Targeted

The young disciple's haughty voice was like a basin of ice water, instantly dousing the faint warmth that had just kindled within the rundown hall.

The smile on He Lü's face froze. He hurriedly released Li Ping'an, propped himself on his cane, and trotted over, his face piled with a humble smile.

"Oh, isn't this Supervisor Wang? What wind has blown you here?"

"Why didn't you let us know before coming? We could have made preparations..."

The young disciple called Supervisor Wang could not even be bothered to lift his eyelids. Looking at He Lü's wrinkled, smiling face, he felt only irritation.

With a casual flick of his hand, a clever burst of force shoved He Lü aside, nearly sending the old man sprawling to the ground.

"Get lost!"

Supervisor Wang's voice brimmed with undisguised disgust.

"Is there any place here for you to speak? I didn't come looking for you, you old piece of trash!"

His gaze shifted, passing over the flustered He Lü and the disciples who dared to be angry but not speak, before landing precisely on Li Ping'an. A mocking curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

"The one I came for is this great genius who rang the Heaven-Ringing Bell and alarmed the entire sect!"

He put especially heavy emphasis on the word "genius." Even a fool could hear the dripping sarcasm.

The atmosphere in the rundown hall instantly fell to freezing point.

The disciples who had just been crowding around Li Ping'an and chattering nonstop unconsciously retreated several steps. They lowered their heads, not daring to meet Supervisor Wang's eyes.

Having stayed in this rundown hall for so long, they understood best the principle of seeking benefit and avoiding harm.

This supervisor oversaw the assignment and resource distribution of all inner sect menial disciples. He was someone they absolutely could not afford to offend.

Li Ping'an took it all in. He steadied He Lü, who had nearly fallen, before slowly turning around to look calmly at Supervisor Wang.

He showed neither anger nor servility, as though he were merely facing an ordinary passerby asking for directions.

"May I ask what instructions Supervisor has for coming here?"

Seeing his indifferent manner only made Supervisor Wang more displeased.

An old thing with one foot in the grave—what was he pretending to be, some lofty master?

"Instructions?"

Supervisor Wang sneered. He stepped forward twice, closing in before Li Ping'an, then lowered his voice so only the two of them could hear.

"Old thing, don't think that just because you don't have many days left, you can lecture me about principles. Let me tell you the truth: if you had obediently died in the menial quarters, no one would have spared you a second glance!"

"Even if you entered the inner sect, as long as you kept your tail tucked between your legs and didn't spout nonsense you shouldn't, no one would have bothered arguing with a dying old man like you!"

"But you? You old thing, you really are bold enough to swallow the sky!"

Supervisor Wang's voice abruptly rose, his eyes filled with contempt.

"You opened your mouth and demanded to see the Holy Maiden? Why don't you piss and look at what kind of thing you are! A toad dreaming of swan flesh—do you even deserve it?"

By this point, Li Ping'an understood perfectly.

So it really was because of that one sentence.

Because he wanted to see Lu Xue.

He said nothing. Only the hands hanging at his sides slowly clenched into fists, his knuckles whitening slightly from the force.

Supervisor Wang had mocked him for so long, yet this old fellow stood there like a wooden post without the slightest reaction. He suddenly found it rather dull.

He curled his lip, too lazy to waste more words, and bluntly announced the outcome.

"Enough. I can't be bothered arguing with a dead man like you."

He cleared his throat, turned to everyone in the rundown hall, and loudly declared:

"Starting today, all disposal work for discarded pills, highly toxic mineral slag, and spirit beast carcasses from the rundown hall will be handled by Li Ping'an alone!"

"All related waste will be delivered directly to him by designated personnel. No one is allowed to interfere or help!"

The moment those words fell, He Lü and the others' expressions changed drastically.

Disposing of waste was the dirtiest, most exhausting, and most dangerous task in the entire rundown hall!

When those things were mixed together and burned, the poisonous miasma they produced was unbearable even for Foundation Establishment cultivators after prolonged exposure, let alone an old man whose vitality and blood had already withered away.

This was not assigning him a task. This was taking his life!

Supervisor Wang's sharp gaze swept over He Lü and the others, carrying a heavy warning.

"Have you all heard clearly? If I discover anyone daring to obey in public while defying in private, secretly helping him..."

He paused, then said each word distinctly, "Pack your bedding and get the hell out of the Heaven-Piercing Sword Sect immediately!"

Those words completely severed any thought of lending a hand.

Li Ping'an remained silent, as though the one sentenced to death was not him.

Seeing him like this, Supervisor Wang assumed he had been frightened senseless, and a surge of delight rose in his heart.

He leaned close to Li Ping'an's ear once more and murmured in a gloating tone.

"Tell me, at your age, with death just around the corner, wouldn't it have been better to quietly find somewhere and wait to die? Why did you have to make such a scene? Why did you have to make sure you died without a whole corpse?"

"Happy now? The taste of earthfire scorching your body will be more than enough for these old bones of yours to swallow."

Li Ping'an finally raised his head. Looking at the young yet twisted face right before him, he slowly spoke, his voice hoarse but exceptionally clear.

"I only want to know which senior brother cares so deeply about the Holy Maiden."

Supervisor Wang froze for a moment, apparently not expecting that this old fellow, with death staring him in the face, would still be concerned about that.

He immediately gave a derisive laugh, his face wearing a cruel, showy expression.

"No harm in telling you. At least you can die knowing!"

"The chief senior brother of our Heart Sword Lineage! Does trash like you deserve to know his name?"

"If you, this fly, hadn't kept buzzing around the Holy Maiden, how could Senior Brother Zhang, after pursuing her for so many years, have gotten nowhere?"

"Originally, Senior Brother intended to show mercy and let you old thing die of old age on your own. But you insisted on courting death, so you have no one else to blame!"

Supervisor Wang's eyes were filled with satisfaction.

"If I were you, I'd hurry up and find a deep pit to jump into, so you could at least leave behind a whole corpse. Otherwise, when the Holy Maiden returns from the Sacred Land..."

He let out a low, chuckling laugh.

"Don't worry. You will absolutely never have another chance to see her!"

With that, Supervisor Wang contentedly smoothed his robes, then turned and left without looking back, leaving behind a room full of dead silence.

Li Ping'an stood where he was, his face frighteningly dark.

The chief senior disciple of the Heart Sword Lineage.

He finally knew who wanted him dead.

And the other party's purpose was clear: before Lu Xue returned, he wanted Li Ping'an to vanish from this world entirely.

Even if he somehow survived the poisonous fire of the rundown hall, when Lu Xue returned, that man would certainly stop at nothing—perhaps even act personally—to finish him off.

Weak!

He was still far too weak!

A mere inner sect supervisor at Foundation Establishment could toy with his life as easily as crushing an ant.

Much less that chief senior disciple!

No matter what, before Lu Xue returned, he had to increase his strength as quickly as possible!

"Teacher... Teacher Li..."

He Lü and several disciples cautiously approached, their faces filled with worry and guilt. Yet constrained by the supervisor's warning, they did not know what to say for a moment.

They wanted to offer a few words of comfort, but discovered that before absolute suppression by strength, any words seemed so pale and powerless.

Li Ping'an did not respond to them.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the killing intent surging in his heart, and silently walked to the corner. He tossed the two packets of discarded pills the dark-faced senior sister had just given him, along with the packet on the ground, all at once into a huge wicker basket nearby.

Then, under everyone's astonished gazes, he bent down. Veins bulged across his arms as he forcibly lifted the wicker basket packed with over a hundred pounds of waste.

He turned to look at He Lü, who seemed to want to speak but held back, his voice calm and without ripples.

"Where is the disposal site?"

He Lü led Li Ping'an through the rear courtyard of the rundown hall to the foot of a cliff.

Below the cliff lay a massive pit whose depths could not be seen.

Waves of scorching air surged up from within, baking the surrounding rock walls black.

Deep in the pit churned golden-red molten metal. It was subterranean fire drawn up from below, specifically used to refine the sect's most stubborn waste materials.

This place was no good assignment at all.

Even hard metal waste, when thrown into the earthfire for refining, released toxins invisible to the naked eye.

Merely standing at the edge of the pit, Li Ping'an could feel a dry, scorching fire toxin slipping through his nose and mouth, thread by thread, boring into his marrow.

Li Ping'an set down the heavy wicker basket and turned to look at He Lü, whose face was full of concern.

"Steward He, I would like to be alone here for a while. You should go back first."

"But, Teacher Li, you..."

He Lü still wanted to say something, but upon seeing Li Ping'an's unquestionable gaze, it ultimately turned into a long sigh.

He knew that staying here would not help in any way. Instead, he might bring even more trouble upon this unyielding old man.

"Then... be extremely careful."

Shaking his head, He Lü left, looking back with every few steps.

Only after confirming that no one else remained nearby did Li Ping'an's tightly drawn body slowly relax.

He walked to the wicker basket and emptied the large bundle of highly toxic discarded pills and waste materials onto the scorching ground.

Pitch-black medicinal dregs and shattered ore scattered everywhere, giving off an ominous aura beneath the blazing glow of the earthfire.

Looking at this pile of garbage that others would consider fatal, Li Ping'an's eyes ignited with an unprecedented light.

He slowly extended his right hand, and the Heaven-Tempering Hammer appeared out of thin air in his palm.

Bathed in the golden-red firelight, the hammer's body appeared ever more ancient and mysterious.