A mortal cultivating immortality can nurture spirit beasts.

Seeing Lin He looking in their direction, Xiao Mei excitedly waved her fist and exclaimed in praise, "Senior, you did a great job! That was satisfying!"

After Xiaomei finished speaking, she looked at Lin He with admiration, even wanting to step forward and offer a few words of flattery. However, she was stopped by Xin Ruyin, who, unlike Xiaomei, had a serious expression and resolutely stood beside Xiaomei, asking word by word,

"What do you plan to do with us, senior?"

"This woman is really smart!"

Compared to Xiaomei, Xin Ruyin's mind works much faster, Lin He thought to himself in admiration.

In the brief battle just now, not only were fragments of magical artifacts exposed, but also a level-four demonic beast appeared. Moreover, Xu Yan's identity was extraordinary; he was the guardian of the Tianxing Sect's market. If any one or two of these factors were involved, there would be a risk of being killed to silence witnesses, let alone all of them. Xin Ruyin had thought of all this, which was why she was extra vigilant.

Seeing that Lin He didn't answer immediately, Xin Ruyin frowned. Xiao Mei, standing to the side, still looked completely bewildered and asked a silly question.

"Miss, what's wrong?"

Xin Ruyin sighed as she looked at her, unsure how to explain. Fortunately, Lin He, sitting opposite her, was understanding and smiled, saying...

"Xiaomei, your young lady is worried that I'll kill someone to cover it up."

"Murder to silence them? Could it be because..."

Only then did Xiaomei, whose reaction time was too slow, begin to understand. She looked at Xin Ruyin beside her, and seeing her nod, she shook her head and said, "No way, Senior clearly saved us just now, why would he want to kill us now? Isn't that too strange?"

"Human hearts are so strange, aren't they?" Lin He shook his head, then suddenly asked, "Xiao Mei, there are always some people in this world who like to think the worst of others. Even though she was saved, she insists on suspecting that the person who saved her has malicious intentions. Don't you think these kinds of people are annoying?"

Xiao Mei nodded in agreement, even waving her fists and shouting angrily, completely unaware that Xin Ruyin was so ashamed beside her that she wished she could crawl into a hole immediately.

Xin Ruyin's face was flushed red, and she bowed deeply with a look of shame. "I was extremely ashamed for judging you with my petty mind. Please forgive me, senior!"

At this moment, Xiaomei, who was standing to the side, also realized that she had just insulted her young mistress. She said with some dissatisfaction, "Senior, you're so mean! You actually used me to humiliate my young mistress. By the way, these storage bags..."

"The storage bags and everything inside these Liu family scoundrels are all yours."

"real?"

Xiao Mei was overjoyed upon hearing this. Seeing Lin He nod with a smile, she immediately picked up the storage bag on the ground. After she finished picking it up, Lin He casually waved his hand, and seven or eight fireballs flew out, accurately hitting the corpses of Liu Ming and the others.

Lin He then said, "This isn't the place to talk, Miss Ruyin. Do you have any other accommodations?"

Xin Ruyin nodded, then said, "This person is actually a disciple of the Tianxing Sect. This place is indeed not suitable for us to stay for long. Let's not waste time dismantling these formations. We should leave here as soon as possible, but we will need to rely on your flying magic weapon, senior."

"It's alright, come on up."

Lin He took out the flying spirit boat, and Xiao Mei and Xin Ruyin came up. Lin He activated his magic power, and with a whooshing sound, he sped off in the southwest direction.

. . .

. . .

Lin He's flying spirit boat was quite fast, and soon it carried Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei to their second place of residence.

After Xin Ruyin's explanation, Lin He learned that the other party actually had three bases of operations, and would move from one base to another every once in a while.

Lin He nodded in agreement. Xin Ruyin understood the principle of having three burrows, which was quite remarkable. It seemed that she had been chased for many years and had become very experienced.

Ahead, the mountains were shrouded in mist. Since Lin He knew this was the location of a formation master, he didn't rush in recklessly. Instead, he waited for Xin Ruyin to open the formation before entering.

Upon returning to her residence, Xin Ruyin instructed Xiao Mei to brew tea for Lin He, specifically the expensive Zifu Lingquan tea.

After Xin Ruyin and Lin He took their seats, Xin Ruyin asked first, "To be honest, I don't know your name, senior. May I ask?"

"My surname is Lin, and my given name is He."

"So it's Senior Lin! This humble woman has a question on her mind, and I would be grateful if you could enlighten her."

"Ask away."

"Why did you appear by such a coincidence, senior? Please forgive my overthinking, and I hope you can enlighten me."

After speaking, Xin Ruyin stared intently at Lin He, observing his expression, but Lin He seemed unconcerned and said...

"Actually, it's like this. After parting ways with Miss Ruyin, I planned to continue strolling around the market. However, I found the Liu family and their group acting suspiciously. I had a conflict with them before, so I followed them. Unexpectedly, I ran into you, Miss Ruyin. It was quite a coincidence."

Seeing that Lin He's tone was very natural and he didn't seem to be lying, Xin Ruyin breathed a sigh of relief. What she feared most was that Lin He's target was her from the beginning. If that were the case, she would be inviting a wolf into her house.

After Lin He finished explaining, although he hadn't completely dispelled Xin Ruyin's wariness, the atmosphere was much better than before. Soon, Xiao Mei brought over a bowl of tea. This tea was full of spiritual energy and had a fragrant aroma; it was the Purple Mansion Spirit Spring Tea.

Lin He imitated the way that old Cai tasted tea, which made Xin Ruyin nod in approval. Xin Ruyin's tea tasting was naturally very elegant, and Xiao Mei, who was standing next to her, also wanted to follow suit, but she just blindly imitated him, which made Lin He and Xiao Mei laugh.

Xin Ruyin was very interested in refining spiritual tea, and she couldn't help but exchange ideas with Lin He. It turned out that Lin He's learning from Elder Cai over the past month had not been in vain, and both of them had gained something from their exchange, and the atmosphere gradually improved.

The conversation continued until dusk. Xin Ruyin was still engrossed in the discussion, but when she looked at the sky, she could only say, "It's getting late. Xiaomei, let's go prepare the meal. Senior Lin, please rest here for a while."

Lin He naturally had no objections. After the three of them had a simple dinner, Lin He casually chose a room to meditate and cultivate.

After completing two full cycles, Lin He stopped meditating. He took out the many treasures he had obtained from Xu Yan and nodded to himself.

The items included a fragment of a magical artifact, the Azure Flame Blade; a gauze-covered magical artifact; the corpse of a level-two demonic beast, the Golden-Eyed Ape; a book on array formations; a Cloud and Mist Bewildering Array capable of withstanding the attacks of Foundation Establishment cultivators; array flags, array plates, and array setup instructions; eight mid-grade spirit stones; over thirty low-grade talismans; various materials; and more than ten low-grade magical artifacts.

"Xu Yan has very few top-tier magical artifacts on him, only that gauze scarf and that shattered blue shield. It seems he relies too much on that Azure Flame Blade."

But thinking about it, it makes sense. The power of a magic weapon fragment is much stronger than that of a regular top-tier magic weapon, so there's really no need to spend spirit stones to buy a top-tier magic weapon anymore. He probably wouldn't even look at a regular top-tier magic weapon anymore.

"Xu Yan must have been a man of importance. With his death, I'm afraid I can't stay here any longer. But the most important thing right now is to build a good relationship with Xin Ruyin and see if I can get my hands on that Reversed Five Elements Formation. But how should I even begin?"

Just as Lin He was pondering, a cry of surprise suddenly rang out, followed by a knock on his door. Xiao Mei's anxious voice came through the door.

"Senior Lin, please save my young lady!"