Chapter 5: Joining I

The names of these chicken legs… they didn’t look right.

Lin Hui felt he could already imagine the possible taste of these two types of chicken legs.

Next, he stared intently at the chicken leg, trying to discern further explanations about these two branches.

Unfortunately, the information from the blood-red mark seemed to stop there, only providing two names that relied purely on guesswork.

“Hurry up and eat. Why are you spacing out during a meal?” His mother, Yao Shan, asked curiously from the side.

“Oh, I know, Mother.” Lin Hui withdrew his gaze, nodded, and began to gnaw on the chicken leg.

As his gaze shifted, it landed on the chopsticks in front of him, and immediately, the blood-red mark began to flicker and twist again.

New dotted lines began to extend from the edge of the chopsticks.

‘Bamboo Chopsticks: Ordinary cutlery, moderate wear. Evolvable Branches: 3.’

‘1 – Tianjing Bamboo Chopsticks.’

‘2 – Purple-Green Lightning Bamboo Chopsticks.’

‘3 – Chopstick Man.’

“…” Lin Hui stared at the final Chopstick Man and fell into deep thought again.

He could guess the literal meaning of the first two, but only the last one…

He tried to consciously imagine evolving the third branch.

Hiss.

After a subtle sound, all the evolution branches in front of him disappeared, and the third branch reappeared and magnified, followed by a sequence of information.

‘Evolve Chopstick Man?’

‘Required Resources: One pair of bamboo chopsticks, one year of stored energy.’

‘Required Time: Five years.’

That long!?

Lin Hui was startled and immediately selected no.

If he had selected yes, a year’s worth of energy might be lost, and as for what the resulting Chopstick Man would be like, it would be a pure gamble.

After quickly finishing his meal, Lin Hui excused himself to go out for a walk and left the house.

Because of the door-crashing ghosts, tall Yamen patrol teams were constantly passing by outside.

It was relatively safe near the front door, so Lin Hui simply squatted there, testing what the newly awakened blood-red mark could do.

First, he squatted down, looked left and right, and casually plucked a blade of grass.

‘Roadside Green Grass: Ordinary plant, immature, suitable for animal husbandry. Evolvable Branches: 2.’

‘1 – Purgatory Bitter Spirit Grass.’

‘2 – Grass Man.’

“Sure enough, it’s here again. This Grass Man is no different from the Chopstick Man just now, is it?” Lin Hui tried selecting Grass Man and immediately saw a waiting period of at least seven years…

Next, he picked up a stone from the ground and held it in his hand.

As expected, the stone also displayed evolution branches.

‘1 – Reinforcing Stone.’

‘2 – Stone Man.’

This time, he didn’t choose Stone Man but chose 1, Reinforcing Stone.

‘Evolve Reinforcing Stone?’

‘Reinforcing Stone: Can consume a fixed amount of stone powder to gain subtle physical enhancement.

Required Resources: One stone, seven days of stored energy.

Required Time: One month.’

That was better. Although this was also long, he could at least see some hope; the previous one was too long.

Lin Hui slightly breathed a sigh of relief.

He then put down the stone and tested many other kinds of stones, receiving similar evolution branches.

Through continuous testing, he gradually began to understand the function of the blood-red mark.

‘This thing is a universal strengthener. Anything can be strengthened, and it can also provide some predictive analysis. Apart from the consumption being a bit too much, perhaps there are still some things I haven’t figured out yet.’ Lin Hui temporarily shelved his exploration, planning to wait until he went to the Clear Wind Taoist Temple later, and after learning real skills and knowledge, he would try to see if he could add and strengthen other abilities and skills.

Thinking of this, he looked up at the flow of people coming and going. The hint of anxiety and worry he felt before slowly began to fade after the emergence of the blood-red mark’s ability.

Early the next morning, his father, Lin Shunhe, took Lin Hui and rode an ox-cart, heading out along the town’s outer road.

After traveling continuously for over an hour, the two arrived at a somewhat secluded fork in the road.

The ox-cart bumped as it turned into the side road, finally stopping in front of a gray-white Taoist temple with a circular outer wall.

Lin Hui got off the ox-cart and looked up at the temple.

‘Clear Wind Taoist Temple.’

The three large characters were upright and balanced, neither ostentatious nor reserved, conveying a sense of moderate harmony.

Two children wearing light blue Taoist robes, each holding a broomstick, were standing at the entrance chatting.

They only pretended to sweep a few times when they saw someone approaching.

“Junior Master Quanshun, is your master Mingde in?”

His father, Lin Shunhe, got off the ox-cart, paid the driver to leave and come back to pick them up later, and then stepped forward to greet one of the young Taoist children.

“It’s Uncle He, who brings candied haws! Yes, he is. Master told us to bring you to him when we saw you!” The Taoist child on the right, whose hair wasn’t tied with a blue thread, immediately recognized the visitors.

“Then we trouble you.” Lin Shunhe laughed and cupped his hands, leading his son to follow the boy through the temple’s main gate.

Inside the gate was a somewhat spacious courtyard. On the right side stood a large incense burner. On the left, several Taoist priests were sitting cross-legged on the ground, seemingly meditating and chanting scriptures.

Directly in front of the main gate was a three-story, square building, with upward-curving winged-snake statues on all the corners.

The entire building was painted light red, with some spots where the paint was peeling off, indicating its age.

At that moment, hearing footsteps, a burly and tall Taoist priest with a full beard, wearing a gray-white robe and black layered cloth shoes, burst out laughing as he stepped out the door and saw Lin Shunhe.

“Brother Shunhe has arrived! I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Elder Brother Mingde, I really have to trouble you this time. This is my son, Lin Hui!” Lin Shunhe pulled Lin Hui forward, patting his back with a smile.

“He’s getting old, and he’s planning to find something to do. Well, I heard you are short of an accountant who is good at arithmetic, and my son is definitely capable! I brought him here to try.”

“That’s easy to discuss. Given our friendship, he can be admitted first, but whether he can actually do the job depends on his performance. After all, the final decision rests with the Abbot, Senior Brother Daoist Baohe,” Mingde said with a smile.

“Of course, of course.”

The two exchanged pleasantries and entered the gate.

Lin Hui politely greeted the man and followed them through the main door.

Inside the Taoist temple’s main hall was enshrined a headless statue with missing arms and legs. There were no offerings in front of the statue, making it clear that this was not a genuine Taoist temple but a martial arts hall operating under the guise of one.

Lin Hui was quickly settled in a side room next to the main hall to wait.

His father and Daoist Mingde went to complete the procedure for his entry into the temple.

The side room was small but housed a bookshelf and a set of table and chairs.

With nothing else to do, Lin Hui asked a passing Taoist priest and received permission to browse the bookshelf freely. He went to the shelf, casually pulled out a copy of the Non-Action Scripture (无为经), and began to read it slowly.

‘Non-action yields action, the actor acts, not acting is not not doing, but being constrained by intention and moving with direction.’

The text was convoluted. After flipping through a few pages, he found it boring, so he closed the scripture and was about to put it back.

Hiss.

Just then, that familiar faint sound came again.

Lin Hui’s heart trembled. He quickly retrieved the scripture and examined it closely.

‘Non-Action Scripture: Authored by an unnamed Taoist, the foundational doctrine for the Wusheng Doctrine’s main teachings. Evolvable Branches: 3.’

‘1 – Purgatory Scripture of Non-Action.’

‘2 – Nine-Layered Conformity Scripture.’

‘3 – Formless and Characterless Scripture.’

Looking at these three evolution branches, Lin Hui narrowed his eyes and casually selected the Purgatory Scripture of Non-Action to open.

‘Evolve Purgatory Scripture of Non-Action?’

‘Required Resources: One copy of the Non-Action Scripture, twelve years of stored energy.’

‘Required Time: Fifteen years.’

‘The longest time yet,’ Lin Hui thought with a sense of awe. ‘Unfortunately, there’s no way to check what this scripture is actually used for.’

He put the scripture back in its place and scanned the other books on the shelf.

Aside from scriptures, there were various travel miscellanies. Soon, he pulled out a different book from a gap in the corner.

Heart-Sealing Sword (《封心剑》).

The book was thin, only nine pages. The bottom right corner of the cover bore an author’s mark, indicating it was written by a Taoist named Mingxin.

Lin Hui flipped through a few pages. It discussed how to achieve great enlightenment and completely seal one’s inner desires, thereby entering the Tao by sealing the heart and embarking on the true path to eternal life.

Lin Hui roughly finished skimming it and found several specific details on how to verbally induce and guide others, which somewhat surprised him.

‘This already counts as basic hypnotic psychology, doesn’t it?’

He once again focused his attention on the book.

Immediately, a new dotted line extended from the right side of the pale blue cover of the Heart-Sealing Sword.

The gray dotted line was linked to small data.

‘Heart-Sealing Sword: Foundational scripture of the once-glorious Fengshan Sect, widely circulated, authored by Daoist Mingxin. Evolvable Branches: 2.’

Without further thought, Lin Hui opened the evolution branches.

‘1 – Origin-Sealing Scripture.’

‘2 – Light-Sealing Technique.’

Seeing this, Lin Hui sighed. Just looking at the names, without specific functional descriptions, he didn’t dare to choose, especially since the consumption time was always measured in years.

So far, he hadn’t fully understood the purpose of the blood-red mark.

‘Perhaps when my body is stronger and my energy is more vigorous, the evolution time might be reduced?’

Dong, dong, dong.

Just then, a knock came from outside the door.

“Brother Lin Hui, your father and Martial Uncle Mingde want you to come to the Inner Hall,” a slightly youthful male voice called out.

“Got it.” Lin Hui walked over and opened the door. Outside stood a clean-cut Taoist child with a topknot.

“It’s my first time meeting you. My name is Huishen. I’ll be the one primarily guiding you and helping you get familiar with the environment and your studies from now on.”

The Taoist child was about thirteen or fourteen, much younger than Lin Hui, but his speech and demeanor were very mature. Seeing Lin Hui open the door, he offered a gentle smile that was clearly imitated from other adults, making it seem overly mature.

“Greetings, Senior Brother Huishen.” Lin Hui quickly bowed.

“Let’s go. I look forward to working with you.” Huishen smiled, turned, and began leading the way.

Lin Hui’s entry into the Clear Wind Taoist Temple was very simple, largely thanks to his father Lin Shunhe’s connection with Daoist Mingde, a master within the temple whom his father knew well.

The structure of the Clear Wind Taoist Temple was very simple. Through his days of exploration, Lin Hui had a rough understanding of the situation.

At the top, there was only one person: the Abbot, Daoist Baohe.

Below him were the three managing stewards: Mingchen, Mingde, and Mingxiu. The three rotated in managing the temple’s logistics, teaching, and external affairs.

Essentially, the Clear Wind Taoist Temple was a for-profit institution whose main income came from teaching basic external martial arts. This, coupled with a small medicinal garden they had cultivated on the back mountain, where they grew a precious herb called Stone Star Root, easily supported all the temple’s expenses.

After Lin Hui joined, he quickly became familiar with the daily routine and work under Huishen’s guidance.

Mingde assigned him some basic arithmetic tasks and quickly found that he completed them with ease, so he gradually started giving him more complex problems.

Lin Hui spent his time familiarizing himself with the environment and his work while also researching his newly awakened blood-red mark.

A week passed in the blink of an eye…

(End of Chapter)