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

He didn't go into too much detail, but he wasn't being perfunctory either. He told us everything that needed to be told, and didn't leave out a single word that shouldn't have been said.

The Empress listened without interrupting, nodding occasionally. After he finished speaking, she remained silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Is your fusion technique usable now?"

Lin Mu nodded: "Yes."

"Let me demonstrate."

Lin Mu stood up, took two steps back, closed his eyes, and with a thought, he made a move.

Silvery-white specks of light surged from the void, like countless fireflies flying from the darkness, covering his shoulder armor, breastplate, arm armor, and leg armor, weaving, layering, and solidifying layer by layer.

As the silver light faded, Lin Mu stood in the center of the hall, transformed from a person into a warrior encased in white bone armor.

With white bones as armor, curved horns pointing to the sky, and silver light flowing all over its body, it was like a demon lord who had come from ancient times to appear in the world.

A moment of silence fell over the hall. The female officials lowered their heads, not daring to look up, and several young palace maids trembled slightly with their fingers, even holding their breath.

The empress did not retreat.

Her eyes lit up, and she stood up from the soft couch, walked to Lin Mu, and circled him once.

Beneath the phoenix crown, her black hair cascaded down her back; her ample bosom was draped in a dragon robe; and her eyes, no more than inches from his, were intently scrutinizing the bone armor on his body.

My gaze traveled from the curved corner to the bone armor, and from the bone armor to the silvery-white bone patterns, looking at each part as if I were examining a rare treasure.

The hem of the dragon robe gently brushed against Lin Mu's legs, carrying a faint, ethereal fragrance, like the scent of plum blossoms after a snowfall.

Lin Mu stood there, the fragrance lingering around his nose, his Adam's apple bobbing, his eyes unconsciously following her figure, his mind a jumble of thoughts.

The Empress nodded, then asked, "Teleportation? Fusion? And demonic energy? How did you manage to fuse?"

Lin Mu shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of doubt that he himself couldn't quite explain: "I don't know either. It was when we entered the secret passage in the Sealed Demon Valley that the skeleton came up on its own and merged with me. After that, we could merge with each other with a thought. It might be because the skeleton was corrupted by demonic energy for a long time in the Sealed Demon Valley."

"How much will your combat power increase after combining?" she asked.

Lin Mu snapped out of his daze and answered truthfully.

After listening, the Empress turned around, walked back to the soft couch, sat down, picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said in a light tone, "Alright, you may leave."

With a thought, Lin Mu's bone armor transformed into silvery-white light spots and dissipated, and the skeleton stood behind him once more.

He bowed respectfully, then turned and left the Hall of Mental Cultivation with the skeleton in his arms.

The palace doors closed, and the Empress put down her teacup, tapping her fingers lightly twice on the table.

She leaned against the soft couch, her gaze fixed on the direction of the palace gate, her mind racing with thoughts.

There are records of skeletons teleporting; it requires adding the Woma Horn while bathing a skeleton for it to learn teleportation. However, the probability is extremely low.

Qingyi took the teleportation ring, but the Woma Horn was useless, so she probably gave it to Lin Mu.

Can a skeleton grow horns and scales simply by being corrupted by demonic energy? She had never seen such a record, nor had she heard the Celestial Venerable mention it.

The many guards in Fengmo Valley are constantly corroded by demonic energy, with horns growing on their heads and scales on their bodies, but I've never seen anyone with a skull growing on their body.

This is strange.

She was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke, her voice not loud, but carrying an undeniable determination: "Send word to Yang Xiong to begin the experiment."

-

Lin Mu returned to the Royal Martial Arts Academy before lunch.

The cafeteria was already quite full, with people sitting in twos and threes, carrying their trays and chatting as they ate.

Lin Mu got his food, found a corner to sit down, and the skeleton stood behind him, the flames in its eye sockets scanning the surroundings.

He took a bite of rice, chewed for a moment, and then suddenly sighed.

"He said he could have a meal with His Majesty in the palace, but I wonder what His Majesty eats for lunch." He picked up a piece of braised pork and stuffed it into his mouth, muttering indistinctly, "I'll have to come back to the canteen."

In the afternoon, the instructor came and called Lin Mu away again.

I'm not going to class, I'm going to the administration office.

The steward looked up at Lin Mu, his expression somewhat puzzled, as if he didn't understand why things were suddenly changing, but he still said in a calm tone, "From today onwards, you are no longer a full-time student. You can go out at any time and don't need to come to the academy every day. You will still receive your monthly Spirit Gathering Pearls, just come and collect them whenever you want. The Golden Guard has already informed you and won't stop you."

Chapter 167 Auction House

Lin Mu was stunned for a moment, then the corners of his mouth turned up, and he had only one thought in his mind: freedom.

He led the skeleton back to his dormitory, made it stand by the wall, and then mentally reassured it, "Stay here, I'm going out for a bit. Don't wander off."

The skeleton tilted its head, and the flames in its eye sockets flickered, as if in agreement.

Lin Mu closed the door, turned around, and left the yard.

As he approached the entrance of the martial arts school, the guards on duty glanced at him but did not stop him.

Lin Mu didn't stop walking. He stepped out the door, and the sunlight shone on him, warm and pleasant. He felt that the air was even fresher than inside the martial arts gym.

He took two deep breaths before taking out a bamboo hat from his storage bag, putting it on, and tying a face towel around his face to cover it completely.

After all that incident, they need to keep a low profile.

After disguising himself, he thought for a moment, then mounted his horse and headed towards the central square.

It's not that he's going to sell the equipment. Once the compensation is paid in a while, he'll be a millionaire. What's the point of selling all those things in his Qiankun bag? He might as well keep them; they might come in handy later.

There are many awakened people in the central square, and it's a bustling area with the best information. You can also check if you can find any treasures there.

However, just as Lin Mu thought, treasures shouldn't be sold at street stalls; truly good items would have been sent to auction houses long ago.

The stalls were filled with various weapons and armor, but they were of average quality. Forget about top-tier Woma equipment, even moderately high-quality items with +2 or +3 enhancements were rare.

He wandered around for most of the time, but didn't find anything he liked.

However, when he passed by several stalls selling medicine, he stopped and asked about the price of blessing oil.

In just half a day, the price of Blessing Oil rose from 4 gold coins to 5 gold coins.

Lin Mu frowned and asked the stall owner why the price had increased.

While tidying up the shelves, the stall owner said without looking up, "Don't you know? Someone is buying up blessing oil in bulk. With less blessing oil on the market, the price of oil naturally goes up."

Lin Mu paused for a moment, his mind racing.

Who could be so fast?

Could it be the Jiang family taking it? It's very likely he'll have to compensate himself with 100000 bottles of blessing oil.

It's also possible that those people in the imperial court heard rumors this morning and inflated oil prices in advance to profit from it.

Anyway, no matter who's buying it, he won't buy the high-priced oil; he'll buy as much as he can get for under 5 gold coins. Since His Majesty is guarantor, the Jiang family won't evade the compensation they owe; a few more or less bottles don't matter.

After walking around, I didn't buy many things here and there, but together with what I had gotten before, I collected a total of 47 bottles of blessing oil.

He put the bottles of oil into his Qiankun bag one by one, and after wandering around for a while, he stopped in front of a skill book stall, flipped through them, and took out a level 26 Taoist skill book.

Spiritual Revelation.

The stall owner asked for 25 gold coins. Lin Mu cursed inwardly that it was really expensive, but it was still cheaper than the bookstore, so he didn't haggle and just paid for it.

He's currently in level 27 and learned it on the spot.

The pages of the book turned into specks of light and entered between my eyebrows. A new sense appeared in my mind, allowing me to check the monster's health.

This makes it relatively easy to identify which Zuma monster is the best when fighting Zuma monsters, which is pretty good.

He then browsed the remaining stalls, but didn't find anything he liked, so he turned and left.

Just as I was about to leave, a newsboy emerged from the crowd, waving a stack of newspapers in his hand, his voice so loud that it could be heard throughout the entire street.

"Newspapers for sale! Bichon tabloids! Summary of poems from the Yaotai Poetry Gathering and commentary from various sources! Latest developments on the compensation for the Jiang family's young master's loss to the commoner master! The competition process and schedule for the Mengzhong Martial Arts Tournament! Auction house news! Newspapers for sale! Newspapers for sale!"

Lin Mu called over the newsboy, took out two copper coins, and took a copy.

He unfolded the newspaper, and sure enough, the front page was about his duel with Jiang Yanzhou. The headline was quite sensational, but the content was objective, without saying anything bad about either of them; it simply recounted what had happened.

He flipped through it; the next few pages contained the competition process and schedule for the martial arts tournament, hosted by Mengzhong Province, which was scheduled to start next month, with registration closing in half a month.

Turning the page further, you'll find a summary of the poems from the Yaotai Poetry Gathering, along with commentaries from various scholars.

Several of the winning poems were published in full, accompanied by comments from Master Cen and several scholars from the Hanlin Academy. The comments were elegant, the praise was just right, and there was nothing to criticize.

Several other poems that were criticized as "overly ornate and lacking in interest" were also listed, but they were not signed; they were only referred to as "a certain young master" or "a certain talented scholar," which was a way of saving face for the authors.

Finally, there's news from the auction house: there's an auction tonight.

Lin Mu folded the newspaper, stuffed it into his Qiankun bag, and glanced at the sky. It was still early. He muttered to himself, "Then I'll go check out this auction house and see if they have anything good."

He then strolled over to the auction house.

What he didn't notice was that the medicine stalls in the central square became lively as soon as he left.

As soon as the news of the compensation spread in the tabloids, the several medicine vendors looked at each other, and no one knew who started it. One vendor reached out and crossed out "5 gold coins" on the wooden sign and wrote "6 gold coins" instead.

Several other stall owners nearby followed suit and changed their prices as well.

In the blink of an eye, the price of Blessing Oil jumped from five gold coins to six gold coins.

In the corner, one of the bolder ones flipped the wooden sign over, dipped it in ink, and wrote "10 gold coins" in a crooked hand. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and held his chin high, as if to say, "Take it or leave it."

The smiles on the faces of the stall owners who had just sold their blessing oil to Lin Mu froze before they could even fade.

Someone nearby joked, "Hey, if only I had waited a little longer, I could have earned an extra tael of gold coins per bottle."

The stall owner glared at him irritably, but his tone was defiant: "What? Can't I go home and rest after I finish selling? Pfft, how much more money can I make?"

A few people nearby chuckled, but the stall owner kept his head down and remained silent, simply tidying up his things.

-

The auction house is located on the east side of the central square, in a two-story building with gray bricks and tiles. The facade is not large, but the interior is spacious.

A few rows of chairs were set up in the hall, and a few people were sitting there sparsely, whispering to each other in twos and threes.

The bulletin board on the wall displayed the auction list for tonight, and Lin Mu leaned over to take a look. Several Zuma and Woma weapons, a number of Woma jewelry pieces, a dozen or so top-tier small equipment items, and a few skill books.

He scanned the area and found nothing special. There wasn't even a memory bracelet, let alone any decent three divine weapons.

Just then, a waiter in a gray robe approached, a smile plastered on his face, and asked politely, "Sir, is there anything you'd like to see?"

Lin Mu shook his head and casually asked, "Do you have records of the items from previous auctions? I'd like to ask if the Memory Bracelet has ever appeared?"

The waiter's eyes lit up, and he looked Lin Mu up and down, as if reassessing the importance of this guest.