A small casual cultivator!

Chapter 167 Lin Family Competition

(Correction: the Lin family should be more than 100 people. I wrote it wrong yesterday. I only realized it was wrong when I was browsing. Sorry.)

Lu Luan bowed and replied, "I'll trouble Brother Lin Ling to take care of me in the future."

Lin Ling looked to be almost 40 years old, with an untidy beard and a very heroic look.

Lin Ling walked up to him, chuckled and patted his shoulder: "From now on, we are brothers..."

Then the two of them exchanged a few polite words.

After all, at his age, he is not stupid. At Lu Luan's current age, it will be no problem for him to break through to the eighth level of Qi Refining. He is considered a good fighter in the outskirts of Haoyun City. There is no need to make things difficult for him and bully him just because he is a member of the Lin family.

Besides, no normal person would deliberately cause trouble for others after having nothing better to do.

After specifically instructing him on some things, the group set off and began to tour around the Lin Mansion.

The Lin Mansion is not big, and the patrol route is also carefully considered. Moreover, the armor on his body seems to be integrated with the restrictions and formations in the Lin Mansion. The patrol is silent and can indeed pay attention to the situation in the Lin Mansion at night to the greatest extent, and he can arrive at the first time if there is any unusual movement.

However, he was an outsider after all, and he had just come in, so he would naturally be guarded against. Therefore, he always stayed in the middle position during the inspection, and the people behind him could also notice if there was anything unusual about him.

At night, the Lin Mansion was much quieter, but the lights were still on.

Just like that, Lu Luan followed a few people and walked outside the Lin Mansion, constantly changing routes.

"That place should be the alchemy room of the Lin Mansion."

When walking to a corridor, he clearly felt that the powerful auras in the distance had obviously increased. It was obvious that they were guarding something, so he kept it on his guard.

There must be only one place that the Lin family attaches so much importance to, and that is the most important lifeline of the Lin family, the alchemy room where elixirs are refined.

Lu Luan knew that the Lin family made a living in Haoyun City mainly by selling four unique kinds of elixirs. The lowest grade was several hundred Essence Pills, and the highest grade was dozens of spirit stones. They were specially provided to people in the middle and low levels of Qi Refining and sold in large quantities.

For elixirs of this level, with a powerful alchemy furnace and sufficient materials, it would be no problem to make dozens of pills in one furnace.

With the current strength of the Lin family, they can only do this kind of low-end business in Haoyun City.

Then everyone continued walking.

Soon, they arrived outside the Lin family's martial arts training ground.

At the door, there was a middle-aged man standing with his hands behind his back, watching indifferently an eighteen-year-old young man practicing boxing in the field.

"Master Lindu."

When Lin Ling, who was walking in front, saw him, he immediately bowed.

Lu Luan and others behind him followed suit.

Lu Luan took a look at the middle-aged man and knew his identity from the address. The head of the Lin family had three sons. This person should be the eldest son of the Lin family head, Lin Du, who had reached the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining and was about to break through. As for the person on the stage, he had already guessed that it should be his son Lin Tianyi. After all, he only had three children, and the other two were the girl and the boy.

Lin Du looked at Lin Ling, nodded, and asked, "Is there anything unusual in the mansion?"

Lin Ling replied politely: "Everything is normal in the mansion, there is nothing wrong."

While the two were talking, Lu Luan focused a bit of his attention on the young man. After a moment, he thought, "Although his talent is not as good as mine, it's still pretty good."

From the information in the jade pendant, he knew that Lin Tianyi was an ordinary upper-grade mortal spiritual root, a little inferior to him. Now he was eighteen years old and had reached the peak of the seventh level of Qi Refining. With the full training of his family, he would have no problem achieving the tenth level of Qi Refining in the future. This was also Lin Du's greatest reliance in competing for the position of family head.

After Lin Du and the other man talked for a while, they found that Lu Luan looked unfamiliar, so they asked, "Who is this person?"

Lin Ling explained: "Master, it is like this. Since the guard team is short of manpower, he is a newly recruited independent cultivator."

"I've met the eldest young master."

Lu Luan bowed.

Lin Du nodded and said softly, "Your cultivation is not bad."

But he didn't say anything after that and began to look carefully at the young man on the stage.

After Lin Ling bowed, he led Lu Luan and the others on their way forward.

Since he is a member of the side branch, he naturally has to be polite to Lin Du. This will allow him to have a good impression of Lin Du in case he becomes the head of the family in the future.

The night passed just like that.

After walking around for so many hours and not being allowed to talk to each other along the way, they felt like puppets throughout the whole process. Although this was not a big deal for Lu Luan, he still felt very bored in his heart.

In the early morning, the sun shines down from the sky and the sky gradually brightens.

"Outsider?"

After completing a night's mission, Lu Luan was preparing to return to his room to rest.

However, on the road, he was spotted by a middle-aged man in his forties with a pointed chin and monkey-like features.

After taking a few glances, he jumped in front of him, crossed his arms, and said arrogantly:

"Hey, are you new here?"

There are about a hundred people in the Lin family. For cultivators, they can remember almost everyone they meet once. Lu Luan is a stranger, so they will naturally know his identity.

Lu Luan looked over. Although the pockmarks on the man's face were very eye-catching, he didn't know him and didn't know how to address him, so he bowed and said, "Fellow Daoist, do you have any instructions?"

The man said, "You have nothing to do now, right? Come with me, I have work for you to do."

Lu Luan frowned and replied, "Daoyou, my job is just patrolling. If I want to do other work... I need more spirit stones."

"What? You still want spirit stones?" The man immediately jumped up in anger, pointing at him and threateningly said, "Do you know who I am? You are an outsider, and if you offend me, I will make you pay for it. If you don't obey me, I will make it difficult for you to move in the Lin Mansion."

Lu Luan's face turned a little bad. He didn't expect that he would be troubled by Luo Luo, who was at the seventh level of Qi Refining.

"Xu Mazi, are you really that arrogant?"

But at this moment, Zhu Shan, who had been drinking with him yesterday, walked over from not far away and looked at this man with some anger in his eyes.

After seeing Zhu Shan coming, the middle-aged man immediately gnashed his teeth and said, "Zhu Shan, you want to go against me? Believe it or not, I will make you pay for it."

"Can't you say something else?" Zhu Shan said with contempt, and then ignored him. After glaring at him, he left with Lu Luan.

Only the middle-aged man was left with an angry look on his face.

"Brother Zhu, who is he?"

Lu Luan asked in confusion.

Zhu Shan sneered, "He is just a villain who has achieved success. He thinks he has climbed up the ladder of the Lin family and is so arrogant in front of us."

"How to say?"

Zhu Shan explained: "He is also a person of an outsider family. He just knows how to flatter others and became a lackey of a young master of the direct lineage. So he thinks he is great and often comes to bully us."

"So that's it."

He thought she was going to marry into the Lin family, and was secretly wondering which young lady was so short-sighted.

"Come on, Brother Lu, there are a few brothers from other families who are free. I'll take you to meet them. After all, there is a gap between us and the main family, so it's better for outsiders to talk more casually. Don't pay attention to that Xu Mazi just now, he's just a mad dog."

Next, Zhu Shan took advantage of this free time and brought two people from other families with him. Lu Luan talked to them and got to know them.

They were all independent cultivators, and everyone was very generous. After drinking, Lu Luan returned to his room.

Sitting at the table, he poured himself a cup of tea and drank it alone while thinking: "It's not good to be a patrolling guard all the time. I have to find a way to get close to the direct lineage of the Lin family. Only then will I have a chance."

He began to think of a solution.

Of course, he had just entered the Lin family, so he shouldn't act too hastily and had to wait for an opportunity.

……

Time flies and a month has passed.

day.

Today is the day for the younger generations of the Lin family to check their martial arts skills. All the important matters and work in the mansion have come to a halt.

In the room, Lu Luan was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. A small stone was spinning in front of his eyebrows.

He had bought some treasures to improve his comprehension these days, and after taking them appropriately, he began to practice the heavy sword technique. It was silent, and with his current level of cultivation, he didn't worry about being noticed.

"Ok?"

Suddenly, he frowned, opened his eyes, waved his hand, and put the stone into the storage bag.

"Dong dong dong."

Sure enough, after a while, there was a knock on the door.

Lu Luan stood up, opened the door and found that it was Zhu Shan.

Then he smiled and said, "Brother Zhu, what? Are you going to drink again?"

Zhu Shan shook his head and said, "That's not the case. Today is the day for the Lin family's young generation to take a test. Let's go and take a look."

After Lu Luan thought for a while, he nodded and said, "It's really rare to see one. Let's go."

Then the two of them went to the martial arts training ground.

There are only about twenty or so young members of the Lin family between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five. It is impossible for one of them to find a fellow cultivator with similar strength, so it is impossible for them to compete against each other. The people who are usually in charge of coaching will assess them.

After all, it was a big day. There were already more than twenty people watching in the martial arts training ground. The two found a seat and started to watch.

Now a boy of about fifteen years old was fighting with the burly coach.

Somehow, it always seemed like something was wrong, like someone was playing a joke on me.

"This younger generation of the Lin family is not very outstanding."

After looking for a while, Zhu Shan shook his head and said softly.

"Indeed, my family is not rich enough after all."

Lu Luan nodded. These young men nowadays were not even as good as the outer disciples of Zhengyang Sect. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the Lin family might have no successors and its future was worrying.

"I heard that the Shi family has been coveting the Lin family's assets for a long time, and they have begun to have conflicts with each other. Brother Lu, do you think the Lin family will be swallowed up?"

Zhu Shan seemed afraid of being heard, so he used magic to control his voice and spoke in a low voice.

Lu Luan shook his head and replied: "It's unlikely. The Shi family may not have the appetite for it."

Then he added: "But I think there are also people in the Lin family who are determined to work hard. The eldest son of the eldest master has been practicing very hard."

Zhu Shan nodded after hearing this: "Indeed, the eldest master is not bad. He really works very hard in boxing. No one is willing to be his sparring partner."

"Hmm? Training partner..."

After hearing this, Lu Luan's eyes suddenly lit up with an inexplicable light.

"Hey, this young master's talent is a little lacking."

Seeing a young man on the stage panting after moving for a while, Zhu Shan shook his head.

Lu Luan nodded in agreement.

……

The two of them discussed quietly.

"The young master is here."

Suddenly, Lin Du, the eldest son of the Lin family, came within ten feet of them.

Zhu Shan, a shrewd man, immediately rolled his eyes when he saw that the person on the stage was Lin Du's youngest son, and continued to speak softly, "This young master Lin Li is so thick-skinned at such a young age, much better than his peers, and has the demeanor of a great man."

Lu Luan nodded and said, "Indeed, although his moves are a little less experienced, he is much better than his peers."

"This……"

Zhu Shan was terrified when he heard this. Didn’t he see that the other party’s father was there?

Next, Lu Luan shared some unique insights, and some of the scriptures he read at Zhengyang Gate finally came in handy.

Seeing that Lu Luan was unable to speak, Zhu Shan continued chatting for a while and then walked away.

However, Lu Luan still watched with his arms folded, with interest in his eyes.

Time passed slowly, and some of the younger generations with low cultivation levels finished their assessments soon.

"boom!"

The noise on the stage gradually grew louder, and now it was all young people.

Watching Lin Tianyi and the coach fighting back and forth on the court, Lu Luan thought to himself, "This young master is really good."

Lu Luan looked serious and nodded from time to time.

"Guard Lu, what do you think?"

Suddenly, a strong voice came to his ears.

Lu Luan was startled and looked over quickly. When he found it was Lin Du, he immediately bowed and said, "Greetings, Young Master."

"No need to be polite. I just heard some of your opinions, which are very good. What do you think of my Yi'er?"

Lin Du looked at him with a smile.

Lu Luan replied respectfully: "The eldest son is extremely talented and powerful. He is worthy of being the leader of the younger generation of the Lin family."

Lin Du shook his head slightly, looked him straight in the eyes, and said, "That's not what I want to hear."

"This……"

Lu Luan paused, and said hesitantly, "Master, I am quite frank, I hope you won't take it personally after I tell you this."

"Don't worry, just speak up if you have anything to say."

Lu Luan's eyes turned serious, he turned his head to look at Lin Tianyi who was fighting, and said: "The whole Lin family knows that Master Lin is practicing hard, but he lacks experience. You see, he has too many fancy punches, and there are boxing routines in it. He only has the form but not the meaning. It seems that his punches are fierce, but they are full of loopholes. If he fights in a life-and-death battle, he will suffer a great loss."

This is not nonsense, but the fact. Lin Tianyi is the key training target of the Lin family. There are only two or three such people in the whole family. If one dies, there will be one less. How can they bear to let him experience the danger of life and death?

A person who has never experienced a desperate rebirth will always lack something in his mentality. Being strong is good, but when facing people of the same level, the one who has never experienced life and death will usually not have an advantage.

It's like the difference between someone who has killed someone and someone who has not.

Lin Du nodded and said, "Indeed, this is also what I am worried about. There is always something missing in his character."

Then he looked at Lu Luan with a strange look in his eyes and said, "Guard Lu has experienced life and death more than once, right?"

Lu Luan smiled bitterly and said, "The world is dangerous and people's hearts are hard to predict. No matter what you've been through, it's good to be alive."

There was an inexplicable sense of vicissitudes in his voice, like an old man who had experienced many hardships.

Lin Du just stood with his hands behind his back and looked at the figure in the field calmly without saying anything.

After a while, Lu Luan bowed and said, "Master, I have something else to do, so I'll take my leave now."

"Ah."

Lin Du nodded.

Then Lu Luan turned and left.

On the way, Lu Luan frowned slightly and thought to himself, "I wonder if they will ask me to go."

He felt uncertain, after all, his current cultivation level was only at the peak of the seventh level of Qi Refining, which was a little weak.

As long as I can get close to the young master, I might have a chance to hear some clues from them.