After finishing the old stories about Long Mingyu, the two reconfirmed the order.

  Lin Lin needed Fifth Master Jin to try and catch some higher-tier demon beasts.

  Fifth Master Jin did not mind this; business was business, and any deal was a good thing.

  Higher-tier beasts just meant hiring stronger helpers.

  As long as the pay was good, any fierce beast could be caught.

  On his side, Lin Lin did not care about money for now.

  Hiring hunters to kill beasts below the fourth tier cost mortal silver and gold, not spirit stones.

  Qingfeng Sect had plenty of mortal assets; a little expense was nothing.

  Thinking this, Lin Lin could not help but mock his fellow practitioners in the cultivation world who lived by hunting beasts.

  This profession had basically no barriers for cultivators.

  Most people cultivated just to fight, so their combat skills were generally solid.

  If everyone ran off to kill beasts, the competition would be insane.

  Would valuable beasts just stick their necks out waiting to be killed?

  They probably either fled or died, leaving very few.

  The remaining beasts were mostly unprofitable and hard to kill.

  Lin Lin lamented the severe employment situation for cultivators.

  He bought some braised pork balls and lotus root stir-fried with meat from the restaurant, packed them in a lunch box, and flew back to the cave on the Peak Mountain Sword.

  It was already dark. Liu Yueyan was starving, almost ready to get on all fours and eat like a dog.

  "It is okay, eat slowly."

  Lin Lin fed her, spoonful by spoonful.

  Two months had passed, and Liu Yueyan's injuries had healed. She could now crawl around inside the secluded chamber.

  Afraid she would get lonely, Lin Lin brought her books she liked to read. Worried she could not turn the pages, he tore them out and spread them on the floor one by one.

  He also brought her favorite toys and clothes.

  But none of that really helped. In the end, Lin Lin had to find someone to take care of Liu Yueyan.

  After a while, two maids walked into the cave.

  Lin Lin had secretly hired them without telling Ma Zhaoyuan and the others.

  Now that the outer disciples guarding the door were all bribed, this was not a problem.

  "This one is Xianghua, this one is Xiangmin. They will stay in the cave for the next few days and take care of you."

  Lin Lin pointed at the two maids.

  Liu Yueyan's heart tightened inexplicably. "You are not coming back?"

  "How could that be? If you want, you can see me every day. But... I thought you probably would not want to see me."

  Liu Yueyan was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to answer.

  After all, the person in front of her was the one who took her limbs, and also...

  Thinking this, Liu Yueyan's cheeks flushed. She pretended to be angry. "Hmph, you know it. Go away."

  "Yes. You two, take good care of the Young Miss. If anything goes wrong, it will not be as simple as just punishment."

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  The two mortal maids knew cultivators were violent. They quickly knelt and promised repeatedly.

  Leaving the room, Lin Lin walked to the dissection chamber.

  The reason he had brought up the Blood Servant Sect's past with Fifth Master Jin was to verify an important hypothesis.

  After building the microscope, Lin Lin had used it to examine the three elders' core nuclei.

  The results were as expected. The so-called core nuclei contained some kind of biological cells.

  Just from appearance, these did not look like cells of human organs at all. They looked more like parasitic entities.

  The core nucleus parasitized the human body, connected to blood vessels, absorbing nutrients.

  Connected to meridians, it helped humans gain the ability to control spiritual energy.

  The demon cores of Madness Wolves and Blue Jade Spiders were the same.

  Lin Lin was secretly delighted.

  Sure enough, his bet was right. So-called cultivation was not metaphysics, but biological symbiosis.

  The last person to discover this secret was Long Mingyu, the founding ancestor of the Blood Servant Sect.

  A genius like him must have realized this too, which was why his core formation failed.

  He was instinctively afraid of this symbiotic relationship.

  And in the fifteen years that followed, based on this biological symbiosis, he created the Blood Servant Sect's techniques.

  "Long Mingyu, you really had some talent. Separated by a hundred years, we actually had the same insight." Lin Lin pulled the Blood Servant Sect manual from his sleeve.

  This Blood Servant Sect manual came from Liu Fenghai's legacy.

  It seemed Liu Fenghai really would stop at nothing to break through his bottleneck.

  Not to mention Lin Lin making up stories for Liu Yueyan.

  If there really was a demon cult that could help Liu Fenghai reach Core Formation, he would probably sell Liu Yueyan without a second thought.

  Unfortunately, this Blood Servant Sect manual was too hard to practice.

  Liu Fenghai, a late Foundation Establishment cultivator, could not even master the basic techniques.

  To practice Blood Servant Sect techniques, one had to learn to obtain another's core nucleus.

  This was not easy.

  For example, the core nuclei Lin Lin found in the three elders' remains were dead nuclei.

  Dead nuclei were generally just ingredients for some demon cult techniques.

  What the Blood Servant Sect techniques needed were living nuclei.

  Long Mingyu did not clearly explain what a living nucleus was.

  But in his view, obtaining a living nucleus required several conditions.

  First, the extraction must be lightning fast.

  One had to use top-tier martial skills to cut out the victim's nucleus, so fast the victim did not even feel it.

  Second, the victim must still survive after extraction.

  It was a known rule among cultivators: core destroyed, person dies.

  If a cultivator's core was removed or destroyed, they would die instantly.

  These two points were extremely difficult.

  More importantly, even the most vicious Blood Servant Sect members did not have enough Foundation Establishment experts to practice on.

  So the alternative for initial training was to use living demon cores from beasts instead of cultivator cores.

  This was why Lin Lin's previous purchase of Madness Wolves was so useful.

  But after two months, Lin Lin's experimental progress was not smooth.

  He had tried anesthetizing Madness Wolves and surgically removing the demon core.

  But every time he removed the core, or even just touched it, the wolf or spider died immediately.

  It seemed there was no shortcut to extracting living demon cores.

  No choice. Lin Lin, the number one researcher in the cultivation world, had to retrain his martial skills.

  Fortunately, as a former senior disciple of Qingfeng Sect, Lin Lin had a martial foundation.

  Qingfeng Sect's Wind Scar Sword Art relied entirely on mental state.

  Those who mastered it could abandon the sword entirely.

  Using fingers as the blade, and sword aura as the edge.

  When the heart moved, sword aura swept across all directions. When still, all things returned to primordial silence.

  Lin Lin had worried that old bastard Liu Fenghai would not fall for the trap, so he had specifically practiced the Wind Scar Sword Art to perfection.

  Unexpectedly, this sword art was not used on that old bastard, but on experimental subjects.

  Facing the caged Madness Wolf, Lin Lin formed a sword finger with his hand, using his own spiritual energy to draw in the surrounding spiritual energy.

  "Grrr!"

  Sensing danger, the caged Madness Wolf barked fiercely at Lin Lin.

  As a demon beast, it knew the person outside the cage meant harm.

  The wolf immediately activated its true energy, ready to fight back. But this played right into Lin Lin's hands.

  When a low-tier beast like this activated its true energy, it exposed the location of its demon core.

  The instant the core was exposed was Lin Lin's moment to strike.

  Lin Lin spotted the core's location: the wolf's chest.

  "Break!"

  As he executed the sword art, sword aura shot out like wind, straight towards the wolf's demon core.

  With a spray of blood, the wolf yelped and fell to the ground.

  The demon core dropped beside it, mixed with shredded flesh.

  Lin Lin picked up the core and watched the wolf's reaction.

  If the wolf did not die immediately, this was a living core.

  If it died, it was a dead core, meaning Lin Lin had wasted money and had to start over.

  After a moment, the wolf struggled to its feet, injured but alive.

  Lin Lin smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally obtained a living demon core.

  But he would not be like those Blood Servant Sect madmen and start refining it immediately.

  He still needed experiments to determine two things.

  First, why did cultivators die when their core was destroyed?

  Logically, the core was just a parasite.

  Its destruction or removal should not cause death.

  This required an autopsy of the dead wolf.

  Second, what effects did this parasitic core actually have on its host?

  "The road ahead is long."

  Lin Lin could not help but sigh.

  But now was not the time for experiments.

  The undercurrents in Qingfeng Sect were finally about to surface.