Chapter 3

Lin Yi snapped out of his thoughts and gestured for Lin Yao to continue. Lin Yao wasted no time and assumed his usual monarch look, gesturing for Lin Feng to follow him. He walked to the backside of the mansion, where there was the meridian opening pool.

Lin Feng followed Lin Yao quietly. He knew of the pool since he had already explored the whole mansion when he was younger. He remembered wanting to get in the pool. However, his mother had warned him not to go in as he was still too young, so he assumed it was related to cultivation. His father's following words confirmed his thoughts.

"This is the meridian opening pool, and as the name suggests, it helps in opening meridians. Meridians are pathways in which spiritual energy flows. They start from the acupuncture points where the spiritual energy is absorbed to the body and lead to the dantian where the spiritual energy is stored."

"Meridians usually open naturally once the spiritual roots are awakened, only that it takes one year for the process to complete, so humans discovered ways of opening the meridians earlier, and this pool is one of those ways."

Lin Yao continued with his explanation while gesturing for Lin Feng to follow him inside the pool.

When Lin Feng was in front of him, he started circulating his qi to perform a technique that guided the medicinal water in the pool to Lin Feng's acupuncture points. The water was then absorbed into his body and cleaned his meridians.

This was supposed to be a painful action, but Lin Feng felt nothing. This had nothing to do with his endurance to pain. Lin Feng closed his eyes and tried to feel any change but was surprised to find nothing. He didn't know which changes he was supposed to have, but it was within his reasons that the meridian opening process was supposed to be a big issue, and a big issue can't just go unnoticed, right?

While Lin Feng was still wondering about his issues, Lin Yao was shocked.

" How come he is not feeling pain? Is his perseverance so fierce?"

Thoughts like this were similar to both Zhao Lin and Lin Yi. It was right for them to be shocked since the pain involved when opening meridians artificially was not something that the little boy should be able to handle.

Lin Yao doubted if the medicine had worked. Yes, this was the only explanation he could think of since there was no way the boy was enduring without even a change in his expression.

Everyone in the room had the same thought as Lin Yao. Thinking of this, they all nodded, accepting their judgement. Lin Yao took other herbs from his ring, used his qi to remove impurities leaving behind a yellow sludge, and inserted them into the pool. He used his qi to make a small whirlpool that mixed the medicinal contents with the liquid in the pool, giving it a solid yellow colour.

Satisfied with the results, he tasted the water on his own body and confirmed its effectiveness. Lin Yao wasted no time and quickly circulated his qi and guided the water to Lin Feng.

Still, he was surprised as nothing happened again. This time, the water didn't even enter Lin Feng's meridians.

"Impossible!"

Lin Yao shouted. This situation was not something he knew how to handle. He instinctively looked at his father and was surprised to see his father equally shocked.

Having no way to figure this out, he circulated his qi and directed it to Lin Feng to probe his body. His qi surrounded Lin Feng but was unable to go inside his body. This again surprised Lin Yao. A situation like this could only happen if either Lin Feng had set up a barrier that prevented him from probing.

This was impossible as Lin Feng was not a cultivator. The second situation was that someone had set a barrier on Lin Feng without his knowledge. For that to happen, someone stronger than him had to have taken action.

Lin Yao was shocked by his conclusion and quickly raised his vigilance. He used his divine sense to scan around the Lin family property.

He decided to check everyone's bloodline as he suspected an intruder had infiltrated his Lin family. A massive bloodline scan was something that he had done before. He hated it as it required a lot of energy. Usually, it took a significant toll on the brain, which was dangerous for cultivators as you never knew when danger came knocking. Suppose you are not in perfect condition—your chances of dying increase.

Old man Lin had the same thoughts as Lin Yao, a crafty person like him who boasted of heaven-shaking schemes had already set spies in families and sects that he thought could challenge the Lin family.

Hence, a situation where a spy had infiltrated the family was not enough to scare him, but something was bothering him.

"What do they hope to achieve by protecting the boy?"

This question disturbed his mind, but then if they wanted to protect the boy, why not just take him before today? Questions that were destined never to be answered filled his brain.

At this moment, Lin Yao uttered a surprised voice before quickly turning into a stream of light and disappeared. He appeared in another house that resembled the main hall but was smaller.

He disappeared again and appeared inside one of the rooms where an older man was meditating. The older man was startled before getting on his knees.

" Greetings to the patriarch," the old man paid his respects.

Seeing the old man's pitiful actions, Lin Yao snorted.

"which family sent you?"

The old man was taken aback before quickly replying.

"I don't know what the patriarch means by this?"

Lin Yao lost his patience. He did not have the time nor the smarts to play mind games. Such things were left for his father. He quickly set up his domain and used it to pressure the old man.

"You either talk willingly, or I use soul searching to find out myself."

"Have mercy, patriarch. I'm only loyal to the Lin family."

The old man's pitiful wails could be heard. In his mind, he was cursing his luck. How come he had been discovered before did anything meaningful?

The royal family had sent him. His mission was simple, report any action the Lin family takes. He had waited for months before the elder he was currently imitating went out of the Lin family. He killed him and used a secret technique to imitate his appearance and qi.

He knew he couldn't replicate the Lin bloodline, but that was not an issue as mass bloodline scans were usually only carried out if something suspicious happened, but he had not done anything. He had followed the memories of the old man and copied him perfectly, so how he was discovered he didn't know

"Looks like you can't talk."

Lin Yao approached the old man who couldn't even perform suicide if he wanted to. He mercilessly performed a soul search and got what he wanted to know. This action made him spurt out a mouthful of blood. He had overexerted himself after completing a mass bloodline scan and thus received a backlash.

He carried the old man back to the main hall and threw the man before his father, he took out a pill and swallowed it to ease his backlash.

Old man Lin looked at the man, performed a soul search on him before killing him and burning his body using his techniques.

What he got from the man's memories brought him further confusion. From the man's memories, he discovered no link to Lin Feng.

How was this possible? Was his guess off? Maybe he was overthinking it, but he had also tried to probe Lin Feng's body and discovered his qi could not enter his body.

" This must be a larger conspiracy." Old man Lin thought to himself, from the memories, he discovered the spy was from the royal family and their goal was to report any movements that they made, this was not strange as his spies had the exact instructions, was someone controlling the strings and leading him by the nose? Old man Lin started to get paranoid.

He was usually the one behind the scenes. Since when was he calculated?

Lin Yao finished healing his wounds and approached his father, and inquired about his findings. Old man Lin explained his theory on someone controlling behind the scenes.

Lin Yao sneered.

"since they set a barrier on him, they must have approached the boy, so a simple soul scouring will do the trick."

Old man Lin neither rejected nor accepted the idea. He was too busy speculating on the possible culprit. Taking his silence as acknowledging the idea, Lin Yao proceeded to Lin Feng who was currently meditating inside the pool with his eyes closed. He hadn't noticed anything going on in his surroundings.

Lin Yao approached him, put his hand on his head, and prepared to do a soul search.