Re-examination

A Reassessment

After gradually calming down, what Han Yi worried about most was whether the government's cultivators would follow the trail to his door.

Killing someone was never easy to explain.

But he waited until deep into the night and still saw no sign of movement, so he slowly put his mind at ease.

In truth, after transmigrating, Han Yi's understanding of this world had remained only on the surface.

Deep down, he was still the engineer and tech nerd who had lived under the rule of law in his previous life.

In his previous life, murder was against the law.

But in Great Qian, as long as you acted quickly and did not violate Great Qian's laws, killing a cultivator was no big deal at all.

After guessing that the authorities would not come knocking at the sect's gate, Han Yi began to reexamine everything that had happened today.

On the surface, Jiang De had wanted to kill him.

He could not possibly have misread that sudden burst of spiritual power and killing intent.

But why?

For what reason?

The two had barely interacted. They had only met two or three times in total, merely acquaintances who nodded in passing, without even exchanging a single word.

What grudge could there possibly be?

Han Yi thought until his head hurt, yet still could not figure it out.

And the result of that sudden encounter was that Han Yi had killed Jiang De instead.

There was nothing to say about that. Even in this world of cultivators—let alone the law-abiding world of his previous life—if someone wanted to kill him, he would resist in self-defense.

Han Yi did not regret killing him.

Moreover, the encounter in that narrow alley had been far too brief. After killing Jiang De, through the chaotic mass of spiritual energy, all he saw was a body gradually exploding and splintering apart.

That was also the main reason he felt sick after returning to the courtyard.

"Too dangerous."

"The last time I went out, I encountered killing intent for no reason at all."

"This time, Jiang De outright tried to intercept and kill me."

"No. Perhaps that killing intent last time also came from Jiang De. Only, I used the crowd to muddy the waters and barely escaped disaster."

Thoughts churned through Han Yi's mind as he faintly sensed some conspiracy directed against him.

Something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

"Since coming to Mengshan City, I've only met these few people."

"Guan Sheng, Jiang De, Xiao Yi, Xia Qingyi, and that shopkeeper in Lei Family Market."

"Jiang De's attempt to kill me should have nothing to do with Lei Family Market."

"Of them, Jiang De is already dead. The only person I can trust is Guan Sheng..."

At this point, Han Yi abruptly stopped. His brows drew tightly together, then he shook his head.

"No, that way of thinking is preconceived."

"In theory, the only person in Mengshan City I can trust is myself."

"I need to work backward from that foundation and sort them out."

"No one else can be trusted."

Han Yi's heart sank slightly.

He had no idea what sort of conspiracy awaited him.

But—

as long as he remained unmoved and kept his head down, all those ghostly schemes and underhanded tricks would have nowhere to hide.

Keep his head down.

Lie low for half a year, until the sect assessment. Once he left Mengshan City and returned to Little Spirit Void Peak, he would be safe.

Thinking this, Han Yi let out a breath.

"Looks like I can only let Guan Sheng down."

"From now on, I'll lie low until half a year has passed."

"As for the Evil Warding Pills, once I enter the sect, I'll have the pills I refine passed to Guan Sheng through Senior Brother Guan Di. I don't even want my share of the profits; I'll treat it as compensation for Guan Sheng."

"I'm sure Guan Sheng will understand."

"At most, once I make it big later, I'll compensate him with some pills."

Han Yi made up his mind. From this moment on, he would keep his head down.

Then, he took out the thing he had accidentally kicked before leaving the alley.

It was a bloodstained storage pouch.

He tried channeling magical power into it.

Just as he had expected, he encountered a trace of resistance, but it was not particularly strong.

This showed that the storage pouch's owner—Jiang De—was indeed at a higher realm than him, but not by much.

Based on his review of the encounter in the alley, Jiang De should have been at Qi Refining Layer 4.

It was only that Jiang De had been too careless. He had tried to launch a sneak attack, only to run into Han Yi, who had cheated his way into cultivating Spirit Void Finger to the Intermediate realm.

Getting counter-killed—such was fate.

Han Yi continuously fed magical power into it, taking a full hour before finally opening Jiang De's storage pouch.

Once his consciousness clearly saw what was inside the storage pouch, Han Yi's eyes lit up.

He first put away everything in the Meditation Chamber that belonged to him. Then, with a sweep of his hand, he dumped out everything from Jiang De's storage pouch.

It was packed to the brim. The entire Meditation Chamber was piled full.

Wave after wave of familiar and unfamiliar scents from spiritual herbs and medicinal plants rushed to his nose.

Medicinal herbs—herbs for alchemy.

Although these herbs were still in their raw state and needed to be sorted, categorized, and stored in jade boxes, there were so many of them that, to him, they amounted to a vast fortune.

If exchanged for spirit stones, they would absolutely be worth far more than a hundred spirit stones.

I've struck it rich.

The thought flashed through Han Yi's mind.

Then several more lines surfaced.

No wonder the ancients said: murder and arson earn golden belts, while building bridges and repairing roads leave no bones behind; a man cannot grow rich without windfall wealth, and a horse cannot grow fat without midnight grass.

As the sun rose and the moon set, Han Yi felt no drowsiness. It was not until sunrise the next day that he finished sorting all the spiritual herbs and medicinal plants.

Then, he looked at the things he had sorted out besides the herbs.

There were not many spirit stones—seventy-eight in total.

Spirit sand—more than thirty pounds of it.

Spirit charcoal—around three hundred pounds.

An Octagonal Silver Alchemy Furnace.

A pile of jade bottles. Inside were pills he recognized, as well as pills he had never seen before.

Evil Warding Pills, Fasting Pills, Qi Nourishing Pills, Mind Gathering Pills, Breakthrough Pills, Spirit Nourishing Pills...

And beyond that...

Han Yi looked at the last items.

They were three Bronze Daggers.

The daggers had no hilts and were only the length of a palm.

Han Yi stared at them. His first feeling was solemnity, followed by lingering fear.

This was a set of artifacts.

If—if Jiang De had not used a spell to ambush him in the alley, but had instead directly driven these artifacts to attack him from dozens of meters away, the outcome might have been completely reversed.

Therefore, upon seeing this set of artifacts clearly, waves of lingering fear surged through Han Yi's heart.

"Looking at this incident, when narrow roads bring enemies together, one must go all out."

"There absolutely cannot be the slightest trace of luck. Otherwise, the one who dies will be yourself."

Han Yi gained an even deeper understanding of "going all out."

He first stored the spirit stones, spirit sand, pills, spirit charcoal, and the like into his own storage pouch. He put the other miscellaneous items, along with the Octagonal Silver Alchemy Furnace, into Jiang De's storage pouch.

Then, he turned his gaze back to the Dagger Artifacts and began trying to channel magical power into them and drive the daggers. Unfortunately, his cultivation at Qi Refining Layer 3 was only enough to make the daggers dart about within three meters of his body.

Moreover, he could control at most two daggers.

Han Yi could see it as well.

These three daggers were clearly a set. Only by controlling all three at once could their power be brought to its fullest.

Although this set of artifacts was merely a Low-grade Magic Artifact, it was excellent for both offense and defense.

After controlling them for most of the day, Han Yi suddenly thought of something.

He took out the Transmission Jade Disk for the Sword Control Technique, which he had bought yesterday at the Lei Family Market for eighty-five spirit stones, from his storage pouch.

His eyes lit up as an idea suddenly struck him.

If he used the Sword Control Technique to control these three daggers, could he use them like flying swords?

Once the thought took root, Han Yi felt it was feasible.

But he did not try it rashly.

Cultivating the Sword Control Technique would definitely require a long time.

And the encounter in the alley had shown him the terrifying power of the Spirit Void Finger.

He wanted to master many techniques.

But he also wanted to become highly proficient in one.

Given his current circumstances, the ideal path was to first attain mastery in one technique, then learn many more techniques to add to his hidden cards.

Thus, he decided to keep grinding!

Once he had grinded the Spirit Void Finger to the next realm, he would cultivate the Sword Control Technique.

As for the excessive commotion caused by practicing the Spirit Void Finger in the courtyard, he had thought of a solution as well: he would practice the Spirit Void Finger in his bedroom, aiming downward.

At worst, he would blast out a basement.

At worst, once he returned to the sect in the future, he could just pay for the damages.