Si Tu Yunshu

The middle-aged man's face was as pale as paper, his lips trembling like a motor, unable to squeeze out a single word.

He stared intently at the guards rolling and wailing on the ground, then looked at the young man before him, whose expression was so indifferent it was as if he had merely crushed a few ants. A chill shot straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, freezing his soul so much it nearly shattered.

One kick.

Just one kick.

He asked himself and knew he couldn't do it, not even if he trained for another hundred years.

Clang.

His long mace, the symbol of his martial prowess, slipped from his grasp and crashed onto the bluestone slabs. It let out a sharp, piercing ring, shattering the last bit of his courage.

The next second, he turned around without hesitation and fled frantically toward the outside of the hall, scrambling on his hands and knees, tumbling and crawling in utter disgrace.

Lin Mo did not even bother to cast a glance back at him.

Just a terrified clown, not worth wasting a single thought on.

His divine sense had already spread out like a massive, invisible net, instantly blanketing the entire Situ family estate.

Finding Jiang Yunlu's mother was the priority.

His divine sense swept past pavilions and towers, penetrating layers of courtyard walls. Countless figures flashed through Lin Mo's mind.

Soon, in a heavily guarded, secluded courtyard, he spotted a woman under house arrest.

Her features were seventy or eighty percent similar to Jiang Yunlu's, though her brows carried a trace of sorrow settled by time. She still retained her charm, and her bone age was indeed in her thirties.

Inside and outside the courtyard, there were guards every few steps. The woman inside was clearly being monitored.

It was almost certainly her.

Lin Mo felt confident. It was a pity he didn't have Jiang Yunlu's blood on hand; otherwise, by using a bloodline secret art, he could have instantly pinpointed her location no matter where she was hidden, and confirmed her identity.

He withdrew his divine sense and tilted his head toward the two girls behind him, who were still in a daze.

"Let's go."

Ning Qingcheng and Xie Yuling were both stunned.

"Go?"

Ning Qingcheng subconsciously raised her voice. "We're just leaving? Aren't we going to wait for their people to arrive? We've already fought our way to their door; it wouldn't make sense not to see the main figures, right?"

She had thought an earth-shattering battle was about to take place and had already braced herself.

"Children really are too naive."

Lin Mo chuckled and reached out, flicking her forehead lightly.

"With my status, and their level, you think I should wait for them? Of course they should wait for me."

"When you put it that way, you actually make a lot of sense."

As they spoke, Lin Mo had already taken the group and flown toward a certain courtyard in the Situ estate.

According to the observations of his divine sense, this Situ family was also located in an independent grotto-heaven blessed land. Its scale was even larger than the Dragon Tiger Dojo Lin Mo had seen before, looking just like a small city.

Worthy of a bastard family with a thousand years of heritage, their foundation was indeed profound.

Then the entire Hidden Sect was probably an alliance formed by several such families, right? Each having their own grotto-heaven blessed land, it was truly luxurious to the extreme.

However, although the spiritual energy concentration here far exceeded the outside world, it was still quite thin compared to a top-tier blessed land like the Dragon Tiger Dojo.

Lin Mo's mind raced, thinking of the behavioral style of the Yanhuang Awakening group. They probably held quite a few similar grotto-heaven blessed lands in their hands as well.

Otherwise, with their nature, how could they leave such a huge piece of fat meat uneaten?

He suddenly turned his head and glanced at Xie Yuling beside him.

This girl was quite a practical person. Even while being carried in flight by him, she didn't forget to seize every opportunity, closing her eyes and silently circulating her cultivation technique, greedily absorbing the rich spiritual energy around her, unwilling to waste a single second.

Being carried by Lin Mo, Xie Yuling also sensed the dense spiritual energy here, so she had already begun to cultivate.

The corners of Lin Mo's mouth curled up slightly. With a thought, he silently adjusted the airflow around the three of them, forming a tiny spiritual energy vortex that gathered the surrounding spiritual energy toward Xie Yuling.

Cultivating, Xie Yuling's delicate body trembled slightly. She only felt a surge of pure spiritual energy, several times richer than before, pouring into her body. Her cultivation speed instantly skyrocketed, and a hint of pleasant surprise appeared on her face.

She opened her eyes in confusion, but only saw Lin Mo's handsome side profile, as well as the exquisite courtyard drawing closer below.

The two guards at the courtyard entrance didn't even have time to sound the alarm before their eyes rolled back and they collapsed limply.

Lin Mo and his group landed in the courtyard. He reached out and, with a creak, pushed open the ajar door.

A very faint but pervasive fragrance of medicine, mixed with the earthy scent of soil, instantly drilled into their nostrils.

Inside the courtyard, a woman was sitting on a stone stool, pinching a slender embroidery needle between her fingers, threading it through a piece of plain white silk.

Her movements were very slow, carrying the lethargy of someone who had been ill for a long time, yet exuding an inviolable, cold elegance.

Hearing the door open, her hand paused, and she slowly raised her head.

Her gaze crossed the flowers and plants in the courtyard, landing precisely on Lin Mo, who was in the lead, and then swept over Situ Dingyi and Situ Ding'er, who stood behind him with their heads lowered in silence.

Her eyes were very calm, like a bottomless ancient well. Only at the moment she saw the two familiar figures did a barely perceptible ripple appear.

But she could be sure that she had never seen Lin Mo's youthful face before.

She gently placed the embroidery in her hands on the stone table. The half-embroidered butterfly on the silk seemed to have its wings still trembling slightly.

"Who are you?" Her voice was cold and clear, carrying the unfamiliarity of someone who hadn't spoken to others for a long time.

Lin Mo's gaze, however, circled the layout of the courtyard and the carved beams and painted rafters of the wing rooms, understanding dawning in his heart.

Sure enough, the architectural style inside this so-called grotto-heaven blessed land exuded a stale, decaying aura.

He withdrew his gaze, looked at the woman before him, and got straight to the point.

"You are Jiang Yunlu's mother, right? I'm her classmate, here to take you out."

Classmate?!

Situ Yunshu's gaze suddenly sharpened.

She had also gone down the mountain to gain experience in her youth, so she naturally understood what the word "classmate" meant.

It was a word that belonged to the outside, to the mortal world, and to the world where her daughter now lived.

Her gaze turned aside, falling on the ever-silent Situ Dingyi.

"No, I don't believe you. Dingyi, you tell me."

Situ Dingyi's body trembled violently. He hadn't expected that, even at this point, the young miss was still willing to trust him.

An immense sense of guilt and struggle surged into his heart, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

He let out a long breath.

He opened his mouth, his voice incredibly dry. "Miss... I... I don't know. I hope you don't go with him, but..."

But, how I also wish you could leave this decaying cage.

He couldn't bring himself to say the rest of the words.

Lin Mo couldn't be bothered to watch them put on a melodramatic play here; time was precious.

He directly pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapped the screen a few times to open the photo album, and then handed the phone over.

"See for yourself. It's a photo of me and Yunlu, taken by the lake on her birthday."

The glow of the screen was particularly striking in this somewhat gloomy courtyard.

In the photo, a girl smiling as beautifully as a flower was holding up a lively, thrashing large fish. The young man beside her was also grinning, with a sparkling lake serving as the background.

Xie Yuling cast a brief glance, let out a soft snort, and turned her back.