The Lin's Patriarch is weird.

Chapter 161: 161.

Rather than immediately approaching the Su Family, Lin Xuan decided to first understand the situation within Clearbrook City.

He found a relatively ordinary inn and rented a private room for the night.

Once the door was closed behind him, Lin Xuan sat cross-legged upon the bed.

There was no need for him to personally wander through the city.

His Nascent Soul slowly emerged from his body.

The tiny figure hovered in the air, carrying the same appearance as Lin Xuan himself, except that its body was faintly translucent and surrounded by an indescribably profound aura.

Lin Xuan’s eyes remained closed.

His Nascent Soul, however, opened its eyes.

In the next instant, it silently left the room.

It passed through the walls of the inn without encountering the slightest resistance and drifted into the streets of Clearbrook City.

Lin Xuan’s spiritual sense spread outward through his Nascent Soul.

The city unfolded before his perception.

As a Nascent Soul cultivator, his spiritual sense was far beyond what the cultivators of Clearbrook City could perceive. Even Golden Core cultivators would have difficulty detecting his presence, let alone the ordinary cultivators scattered throughout the city.

The first place Lin Xuan chose to investigate was an inn.

It was a branch of the Blue Sea Restaurant, a well-known establishment with several branches throughout the region.

From what Lin Xuan had heard, the Su Family had invested heavily in its construction, making it one of their more important properties within Clearbrook City.

He had not expected to hear anything particularly interesting.

After all, he was not some protagonist blessed with heaven-defying luck who could stumble upon a world-shaking secret simply by walking into a random restaurant.

He merely wanted to understand what was happening within the establishment.

His Nascent Soul quietly wandered through the three-story building.

He listened to conversations between merchants, cultivators, and restaurant employees.

He observed the movement of people throughout the establishment and memorized the faces of those who appeared important.

Whenever someone mentioned the Su Family, Lin Xuan paid closer attention.

An hour passed.

By the time he finished investigating the restaurant, he had effectively memorized the entire place.

Lin Xuan’s Nascent Soul returned to his body.

He slowly opened his eyes.

"That should be enough."

He had barely finished speaking when a faint sound came from behind him.

A cold glint flashed through the room and a knife was raised behind Lin Xuan, its blade aimed directly at the back of his neck.

The attacker struck without hesitation.

However, before the blade could even touch his clothes, Lin Xuan casually raised his hand.

The next instant, the attacker’s hand flew away from him as though it had been struck by an invisible force.

The knife clattered onto the floor and Lin Xuan slowly turned around to see two figures standing behind him.

Both were cultivators of the Body Tempering Realm.

One of them stared at Lin Xuan in shock, while the other immediately reached for another weapon.

Lin Xuan glanced at the fallen knife before looking back at them.

"Murdering people?"

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"Guess you two really aren’t appreciating your lives at all."

———————————————————

The following morning, news of an unusual incident quickly spread throughout Clearbrook City.

Two men had been found stripped of their clothes and forced to confess their crimes publicly.

The story traveled from one street to another, passing through tea houses, restaurants, marketplaces, and cultivation shops until nearly everyone had heard some version of it.

"They really did that?"

"Apparently. They weren’t merely robbing people."

"They killed them?"

"Not just once or twice. They supposedly killed people simply because they enjoyed it."

The more details people heard, the more disgusted they became.

Robbery was already considered a despicable crime, but murdering innocent people for entertainment crossed an entirely different line.

"They deserved whatever happened to them."

"At least someone finally dealt with those bastards."

Yet there was another part of the story that attracted even more curiosity.

The two criminals had apparently been caught by a mysterious stranger.

Nobody knew who he was.

Some claimed he was a powerful cultivator passing through Clearbrook City. Others insisted that he had used some kind of soul technique to force the two men to confess everything they had done.

By midday, even the more exaggerated versions of the story had begun circulating.

"Did you hear? The stranger didn’t even touch them."

"I heard he merely looked at them and they confessed everything."

"That’s nothing. Someone told me he could see straight through their souls."

With every retelling, the mysterious stranger became more formidable.

Naturally, Lin Xuan remained completely unaware of most of the rumors.

Or rather, he simply did not care.

He had already left the matter behind.

For him, those two Body Tempering cultivators were nothing more than a minor disturbance on his way to the Su Family.

For the people of Clearbrook City, however, the mysterious stranger had become the subject of the morning’s most interesting gossip.

Meanwhile, Lin Xuan had already returned to Azure Willow City before dawn.

By the time the first rays of sunlight appeared over the horizon, he had already arrived at the shipyard and appeared among the workers as though he had never left.

He spent the morning inspecting the construction, speaking with the elders overseeing the work, and making sure that everything continued according to plan.

By noon, however, Lin Xuan was already in Clearbrook City once again.

His Nascent Soul quietly left his body, spreading his spiritual sense throughout the city.

Over the following days, he continued his investigation and anything connected to the Su Family was carefully observed.

He had already waited this long for answers, so spending several more days investigating the Su Family was hardly a burden.

By the fifth day, he had gained a fairly comprehensive understanding of the Su Family’s businesses and influence within Clearbrook City.

And then, that afternoon, someone came to visit him.

Lin Xuan was sitting quietly inside his room at the inn when he suddenly sensed someone approaching.

His spiritual sense swept over the newcomer and noticed that instead of a knife, the visitor had come bearing gifts.

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