rin returns to his room and now, almost ninety per cent, believes this is a dream world.
Xiao Yun’s situation mirrors Xiao Yan from *Battle Through the Heavens*, making rin suspect he is inside soone’s dream, with Xiao Yun as the main character.
But that doesn’t matter—he doesn’t need to fawn over Xiao Yun, nor gain benefits from him.
After calming his mind, rin takes out four runes and pastes one on each of his palms and upper arms.
He activates them, and his hands turn into lightning hands.
He grits his teeth, enduring the pain, and when the lightning fades, his skin peels, bloodied and burned.
Channelling vitality into his hands, he feels a cold breeze sweep over them, the pain slowly fading away.
The next day, he leaves with Lin Mi for the school where Xiao Yun’s sister, Xiao Yixian, studies.
His hands are mostly healed now; only faint marks remain, which will vanish in a few hours.
After admitting Lin Mi into the school and leaving her there, he walks outside and cos across Xiao Yun escorting Xiao Yixian.
They simply nod at each other as they pass.
In that mont, Xiao Yun hears a voice in his mind: “That boy is dangerous.”
Xiao Yun trembles, startled, because in his age group, no one in the city should be his match.
While walking back, Xiao Yun asks in his mind, “Are you sure?”
The voice replies, “Brat Xiao Yun, are you questioning ?”
Xiao Yun shakes his head quickly, “No, never, Grandma Yao. But… how?”
Grandma Yao answers, “I sense lightning energy in his body. He must be constructing the Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Body.”
Xiao Yun asks, “How does it compare with my Spirit Fire Spiritual Body?”
Grandma Yao says, “Spirit Fire is an evolution-type technique. Its strength depends on you, while the Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Body itself is inherently destructive.”
anwhile, rin does not return ho but goes to the Four Gate and asks Li i for tasks.
He is three hundred rits short of the five hundred he needs, and he wants to earn them within a month.
Searching the task board, he finds one inside the city worth twenty rits.
He cannot leave the city since he must later bring Lin Mi back ho, so he accepts it.
The task is to cleanse the body of a girl who has fallen unconscious due to evil energy.
When rin examines her, he frowns—inside her body is not evil energy but a fragnt of an evil ghost’s soul.
Such a thing cannot happen naturally; soone must be behind this, most likely an Evil Celestial Master.
A Purifying Rune will not work properly on her, since it can only erase evil energy, not a soul fragnt.
Still, he uses the Purifying Rune, and the girl regains consciousness, though the fragnt remains hidden.
She will fall unconscious again, but rin leaves it untouched to avoid alerting the one behind it.
After receiving his monetary reward and task-completion badge, he returns to the Four Gates.
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There, he finds commotion at the counter—several people are quarrelling with Li i.
After so ti, they leave.
Standing at the counter, he asks, “What happened?”
Li i says, “Zou Yan, a celestial master, had a similar task as yours two days ago to cleanse a girl’s body. He did, but today the girl fell unconscious again.”
She then looks at rin and asks, “Lin Yu, did you check the victim before leaving?”
rin shares what he discovered.
Li i says, “Let’s tell the head.”
rin shakes his head, “You can tell him. I have to pick up my sister from her school.”
He pockets two green chips and leaves to bring Lin Mi ho.
That evening, during dinner, he informs Lin Zhu that he will personally escort and pick up Lin Mi from school the next day.
Returning to his room, he continues forging his hands with lightning.
The following day, he accepts a task to hunt an inferior demon boar outside the city, worth fifty rits.
After hunting, he returns at night, just before the city gate closes.
The next morning, at the Four Gate building, he asks Li i, “What’s going on with the soul fragnts?”
Li i says, “They were all destroyed, and the head rewarded you fifty rits for the information.”
In two days, rin earns one hundred and twenty rits, leaving only one hundred and eighty more to go.
“I can finish in two weeks,” he thinks.
But he does not need to wait that long—within a week, he gathers the full five hundred rits.
He goes to the back of the Four Gate building to receive his interdiate cultivation thod and ntions it to the elder.
The elder says, “The first three stages are to refine your spirit. Then the next three stages are to form a spiritual body.”
rin asks, “What is a spiritual body?”
The elder replies, “It is like a silent guardian inside your sea of consciousness. It grants you the ability to channel so spells without relying on runes.”
She continues, “There are many types of spiritual bodies.”
She looks at him with pursed lips and says, “I recall you exchanged for the Lightning Palm rune. Are you able to perform it?”
rin asks, “Why?”
She says, “Every spiritual body has its own rit. None is stronger than the other. But the Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Body is known as the most effective against evil creatures.”
rin takes out a Lightning Palm rune from his bag, pastes it on his palm, and a crackling ball of lightning forms.
The elder shouts, “Quickly throw it, or you’ll get injured!”
rin doesn’t want to reveal his forged hands, so he throws the lightning ball at the wall.
The elder nods, then takes fifty green chips from him and hands him two books.
She says, “One is about spiritual runes, and the other explains the Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Body.”
With the books in hand, he walks out of the building.
On the way ho, he decides to buy food from a restaurant to celebrate with Lin Zhu and Lin Mi.
Living with them, rin has started to see them as his real brother and sister. They remind him of his siblings from the dragon world, and even of his sister from the origin world.
This world may be soone’s dream, but his feelings are real.
When he arrives ho with food, he frowns.
“By now, Lin Zhu and Lin Mi should be back.”
He waits ten minutes, then leaves ho and heads for Lin Mi’s school.
rin finds the school in a flurry of activity, with guards stationed all around.
He asks, “What happened?”
A guard says, “Two girls are missing.”
rin’s heart tightens with dread. “Who?”
The guard shakes his head. “Do not know.”
rin asks, “Can I enter?”
The guard says, “No.”
rin pulls the token from his waist and says, “I am from the Four Gates. My sister studies here, and she hasn’t returned ho.”
The guard looks uneasy, then says, “Wait for , I will call my captain.”
rin nods and waits.
Monts later, the guard returns with Captain Zhang.
She asks, “Lin Yu, is your sister nad Lin Mi?”
rin’s heart grips with fear. “Yes.”
Captain Zhang lowers her voice. “I am sorry. She is one of the girls missing.”
rin demands, “How can they be missing inside the school?”
Captain Zhang says, “I think an evil celestial master is involved.”
rin’s eyes widen. “What?” His urgency sharpens. “Can you let check the school?”
Captain Zhang nods. “I was going to ask you this.”
She leads him inside, into the playground.
She points. “She and Yixian went missing here.”
rin nods and activates Dreamsization. Instantly, he catches the lingering aura of an evil celestial master.
He says, “Got it.”
Without waiting, he runs, following the trail beyond the school and out of the city.
Captain Zhang rides after him with her team, leading an extra horse.
“Lin Yu, climb on it!” she shouts.
rin jumps onto the moving horse and continues chasing the aura.
Inside a dark cavern, Lin Mi holds Xiao Yixian’s hand tightly.
“Yixian, don’t worry, my brother will co to rescue us. He works at the Four Gate,” Lin Mi says with trembling determination.
Xiao Yixian nods. “My brother will also co.”
The two girls sit huddled together in a cold iron cage. Around them, the sound of sniffing and quiet sobbing drifts from the other cages hidden in the shadows.
Lin Mi whispers, “There are other girls like us.”
Xiao Yixian’s lips quiver. “Why do you think they took us?”
Before Lin Mi can answer, a voice echoes from outside.
A beautiful woman steps into view, her age close to that of their elder brothers. Her smile is serene, but her eyes glint with cruelty.
“You all will be sacrificed.”
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