Chapter 230: Yew Woods [2]

Following the trail deeper and deeper into the Yew Woods, Lin Xuan eventually found himself standing before the entrance of the snake cave once again.

“I should have seen this coming,” he muttered before stepping inside.

The moment he entered, the familiar surroundings came into view.

The place was practically a cemetery dedicated to snakes.

The massive pillars were carved into the shapes of coiling serpents, countless snake patterns covered the walls, and the archways resembled enormous serpent mouth.

Lin Xuan slowly walked deeper into the cave, his eyes sweeping across the familiar surroundings as he heard something slithering toward him.

The sound gradually grew louder as whatever was approaching dragged its body across the stone floor.

Lin Xuan stopped and looked ahead until a figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

It was a beautiful young woman with long hair cascading over her shoulders.

Her upper body was human, while everything below her waist was that of a massive serpent.

Her body was fully covered, leaving nothing exposed, and her eyes were completely blind, lacking even the slightest trace of pupils.

Her long serpentine tail slid silently across the stone floor as she approached.

The woman stopped several steps away from Lin Xuan.

Although she could not see him, her head turned directly toward him as though she could sense his presence perfectly.

Her expression was cold as her lips parted.

“Human, you’ve gone back on your word.”

Lin Xuan remained calm despite the woman’s hostile words and slowly raised one hand.

“Wait, I’m only here to ask you a question. Once you answer me, I’ll leave right away.”

As he spoke, Lin Xuan carefully assessed the situation in his mind.

He could tell that she was no ordinary serpent beast, she belonged to the renowned Naga bloodline.

That alone was enough to make Lin Xuan cautious.

What troubled him even more was the vague sense of familiarity he felt whenever he looked at her. He could not remember meeting her himself, but something about her presence felt strangely familiar.

Plus, judging from her words and the tone she used with him, it was certain that the original Lin Xuan had also met this Naga before his transmigration.

The cave remained eerily quiet as the Naga continued studying him, her blind eyes seemingly capable of seeing straight through him.

Finally, she spoke.

“You’ve changed. Drastically.”

She paused for a moment before continuing in her peculiar manner of speaking.

“Ask. If improper, I’ll have your head.”

“Thank you,” Lin Xuan said politely.

He fell silent for a moment as he began thinking about what he should actually ask.

What question should I ask?

Should I ask about the Peng Family? But why should I worry about them?

His eyes narrowed slightly as another possibility crossed his mind.

What about the mist? But I would probably get the same information if I asked Mu Qingya.

Before he could think any further, the Naga’s voice came from across the cave.

“Human, my patience run thin. Stop testing. Ask question.”

Lin Xuan’s expression stiffened slightly.

Well, here goes nothing.

He took a breath and looked directly at her.

“What is bloodline purity? And how does one increase it?”

The Naga remained silent.

She seemed to think about his question for a while before finally speaking.

“Human, that is two questions.”

The Naga tilted her head slightly before continuing.

“It’s okay. In return, answer a question from me too.”

The Naga began explaining the nature of bloodlines in a calm voice.

Lin Xuan listened carefully, memorizing every detail she gave him. After hearing her explanation, he mentally summarized the important points.

A bloodline came with an inherent trait, and the purer the bloodline was, the greater the authority its owner possessed over that trait.

As for increasing the purity of a bloodline, there was no method.

Unless one was the very origin of that bloodline, there was simply no way to increase its purity.

In other words, for almost everyone else, it was impossible.

Lin Xuan remained silent for a while, digesting the information he had just received.

The Naga patiently gave him enough time to process everything before finally asking her question.

“Who are you?”

Lin Xuan stared at her, trying to understand why she had asked such a strange question.

“I’m Lin Xuan,” he replied after a moment.

The Naga slowly shook her head.

“No. Lin Xuan was one who taught me and my sisters about bloodline.”

Her blind eyes remained fixed in his direction as her expression became more serious.

“You, human, different from him.”

She paused for a moment before asking again.

“Who are you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I am Lin Xuan,” he continued.

The Naga remained silent for a moment.

Then she slowly shook her head.

“Human, your soul have changed, but the behaviour you two showed is the same.”

Lin Xuan’s expression became slightly more serious.

Before he could speak, the woman’s body suddenly began to change.

Her human form twisted and stretched as her serpentine body expanded rapidly, scales covering her entire body as she transformed into a gigantic snake.

Lin Xuan’s eyes widened slightly.

It was only then that he realized why he felt a sense of familiarity earlier, this was the same blind snake he had encountered before.

The gigantic serpent had no eyeballs at all, yet she had been able to sense him perfectly.

So all the three snakes before were Naga all this time?

Lin Xuan’s thoughts raced for a moment before he quickly calmed himself.

“Thank you for answering my questions. I’ll leave now,” Lin Xuan said as he cupped his hands.

The Naga did nothing to stop him and simply watched in silence as he walked back through the entrance he had come from.

After Lin Xuan disappeared from sight, the gigantic snake slowly transformed back into her humanoid form.

She quietly returned deeper into the cave.

Inside, two other Naga girls were already sleeping peacefully together.

The Naga walked over to them and settled down beside her sisters. Before long, she too closed her eyes and fell asleep beside them.

After leaving the snake cave, Lin Xuan stopped in his tracks.

———————————————————

Host: Lin Xuan

Realm: First Stage of Nascent Soul Realm

Martial Spirit: Seventh-Grade Legend Rank

Bloodline: Sovereign Dragon (Purity 2.22%)

———————————————————

So what trait do I actually have? Lin Xuan wondered as he stared at the screen floating before him.

The name alone sounded incredibly grand.

Sovereign meant supreme authority, someone who stood above others and possessed power independent of outside influence.

Still, the system showed no additional information aside from what was already shared.

There was no description of the bloodline, no explanation of its trait, and no indication of what his current purity allowed him to do.

“Seriously?” Lin Xuan muttered as he rubbed his chin.

The problem was that he had never noticed anything unusual about himself.

His physical strength was certainly greater than that of an ordinary cultivator, but that could easily be attributed to his cultivation realm and the various techniques he had practiced.

His spiritual qi was powerful as well, but that was equally difficult to connect to his bloodline.

Lin Xuan frowned slightly.

“Now that I awakened a bloodline, there should be some kind of trait.”

He lowered his gaze toward his own hands and slowly circulated his spiritual qi.

His expression gradually became more serious as he pushed his spiritual qi further, carefully observing every change within his body.

But there was not even the slightest reaction.

He stopped circulating his spiritual qi and sighed.

“Could the trait be something completely unrelated to cultivation?”

That thought made him pause.

The Naga had said that bloodline traits came with authority.

Authority.

Lin Xuan repeated the word silently as he tried to figure out what kind of power could possibly fit the Sovereign Dragon bloodline.

Before he could ponder any further, a familiar voice suddenly echoed through the mist.

“Patriarch!”

Lin Xuan turned toward the voice and immediately saw a familiar figure running toward him.

“Zhaowen?”

Lin Zhaowen rushed through the mist with three other people following closely behind him. The moment he saw Lin Xuan, all the exhaustion and gloom that had been weighing on his face seemed to disappear.

“Patriarch!”

Zhaowen shouted again as he hurried toward him, his face filled with relief.

Lin Xuan quickly stepped forward and caught him before he could stumble, lifting the exhausted boy into his arms.

“What are you doing here?” Lin Xuan asked as he looked at Zhaowen in confusion.

Zhaowen opened his mouth to answer, but Lin Xuan’s gaze had already shifted toward the three unfamiliar people standing behind him.

He frowned slightly.

“And who are they?”

The three immediately exchanged glances before stepping forward and kneeling before Lin Xuan.

“Greetings, Patriarch Lin.”

The man in front lowered his head respectfully before introducing himself.

“My name is Xu Liang. These are Xu Zi and Xu Mingyuan. We are members of the Xu Family.”

Lin Xuan’s expression changed slightly when he heard the name.

“The Xu Family?”

He looked at the three people kneeling before him, then glanced at Zhaowen in his arms.

“Why are Xu Family members traveling with one of my children?”