Cultivation Begins with Daily Intelligence Reports

137: What a brilliant prediction!The air seemed to solidify into lead, weighing heavily on everyone’s chests. The pervasive smell of char grew stronger, mixed with dust and blood, creating a sickening stench of death.

Gong Yunyu stood frozen in place, feeling all his blood rush to his head, only to roar past his ears and recede, leaving behind a cold numbness.

His eyes were glued to the ball of thunder in Lin Jingyu’s palm, which was a deep purple, almost black, and rotating slowly. Every leap of the electric snakes felt like a whip lashing his nerves.

What Vulture said... seemed to make some sense?

Logically, this kid definitely shouldn’t have such an Opportunity.

If there really were such a terrifying powerhouse, they would have just wiped out the Black Wind Stockade directly. Why bother with so many twists and turns!

But what if?

If this terrifying lightning were real, with such an Aura, it would be difficult to resist even with every means at his disposal.

He was the Fourth Leader of the Black Wind Stockade!

He had worked so hard to climb to his current position, with endless wealth and women within reach. How could he gamble his life here over a mysterious guess?

No! Absolutely not!

His dry throat bobbed with difficulty, and his eyes darted around like glass beads as countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

He couldn’t step forward himself... he had to let these worthless lives test the waters.

”Boys!”

He suddenly raised his voice, which sounded sharp and piercing due to tension, ringing out abruptly in the deathly silence of the village entrance.

Forcing himself not to look at the heart-palpitating ball of thunder, his gaze swept over his flickering-eyed band of outlaws.

”Did you all hear what Vulture said? Tell me, damn it! Is this kid just putting on a show, using some mysterious illusion to fool us?”

After a brief silence...

Someone looked up, a ruthless expression on their face.

In the blood of these outlaws, something more primitive was starting to stir.

It was the instinct of greed, etched into their very bones.

Previously, fear of the thunder’s power had overcome their greed, but now, greed was quietly gaining the upper hand.

”Fourth Leader! Brother Vulture is right! It’s definitely fake!”

A burly man with a scar on his face was the first to howl, his voice carrying a desperate ruthlessness, as if he could dispel the chill in his heart this way.

He brandished the ghost-headed saber in his hand, its blade glinting coldly under the eerie purple light.

”Years ago, I fought a little slut from the Hehuan Sect who knew illusion techniques. She pulled me into an illusion, and I almost died.

This bastard is trying to show off his meager skills here too. Watch your grandpa split his little body into eight pieces with one strike!”

”Right! Kill him! Not a single one of these Lin Family whelps will live! If the Lin Family possessed such great power, they would have moved against us long ago.

How could they have waited until now!”

Another tall, thin bandit roared, his eyes bloodshot like a starving wolf driven into a corner.

”Daring to play the Black Wind Stockade? I’ll skin him alive and turn him into a human lantern!”

More hoarse voices joined in, merging into a roar filled with malice.

The crowd’s emotions were instantly ignited! The fear that had nearly made them wet their pants earlier was now transformed into rage at being ”deceived” and a twisted form of self-consolation.

Gong Yunyu looked at his incited subordinates, who were acting as if they’d been injected with chicken blood, and the faint doubt in his heart faded significantly.

A smile that was a mix of ferocity and greed squeezed onto his face, his voice trembling slightly with excitement: ”Good! You’ve got guts! These are the true men of my Black Wind Stockade! I’m laying it out right now...”

Suddenly pointing at Lin Jingyu, who was bathed in thunderous light, he roared:

”Who! Go up and kill this brat! I’ll give whoever does it twenty percent of all the loot we squeeze out of the Lin Family and the Liu Family today!”

”Hiss!”

”Twenty... twenty percent?”

”Mother of mine...”

A chorus of sharp intakes of breath sounded, followed by heavy breathing and the sound of swallowing spit.

Massive profit acted like a shot of adrenaline, instantly surging into the veins of every Black Wind Stockade bandit.

Fear? What was that!

In the face of immense wealth, fear was utterly crushed!

They would take any risk, even disregarding their own lives!

On Vulture’s thin, withered face, a sinister and smug smile appeared, as if he could already see Spirit Stones waving at him.

His twig-like fingers instantly performed a hand seal, and a short dagger coated in a faint blue poisonous light slid silently from his sleeve, locking onto Lin Jingyu’s throat like a venomous snake.

Of the other two Bandit Cultivators at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, a short, stocky man grinned as he summoned a heavy mountain-splitting axe, the earthy yellow spiritual light on its blade surging.

Another Cultivator, whose figure was as elusive as a ghost, vanished silently from his spot, leaving only a wisp of faint black smoke. He was clearly planning to coordinate an ambush with Vulture.

The three of them had coordinated their attacks countless times, their teamwork seamless.

Like an invisible noose, they tightened instantly, their target fixed on Lin Jingyu.

Their eyes held a hint of wariness as they swept past Lin Lingshan, but they were mostly plotting in their hearts how to dump him onto their teammates.

So they could go and claim Lin Jingyu’s head for themselves.

Lin Lingshan’s muscles tightened like steel cables, and pale yellow spiritual light surged beneath his bronze skin, like subterranean fire flowing under rock.

He took a deep breath, his chest expanding like a pair of bellows, and a thick, mountain-like Aura erupted, locking onto the three pouncing Bandit Cultivators.

Like an iron tower rooted in the earth, he firmly shielded Lin Jingyu behind him.

There was no fear in those tiger-like eyes, only boiling Battle Intent and a resolution to face death.

Want to touch someone from my Lin Family? You’ll have to step over my dead body first!

His fists clenched with a series of cracks, sounding like two pieces of tempered steel.

Seeing the situation take a sudden turn for the worse and spiral out of control, the tension in Lin Jingyu’s heart actually eased slightly, replaced by a surge of almost absurd mockery.

Heh... what a bunch of ”geniuses” from the Black Wind Stockade!

It’s a pity their imagination isn’t being used to write scripts!

He was indeed playing an Empty Fort Strategy. Although Vulture’s intuition was aimed in the wrong direction, it had actually hit the mark to some extent.

Although he wasn’t working with that old dog Lin Chengyuan to set a trap.

On a broader level, he had used the old dog Lin’s deduction to fabricate a powerful lightning Cultivator behind Fei Yangyang.

Then, relying on the last thunder fiend talisman he had obtained from that mysterious Cultivator, he used the momentum to intimidate them.

However, the power of the thunder they called an illusion was very much real.

And it was terrifyingly potent.

His gaze swept imperceptibly over the lush ancient tree in the distance. Although Aunt Qin Yue’s Aura was being suppressed as much as possible, his powerful Mental Energy could still vaguely sense her steady presence.

The final trump card was still there.

If all else failed, he would just have to shout for help...