First Kill

Gao Xian had never gotten into a fight in his previous life. He'd only ever hacked people apart in games.

At the critical moment, he'd triggered the White Plum Needles, but they hadn't finished off Old Wang. Gao Xian was genuinely starting to panic.

Fortunately, Sister Lan, deep within his brow, was still condensing the Five Elements Dharma Talisman and helping him circulate his magical power. On top of that, the jolt from Old Wang's sword had driven his mental strength to its peak.

In Gao Xian's eyes, Old Wang's backward tumble still looked slow and sluggish.

But Gao Xian's own body was even slower and clumsier. It was no match for Old Wang.

Gao Xian knew perfectly well that if he couldn't kill Old Wang, Old Wang would kill him. There was no room for luck.

It was too late to surrender and beg for mercy now!

Though Gao Xian was panicking, he hadn't given up. That was the resilience he'd honed through years of the 996 grind as a middle-aged corporate drone.

There's still a chance. Right, I still have the powder... Gao Xian suddenly remembered the Soul-Bewildering Powder.

He'd made the Soul-Bewildering Powder specifically to deal with Old Wang. Things had been too tense just now, and he'd forgotten all about it.

Old Wang was quick and strong, skilled with the sword, and possessed deep reserves of magical power. He overpowered Gao Xian in every respect.

But Gao Xian had the Great Idol Spirit Method and the Lightning Dragon Hand.

The Great Idol Spirit Method let him trigger spells as quickly as possible and made his senses extraordinarily sharp.

The Lightning Dragon Hand made his hands steady, nimble, and swift. They were more than a match for Old Wang's.

With a plan in mind, Gao Xian wasn't quite so panicked. He slipped his right hand into his sleeve and, among its many pockets, found the porcelain bottle containing the Soul-Bewildering Powder.

It was a tiny, round-bellied porcelain bottle, no bigger than his thumb.

To keep the Soul-Bewildering Powder from escaping, Gao Xian had sealed the bottle tightly with a wooden stopper and wax.

In this situation, there was no time to open it.

Gao Xian squeezed hard, crushing the tiny bottle in his fingers. He was only at the second level of Qi Refining, nowhere near Old Wang's level, but crushing a porcelain bottle was easy enough.

The bottle shattered. Gao Xian hurriedly held his breath, then flicked his fingers lightly. The Soul-Bewildering Powder, finer than flour, scattered into the air.

As Old Wang rolled backward, he glanced down at the four silver needles in his chest. A trace of lingering fear crossed his aged face.

Fortunately, he'd been wearing a Black Scale Inner Armor. It had blocked Gao Xian's magical weapon and saved his life!

Old Wang was also a little perplexed. That brat was only at the second level of Qi Refining, so how had he triggered a magical weapon so quickly and without making a sound?

Triggering a magical weapon required chanting an incantation, forming hand seals, and establishing a resonance with the weapon before activating it.

The process was quite complicated. Even a weapon that could be triggered directly required all kinds of preparation. It wasn't something you could simply pick up and use.

If it were that easy, why would cultivators bother training their bodies?

Old Wang couldn't quite read Gao Xian, so he grew a little more cautious. Holding his sword in a defensive stance, he slowly backed away.

Gao Xian had used a Golden Body Talisman, which normally lasted about three hundred breaths. After taking two of Old Wang's sword strikes, it couldn't have much time left.

Old Wang had plenty of combat experience. He watched the glow on Gao Xian's face closely, waiting for the Golden Body Talisman to fade so he could attack at once.

As for the magical weapon in Gao Xian's hand, Old Wang figured he couldn't trigger it again.

As Gao Xian watched Old Wang inching away, he felt uneasy too. He didn't know how much effect the Soul-Bewildering Powder would have on him.

Outside, the night rain poured. The roar of the downpour streamed through the window Old Wang had smashed, making the room seem all the quieter. It was so quiet that Gao Xian could hear Old Wang's long, steady breaths.

In a situation this tense, he can still control his breathing. That old man's got nerves of steel!

Gao Xian grumbled to himself. Still, as long as the old man was breathing, that was enough.

In a half-enclosed room, the Soul-Bewildering Powder was bound to have some effect.

Old Wang had also noticed that Gao Xian was strangely quiet. No, wait—why wasn't the kid breathing?

Low-level cultivators all circulated vital energy by breathing in and out. It was the simplest and most effective way to do so.

During a fight, keeping one's breathing steady helped preserve stamina and circulate magical power more effectively.

Old Wang had traveled far and wide for decades. He didn't have any great abilities, but he had plenty of worldly experience.

The moment he noticed Gao Xian acting strangely, he realized something might be wrong. He hurriedly held his breath, raised his sword, and prepared to attack. But as soon as he circulated his magical power, his vision went black and his whole body turned limp.

Even the sword that had once moved so freely now felt unbearably heavy.

Poison...

Old Wang knew things were bad. He didn't dare attack again and hurried to retreat. But his legs gave way, and he stumbled, nearly falling.

Seeing Old Wang's condition, Gao Xian guessed he'd been hit by the Soul-Bewildering Powder. Still, he hesitated, afraid it might be a ploy to lure him in.

Old Wang reacted quickly. Without hesitation, he activated his Heart Aperture and surged his magical power. The blood qi throughout his body seemed to ignite.

Riding that momentary burst of strength, Old Wang twisted around and leapt through the smashed window.

When Gao Xian saw him flee, he hurried after him.

Old Wang staggered through the downpour, lurching from side to side like a drunk.

This time, Gao Xian didn't hesitate. He followed him out the window.

It had been raining for a long time, and the courtyard was a sea of mud and water. Gao Xian's foot slipped, and he nearly fell.

Relying on his nimble body, Gao Xian just managed to steady himself. He raised his left hand and triggered the White Plum Needles again.

"Go!" Gao Xian shouted. Deep within his brow, Sister Lan chanted and formed hand seals, establishing a resonance with the runes in his bracer.

Propelled by magical power, the last two White Plum Needles shot out. With sharp hisses, they plunged deep into the back of Old Wang's head.

Old Wang, already staggering, suddenly lurched to one side and fell face-first to the ground, splashing mud everywhere.

The rainy night was dark, and the rain came down in torrents. Water covered Gao Xian's face, and he couldn't see Old Wang clearly. He wasn't sure whether the man was injured or what had happened to him.

Gao Xian didn't dare approach either. To be safe, he formed several hand seals with his left hand.

Sister Lan, who resided deep within his brow, responded in kind, helping him circulate the talisman and condense magical power.

As the talisman took shape in his spiritual world, spiritual light flickered, and the vital energy of heaven and earth gathered and transformed.

A mass of magical power, blazing like fire, rapidly formed over Gao Xian's hand seals.

"Go!" Gao Xian murmured the spell. He pointed his hand forward, and a fist-sized ball of fire tore through the layers of rain and slammed into Old Wang's head.

With a deafening blast, the Flame Bomb burst into a mass of crimson light. Flesh and rainwater sprayed in every direction with the fiery glow.

The scene was seared into Gao Xian's eyes, leaving a bright afterimage that lingered.

He cursed his bad luck. He'd forgotten to close his eyes!

After a while, Gao Xian's vision returned. He wiped the rain from his face and slowly approached Old Wang.

In the darkness, Gao Xian could barely make out the body. All he could see was that more than half of Old Wang's head was gone. It was a frightening sight.

For some reason, he thought of a dark joke: Little Ken took a convertible ride, and his brains were blown wide open.

That wasn't quite accurate, though. A better description would be: his brainstem was splattered across the ground.

However you put it, that greedy, lecherous, vicious old man was well and truly dead.

Gao Xian hadn't thought much about it when he struck. But with a corpse lying in the courtyard, he could no longer keep his composure.

The bloody scene made him deeply uncomfortable.

More than anything, he worried about the consequences. In his previous life, he'd been a law-abiding citizen. He'd never imagined killing anyone.

Gao Xian reassured himself: "This was self-defense. He was trying to kill me..."

That was easy enough to say, but what if it didn't convince anyone else? And if Old Wang's friends and relatives found out Gao Xian was the killer, they'd definitely come after him for revenge!

Maybe I should ask the heroine... The first person Gao Xian thought of was Zhu Qiniang. She looked like someone who'd know all about this sort of thing and how to handle it.

But on second thought, he decided against it.

The fewer people who knew about a killing, the better. Zhu Qiniang was close to him, but they didn't share deep feelings or any common interests.

Asking Zhu Qiniang for help would be like handing her leverage over him on a silver platter. That would be foolish...