Chapter 109 – Clues, Clues

Lu Yuan stood at the entrance of a small supermarket, munching on a peach-flavored popsicle, and watching two stray dogs fighting over half a sausage someone had discarded near a trash can not far away.

The thinner dog lost the fight and could only stand aside, watching the other dog feast.

Lu Yuan crunched the last bite of his popsicle, turned, and went back into the supermarket to buy two sausages. He fed each stray dog in turn.

This was, a reward for the winner and consolation for the loser.

Afterward, Lu Yuan looked up at a nearby street lamp, feeling satisfied. He noticed a few crows perched there, their eyes glinting, then quickly walked in a certain direction.

Turning a corner, he saw the outpatient building of Jiaoyan Central Hospital.

People were coming and going at the entrance, and several cars were blocked, their drivers honking furiously.

Lu Yuan swiftly entered the hospital doors, following a side path around the outpatient building to the inpatient area behind it.

When his grandfather Lu Yueping had a cerebral infarction, they went to the First Hospital. Lu Yuan had never been to this hospital, yet he moved as if navigating his own home.

He slipped into Building No. 3 of the inpatient area and took the elevator up to the seventh floor.

As the elevator doors opened, the words “Special Intensive Care Unit” came into view.

There was a security checkpoint at the entrance to the ward, and Lu Yuan loitered for a while before slipping in behind a middle-aged woman carrying a black bag.

This wasn’t the first time Lu Yuan had done something like this.

Coincidentally, both times were related to Lin Zhiqin.

Lu Yuan glanced at the rooms on either side of the corridor, then walked straight to the nurse’s station.

A nurse with a round face, wearing a blue uniform, was sitting behind the station, looking at a computer.

“Who are you looking for?” she asked casually, catching sight of Lu Yuan out of the corner of her eye as he approached.

A second later, she turned her head fully to look at him, her voice and expression softening noticeably.

Twenty minutes later, Lu Yuan walked out of the hospital’s main entrance.

“This face and the identity of a student really come in handy,” Lu Yuan muttered to himself, unable to resist touching his increasingly smooth cheeks.

Using his crow assistant, he had found out which ward Lin Zhiqin’s daughter was in, and then asked a nurse about her medical condition.

The reason he gave was that his school had assigned a summer project requiring a report on “life,” and he had come to the hospital to gather material.

Unfortunately, even his smartest crow assistant wasn’t trained well enough to sneak into the records room to obtain the medical files. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to go through so much trouble.

“A very severe genetic defect. Even with this world’s advanced medical technology, it’s considered a challenging illness. They’ve scheduled surgery with the Distant Star Federation’s top genetic medicine expert for next month.”

Lu Yuan mentally reviewed the information he had just gathered.

There were a few interesting points in the information.

Firstly, Lin Zhiqin’s daughter, Lin Mo, had been given a death sentence a long time ago. According to the doctor who diagnosed her at the time, she wouldn’t survive more than a month after the onset of the illness.

Yet, she had struggled on for nearly half a year, holding on until the expert surgery scheduled for next month.

Secondly, Lin Zhiqin seemed to be in financial trouble, having delayed the payment of hospital bills several times.

“Lin Zhiqin is incredibly strong in martial arts, having stepped into the extraordinary realm. Among the masters I’ve seen, he’s one of the top. Why is he so short on money? It doesn’t make sense. If it were me, with my daughter sick, I’d rob a bank if I had to!”

“And why would he teach me with such dedication, taking me to Mosa for martial arts training without charging a commission? It doesn’t add up. Unless…”

A thought flashed through Lu Yuan’s mind.

“Unless he brought me into Mosa not for the money at all.”

In an instant, eerie images of Goat Head statues flashed through Lu Yuan’s mind.

And that feeling of being watched, scrutinized.

Lu Yuan seemed to have realized something, his eyes flickering as he stood motionless.

The crowd flowed past him from both sides.

“Clang—clang—clang—clang—”

In his bedroom, Lu Yuan held a solid iron rod, repeatedly striking various parts of his body.

He hadn’t tried this earlier, afraid of practicing the wrong techniques on his own.

After getting confirmation from Lin Zhiqin, he fully embraced his new body training method.

Lu Yuan now had 14 strength points, with maximum strength nearing 700 kilograms. His strikes were heavy, making his training in resistance to blows far more effective than the amateur-level sparring partners at Yuan Martial Arts Gym.

He continued hitting himself for dozens of minutes until his skin was faintly purple-red all over.

“It’s really like forging iron,” Lu Yuan said, standing before a full-length mirror, looking at his reflection.

“But this crude method, even if effective, is definitely far inferior to the techniques passed down in specialized body training sects. I’ll have to find an opportunity to learn a proper external martial arts technique.”

Thinking this, Lu Yuan let his internal injuries heal naturally and sat down at his desk.

He pulled out a notebook from a pile of books, flipped through it, and then turned on his computer.

His chat account was open on the screen. With a click, a slew of private messages and group chat notifications popped up.

Lu Yuan scanned through them, replying to some and ignoring others.

Messages from girls were particularly numerous.

Most were invitations to hang out, and Ling Yue had sent quite a few, mentioning him several times in the class group.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen any of them, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have replied.

Although Lu Yuan wasn’t too willing to admit it, he had to acknowledge that he was increasingly living in a completely different world from his classmates, with whom he could chat about games, anime, and action actresses a few months ago, and secretly complain about their teachers.

The experiences Lu Yuan had gone through recently were beyond their belief. They would only think he was making up plots from some sci-fi novel to fool them.

Feeling a bit sentimental, Lu Yuan methodically cleared his accumulated friend requests.

Suddenly, a friend request from a girl with a red hairpin avatar caught his eye.

“Quiet Bamboo Treasure.”

Lu Yuan read the nickname aloud, thinking he had a good idea of who it was.

He casually clicked to accept the friend request.

No messages came through for a while.

Seeing her avatar grayed out, Lu Yuan wasn’t sure if she was offline or too nervous to type.

He sent a quick “…” and moved on.

Lu Yuan mainly checked the chat software to see new messages in group chats about Ancient Language, Baishan History, and Baishan Mythology, hoping to find some useful clues.

He went through several groups, and when he saw one named “Baishan Religion,” he unexpectedly found that someone had mentioned him in the chat.

Lu Yuan clicked on it, scrolling back through the message history.

Finally, he found the message where he was mentioned.

Someone named “White Glowing Grass” had tagged him: “This looks like the symbol of the elephant deity sect.”

Lu Yuan’s spirits lifted immediately.

Previously, he had posted a simple sketch of an unknown mystical symbol in the group, hoping someone might recognize it.

None of the groups had responded, except for “White Glowing Grass.”

“Elephant deity sect!”

Lu Yuan quickly switched to his browser and searched for the keyword—elephant deity sect.

The search results were flooded with information about a famous foreign liquor brand called “Elephant Brand.”

Great.

Lu Yuan had no choice but to click on “White Glowing Grass’s” avatar and start a private chat.

He got lucky; the person was online.

Lu Yuan got straight to the point, asking for information about the elephant deity sect.

White Glowing Grass: To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. It’s just that part of the symbol you drew looks a lot like the mark of the elephant deity sect.

Lu Yuan: Which part?

White Glowing Grass: See for yourself.

White Glowing Grass sent over a picture—not a hand-drawn sketch like Lu Yuan’s, but a photo of something imprinted.

The photo showed a symbol, and when Lu Yuan compared it to his drawing, he found that the three curved lines in the center were indeed identical.

White Glowing Grass: The elephant deity sect is also known as the demon mountain sect, because according to their religious mythology, the ancient elephant deity resided on the demon mountain, which is covered in black and red soil.

As Lu Yuan read this message from White Glowing Grass, some of the fog in his mind cleared up immediately.

He could almost confirm it.

The elephant deity sect that White Glowing Grass mentioned is the origin of the temple that Lu Jing’s archaeological team excavated.

“Black soil of eternal rift, He will use blood to paint every stone of the Demon Mountain.”

Lu Yuan remembered this phrase associated with the mysterious symbol very clearly.

The information mentioned in it matched everything White Glowing Grass had said.

Black soil, Demon Mountain, red soil (stones painted with blood).

The next message from White Glowing Grass confirmed it completely.

“The elephant deity sect existed in the earliest period of the Baishan Era. Its duration was very short and it was very mysterious. But the language that flourished in the Baishan Era, which we now call Ancient Phoenician Language, is said to have originated from the elephant deity sect.”

The phrase about the Demon Mountain was recorded in Ancient Phoenician Language!

“Does this symbol have any special meaning?”

Lu Yuan didn’t rush to reveal the phrase he had. Instead, he continued to ask White Glowing Grass about the elephant deity sect’s symbol.

White Glowing Grass: The elephant deity sect’s symbol is quite simple and clear. Look, these three curved lines—don’t they look like an elephant’s trunk and ears?

Lu Yuan: …

White Glowing Grass: Existing information about the elephant deity sect is extremely rare. Even in the professional field, very few people know about this sect. You’re lucky to encounter me, as the elephant deity sect is one of my main research topics recently. But I’m also lucky; the symbol you provided is something we’ve never discovered before. If it’s authentic, it would be very valuable for our research. Look, if the three curved lines represent the elephant, could the outer triangle be the legendary Demon Mountain? I haven’t completely figured out the eye yet; maybe it represents the ancient elephant deity’s authority and wisdom. By the way, may I ask where you found this symbol? Besides this symbol, is there any other information?

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered slightly as he read the long message from White Glowing Grass.

Instead of answering any of her questions, he asked another one.

“You’re not from the Xia State?”

After he sent the message, there was a silence on the other end for about half a minute.

Finally, a reply came through.

“Correct.”

“I am currently in Javier, but sometimes I return to the Xia State. My father is from the Xia State, so I have half Xia State blood in me.”