Chapter 69 The Remnants of the Huang Family
"Fourth brother, even if you choose to leave, we wouldn\'t kill you. You can return to the family after achieving Foundation Establishment," he said.
Lin Shiming did not answer, nor did he open his eyes.
Lin Shiming knew that Lin Shiming\'s words were addressed to him, as he was almost certain to be the next Family Head.
He considered himself not to be soft-hearted, yet he couldn\'t bring himself to act against his own brothers.
He knew that Lin Shiming believed he couldn\'t get a Foundation Establishment Pill before the age of sixty, not with him, Lin Shijie, and Lin Shitao around. Even if the family obtained a Foundation Establishment Pill every ten years, it wouldn\'t be his turn.
Though Lin Shiming was not pleased with Lin Shiming\'s decision, it truly was Lin Shiming\'s only option for Foundation Establishment.
Joining a Sect would at least provide many more opportunities to acquire a Foundation Establishment Pill.
"Fourth brother is being too serious," Lin Shiming finally spoke after a long silence, then he continued,
"I implore fourth brother to make a Heavenly Dao oath not to reveal the slightest bit about the Lin Family!"
Lin Shiming did not mention the family had a Heavenly Spirit Fruit tree, a formula for Foundation Establishment Pills, and even a Third Rank Alchemist.
Lin Shiming had chosen a path completely opposite to that of Fifth Uncle Lin Houyong; therefore, the consequences should be different.
Once you choose the wrong path, there\'s no turning back.
Otherwise, it would be too unfair to those cultivators who are devoted to the family.
Seeing that Lin Shiming made no move to attack, Lin Shiming immediately took the Heavenly Dao oath.
"Fourth brother, hand over the Family Token to me," Lin Shiming requested, taking Lin Shiming\'s Family Token back.
The Lin Family did not have a Spirit Clan genealogy or a Soul Slip to determine the life and death of their members. They only had the Family Token. If the Family Token was destroyed or went long without spiritual energy infusion, it represented the death of a family member.
"Alright, fourth brother!" Lin Shiming said as he cut the Family Token in half with his sword.
"Seventh brother, Second brother, I found this clue in the Qian Family of Hetian County; I hope it\'s helpful!" Lin Shiming tossed a Jade Slip to Lin Shiming and then strode away with great steps.
He didn\'t divide up the Sabretooth Tiger or the Bone-Tempering Flower, signifying that this venture was effectively his final farewell.
He sought out Lin Shiming only to prove himself.
But even that attempt at proof had failed…
Upon receiving the Jade Slip, Lin Shiming probed it with his Divine Sense and was shocked to discover that it contained information about the remaining Qi Cultivation Elder of the Huang Family.
The Qi Cultivation Elder had taken some of the Huang Family\'s talented cultivators to open an Artifact Refining shop in the market of Hetian County under the Qian Family and had already formed a marital alliance with them, though they maintained a very low profile.
This news was of utmost importance to the Lin Family, for if the Huang Family remnants were not eliminated, the matters of the Purple Mansion Cave Mansion might be leaked.
"Thank you, fourth brother. You are welcome to visit anytime," Lin Shiming and Lin Shiyi said in unison, cupping their fists in gratitude.
"Seventh brother," Lin Shiyi\'s mood clearly dampened after Lin Shiming\'s departure.
"Second brother, keep it up. Great-grandfather has always been looking forward to seeing you surpass him in the realm of Body Cultivation!" Lin Shiming cut him off before Lin Shiyi could say more, blocking whatever Lin Shiyi intended to say next.
"Mm-hm!" The latter nodded, having thought of something, but ultimately chose not to say more.
Then Lin Shiming spoke again:
"Let\'s go, second brother, I\'ve found another opportunity!"
Lin Shiming led Lin Shiyi toward the cliffs deep in the valley. The base of the cliffs was all stone, but at the top, there was a stretch of green plants. Beyond that, to their delight, they also discovered some spirit flowers and spirit grass amidst them.
A few spirit bees, the size of thumbs, were buzzing around the spirit flowers.
"What are those?" Lin Shiyi asked in surprise.
"Seeker Bees! Second Rank Inferior Grade spirit bees, with the queen reaching up to the mid Second Rank." Lin Shiming explained, his heart brimming with joy.
These Seeker Bees were extremely adept at brewing spirit honey and were easy to tame. All that was needed was to enslave the mid Second Rank queen with a Blood Covenant.
The only downside was their slow reproduction rate, which did not allow for quickly expanding their numbers. Especially rare was the emergence of a new queen. Yet, even so, they were priceless treasures in the market.
After all, which cultivator doesn\'t have descendants? Breeding Seeker Bees meant being able to produce spirit honey, which is an absolute boon for their offspring when taking elixirs.
"Little Seventh, how far can you project your Divine Sense?" Lin Shiyi, also somewhat excited, couldn\'t help but admire and became curious about the range of Lin Shiming\'s Divine Sense, as getting to the valley, let alone the Sabretooth Tiger\'s cave, was not close by any means.
"Not very far, my Golden Luan Eagle just happened to see it!" Lin Shiming directly blamed it on the Golden Luan Eagle, then, riding his sword, flew towards the cliff.
Lin Shiyi followed suit, and soon the two of them reached the mountaintop.
Upon seeing Lin Shiming and his companion, the spirit bees immediately entered a state of alert, circling in the air to signal each other.
In the blink of an eye, even more spirit bees arrived.
At that moment, Lin Shiming finally spotted the Seeker Bees\' hive on a barren tree branch.
All the spirit bees swarmed towards Lin Shiming, attacking en masse, with their aggression escalating markedly when a queen, evidently larger than the others, appeared.
But then, Lin Shiming took out the Five Elements Flag, and a barrage of water spheres surged forth, scattering the Seeker Bees in disarray. A final freezing spell directly encased the queen in ice.
The Seeker Bee queen, being merely mid Second Rank, could not withstand the attack of the Supreme Grade magic artifact, the Five Elements Flag.
Lin Shiming took out the Spirit Beast Bag and first captured the queen inside it, then proceeded to collect the other Seeker Bees one by one.
Lin Shiming checked them with great care, as every single bee was precious to him.
There were roughly three hundred ninety-two bees in total. Sadly, eight died unintentionally during the capture process; otherwise, the number would have been exactly four hundred.
Compared with ordinary swarms that could number in the tens of thousands, this count of spirit bees seemed very small. But the number of these Seeker Bees was actually quite considerable.
Lin Shiming rose on his sword, retrieved the hive the size of a grindstone from the tree branch, which still contained many bee larvae as well as about three to four jin of spirit honey.
After securing the bee larvae, Lin Shiming carefully picked all the spirit flowers, thinking that whether he sold them or transplanted them to Fangmu Mountain for his own bees to harvest, it was a good choice either way.
"Second brother, let\'s head back. We need to report the remnants of the Huang Family to Uncle Ancestor Seven and the elders!" Lin Shiming was the first to suggest.
Lin Shiyi naturally had no objections. His primary goal of obtaining the Bone-Tempering Flower had been achieved, and before reaching the eighth layer of Qi Cultivation, he reckoned he wouldn\'t need to search for body refinement spiritual medicine.
As for the spirit vein here, Lin Shiming took out a small Spirit Concealing Formation flag, concealing the Second Rank Inferior Grade spirit vein, waiting for a good opportunity for their fifth uncle, Lin Houyong, to relocate it.
Although a Second Rank Inferior Grade spirit vein would not impact Fangmu Mountain too significantly, transplanting it to the sub-peaks surrounding Fangmu Mountain could indeed expand the Lin Family\'s medicinal garden.