The night wind swept through the alley mouth, making the cloth banners beneath the eaves flutter and snap. I stood by the inn window, staring at the cart parked outside. The driver still had his back to the entrance, his bamboo hat pulled low. He did not move, like a clay statue.
But I saw it—his right thumb lightly tapped the cart shaft three times.
It was a signal.
I grabbed the bronze token and tucked it into my sleeve, removed my outer robe and draped it over my arm, then pushed open the window and flipped out. My Cloud-Treading Boots landed on the tiles without a sound. I lowered my body and rolled into the shadows behind the building. The cart stood at the end of the alley. A few more steps beyond it lay the deepest hidden passage of the Black Market, reserved for transactions that could not bear the light of day.
I kept close to the wall, circled to the rooftop opposite, and crouched down.
Sure enough, before the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, two figures in black robes emerged from the depths of the alley, their footsteps exceedingly light. One had an empty left sleeve, clearly missing a hand; the other's neck was stiff, and his throat did not move when he spoke, as though he were speaking with his belly. They stopped beside the cart and began whispering.
"Where is the item?" the one-armed man asked.
"Wait for the token," the ventriloquist replied.
At last, the driver turned around and lifted one corner of his bamboo hat, revealing half a scar-covered face. He took a blood-red crystal from his robes and held it in his palm.
The crystal was no bigger than a fingernail, yet it glimmered with an eerie red light, like a bead of congealed blood pulsing.
I held my breath.
This was not merely a marker, nor was it an ordinary token of the demonic path. It shared the same origin as the brands behind the dead soldiers' necks—perhaps it was even... purer.
The moment they exchanged it, I moved.
A shard of tile flicked from my fingertips, flying at an angle toward the lantern frame on the other side of the alley entrance. With a crisp crack, the lantern swayed twice, and its flame suddenly flickered wildly.
All three men looked up at once.
In that instant, I had already leapt from the eaves. My toes tapped the wall, and I pounced upon the ventriloquist like a shadow following its form. He had just received the Blood Crystal and had not yet tucked it into his robes when I seized his wrist. With a twist, I dislocated the joint, and the crystal flew free. I caught it with my backhand, retreated with the momentum, and used the cart to conceal myself. In the blink of an eye, I was back where I had started.
The entire process took no more than two breaths.
No one saw who I was.
By the time they recovered, I had vanished into the blind spot above the eaves. The one-armed man roared in fury and struck out with a stream of black smoke, while the driver suddenly drew his blade and swept it sideways, cutting through nothing but air.
I curled up behind the roof ridge, my five fingers clenched tightly around the Blood Crystal.
My palm suddenly burned. The crystal melted on its own, transforming into a scarlet stream that burrowed into my skin. A violent aura surged through my meridians, as though countless needles were stirring in the cracks of my bones.
The Pseudo-Primordial Body immediately began circulating, forcibly pressing that Blood Qi into the cycle of the Heaven-Slaying Origin. The system responded soundlessly—
[Obtained a clue to a fragment of the Blood Demon Sect's 'Soul Devouring Acupoint Refining Technique']
I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing the Origin to slowly digest this foreign power. Seven strands, nine parts out of ten—only a thread remained before I could condense the Heaven-Slaying Dao Foundation. But this was not the time for a breakthrough.
Hurried footsteps sounded from the alley below. Clearly, they intended to search the nearby rooftops. I slowly rose, preparing to leave.
Just then, someone stood at the alley entrance.
Moonlight fell across her shoulder, lifting one corner of her Black Cloak.
Ye Qingwan.
I did not know when she had arrived. She carried a medicine case, with a Green Jade Medicine Pestle tucked at her waist, her gaze fixed directly on where I hid.
I did not move.
Neither did she.
After several breaths, she stepped inside, her footsteps light, as if afraid of disturbing something. When she reached the middle of the alley, she stopped, braced one hand against the edge of her medicine case, and spoke coolly.
"Young Master Ji is in quite the mood. Did you come to the Black Market to see a doctor?"
Her voice was cold as frost.
I jumped down from the roof and landed three steps in front of her. Dusting the ash from my sleeve, I raised the corner of my lips. "Isn't Miss Ye here looking for a Medicinal Guide too? This place has plenty of filthy things, which makes it easier to dig up real treasures."
She stared at me without shifting her gaze in the slightest. "There is Blood Qi lingering on you."
"I casually dealt with someone blocking my path just now." I shrugged. "Black Market rules. If no one dies, it does not count as an opening."
She sneered. "And you intend to walk away unscathed now?"
I did not answer. Instead, I stepped closer and laid my hand over the back of the hand she used to hold the medicine case. She tried to pull away, but she was too late.
A pale golden glow flashed and vanished.
Her pupils shrank slightly.
"The Blood Phoenix Fire inside you is in turmoil. If you do not unseal it soon, it will burn through your meridians and sever your veins sooner or later." I withdrew my hand, my tone calm. "I can treat this illness."
At last, her expression changed.
Not from pain, but shock.
She lowered her head and glanced at her hand. A faint red line flashed beneath the skin of her palm, then disappeared. It was the sealed bloodline responding to the touch of some force.
"When did you discover it?" she asked.
"From the day you changed my medicine at the Ji Clan Apothecary Hall," I said. "Your fingertips were hot, yet you refused to touch my wound. An ordinary physician would not fear blood, unless her own blood was more dangerous than anyone else's."
She fell silent for a moment, then suddenly sneered. "So you are fobbing me off with such words? A useless Young Master who cannot even stand steadily can resolve the plight of an ancient bloodline?"
"I am not a useless Young Master." I looked at her. "I simply have not made my move yet."
She narrowed her eyes. "Then what did you take just now?"
"A little trinket." I spread my palm. Only a faint red mark remained there, like a burn scar. "Enough for me to learn how the Blood Demon Sect refines people, and enough to find the roots they have buried in the Black Market."
She stared at the mark and suddenly said, "Aren't you afraid of drawing a siege?"
"I am," I said. "That is why I will not stay here and wait for them to find me."
She nodded and turned to leave.
"Wait." I called after her.
She turned back.
"You should not have come here tonight," I said. "They are not only watching me. They are also watching those capable of awakening the Blood Phoenix Body. You are one of their targets."
She sneered. "I do not need your warning."
"Then why did you come alone?"
She paused, but did not answer.
The sound of iron chains dragging over the ground came from afar. Someone was patrolling. The Black Market guards had begun changing shifts.
I looked at her. "Go back, and burn the Crimson Heart Grass in your medicine case. Someone tampered with it. If you take it, it will trigger a backlash from your inner fire."
Her brows knitted. "How did you know I brought it?"
"Because you need to suppress your bloodline, and Crimson Heart Grass is one of the few medicinal herbs that can temporarily subdue it." I turned and walked toward the end of the alley. "But the Crimson Heart Grass now is poison."
She remained where she was, and her voice turned cold. "Who exactly are you?"
I did not look back.
"The only reason you will live to see tomorrow."
The wind suddenly grew stronger, sweeping scraps of paper and ashes from the ground. I reached the alley entrance and was about to turn into the main street when her voice came from behind me.
"If you truly can treat it, why not do it now?"
I stopped.
"Because treatment requires a price," I said slowly. "You must give up something, and I must take a risk. Now is not the time."
She did not ask again.
I continued forward, my footsteps steady. Behind me in the alley, she was still standing there. The medicine pestle spun once between her fingers before she tucked it back into her waist.
I knew what she was thinking.
She was weighing whether I was a madman, or whether I truly possessed some power she had never seen before.
And I knew in my heart that this game had only just begun.
The information brought by the Blood Crystal was not merely a clue to a secret technique. It also contained a sequence of rune-like symbols resembling numbers, like the key to some ritual. It pointed not to a location, but to the arrangement of acupoints within the human body—the Blood Demon Sect used living people to refine puppets, relying on this very Soul Devouring Acupoint Refining Technique to transform dead soldiers into vessels carrying secret techniques.
What I had obtained was the core medium.
As long as I had one more chance to come into contact with a similar dead soldier, I could piece together the complete path.
Just as I was thinking this, a red flash flickered at the street corner ahead.
I immediately stopped.
It was the warning lamp in the eastern district of the Black Market. It normally lit only for major transactions or emergency evacuations. At this moment, it brightened and dimmed erratically, as if someone had deliberately triggered it.
I did not want to go over.
But my footsteps involuntarily turned in that direction.
Because I recognized that color—it was exactly the same as when the Blood Crystal had melted.
Keeping close to the wall, I moved forward, passed two stalls, and hid behind a pillar by the back door of a Gambling House. Ahead lay a sealed courtyard, with two guards standing at the entrance, identical blood-red crystals hanging from their chests.
Someone inside was speaking.
"...The token has been lost. We must activate the backup plan."
"That woman has already approached the sealing point. We cannot wait any longer."
"Then make her the sacrifice."
I clenched my fists.
The woman they spoke of could only be Ye Qingwan.
I slowly backed away, preparing to leave, when I suddenly felt my palm grow hot.
Looking down, I saw that the red mark was seeping out an extremely thin line of blood, which ran down through my fingers.
I raised my hand and looked at it beneath the moonlight.
A drop of blood fell, striking a stone slab carved with runes on the ground, and was instantly absorbed.
A crack appeared in the center of the slab, shaped like the outline of a door.
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