Night and day vigilance, yet this fellow still managed to slip through.
Who knew the seed of intent planted back then was meant to find him.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand," Lin Xiao Tian said calmly.
It wasn't due to his skill at lying, but rather that facing Wang Neng, he felt no threat at all.
How could his avatar, whose power reached the Transformation God stage, fear a mere cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage?
"Stop pretending. I've been monitoring every move here for the past few years, and you're the most suspicious."
Lin Xiao Tian was puzzled, "I'm the most suspicious? How so?"
"Heh heh, trying to stall for time? Let me tell you, it's pointless!"
Wang Neng stopped chattering with Lin Xiao Tian and immediately cast his domain around them.
His domain wasn't spread out; it only enveloped him and Lin Xiao Tian within a radius of three to four meters.
Quite considerate, wasn't it!
"Whether you're from outside the realm, I'll know once I taste your flesh and blood."
Wang Neng grinned sinisterly and attacked Lin Xiao Tian.
But the next second, an unparalleled pressure descended upon him.
Wang Neng had only taken one step before he was kneeling on the ground, his face pale.
Lin Xiao Tian looked down at him, his eyes devoid of emotion.
"You... how can you be so powerful? Those from outside the realm couldn't possibly be this strong!" Wang Neng exclaimed in terror.
Lin Xiao Tian looked at him as if he were an idiot, "You came alone without even knowing who I am?"
Wang Neng panicked now, quickly adopting a pleading expression.
"Senior, spare my life. This junior was blind and ignorant. I beg you, for the sake of the Qing Kingdom's royal family, spare this junior. I swear, I will never offend you again. If I break this oath, may the heavens strike me dead!"
Lin Xiao Tian smiled slightly.
Such low-level tricks might fool naive youngsters, but they were laughable when attempting to deceive an old hand like him.
"If the royal family knew you attacked a commoner, they wouldn't let you off easily either, would they? Didn't the new Emperor say it: 'Heaven's Son breaking the law is the same as a commoner'?"
"This junior understands your meaning. Please rest assured, this was my personal action. The empire is unaware, and I guarantee it won't implicate you."
"Heh heh, that's good, that's good..."
Without any hesitation, Lin Xiao Tian pressed his hand down on Wang Neng's forehead.
In an instant, Wang Neng's eyes dimmed.
Lin Xiao Tian waved his hand, and Wang Neng's body disintegrated like dust into the heavens and earth.
"Alone? You dared to come alone? If you had come in a group, I might have been worried!"
At the same time, within a grand hall of the empire.
"Wang Neng... is dead!"
An elder looked at the cracked memorial tablet above, his eyes bloodshot. Wang Neng was, after all, his best student.
"Grand Tutor Hu, please accept my condolences. The empire will investigate this matter thoroughly and ensure General Wang does not die without justice!"
A middle-aged man in luxurious attire stood behind the elder.
These two were the current Grand Tutor and the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom, respectively.
"Scoundrels! Who dared to be so cruel!"
Grand Tutor Hu was furious.
His anger even caused the heavens and earth to change color.
Even Lin Xiao Tian, thousands of miles away, felt this surge of rage.
However, this anger was not directed his way.
Lin Xiao Tian smiled faintly.
This Wang Neng was too greedy. For the flesh and blood of a unique foreign guest, he hadn't told anyone.
The result was that he underestimated Lin Xiao Tian's strength and was反 killed by him. Now, the powerful figure behind him couldn't even find anyone to exact revenge upon.
Of course, Lin Xiao Tian wasn't afraid.
What remained in Black Rock City was merely an avatar of him; if anything happened, it wouldn't matter.
If that enraged person came looking for him in the Black Forest, Lin Xiao Tian was confident he could fight them with the Immortal Slaying Array.
Although the current Immortal Slaying Array hadn't absorbed enough energy, most Void Refinement cultivators would only be fodder for it.
This elder's strength was only at the Void Refinement stage, and Lin Xiao Tian had nothing to fear.
He was only worried that the other party might follow the trail and find people close to him. To be safe, Lin Xiao Tian had taken special measures, setting up a unique formation to prevent them from deducing his whereabouts.
Lin Xiao Tian's caution was not unfounded. Grand Tutor Hu did indeed have specialized sorcerers begin deducing the killer of Wang Neng.
Unfortunately, Lin Xiao Tian was also a sorcerer, and a high-level one at that. Furthermore, being a Transformation God stage cultivator, most sorcerers couldn't reach such a level. Faced with Lin Xiao Tian's deliberate obfuscation of heavenly secrets, they couldn't calculate anything for a while.
Of course, Lin Xiao Tian couldn't guarantee he could hide for too long. Sorcerers didn't solely rely on their own cultivation; it was mainly about the understanding of their techniques. Proficient techniques could compensate for cultivation deficiencies.
However, holding out for a hundred years should not be a problem!
After dealing with Wang Neng, Lin Xiao Tian enjoyed a considerable period of peace.
Now, on the surface, he was still an unremarkable instructor at the Academy, with two formidable brothers, but he himself was not living up to his potential.
But behind the scenes, the situation was entirely different.
In the Black Forest, in the area inhabited by Transformation God stage cultivators.
After nearly a century of cultivation, Lin Xiao Tian had reached the peak of the Transformation God stage.
Initially, he only operated in the early Transformation God stage areas.
But gradually, he discovered that those seemingly dignified beings were not as powerful as he had imagined.
With just a slight effort, Lin Xiao Tian had already reached the limit of this area.
His ultimate moves, like the Shen Nong Seal, would grow more powerful with the user's level. Facing such unlimited martial arts, Lin Xiao Tian had suppressed all existences of the same level.
Moreover, the Shen Nong Seal had a peculiar effect on foreign races. Its Demon Sealing Seal, in particular, was a nemesis to demons. Lin Xiao Tian had even tested it once to experiment; the demon involved was instantly annihilated, body and soul.
After reaching the area of Transformation God stage cultivators, Lin Xiao Tian's primary method of increasing his strength was through elixirs. Refining elixirs required medicinal ingredients and resources from demonic beasts, both of which were abundant in the Black Forest. Combined with Lin Xiao Tian's mastery of alchemy, his cultivation speed accelerated even further.
Lin Xiao Tian's continuous growth made the existences deep within the forest feel threatened. To deal with Lin Xiao Tian, they also caused many troubles.
However, in the face of Lin Xiao Tian's absolute strength, none of it had any effect; instead, they suffered heavy losses.
In recent years, their unease had intensified, not for any other reason than Lin Xiao Tian had stopped absorbing the forest's spiritual energy and was now turning to elixirs.
Spiritual energy was the foundation of the Black Forest's formation. If the spiritual energy disappeared, the formation's power would greatly diminish. However, foreign races could not absorb large amounts of the forest's spiritual energy, but humans could.
To allow humans to absorb as much spiritual energy as possible and weaken the formation, the foreign races stationed their most outstanding individuals in various parts of the forest, with the sole purpose of making hunting difficult for humans. In order to cultivate, humans would ultimately have to absorb the forest's spiritual energy.
Over time, the forest's spiritual energy would become even more diluted.
Some humans had indeed realized this, but most of them chose the simplest solution.
With free spiritual energy available, why would they risk their lives fighting those high-blooded foreign races? Was it worth it?
The stronger the cultivator, the more they cherished their lives, naturally avoiding risky endeavors.
After all, the forest's formation wouldn't collapse anytime soon, and even if it did, it wouldn't be entirely their fault.
Even Lin Xiao Tian had primarily absorbed spiritual energy before.
But upon reaching the Transformation God stage, Lin Xiao Tian ceased this behavior.
On one hand, directly absorbing spiritual energy was less effective.
On the other hand, Lin Xiao Tian gradually understood that spiritual energy was the foundation of the forest.
It was precisely because of these reasons that Lin Xiao Tian chose to hunt and search for herbs.
With the Immortal Slaying Array and the methods left behind by Shen Nong, Lin Xiao Tian was invincible among his peers.
Even if he couldn't win, Lin Xiao Tian could retreat.
Lin Xiao Tian typically used his avatar to fight in the depths of the forest. If he won, he would bring back the prey's corpse and use spiritual herbs to refine various medicinal ingredients.
If he lost, he would obediently stay at the outer defenses and prepare for the next battle.
Under Lin Xiao Tian's combat style, the foreign races suffered increasingly heavy losses.
"Human小子, you will pay the price!"
"When we emerge from seclusion, we will make you wish you were dead and could not die!"
Roars echoed from the depths of the forest.
This day marked the two hundredth year since Lin Xiao Tian had arrived in the forest.
And on this day, Lin Xiao Tian broke through the bottleneck of the Transformation God stage and reached the Void Refinement stage!