Cultivation begins with the Druid panel

Lu Lin tucked the blanket around the woman, then looked away and took out all the things he had just obtained from the three rogue cultivators. The dart thrower seemed to be the 'young master's' guard. In his bag was a wooden token with the character 'Zhou' engraved on it.

It seems he's likely backed by a powerful Qi-refining family. With a heavy heart, Lu Lin destroyed the token. He had thoroughly offended this Qi-refining family; he just didn't know which Zhou family this was.

Lu Lin continued searching and found thirty-six low-grade spirit stones and some silver coins in the three people's packages, which further confirmed Lu Lin's suspicions.

Whether it's the dart thrower, the swordsman, or that servant, they're all just working for the mastermind behind the scenes. The real mastermind hasn't even shown up yet.

What's strange is that, apart from the servant who had a secret technique for condensing souls, neither the dart thrower nor the swordsman had any corresponding secret techniques or skills.

The dart thrower was a guard of the Zhou family, so his skills should have come from the Zhou family, and it's reasonable that he didn't possess any martial arts techniques or secret arts. But the three swordsmen were different.

If these three swordsmen were also thugs carefully trained by some force or individual, then the trouble he has gotten himself into this time is enormous.

"What's done is done, so we can only accept it." Lu Lin sighed inwardly, put away the spirit stones, took out the secret technique of Soul Condensation, and unfolded it in front of him to take a look.

The secret techniques of the soul path are generally more difficult, but with the help of the ability to communicate with the divine and enter the realm of the spirit, Lu Lin did not encounter any insurmountable difficulties in comprehending them.

[You have observed the Soul Condensation Technique. Your comprehension of the Soul Condensation Technique has increased by 1, and your experience in entering the realm of the divine has increased by 1.]

[As you continue performing the same actions, your level of understanding will continue to increase...]

The panel in front of me refreshed at a steady pace, and the comprehension points continued to increase. The speed was not slow. With the blessing of the Divine Enlightenment, the last comprehension level was obtained in just half an hour.

[Introduction to Soul Condensation Technique (1/100): You can condense the souls of others into the power of the soul's origin, which you can absorb and refine to strengthen your own soul power.]

This is an evil spell.

However, Lu Lin did not mind using evil techniques to deal with some evil cultivators.

"call!"

Lu Lin closed the secret technique in his hand and put it into his Qiankun bag. He glanced outside again. It was already very late. After all the commotion tonight, he felt sleepy as soon as he rested. Lu Lin leaned against the vines, listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the ground, and fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

Xiao Hei was also tired, so it lay down between Lu Lin and the woman and fell asleep.

Time passed slowly, and the rain finally stopped. A faint light began to appear on the horizon. Lu Lin suddenly felt a chill on his forehead. He frowned and wearily opened his eyes, only to see that Xiao Hei had a fish in its mouth. The fish was still thrashing its tail violently, clearly not quite dead yet.

Turning my head again, I saw three other fish thrashing about on my left.

"Woof woof woof!"

Xiao Hei put the fish in its mouth on the ground and barked excitedly at Lu Lin twice, its meaning quite simple: it wanted Lu Lin to grill the fish for it.

Lu Lin patted Xiao Hei's head, then turned to look at the woman he had rescued the night before. The woman's complexion was much rosier than the night before, and her breathing was steady. She would probably wake up soon.

"This woman's recovery ability is quite good, and her aptitude should not be too bad either." Lu Lin murmured to himself. The woman's injuries were quite severe, and the fact that she could recover to this extent in just one night shows that the woman herself has a good foundation.

As dawn approached, Lu Lin wrapped the woman in a thin cloth and carried her out of the vine tent. At the same time, Gu Ji retracted all of its vines and transformed them back into vines that wrapped around Lu Lin's right arm.

After leaving the tent, Xiao Hei led Lu Lin to the river where it caught fish. Because it had just rained, the river was obviously very rapid, and some of the fish in the river were stunned and washed ashore.

Lu Lin found a rock by the river, laid the woman down beside it, took out a fire-attribute yellow talisman from his Qiankun bag to light a fire, and then tore off a few branches from a nearby tree, threaded the fish through the fire from head to tail, and started roasting it. Before long, a fragrant aroma wafted out.

Soon, Lu Lin and Xiao Hei had eaten five fish, and there were still three more fish roasting on the fire. They simply couldn't eat anymore.

Lu Lin was picking his teeth with a fish bone and was about to lie down to rest for a while when a strange sound suddenly came to his ears.

"Coo coo coo~"

Lu Lin was taken aback, then turned to look at the woman lying next to him and said, "Get up and eat grilled fish if you're hungry. There are three left."

The woman looked extremely embarrassed. She sat up awkwardly, and the thin cloth covering her body fell off, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin. She quickly wrapped herself up tightly again.

Lu Lin explained, "The situation was urgent last night, so I took off all your clothes. It was truly out of necessity."

The woman had no intention of pursuing the matter, saying, "I am already extremely grateful that you saved me, young master. This is nothing. On the contrary, I am the one who has definitely caused you trouble."

Lu Lin didn't say much.

But Xiao Hei was not happy at this moment, and immediately barked at the woman twice, wishing he could jump up.

"Huh?" The woman paused for a moment, then her face lit up with surprise when she saw the little black dog. "Little Black, what are you doing here?"

The woman did indeed know Xiao Hei.

This explains why Xiao Hei took the initiative to look for her last night.

But immediately afterward, the woman sensed that Xiao Hei had recognized its master and turned to look at Lu Lin.

Lu Lin said, "When I saw it, its hind leg was broken, so I took it in as a spirit pet."

Upon hearing this, the woman looked at Xiao Hei with pity and then explained the whole story to Lu Lin:

"My sister and I depended on each other for survival. We struggled our way up from the mortal realm to the cultivation world. My aptitude was relatively poor, and my strength progressed slowly. So my sister spent thirty spirit stones to buy me a pet named Xiao Hei. Her intention was to make me a beast tamer, so that even if I wasn't strong, I could still barely stand in the cultivation world with a spirit pet."

"Although Xiao Hei's parents are spirit beasts, their bloodline is not apparent," Lu Lin said.

The woman's face showed bitterness: "Yes, but because it was cheap, and my sister and I knew almost nothing about beast taming..."

So I got scammed.

Lu Lin suddenly realized: "And then what happened?"

"Later, my sister and I were escorting a caravan when we were attacked by bandits. I and several other guards were captured, Xiao Hei was abandoned, and I was sold to another group of bandits, where I became nourishment for that tree."

Lu Lin felt a little strange listening to these words. Was he just a bodyguard? Then why was he wearing such nice clothes?

It's a pity, he thought he could get something in return for his loss.

Lu Lin sighed inwardly, hugged Xiao Hei to his chest, and looked at the woman. Since the woman before him was of no value, he decided to leave it at that.

"Then shall we part ways here? Little Black is now my spirit pet. I have done more than enough to save your life."

Upon hearing this, the woman quickly replied, "Young master, please wait. I still have value."

"What's your value?" Lu Lin raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman in front of him: "I don't care about your body."

The woman quickly said, "My body is naturally worthless and not a bargaining chip. However, since you, sir, have come to the post station to save me, you must be in a hurry to get on your way. But I see that you have neither a carriage nor a flying sword, making your journey very difficult. I have a way to send you on your way."

"As for Xiao Hei, since you saved Xiao Hei, then Xiao Hei will naturally become your spirit pet. I will not ask for it back." It was clear that the woman was very afraid that Lu Lin would abandon her.

However, this is quite normal. She is a woman, seriously injured, and now she doesn't know where she is. If Lu Lin hadn't taken her with him, she would have been devoured by monsters in this dense forest sooner or later.

Lu Lin became interested upon hearing this, but... wouldn't it be very inconvenient to travel with a woman by his side? Most importantly, he couldn't use his ever-changing abilities on this woman, otherwise her meridians would collapse under the pressure.

However, if you have a carriage, it's not a big deal to have a burden while traveling.

After careful consideration, Lu Lin nodded slightly: "Okay, I promise you."

The woman breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, young master."