What does my ancestor's pregnancy have to do with me, a mere servant?

The biting wind inside the cave dispersed the absurd smell in the air.

Lin Yuan didn't waste any words and simply flipped his hand over.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Six jet-black array flags shot out from the storage bag and embedded themselves in the rock strata three zhang away from Lin Feilu. As Lin Yuan cast a few spells with his fingertips, the dense, cold spiritual energy around him seemed to be drawn together by a powerful force, and a thick layer of black mist rose up, enveloping the space where Lin Feilu was located.

"This is the Six Yin Soul-Locking Formation. This formation is primarily for defense and trapping; its killing aspect is obsolete. However, as long as you don't actively break free, even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator can be trapped and killed within it."

Lin Feilu reached out and caught the array plate.

Lin Yuan didn't stop. He patted his waist again, taking out the concealment array he had previously crafted to hide his aura. Eight apricot-yellow flags were flung out in succession, landing steadily in the outer blind spot of the Six Yin Soul Locking Array.

The two-layer formation is connected end to end.

The pale golden light screen flashed and disappeared in an instant. As the array plate spun, not only was Lin Feilu's figure concealed, but the lingering smell of blood and even the aura of the two people were isolated and erased.

After doing all this, Lin Yuan took out a white jade porcelain bottle from his pocket and threw it into the gap in the black mist.

"Mysterious Bone Regeneration Pill." Lin Yuan clapped his hands, his tone businesslike. "One pill a day. With your foundation, it should take about seven or eight days to stabilize the cracks in your Qi Sea and meridians. With two protective formations around you, no one can get in. Focus on healing."

Lin Feilu held the cold medicine bottle and array plate, her head lowered, a few strands of her black hair hanging down on either side of her pale cheeks.

The absurd and crazy scenes from a few hours earlier flashed uncontrollably through her mind.

She bit her bloodless lower lip, forcibly suppressing the complex emotions surging in her eyes.

"Thank you." Her voice was very low, revealing her usual aloofness.

Then, she flicked her wrist, and a crystal-clear jade token flew out as a stream of light, hovering in front of Lin Yuan.

"This is the Saintess's token." Lin Feilu raised her head, her eyes, now clear again, looking directly at him.

Lin Yuan reached out and grasped the jade token: "Stay here and don't move around. If the cultivation techniques I obtained in the main hall can be copied or taught verbally, I will bring out your share and give it to you."

He may be greedy and cowardly, but he should still have a sense of contractual obligation.

He put in the effort and paid the price, yet he didn't take a single penny of the due reward.

Lin Feilu nodded, said nothing more, and closed her eyes.

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Jiang Huaiyue, who had been standing behind him with her head bowed and eyes lowered.

"Let's go."

Jiang Huaiyue immediately followed.

……

One day later.

The core area of ​​the Crimson Forbidden Land.

The dark red sky hung low as if pressing down on us, and the earth appeared a dark brown color, as if it had been soaked in dried blood.

Two streaks of light tore through the thick sandstorm and came to a stop on a broken mountain ridge.

Lin Yuan stepped on the weathered pebbles and gazed into the distance.

Ahead lay the ruins of an ancient palace complex. Countless massive stone pillars, several meters in diameter, lay collapsed on the ground, and the dried-up moat was filled with the stark white skeleton of an unknown behemoth.

The winds and sands of time have eroded most of the buildings, but the once awe-inspiring grandeur of the sect still lingers in the ruins.

At the very center of those ruins, a majestic black stone palace, hundreds of feet high, stands proudly.

The main hall was shrouded in a massive, dark red, bowl-shaped light curtain. Intricate spiritual patterns, like ripples on water, flowed across the surface of the curtain, and even from a great distance, one could still feel its considerable restrictive power.

"Master, that's the Inheritance Hall." Jiang Huaiyue stood half a step behind Lin Yuan and pointed ahead.

"Walk."

Lin Yuan lightly touched the ground with his toes, and the Wind and Thunder Phantom Boots emitted a deep rumble. The two of them skimmed the ground, traversing the ruins at lightning speed.

They soon arrived at the Hall of Inheritance.

Lin Yuan took out the jade Saintess token given to him by Lin Feilu from his storage bag, and then took out another token he had obtained from Chu Tianhan.

Jiang Huaiyue caught the token and poured her late-stage Foundation Establishment true energy into it without reservation. Lin Yuan did the same.

Both tokens simultaneously emitted a blinding crimson light.

The blood-red light, like two sharp swords, pierced straight into the dark red light curtain in front.

"Buzz—!"

A deep, resounding boom echoed. The surface of the light screen rippled violently, then seemed to be torn apart by a pair of invisible giant hands, slowly creating a gap about two zhang high and one zhang wide.

Without any hesitation, Lin Yuan stepped inside. Jiang Huaiyue followed closely behind.

As soon as the two passed through the gap, the light curtain behind them instantly closed again, completely isolating them from the howling wind and sand outside.

The interior of the main hall was unusually quiet.

There were no traps, hidden weapons, or arrays of danger as one might have imagined, nor were there piles of magical treasures or elixirs. The entire hall was extremely spacious, with huge bluish-black stone slabs paving the floor, and nine thick, coiled dragon stone pillars supporting a towering dome.

On the wall in the very center of the main hall hangs a scroll painting that is at least ten feet tall.

Lin Yuan stopped and looked up.

The painting depicts an extremely beautiful woman.

She was draped in a blood-red, shimmering robe, barefoot, and soaring through the endless void with an air of superiority over all living beings.

She was surrounded by collapsing stars and churning lightning. The woman's face was exquisitely beautiful, but her eyes revealed a cold indifference that regarded all things as worthless.

With just one glance, Lin Yuan felt a sudden jolt in his mind, as if a towering mountain pierced his brain through his line of sight. The refined divine soul figure in his sea of ​​consciousness opened its eyes and activated the Divine Forging Technique to relieve the pressure, thus withstanding this extremely domineering mental pressure.

Entering the main hall does not require any cruel life-or-death tests; the only trial is to contemplate the "Mysterious Maiden" painting.

By merging their divine sense with the true meaning within the painting, cultivators can capture a cultivation method called the Blood God Technique from the painting.

The longer one contemplates, the higher one's comprehension becomes, and the more complete the cultivation path one pieces together will be.

It is said that this is a top-tier cultivation technique that leads directly to the path of Nascent Soul.

However, due to time constraints, later generations could only study the fragments for one month at a time, and even after multiple attempts to piece them together, there were still many gaps in the information.

"Find a place to sit down and let's begin." Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze.

Jiang Huaiyue nodded and walked straight to the left side of the main hall. There, several simple and elegant prayer cushions were neatly arranged.

She chose a futon, sat cross-legged, formed a mudra with her hands, and slowly closed her eyes. Her divine sense emanated from her body, extending directly towards the Mysterious Maiden painting in front of her.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a very faint blush of blood appeared on Jiang Huaiyue's fair skin. Her breathing became long and shallow, as if she had merged with the ancient atmosphere of the hall.

This is a deep state of visualization. According to the sect's records, once this state is entered, it will last for at least a month. Whether one can ultimately extract a few lines of cultivation techniques from this painting depends entirely on their own fortune.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan also found a clean futon on the right and sat down cross-legged.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, and his consciousness surged forth like a tide, rushing towards the goddess painting.

An incense stick has burned for a while.

An hour passed.

Half a day has passed.

That painting was just a painting. Apart from the woman in the painting having an outrageously good figure and wearing a blood-red dress that used very little fabric, there was absolutely no strange movement from her.

There were no earth-shattering phenomena, no enlightening intricate runes, and even the usually reliable virtual cheat panel seemed to have completely crashed, failing to display any fragmented text that could be translated.

Unconvinced, he shifted his attention to the stars surrounding the woman, trying to discern the trajectory of the cultivation technique, only to find that the painter had applied the paint quite thickly. He even went so far as to immorally scan the woman's bare ankles with his divine sense to see if there were any tiny, intricately carved characters hidden there, but to no avail.

Lin Yuan rubbed his throbbing temples and reluctantly severed the connection with his divine sense.

He turned his head and glanced at Jiang Huaiyue, whose body was now enveloped in a dense, blood-red aura, resembling a blood-red cocoon. Then he looked up at the still indifferent woman in the painting on the wall.

"My aptitude and understanding..."

Lin Yuan sighed and comforted himself, "It's all because the fairy in the painting has such a great figure, it affected me!"