The creaking carriage jolted along the uneven highway. Outside its windows, the dim yellow sunlight fell on the swirling dust, tracing strands of gold.
Jing Wen sat in the swaying carriage beside the coffin holding the body of his mother, Red Rose.
At first, everyone in the caravan had shunned the coffin. In their eyes, a coffin was an ill omen that would bring disaster upon their journey.
But Jing Wen paid generously, and the handsome reward finally persuaded the caravan leader to agree.
Inside the carriage, Jing Wen stared intently at the flying sword hovering in midair, slowly rising and falling. A flicker of delight crossed his eyes. "I never imagined this body would have such extraordinary comprehension."
In just half a day, he had successfully grasped the basics of the Object-Driving Technique.
As the son of a cultivator, he had begun to develop a hazy understanding of many things, even though he had yet to fully assimilate his predecessor's memories.
His mother, Red Rose, had been a cultivator at the qi refining seventh layer, already across the threshold of late qi refining.
To escape Steward Li's clutches, Jing Wen had surrendered nearly his entire fortune.
Thanks to what Red Rose had left behind, however, he lacked none of the basic supplies of the cultivation world.
Among them, two items were the most precious.
The first was a low-grade flying sword;
The second was half a bottle of Marrow-Washing Pills.
The Marrow-Washing Pill was a first-grade medicinal pill with potent effects, superior to the Yellow Dragon Pills Han Li had initially refined. Even cultivators at late qi refining could benefit significantly from it.
Red Rose had prepared this bottle of Marrow-Washing Pills for his predecessor. Although he had been deemed to have no spiritual root, as his mother, she had always clung to a sliver of hope that their medicinal power might allow her son to sense spiritual energy.
Jing Wen did not rashly take a Marrow-Washing Pill.
As graded medicinal pills, Marrow-Washing Pills could only yield their full effects when taken at late qi refining.
His gaze shifted to his dantian. Although he could not see it, he could feel a Baleful Bead condensed there.
The Baleful Bead allowed him to sense spiritual energy, but it was even worse than a five-element spiritual root.
Without the aid of medicinal pills, a cultivator with a five-element spiritual root could spend an entire lifetime cultivating and reach, at most, the qi refining third layer.
It was easy to imagine how arduous Jing Wen's cultivation path would be with a Baleful Bead.
Especially upon entering the middle qi refining stage and late qi refining, the spiritual energy required for cultivation increased exponentially. Without outside assistance, the energy absorbed through the Baleful Bead alone would be little more than a cup of water thrown onto a burning cartload of firewood.
Jing Wen silently calculated that without medicinal pills, even a hundred years of cultivation would bring him no further than the qi refining second layer.
Yet the Baleful Bead was not without advantages: it allowed him to take the Blood Pills the Black Fiend Cult refined through blood sacrifices.
The ingredients for Blood Pills were inexhaustible. As long as cultivators remained in the cultivation world, the supply of Blood Pills would never run dry.
At that thought, Jing Wen gave a self-mocking chuckle. "With my pathetic strength, I'm already coveting Blood Pills and thinking about completing the Black Fiend Cult's missions?"
As far as Jing Wen knew, most Black Fiend Cult members were converted high-level cultivators with no hope of further advancement. Even the weakest were at the qi refining fourth layer.
A few cultivators at the qi refining third layer had joined the Black Fiend Cult before, but they had lost their lives without completing a single mission.
Perhaps their enemies had not been too powerful. Instead, someone within the Black Fiend Cult might have secretly tampered with things to gain contribution points.
Jing Wen was deeply uneasy about the Black Fiend Cult.
Although he had handed over more than ninety percent of his family's wealth to Steward Li, he remained full of worry.
He did not know how many enemies Red Rose had, nor whether those greedy members of the Black Fiend Cult truly believed he was penniless.
If even a single Black Fiend Cult member pursued him, his current strength would leave him doomed, no matter what he did.
Jing Wen shook his head, trying to cast those worries aside, and returned to practicing basic spells.
Time slipped quietly by as he cultivated. Three days later, the caravan was already far from the capital.
Jing Wen's taut nerves finally relaxed. "If someone really wanted to hunt me down, the best time would undoubtedly have been when I left the capital.
Since no one has come after me, I should be safe for now."
The carriage continued onward. The sound of its wheels rolling over stones seemed like Jing Wen's footsteps toward an unknown future.
Time passed quietly, and another three days went by in the blink of an eye.
During that time, Jing Wen immersed himself in studying basic spells. With his exceptional comprehension, he gained a clear and thorough understanding of many of them.
When he felt the time was right, he decisively told the caravan leader that he intended to leave.
Upon hearing that Jing Wen wanted to leave, the caravan leader's expression immediately darkened. Greed flashed in his eyes as he tried to find all manner of excuses to refuse to refund the unused portion of Jing Wen's payment.
Jing Wen merely smiled faintly. Mundane things such as gold and silver had long since become worthless in his eyes.
His mind was now filled with cultivation and revenge. Why would he squabble with the caravan leader over such a trifling sum?
And so, he turned and left without hesitation, leaving the caravan leader to gloat behind him.
Jing Wen carefully strapped Red Rose's coffin to the horse's back, took the reins, and slowly walked toward a small hill in the distance.
The mountain path was rugged and difficult, and the horse's hooves occasionally sank into the soft earth, but Jing Wen's steps were unusually firm.
Before long, he reached the foot of the hill.
Green trees surrounded it, and all was peaceful and still, save for the occasional clear birdsong.
Jing Wen stopped and carefully surveyed his surroundings. Once he was certain that few people ever came here, he began digging.
His hands moved swiftly, spiritual power surged, and the earth was quickly scooped away.
Once the pit was ready, Jing Wen gently lowered the coffin into it, a trace of reluctance in his eyes.
Then he filled the pit one handful of earth at a time, restoring the ground to its original appearance. He erected no gravestone and left no conspicuous marker.
Jing Wen did this so that Red Rose could rest here forever, undiscovered and undisturbed.
Although ordinary people would find it difficult to notice anything unusual here, Jing Wen's senses were keen as a cultivator. He committed every detail of the surroundings to memory, confident that wherever he went, he would always be able to find this place.
"Red Rose, thank you for looking after me these past three months," Jing Wen murmured, gazing at the place where she lay buried.
"During these three months, you not only cared for me, but also helped me become part of the cultivators' world.
Rest assured. I'll fulfill your wish and live well."
At this point, Jing Wen's gaze grew firm and resolute.
"I'll avenge you, too. Although I don't know exactly who your enemies were, that doesn't matter. I'll make plenty of people join you in the grave!"
In Jing Wen's eyes, even if the Black Fiend Cult had no direct connection to Red Rose's death, it bore an undeniable share of indirect responsibility.
If they had not issued those perilous missions, how could Red Rose have died?
At that thought, fierce hatred surged through Jing Wen's heart. He clenched his fists. "The Black Fiend Cult deserves to die!"
Not only that, Jing Wen extended his hatred to the other cultivators in the Yue Kingdom at late qi refining and above.
He did not want to know who the actual killer was, nor whether the killer had already died.
In his eyes, the Yue Kingdom's high-level cultivators had indirectly driven lowly cultivators like Red Rose into desperate straits. None could escape the blame.
"Every cultivator who was at late qi refining or above when I was fifteen is a suspect."
But as Jing Wen considered the targets of his revenge, he deliberately excluded Han Li and Xiang Zhili.
Jing Wen did not know whether Han Li's closed time loop existed. Unless his very survival was at stake, he was unwilling to risk meddling with it;
As for Xiang Zhili, he was far beyond Jing Wen's reach as he was now.
Besides, Xiang Zhili might even be Jing Wen's last way out.
The original novel stated that the Black Fiend Cult's cultivation method could only take someone as far as the early gold core stage. Beyond that, their cultivation could not advance an inch.
If Jing Wen ultimately failed to find a way to continue cultivating, he might have to risk seeking out Xiang Zhili to strike a bargain.
Now that Jing Wen had condensed a Baleful Bead, he was destined to follow the Black Fiend Cult's cultivation path.
Unless he was willing to abandon the great path of cultivation, he could only continue down this road strewn with thorns.
But Jing Wen had never entertained the thought of giving up. Since he had transmigrated into this dazzling world of cultivation, how could he not aspire to eternal life?
Since he was destined to become a demonic cultivator, he would think like one and seek justice for Red Rose.
"Every last one of you will die!"
Jing Wen stood silently at Red Rose's burial place for a long time, until the sun sank in the west and dyed the horizon a fiery red.
At last, he took one long, lingering look, then turned and left.
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