Li Yuan moved through the forest without leaving so much as a bent blade of grass.

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven wrapped around him like a second skin, thinning his presence until even the world seemed to forget him.

  His footsteps made no sound. His body carried no scent for spirit beasts to track. Even the faint impressions his boots should have left faded a heartbeat after he passed.

  For all intents and purposes, he did not exist.

  'No wonder this thing takes so many points to improve,' he thought with quiet awe. The technique was less about making him go invisible, and more about completely erasing his presence from the world.

  At regular intervals, he slowed and activated the Spirit Residue Following Technique.

  Each time, the world shifted. Color drained away until everything turned grey, leaving only strands of Qi residue from spirit beasts and humans glowing in faint hues.

  Searching this way, it did not take long to find something.

  Maybe it was beginner's luck. Or maybe his Fortune was quietly stacking the deck in his favour behind the scenes. Either way, within half an hour of entering the forest, a clear trail revealed itself.

  A line of Qi shaped like animal footsteps led deeper into the trees, pulsing now and then like a steady heartbeat.

  He only followed it for a few steps when above him, his halo dimmed. Pristine white faded into light grey.

  Li Yuan stopped at once.

  His eyes narrowed as he focused on the halo. And a vision unfolded.

  ——

  He saw himself continue the pursuit, moving with care as he traced the lingering Qi deeper into the forest. Then the beast stepped into view—a Blackflame Horned Tiger. Worse, it was a Peak 1st grade Spirit beast.

  Somehow, it had sensed him. Maybe he was simply too weak. Or maybe Veil of Borrowed Heaven, still at Moderate Accomplishment, was not as flawless as he had hoped. Either way, the tiger had already set an ambush.

  Claws ripped through the space where his head had been a breath earlier.

  The beast could not see him clearly, but it could sense his location with enough precision to strike. One claw came, then another, each blow heavy enough to split stone.

  The prayer beads flared—once, twice, three times. Each shield shattering under the crushing force of the Blackflame Horned Tiger.

  He survived. Barely. Then he struck back.

  The vision showed him burning through every skill he possessed, forcing an opening with great difficulty. Sword attack, talismans, footwork—everything meshed in a desperate rhythm until he clawed out the slightest edge and managed to injure the beast.

  The tiger faltered. And realizing it had misjudged its prey, the beast withdrew, vanishing into the trees with a furious snarl.

  ——

  The vision shattered.

  Li Yuan stood still for a long moment before releasing a slow breath.

  'Peak first-tier…' He thought with unease. He had not expected to face something of that level so soon—let alone in his first real fight.

  What unsettled him more was the ending.

  The gap between them had been enormous. Yet he had still managed to wound it. Managed to drive it away.

  He had known his skills would give him an advantage in battle. But he had not expected that advantage to be so decisive.

  The only reason he had lost those three prayer beads was the ambush. If the Blackflame Horned Tiger had faced him head-on, the outcome might have tilted further in his favor.

  Or maybe not.

  The beast had been fast. Terrifyingly fast.

  Yes, he could outmaneuver it with Shadow-Cloud Steps. He could slip past its claws, and circle its blind spots. But the moment it sensed real danger and chose to flee, he had no way to stop it.

  If he fought, he would have to kill it in a single decisive exchange.

  Otherwise, the battle would mean nothing.

  And even if he succeeded—if he cut off its ear and brought it to the Merit Hall for Sect points—would they believe him?

  If they did not, it would be troublesome.

  If they did, it would be worse.

  He had never heard of a disciple at the Fifth Stage of Qi Condensation defeating a Peak First-Grade spirit beast. A feat like that might bring him the kind of fame that he's not sure he could handle.

  Other disciples would start whispering. They would assume he possessed some rare treasure and try to take it from him. Even Inner Sect disciples might decide he was worth robbing.

  The more he thought about it, the clearer the answer became.

  The Blackflame Horned Tiger was not worth the risk.

  Even if he gained the upper hand, the beast could still escape. And if fate favored him and he somehow killed it, he would not dare submit its ear to the Merit Hall for Sect Merit Points.

  That alone would be a loss. Yes, he had entered the forest mainly for the Stele, but merit points still mattered.

  No, the price was too high.

  Li Yuan turned away and hid his presence before he left, searching instead for the traces of another spirit beast in another part of the outer edge of the Forbidden forest.

  —————

  He followed the next trail to its source and stopped as he felt its existence long before he saw it.

  Heat pressed against his skin, as if he had stepped too close to a furnace.

  He slowed, Veil of Borrowed Heaven still clinging to him, and crept forward. The trees thinned ahead, opening into a clearing gouged and blackened by fire.

  The beast lay coiled at the center of the clearing, munching on a human corpse.

  The body, or what remained of it wore the torn robes of an Outer Sect disciple.

  The creature was massive. as long as a school bus. Stone-grey plates overlapped across its hide, catching the light like dull slate. Two heavy horns curved back from its skull. Every few breaths, its jaws parted and spat a burst of flame that scorched the already ruined earth before it.

  Li Yuan narrowed his eyes.

  The pamphlet had mentioned Stoneback Horned Lizards—but none capable of breathing fire.

  'Diluted dragon blood,' he guessed, extending his senses toward it to sense its strength.

  Mid first-grade.

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  Dangerous, perhaps even more so due to to its dragon bloodline but nothing he couldn't handle.

  A plan formed in an instant. He drew his sword and moved.

  Shadow-Cloud Steps carried him sideways in a blur just as the lizard's head snapped toward where he had been. Its tail whipped out, shattering a tree trunk into splinters. But Li Yuan had already moved on from that position.

  Instead, he now stood at its flank—right beside the beast's exposed belly.

  Mountain-Splitting Stillness Sword Technique descended in a clean, ruthless arc. The blade drove between two stone plates and sank deep, cutting through flesh and scraping bone.

  Even he was surprised by how deep the wound had been as blood burst from the wound and hissed against the scorched earth.

  The lizard roared. Flames spilled wildly from its jaws as it twisted, claws tearing trenches through the clearing in its attempt to crush him. But Shadow-Cloud Steps kept him beyond its reach.

  He struck. Withdrew quickly. Repositioned. Then struck again.

  Each pass left another deep wounds across its armoured body. But either due to its own great vitality, or due to the Dragon blood propping it, the beast kept going.

  And eventually, it began to adapt. It tried to trap him, to herd him into corners with its sheer bulk. Fire blasted outward in wide bursts, turning the clearing into an inferno.

  Area attacks. Crude but effective. Alas, it dragon bloodline seemed to be too diluted and it didn't help him here much.

  The flames were too weak to threaten him unless they struck directly. As long as he kept moving, they were little more than heat and noise.

  Its flames scorched the edge of his sect robes but did little else. He slipped past the heat, stepped inside its guard, and carved another deep wound into its side.

  Seconds stretched into minutes and cuts multiplied across its armored body. Blood poured from the gaps between stone plates, hissing as it struck the charred ground. The Stoneback Horned Lizard began to slow.

  Its movements turned uneven and laboured. And as it slowed, it presented a big target for him and his own attacks begin to leave deeper and deeper wounds until its blood formed a large, sizzling pool beneath it.

  Finally, one of its leg buckled. Then another. And finally, the beast crashed to the earth with a thunderous impact.

  Li Yuan did not hesitate for a moment. He stepped in, raised his sword, and brought it down in a single decisive strike.

  The blade flashed. And the lizard's head separated cleanly from its body. Flame died in its throat as the massive corpse shuddered once—then lay still.

  Silence settled over the clearing.

  Li Yuan let out a slow breath and wiped his blade clean against the grass.

  The beast had no ears to take as proof. So he severed its right horn instead and stored it away for the sect. Then he summoned the Stele.

  The moment the corpse touched the stone, it vanished. Flesh, bone, blood—everything dissolved without any resistance and was slurped up by the Stele.

  A heartbeat later, words surfaced across the Stele.

  +63 POINTS

  Li Yuan studied the number, then gave a small nod. He did not hesitate to use these new points.

  Twenty-seven points flowed into the Nine Peak Breathing Art. Heat stirred in his mind as insight poured in, refining his understanding of the technique and smoothing the flaws in his previous comprehension.

  In a single moment, the technique went from 23/50 (Minor Accomplishment) to 0/100 (Moderate Accomplishment).

  He nodded to himself and poured the remaining thirty-six points into Shadow-Cloud Steps, pushing it closer to the next threshold.

  Shadow-Cloud Steps 170 / 200 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  The end result looked like this:

  NAME: Li Yuan

  AGE: 14

  CULTIVATION: 5th Stage Qi Condensation

  SKILLS

  Nine Peak Breathing Art – 0 / 100 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  Seven Step Sword Form – 4 / 35 (Minor Accomplishment)

  Mountain-Splitting Stillness Sword – 1 / 300 (Major Accomplishment)

  Shadow-Cloud Steps – 170 / 200 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven – 1 / 600 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  Spirit Residue Following Technique – 1 / 250 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  CURRENT POINTS: 0

  He dismissed the Stele and leaned back against a tree, closing his eyes for a moment. Fatigue settling into his limbs.

  Only then did he notice how thin his Qi had become.

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven had been active for hours. And even with his control and efficiency, the drain was heavy.

  He opened his eyes and glanced at the sky. The sun still hung high. He could keep going. But with his reserves this low, it would be reckless.

  He could restore himself with Spirit Stones. He certainly had more than enough now. Still, burning through them just to continue hunting felt wasteful.

  Not today.

  With a quiet breath, he stepped away from the clearing. One beast was enough for today.

  For now, he would return to the sect and cultivate.

  And tomorrow, he would hunt again.

  —————

  Li Yuan did not return to the sect right away. Instead, he made a small detour toward the outer edge of the Sect Mountain.

  There, a chain of shallow ponds dotted the slope—formed by excess spirit water seeping down from the mountain and gathering in natural basins.

  He crouched by the edge of one pond and waited.

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven had long since faded, but he did not need it here. His gaze drifted across the surface of the water, though he was not truly looking with his eyes.

  He searched with Qi.

  The sensing ability he had gained from Spirit Residue Following Technique spread outward, brushing against the living currents beneath the surface.

  It did not take long to find it.

  A catfish rested near the muddy bottom, thick-bodied and slow. Its Qi was faint and muddled—yet every so often, it flickered in an odd, unstable pulse.

  Li Yuan rolled up his sleeve, reached into the pond, and seized the fish in one swift motion. It thrashed once in his grip before he ended it with a clean cut.

  He laid it on the bank and opened its belly with steady hands.

  Inside its belly rested a dull brown pearl the size of a plum. Despite its modest size, it was as heavy as a large stone. Earth-aspected Qi pulsed from it in slow, steady waves.

  A faint smile touched his lips.

  He wrapped the pearl in cloth and placed it carefully into his Spatial Ring.

  Earthheart Essence Pearl.

  In a few days, an outer disciple would have caught this same fish for a simple meal. While cleaning it, he would have discovered the pearl hidden inside. With no use for it, he would have taken it to an auction house and sold it for twelve hundred spirit stones.

  Li Yuan had no immediate use for the pearl either. And with the wealth already sitting inside his Spatial Ring, he did not truly need the spirit stones either.

  But he wanted them.

  Cultivation was a staircase that demanded a higher price with every step. When he reached the peak of Qi Condensation, he would need a Foundation Establishment Pill to break through.

  A single pill sold for twenty to forty thousand spirit stones at auction. An absurd sum.

  But even after he earned enough to buy one, he would not stop seeking more. If not for himself, then for his parents. For his clan.

  Opportunities like this were not luxuries that he could afford to miss. They were necessities that he needed to take advantage of while he still could.

  With the detour finished, he headed straight back to the sect.

  The Merit Hall was crowded when he arrived. Disciples filled the wide chamber, lining up before different counters. Thankfully, the one handling spirit beast submissions was far less congested than the rest.

  He stepped into line, the horn of the Stoneback Horned Lizard wrapped neatly in cloth beneath his arm, and waited.

  Voices drifted through the hall as disciples passed the time with idle chatter. He listened without appearing to do so, sifting through the noise for anything useful.

  Most of what he heard was worthless.

  Who had offended which Inner Sect disciple. Who was courting whom. Who had broken through in cultivation—and who had failed.

  And then—

  "Did you hear?" a disciple to his left muttered. "Shu Dong suffered Qi deviation. Right when he stepped into the peak of Qi Condensation."

  Li Yuan's focus sharpened at the familiar name.

  "Yeah," the other replied. "Dropped straight back to the seventh stage. Brutal."

  "You think they'll kick him out of the Inner Sect?"

  "Hard to say. The Shu family's seventh-grade family. They've got influence. But rules are rules. If he can't recover…" The disciple trailed off and his friend let out a short humourless chuckle.

  "Then we'll be seeing him in the Outer Sect," the first said. "Sooner or later."

  Li Yuan kept his gaze forward, his expression calm as he turned the words over in his mind.

  'Shu Dong.'

  Shu Wen's older brother. The one who had flown into a rage after hearing of Shu Wen's death.

  'Interesting.' He thought, storing the information away for later. It might never matter—but if it did, he would be ready.

  When his turn came, he stepped up and placed the horn on the counter.

  The disciple overseeing the station looked middle-aged. His eyes swept over the horn, and his brows lifted slightly.

  "Stoneback Horned Lizard," he said, a note of approval in his voice. "Mid stage, first-grade Spirit Beast."

  The fact that the disciple could find out all that by taking a single look at the horn and sensing the energy coming out of it was really impressive.

  Li Yuan gave a small nod.

  The man leaned closer, his fingers hovering just above the severed horn. "Why do I sense fire-aspected Qi? That's unusual for this species."

  "It likely carried diluted dragon blood," Li Yuan replied calmly. "It could breathe fire. Singed my robes."

  The disciple's interest sharpened. "Is that so?" He looked up. "Did you bring the corpse?"

  Li Yuan shook his head. "No. It wouldn't fit in my Spatial Ring. I left it in the forest."

  A flicker of regret crossed the man's face. "What a waste. The Alchemy Hall would have paid handsomely for a specimen like that."

  Still, he recorded the submission and pressed a stamp onto the slip.

  "Two hundred and thirty merit points," he said, handing the token back to Li Yuan.

  His eyes widened at the number of merit points. Two hundred and thirty.

  Then again, a beast like that could have slaughtered several Outer Sect disciples before anyone stopped it. The reward made sense.

  He just hadn't expected that the sect actually cared for its disciples. Maybe they did care a little bit.

  He accepted the token and turned to leave. But halfway to the exit, his halo shifted.

  Pristine white dimmed and turned into dark grey in an instant.

  He stopped and his gaze lifted slowly.

  'The fuck did I do now.' He thought in great annoyance.

  Was he really bound to suffer from setbacks each time he entered the Merit Hall?

  He exhaled once, steadying himself, and focused inward—locking onto the halo until a vision began to form.

  ——

  Shu Dong stood before the Inner Sect elders. His face was pale, and sweat clung to his temples, but his eyes burned with humiliation and fury.

  No plea changed the outcome. His cultivation no longer met the standard. So the elders stripped him of his Inner Sect status and sent him down to the Outer Sect without ceremony.

  Time passed.

  Back among the outer disciples, Shu Dong focused on repairing his foundation. After a while, gis Qi gradually stabilised and his realm steadied.

  But the anger in his never faded. If anything, it deepened.

  He blamed the killer of his brother—Shu Wen—not only for that death, but for his own fall from grace. And so he began to investigate.

  Once, Li Yuan's name might have appeared in those inquiries. But back then, he had only been a third-stage nobody. Too weak. Too insignificant. Someone at that level could not possibly have killed Shu Wen and his followers.

  This time, however, the Li Yuan Shu Dong would hear about was very different.

  This Li Yuan had already reached the Sixth Stage of Qi Condensation. He had built a name for himself as a hunter, regularly killing late-stage first-tier spirit beasts along the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

  He was no longer a nobody.

  So instead of being dismissed, his name would rise to the top of the list of suspects.

  Shu Dong would begin digging into him. Piece by piece.

  Soon enough, he would learn that on the very day Shu Wen died, Li Yuan had left the sect and gone down to the city on 'personal matters'.

  By itself, that proved nothing. But the other suspects would all have solid alibis. One by one, they would fall away.

  Until Li Yuan was no longer one of several names... but only the name.

  The vision shifted.

  Shu Dong crushed a jade slip in his hand. Light flared as the message burned away, carrying word back to his clan.

  Under normal circumstances, he would have handled it himself. But now his cultivation had fallen to the Seventh Stage. And Li Yuan's growing reputation of slaying late-stage first-tier spirit beasts with ease made the risk clear.

  So he chose caution.

  The vision changed once again, showing the forbidden forest this time.

  Li Yuan moved through familiar ground, tracking the trail of another spirit beast, and thena figure from the Shu family struck from the dark.

  This person was not just any cultivator. but a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert.

  The ambush was flawless. But by then, Li Yuan would have reached Perfection in all his skills, and acquired many other defensive and offensive artefacts.

  Because of that, despite the overwhelming gap in strength, he would survive. Wounded, but alive, he would go on the run.

  To the Shu family, that escape would be confirmation enough. An innocent man would not flee. When they failed to find him, their attention would shift to the Li family.

  Several late-stage Foundation Establishment experts would descend in the night... and erase his clan before dawn.

  ——

  The vision shattered. And his Halo, having shown him the vision, turned white once again.

  Li Yuan stood alone in his room. He let out a staggering breath and clenched his fists hard enough to hurt.

  "So that's how you plan to do it, huh" he murmured, his face twisting in a rictus of rage.

  Then, he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

  None of this has happened right now. And with information on the future, he could change it.

  He stared into the distance for a long moment, then exhaled and looked back at his dark halo.

  It seemed that dealing with Shu Dong was inevitable.

  He had already submitted the corpse of the Mid-tier First Stage beast to the sect. So word would spread regardless.

  Even if Li Yuan stopped hunting Spirit Beasts at this point, Shu Dong would learn of this and suspect him. At that point, even if he hid, the Shu Family would target his Li Family instead.

  Li Yuan's eyes hardened.

  "If that's the case, then I'll handle you first."

  If Shu Dong was destined to descend into the Outer Sect, then that's where he would meet end.

  There was no point in waiting. No point in letting Shu Family learn about this situation and sending a Foundation Establishment expert after him. No point in implicating his own family.

  He turned and began preparing.

  Because he now knew what the future held for him, and he had every intention of changing it.