Morning mist wound like gauze around the peaks of the Magical Beast Mountain Range. Pale golden sunlight pierced the clouds, casting dappled light over moss-covered rocks. The damp scent of earth mingled with the fresh fragrance of plants, and the occasional cries of unfamiliar birds made the area seem all the more secluded.
With a half-full herb basket on his back, Xiao Yan dragged the Heavy Xuan Ruler, which looked rather oversized for his frame, and stumbled along the forest path. His breathing was slightly hurried, fine beads of sweat dotted his forehead, and his once reasonably tidy robes were smeared with dirt and grass clippings. He looked no different from an ordinary low-level cultivator struggling to survive in the mountains—at least on the surface.
"Whew... This damned place goes round and round. Where am I supposed to find that 'Qi-Gathering Grass' Yao Lao mentioned?" He raised a hand to wipe his sweat, muttering under his breath with a hint of frustration and bewilderment. His gaze wandered aimlessly over the surrounding vegetation.
Anyone familiar with his reputation as "trash" would have found this perfectly normal—a cultivator at Dou Qi Third Stage actually dared to venture into the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range alone. If he managed not to get lost or be devoured by magical beasts until not even his bones remained, it would already be thanks to the virtue accumulated by his ancestors.
Yet beneath this "disheveled" facade, Xiao Yan's spiritual perception had already spread like an invisible net, silently enveloping dozens of miles around him. The perception of an Emperor Realm soul let him clearly detect every tiny movement in the forest—which tree held a bird's nest, which rock concealed poisonous insects, even the sound of a rabbit chewing grass a hundred meters away. Nothing escaped his senses.
He was indeed searching for Qi-Gathering Grass, but he was nowhere near as helpless as he appeared. Yao Lao had mentioned the previous night that this herb worked wonders in stabilizing low-level Dou Qi, making it perfect for maintaining the illusion that he was "working hard at cultivation." He had simply gone with the current and made searching for Qi-Gathering Grass his public reason for entering the mountains. As for his true purpose—eliminating the tails sent by the Mo Family and checking for unusual fluctuations deeper in the mountains, such as... the spatial ripples left by that suspected Otherworlder.
"Rustle, rustle..."
A sudden disturbance came from the bushes to his left. It was slight, but it could not escape Xiao Yan's perception. His body tensed almost reflexively, and precisely the right amount of panic instantly appeared on his face. He tightened his grip on the Heavy Xuan Ruler and warily looked toward the sound, his voice trembling slightly. "Who's there? Who's hiding there?"
His reaction perfectly matched that of a weak cultivator encountering something unknown in the wilderness.
The bushes shook a few times, and a Green-Patterned Wolf the size of a small calf emerged. Its body was gray-green, with several dark markings across its back. A vicious gleam shone in its bell-sized eyes, and saliva dripped from its jaws. It had clearly marked this "weak" human as prey.
The Green-Patterned Wolf was a first-rank magical beast, roughly comparable in strength to a human cultivator between the Fifth Stage of Dou Qi and the seventh stage. It was a common danger on the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range. For a genuine Dou Qi Third Stage cultivator, encountering an adult Green-Patterned Wolf meant almost certain death.
"It's... It's a Green-Patterned Wolf!" The panic on Xiao Yan's face deepened. He even instinctively backed up two steps, his hand trembling around the Heavy Xuan Ruler. "I'm done for, I'm done for! Why did I have to run into this thing...?"
He kept muttering, but his feet seemed frozen with fear, firmly rooted to the spot as though he could neither advance nor retreat.
The Green-Patterned Wolf growled low in its throat and scraped its forepaws against the ground, kicking up dust. Then its hind legs thrust hard, and it lunged at Xiao Yan like an arrow loosed from a bow, a foul-smelling gust laden with killing intent rushing toward his face.
"Ah!" Xiao Yan cried out, abruptly tilting his body aside and narrowly evading the wolf's pounce. His dodge looked utterly clumsy, as though sheer luck had saved him.
The Green-Patterned Wolf missed and landed with a dull thud. It turned its head in irritation, locked onto Xiao Yan again, and let out a threatening growl.
"I'll fight you!" As though he had finally made up his mind, Xiao Yan showed a trace of ferocity that was "fierce on the outside, hollow within." Clutching the Heavy Xuan Ruler with both hands, he swung it wildly at the wolf. "I'm from the Xiao Clan! If you hurt me, my clan won't let you get away with it!"
Those words were naturally useless against a magical beast. The Green-Patterned Wolf attacked again, opening its blood-red maw to bite at Xiao Yan's neck.
Just as its jaws were about to touch his skin, an almost imperceptible glint flashed through Xiao Yan's eyes. He did not use Dou Qi or even attempt a more effective dodge. Instead, at the instant the wolf was about to bite him, an extremely faint strand of soul power, thin as a hair, extended outward and silently swept through its brain.
That strand of soul power caused no actual damage, but it precisely disrupted the Green-Patterned Wolf's neural response for an instant.
The bite that should have been certain to land suddenly veered off course by the tiniest margin.
Thump!
The Green-Patterned Wolf failed to bite its target. That momentary deviation, combined with its overly fierce lunge, threw it off balance and sent it crashing straight into a waist-high rock a short distance behind Xiao Yan.
Bang!
A dull impact rang out as the Green-Patterned Wolf's head slammed squarely into the rock, drawing a pained whimper. It shook its head, seemingly dazed. Some of the ferocity faded from its eyes, replaced by confusion and bewilderment.
To an outsider, this would have been utterly unbelievable—an adult Green-Patterned Wolf was actually stupid enough to crash into a rock on its own?
Yet under Xiao Yan's "performance," everything seemed "perfectly reasonable."
"Huh?" An "incredulous" expression appeared on Xiao Yan's face. Then, as though seizing an opening, he mustered his courage despite his lingering panic, raised the Heavy Xuan Ruler, and wildly swatted at the Green-Patterned Wolf while it was still shaking its head. "That's for snarling at me! That's for chasing me! I'll beat you to death!"
His control over his strength was excellent. The blows looked fierce, but they did not even break the Green-Patterned Wolf's skin. It was more like he was venting his fear.
The beating only made the Green-Patterned Wolf angrier. It shook its head and was about to lash out again when an inexplicable wave of agitation suddenly overcame it. That collision seemed to have made its movements sluggish. The human before it was weak, yet slippery as a loach, impossible to catch. Stranger still, every time it tried to attack, an inexplicable flicker of dizziness clouded its mind, slowing its movements by half a beat.
(This was actually Xiao Yan repeatedly using faint strands of soul power to interfere with its nerves, precisely disrupting the rhythm of its attacks without letting it sense anything unusual.)
After several exchanges, the Green-Patterned Wolf had not harmed Xiao Yan in the slightest. Instead, its repeated "mistakes" had sent it crashing into trees and rocks several times, leaving it covered in scrapes and increasingly bedraggled.
Xiao Yan, meanwhile, was "gasping for breath," his face pale as though he had exhausted every ounce of strength. Leaning on the Heavy Xuan Ruler, he retreated while shouting with "outward fierceness and inward weakness," "Y-you stay away! I... I really will fight to the death!"
Looking at this human who seemed too frail to withstand a breeze yet always "luckily" evaded its attacks, the Green-Patterned Wolf finally showed a trace of fear. A magical beast's instincts told it that prey with such "eerily good luck" often carried unknown dangers. It growled a few more times and tentatively advanced two steps. Seeing that Xiao Yan, though frightened, still did not turn and flee but kept staring fixedly at it, it finally hesitated.
At that moment, Xiao Yan secretly increased his soul power output slightly, precisely stimulating the spot on the Green-Patterned Wolf's head that had struck the rock.
The Green-Patterned Wolf was instantly overcome by intense dizziness. Its body swayed, and it nearly collapsed. Startled, it no longer dared linger. With its tail tucked between its legs, it whimpered, turned, and fled into the bushes, soon disappearing among the trees.
"Huff... Huff..." Watching the direction where the Green-Patterned Wolf had vanished, Xiao Yan let out a long sigh of relief. His legs gave way, and he dropped onto the ground, gulping air. His face was filled with the relief of "having survived a catastrophe." "That scared me to death... Scared me to death... Why did it suddenly run away? Did it knock itself stupid?"
He sat on the ground "recovering" for a full incense stick's worth of time before slowly standing and brushing the dirt from his clothes. Still looking shaken, he dragged the Heavy Xuan Ruler onward and continued wandering aimlessly through the forest, as though the encounter had drained all his strength.
Only he knew that the "perilous" encounter had been no more than a moment's trifling effort. For an Emperor Realm soul, handling a first-rank magical beast was mere play, even using only the crudest interference. He could have shattered the Green-Patterned Wolf's soul with a thought the instant it lunged. But the consequences of doing so—the system's icy warning had long been echoing in his mind. He could not bear the punishment for exposing his strength.
So he had to act. He had to make everything look plausible, in keeping with the role of "trash at Dou Qi Third Stage."
After walking for roughly another hour, Xiao Yan's steps suddenly paused. His gaze fell on a patch of low grass not far ahead, where several small plants grew with emerald-green leaves and a hint of pale purple at their tips.
"Qi-Gathering Grass?" Delight appeared on his face. He hurried over, carefully parted the grass, and examined it for a moment before exclaiming excitedly under his breath, "It really is Qi-Gathering Grass! And there are three stalks! Wonderful!"
He took a small trowel and a jade box from his herb basket, carefully dug up the three stalks of Qi-Gathering Grass with the soil around their roots, and gently placed them inside the box, afraid of damaging even the tiniest part. His cautious manner was exactly that of an herb gatherer who had finally found the plants he sought.
Yet as he lowered his head to put away the Qi-Gathering Grass, the corner of his eye swept across a large tree dozens of meters to his right. A faint presence flashed behind its trunk, deliberately suppressed, but to Xiao Yan's perception it was as obvious as a candle flame in the dark.
The Mo Family's tail had followed him after all.
Xiao Yan sneered inwardly, but his expression did not change. He remained immersed in the joy of finding Qi-Gathering Grass. Placing the jade box in his basket, he dusted off his hands and said to himself, "With this Qi-Gathering Grass, perhaps I can stabilize my Dou Qi a little more... I'll keep looking and bring back a few extra stalks!"
With that, he shouldered his herb basket and hummed an off-key tune, heading deeper into the forest with light steps, apparently without a care.
Behind the large tree dozens of meters back, a gray-clad man with a scar on his face slowly peered out, staring at Xiao Yan's retreating back with sinister eyes. He was one of the watchers sent by the Mo Family, a cultivator at the seventh stage of Dou Qi. His orders were to investigate Xiao Yan's purpose in entering the mountains and, if an opportunity arose, "accidentally" dispose of this Xiao Clan trash who had dragged the Mo Family's dignity through the dirt.
He had witnessed Xiao Yan's entire encounter with the Green-Patterned Wolf. A contemptuous sneer now curled his lips. "Trash, just as expected. He couldn't even handle a Green-Patterned Wolf and relied entirely on luck. Still, that's good. Someone like him will be easier to deal with."
He licked his lips, a vicious gleam flashing in his eyes, and carefully concealed his presence before silently following. He failed to notice that the instant he moved, the lips of that "clumsy" figure ahead curved into an almost imperceptible smile.
The prey had taken the bait.
Xiao Yan appeared to wander casually through the forest, but his steps drifted deliberately toward a narrow mountain ravine. Steep cliffs stood on both sides, leaving only a path wide enough for one person between them. It was a natural ambush site—for the pursuer, of course.
As he walked, he occasionally bent down and pretended to inspect the plants beside the path. Sometimes he even cried out excitedly at the sight of an ordinary weed, playing the "novice" to perfection.
The scar-faced man behind him grew increasingly lax. To him, Xiao Yan was practically a walking target. All he needed was the right moment to strike from behind. A single palm strike would severely injure him, and then he could make it look like a magical beast attack, leaving neither gods nor ghosts any the wiser.
As they drew closer to the ravine, the air grew damper, and the cliffs on either side became increasingly steep.
Xiao Yan slowed his steps. He looked up at the sky "in passing" and frowned. "Why does it feel like the weather's about to change? I'd better find somewhere to take shelter."
He turned to inspect the cliffs on either side, then his eyes lit up as though he had suddenly discovered something. "That looks like a cave! I'll hide there for now!"
With that, he quickened his pace toward a small cave in the cliff a short distance ahead, its entrance barely large enough for one person to enter stooping.
The scar-faced man rejoiced inwardly. Here's my chance!
The cave was secluded, with the surrounding cliffs blocking it from view—the perfect place to strike. He immediately sped up, using the bushes for cover as he swiftly closed the distance.
Just as Xiao Yan was about to enter the cave and the scar-faced man prepared to launch his sneak attack—
Xiao Yan's steps paused almost imperceptibly.
At almost the same instant, the ground beneath the scar-faced man's feet shifted slightly. Alarm jolted through him, but before he could react, several loose stones rolled away beneath his feet, and he instantly lost his balance.
"Damn it!"
The scar-faced man cried out and instinctively tried to steady himself, but his momentum sent him sliding uncontrollably toward the steep slope beside him. It lay at the edge of the ravine, sharply inclined and covered in slick, damp moss.
In his panic, he tried to grab something, but caught only a handful of air. His body kept sliding down the slope, loose stones and dirt tumbling alongside his frightened cries.
"Aah—!"
A piercing scream rose from below the slope, then abruptly cut off. Only the sound of falling stones echoed through the ravine.
Standing at the cave entrance, Xiao Yan slowly turned around with precisely the right amount of "astonishment" on his face. He looked toward the slope and murmured, "Who was that? Who just screamed?"
He "hesitated" for a moment, then cautiously approached the edge and peered down. Mist swirled below, concealing a bottomless depth. He could see nothing.
"Did... someone accidentally fall?" A "frightened" expression appeared on Xiao Yan's face, and he hastily backed away several steps. "This place is too dangerous. I'd better hurry into the cave and hide!"
He hurried into the cave and deliberately blocked the entrance with several rocks, leaving only a gap through which he could watch outside.
Inside the cave, Xiao Yan leaned against the cold stone wall. The panic had already vanished from his face, replaced by utter calm.
That seemingly accidental slide had naturally been his work. All he had done was use soul power to shift a few loose stones beneath the scar-faced man's feet. By exploiting his eagerness to attack and the unfavorable terrain, he had easily created this "accident."
For a cultivator at the seventh stage of Dou Qi, such a steep slope might not mean certain death, but it would at least leave him seriously injured. Combined with the poisonous insects and low-rank magical beasts that might inhabit the ravine, it was enough to make him disappear from these mountains completely, leaving no trace.
The Mo Family's first dog is dealt with, Xiao Yan thought. But he's probably not the only one.
He closed his eyes, and his Emperor Realm soul spread outward again. This time, it covered a wider area and searched more thoroughly.
Sure enough, two concealed presences lingered farther away in the forest. They were clearly the other two watchers sent by the Mo Family, merely too distant to have approached earlier.
The corners of Xiao Yan's lips rose slightly, and a cold gleam flashed through his eyes.
Since you've come, all of you can stay here.
He adjusted his breathing. When he opened his eyes again, his face had returned to its shaken expression. Leaning inside the cave, he occasionally peered through the gap between the rocks, as though afraid some new danger might descend outside.
The sun gradually sank westward, and the mist in the forest began to thicken. A new "accident" was quietly brewing.
Before you continue