Chapter 1032: Chapter 1032: You Can’t Stop Me

Gurgle, gurgle.

Water seeped in through the phone’s earpiece and charging port; clearly this phone was done for.

Next, Xu Dongxu picked up the eight Copper Coins and tossed them into the water.

Just like before, not a single splash was raised, making Xiang Ming’s eyes light up in curiosity.

As the Copper Coins slowly sank to the bottom of the basin, Xu Dongxu extended both palms, channeled a bit of energy, and slapped the two sides of the basin.

Buzz~

A buzzing sound rang out, and the previously calm surface of the water suddenly began to bubble and leap, as if fish might jump out the next instant.

Xu Dongxu’s Inner Strength passed through the basin into the water, and the water came alive, spinning into a clockwise whirlpool. The eight Copper Coins spun rapidly along the rim of the basin with the vortex, as if they might fly out at any moment.

Thump~!

One Copper Coin sprang out along the rim of the basin, clattered down onto that symbol, spun a few times, then fell with its front side facing up.

Thump thump thump...

The Copper Coins jumped out one after another, clanking non-stop.

There was nothing like this kind of metaphysics in Tyrant Emperor’s Record, and even if there were, it wouldn’t be something you could learn in a short time, so Lin Tian had no idea what it meant.

Xu Dongxu’s face, however, went through sun and rain in an instant, colors changing like a rainbow—wonderful to behold.

"Third Great-uncle, is this reliable?" Xiang Ming stepped forward and voiced the question everyone was curious about.

Xu Dongxu didn’t answer directly. Frowning, he said, "The character on the ground is a polyphonic one. It has four readings—life, death, blessing, calamity. It’s from the divination art created by my sect’s patriarch. Those eight Copper Coins fell to the north, six reversed and two upright, at the tail of the character’s beginning stroke. According to the hexagram, it’s a sign of great disaster, on the verge of death."

Hearing this, Lin Tian’s heart was yanked tight. Seeing that whole mysterious sequence of movements from Xu Dongxu, it didn’t look like a bluff. He hurriedly asked, "Then do you know where she is?"

"The Copper Coins fell in the northern trigram, so naturally she’s due north. As for the exact distance, I can’t measure that," Xu Dongxu said honestly. "If you want to save her, you’d better go now. Otherwise, before dawn her corpse might already be cold."

Xv Baiping found it all so abstruse that her pretty face went a shade paler, blood draining away. She urged anxiously, "Miaoqiu, quick, call up the Xu Family disciples to go save her!"

Lin Tian soothed her, "Auntie, I’m enough on my own. If we bring too many people, it might actually make things worse."

"But... just you alone..." Xv Baiping looked at Lin Tian, worried.

"Little girl of the Xv Family, my master has already formed his Golden Core, and add this old man on top of that—are you still not at ease?" the Grand Elder said softly. To be honest, he was feeling a bit depressed now. The person he used to want to kill, he now had to go save himself—such are the twists of fate.

"But..." Xv Baiping was still uneasy.

"Sister-in-law, I’ll go along with them. You can be at ease then, right?" Xu Beishan said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lin Tian glanced at him. That big hulking frame of his looked pretty good for a human shield.

"Alright then, but you all be careful," Xv Baiping said.

In the end, aside from Xv Baiping, Xiang Ming, Xu Dongxu, and Nao Nao staying behind, Lin Tian and the others all pushed their speed to the limit and rushed north.

Lin Tian and the Grand Elder were about equal in speed, charging at the very front.

The due north that Xu Dongxu had mentioned happened to be at the far end of Xu Family Stream village.

Lin Tian sprinted all the way and didn’t see any suspicious people or happenings. He kept going until he reached the village’s end. Directly ahead on the main road was the Xu Family ancestral hall—past that, the road ended. If they went any farther, it would be into the mountain forest.

Suddenly, Lin Tian stopped in front of the Xu Family ancestral hall and looked around.

The Grand Elder saw Lin Tian stop and halted as well, asking, "Master, what is it?"

"Shh!" Lin Tian put a finger to his lips in a hush gesture.

The Grand Elder quickly shut his mouth, adjusted his breathing, and carefully observed the surroundings, but he still didn’t know what was wrong.

At that moment, Miaoqiu, Xu Beishan, and Nan Qiu, who were behind, caught up as well.

"Listen closely. Isn’t it too quiet around here? Back at the village entrance, there were at least insect noises," Lin Tian said softly.

It was the turn of winter to spring, when all things revived. In a small village environment like Xu Family Stream, the chorus of insects at night should have been very loud, but here it had suddenly vanished, which was odd.

The five people present all had sharp ears and keen eyes; their senses were far beyond ordinary people. When they listened carefully, it was indeed an eerily frightening silence.

"Why don’t we go check that big house up ahead first?" Nan Qiu said quietly. Her Celestial Dragon Continent tongue wasn’t very good, but it was easy enough to understand what she meant.

Lin Tian looked up. The "big house" Nan Qiu mentioned was precisely the Xu Family ancestral hall.

"I also suggest we check the ancestral hall first. Searching the other houses will be too troublesome and might cause a commotion—it could do more harm than good," the Grand Elder said.

"No. The ancestral hall is a vital place of the Xu Family. Outsiders not in the clan genealogy are forbidden from entering," Xu Beishan said.

The ancestral shrine was where the ancestral tablets rested. Even descendants had to be reverent and cautious when entering. If outsiders went in and caused offense, what then?

Nan Qiu was from Xiaocheng; she didn’t understand why, but the Grand Elder understood the gravity of it all too well, and his brows knotted for a moment.

Lin Tian narrowed his eyes slightly and quietly activated his clairvoyant sight. Through doors, windows, and walls, he saw the scene inside the Xu Family ancestral shrine.

Inside the shrine, ancestral tablets of various ranks were arranged in tiers. The incense altar’s sticks were burning strong, and all kinds of fresh fruit and offerings were laid out—clearly just replenished.

In front of the incense altar was the kneeling spot for descendants, with meditation cushions placed there.

At that very moment, on one of the cushions sat an old woman of about seventy. The most striking thing about her was her eyes: alluring, with silken charm. Clearly of great age, yet her eyes were unbelievably beautiful.

In Lin Tian’s memory, he had never seen eyes so beautiful.

Only, the old woman was muttering who-knows-what under her breath, her expression pained yet extremely excited, her whole person exuding strangeness.

Soon, Lin Tian saw that on the floor of the ancestral shrine lay a woman. Her clothes had been pulled up to reveal a flat belly. Her face, arms, and abdomen were covered with red, bizarre markings, yet laid out in neat order.

Even with all that Lin Tian had seen, he still had no idea what those markings were for. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Retracting his clairvoyant gaze, Lin Tian strode forward and said in a deep voice, "I’m going in to take a look."

Swish.

A figure flashed past—Xu Beishan stepped in front of Lin Tian. "You’re not of the Xu Family. You can’t enter our ancestral shrine."

Lin Tian raised his head and looked at him, a beastlike ferocity flashing at the corner of his eyes. "You can’t stop me."

Meeting Lin Tian’s glare, Xu Beishan suddenly felt as if needles were pricking his back; a sheet of cold sweat broke out all at once.

Right—this guy had even chopped off one of Wang Manzi’s arms. How could he possibly stop him?