Cultivation Begins with Daily Intelligence Reports

317: DeductionLeaving the silent and solemn holy mountain ice cave, the desolate and vast aura that permeated the air, originating from the Mountain Giant Ape’s return to heaven and earth after its nirvana, still enveloped Lin Jingyu like an invisible tide.

He tightly clutched the warm bone fragment he had obtained from the giant ape. The detailed map of the Secret Realm and fragmented information it contained, as well as the ’Calamity Star’ warning as heavy as a mountain, made his mood even more solemn than when he arrived.

Every ’crunch’ sound his steps made on the millennia-old solid ice now seemed to carry an echo of destiny.

When his figure reappeared outside the Great Wind Tribe’s crude ice-stone barrier, the tribe members, who had been eagerly waiting in the biting cold wind, shivering but unwilling to retreat indoors, instantly erupted into an uncontrollable commotion.

”It’s the High Master! The High Master is back!” The sharp-eyed hunter Rock Mountain was the first to shout, his voice distorted by excitement and cold.

Clan Chief Stone Eagle, supported by his tribesmen, stumbled forward to meet him, his old face, covered in frostbite and wrinkles, a mixture of extreme anticipation and undisguised fear.

He opened his mouth, his chapped lips trembling, but no clear sound emerged. He could only stare intently at Lin Jingyu with his cloudy old eyes, which still burned with the last flicker of hope.

Lin Jingyu stopped, his gaze sweeping over the weathered faces before him, each etched with the hardships of survival. He sighed inwardly.

He didn’t need to speak; his silent expression and the unhidden heaviness in his eyes already said much.

He walked up to Clan Chief Stone Eagle, nodded slightly, and spoke in a steady voice, yet with a hint of undetectable bitterness: ”Clan Chief Stone Eagle, within the holy mountain... I have investigated thoroughly.”

He paused briefly, then slowly continued under the gaze of hundreds of almost suffocated eyes:

”The guardian deity, Senior Mountain Giant Ape, did not suffer from external enemies or injuries. Instead... its Lifespan was exhausted, and it has peacefully entered nirvana. Its spirit and Physical Body have both returned to this world.”

As his words fell, it was as if the most biting cold wind on the ice plains had swept through, instantly freezing all sound.

Dead silence.

Immediately after, suppressed sobs, like a collapsing dam, began to rise intermittently from the crowd, quickly merging into a chorus of grief.

The women slumped to the ground, covering their faces with their hands, tears almost freezing into icicles as they streamed out.

The men, with red eyes, clenched their jaws tightly, their fists turning white, and looked up at the gray sky, letting out pained animalistic whimpers.

The children, frightened by this immense sorrow, cried along in confusion.

For them, the guardian deity’s silence was already a catastrophe, and the words ”entered nirvana” completely severed the minuscule hope they had for the deity to reawaken and protect the tribe.

The pillar of faith collapsed completely at this moment.

Clan Chief Stone Eagle’s body swayed violently. If not for the warriors beside him holding him firmly, he would have almost fallen to the ground.

He closed his eyes, and two lines of cloudy, hot tears finally broke through the bitter cold, carving two wet trails on his deeply furrowed face, which instantly turned icy cold.

He seemed to have aged ten years in an instant, and most of his vitality and spirit drained away.

After a long while, he laboriously raised his hand, signaling for everyone to be quiet.

The sounds of grief gradually subsided, turning into silent sobs. All eyes once again converged on Lin Jingyu, filled not only with sorrow but also a sense of fatalistic bewilderment.

Clan Chief Stone Eagle took a deep breath of the icy air, trying to straighten his hunched back a little, his voice hoarse like a broken gong:

”Thank you... thank you, High Master, for telling us the truth. Great Ape Lord has guarded our tribe for thousands of years; the day of its passing was bound to come... this is fate, and we... dare not complain.”

He paused, his gaze turning to the oldest ice house in the center of the tribe, which was the Shaman’s residence.

”Since that is the case... we dare not trouble the High Master to risk danger for our tribe and fight the ice fiend. Regarding the promise we made before, to help the High Master deduce the whereabouts of the person you seek...”

He turned to Lin Jingyu and bowed deeply, ”Our Great Wind Tribe will never go back on its word. Please, High Master, follow me. The Shaman... is waiting.”

The tribe’s survivors automatically parted to form a path, their gazes complex as they watched Lin Jingyu follow the Clan Chief towards the ice house, which symbolized the tribe’s last wisdom and mystery.

Inside the ice house, the light was dim, with only a small, perpetually burning bonfire in the center emitting faint light and warmth.

A gaunt old man, with deeply sunken eye sockets and tightly closed eyes, sat quietly on a bone chair covered with thick animal skins. He was the Shaman of the Great Wind Tribe.

Due to repeatedly performing deductions for the Great Wind Tribe’s future, he had lost his sight and even his hearing.

Surprisingly, he seemed to have already sensed everything, his withered fingers trembling slightly.

Clan Chief Stone Eagle stepped forward, his right hand’s two fingers tapping rhythmically, conveying some information.

The Shaman’s body trembled imperceptibly, his deeply sunken eye sockets seeming even darker. He merely nodded slowly and very slightly.

A deathly gray aura appeared on him.

Then, he raised his withered, stick-like hand and pointed to an inconspicuous, crude altar in the corner of the ice house, built from some kind of black stone.

On the altar, several animal bones and crystals of varying colors, emitting faint energy fluctuations, were placed.

”High Master...” Clan Chief Stone Eagle began, his voice as old as two stones rubbing together. He could actually speak some outside language.

”Please... visualize in your mind... an item containing the aura of the person you seek, or... their name and appearance.”

Lin Jingyu complied, stepping to the altar. He directly took out the flowing cloud kite that Fei Yangyang had given him that day.

Then he closed his eyes, fully activating the Spirit Refining Art, and clearly visualized Fei Yangyang’s appearance and temperament in his mind.

And the special aura, slightly unrestrained yet subtly noble, that emanated from him when they first met outside the Black Market. At the same time, he silently recited Fei Yangyang’s name in his heart.

The Shaman’s withered, skeletal hands began to move above the altar with a slow and ancient rhythm.

He chanted abstruse and ancient-sounding incantations. The voice, initially subtle, gradually became distant, as if traversing endless time and space, establishing a connection with some unseen existence.

The animal bones and crystals on the altar lit up with faint glows, beginning to rotate slowly, emitting a profound and mysterious fluctuation.

Lin Jingyu could feel a faint but tenacious Mental Energy spreading from the Shaman’s shriveled body, guiding the altar’s power to resonate with Fei Yangyang’s aura that he was visualizing, attempting to peer into the heavens and locate his whereabouts.

This process was extremely slow. The Shaman’s body trembled more and more violently, and fine beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead, instantly freezing into ice beads. Clearly, this deduction placed an immense burden on him.