# 1701
Chapter 1694: The Method to Turn the Tide
"These monks from the Magadha Kingdom actually enjoy playing chess too?"
Yan Zhong similarly spotted this chessboard and said in astonishment, then dove into the small kitchen by the courtyard. After rummaging for a while, he finally found some dry rations.
Huo Qubing and the others also walked into the temple one by one, looking around. While Chloe curiously poked at the clay Buddha statue in the center, she also lit a fire, igniting the red candles offered in the temple one after another.
The blizzard mixed with the raging wind, causing the broken temple doors to creak and rattle. A few candlelight flickered in the wind, as if dyeing this clay Buddha statue golden.
"We've been traveling all this way, everyone's famished. Let's eat something here before we set off." Yan Zhong distributed the dry rations to everyone. "Otherwise, if we really run into that monster's true form later, we'll all be too hungry to fight."
Lin Qiye was now a Hongmeng Spirit Embryo and didn't need to eat, so he handed his rations to Jialan:
"You eat it."
Jialan was gnawing on her own rations when she saw Lin Qiye handing her another one. She paused first, then试探性地试探着开口："你不饿吗？"
"I don't need to eat."
Jialan took the rations with suspicion. "先说好，请我吃顿饭可没法收买我……该给我的报酬，还是得给。"
"Alright, alright, don't worry. I won't let you go hungry." Lin Qiye said helplessly.
Jialan took a few bites of the rations, as if thinking of something:
"对了，Lin Qiye。"
"怎么了？"
"算算时间，那些怪物应该又要来找我了……怎么办啊？这次不朽丹被我吃了，想毁都毁不掉。" Jialan's face fell, as if even the rations in her hand had lost their appeal.
"放心，有我在，它们抓不走你。"
Lin Qiye comforted her, but in his heart, he was seriously thinking.
【Key to the Gate】 knew that Jialan had eaten the Immortal Elixir, and would naturally not let this go. At this rate, He would continue sending Migo to hunt down Jialan. Although as long as Lin Qiye stayed by Jialan's side she would be safe, this couldn't go on forever...
Should he hide Jialan's karma as well?
A glimmer of light flashed in Lin Qiye's eyes. He turned to look at Jialan, and in his vision, strands of karma threads floated out from Jialan's body.
Hearing Lin Qiye's assurance, Jialan felt somewhat relieved, but seeing him suddenly staring at her seriously, she asked confused:
"怎么了？"
"没事，你吃你的，我就看看。"
Lin Qiye stared intently at those floating karma threads, his brow furrowed slightly.
Until now, Lin Qiye had only successfully hidden his own karma threads. Whether he could hide someone else's karma was still unknown... Jialan had grown up in the Jade Pool since childhood, only serving the Queen Mother of the West, so her karma threads were few. But the problem was that Lin Qiye sensed another presence within her.
A jet-black strand of karma, mixed among Jialan's karma, extending outward toward emptiness.
What kind of karma was that?
Lin Qiye followed the thread and finally locked onto its source... the Immortal Elixir.
Although the Immortal Elixir was an object, as long as it existed, it too had its own karma threads. And the karma on this pill was far more complex than what Jialan carried by a hundredfold. Moreover, that black strand of karma also had a trace of Cthulhu Faction's aura attached to it.
How could the Immortal Elixir have karma connected to the Cthulhu Faction?
Lin Qiye suddenly remembered that he had heard from the Great Xia gods that when Lingbao Tianzun refined the Immortal Elixir back then, it underwent heavenly tribulation. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, splitting the Immortal Elixir in two...
Heavenly tribulation?
Lin Qiye clearly remembered that after obtaining 【Causeless Cause】 and 【Fixed Fruit】, he too had drawn that terrifying lightning strike... but that wasn't some heavenly tribulation—it was 【Key to the Gate】 intervening across space, trying to kill him.
So was it possible that what had destroyed the Immortal Elixir back then wasn't heavenly tribulation at all, but 【Key to the Gate】 reaching across the river of time, trying to erase this pill?
The Tianzun of that era probably didn't know about 【Key to the Gate】's existence, mistaking that lightning for heavenly tribulation?
With this reasoning, everything made sense... 【Key to the Gate】 had recognized the Immortal Elixir as a major danger from the start and tried to destroy it directly. But due to the Tianzun's interference, it only managed to split it in two. 【Key to the Gate】 didn't give up, immediately sending Migo to hunt the two elixir fragments, wanting to completely erase their existence.
No wonder the Immortal Elixir bore 【Key to the Gate】's karma—it was left behind from that lightning strike...
Seeing Lin Qiye continue to stare at her seriously, Jialan felt somewhat embarrassed. Just as she was about to say something, Lin Qiye suddenly reached out his hand, brushing toward her hair...
"You, what are you doing?" Jialan snapped back to reality, her cheeks flushing with two rapid waves of red. She couldn't help but ask.
"Don't move."
Lin Qiye's fingertips stopped in front of Jialan's hair, gently moving something. Invisible karma threads were pulled away by him, connecting end to end in his palm, gradually forming a ring shape. Jialan's karma began to fade in and out of visibility.
But Lin Qiye's brow furrowed even more tightly. After a moment, he lowered his hand and sighed helplessly.
He could hide Jialan's karma... but that strand of karma from the Immortal Elixir, he couldn't hide. Perhaps it was because the Immortal Elixir's connection to the Cthulhu Faction was too strong, or perhaps his control over 【Causeless Cause】 and 【Fixed Fruit】 wasn't sufficient enough.
But either way, this was bad news. Even if he could hide Jialan's karma, as long as the Immortal Elixir existed, 【Key to the Gate】 could still see them.
Jialan tucked a strand of messy hair behind her ear, her entire face already bright red. She couldn't understand what Lin Qiye was doing at all, but for some unknown reason, her heartbeat had inexplicably quickened.
"What's wrong with your face?" Lin Qiye asked.
"N-nothing." Jialan took an aggressive bite of the rations, her mood gradually calming.
Lin Qiye didn't ask further, because now his thoughts were entirely focused on something else. He sat up from the ground, randomly picking up a stone from the corner of the temple, turning it thoughtfully in his palm.
"What are you doing?" Seeing Lin Qiye's actions, Chloe asked puzzled nearby.
"Hiding karma."
Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed slightly. As his fingertips moved gently, the karma threads of the stone intertwined together, forming a ring that gradually concealed itself in emptiness.
His eyes grew brighter and brighter!
"I understand now." Lin Qiye tossed this stone aside, as if remembering something. He suddenly turned to look at the chessboard in the courtyard and strode toward it!
Swish—!!
He lifted a chess jar, pouring all the black pieces onto the board. This movement immediately drew everyone's attention.
"What do you understand?" Chloe grew even more confused.
Lin Qiye lowered his head, gazing at this board filled with black pieces, his eyes sparkling like stars!
"The method to turn the tide!"