Night was nearly over, but dawn had yet to break. All of Dutian Prefecture remained steeped in silence.
In the west of Dutian Prefecture's city, at the Bai Residence.
After leaving the city lord's residence, where he had gone to beg forgiveness, Bai Ji took his carriage back to his home in the west of the city.
Deep in the night, candlelight flickered in the study, casting dim, shifting shadows.
With no one around, Bai Ji sat quietly at his desk, his eyes cold and sinister.
His thin lips parted as he called softly:
"Bai Yi, come out."
As his words fell, a black-clad figure emerged soundlessly from the shadows of the study.
He dropped to one knee, his presence deathly still, his form like a ghost.
"Young master!"
Bai Ji's expression did not change as he gave his instructions indifferently:
"Secretly transport every corpse from tonight's fighting at the prison to that underground location, including the guards' remains, Eagle Four's body, and those arrested and executed earlier."
"Act discreetly. Do not alert anyone from the city lord's residence."
"As you command."
Bai Yi answered, his figure vanishing in an instant.
Bai Ji gazed out at the night beyond the window and murmured, a trace of anticipation in his voice:
"Soon... there'll be enough very soon..."
At that same moment,
At the Treasure Gathering Tower.
On the thirtieth floor.
In a luxurious reception hall.
Qian Sanqi sat quietly on a jade couch, his eyes gently closed, his aura circulating slowly around him.
He was sensing the true qi within his body after his latest breakthrough.
After Little Gold refined that Spirit Stone and fed its power back to him, the qi sea in his dantian had undergone forty-nine cycles of destruction and rebirth.
Now, deep within his dantian's qi