I established the Eternal Immortal Clan by taming beasts.

"It's nothing, you don't need to think about it." Lin Che handed the jade slip back, his tone calm, as if his slight frown just now was merely a momentary lapse in concentration.

Lin Xuanqi took the jade slip, still hesitant in his eyes, but nodded nonetheless.

"Alright, you can continue with your work. I'm going to wander around somewhere else." Lin Che patted his son's shoulder and turned to leave the council hall.

Lin Xuanqi watched his father's figure disappear at the end of the corridor, sighed softly, sat back down at his desk, and picked up the account books.

Since my father isn't saying anything, he must have his reasons, so I shouldn't pry too much into it.

……

Stepping out of the council hall, Lin Che strolled slowly along the bluestone path beside Shattered Star Lake, heading towards the Spirit Beast Garden.

The lake surface shimmered, and several birds skimmed across the water, creating ripples.

A gentle breeze rustled the reeds, and the air was filled with the refreshing scent of herbs and lake water.

His steps were unhurried, but his mind was churning with the intelligence he had just seen.

The Windwalker Merchant Guild will auction off access tokens for the Ancient Cavern Secret Realm in seven days.

The intelligence report also included a general description of this secret realm.

This place was not formed naturally, but rather by the convergence of three large third-order spiritual veins deep underground. Over the years, the collision and compression of spiritual energy have evolved into a huge group of caves deep underground.

Due to the special interference of the spiritual veins, the spacetime structure here has been "wrinkled". The flow of time in some areas is inconsistent with the outside world, and occasionally it will "replay" scenes that have happened in the past, like a mirror that remembers.

Three hundred years ago, a rogue cultivator who had reached the Golden Core stage accidentally stumbled upon this place while chasing an injured spirit beast. He discovered that the cave was rich in spiritual energy and that an extremely rare spiritual plant—the Timeless Spirit Mushroom—was growing there.

This is the main ingredient of the Youth Preservation Pill.

Rejuvenation pills have always been a rare commodity in the cultivation world, and are especially sought after by female cultivators.

Female cultivators who are less talented but have wealthy families are often willing to spend a fortune in order to preserve their youth before their looks fade.

You should know that by relying on cultivation, one can only stop changing one's appearance after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

But what woman doesn't want to stay eighteen forever?

Therefore, this place was crowded with cultivators the moment it was discovered.

Rogue cultivators, family members, sect disciples... flocked to the area, almost causing the rules of this place to collapse, and even severely damaging the three nearby spiritual veins.

It was for this reason that the cultivation families who possessed these three spiritual veins immediately rushed over upon hearing the news, joined forces to expel all the cultivators, and took control of the area.

After years of exploration, they gradually figured out the patterns of this place.

That special cave opens once every ten years, and each time it lasts for three days.

The next time the secret realm opens, the three families will send their clansmen to enter together.

The outcome was predictable: the three cultivators fought fiercely in the secret realm in their struggle for the Timeless Spirit Mushroom and other spiritual treasures.

After they emerged, the three families began to fight each other.

Just then, other forces in the vicinity became dissatisfied with the three families' monopoly on this secret realm and joined forces to exert pressure.

With the alliance broken and beset by internal and external troubles, the three parties sat down and decided to simply sell the secret realm access directly.

In this way, the three companies won't have to fight each other over the unequal distribution of profits, and they can make a fortune simply by selling entry qualifications.

The qualifications for entering the secret realm are determined in advance according to the realm's tolerance limit, and then the qualifications are distributed equally to ensure fairness and impartiality.

Selling these secret realm qualifications to others will also shut up other factions.

If any organization wants to send someone in, they can keep a few tokens for themselves.

And so, the old management model of the cave secret realm continued.

The secret realm will open in ten days.

The tokens will be auctioned three days in advance.

This was the message that Lin Che noticed.

Of course, he wasn't interested in the ingredients for the youth-preserving pills, but rather in the secret realm itself.

This secret realm seems to be related to the rules of time. Qingxuan Realm Spirit, can you replicate these rules?

He wasn't sure, but it was definitely worth a try.

If the Azure Profound Realm were to acquire the rules of time, it would undoubtedly represent a qualitative leap for the entire Lin family.

At that time, the breeding cycle of spirit beasts, the speed of bloodline advancement, and the efficiency of cultivation will all undergo earth-shattering changes.

And the Lin family will then truly have the confidence to fight against the beast tide.

Lin Che did not reveal his plans to go to the boss because he still intended to disguise himself and infiltrate the area.

He naturally used the identity of the rogue cultivator "Han Li".

……

Three days later, in the City of Burning Bones.

Lin Che stood outside the city gate, looking up at this majestic city, and felt a surge of emotion.

The last time he came, he was still the head of the Lin family. He visited the Fengxing Chamber of Commerce as a Golden Core cultivator, and he drank and chatted happily with Wang Qinian.

This time, he was just a rogue cultivator named "Han Li," with a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation level, wearing an old gray-white robe, and with an unremarkable face.

Even the fluctuations of spiritual energy around him were deliberately adjusted by him using Absolute Concealment, making him indistinguishable from a true late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, without any flaws.

Burning Bone City remained as bustling as ever.

Long queues formed at the city gate, including merchants pushing carts of spiritual materials, cultivators riding spirit beasts, wandering cultivators carrying packs, and groups of three or five demon-hunting teams.

The cacophony of human voices, animal roars, and the clatter of wheels blended together, creating a deafening torrent of noise.

Lin Che stood in the middle of the line, calm and unhurried.

The man in front of him, dressed in a loose-fitting robe, whispered mysteriously to his companion, "Old Wu, have you heard of the Ancient Cavern Secret Realm?"

His companion rolled his eyes at him: "The main ingredient of the Youth-Preserving Pill, do you think I don't know? What, you want to try your luck? Dream on! That kind of thing is not something we can even dream of."

"Hehe, I was just asking."

……

Lin Che listened without changing his expression, his gaze sweeping over his surroundings.

On the city wall, the patrolling guards, clad in gleaming armor, scanned the crowds coming and going with eyes as sharp as hawks.

On either side of the city gate stood a stone-carved guardian beast, faintly radiating spiritual pressure, clearly part of some kind of early warning formation.

This was added in recent years, presumably because the beast tide is approaching, and the city's defenses are much tighter than before.

Once inside the city, he followed the flow of people toward the main street where the Fengxing Chamber of Commerce was located.

The Fengxing Chamber of Commerce building remains magnificent.

The tall pavilion gleamed with a bluish light in the sunlight, with flying eaves and brackets, carved beams and painted rafters, and stone auspicious beasts standing proudly in front of the door, exuding a majestic aura.

The area in front of the Chamber of Commerce was unusually lively today, with several times more cultivators coming and going than usual, most of whom were there for the auction.

There were richly dressed young masters from wealthy families, calm and collected rogue cultivators, and several veiled female cultivators, all whispering amongst themselves, their eyes filled with a determined gleam.