Moonless Night, Windy Night

Night fell. Only a sparse few stars glimmered faintly, and the streets were utterly deserted.

In an alley, Scar Lord, supported by two lackeys, staggered toward his home reeking of alcohol.

"Boss, those two bitches, Qiu Xing and Chun Tao, were really something today. Heh heh, enough to make a man never want to leave."

"Hmph, and whose eye for women do you think that was?"

Scar Lord tugged at his loosened belt, his face flushed red. The humiliation from earlier that day seemed to have faded considerably.

Creak—

Scar Lord casually pushed open the door, and a shadow once more crossed his face.

"Tomorrow, I'll go find my cousin and throw that damn brat Lin Nan out in the wild to feed the dogs!"

The three men entered the dim room. One of the lackeys had just taken out a fire striker and lit the oil lamp.

The flickering firelight revealed a figure seated in the armchair. By its faint glow, the three saw a familiar face.

Lin Nan!

"You! How are you here?!"

Scar Lord and the other two jumped in fright. Their hairs stood on end, and their drunkenness instantly cleared by several degrees.

Sssh!

Before the three could react, white powder flew straight into their faces, plastering itself over their eyes and noses.

"Argh! This... this is lime?!"

Scar Lord's eyes were instantly seared with unbearable pain. He covered his face with both hands and frantically rubbed at them.

"White Snake Stance!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Nan swiftly stepped forward, opening with the White Snake Stance. His body moved with the speed of a coiling serpent.

Slash! Slash!

With a steel saber in hand, he swung twice as though chopping watermelons.

Blood sprayed, and the two lackeys clutched their throats as they collapsed to the ground.

"Fuck!"

Scar Lord had finally wiped most of the lime from his face. His expression twisted viciously as he drew a steel saber from his waist and hacked fiercely at Lin Nan.

"White Snake Fist, Coiling Snake Frame!"

Lin Nan sidestepped the saber, casually changing from blade to fist. His right arm struck Scar Lord's elbow joint in the same motion, like a venomous snake flicking out its tongue.

Scar Lord cried out in pain, and the steel saber fell from his hand.

Before he could react, Lin Nan had already flipped behind him. Both feet stamped down on his knee joints, forcing his entire body to crash to its knees.

The next instant, a pair of arms locked tightly around his throat like a python.

"N-No... don't kill me."

Feeling the air in his chest drain away bit by bit, Scar Lord finally panicked and kicked wildly in struggle.

"Sorry. I thought about it for a long time today. If you don't die, Scar Lord, my heart won't be at peace."

Lin Nan had made up his mind to kill.

"No! You can't kill me! My cousin is Tu Kui of the Blood Blade Sect's Execution Hall! If you kill me, you'll be in deep trouble!!"

"Then you deserve to die even more."

Scar Lord's face rapidly turned a bruised purple. His once-fierce eyes filled with bloodshot veins and bulged outward, while the strength of his struggles grew weaker and weaker.

A few breaths later, Scar Lord's body slumped heavily onto the ground, completely devoid of life.

Huff—

Lin Nan panted heavily, his gaze fixed upon the three corpses on the ground.

He had killed someone!

This was his first time killing. From hiding in the room beforehand and setting out the lime, to every movement he had rehearsed countless times in his mind, only now had he truly crossed that threshold.

It's almost midnight. I need to get back home quickly. Evil things roam at night; it'll be trouble if one sets its sights on me.

A cold glint flashed through Lin Nan's eyes once again.

Squelch!

He gripped the steel saber and stabbed it through Scar Lord's chest once more. After confirming that Scar Lord was dead beyond any doubt,

he swiftly wiped away the traces in the room, pulled out a black cloth to cover his face, bent down to take the money pouch from Scar Lord's body, and vanished into the night.

One month later.

Inside Scar Lord's residence, a group of burly men dressed in black stood around the area.

At the center stood a tall man in black. A crimson blade emblem was printed on his chest, and his appearance bore a slight resemblance to Scar Lord's.

Before him, the corpses of Scar Lord and his two followers had long since rotted away completely. The entire alley was filled with an intense, pungent stench of decay.

"Who was it? Who killed my dear brother, Tu Scar?!!"

The tall man in black wore a face full of grief and kept sobbing, as though he could barely breathe.

"Lord Kui, the dead cannot return to life. Please don't be too heartbroken."

Slap!

A heavy slap landed across the lackey's face, instantly swelling it red.

"Heartbroken my ass!"

Tu Kui gritted his teeth, his expression grief-stricken.

"That bastard owed me twenty taels of silver! Now that he's dead, who's going to pay me back?!! Find the killer! Dig three feet into the ground if you have to, but find him!"

White Snake Martial School.

Training ground.

Eight boys and girls stood in a neat row, demonstrating the White Snake Fist in unison.

Not far away, Jie Ling, dressed in a tight purple martial arts uniform, watched the newly promoted inner disciples with interest alongside two young men.

"This batch of inner disciples is pretty mediocre in talent too."

One of the men was tall and powerfully built, broad-shouldered and thick-backed. The calluses on his hands bulged roughly like insect eggs. He was none other than Luo Meng, one of Master Jie's three true disciples.

"Third Junior Brother, you're too demanding. I think that one called Zhong Jing is quite good. He's already entered the second level of Blood and Qi, and he'll likely step into the third level before long."

The other man had a face like polished jade and wore a long robe of blue cloth. Tall and slender, he did not look like a martial artist who wielded spears and staves in the slightest, but rather like a scholar. He was Zhao Xun, the White Snake Martial School's eldest disciple.

"Third Junior Brother, Eldest Senior Brother is right. Zhong Jing's stance training has already entered the second level, and he has trained his White Snake Fist to Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent. His speed is hardly any worse than ours was back then."

Jie Ling's gaze swept over the eight boys and girls before her as she began to comment on them one by one.

"Besides Zhong Jing, there's Zhao Feng from the Far Army Escort Bureau, Yu Qianqian from the western district apothecary..."

When she came to Lin Nan, Jie Ling paused slightly.

"He's very diligent, but unfortunately, he's a little too old and his talent is a little lacking..."

Jie Ling shook her head and did not continue. On the path of martial arts, diligence alone was not enough. Family background and natural aptitude were both indispensable.

"It's already a miracle that he managed to break through Blood and Qi at twenty. And considering how he frequented places of pleasure in his younger years, his Blood and Qi is probably already depleted." Luo Meng laughed.

"At most, within half a year, the gap between him and Zhong Jing will grow greater and greater, until it reaches a despairing extent."

"Then it's settled. Among this batch, we'll focus our efforts on nurturing Zhong Jing and see whether we can train a fourth true disciple before the master's Blood and Qi completely declines."

Zhao Xun set the matter then and there.

Nurture Zhong Jing?

Jie Ling looked at Zhong Jing, who was practicing his stance, and for some reason, felt a faint unease in her heart.

From far away,

Lin Nan did not hear the evaluations of Zhao Xun and the others. Instead, he focused on finishing a full set of stance exercises, then looked at the information on the Creation Furnace.

[Furnace Master: Lin Nan]

[Age: Twenty]

[Technique: White Snake Stance (Level One 110/200)]

[Fist Art: White Snake Fist · Coiling Snake Frame (90/100)]

[Usable Yin Energy Points: None]

Finally...

Over the past month, he had trained day and night, rising early and returning late every day. With one bowl of Blood and Qi soup a day to assist him, he had finally ground the proficiency of White Snake Stance and Coiling Snake Frame to this point.

Although compared with the others who had entered alongside him, he was still lagging far behind.

As far as he knew, Liu Feng had already entered the second level of White Snake Stance, while Zhong Jing was reportedly close to reaching the third level.

The three levels of the Blood and Qi Realm were originally a cyclical process of tempering strength and accumulating Blood and Qi. People as slow as Lin Nan were few indeed.

Unfortunately, I don't have some system where hard work is rewarded by Heaven. I can't just grind proficiency through sheer effort...

Lin Nan sighed inwardly.

Slow. Still far too slow. If only another Corpse Ghost would come knocking...

He squeezed the several blood talismans tucked in his robes. Ever since he had killed a Corpse Ghost last time, the nights had been much calmer.

Even so, Lin Nan did not dare go out alone to hunt evil entities. If he ran into a real big one, that would be a fine mess.

One had to know that even an expert like Master Jie could only obediently remain beneath the protection of the martial school's jade talisman once midnight arrived.

In this Black Dragon Outer City, the day belonged to humans, while midnight belonged to evil entities. This was almost everyone's common understanding.

"Brother Lin, have you heard about several major events lately?"

During a break, Liu Feng sidled over and spoke mysteriously.