First encounter with Nie Li

Shen Fei went to the Layered Peaks Black Market, ostensibly to buy low-grade demon crystals for his family.

The Sacred Family bought large quantities of demon crystals and medicinal herbs from the black market every month. These errands had previously been handled by the steward.

When Shen Fei volunteered to take over, the steward gladly enjoyed the respite. He thrust the shopping list and funds into Shen Fei's hands, reminded him to "haggle and don't get swindled," then went off to attend to other matters.

In truth, Shen Fei wanted to use this opportunity to figure out how the Dark Guild made contact in the black market.

According to the information he had pieced together from secret letters in the study over the past three months, the Dark Guild had a permanent base in the black market, disguised as a demon crystal merchant's warehouse. Goods moved in and out on the nights of the third and eighteenth of every month.

Today was the seventh, not a rendezvous day. There would be no activity at the base, making it the perfect time to survey the surroundings.

The black market lay beneath the western district of Glory City, converted from several abandoned mine tunnels. Its entrance was an unremarkable general store. Through the store's back door and down two flights of stairs, and you were there.

Stalls lined both sides of the tunnels, selling demon crystals, inscription materials, medicinal herbs, and weapons. All manner of smells mingled together. The bitterness of herbs, the rank odor of demon crystals, and the sooty fumes of cheap oil lamps blended into the murky air unique to the black market.

Dim oil lamps cast patches of light and shadow across every face.

Shen Fei headed deeper into the tunnels, stopping at each of the stalls listed on the shopping list and buying all the demon crystals his family needed.

As he paid, he surveyed his surroundings out of the corner of his eye, committing the tunnel branches, stall locations, and patterns of foot traffic to memory.

A side tunnel branched off at the black market's northwestern corner. Several broken wooden crates sat piled at its entrance, making it look utterly unremarkable. But Shen Fei noticed that everyone entering and leaving was a familiar face. Whenever a stranger tried to go in, a middle-aged man smoking against the wall stopped them.

According to the descriptions in the secret letters, the Dark Guild's underground warehouse lay inside that side tunnel.

He did not approach it. He had not come today to stir the grass and startle the snake.

Then he saw someone.

A boy in plain gray clothes, his cuffs worn pale and his hair casually tied into a ponytail, was crouching before an herb stall, bargaining with the stallholder.

He held a stalk of purple herb. Its leaf edges were slightly yellowed, and its quality was far from top-grade, but it was genuine purple mist grass.

Shen Fei stopped in his tracks.

Memories of his previous life surged up. He had read every page of the Holy Orchid Institute's roster, over three hundred names from the junior classes to the senior classes. He remembered the grades and instructor comments beside every name.

He had examined every City Guard combat report and combed through the records of all eleven young officers.

No one had ever heard the name "Nie Li."

The Holy Orchid Institute did indeed have a student named Nie Li, a third-year whose soul force test ranked third from the bottom in his entire year. His instructor's comment consisted of just eight Chinese characters: "Dull aptitude, unfit for cultivation." Shen Fei had stared at those eight characters for a long time, then closed the roster, convinced he had remembered the name wrong.

But now, the boy deemed to have "dull aptitude" in that roster was crouching at a stall ten paces away, holding purple mist grass. He pinched a leaf between two fingers, turning it over and over with the practiced ease of an old apothecary who had spent years handling medicinal herbs.

Shen Fei took three seconds to bring his expression under control. Just as he was about to turn away, Nie Li suddenly raised his head and looked straight at him. Those were not the eyes a boy should have-too composed, too sharp, like a blade honed razor-thin.

"Had your fill of staring?"

Shen Fei froze for a moment. He had not expected the other boy to speak first.

Nie Li stood, tucked the purple mist grass into his robe, and looked him up and down.

It was no ordinary appraisal. From the fabric of his clothes to the wear on his cuffs, from the balance of his stance to the rhythm of his breathing, those eyes swept over Shen Fei's entire body in under two seconds. Yet Shen Fei felt as though he had been seen right through.

"From the Sacred Family? Ordinary families can't afford fabric like that. The subtle pattern on your cuffs is the Sacred Family crest, and your belt buckle was polished from a Silver-rank Demon Beast's demon crystal. Most people can't afford that."

Nie Li's tone was flat, as though he were stating a fact that had nothing whatsoever to do with him. "And you smell of herbs. Not medicine for treating illnesses, but the scent that clings to you after medicinal herbs have been stored in a warehouse for a long time.

"The Sacred Family has been buying large quantities of demon crystals and medicinal herbs lately. Someone like you must be handling it."

Shen Fei said nothing. He noticed that Nie Li had spoken without the slightest hesitation. Every judgment had been made in an instant, and every one was precisely correct.

That kind of observational ability and speed of processing information could not belong to a student with "dull aptitude."

More importantly, when Nie Li mentioned the Sacred Family, his tone carried an undisguised coldness. It was not deliberate provocation, but a deep-rooted hostility he felt no need to conceal.

"I've met your younger brother, Shen Yue, at the Holy Orchid Institute.

Nie Li hefted the purple mist grass in his hand, as casually as if he were tossing an ordinary pebble. "A brat who hasn't even condensed his soul force, yet struts around the institute throwing the Sacred Family's name around. You're his older brother? You look a little stronger than him. Silver 3-Star, at least."

"You don't like Shen Yue?" Shen Fei asked.

"Have I ever liked anyone?" Nie Li's tone remained flat, but at the mention of Shen Yue, a flicker of undisguised disgust crossed his eyes.

That disgust was fleeting, gone in a flash, but Shen Fei caught it. "Still, you're right. I really don't like you people from the Sacred Family. Especially your younger brother."

With that, he turned and left without so much as a farewell. His gray-clad back bobbed twice through the crowd in the tunnel, then vanished like a drop of water merging into a muddy river.

Shen Fei remained where he was, watching Nie Li's back disappear into the black market crowd. The herb stallholder nearby had probably overheard their conversation. He glanced up at Shen Fei with a mixture of curiosity and wariness.

Shen Fei ignored the stallholder's gaze and turned to continue deeper into the tunnels, buying the remaining items on his list.

But his mind kept replaying that brief exchange. He repeatedly compared the memories of his previous life with the information from this one.

In his previous life, he had gone through the Holy Orchid Institute's roster three times. He remembered Nie Li's file perfectly: a third-year student, third from the bottom in his year's soul force test, with an instructor's comment of "Dull aptitude, unfit for cultivation."

No matter how he looked at it, the Nie Li in that file and the Nie Li he had just met did not seem like the same person.

Someone with "dull aptitude" could not accurately determine a stranger's identity and occupation in under two seconds from his clothing, family crest, demon crystal buckle, and the smell of herbs on him.

Someone "unfit for cultivation" could not scrutinize a stranger clearly stronger than himself with such a composed, almost assessing gaze, without the slightest fear in his voice.

What concerned Shen Fei even more was what Nie Li had been doing at the institute lately. At this point in his previous life, Nie Li had been utterly inconspicuous at the Holy Orchid Institute. Almost none of the lower-year students had ever mentioned his name.

But this life was different. Although Shen Fei did not attend classes with the lower-year students, he occasionally heard third-years talking in the corridors, on the training grounds, and in the dining hall.

They said that the good-for-nothing named Nie Li seemed to have become a different person lately. In theory class, he had actually come up with an approach to a problem that even the instructor had not considered. In practical combat classes, he still took terrible beatings, but he recovered abnormally fast.

Once, in an institute corridor, Nie Li had even openly challenged an instructor from a branch of the Sacred Family, leaving him utterly speechless.

None of this had happened in his previous life. Back then, Nie Li had been as quiet as a shadow at the Holy Orchid Institute. No one paid attention to him, no one talked about him, and even his instructors could barely remember that such a student existed in their classes.

But in this life, he seemed to be deliberately making his presence felt. Not with loud displays, but with a faintly emerging edge that people could not ignore.

On top of that, the Dark Guild's recent activities within the city had been noticeably more restrained than during the same period in his previous life.

During these months in his previous life, fixed shipments had moved in and out of the Dark Guild's underground warehouse in the black market every month. But over Shen Fei's last two months of observation, the flow of goods had been nearly half what it was in his previous life.

The suspicious expenditure labeled "losses" in the Sacred Family's accounts had also been decreasing month by month. These changes had begun at precisely the same time Nie Li started making a name for himself at the institute.

Shen Fei bought the last batch of demon crystals, settled up with the stallholder, and headed back along the tunnels. As he passed the side tunnel piled with broken wooden crates, he glanced at the middle-aged man smoking against the wall, then looked away and kept walking.

When he emerged from the black market, the sunlight outside made him squint. He slung the bundle filled with demon crystals over his shoulder and headed back along the main street.

Street vendors were still calling out their wares, and the blacksmith's bellows still roared, exactly as they had three hours earlier when he entered the black market. But the information in his mind had changed completely.

In his previous life, he had thought Nie Li did not exist, that he himself had displaced the protagonist's halo, that Glory City had no savior. But now he knew. Nie Li had been there all along; Shen Fei simply had not found him in his previous life.

Because in that life, Nie Li had never distinguished himself before the city fell. He had quietly stayed in his third-year classroom, quietly played the role of a "good-for-nothing student," and quietly been overlooked by everyone.

By the time the Demon Beasts breached the city, it had all been too late. But in this life, Nie Li had revealed his edge early.

Shen Fei was not sure what this change meant. Perhaps Nie Li remembered his previous life too, just as he did. Perhaps it was merely coincidence.

But there was one thing he could be certain of: this Nie Li was the protagonist. He was not the ordinary student with "dull aptitude" described in that file. His unusual behavior, his observational ability far beyond his years, and his undisguised hostility toward the Sacred Family all pointed to the same conclusion.

He needed to readjust his plans. Experience from his previous life had taught him not to approach someone harboring secrets too readily, or he would be seen as a threat.

But in this life, if he wanted to change Glory City's fate, he had to cross paths with this person. Not because of the protagonist's halo, but because they shared a common enemy.

Shen Fei shifted the bundle to his other shoulder and quickened his pace. He was already planning his next move.

He had gathered intelligence from the black market and confirmed Nie Li's existence. Next, he needed to find a suitable opening, one that would let two parallel lines begin drawing closer without arousing suspicion on either side.