wen."

"The bookshop lady?" asked Lin Che, vaguely recalling Shen Yue's and Hu Baolin's mention of her.

"Oh, so you know her!" clapped Elder Wong.

"Your information really does go far — very Lin Clan of you. You know, I only really came here to see if you really were just like the other members I've previously met, and so far you're practically just like them."

"You know the other members?" Elder Wong narrowed her eyes.

"I knew them at some point in my life," she said, before bringing the conversation back to her point.

"As did Old Wen — she even has some techniques from your clan which I could help you recover. Well, one technique, at least."

"What's the catch?"

"I'm not trying to get any payment out of you. There's just one small issue with getting back the techniques. From what I know, Old Wen possesses two techniques exclusive to the Lin Clan, but she is under a contract to only ever share one. Once one technique has been sold or provided to someone else, the other will instantly combust and all the knowledge will disappear with it." Lin Che looked at her for a long moment and arrived at the conclusion that there was no point in asking any further.

The elder seemed to be very well-acquainted with the Lin Clan itself, so, by continuing in any further conversation about the clan with her, he was more likely to slip up and reveal the fact that he honestly knew nothing about it other than the fact that it existed and a couple of other small bits of information.

"I will give Old Wen a visit when I have the time," he said.

"Good." Something shifted in her expression, perhaps a half-smile.

"I'd suggest visiting soon, however. Old Wen is getting old despite her cultivation, so you should consider this agreement rather urgent. Just let her know Elder Wong sent you there and that the password is Leixin."

"Understood."

"The mannequin core," she added as an afterthought.

"Dig it up before you leave and wrap it in something that doesn't conduct Qi, or it will start forming some sort of construct again. Cloth is fine for a short period of time." Lin Che's phone rang with the default ringtone, which he had never bothered to change because long gone were the days of replacing ringtones with old mp3 files. He looked at the screen. It was Xu Fang. He looked up to say something to the girl, but she was not there.

He turned around, and the branch she had been sitting on was empty, and the rock she stood on had also disappeared. There was no movement in the surrounding trees, nor anything else which suggested she had ever been there in the first place. His phone rang again. He answered it.

"When are you arriving?" asked Xu Fang.

"Mingzhe's been warming up since I told him a cultivation master would be arriving to beat him up," he laughed.

"Soon," said Lin Che, checking the time.

"Around fifteen minutes?"

"You said 'soon' half an hour ago." This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Something came up." He paused.

"Don't let Mingzhe bore you to death or stuff you with protein bars. I'll be there in fifteen." Lin Che ended the call. Then, he crouched down and took off his jacket. He kicked through the small layer of dirt surrounding the half-buried core, and instead wrapped it in his jacket, tying the sleeves around it. Lin Che opened his navigation app and started jogging towards Guo Mingzhe's apartment.

Lin Che took the stairs to the door and knocked twice before he realised there was a doorbell to press. Roughly twenty seconds later, the door opened, revealing Guo Mingzhe already wearing training clothes. Lin Che threw a fist at him in greeting. Mingzhe's hand came up immediately in reflex, but the movement was too slow. His defensive position simply couldn't manifest itself before flesh met flesh. He landed on his butt and broke his fall using his wrists.

Guo Mingzhe looked up at Lin Che with pure bafflement all over his face.

"Hello," waved Lin Che. Guo Mingzhe slowly got to his feet and extended a hand in greeting.

"Nice to meet you, Lin Che. Xu Fang's been telling me all about you — you're much stronger than the other cultivator I have met. Come on in."

It didn't take long to convince Guo Mingzhe to join Lin Che's side, as all he really cared about was getting stronger, and he trusted Xu Fang's opinion of his friend. It took slightly longer than it did to convince him to join the road trip, but that was purely because he begged Lin Che to recall the fight he'd just had and showcase the techniques he used. Guo Mingzhe had a good eye for these things.

Supposedly, the reason why he could see Qi whilst Xu Fang was unable to, was because he once tried to glimpse at a cultivator's manual after he left it half-open at a martial competition. The cultivator was, of course, in the earliest stages of anything and barely had a wisp of Qi in him, which was why Mingzhe ended up winning that local tournament. It was a story that raised Lin Che's eyebrow, as he simply could not fathom someone being stupid enough to leave sect secrets open in public for anyone to read.

Nor could he imagine someone in the very early stages of cultivating being allowed to engage in combat with martial artists, especially given the previous risks of revealing the existence of cultivation to these people. Still, it was easy to believe Guo Mingzhe as he simply had no reason to lie. After shaking hands with Mingzhe and providing him and Xu Fang with their adapted techniques, Lin Che decided to call it a day and go home.

He provided the two with the address he'd be living at with Shen Yue, and said to show up in two days' time to pick up their potions. He stepped out of Mingzhe's building into the evening air and took stock of the day. Today, he had got married, negotiated terms with the Shen Clan, fought and defeated the mannequin, which involved new enlightenment in his techniques, received guidance from a mysterious Elder Wong, and recruited two people to help discover more information about the Lin Clan. It was an awful lot.

Lin Che really hoped the next life would start after today's events. Recreating all of that would be extremely tiring. He took out his phone and messaged Shen Bowen. I'll be arriving at the residence tonight. Send me the address and where I can get a key. Lin Che hailed a car and provided the address before the reply came through. After all, he'd been living there for goodness knows how long now. Here's the address. [image. png] Keysafe at the bottom floor, code 06801 Lin Che fit the key through the keyhole and rotated his wrists, opening the door to home. A light was on at the end of the corridor, right where Shen Yue's study was. Lin Che set the wrapped core and his notebook on the table just inside the door and took off his shoes. He stood in the entrance for a little while, breathing a sigh of relief now that he was home after what to him was literal months.

The last time he'd been here was before he was kidnapped, which, given how the brain handles and blocks certain traumatic experiences, felt much more like a distant memory or a story than anything else. He decided not to disturb Shen Yue's work in her study — that rule from his first life was still a rule, even if she hadn't yet established it with him in this one. Lin Che simply walked into the kitchen and popped on the kettle as he prepared two mugs of tea.

Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, he unwrapped the inert form of the mannequin and fiddled with it in his hands, playing a game of catch with himself. Out of curiosity, he sent out an extremely small and weakened version of the Hollow Bell Resonance he'd invented today directly at the core, seeing whether it would squirm or react in any way given its effects on the mannequin itself. It vibrated slightly and made a noise.

"Thanks for preparing tea," came a familiar voice behind him. It was much colder than in his memories.

"But please don't play with class three constructs in my kitchen." It was great to be back, thought Lin Che.