Courtyard House: My Time Travel is a Bit Too Strong

Lin Quan's words revealed the truth: Langguo is not a place to stay for long. Her mother's matter has been unresolved for many years, and now there are new developments. It would be better to return to Lun and stabilize her position first.

He didn't mention that Eckardt was the one who placed the order... He didn't want to be used as a tool by Curtis, and he didn't want to get involved in the power struggle between the two forces.

What he was truly interested in were those five paintings. If he could find the secrets of ancient alchemy, he might actually be able to refine what he wanted.

He casually pried open the safe.

With a force of 100,000 jin pressed down on your hand, even the thickest alloy is nothing more than a sheet of iron.

Back at Croft Estate, he locked himself in the basement for several days, tinkering with the five paintings over and over again, but made no progress.

One late night, he turned on a bright light and approached the canvas... when he suddenly noticed something was wrong.

"A painting within a painting... the art of alchemy is embedded beneath layers of paint."

"If you don't have sharp eyesight and strong willpower, you simply can't see it."

He held his breath and peeled off the backing paper of the painting layer by layer, taking out five thin layers as thin as cicada wings.

The handwriting was extremely faint, almost invisible.

He skillfully re-pasted the paper, making the seams so fine that even a close look would make it difficult for an ordinary person to spot any flaws.

The ancient painting was returned to its place, and the inner lining was used to place the sutra.

I went back to the master bedroom, collapsed into bed, and slept soundly.

He practiced for two hours in the morning, and after lunch, he practiced a set of boxing in the yard.

I went down to the basement again at night and read carefully from the mezzanine.

"The fusion solution formula, which mixes different materials and catalyzes the reaction... isn't that just a disguised chemical reaction?"

"The ink used for drawing talismans is similar in function to the cinnabar used by Taoist priests for consecration."

He read it three times to make sure every word was ingrained in his mind before putting the hidden compartment into the Black Dragon Ring.

With the cultivation level of martial arts at the Refining Spirit Realm, one can memorize things so quickly it's as if they're etched into one's bones.

The following morning, Lin Quan was lounging on the sofa while Laura and another female companion massaged his shoulders and neck.

His fingers unconsciously traced the edge of the triangle, his mind filled with alchemical casting diagrams.

"What are you thinking about so intently?" Laura leaned over and asked.

He reached out and pulled her into his arms, his nose brushing against the warm skin of her neck: "I missed you."

A few days later, Laura received an email with a photo of a stone altar attached.

Years ago, the plane she was on with her mother crashed in the Nepal Mountains.

Her father died before her eyes, but her mother was nowhere to be found. She never stopped searching, but year after year, there was still no response.

Her fingers were shaking when she saw this photo.

After quickly packing their luggage, the two flew out of the United States that same day.

Land in Bolivia and find your location using the coordinates.

Laura stood before the stone altar, her voice soft: "It's exactly the same as what I saw back then."

Lin Quan crouched down, his fingertips tracing the indentations on the altar wall: "This is the base of the teleportation array. The sword on the mural is the activation key."

"Then let's find the sword first." She bit her lower lip.

In one corner of the mural, a long sword is stuck diagonally into the rock wall, with an intricate hilt and the scabbard half-hidden.

"The Sword of King Arthur... the Sword in the Stone or the Sword of Kings?" Lin Quan squinted.

"It's most likely the Sword of Kings," Laura blurted out. "Legend has it that the scabbard can protect a person from death. After Arthur lost the scabbard, he was defeated and died, and finally returned to Avalon with the sword."

"Forged by the elves, the wielder can invoke ancient magic... The sword on the wall is most likely this one." Lin Quan nodded.

She suddenly turned her head: "Let's go to the place where our classmate had the accident back then."

I was in college at the time, and the school organized a field trip.

Lin Quan and Laura left the team midway to collect samples. When they returned, the camp was empty, and everyone was gone.

The police searched for nineteen days but didn't find a single hair.

Returning to the area, the local guide casually remarked, "Amanda? She was helping people survey in these mountains last year."

Laura stood frozen in place, not blinking for several seconds.

Lin Quan looked at her profile and slowly asked, "What about the others...? Could they be alive too?"

"Thinking so much is useless. Once you find Amanda, everything will be clear," Laura said.

They spent the whole day asking around and searching everywhere, and finally found her in a ship repair shed by the old dock in the west of the city.

"How did you find us?" Amanda looked up, her hand still in mid-air, tightening a rusted bolt.

"Where are the others?" Laura asked directly.

"It's all gone." Amanda's voice was flat.

"All gone?" Laura paused.

She had already guessed the outcome. Eleven students from her class disappeared without a trace, and after several months, she assumed they were gone. Now, years later, Amanda is still standing here, but none of the others have returned.

They retraced their steps to the ancient site they had passed by years before… half of the stone steps had collapsed, the lintel was crooked, and vines were sprouting from the cracks, hanging down with grayish-green tendrils.

In the corner of the collapsed shrine at the bottom, Laura rummaged through the rubble and pulled out a sword. The blade was bluish-green, with imitation casting patterns on the edge, and indistinct Latin characters engraved on the hilt.

She gripped the sword hilt tightly, and several images suddenly flashed through her mind: a crack, three points of light, and an obsidian slab embedded in the rock wall.

"What?" Lin Quan took a step closer.

"I know where the fragments are." Laura handed over the sword. "Can you recognize them?"

Lin Quan examined the sword's spine and nodded: "It's a replica, but the base is correct."

"Walk."

For the next two weeks, the two followed the map and traveled to seven counties across three provinces. Each fragment was stuck in an old temple, an abandoned mine tunnel, or a collapsed irrigation canal. When they were retrieved, they were covered in dust and rust, but they would light up at the slightest touch.

The last piece is embedded in a cliff cave on the mountainside of Nepar.

Laura stood at the cave entrance, enjoying the breeze, when she suddenly spoke up: "The necklace my mother wore back then might be useful."

"Where to?" Lin Quan asked.

"Nepal," she said.

They returned to the crash site. The propeller wreckage was already covered in moss, and the fuselage was broken in two, lying diagonally in the mud. Laura knelt below the left wing, lifted a loose aluminum plate, and pulled a flattened leather bag from the hidden compartment. Unfastening the clasp, she found a silver chain lying quietly inside, with a hollowed-out star-patterned disc as a pendant.

She aligned the disc with the broken edge of King Arthur's sword.

As the light fell, the sword hummed, and the fragments floated up automatically, slowly rotating, meshing together, and fitting perfectly in the air. When it fell again, it was a complete longsword, its cold light steady and its blade straight.

Laura casually swung her hand, and half of the discarded aluminum beam next to her snapped off with a smooth, mirror-like cut.

"It really is it." Lin Quan reached out and gently stroked the spine of the sword.

They returned to the ancient site in Bolivia. The stone altar was cracked, and the central groove was filled with brown scale. Laura tried three times; just as the tip of her sword touched the center of the altar, the entire bluestone made a dull thud, and fine cracks spread like a spiderweb.

"It's been too long, the stone can't hold up anymore," Lin Quan said.

Laura didn't say anything, but lowered her head to wipe her eyes, then looked up and smiled.

Lin Quan looked at her: "Your mother's matter won't just end there."

She nodded.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor. Amanda entered with six men, guns pointed downwards, but their knuckles were on the trigger guards.

"Give me the sword," she said.