Present

Zhao Ping'an had used a Human Grade Perfection hidden-weapon technique, the Absolute Shadow Flying Blade. It had only one trait: extreme speed, so fast that his opponent could glimpse only a shadow.

By the time the sound of the blade tearing through the air reached the onlookers' ears, the white-clad man's head had burst apart like a watermelon, spraying red and white across the ground.

Everyone who saw the scene turned deathly pale, sickened to the core. They scattered in every direction, many shouting as they fled:

"Someone's dead!"

"Someone from the City Lord's Mansion is dead!"

Some of those who had been standing nearby even ran while throwing up. The sight was simply too gruesome to look at.

When had ordinary folk like them ever witnessed such a bloody scene?

"You two, take a message to Zhou Ruiming. Tell him I, Zhao Ping'an, killed the man.

"And tell him to warn those three from the Royal City at the City Lord's Mansion to behave themselves in South Ridge City. I have a bad temper. If they dare cause trouble again, I won't guarantee they'll make it back to the Royal City. Now get lost!"

After casually killing the white-clad man, Zhao Ping'an turned to the two City Guards who had hidden nearby instead of fleeing. His voice was icy.

"Zhao Ping'an?!"

"Y-yes, sir! We'll be sure to pass on the message!"

At the sound of Zhao Ping'an's name, the two City Guards' faces changed at once. They nodded frantically, their expressions full of terror. Then they abandoned even the carriage, and didn't spare a glance for the corpse. They bolted toward the City Lord's Mansion, afraid that if they ran any slower, they'd end up lying there too.

"Grandmaster Zhao, thank you for saving our lives. The Wang Family will repay you handsomely!"

Wang Linzhao led his younger sister, Wang Linxue, over to Zhao Ping'an. The two bowed together.

After bowing, Wang Linxue stared nervously at Zhao Ping'an, with his resolute features and towering build. Her curiosity practically spilled from her eyes.

At sixteen or seventeen, she was at the age when a young girl's heart first stirred. And when she had been in danger, the mighty Zhao Ping'an had descended like a divine weapon from the heavens, leaving a deep mark on her still-blank heart.

Unfortunately, Zhao Ping'an had long since given up on love. He merely waved a hand, then vanished from before them in a flash.

"Zhao..."

Watching the figure appear dozens of meters away in an instant, then quickly disappear from sight, Wang Linzhao could only lower the hand he had half-raised, unable to say what he'd meant to.

"Come on, little sister. We need to hurry back and tell Father and Grandfather about this. If I'm not mistaken, the Grandmaster who died was probably sent from the Royal City to track down a fugitive. If we don't handle this properly, the Wang Family will be finished!"

Seeing his younger sister still gazing dazedly in the direction Zhao Ping'an had left, Wang Linzhao took her by the arm and headed toward the Wang residence, his expression grave.

"Grandmaster! Second Brother, you're saying that white-clad man was a Grandmaster?!"

Wang Linxue came to her senses and cried out in shock. She hadn't seen the man's palm strike and hadn't expected the dead man to be a Grandmaster.

If one of his friends, also a Grandmaster, took his anger out on the Wang Family over this...

At the thought, clever Wang Linxue grew just as solemn and quickened her pace home.

At the center of the City Lord's Mansion, inside the reception hall...

"What? White Ghost tried to abduct the Wang Family's young lady off the street to practice his skills, and was killed on the spot by Grandmaster Zhao, who happened to pass by and witness it? And he was trying to prey on her?"

Ouyang Yun had been drinking tea with Zhou Ruiming. Hearing the report from the City Guard kneeling just inside the entrance, he roared in shock.

"Y-yes, my lord..."

The City Guard's answer came out in a nervous stammer.

"Useless! Useless! You can't get anything right, and you only make things worse! He actually picked this moment to provoke that killing god, Zhao Ping'an. Does he have paste for brains? Prey on her? I'd say lust had eaten his brain!"

Ouyang Yun was beside himself with rage. He couldn't understand what White Ghost had been thinking. Why had he wandered around the city at a time like this, and even picked two Houtian Martial Artist Realm City Guards—who had been stationed at the City Lord's Mansion for years and knew nothing about most of the city's factions—to drive his carriage?

"Brother Ouyang, now isn't the time to vent your anger. We should be thinking about how to answer to Grandmaster Zhao and those three in the rear courtyard! We can't afford to offend either side."

Zhou Ruiming waved the two kneeling men away, telling them to get lost, then turned to Ouyang Yun and spoke with a troubled expression.

"Answer to them? What answer can we give? We can only tell the truth. As for Grandmaster Zhao... it looks like I won't be able to hold on to those two Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicines after all..."

Ouyang Yun murmured, his heart aching.

Those were treasures he'd been saving to break through to the fifth level of the Grandmaster Realm. And now...

Zhao Ping'an paid no attention to what was happening at the City Lord's Mansion. He already knew that the strongest expert in the entire Profound Water Dynasty was merely a Great Grandmaster at the peak. Of course, the other three prefectural cities also had Great Grandmasters, though he didn't know exactly how many. Even so, that was all there was to it.

To Zhao Ping'an now, Great Grandmasters couldn't even break through his defenses. No matter how many came, they'd only be bringing him a meal.

Zhao Ping'an soon left South Ridge City and headed toward Wu'an Mountain.

That was the only place outside South Ridge City with a wealth of Spiritual Medicines. Tian Yiming was injured and cut off from news. If he wanted to make it to the border, the medicines there were his best—and only—choice for healing and replenishing his strength.

In this isolated, ancient agrarian society, only major factions could keep track of what was happening in different regions. Zhao Ping'an therefore guessed that Tian Yiming's knowledge of South Ridge City was still based on old information.

Of course, if Tian Yiming never came, Zhao Ping'an wouldn't lose anything. He'd only have to spend a little more time accumulating Deduction Points.

Several dozen miles north of South Ridge City, a disheveled figure hid carefully in the canopy of a great tree. Leaves were bound all over his body, making him almost impossible to spot even if someone searched carefully.

(A shabby, ancient-world knockoff of a ghillie suit)

"South Ridge City! What's this? A mountain full of Spiritual Medicines? The Sun Family, a Xiantian clan? That's the one, then. Cough, cough..."

Tian Yiming carefully held a remarkably detailed map. The map had been made from the cured hide of some unknown Demonic Beast. It clearly marked the locations of every city, large and small, in the Profound Water Dynasty, along with each city's major factions and a brief description of its precious resources. Villages and towns, by contrast, were barely mentioned; only the larger ones were worthy of a name.

Clutching his chest, Tian Yiming coughed a few times, then quickly put away the map and took a sip from his waterskin. After confirming that no one was nearby, he swiftly jumped down from the tree, picked a direction, and sped away.

At that moment, Zhao Ping'an was still leisurely making his way toward Wu'an Mountain. He had no idea that his guess, based purely on instinct, had actually hit the mark.

"Whoosh!"

"Bang!"

A sharp whistle and an explosion rang out in quick succession. Then, one firework after another shot rapidly into the sky.

"Hm? A Signal Flare? That's the direction of Wu'an Mountain? No way..."