At midnight, Ling Tian was still cultivating, but the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within his body was almost full.
Suddenly, Ling Tian felt the magnetic field around the house change.
Immediately after, Ling Tian felt some sounds coming from a certain direction in his mind.
These sounds were not like human speech, but more like a venomous snake hissing, sending chills down his spine.
However, Ling Tian seemed to be able to understand the meaning behind the sounds, as if they were summoning something.
Ling Tian abruptly opened his eyes, quietly got up, and went to the window to look in that direction.
It was pitch black outside, with no moon that night, so he couldn't see anything.
Ling Tian secretly circulated his true qi, his internal true essence flowing, converging into his eyes, activating the Art of Observing Qi!
In an instant, his vision was enhanced. He saw a shadowy figure about a hundred meters away by the pond in that direction.
Ling Tian could see through the Art of Observing Qi that next to the figure, there was a fist-sized energy body, which was constantly emitting some kind of energy ripples.
The sound he had heard earlier, in the depths of his consciousness, must have come from this thing.
Ling Tian quietly turned around, picked up a tablet, and logged into the house's security system.
Immediately, the several high-definition cameras installed outside the house quietly shifted their direction, pointing towards the pond.
The lenses extended forward, and the images zoomed in.
Through the infrared lens, Ling Tian saw a young man sitting cross-legged on the ground, forming a hand seal.
About a meter in front of him, a few stones were stacked to form a triangular platform, like a small shrine.
On top of the stones, something was placed, and it was this thing that was releasing various energies into the surroundings!
Ling Tian immediately became furious. Someone sneaking around his place in the middle of the night and playing mysterious tricks was definitely not good.
Ling Tian then recalled the various strange phenomena that had occurred in this house before, the Yin Gathering Formation, and the giant snake!
Soon, the clues connected to form a clear picture.
Damn it, this guy couldn't be the culprit!
Back then, under the guise of feng shui, they had set up a Yin Gathering Formation in that haunted house and used it to nurture the giant snake.
And this person, acting suspiciously and summoning something, was most likely here for that giant snake!
Ling Tian's guess was correct. The man outside was Luo Nan, a disciple of the Imperial Dragon Sect from Hong Kong!
His master's fate had run its course, and he had died. Before dying, he told Luo Nan that he had cultivated a life-bound true dragon for him twenty years ago, which was a snake.
To the Imperial Dragon Sect, calling a snake was a great disrespect; they called their Ba She "dragons."
The birth date and time of that dragon were exactly the same as Luo Nan's.
After twenty years of nurturing by the Yin Gathering Formation, the dragon had grown. If Luo Nan could subdue it, his strength and cultivation would increase significantly.
So, Luo Nan followed the clues left by his master and found Wang Family Village.
However, all the residents of Wang Family Village were Wang family members, and they were very resistant to outsiders, especially regarding the news of the haunted house, about which they remained tight-lipped.
Luo Nan stayed in the nearest town for over a month, inquiring everywhere, and finally learned the approximate location of the haunted house.
So, that night, he traveled over mountains and avoided roads, walking for a long time before arriving at Ling Tian's residence.
The inheritance of the Imperial Dragon Sect also included the art of feng shui and divination. After all, cultivation required money, and feng shui was a good way to accumulate wealth.
Moreover, feng shui masters served as a good cover for their identities.
Upon arriving, Luo Nan sensed that this place was different. The dense spiritual energy of heaven and earth delighted him.
Raising a dragon (snake) in such a place would undoubtedly produce something extraordinary.
Luo Nan was not sure if anyone lived in the house, so he decided to perform his ritual by the pond.
This was also one of the core techniques of the Imperial Dragon Sect, the Dragon Summoning Art! Or, in other words, snake summoning!
Snakes were an important offensive means for the Imperial Dragon Sect, but they were inconvenient to carry around.
Therefore, the Dragon Summoning Art was very important.
Before battles, they would perform the Dragon Summoning Art in advance to summon various snakes within a five-mile radius to their side for their use!
This summoning was irresistible to any snake, no matter how powerful.
In Luo Nan's view, if the dragon his master had raised was within this building, it would definitely be summoned by him.
However, after performing his ritual for half an hour, he had summoned nothing.
There weren't many snakes in Wang Family Village to begin with, and it was winter, with temperatures already below freezing. The snakes had long since hibernated.
He had been busy here for a long time, but not a single snake had appeared. Just then, Luo Nan heard footsteps.
He suddenly raised his head, grabbed the object on the stone in front of him, immediately stood up, and vigilantly looked in the direction of the footsteps.
"Hey, what are you doing? Not sleeping in the middle of the night and coming here to play mysterious tricks!"
The speaker was Ling Tian, who walked over swaggeringly, holding a "Sky-Flipping Seal" (a brick) in his hand.
Facing Ling Tian's questioning, Luo Nan did not speak but stared vigilantly.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're here looking for a snake."
Luo Nan's pupils suddenly constricted, because from Ling Tian's words, he judged that Ling Tian knew about the snake!
But Luo Nan's master had never told him that anyone else knew about this matter!
"I'm the only one who knows where that snake is. If I don't tell you, you'll never find it!
How about this, let's make a deal. You answer a few of my questions and satisfy my curiosity, and I'll tell you where that snake is!"
Luo Nan hesitated for a moment, then finally let out a hoarse voice.
"Alright, what do you want to know!"
At this moment, Luo Nan had already harbored murderous intent. No matter what, as long as he knew the whereabouts of that dragon, this man in front of him must die!
"The formation in this house, you set it up before, didn't you!"
"Yes!" Luo Nan hadn't expected Ling Tian to know about the formation, so there was no point in hiding it.
"Where did the person who set up the formation go? I need to find him for an explanation, because the Yin Gathering Formation he set up caused many people to die!"
"He's dead!"
"Dead? Lucky him!
Then let me ask you, what is your purpose in raising snakes?"
"Heh heh, why should a dead person know these things!"
Before Luo Nan could finish speaking, a small snake, over half a meter long and entirely black, suddenly sprang up from the ground less than a meter away from Ling Tian and bit Ling Tian's calf.
This snake, despite its small size, had reddish patterns on its black scales.
This was a highly venomous snake meticulously cultivated using the secret techniques of the Imperial Dragon Sect. Its venom was several times more potent than that of the inland taipan, the most venomous snake known on land!