Moonlight!

A chest of gold bars, two chests of silver ingots, and two more chests of jewels and brocade... Every last piece was precious.

Among them was the Western Regions yellow jade as large as a face that Ji Xuanyuan had mentioned!

It was plain to see that Ji Xuanyuan was a generous man of straightforward temperament. Even though he was a prince, it could not have been easy to produce so many things all at once.

"Lan'er, there's so much gold, silver, and jewelry—we couldn't spend it all in our next lives! What's so great about that gray uniform of the Shadow Pivot Court? You love martial arts, so Mother will send you to Great Azure Mountain to study under Heavenreach Sect. Wouldn't that be much better?"

Xiao Jinlan nodded repeatedly, delight blooming in her heart. "I'll leave myself entirely to Mother's arrangements!"

Throughout the Nine Provinces and Four Seas, the two places of study most attractive to all martial artists were, first, the Imperial Martial Academy under the Armament Hall of Great Liang—and second, Great Azure Mountain's Heavenreach Sect, the greatest martial arts sect in the martial world.

The Imperial Martial Academy had extremely high admission requirements, and without powerful connections and backing, there was no way to get in.

Back then, Xiao Fan's father had even tried to use his connections as a gold-medal instructor of the Armament Hall to get Xiao Fan enrolled. As expected, he had not even managed to touch the edge of the threshold.

Compared to that, Heavenreach Sect on Great Azure Mountain had a much lower barrier to entry. As long as a student possessed solid martial talent and offered some gold and silver to smooth things over, there was still hope!

"My daughter has finally made something of herself!"

Er'ya wept tears of joy. Xiao Jinlan had no choice but to admit it, too. After this one trip, they had solved the entire family's expenses for the next life.

In the side courtyard, Xiao Fan lay in a steaming bathtub, his body and mind finally relaxing. What could be more refreshing than this?

It had been two months since he had narrowly escaped death at Golden Glow Mountain. For safety's sake, they had not dared take the official roads along the way, instead winding around mountains and rivers through untold hardship. His whole body had practically been marinated in his own stink.

At last, he could enjoy a comfortable hot-water bath tonight.

Illusory subtitles appeared before his eyes...

[ cultivation: Martial Dao Qi Refining Realm, Perfected: 182/100]

[Calamity Poison Value: 42/100]

His cultivation was still stuck at the perfected Qi Refining Realm. Moreover, after the Calamity Poison Value had been emptied afterward, it had not converted into cultivation points again.

In other words, over the past two months, all the Calamity Poison Value reset each day had gone to waste. He felt as if he had missed out on several hundred million...

At the same time, he had used this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the hidden rules of the [Calamity Poison Value System].

Once a transcendent realm hit a bottleneck and could no longer break through, cultivation points could no longer increase. Even emptying the Calamity Poison Value would not convert it into cultivation.

"Why did Dad have to be away from the Capital City at a time like this? When will I be able to break through to the eighth rank...?"

Xiao Fan sighed to himself... Breaking through a martial rank was difficult and dangerous. Zhang Bin was a living example.

To be safe, Xiao Fan still decided that waiting for his father to return and receiving one-on-one guidance would be the wisest course.

As for his martial-arts-genius older sister, he truly dared not count on her. He was afraid she would take the opportunity to beat him black and blue...

"Sigh... Forget it. I'll rest for a few days first."

At this moment, Xiao Fan only wanted to soak comfortably in a hot bath, wash away all his fatigue, and temporarily cast every worry behind him.

He raised his head toward the night sky. A familiar, pale-white "curtain" appeared and disappeared faintly in the air.

That was the Sacred Flame formation protecting the Capital City. Every nightfall, the Pure White Sacred Flame at the Sacred Fire Altar would be lit, and the formation of the Bureau of Celestial Observation would activate along with it.

Under the formation's power, the afterglow of the Pure White Sacred Flame formed a faint, pale-white heavenly curtain that enveloped the entire Capital City.

At last, the days of living on tenterhooks allowed him to breathe. The Capital City was the headquarters of Great Liang's Bureau of Celestial Observation and the Sacred Fire Sect. Night Erosion could not possibly occur here.

Xiao Fan's body and mind finally relaxed completely, and for a moment he sank into memories of the past...

Before transmigrating, he had just joined an AI company in Jinghai City of Dongda as an algorithm engineer.

His salary and benefits were already much higher than those of many people his age. It could not be called the pinnacle of life, but he had at least stepped onto the right track.

As for his family, although his parents were getting older, they were still in fairly good health, and the family was happy.

Within the limited span of his life, he could hardly see any earth-shaking changes ahead. Most likely, he would simply live an ordinary, uneventful life.

Some people said he had been born lucky, but Xiao Fan felt that might not be true. The good fortune of his first twenty-odd years had been utterly buried by a dump truck.

It had truly fulfilled that classic saying: "Every gift of fate has already had its price marked in secret."

Fortunately, even after transmigrating here, he still had a reasonably happy family. Not only were his parents alive, he also had two sisters.

As time passed, faced with the cruel reality that he could never return, he could only gradually blend into life here and accept his new family.

Because of Night Erosion, escort missions in this world were highly sought after and paid quickly—but that money was earned with one's head tucked into one's waistband. It was blood money for risking one's life.

In recent years, Night Erosion had been occurring more and more frequently, and the danger of escort missions had risen accordingly. No matter how much money one made, one still had to be alive to spend it.

Autumn had already arrived, and the nights were growing longer. Once deep winter came, the work of the Shadow Pivot Court's gray uniforms would become even harder.

At this thought, Xiao Fan could not help sighing. "The work of a gray uniform in the Shadow Pivot Court is far too dangerous. I have to find some steady job that pays well."

"Tomorrow I have to deliver the news of death to the families of the ten escort guards who died this time... Sigh, how am I supposed to face them? What a headache!"

He had finally managed to relax, yet his troubles came rushing back again.

Just as he soaked in the bathtub and pondered how to settle the dead men's families, a lustrous white object suddenly appeared beside the tub.

"Huh? How did this thing get here?"

With a puzzled look, Xiao Fan picked up the lustrous white jade pendant Ji Xuanyuan had given him and examined it.

This jade pendant was called a Life Jade. He had originally intended to return it to Ji Xuanyuan, but who could have known that the young master would stuff it back into Xiao Fan's hands and forbid him from refusing?

Ji Xuanyuan's reason was that the Life Jade contained a special formation from the Bureau of Celestial Observation. Within a certain range, it could sense Ji Xuanyuan's vitality.

Once the lustrous white radiance within the jade pendant dimmed, it meant that Ji Xuanyuan's vitality was weakening.

He had asked Xiao Fan to carry the pendant so that, should he truly encounter danger, Xiao Fan could discover it in time.

"The young master really trusts me." Xiao Fan looked at the pendant's soft, full radiance. It seemed the young master was in no danger at the moment.

Strange... I clearly left it over there. He faced toward the head of the bed and casually tossed the Life Jade, sending it flying with perfect accuracy to land beside the pillow.

Yet the moment he turned his head back, a bizarre scene appeared...

The lustrous white Life Jade had somehow returned to the side of the bathtub!

"Holy crap!"

Xiao Fan shouted instinctively. The steaming-hot bathtub suddenly seemed to turn icy cold, making the hairs on his back stand on end as cold sweat poured out.

"Is this thing haunted? Big brother, don't pull this crap on me!"

Although martial artists possessed a mighty, righteous aura that could deter evil spirits and keep ghosts at bay,

that effect only appeared after reaching the seventh-rank Spirit Tempering Realm. His current ninth rank was nowhere near enough.

He warily stared at the lustrous white Life Jade lying quietly on the tabletop, then turned his head toward the bed. Sure enough... the jade pendant beside the bed had vanished.

Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him, but in the originally cloud-black night sky, a thread of bright moonlight actually seeped down!

As everyone knew... this world had no moon!

Every hair on Xiao Fan's body stood on end. He slowly raised his head and followed the moonlight upward in reverse...

Within the layers of cloud curtains, a crescent moon truly hung in the sky!

"This really is haunted..."

The instant his gaze settled on the crescent moon, his Calamity Poison Value suddenly began to shoot upward.

...+3...+8...+10...

By the time he tried to look away, it was already too late.

His body was as immovable as though it had been filled with lead. Even his eyeballs could not turn in the slightest.

Immediately afterward, fine cracks began to appear in the curtain formed from the Sacred Flame's afterglow, directly opposite the crescent moon.

Thick, pitch-black liquid seeped from the cracks and spread, dissolving a hole in the curtain.

Almost at the same time, Xiao Fan's vision twisted. The sky turned blood-red, and he saw the crescent moon hanging high above gradually becoming round...

There seemed to be a piece missing from the center of that crescent, like a slice of watermelon that had been gnawed.

Whether it was an illusion or not, this so-called moon... seemed... like an eye slowly opening!

In the blink of an eye... the Calamity Poison Value reached 89... 109... 120... 150...

Xiao Fan fell into utter despair. His mind went blank. He only felt the flesh covering his entire body tear apart as golden scales rapidly grew from within him. He was about to mutate!

He could not move... He could not even blink... He was done for... This time, he was truly done for...