Chapter 380 – Search
The surroundings suddenly became silent.
The old man shouted, “Where is Liu Fulin?” After a long time, no one responded. The old man frowned, then he looked at the two next to him and the three of them flew toward the mountain.
Liu Fulin was the middle-aged man that got greedy.
As for the three of them, they were inner disciples of the Soul Refining Sect and also the deacons of the outer sect.
Wang Lin’s eyes faintly lit up. The old man was at the early stage of Nascent Soul while the other two were both at the late stage of Core Formation.
The three of them flew into the mountain, but only the old man flew out. He had a very ugly expression on his face. His eyes were filled with confusion but even more filled with shock.
The old man’s eyes lit up and he shouted, “You outer sect disciples can just cultivate here. None of you are allowed to leave!” Then he took out a piece of jade, recorded some information, and threw it.
The jade turned into a ray of light and flew into the inner sect.
The majority of the outer sect disciples were startled, but there were a few that sat down and cultivated. Wang Lin was one of them.
He sat on a giant tree and cultivated.
After the old man arrived, he carefully scanned each of the outer sect disciples.
When he went into the mountain with his fellow sect members earlier, they were terrified the moment they found out that the entire spirit vein had been wasted. When they went deep into the spirit vein and reached the ores, the ores turned to dust the moment they touched them. This occurs when the spiritual energy is sucked out of them too quickly.
This whole thing was very strange. He had never heard of or seen anything like this happening since the Soul Refining Sect was formed.
His gaze swept past each of the disciples one by one. He didn’t pause on Wang Lin at all. In his eyes, Wang Lin was only at the late stage of Foundation Establishment; he was not worth noting.
Because Wang Lin’s origin soul had recovered a bit, no one below the Soul Formation stage could see through his cultivation.
Not long after, more than ten rays of light flew out of the inner sect and arrived before the old man in the blink of an eye. When they landed, the rays of light became ten people. Among them were five Nascent Soul cultivators while the rest were at least at the mid stage of Core Formation.
One of the middle-aged scholars was at the late stage of Nascent Soul. He was wearing a black robe and emitted a cold aura like there were countless vengeful ghosts surrounding him. The moment he appeared, the surroundings immediately became cold.
His eyes were like lightning as he coldly looked at the mountain and said, “Junior apprentice brother, what exactly happened for you to send that jade?”
The old man from before immediately became respectful and said, “Third senior apprentice brother, the spirit vein in this mountain was sucked dry in almost an instant. I suspect it had something to do with these outer sect disciples.”
The middle-aged man’s eyes lit up and he shouted, “Seal off the surroundings. If anyone dares to leave, kill them! Junior apprentice brother, follow me up the mountain to meet the sect master.”
With that, he turned into a ray of light and charged toward the inner sect.
The old man quickly followed and the two of them entered the inner sect in the blink of an eye.
Wang Lin’s expression remained calm as he coldly looked at the guards. If he were to call out the mosquito beast, he would be able to escape in an instant. However, the beast was his last resort, and he didn’t want to give up such a good cultivation ground.
Although his origin soul had recovered a bit, it hadn’t been completely reformed yet. He tried to call out the heaven defying bead but wasn’t able to. Wang Lin pondered for a bit and didn’t do anything reckless.
Some light came from the horizon as the sun appeared, covering the land with warmth. The light dispelled the darkness. As the surroundings gradually lit up, the middle-aged scholar flew out from the inner sect.
Following behind him were nine people. All nine of them were wearing red robes. Their ages varied, but the one thing they had in common was that they were all surrounded by large, vengeful souls. Looking at them from a distance, in front of the light of the sun, it looked like they were surrounded by demonic flames that reached the sky.
With a gloomy expression, the middle-aged scholar shouted, “Split into ten groups to be inspected!”
The nine red-robed people behind him moved and all activated a technique at the same time. Red gas poured from their sleeves and surrounded each of the thousands of outer sect disciples that were standing outside. The outer sect disciples were split into ten groups against their will.
Along with the middle-aged man, each of them them took charge of one group and called the outer sect disciples one by one for inspection.
They didn’t even need to ask any questions; they simply pointed at the brow of each outer sect disciple and a few breaths later they would move on to the next person.
Wang Lin was split into the third group,. His eyes were calm without any trace of panic or abnormality. These nine people in red were all only at the mid stage of Nascent Soul, so Wang Lin didn’t consider them threats at all.
Whenever an outer sect disciple passed, they would let out a sigh of relief. As time passed, the surrounding atmosphere became increasingly oppressive.
Just at this moment, a green-robed cultivator in the fourth group moved like lightning and attempted to escape.
The surrounding inner sect disciples were constantly on guard, so the moment this person tried to escape, a Core Formation disciple moved to attempt to stop that person.
“Scram!” The green-robed cultivator shouted, as he waved his hand, creating a powerful force. The Core Formation disciple groaned and his body was pushed to the side.
Without a word, the green-robed cultivator turned back around and rushed toward the opening. Just as he was about to make it out, the red-robed cultivator in charge of group four reached out with his hands.
“Come back!”
Five rays of black light suddenly flew out of his fingers. They moved like lightning and in the blink of an eye drilled into the body of the green-robed cultivator.
The green-robed cultivator let out a miserable groan and his body went soft. The red-robed cultivator dragged him back and threw him into the open space in the middle of all the groups.
After that, the red-robed cultivator didn’t even look at the green-robed cultivator and said, “Next person, come up!”
All of the outer sect disciples were filled with fear, especially those that came with some bad intentions. Their faces became ugly upon seeing what had just happened.
At this moment, the eyes of red-robed cultivator in charge of group eight lit up as he looked at the pale-faced disciple before him who had an expression like he was begging for mercy. The red-robed cultivator grabbed the disciple and threw him into the opening in the middle of all the groups.
The amount of people in the middle gradually increased; there were now over 30 of them.
The red-robed cultivator in charge of the third group threw the disciple before him to the middle and slowly sad, “This is normally only done for disciples entering the inner sect, but today it is being used on you outer disciples, so you should all feel proud.”
Wang Lin’s expression remained calm, but his heart was shocked. The Soul Refining Sect had so many outer sect disciples that came with ill intentions, but none of them could escape this kind of inspection.
As for the butcher-like cultivator who was originally in cave 743, Wang Lin wasn’t worried about him. He had already placed a restriction in that cultivator. Although Wang Lin’s cultivation level had dropped, the complexity of his restrictions was not something these Nascent Soul cultivators could see through.
In Wang Lin’s eyes, this person was kind of interesting. Although the butcher-like cultivator was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment on the surface, he was really at the pseudo Core Formation stage. But it wasn’t too weird for outer sect disciples to hide their cultivation levels.
“You, come up!” The red-robed cultivator in charge of group five pointed at the butcher-like cultivator.
The butcher-like cultivator’s body trembled as he quickly went up.
The red-robed cultivator pointed at the butcher-like cultivator’s brow and then, after a few seconds, he waved his hand.
The butcher-like cultivator let out a sigh of relief and didn’t dare to look at Wang Lin. He was currently in a state of shock and confusion. When that finger landed on his brow, he felt something cold enter his body; it felt like there was a giant hand going through his memories.
This feeling left as soon as it came. Before he could clearly feel what it was, the cold energy left.
Not long after, it was Wang Lin’s turn.
The red-robed cultivator in charge of group three pointed at Wang Lin’s brow, then shortly after he said, “Next!”
Wang Lin calmly walked to the side.
More than 1000 disciples were inspected by noon. More than 100 of them had been thrown into the middle.
The middle-aged man threw the last person into the middle and asked, “Did you guys find anything?”
One of the red-robed cultivators coldly said, “Aside from these people who have their own objectives, nothing related to the matter last night.”
The remaining nine cultivators all shook their heads.
The middle-aged scholar pondered a bit before ordering, “You outer sect disciples go cultivate at the other mountains. There will be someone who will assign rooms to each of you.”
The outer sect disciples who passed the test all respectfully bowed before flying toward different mountains.
As for the more than 100 cultivators in the middle, no one glanced back at them and no one cared about what would become of them.
Wang Lin was given a cave in a slightly smaller mountain nearby. He sat inside the cave cultivating, his eyes sparkling all the while.
“My cultivation has recovered to the mid stage of Nascent Soul. Although the effect of absorbing a spirit vein is good, it is simply too dangerous. If I continue, I might lure out Soul Formation cultivators or even Soul Transformation monsters. I have already caught their attention, so I can’t do anything too big. However, when I was absorbing the spirit vein, I found out that there is an even bigger, main spirit vein nearby. The spirit vein I absorbed was only a branch.”
“That main spirit vein should be under the inner sect of the Soul Refining Sect. If I can go there to cultivate, I should be able to recover my cultivation in one go. At that moment, even if I am found out and a Soul Transformation cultivator comes, I will still be able to escape. If worse comes to worst, I’ll rip open space and escape using the star compass.” Wang Lin pondered a bit. He knew that the Soul Refining Sect was located in a rank 5 cultivation country, meaning there were Soul Transformation cultivators in the sect. After thinking for awhile, he made up his mind.