The evidence was two cultivation journals, one of which should have belonged to the owner of the Item-Storing Ring.
Strictly speaking, this was rather unreasonable.
It was not a matter of "what decent person keeps a diary?"
For cultivators, recording their insights was somewhat like keeping experimental records.
It made it easier to organize past memories, and if they discovered errors or omissions, they could make targeted adjustments and improvements.
If they had a family or sect, they could also pass those insights down, offering later generations enlightenment and helping them avoid detours.
But who would carry their entire life's diary around with them? Or rather... couldn't they write it after getting home? The journal he carried recorded his cultivation process from Qi Refining to the Golden Core Realm—Qi Nourishing was probably too weak to be included.
What he had focused on recording were his insights when breaking through from Qi Refining to Dust Departure, and from Dust Departure to the Golden Core Realm.
No matter what, carrying that journal around was somewhat abnormal, at least until Qu Jianlei opened the other one.
It was a journal of breakthroughs from the Golden Core Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm, and it contained more than one person's insights.
After considering everything, Qu Jianlei reached a conclusion: the owner of the Item-Storing Ring had probably been preparing to challenge the Nascent Soul Realm! That perfectly explained the cultivation method and the two journals.
The Evergreen Skill should have been the cultivation method this person practiced. Since he had not yet formed a Nascent Soul, naturally he would keep it at his side to study at all times.
He would certainly need to review and scrutinize his past realizations, while also drawing on the experiences of other seniors who had formed Nascent Souls.