Bagua Copper Coin

Whoosh!

The arrow shot through the air.

Liu San's pupils contracted. His instinct for survival made him slam on the brakes without thinking.

The tires screeched against the road.

The Mazda suddenly slowed, and the monsters clearly hadn't expected Liu San to stop so abruptly.

The few at the very front had no time to stop. Momentum sent them crashing hard into the rear of the car.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The impacts rang out one after another.

Several monsters were knocked into the air, their gray-green bodies tumbling through the air.

Jiang Ran watched without expression.

His hands didn't pause for a moment.

He swiftly drew an arrow from his quiver, nocked it, drew the bow, and released.

The whooshing sounds ran together.

The monsters in midair made perfect targets.

Jiang Ran barely needed to aim. Guided by Combat Intuition alone, he locked on, and his arrows pierced their torsos or heads with deadly precision.

Three monsters crashed heavily to the ground.

They weren't quite dead yet, but they could only writhe helplessly, unable to get back up right away.

At the same time, the Mazda, having braked sharply, skidded out of control. Its front end veered to the side and slammed into a plane tree by the roadside.

Bang!

The front end crumpled, the hood twisted out of shape, and the airbags deployed in an instant.

Liu San's head lurched forward and struck an airbag. He passed out on the spot.

Jiang Ran glanced at the wrecked car, his expression calm.

He hadn't planned on getting involved in whether Liu San lived or died, but once the other man had led the monsters right to him, he couldn't simply avoid them.

He'd meant to use that arrow to force Liu San to stop. He hadn't expected it to set off a chain reaction.

The monsters crashed into the car, went flying, and became sitting targets.

An unexpected coincidence, but the result was good.

There were still five monsters left in the street.

They seemed startled by what had happened to their companions, but reacted quickly all the same.

The nearest monster was about twenty meters away. It lunged first.

Jiang Ran didn't dodge. He spread his feet and lowered his center of gravity.

It was the opening stance of Dragon-Tiger Fist.

That faint warmth in his lower abdomen gathered again.

He didn't rush to strike. Instead, he waited until the monster was five meters away, then suddenly drove off the ground and charged forward.

He was nearly fifty percent faster than before.

The physical enhancement brought by the Martial Monk Profession had raised his explosive power to a new level.

At the instant they were about to collide,

Jiang Ran twisted his waist and hips and drove his right fist out from beneath his ribs.

Roar!

His fist seemed to carry the faint sound of a tiger's roar!

The punch landed squarely on the monster's chest.

Crack!

The sharp sound of breaking bones rang out.

The monster's charge was forcibly halted. Its chest caved in, and its body flew backward, slamming into another monster behind it.

The two monsters tumbled together.

Jiang Ran didn't pause. He pivoted around his left foot and whipped out his right leg.

This roundhouse kick incorporated Taekwondo's striking techniques, but with the twisting force of Dragon-Tiger Fist behind it, its power was more than doubled.

Thud!

The third monster took the kick in its side. The sound of its ribs breaking rang out clearly as it flew sideways and crashed into a streetlight pole.

In just two seconds, three monsters had been incapacitated.

The two remaining monsters seemed to realize how terrifying the human in front of them was. They roared and lunged at him simultaneously, one from either side, trapping him in a pincer attack.

Jiang Ran's gaze sharpened.

His Combat Intuition had grown even more acute with his enhanced physique, allowing him to clearly predict the two monsters' attack paths and timing.

The one on the left reached him first, its claws lunging straight for his heart.

Jiang Ran advanced instead of retreating. His left hand formed a claw and reached out, using a Jiu-Jitsu joint lock—but his speed and precision were on an entirely different level now.

He clamped down precisely on the monster's wrist joint and twisted with the motion.

Crack!

Its wrist bone shattered.

At the same time, his right elbow shot upward like a spear, striking the monster beneath the jaw.

The force behind this elbow strike, powered by Dragon-Tiger Fist, drove straight through its skull.

The monster's head snapped back. Its neck broke, and it collapsed limply to the ground.

By then, the monster on the right had already launched its attack behind him.

Jiang Ran didn't even look back.

He lowered his stance and kicked backward with his right leg, planting his foot squarely in the monster's abdomen.

Its forward momentum came to an abrupt stop. Its abdomen caved in, and dark red fluid sprayed from its mouth.

Using the force to turn around, Jiang Ran threw both fists!

They struck the monster on either side of its head at the same time.

Thud!

Its head exploded like a watermelon.

The battle was over.

From the moment Jiang Ran lowered his bow until all five monsters lay on the ground, less than fifteen seconds had passed.

The physical enhancement from the Martial Monk Profession had transformed the mixed martial arts skills he'd already mastered.

More importantly...

Dragon-Tiger Fist's method of generating force let him draw on the energy inside his body and seamlessly incorporate it into his other fighting techniques, producing an effect greater than the sum of its parts.

Jiang Ran slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling the warmth flow through his body.

During the fight, he had deliberately used Dragon-Tiger Fist's power twice, consuming some of that energy, but he still had enough left to last a while.

Then Jiang Ran walked over to the three monsters first hit by his arrows and delivered a final blow to each.

He made sure they were completely dead.

After that, Jiang Ran walked to where the White Light Orb Liu San had thrown had landed.

It had rolled to the edge of the roadside drainage ditch and was still giving off a gentle white glow.

Jiang Ran bent down and picked it up.

The instant his fingers touched the orb, a notification rang out in his mind:

[Congratulations! You obtained the Bagua Copper Coin!]

[Bagua Copper Coin: May divine one omen per day]

The light faded, revealing an old copper coin in his palm.

The coin was round, with a square hole in the middle. Bagua symbols were engraved on the front, while cloud patterns adorned the back. It felt smooth and warm to the touch.

"May divine one omen per day..." Jiang Ran frowned. "That's it?"

It sounded mysterious, but there was no explanation of how to use it or what it did.

Could it be a fake?

But this wasn't the time to investigate.

Jiang Ran put the coin in his pocket and walked over to the wrecked Mazda.

Liu San was still unconscious inside. A gash on his forehead was bleeding down half his face, but his breathing seemed steady enough.

Jiang Ran pulled open the warped door and dragged Liu San out.

Grabbing Liu San by the collar, he carried him to a convenience store nearby.

The lock had already been broken. Jiang Ran kicked the door open, tossed Liu San inside, then took a basic first-aid kit from his backpack and threw it down beside him.

Whether he lived or died was up to fate.

When he was done, Jiang Ran returned to the street and began dissecting the monsters' corpses.

He started with the five intact bodies, cutting open their heads.

But he found no dark red beads like the one he'd discovered before inside their skulls.

Instead, each contained a white crystal about the size of a fingernail.

"So they don't all have one..." Jiang Ran murmured.

It seemed that the Seed of Return to Void was extremely rare, or only appeared under some special conditions.

Jiang Ran collected all of the crystals.

There were eight in total. He put them in a small cloth pouch.

Then he cut off the most distinctive parts of a few monsters and put them in the bag he'd brought earlier.

Once he was done, Jiang Ran didn't linger. He slung his backpack over his shoulders, picked up the bag, and quickly left the street.

Not long after Jiang Ran left,

inside the convenience store,

Liu San woke to the pain.

He groaned and opened his eyes. His vision stayed blurry for a while before gradually clearing.

His entire body felt as though it had been broken apart, but the stabbing pain in his right ankle was the worst.

"Ugh... damn it..."

Liu San struggled to sit up and found himself lying beside a convenience store shelf, snack wrappers scattered across the floor.

"I'm not dead... That guy didn't kill me?"

Liu San recalled the last thing he'd seen before passing out.

The man in the black hoodie had drawn his bow and aimed at him, and then...

He shook his head, braced himself against the shelf, and struggled to his feet. Limping, he made his way to the door.

Through the shattered glass door, Liu San looked outside.

Then he froze.

At least eight monster corpses lay sprawled across the street.

Dark red blood had nearly stained half the road, and severed limbs were scattered everywhere.

Several monsters had been pierced by arrows and pinned to the ground.

One of them had had its head blown apart...

Beside the bodies, the Mazda was crashed against a tree, its front end twisted out of shape.

Liu San's mouth fell slightly open. His breath caught for several seconds.

"Th-this was all done by one person?"

He remembered seeing that man snap a monster's neck at the police station the night before.

But back then, there had only been one.

And now... eight.

Liu San's hand trembled as he gripped the doorframe.

He'd seen plenty of ruthless people. The tomb-raiding trade was full of vicious bastards.

But to kill eight monsters alone, and in such a short time...

That wasn't just ruthless. It was terrifying.

"What the hell did I get myself mixed up with...?"

Liu San muttered to himself, cold sweat breaking out across his back.

Inside the bank,

Jiang Ran piled the monster materials he'd collected in a corner.

Then he took out the eight white crystals.

When he'd first touched them, a voice had sounded in his mind, identifying them as Spirit Crystals...

They were used to aid cultivation.

But the voice hadn't explained how to cultivate.

It was like dealing with an unfinished video game NPC, making him want to complain.

But then again, at least he had resources now.

The question was...

How was he supposed to train?

Jiang Ran sat cross-legged, clasping a Spirit Crystal in his palm as he tried to guide it with his mind, the way he had absorbed the Seed of Return to Void earlier.

But nothing happened.

The Spirit Crystal lay motionless in his palm, unchanged.

"Am I doing it wrong?"

Jiang Ran thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered the Bagua Copper Coin in his pocket.

Since he could cast one divination each day...

It seemed reasonable to ask where his cultivation opportunity was, right?

No sooner thought than done.

Jiang Ran took out the Bagua Copper Coin, clasped it in his palm, and closed his eyes to focus.

Then he tossed the coin into the air.

It didn't fall to the ground.

Instead, it hovered in the air and began to spin slowly.

It spun faster and faster.

Then a clear sense of direction appeared in Jiang Ran's mind.

Northeast, about five kilometers away.

The coin stopped spinning and fell back into his palm.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes, a trace of surprise flashing across them.

"So magical?"

He checked the time on his phone.

2:17 p.m.

Nine hours and forty-three minutes remained until his return.

He had plenty of time.

Jiang Ran didn't hesitate. He immediately got up and gathered his gear.

He slung the compound bow over his shoulder, checked his quiver, secured the Tang Dao, and tucked the Spirit Crystal and Bagua Copper Coin into an inner pocket.

Finally, he packed the water and food he had left into his backpack.

After locking the bank door, he headed northeast.

Five kilometers away, on Kaihua Street.

On the rooftop of Hongji Building.

Zou Yue leaned against a water tank, sweat soaking the wisps of hair on her forehead. The hand gripping her gun trembled slightly.

Beside her, Xia Xuan was equally tense, his eyes fixed on the stairwell leading to the roof.

"How many bullets do you have left?" Xia Xuan asked quietly.

"Three." Zou Yue gave a bitter smile. "You?"

"Two."

They exchanged a glance and saw despair in each other's eyes.

They were police officers from the Feng City Criminal Investigation Detachment. While on duty last night, they had seized a batch of smuggled cultural relics.

The moment they touched one of the bronzeware pieces, they both heard that voice in their minds.

Before they could report what had happened, they were pulled into this bizarre world at midnight.

After arriving, they had quickly gathered more than a dozen survivors, relying on their status as police officers.

But their good fortune didn't last.

That morning, a group of monsters had set their sights on them. Fighting as they retreated, they had fled all the way to this building.

Some survivors had died; the rest had scattered.

Now only the two of them remained, backed up against the rooftop.

Roars drew closer from the stairwell.

"They're here." Xia Xuan raised his gun.

The instant the first monster poked its head out, a gunshot rang out. The bullet struck its shoulder, making it stagger, but it didn't fall.

A second and a third monster surged out right behind it.

Zou Yue emptied her magazine, landing just one shot in a monster's abdomen.

"Out of bullets!"

Xia Xuan fired his last two rounds, tossed aside his gun, and drew his baton.

Five monsters fanned out around them, closing in with rasping snarls.

Xia Xuan held his baton in front of him, ready to make one last stand...

"Wait." Zou Yue suddenly grabbed Xia Xuan. "Captain Xia, someone's here!"

Xia Xuan's eyes snapped up.

At the rooftop entrance, behind the monsters...

A figure slowly emerged.