In the blink of an eye, it was already mid-October.
On this day.
Night had fallen.
Zhou Boren took the long sword that had belonged to his late father, tucked a few taels of silver, several coarse-grain flatbreads, and a bag of boiled water into his clothes, then quietly slipped out of the house and headed straight for the village exit.
"Dad actually got his hands on a treasure like this. No wonder he was killed!"
"Qian Yu! Hmph! Crying crocodile tears!"
"Just you wait! Once I've made something of myself, you'll be the first I kill!"
Zhou Boren was twenty years old and infertile. Both of his children had been secretly conceived with another man's seed. For the past two years, Zhou Boren had felt that everyone was laughing at him, and that his wife was still in contact with that man behind his back. His mind had grown increasingly twisted.
This time, when Zhou Shan was killed by Qian Yu, Zhou Boren had sensed something strange.
As he thought it over again in the days that followed, he recalled Zhou Shan's odd behavior shortly before his death. He followed the clues and investigated, and sure enough, he uncovered the secret.
"I have to leave quickly!"
"If I wait too long, things could change!"
"Qian Yu! Chu Jingang! None of them are good people!"
Zhou Boren kept repeating those words in his head, trying to work up his courage.
He was only at the Fetal Breath Stage. Leaving Yinlian Village alone in the middle of the night and venturing into the wilderness was a gamble. Whether he would survive was anyone's guess.
But he couldn't take it anymore. Rather than stay in Yinlian Village, constantly on edge and enduring everyone's judgmental stares, he would be better off leaving.
After all, with that treasure in his possession, he could quickly become a cultivator of some renown. Breaking through to the Inner Qi Stage would be a breeze.
So he hurried on.
Sure enough, the journey passed without incident.
More than ten days went by. The villagers had already moved on from Zhou Shan's death. Besides, when Qian Yu and Fort Lord Chu Jingang had come to question them, Zhou Boren truly hadn't known a thing about what had happened to Zhou Shan. His family had long since been cleared.
How much time could those important people spare to keep an eye on nobodies like them?
The journey went smoothly.
He left his house.
He left the village.
Zhou Boren let out a sigh of relief, his heart light with delight.
Then, without looking back, he headed straight into the woods.
A black shadow flashed, and a sinister palm struck directly at his forehead.
"What—!"
He had no time to react—
Bam!
Zhou Boren felt his skull split open. His vision went black, and he died on the spot!
"Quite the nerve!"
"Someone at the Fetal Breath Stage dares to leave the village!"
Meng Nan drew back his palm, then kicked the long sword beside Zhou Boren into the air. With the sword in hand, he stabbed Zhou Boren through the throat, the heart, and the dantian.
Only after those three thrusts could he be sure Zhou Boren wasn't faking his death.
He had done it out of caution, but then he noticed that after the three stabs, as Zhou Boren's blood pooled, a faint light began to shine from somewhere on his body, beneath his clothes.
The light drew in the blood, gathering it before absorbing it.
In the blink of an eye, Zhou Boren's corpse shriveled. The light sucked away all his blood and moisture.
"This—"
Meng Nan watched, his eyelid twitching.
He used the sword to slice open Zhou Boren's clothes over his chest. Inside, he found an iron token about the size of his palm. The faint light gradually faded. That must have been what caused the strange phenomenon.
"Is this the source of Zhou Shan's evil arts? The thing Zhou Boren relied on to rise so quickly?"
Meng Nan thought it over but didn't touch the iron token. Instead, he nudged it aside, buried Zhou Boren where he lay, then used the sword to move the token elsewhere and buried it too.
Last came the long sword in his hand. He wiped it clean with water, removing every trace and scent, then buried it in the dirt as well.
Once everything was done,
Meng Nan wasted no time. He turned and went back to the village.
Ten days passed.
Only a handful of people in Yinlian Village knew that Zhou Boren had left in the middle of the night, and no one knew where he had gone. He was merely a twenty-year-old at the Fetal Breath Stage. Apart from the Zhou family, nobody paid him any attention.
Everything went on as usual.
Over the next few days, two more ordinary Inner Qi Stage cultivators vanished without a sound. They had gone out hunting and never returned.
Perhaps they had met with disaster.
Perhaps they had gone elsewhere.
Who knew?
Who cared?
Like Zhou Boren, they disappeared without a trace.
You had to eat one bite at a time.
You had to take things one step at a time.
After returning from his second life, Meng Nan stuck to the same routine as before—
Work!
Cultivate!
Kill!
His routine hadn't changed.
First he killed Zhou Boren, then two Inner Qi Stage cultivators. Everything had gone smoothly.
As for anything else—
There was nothing.
Meng Nan might have seemed formidable, but in truth he was still only at the Fetal Breath Stage. He was far too weak.
His top priority now was cultivation.
He killed for the sake of cultivation, too.
"While I'm at the Fetal Breath Stage, it's easier to punch above my weight and kill people at higher stages. I should spend more time here and enter the future time-space a few more times to build up my foundations."
"Once I reach the Inner Qi Stage, killing people above my level won't be so easy. By then, I'll need to kill True Qi Stage cultivators. There are only a dozen or two in all of Yinlian Village. Where am I supposed to find enough to kill?"
"Leave the village?"
"It wouldn't be safe to leave the village at the Inner Qi Stage."
"My best bet is to use the future time-space to cultivate all the way to the True Qi Stage while I'm still at the Fetal Breath Stage. Then, when I reach the peak of the Inner Qi Stage in reality, I can go out and hunt True Qi Stage cultivators. The moment I complete my progress, I'll break through to the True Qi Stage and be safe."
"And I can't settle for being an ordinary True Qi Stage cultivator. I'll need to be invincible even among those at the True Qi Stage, so I can keep unlocking the future time-space and form a virtuous cycle."
Take one step, plan ten ahead.
A breakthrough might feel great in the moment, but if he couldn't kill someone above his level afterward, complete his progress, and unlock the future time-space, he'd be in trouble—wasting a great deal of time for nothing.
The reasoning was simple and obvious.
"For now, I'll remain at the Fetal Breath Stage in reality!"
"During this time, I'll keep cultivating in the future time-space until I'm invincible at the True Qi Stage, capable of killing those at the True Essence Stage!"
"Only then will I consider breaking through!"
Sharpening the blade wouldn't delay the work of chopping wood.
Meng Nan made up his mind.
That night.
After finishing his cultivation,
Meng Nan soaked his feet with Zhao Xiaoshuang.
She was nearly four months pregnant, and her belly was becoming more and more noticeable. She had been a little thin before, but now she looked somewhat plump.
"I wonder if it's a boy or a girl?"
Zhao Xiaoshuang rested a hand on her belly, her face full of anticipation.
Meng Nan was looking forward to it too.
He had spent time with all three of his children in his first two lives, but the youngest, Meng Santan, had already been seven. Meng Nan had never seen them when they were little.
Unless Meng Nan died very young in his next life, he would have to wait until the child was born in reality before he could see what they looked like as newborns and infants.
"I'm guessing it's a boy."
Meng Nan pressed his ear to Zhao Xiaoshuang's belly, trying to hear what was happening inside, and smiled at her as he spoke.
For the past month, he had been cultivating and killing, but he had never neglected Zhao Xiaoshuang.
Childbirth was one trial for a woman physically and another psychologically.
Before the birth,
and after it,
either period could bring psychological problems.
Meng Nan did everything he could to fulfill his duties as a husband.
They spent time together every day.
They often talked.
Meng Nan had seen two different versions of Zhao Xiaoshuang in her thirties, but he hadn't spent much time with her as a teenager. Comparing the different versions of her was quite interesting.
He enjoyed it.
The couple chatted, and laughter drifted through the house from time to time.
Only when the night grew quiet and Zhao Xiaoshuang fell into a deep sleep did Meng Nan inject the last two points of Inner Breath—
Progress complete.
The third life began!
Before you continue