Probing

In the courtyard of Chief Steward Wang, the toothpick he had been using to pick his teeth snapped in two with a sharp crack.

His corpulent body sprang up from the recliner with an agility that completely defied his massive frame.

In his squinting eyes, shock and greed intertwined into a burning, intense glow.

"A breakthrough to the Qi Refining Realm?"

The thought exploded in his mind, making every inch of his fat tremble with excitement.

What was the Chore Servant Courtyard? It was the sewer of the Spirit Sword Pavilion!

It was a corner for dumping trash and waste!

In this place, a chore servant capable of breaking through to the Qi Refining Realm was worth no less than finding a gold nugget in a cesspit!

This was not as simple as just a disciple being promoted.

Anyone who could break through on their own in an environment with such thin spiritual energy and scarce resources must be hiding a secret!

They must be hiding a fortuitous encounter!

And he, as the Chief Steward of the Chore Servant Courtyard and the local tyrant of this territory, deserved a share of any opportunity that emerged from his domain!

"Hmph, trying to eat alone in secret? Not so easy!"

Chief Steward Wang sneered, the rolls of fat on his face quivering.

He didn't even have time to put on his outer robe before pushing open his courtyard gate, his obese figure melting into the deep night.

His Foundation Establishment Realm spiritual sense, like an invisible spiderweb, silently blanketed the direction from which the ripple of spiritual energy had just originated.

Meanwhile, inside the thatched hut.

Zhou Xuan realized he had made a fatal mistake the moment he broke through!

Breaking through to the Qi Refining Realm drew the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body; although the disturbance was minor, to a true cultivator, it was as clear as a bright lamp in the middle of the night!

The most powerful cultivator in this Chore Servant Courtyard was none other than that Foundation Establishment Realm Chief Steward Wang!

His disturbance just now must have been detected by him!

He did not doubt for a second that the greedy, mean-spirited fat man was already rushing toward his location.

He had to hide immediately!

Without a moment's hesitation, he focused his mind and rummaged through the most inconspicuous corner under his bed, pulling out a palm-sized, dust-covered circular iron plate.

This was a piece of junk he had accidentally scavenged from the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, long since stripped of its spiritual essence.

Later, when he was bored, he had spent a dozen points of Gold Touch Value using the system to perform an Enlightenment on it, barely restoring its most basic Breath Concealment function.

He had originally thought it was a useless, chicken-rib item, but he never expected it to come in handy today!

Zhou Xuan carefully injected the wisp of newly born mana within his body into the array plate.

Hum!

A few blurry runes on the iron plate lit up slightly, and an invisible ripple instantly spread out, shrouding the entire thatched hut.

The spiritual energy that had been churning inside and outside the room was smoothed out as if by an invisible hand, quickly returning to calm with no further abnormalities.

After finishing this, Zhou Xuan immediately lay back on the bed, withdrew all his focus, and pretended to be fast asleep.

Almost the exact moment he lay down.

A fat shadow appeared outside his thatched hut.

Chief Steward Wang stopped in his tracks, squinting his eyes as he suspiciously scrutinized the dilapidated hut before him.

The source of the spiritual energy fluctuation seemed to be in this vicinity.

But this was the residence of that waste, Zhou Xuan.

Chief Steward Wang's spiritual sense swept around the hut again and again, but he could no longer detect any abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations; there was only dead silence.

He furrowed his brows.

Could he have sensed it wrong?

Impossible!

That ripple drawing upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had been absolutely real!

His gaze landed on the tightly shut wooden door, his heart filled with confusion.

Zhou Xuan? That waste waiting to die? He could break through to Qi Refining? That was the funniest joke under the heavens!

Chief Steward Wang's spiritual sense even tentatively passed through the door panel, landing on Zhou Xuan upon the bed.

His breathing was steady, his heartbeat was calm; he was just an ordinary Body Forging mortal sleeping like a dead pig.

There wasn't even a trace of spiritual energy within his body.

"Bang!" A flash of light from a discarded pill exploding in the distance flickered and vanished.

"Tch, bad luck!"

Chief Steward Wang spat in disdain, his face full of disappointment.

It seemed he was being too sensitive; perhaps some passing Inner Sect Disciple had happened to have an epiphany here, triggering a small-scale fluctuation of spiritual energy, or maybe it was just that discarded pill exploding.

He shook his head and turned to leave.

However, having only taken two steps, his feet came to an abrupt halt.

No!

A glimmer of shrewdness flashed through Chief Steward Wang's small eyes.

He suddenly thought of a key point he had overlooked.

If someone had truly broken through, why would they hide it?

Breaking through to the Qi Refining Realm was a monumental event!

It meant being able to shed the status of a chore servant and become a true Outer Sect Disciple, leaping over the dragon gate and ascending to the heavens in a single bound!

Who would be foolish enough to hide such a magnificent stroke of luck?

Unless the secret he held was even more important than becoming an Outer Sect Disciple!

Important enough that he dared not expose it to anyone!

Once this thought surfaced, Chief Steward Wang's heart began to pound uncontrollably.

He whipped his head around, staring fixedly once more at Zhou Xuan's unremarkable thatched hut.

That piece of trash!

Lately, the most abnormal thing in the Chore Servant Courtyard was this Zhou Xuan.

He should have been wasting away in a place like the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, yet he was living perfectly fine.

He had even been acting all mysterious with that living corpse, Zhou Ye, a few days ago, though no one knew what they were up to.

The more he thought about it, the brighter Chief Steward Wang's eyes became, and the fire of greed in his heart burned ever brighter!

"Good lad, so this is where you were waiting for me!"

He could almost conclude that the person who had just broken through was Zhou Xuan!

This trash must have had incredible dumb luck to obtain some heaven-defying opportunity!

He was hiding his cultivation just to develop in secret and then shock everyone with a sudden rise!

"Heh heh heh..."

Chief Steward Wang let out a low, cold laugh, the fat on his face bunching up like a chrysanthemum.

"Want to keep it all to yourself? You didn't even ask if I, Wang, would agree!"

He didn't go in to alert the enemy, but instead took one last deep look at the hut before turning to leave.

He had plenty of ways to make this little dragon hiding in the mud stick its own head out!

When that time came, wouldn't the opportunity he possessed be his for the taking?

Chief Steward Wang's figure vanished into the night.

On the bed, Zhou Xuan slowly opened his eyes, his pupils filled with cold, icy calm.

He could feel the unmasked greed and malice in Chief Steward Wang's gaze as he left.

He had been targeted.

This insatiable fat man had already marked him as prey.

There was no hiding from this. If he wanted to cultivate in peace, he had to pull out this thorn first!

A flash of killing intent flickered in Zhou Xuan's eyes.

Several days later.

On the Martial Arts Arena of the Chore Servant Courtyard, all the chore servants had been summoned, standing in a dense, dark mass.

Chief Steward Wang, thrusting out his signature beer belly, stood on the high platform, looking down condescendingly at the numb, desperate faces below.

"The Chore Servant Courtyard assessment officially begins today!"

His voice, amplified by spiritual energy, echoed across the entire Martial Arts Arena.

The crowd below remained completely unmoved.

The so-called assessment was nothing more than a formality to check if they had been slacking off over the past year.

Whatever the result, it would not change their fates in the slightest.

Chief Steward Wang looked at the lifeless expressions of the crowd, a cruel smile curling the corners of his lips.

"However, this year's assessment is a little different!"

He deliberately drew out his voice, whetting everyone's appetite.

"By special permission of the sect elders, a sparring segment has been added to this year's assessment!"

"Anyone with a cultivation of Body Forging level seven or higher may step onto the stage to participate!"

As soon as these words were spoken, a stir finally rippled through the crowd below.

Chief Steward Wang looked at this scene with satisfaction and continued to drop a bombshell.

"To motivate you all, I have specially applied for rewards from the sect!"

"Anyone who enters the top ten will be rewarded with one Qi Gathering Pill each!"

"The top three will each be rewarded with two!"

"The first place winner will be rewarded with three Qi Gathering Pills, and those who perform exceptionally well will have the opportunity to be recommended to become a true Outer Sect Disciple!"

Boom!

These words exploded like a thunderclap in the deathly silent crowd!

The entire Martial Arts Arena instantly erupted into a frenzy!

"What? Qi Gathering Pills! Did I hear that right?"

"And a chance to become an Outer Sect Disciple! Good heavens!"

"I'll risk it! Even if I die on the stage, I have to fight for this!"

The eyes of every chore disciple turned bloodshot at this moment!

The numb expressions on their faces were torn to shreds, replaced by a near-maniacal desire and excitement!

Qi Gathering Pills!

Outer Sect Disciple!

These were things they didn't even dare to dream of!

Only Zhou Xuan stood quietly in the corner of the crowd, his expression as calm as water.

He felt a gaze—a gaze filled with scrutiny, greed, and malice—falling precisely upon him from the high platform.

Zhou Xuan slowly raised his head, his eyes meeting the narrowed eyes of Chief Steward Wang in the air.

He saw the undisguised, knowing smirk of triumph at the corner of the man's mouth.

In an instant, Zhou Xuan understood everything.

Chief Steward Wang was forcing him!

Forcing him to step onto the ring, forcing him to reveal his strength!

Zhou Xuan's heart sank to the bottom of the abyss as he stared at the fat figure on the high platform.

This guy cannot be left alive!