Tang Chuanwu hated that he was too old to cultivate. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so helpless against cultivators, with so little understanding of their methods. All he could do was keep practicing martial arts to make himself stronger.
Three months earlier, he had left the city to gather herbs. The spot was so far away that the round trip took an entire day, so apprentices from the herb shops usually spent two or three days at the gathering site. Tang Chuanwu was no exception.
He found an oasis to rest at. Nothing happened on the first day, but late on the second night, someone stumbled into the oasis. The man was gravely wounded and bleeding profusely. Even as he died, he clutched a wooden box tightly and watched Tang Chuanwu warily.
Unwilling to invite trouble, Tang Chuanwu sensed that something serious had happened. Despite the dangers of traveling at night, he decided to leave.
But before he could get away, black-robed figures bearing the emblem of a red-powder skull surrounded the oasis. Fearing Tang Chuanwu would reveal their secret, they used magic to make the bones inside his body grow rapidly, piercing through him and his heart and killing him.
On his second loop, Tang Chuanwu waited for the man to die as before, then opened the wooden box. Inside was an unknown pill and a small fragment. He tried to flee with the pill, but he was too late. The black-robed figures surrounded the oasis again and killed him.
On his third loop, Tang Chuanwu found the pill and swallowed it immediately. The pain was unbearable; he passed out and was killed by the black-robed figures while unconscious.
On his fourth loop, Tang Chuanwu put the wooden box out of his mind and set off for Ka Huang