Chapter 63: there's more to the map?...

Martial arts Hall,

"Qin Feng" upon leading the young player into the innermost part of the Martial Hall, Gu Lin Fang calls out to him with a solemn expression.

Qin Feng responded quickly despite feeling uncomfortable by the state, "Lord patriarch".

"Have this" Gu Lin Fang passed him a green grade cultivation manual of the Yin Soft attribute, it focuses on internal damage and attack speed boosts.

Qin Feng looked at the manual while holding it with both hands, "[Serene star Dharma], Thank you lord Patriarch...words can't begin to express my..."

"It doesn't matter, you have proven useful, I Just need you to get stronger faster, there are a lot of things I'll need you to handle in the future" Gu Lin Fang cuts him off and began speaking, "As you know, the situation in the clan, aren't that good..."

"..."

As though he just thought of something, he said "oh right..."

He opened the clan interface and chose to share the knowledge of the sound technique he had snatched earlier...

Once he was done, He turned to leave...

[Ding! Your clan Patriarch finds you pleasing to the eye and has chosen to grant you a martial arts technique]

[You have spent 1000 experience points to learn the {twelve layered devil liberating melody}]

[New task: the Patriarch's Favor

Description: Gu Lin Fang is short on the number of capable hands or pieces he can use.

You must do your best to increase your level as soon as possible.

Requirements: you are required to get to the 9th level of the Qi gathering realm in one week to increase favorability!.

Rewards: 6500 experience points, Cloud threading boots (blue), +50 favorability points(Gu Lin Fang)]

By the time Qin Feng finished checking his notifications, Gu Lin Fang was already gone and he was already standing at the martial halls entrance at some point.

"This is the first time I've seen a green grade cultivation manual!!,  I still have enough Exp to level up to the 5th  level of the Qi gathering realm and level up this melody th" while thinking about that, he went to his room which provided by the clan.

"It was indeed the right choice to get closer to the Patriarch, luckily the clan is too small for any of those internal faction conflicts and so on" He ignored all the players in the Martial arts Hall and left with quick steps.

"Tsk...he must have gotten something good..."

"Who's he though?"

The other players began speaking behind him but he got too far away to hear the rest, they wanted to follow but they didn't want to waste the time allocated to them.

________

Gu Lin Fang rushed back to his pavilion, ignoring the curious gazes around him. There was a new development in his treasure hunt with the shadow guard.

There was someone else or it should be better to say that there were a few people who were searching for it.

Right now, he was following behind a woman in a yellow Martial robe, next to her is a stiff looking puppet like creature. It was a strange combination and the funniest thing was that this puppet actually spoke.

"We just need to find the last two remaining maps and the ones who wield them before heading to {Iron Crow City}, I don't think I, Lin Huang can hold on much longer" An old weathered voice came from the puppet.

The yellow robed lady sighed lightly, "Xin Xing is tired, why would that bastard make 10 maps?".

Lin Huang was silent for a few seconds and said, "it's not hard to guess, He had been poisoned by his Son, just before the Imperial war.

So He must have found a way to reserve his life and must need 10 people for something.

Although, he won't have imagined that one person might seize all the Maps..."

Xin Xing hummed lightly and sneered,"that really sounds like something that fool would do, but... what if he just needs one powerful person?".

"It doesn't matter, come the last two are in the area... I don't know why they all came out at the same time, but according to what I understood when studying the map, the main location isn't going to appear until after 2 years" Lin Huang sounded genuinely confused.

Xin Xing's steps stopped, "ah, what if this is the doing of one of the map wielders, to get the other maps?".

"Then, that person must be someone very strong... we'll have to be cautious".

Gu Lin Fang followed silently from a short distance, the shadow guard now looked messy with it's tattered and bloodied clothes. After storing the Jade spirit stone and the python's body in the spatial ring, he continued on his journey until he bumped into this guys.

Unsurprisingly, the map actually had a function of tracking down the other maps, so He believes that the map does more than showing the way.

An hour later, they arrived at an open area and there wasn't anywhere for the shadow guard to hide, so Gu Lin Fang didn't move it further but pushed it's perception forward.

Not far from the other two, was an unmoving carriage that was being pulled by a magic beast with the appearance of an animal with a mixture of a komodo dragon and Godzilla.

It looked very fierce as it's reddish-green scales reflected the Sun.

Silence lingered in the air as no one said a thing for the next one minute.

But right after that, there was a movement in the carriage. The door opened and the first thing they saw was a heavy boot.

A mini storm was building up just as this visitor exited the carriage.

"Vengeful Swan Xin Xing and Severing sparrow Lin Huang, I'm glad we could finally meet" The Unknown man spoke gently in his rough looking clothes.

Lin Huang was the first to speak as he quickly recognized this visitor, "Hou Dualan?!!"

Xin Xing's face changed, "what's a deacon of Bliss Valley doing here?"

Gu Lin Fang's expression also changed to one of surprise, earlier when he was reading about the most powerful forces in this world, Bliss Valley was one of those who appeared on the same list as the Wu Dang sect and Shaolin temple.

And from the usual hierarchy of sect's, There's the sect leader, the Elders and then the Deacons...

So that brings the question, 'what does a deacon from one of the nine great schools in the world, want with this maps?'.

Gu Lin Fang decided to use sensing on him and he pushed in a lot of Qi in order to get much more information.

[ Hou Dualan(Dou Dualan):

NPC qualifications: Blue Rank Boss template.

Age : 84

Cultivation: 6th stage of the Nascent soul realm(Mid)

Affiliation: Bliss Valley Deacon, hidden Elder of five immortal poison sect.

Reputation: 'Treacherous' Hou Dualan {Platinum I}

Summary: The last son of the Golden Sand Bandit's Leader, Dou Chuwing, He poisoned his father with a poison needle and fled in fright after his father acted out to kill him.

After wandering about for two years, He joined and became a Beggar's Sect member, but was soon expelled for practicing evil martial arts. On leaving, he managed to kill an inner sect disciple through trickery and made away with her treasures.

Years later, he was personally recruited by Shan Tian Ming due to his growing reputation.

He is narrow-minded and remembers anyone who has wronged him...

Presently working on ways to get his hands on his father's treasures]

After going through all this, Gu Lin Fang was speechless.

'Three of us put together won't be able to do sh*t to this fellow... Doesn't mean I can't get some benefits' He began making some calculations.

Suddenly, He noticed another presence approaching his pavilion.

"Master, young Master Chang Ye and the Patriarch of the Golden horse merchant family has come to visit" Wei Fan's voice came as quickly as he bowed.

At this point, Gu Lin Fang wanted to place all his focus on what was happening with his shadow guard, so he said with an impassive voice, "have them wait..."

"Yes..."