In the courtyard, a pile of phosphatized wood was burning, on which a big iron cauldron was purring with white steam.

There were dozens of spiritual ingredients, some beasts' blood and flesh, as well as herbs, boiling in the cauldron.

Lin Xun was smelting some kind of spiritual ink instead of concocting pills as it looked like.

Normally, smelting spiritual inks required specially-forged "ink furnaces", some of which were engraved with spiritual tattoos inside, making them as precious as spiritual artifacts.

However, Lin Xun was unable to find an ink furnace in Feiyun, so he had to make it with the iron cauldron even though he could only get some ordinary spiritual ink out of such good spiritual ingredients.

The spiritual ink he was smelting now was called the "Red-fire Spiritual Ink".

The formula was quite common, but the effect of the Ink would differ a lot with different Ingredients.

Take one of the ingredients "Hydrangea" as example, three-leaf Hydrangea was commonly seen but of mediocre quality, and nine-leaf Hydrangea was rare but the best.

The spiritual ingredients Lin Xun used were only of average quality, not the best but good enough for his current needs.

In the meanwhile, Lin Xun was honing a dark purple bone on a grindstone.

The bone was half-feet long and as thick as a chopstick. It was a leg bone of a monster named "iron-beak pheasant".

It was valuable as it could be made into an inscribing pen, which was a key tool to inscribe spiritual tattoos. Its tip was as sharp as a knife, so it was also called as the Tattoo Knife.

The quality of an inscribing pen depended on the raw material it was made of. The better it was, the easier it could channel the spiritual energy of a Spiritual Tattooist.

Besides, a first-rate inscribing pen could aid the spiritual tattooist to accurately control the power of the spiritual ink and inscribe lines that could meet the requirements of the spiritual tattooist in terms of shade, thickness and camber.

After the dark grey inscribing pen left by Master Lu disappeared, Lin Xun had been in need of a good inscribing pen to practice.

Luckily, among all the dead monster bodies he found there was an "iron-beak pheasant". Its leg bone was good enough for him to make an inscribing pen.

The bone scraped on the grindstone repeatedly, making sparks fly. After a while, an inscribing pen was in its early form.

Around the courtyard, white monster skeletons piled up. More than 500 kilos of salted beast meat hanged on the wall of the cottage, like a meat mountain.

Beast skin, veins, flakes, claws and horns were classified and piled in sorts, which were in total worth a lot, as they could either be used to concoct pills or smelt spiritual inks or be traded for money.

All of these were the results of his hard-work in the past few days.

Shiao Tianren and the villagers had brought back even more. Only the monster carcasses they had given to Lin Xun were as many as 30. Beasts and wild animals had been much more than that, but of little use to him, so he had distributed them among other villagers.

Therefore, every villager in Feiyun, apart from Lin Xun, had been all busy preserving the meat from dawn to night in case it got rotted.

Until today did Lin Xun dissect all the carcasses to sort out the useful parts and throw away the useless ones.

……

Lin Xun was wholly engrossed in sharpening the dark purple bone, and was not affected by the bloody smell spreading all over the courtyard.

In about half an hour, an inscribing pen came into form after continuous scraping. Lin Xun stood up, and washed the dust off the pen to reveal its true colors.

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It was dark purple, fine and straight. The pen body was simple and unadorned, and the tip was thin and sharp as the blade edge, glaring with cold light in the sunshine.

Lin Xun calmed his mind and used his spiritual energy to perceive it.

He smiled after quite some time, as the inscribing pen was flawless, which only needed some special process and spiritual ingredient to perfect it.

Right at that time, he heard a sharp boiling sound from the cauldron, as if it was going to explore.

The spiritual ink is ready!

Lin Xun had to put the inscribing pen aside and put out the fire at once. He waited for the cauldron to cool down and then stepped forward to it with a white porcelain bowl in his hand.

The spiritual ingredient that had filled with the cauldron was now smelted to a thin layer of amber-like liquid on the bottom. The liquid was red and clear, looking like a flame was burning on the surface. Refreshing fragrance exhaled from it.

This was the Red-fire Spiritual Ink!

Though it appeared to be some kind of spiritual medicine, it was not drinkable.

Lin Xun poured the ink into the porcelain bowl with great care, and smiled more happily. He just had to wait until night, then he could use the ink to inscribe some spiritual tattoos.

"Can I drink it?"

Shia Zhi asked, pointing at the ink. Even Lin Xun didn't know when she came to his side.

Her voice sounded tranquil and sweet, but what she said frightened Lin Xun, who shook his head immediately and said, "It is not food. It is poisonous if you drink it."

"Oh!" Shia Zhi said no more and stood there quietly.

"Wait until night. I will make you some tasty food."

Lin Xun rubbed her little head and went inside the room.

Shia Zhi frowned, seemingly she did not like to be treated like a kid. She stood there thinking, and finally decided not to make a fuss about it.

As a matter of fact, Shia Zhi was quite different from other 5 or 6-year old children. She was quiet and reticent, yet she possessed extraordinary intelligence and astonishing learning ability.

In just a few days, she had been able to understand every word Lin Xun said to her, even to speak some simple words and sentences, such as "is it eatable", "I am still hungry", "I want to eat more", "do you have more food", "this tastes good"…

Every word came out of her mouth was related to food, no wonder Lin Xun had seen her as a beautiful foodie.

……

At dusk, the village head Shiao Tianren walked into Lin Xun's cottage.

He was in a hurry, so he cut to the chase when he saw Lin Xun, "Things are all set. We can leave tomorrow morning."

Lin Xun smiled, "Good. I did not expect you to get ready so soon."

A few days ago, he and Shian Tianren had analyzed the current situation in Feiyun and decided to transfer all the villagers to a safer place before Lian Rufeng and other guardians returned in case things went out of control and endangered the innocent villagers.

Even though both of them had not figured out what Lian Rufeng was plotting exactly, they knew for sure it was not something good.

"Haha, thanks to the disaster occurred in the mountains, we have stored enough salted meat to sustain our living while we are hiding outside."

Shiao Tianren laughed.

Lin Xun laughed too. He said, "Uncle Shiao, that's settled then. Tomorrow, you take other villagers to hide in the abandoned mine tunnel. After I settle things with Lian Rufeng, we'll have nothing to worry about any more."

Shiao Tianren nodded and then opened his mouth with a serious expression, "Lin Xun, the thing you are planning is very dangerous. Do not risk your life for it. If you fail, we are fine to accept it. Do you really think Lian Rufeng is bold enough to kill us all? Where there is life, there is hope."

Lin Xun answered, "Uncle Shiao, if I lose, other villagers may have the chance to live, but that's not the case for you and me. We have to win."

His eyes looked clear and placid, and his voice sounded decisive.

How could Shiao Tianren not be aware of the stakes? Lian Rufeng had run out of his patience towards him long ago, so he certainly would not let him live if he had the chance.

As for Lin Xun, after the death of Lu Ting and Qian Qi, either he killed Lian Rufeng or the other way around.

At the thought of this, Shiao Tianren looked worried, "Are you well-prepared?"

Lin Xun nodded, "I only have one last thing to do."

Shiao Tianren patted on Lin Xun's shouder, "Then you take care. If you lose, run away immediately. Run to the Three Thousand Mountains, where even Lian Rufeng couldn't find you. Remember, don't lose your life for us in the end."

Lin Xun felt warm in his heart. He grinned, "Rest assured, Uncle Shiao. I know fairly well what I'm doing."

Shiao Tianren stared at Lin Xun for a while, and then turned away.

When he stepped out of the gate, he reminded again, "Nothing is more important than being alive. Don't forget it."

His old voice drifted away in the dusk.

Lin Xun smiled at it and went inside the room. Uncle Shiao was right. He must stay alive. If he died, he would never have the chance to revenge.

He had understood it a long time ago.

The next morning, the villagers took their belongings and left Feiyun under the lead of Shiao Tianren.

They were no spiritual practitioners, and they were powerless in front of Lian Rufeng and the guardians. If they insisted to stay in the village, they would only encumber Lin Xun.

Lin Xun watched them leaving. He returned to the empty village until they went afar. The look on his face was as calm as usual.

The autumn wind was bleak. Dark cloud covered the sky unknowingly, foreboding a storm was coming.

Lian Rufeng and the guardians were not back yet, but he knew they would soon.

"Are you going to fight?"

When he went back to his cottage, he saw Shia Zhi was waiting for him.

"Hmm." Lin Xun grunted. He knew it was impossible to lie to such a clever girl.

"Let me help you."

She looked up, revealing her beautiful face covered by the hat. Her crescent-liked eyes were as clear as black diamonds, looking serious and earnest.