Yu Zitong

Mo Juren walked slowly over the dew-soaked moss, the medicine pouch at his waist swaying with each step and rustling as the herbs rubbed together.

"Strange..." Mo Juren suddenly stopped, pressing his wrinkled hand against his chest.

When he woke that morning, the Corpse Worm he kept inside his body had inexplicably grown restless, as though warning him of something.

Yet when he concentrated on sensing it, everything seemed normal again.

In that instant of hesitation-

Whoosh!

An azure water ball suddenly shot out of the bushes to his right, so fast that it left only an afterimage in the air.

Mo Juren's pupils contracted sharply. Instinct honed by years of walking the edge between life and death made him twist aside, but he was still half a step too slow.

Splash!

The water ball burst the instant it touched his robe, turning into a viscous curtain of water that enveloped his entire body.

As though alive, the liquid forced its way into his mouth, nose, and ears, rendering him completely immobile in the blink of an eye.

Before the horror faded from Mo Juren's eyes, his consciousness sank into darkness.

Behind the bushes thirty paces away, Jing Wen slowly lowered his right hand from its spell gesture, satisfaction flickering in his eyes. "The Water Ball Technique may lack the ferocity of fire spells, but its Enemy Binding effect really is exceptional. Those days of hard practice weren't wasted."

Jing Wen's progress had been unusually slow when practicing water spells.

He suspected this might have something to do with the Baleful Bead inside him.

"Now isn't the time for reflection." Jing Wen took a small white jade vial from his robes, tipped out a pill that radiated a chill, and swallowed it.

The instant the Concentration Pill reached his stomach, a cool current surged straight to his spirit terrace, making his Divine Sense several times clearer.

Raising a pale green protective barrier, Jing Wen slowly approached the unconscious Mo Juren.

He stopped thirty feet away, extended his palm, and made a grabbing motion through the air-

Clatter!

The belongings on Mo Juren's body scattered across the ground as though pulled by an invisible hand.

Several porcelain vials rolled onto the bluestone with crisp clinks, while a rolled cowhide needle pouch unfurled, revealing the Golden Needles gleaming coldly inside.

Jing Wen swept his gaze over them and immediately fixed on the dark red bell-the crucial artifact used to control Qu Hun.

"He did bring the bell with him..."

Qu Hun had not accompanied Doctor Mo on this trip to the valley entrance to treat patients.

That fit Jing Wen's plan. Separating them and striking each in turn was precisely the strategy he had devised.

Jing Wen carefully swept his Divine Sense over every item, his brow gradually furrowing-there was no trace of Yu Zitong's primordial spirit.

Either the remnant soul was hiding inside one of the artifacts, or...

"Fellow Daoist, how much longer do you intend to hide?"

Jing Wen spoke abruptly, his voice unusually clear in the silent valley.

When no answer came, he turned his palm upward. A crimson fireball appeared out of thin air, its heat warping the surrounding air.

"If you don't come out within three breaths, this body will turn to ash along with you." Jing Wen's voice was icy.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Don't! Wait, fellow Daoist!"

A translucent gray shadow suddenly drifted out through the crown of Mo Juren's head, coalescing in midair into the ghostly figure of a scholar.

The apparition's face was deathly pale, but a crafty gleam shone in his eyes. He was none other than Yu Zitong's remnant soul.

The fireball remained suspended above Jing Wen's palm as he said coldly, "Tell me who you are."

Yu Zitong's primordial spirit drifted uneasily in the air. "I am Yu Zitong, an elder of the Yu family of Jing Prefecture. In life, I was a cultivator at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.

"Twenty years ago..."

As Yu Zitong spoke, Jing Wen gradually pieced together the truth: twenty years earlier, Yu Zitong had been pursued by enemies while out searching for medicinal herbs. Gravely wounded, he fled into a valley, where Mo Juren discovered him.

This seemingly ordinary itinerant physician had caught him off guard and fired a lethally poisoned concealed weapon at him.

On the brink of death, Yu Zitong had used a secret technique to attach his primordial spirit to his enemy's body.

Seeking a way out of his predicament, Yu Zitong coaxed, "Fellow Daoist, if you take me back to my family, our patriarch will reward you handsomely!

"Foundation Establishment Pills, cultivation manuals..."

Jing Wen inwardly scoffed at Yu Zitong's enticements, but put on a look of longing.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and just the right hint of hesitation appeared on his face as he slowly said, "Empty words prove nothing. Why should I believe you belong to the Yu family of Jing Prefecture?

"And how can I be sure you aren't deceiving me?"

Yu Zitong's primordial spirit shuddered violently. He instantly abandoned his initial idea of demonstrating a cultivation technique to prove his identity.

He was now nothing more than a feeble strand of primordial spirit. Even if he demonstrated a technique, it would cost him dearly, and the technique itself would hardly offer direct proof of his identity.

Just as his anxiety reached its peak, inspiration flashed through his mind, and he remembered his all-important Storage Bag.

"The things in my Storage Bag can prove it!" Yu Zitong's voice carried the desperate urgency of someone burning his boats. "It contains items unique to the Yu family. No outsider could possibly possess them!"

Jing Wen was delighted inwardly, but let none of it show on his face. "Where is your Storage Bag?"

Not daring to hesitate, Yu Zitong hurriedly replied, "In a natural limestone cave at the northern foot of Sunset Glow Mountain. Three stalks of blue flame grass grow at the entrance.

"The Storage Bag is hidden beneath the third stalactite deep inside the cave.

"Inside are a jade pendant engraved with the Yu family crest, a fragmentary scroll recording the Yu family's secret techniques, and a fifty-year-old purple spirit ginseng!"

To win Jing Wen's trust, he laid almost all the Storage Bag's important contents on the table, his primordial spirit swaying violently with his agitation.

As Jing Wen listened, he carefully examined the state of Yu Zitong's primordial spirit with his Divine Sense.

The remnant soul seemed weak, but a trace of sinister magical power remained concentrated at his core. Clearly, he still had a trick up his sleeve.

"So that's how it is." Jing Wen suddenly smiled. "Unfortunately..."

He formed a spell gesture with his left hand. The water ball enveloping Mo Juren abruptly changed direction and engulfed Yu Zitong's primordial spirit with the speed of a thunderbolt.

Caught completely off guard, Yu Zitong's primordial spirit was struck by the water ball and instantly grew dimmer.

Before he could react, the fireball Jing Wen had held ready in his right hand roared toward him.

"Aah-!"

Yu Zitong let out a piercing scream filled with horror and despair.

"Wh... why?"

Only moments earlier, he had been calculating his next move: once Jing Wen confirmed his identity, he would stall him with the persuasive patter he had honed to perfection. With the Yu family's reputation and a few promises thrown in, he had been certain he could hoodwink Jing Wen.

Never had he imagined that Jing Wen would disregard every convention like this-he had not even obtained the Storage Bag, let alone heard a full account of Yu Zitong's identity, yet he had struck to kill without the slightest warning!

That sudden ruthlessness shattered every one of his schemes.

The searing fireball tightly enveloped his weakened primordial spirit. Like a candle guttering in the wind, he twisted and struggled violently, but could not withstand the devouring flames. In mere moments, his primordial spirit vanished completely within the fire, leaving not a trace.

Jing Wen's taut nerves finally relaxed, and he let out a long breath.

He gazed at the spot where Yu Zitong had disappeared and shook his head slightly, a hint of resignation in his eyes. "If I had reached late Qi Refining, what harm would there have been in sparing your life?"

He clenched his fists, feeling the meager spiritual power inside him. "But right now, I'm only a cultivator at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer. You had the ability to pose a threat to me."

"Most importantly, you were worth too little to me," Jing Wen murmured, a trace of indifference in his voice.