Your Quanzhen Sect Is Not Honorable

After taking a taxi back to the urban village, Lin Mo saw Xie Yuling to the foot of her building.

"Fang Jun and the others seem to be playing pool, I'll go check it out," Lin Mo found an excuse to leave.

"I'll come too," Xie Yuling blurted out almost instantly, a glimmer of anticipation in her eyes.

"Forget it. Auntie Zheng was already calling to hurry you up in the car. Don't make her worry," Lin Mo patted her shoulder, adding casually, "Besides, it's just a bunch of smelly guys over there, all smoke and noise. What's a girl like you going to do there?"

The reason was irrefutable.

The light in Xie Yuling's eyes dimmed. In the end, she didn't insist, only nodded before turning and heading upstairs alone.

In that case, she would go back and continue trying to see if she could compress the plastic cup.

The sound of clattering footsteps echoed from the stairs.

Listening to the somewhat petulant footsteps fading into the distance, Lin Mo finally withdrew his gaze, turned, and ducked into another alley.

The buildings in the urban village were packed as dense as a forest. Navigating through them, he moved as if walking through his own backyard. After a series of twists and turns, he familiarly stopped in front of an utterly inconspicuous residential building.

He went upstairs and knocked.

Knock knock knock!

"Who is it?" a voice came from inside.

"Lin Mo," Lin Mo announced his name with ease.

Within his spiritual sense, he was perfectly clear about how many people were in the room and who they were.

The door hinge let out a faint groan as the door opened a crack. Shouzhen's face peered out, his gaze full of cautious observation.

"What are you looking at, little Quanzhen Taoist?"

Lin Mo pushed the door open and walked right in.

The teasing remark carried undisguised disdain.

Shouzhen was taken aback by his forceful manner and instinctively took a step back, clearing the way for him.

Based on the discussions between Shouzhen and Liu Zheng, it was known that the Northern Profound True Man disliked the Quanzhen Sect.

So, as a disciple of the Northern Profound True Man, was Lin Mo's poor attitude towards Shouzhen reasonable?

Utterly reasonable.

Furthermore, his intuition told him that if a real fight broke out, he was probably no match for this young man before him.

"Patron Lin, we should have no grievances between us, right?"

Lin Mo casually pulled over a chair and sat down, crossing his legs. His posture was so relaxed it was as if this was his own turf.

Lin Mo spread his hands. "Can't be helped. My master said the things your Quanzhen Sect did in the past weren't exactly honorable."

Truthfully, Lin Mo had no particular feelings about the Quanzhen Sect.

It was just that he wanted to build up the persona for this 'Northern Profound True Man' character. Disliking the Quanzhen Sect seemed like a very authentic touch.

To put it bluntly, it was just Lin Mo's mischievous habit of playing up a character archetype.

Xia Zhi flashed out from the inner room. Her body was tense, her movements sharp, and in her hand was a black pistol with the safety already off. Its cold muzzle was pointed directly at the source of the sound.

The temperature in the entire living room seemed to drop several degrees.

Seeing this, Shouzhen quickly spoke up, "Patron Xia, calm down. This is Lin Mo, the disciple of the Northern Profound True Man. They were the ones who rescued you all."

Xia Zhi wasn't an ungrateful person. She immediately switched the pistol's safety back on and said apologetically, "Sorry, I was just worried someone might attack this place."

Lin Mo waved a hand dismissively.

"Bullets aren't very effective against me anyway."

Xia Zhi's face warmed slightly. Remembering her previous wariness towards Lin Mo, she scratched her head somewhat sheepishly.

After all, Liu Zheng had mentioned earlier that this guy was a fierce one who could tank bullets.

"Being cautious is a good thing," Lin Mo said, unconcerned.

With a flip of his hand, as if performing a magic trick, he produced five emerald-green pieces of jadeite and casually placed them on the table.

The jade pieces were irregularly shaped, but each was a pure, vibrant green, glowing with a warm luster under the light. They were clearly extraordinary items at first glance.

"These are protective talismans my master made for you," Lin Mo's tone was calm, as if introducing some worthless trinkets.

"You can think of them as a 360-degree, no-blind-spot defense system. If you really run into some unavoidable trouble, they might just save your life."

Having said that, without waiting for a reaction from Xia Zhi and Shouzhen, he walked straight into the kitchen.

After rummaging around inside for a moment, he came out holding a rusty fruit knife.

Xia Zhi and Shouzhen watched, puzzled. What was he going to do?

The next second, Lin Mo provided the answer.

He casually picked up one of the jade pieces from the table. With the fruit knife in his other hand, he swung it down without hesitation!

"Don't!" Xia Zhi instinctively cried out.

Such fine jadeite—a single scratch from the knife could drastically reduce its value.

However, the expected scene of the jade shattering did not occur.

The sharp fruit knife, about three centimeters away from the jade's surface, seemed to hit an invisible wall. It was instantly stopped by a gentle yet irresistible force and could advance no further.

"This is! A Spiritual Treasure!"

Taoist Shouzhen shot to his feet, his eyes wide as saucers. His voice rose an octave in excitement, even cracking slightly.

He stared fixedly at the jade piece suspended beneath the knife, his breathing becoming ragged.

"Spiritual Treasure?"

Lin Mo was unfamiliar with the term. He thought for a moment and added,

"Consider it a temporary Spiritual Treasure. The power inside this thing is limited. It should be fine for blocking bullets for you all. But once its energy is depleted, it'll just revert to being an ordinary piece of jadeite."

"The Northern Profound True Man can actually craft Spiritual Treasures?!" Shouzhen ignored the latter part of Lin Mo's sentence, muttering to himself in a daze, as if his soul had been sucked out.

This news shocked him even more than witnessing Lin Mo withstand bullets with his body.

Lin Mo asked offhandedly, "What? Can no one make these things anymore?"

"They can't be made anymore. Or rather, no one knows how to make them," Shouzhen shook his head vigorously.

How hard could it be? Just infuse some spiritual power into it.

However, whether this 'Spiritual Treasure' was the same thing as the 'spiritual artifact' Lin Mo was thinking of remained to be seen.

Shouzhen cautiously reached out a trembling hand and picked up another piece of jadeite.

His movements were more careful than if he were holding his own newborn son.

Oh, right. Quanzhen Taoists can't have sons.

He looked up at Lin Mo. Seeing the other showed no intention of stopping him, he took a deep breath and tried to slowly channel his spiritual energy into it.

However, the moment his energy made contact with the jade, it was instantly repelled by a force within, making his wrist go slightly numb.

"This!" Shouzhen stared at the jade in his hand in astonishment.

Lin Mo, as if he had long anticipated this result, spoke coolly with his arms crossed.

"Oh, right. My master specifically instructed."

"The one in your hand has to be returned afterward."

Shouzhen froze, instinctively tucking the jade closer to his chest.

The corner of Lin Mo's mouth twitched as he said slowly, "Don't ask why."

"The answer is: because your Quanzhen Sect isn't honorable."

"......"

Shouzhen's hand, still clutching the jade, froze mid-air. His old face instantly flushed a purplish-red, his expression the picture of utter helplessness.

This Patron Lin, why were his words so infuriating!

But the frustrating part was, he couldn't even refute it. After all, if the other party refused to give it, there was nothing he could do.