Insights could accelerate the Blood Seal’s evolution time.
This was something Lin Hui had never discovered before.
To satisfy this condition, one must first have a project currently undergoing evolution. Secondly, one must generate an insight regarding the content of that project at the exact moment of evolution.
These were actually quite harsh conditions, as there was no standard to follow.
Coincidentally, Lin Hui had just met both.
He stood frozen in place for a good while, repeatedly confirming that the Blood Seal’s evolution time had indeed decreased, his heart filled with indescribable surprise.
Turning around, he hurried toward the Clear Wind Temple’s Black Dragon Gate branch.
If this worked, could he proactively shorten the evolution time by gaining insights from other aspects?
For instance, pondering over other sword techniques? The Typhoon Sword Technique —though called "Typhoon," the experiential contemplation of the sword technique itself might provide inspiration, generate insight, and further shorten the time.
"Temple Master! Temple Master! Bad news!! Senior Brother Huang! Senior Brother Huang has been crippled!"
Lin Hui, who was cultivating his Internal Force, was suddenly interrupted by a rapid knocking on his door.
He opened his eyes, sensing the Internal Force cultivation within his body that had already reached the Third Layer, and frowned slightly.
With a flash of movement, he opened the door to see a white-robed disciple waiting outside, looking terrified and sweating anxiously on his forehead.
"Where is he?"
"Outside the main gate. Senior Brother Chen and the others have already gone over to check the situation!"
Lin Hui nodded. His figure blurred as he instantly exited the study and crossed the corridor.
He then leaped directly into the air, vaulting over the perimeter wall and traveling in a straight line until he landed in the Black Dragon Gate martial drill grounds.
A considerable number of disciples had already gathered on the drill grounds.
Those who were training and those who were not, preparing to eat, all crowded together.
Seeing Lin Hui arrive, everyone immediately and consciously cleared a path.
"The Temple Master is here!"
"Make way, quickly! Let the Temple Master take a look! Maybe there's still hope!"
"It’s too tragic! Who struck with such a heavy hand!?"
Whispered voices drifted into Lin Hui's ears.
He swept his gaze across the scene. Wang Hongshi and Chen Sui were present, as was Xue Meng of the Intent Blade Sect.
Seeing him arrive, Xue Meng's expression was grave as he signaled the surrounding people to back away.
"Huang Haiyin was the one sent to Fu'an Town to handle the apothecary trouble. He accepted the mission previously; the remuneration was two hundred thousand coins. It was a mission you issued personally. Now... see for yourself."
He sighed and stepped aside.
Lin Hui's face was as calm as water as he stepped forward and looked down.
On a stretcher in the center of the crowd, lying on a white cloth, was a weak man with a face like gold paper, his chin and the corners of his mouth covered in clots of black blood.
The man's chest had a heavily caved-in section, and his four limbs were twisted at unnatural angles.
Lin Hui reached out and grabbed an arm; it was limp and completely devoid of strength.
He checked the other limbs as well.
"All four limbs were crushed by someone using a heavy hand technique; the muscles and tendons were severed. The internal organs remain intact, and only the sternum was shattered from the front, yet strangely, the heart was not pierced."
"Very strong control!" Xue Meng nodded, his face heavy. "To achieve this requires extremely precise control. Furthermore, Huang Haiyin is a capable hand at the Seventh Rank of Body Tempering using the Black Dragon Claw. His Hard-Body Discipline makes him invulnerable to ordinary people. Even against someone of the same Body Tempering level, if he couldn't win, running shouldn't have been a problem. But..."
He didn't finish the sentence, but Lin Hui already understood his meaning.
"Killing someone is merely a moment's work. The other party's intent is obvious." Lin Hui felt a chill in his heart as he looked around at the crowd. "This is a demonstration of power."
"Indeed, it is a deliberate provocation against our Clear Wind Temple!" Xue Meng nodded in agreement. "To leave a man alive with such injuries and send him back is clearly meant for us to see."
Lin Hui exhaled. Looking at Huang Haiyin's pained yet hopeful eyes, he stood up.
"Has the medical apothecary arrived?"
"I'm here. I've already examined him." Chen Meng stepped out from the side and spoke respectfully. "Given the local conditions, it is basically impossible to reattach the limbs; they were crushed too finely. However, in the Inner City, a simple replacement surgery could be performed to swap the crushed parts with certain special materials found outside the city, substituting the human bone. But that would require a large sum of money."
"How much?" Lin Hui asked.
"About a million," Chen Meng replied. "The Three Major Powers and many large clans in the Inner City can perform this surgery. The average quote is about that amount."
"He was injured in the line of duty. The Temple will bear eighty percent of the cost; he will bear the rest. How do we find someone?" Lin Hui asked again.
"The Three Major Powers all have specialized medicine halls and advertise externally. We just need to go to the corresponding location to declare it." Chen Meng was evidently familiar with these matters.
"Notify his family." Lin Hui looked around. When he announced that he would cover eighty percent, the surrounding disciples all trembled.
In these times, with medical expenses so high, for a sect to be willing to shoulder the majority was not something an ordinary faction could—or would dare to—do.
For a moment, the crowd quieted down significantly. Setting aside whether it was a show, Lin Hui's stance alone won people's hearts.
Many felt their sense of belonging to the Clear Wind Temple strengthen considerably.
"Who found him first? How did he get back?" Lin Hui asked, his expression solemn.
"It was me!"
A female disciple with a tall figure and double ponytails raised her hand; it was Luo Qianshui.
She squeezed out of the crowd, grains of rice still stuck to her mouth. It seemed she had rushed over from her meal without even wiping her face.
"I was just about to go out for a meal when I saw two skinny guys running over carrying him. They said their merchant caravan found him halfway. They found his identity token on Senior Brother Huang and sent him here."
"Where are the people who delivered him?" Lin Hui asked.
"They were from a caravan belonging to the town's Huang's Restaurant. I tipped them with silver and sent them away," Chen Sui spoke up from the side.
"Could Huang Haiyin speak before?"
"No, he could only whimper. His tongue and throat might be injured, too," Chen Sui took over the conversation and replied. "He is a Rank 7 Body Tempering practitioner of the Black Dragon Claw and is considered to have decent strength within the sect; otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to take this mission. Only, I didn't expect..."
"Do we still have people in Fu'an Town regarding this matter?" Lin Hui asked again.
"None. After he was heavily injured, the rest all fled back. Does the Temple Master mean to call all those who fled over here?" Chen Sui seemed to understand somewhat.
"Heal Huang Haiyin first. Make it so he can at least speak. Chen Meng, you handle it. Any problems?" Lin Hui looked at the medical apothecary.
Medical apothecaries in this era were not only required to compound medicine but also moonlit as physicians; their experience was quite abundant.
"I can do it. I'll need to purchase some trauma medicine for my place."
"The Temple will pay for all expenses. Isn't money earned exactly for times like this?" Lin Hui waved his hand, hesitating not in the slightest.
Soon, Huang Haiyin was taken for treatment.
Lin Hui, Xue Meng, Chen Sui, Wang Hongshi, and Chen Xiangzhi, the Eldest Disciple of the Intent Blade Sect branch, gathered together in a small hall for a brief meeting.
"Given Huang Haiyin's strength, to be heavily injured to this extent means that going over alone next will definitely not solve the matter. We must first figure out who the opponent is and who is targeting our Clear Wind Temple," Lin Hui said calmly, his gaze sweeping over Xue Meng.
"Elder Xue, you have abundant experience. What are your thoughts?"
"It's simple. This is a provocation aimed at us. The fact that the opponent struck first and struck so heavily signifies they are extremely confident in their own strength. Therefore, using refueling tactics to send people over one by one is meaningless. Temple Master, you need to hold the fort at headquarters. The Clear Wind Temple's main base is here and cannot be moved lightly. If someone were to raid this place, that would truly destroy our reputation and smash our signboard. So this time, this old man will lead the team to handle this matter."
Xue Meng stroked his beard, a hint of heroism appearing on his perpetually distressed face. After all, he only looked distressed; his heart wasn't truly bitter.
"With Elder Xue taking action, this matter will surely be foolproof." Lin Hui nodded. It was hard to say about others, but Xue Meng—this old man had hidden quite a bit when he fought Lin Hui back then. He was inherently a master at the Perfection stage of Internal Force. Looking across the surrounding dozen or so towns, aside from the Hundred Flowers Sect Master Ou Tianrong, no one else was worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as him.
"We shouldn't delay. I will take people and set off immediately. This time, the Intent Blade Sect branch will handle full authority. Rest assured, Temple Master, once we find the person behind the scenes, I will crush their four limbs and return them exactly as they were, sending them back to the Temple!" Xue Meng said solemnly.
"Good! Be extra careful!" Lin Hui nodded.
Moments later, Xue Meng took three disciples and quickly left the gate, boarding a carriage purchased by Lin Hui for the Clear Wind Temple and heading straight for Fu'an Town.
After Xue Meng left, Lin Hui sat alone in the great hall. After pondering for a moment, he called over a guard disciple not far away and had him bring paper and brush. He wrote a personal letter to Ou Tianrong of the Hundred Flowers Sect, inquiring about the situation.
When it came to intelligence, the Hundred Flowers Sect was far stronger than they were.
Since they were now on the same side, the advantages available had to be fully mobilized.
After arranging for a disciple to deliver the letter, Lin Hui finally settled his mind to think about the accident that had occurred and the impact it had brought.
There are still too few people I can use... He lamented inwardly. There was only Xue Meng. There were too few in the Internal Force Realm. When trouble arose, he couldn't possibly ask Elder Xue to mobilize every single time. That wasn't realistic.
Thinking of this, he ordered people to summon Wang Hongshi, Chen Sui, and the rest of the top ten disciples.
The current top ten of the Clear Wind Temple, due to the merger of the three branches, had resulted in a situation where no one submitted to anyone else. And because no internal grand competition had been held, there was no public consensus on who exactly was stronger.
As soon as Lin Hui called for the top ten, the top ten from all three branches—excluding the Intent Blade Sect—swarmed in.
Although called the "top ten," most were actually original Black Dragon Gate disciples. From the Clear Wind Temple, only Chen Sui, Huang Shan, and Qiu Yiren could cut. As for Zhao Jiang'an, he had fallen behind long ago.
Soon, a group of more than ten people stood in two rows inside the great hall.
"This matter with Huang Haiyin has reminded me. The strength levels of the disciples within the sect are unclear, making it a difficult point when assigning external missions. Therefore, I plan to hold a small internal competition to determine the top ten across the three branches. In the future, the top ten positions will receive a heavy tilt in resources and will serve as the face of the sect to deal with external troubles."
Lin Hui instructed.
"Yes!" The crowd clasped their fists in unison, fighting spirit rising in their eyes.
If it were the previous Black Dragon Gate top ten, everyone's interest would have been lackluster. But if it was the current Clear Wind Temple top ten, it was completely different.
Lin Hui, this Temple Master, was incredibly generous with his spending. Coupled with his self-created Perfected Seven-Section Swift Sword, the speed of Body Tempering was extremely fast. Among the disciples who had joined the Clear Wind Temple later, in just a few months, some had already used the Perfected Seven-Section Swift Sword to reach Rank 1 of Body Tempering.
In the past, this would have been fundamentally unimaginable.