Legendary Son-in-Law: The Man with Poison Talismans

Lin Mu turned around, took two steps, then stopped and looked back at her.

Chunxing stood there, still holding the basket of sesame cakes in her arms, tears streaming down her face, but she tried her best to pull up the corners of her mouth.

Lin Mu didn't say anything more and strode out.

Jingqiu followed behind him, and when she went out, she looked back at Chunxing and nodded slightly to her. Chunxing also bowed to her.

Upon arriving at the Demon Sealing Fortress, Yang Xiong's car was already prepared. The black evil maggots were bound by a spell.

Several guards were conducting a final check; some were pulling on the chains, others were tapping the axle, creating a clanging sound.

Lin Mu stopped by the car, turned to look at Jing Qiu, and said solemnly, "I'm asking you this."

Jingqiu bowed slightly, her voice soft but earnest: "Don't worry, Young Master Lin."

Lin Mu nodded and got into the car.

Yang Xiong was already in the car, holding a cup of tea. When he saw him come in, he smiled and didn't ask any questions.

The curtain fell, a shout came from outside, the carriage shook slightly, eight maggots rolled around at the same time, and the carriage drove off smoothly.

This time, Lin Mu didn't touch or rub against things like he did when he arrived.

He leaned against the car window, watching the scenery outside slowly recede, lost in thought.

The Demon Sealing City receded further and further away, gradually shrinking into a blurry outline, until finally even the outline was no longer visible, leaving only a hazy gray expanse.

He looked away, picked up his teacup, and took a sip. The tea was hot; he didn't know when it had been changed.

Yang Xiong sat opposite him, holding a teacup in his hand, his gaze fixed on the scenery outside the car window.

Lin Mu had originally planned to visit the legendary thousand-year-old tree spirit after leaving the mining area. But now it seems that the opportunity is gone.

He put down his teacup, considered his words carefully, and spoke in a casual tone as if chatting with an old friend: "Brother Yang, there's something I've always been puzzled by."

Yang Xiong turned around and smiled, "Brother Lin, please speak."

"What exactly does Your Majesty want from me?" Lin Mu looked at Yang Xiong with a hint of inquiry in his eyes.

Yang Xiong paused, his hand holding the teacup still. He remained silent for a moment, as if considering how to speak. Light from outside the car window shone through the crystal, casting flickering shadows on his face.

"To be honest, I don't know the specifics either." Yang Xiong put down his teacup, leaned back, and spoke in a slow tone. "I only know that about two months ago, there was news from the court. The news was only circulating among the high-ranking officials, saying that His Majesty was looking for someone, a commoner who was also a master."

He glanced at Lin Mu and continued, "At that time, I didn't know that this commoner was you, brother. The news circulated for several days, but there was no official document or decree; it was all inquired about privately. I was wondering at the time, what does His Majesty want with such a person?"

Lin Mu listened without interrupting.

"Later," Yang Xiong paused, "about half a month later, the official notice came down. We were instructed to secretly search for this person, and if we found him, to report it without making a fuss."

Lin Mu's brow twitched slightly, seizing upon a single word in his words: "Secret?"

Yang Xiong nodded, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said slowly, "Yes, it's a secret."

Lin Mu waited for him to continue, but Yang Xiong did not explain why it was a secret.

Lin Mu didn't press the matter, but he pondered it in his mind.

Was he afraid of leaking information? Was he afraid of alerting the enemy? Or was he afraid that someone would find out? He had no answer, but he didn't ask any more questions.

Yang Xiong glanced at him and continued, "Later I heard that you entered the Zongheng Path alone. I made a pledge to His Majesty that I would definitely conquer the Zongheng Path. Brother Lin knows what happened after that."

Lin Mu leaned against the car window, looking at the gray sky outside, and remained silent for a long time.

Gu An's face flashed through his mind again, but he quickly suppressed it.

They chatted briefly afterward, and Yang Xiong recounted some old stories about Fengmo Valley. Lin Mu listened but didn't take them to heart.

He could only feel that the car was indeed comfortable to sit in. The thick felt cushions, the perfect temperature, the fresh air that isolated him from the demonic energy, and the rhythmic rolling of the wheels felt like an invisible hand gently patting his back.

Although I had slept on the way back to Fengmo City, the fatigue from the past few days still surged up like a tide. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier, the sounds grew fainter and fainter, and in the end, I knew nothing at all.

-

In my sleep, I heard an old voice, slow and deliberate, like chanting scriptures.

"Assassination swordsmanship is an essential skill for warriors. By channeling power into the blade and allowing energy to penetrate even the smallest point, the energy arrives before the blade, enabling one to pierce heavy armor and penetrate thick defenses."

"The key lies in the breath, not the strength; the skill lies in penetration, not the chopping. The breath gathers in the dantian, flows through the meridians, and is focused on the blade. When the knife is drawn, the breath follows the blade, like a needle piercing cloth or an awl piercing stone."

"Though the enemy's armor is thick, it will break through when the qi arrives; though the enemy's defenses are strong, they will be pierced when the qi reaches them. It is not strength that prevails, but qi. Therefore, those who practice this art should first train their qi, and then their blade. If the qi is insufficient, the blade will be dull; if the blade is dull, the qi will not reach its full potential. Only when the two complement each other can one achieve true assassination..."

Lin Mu blinked, then groggily patted his face. How did he fall asleep again? He raised his head, rubbed his eyes, sat up straight, and looked upwards.

An old man with a snow-white beard stood on the podium, stroking his white beard with one hand, speaking slowly and deliberately. Sunlight streamed in through the window, shining brightly on his snow-white clothes, almost dazzlingly so.

This is a month later.

Lin Mu sat in a lecture hall of the Royal Martial Arts Academy, listening listlessly to the old man lecturing on skill theory.

The skeleton sat next to him—yes, sat. The martial arts instructors turned green when they first saw a skeleton swagger into the classroom.

Later, someone came and spoke up, and then nobody paid attention anymore.

At this moment, the skeleton sat upright in the chair, the flames in its two eye sockets staring intently at the old man on the podium, listening with rapt attention.

Now we're going to talk about assassination swordsmanship. The basic swordsmanship has already been covered. The skeleton has vaguely grasped the threshold of enlightenment, and its skeleton occasionally makes a cracking sound, as if it's digesting something or as if it's excited.

Chapter 151 Benefits and Basic Swordsmanship

Lin Mu rested his chin on his hand, shifted his gaze from the skeleton to the window, and began to replay the events of the past month in his mind.

That afternoon, Yang Xiong took him to the Bichon Palace and told him to wait while Yang Xiong went in to report.

He stood with the skeleton in the empty hall, no one greeted him, no one spoke to him, not even a cup of tea was served.

I stood there blankly for more than two hours, until my legs went numb.

During this time, the light spot representing the skull in his mind did indicate that someone had appeared nearby and had stayed for quite some time, but his field of vision was empty, without even a shadow.

After standing there for a while, a female official walked in through the side door, carrying a scroll covered with bright yellow silk. She walked up to him, glanced at him, and unrolled the scroll.

"Lin Mu." Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

Lin Mu paused for a moment, then replied, "Yes."

"His Majesty issued an oral decree, ordering me to read it aloud."

The female official paused for a moment, then said, "Lin Mu's cultivation is profound. He ventured alone into the Path of Martial Arts and the secret passages and returned unscathed, a great achievement for the nation. I believe he is talented and capable, but his experience is still limited. Therefore, I hereby order him to enter the Royal Martial Arts Academy for further training to fully utilize his talents."

After saying that, she took out a bronze-yellow token from her sleeve and handed it over.

Lin Mu took it. The token was small but heavy, made of fine bronze with rounded edges.

The front is engraved with the character "武" (wu, meaning martial arts), and the back is engraved with a line of smaller characters: Royal Martial Arts Academy.

The female official didn't say another word and turned to leave.

The footsteps faded into the empty hall, and his expression remained unchanged throughout.

Lin Mu held the token and stood in the empty hall for a while. A middle-aged man in a gray robe came in, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "Young Master Lin, I am here by imperial decree to take you to the martial arts school. Please follow me."

Lin Mu followed him for about half an hour, passing through several streets and alleys, and stopped in front of a gate with gray bricks and gray tiles.

Above the door hangs a plaque with the four characters "Royal Martial Arts Academy" written in a vigorous and powerful style, exactly like the characters on the back of the token.

From that day on, he was assigned to this place.

The conditions at the martial arts school were much better than he had imagined.

I live in a small courtyard with a private room for one person. It's quiet and undisturbed.

We ate in the cafeteria, where there were three meals a day, a good mix of meat and vegetables, and the food was pretty good.

What surprised him most was that he was also given two Spirit Gathering Beads every day, each worth 1000 experience points, which had to be used on the spot and could not be taken out.

Lin Mu pondered for a moment and concluded that this was probably to prevent someone from selling it for money or having it stolen on the way.

1000 experience points, according to the exchange rate of the Manor's Heaven and Earth Furnace, is 100 gold coins, and two of them are 200 gold coins.

The royal family is really rich; they even provide such generous daily allowances for their trainees.

Since it's free experience, might as well take advantage of it.

After a month, I earned 60,000 experience points for free. I'm so happy.

Aside from going to the classroom every morning to listen to the old man's lectures, no one bothered him in the afternoons.

He can move freely inside the martial arts school, but he cannot leave the school.

He tried several times, and each time he reached the door, the gatekeeper would reach out and stop him, his tone polite but not open to discussion: "Young Master Lin, you are not allowed to go out on ordinary days, please return."

Lin Mu didn't make things difficult for them and turned back to his courtyard.

He had also considered sneaking out when the gatekeeper wasn't looking. He could climb over the wall under the cover of darkness, or rush out during shift changes; there were plenty of ways.

But every time he had this thought, the light in his mind would flicker slightly, reminding him that someone was outside.

He glanced around in the direction of the light, but couldn't see anything—under the eaves, in the corner, or behind the trees.

But the light spots don't lie.

They were people sent by the Empress, constantly stalking him, both openly and secretly. At first, he found it annoying, but then he figured it out: since he wasn't planning on running away anyway, he might as well follow them.

When he had nothing to do at night, he would lie in bed and toss and turn, thinking about the refresh time of the Demon Sealing Hall, the monsters that hadn't been cleared yet, and the Rainbow Demon Lord that he didn't know when it would respawn.

I was itching to try it, but the light stayed not far outside the courtyard, motionless.

He could only lie there obediently, turning over and over again, wrapping the blanket tighter and then kicking it off, tossing and turning until midnight before finally falling asleep.

However, the light disappeared starting five nights ago.

Just then, as he was about to blow out the lamp, he habitually glanced at the small map in his mind. It was empty; the spot of light that had been vacant outside the courtyard for almost a month was gone.

He paused for a moment, then put on his clothes and went out into the yard, pretending to take a walk, pacing back and forth in the martial arts hall several times.

No, still no.

He pretended to wander towards the door again, and the gatekeeper, as usual, stopped him and said politely, "Young Master Lin, please go back."

He responded and turned to walk back, but his mind was racing.

Did that person stop following him, or did they use some method he didn't know about? He felt that something was off.

Without those eyes, he had the idea of ​​going to the Demon Sealing Sect to level up again.

But what if they deliberately withdrew, waiting for him to slip up? Lin Mu stood in the courtyard, the night breeze blowing, feeling chilly.