Leaving the north district, Wei Yuan strolled into the east district.
Unlike the uncanny atmosphere of the west district or the stark divide in the north, the east district housed numerous shops selling everything from raw materials to human heads and Wuyu heads. The streets here were visibly broader and cleaner, with ditches dug along both sides to channel sewage away. Walking down the street, Wei Yuan saw several human heads mounted on a shop sign to his left, while a sign to his right displayed the severed heads of several members of the Wuyu Clan.
Lined with stores, the bustling east district served as a permanent base for many merchant caravans. Wang Lang frequented this area, and Wei Yuan figured that if luck was on his side, he might find some lead concerning him.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Wei Yuan saw an imposing middle-aged man turn out from the far end of the long street, flanked by several guards. A large black mole on the man's face was particularly eye-catching.
*An Immortal Monarch's methods truly are extraordinary!*
Wei Yuan stepped into the center of the road, blocking the man's path. The middle-aged man came to a halt and said in a heavy voice, "Friend, the street is wide. Why not walk on the other side?"
Wei Yuan sneered. "The street may be wide, but with me here, there is no path left for you to walk. You are Wang Lang, aren't you?"
Raising a hand to stop the guards who were ready to charge forward, the middle-aged man replied deeply, "I am! What does my friend want?"
Wei Yuan drew his sword and pointed it toward the sky. "Someone paid good money for your worthless life. But I, Li, prefer to kill fair and square, so I'm giving you a chance at an honorable fight. Now, I will show you what true swordsmanship looks like!"
Dao power converged wildly at the tip of the longsword, and everyone instinctively looked up. Then Wei Yuan shouted, "Immortal Sword: Pure White!"
A sudden burst of blinding light exploded from the sword tip, illuminating half the district! Every person looking in that direction was momentarily blinded, their minds overwhelmed by the pure white sword intent.
As the glaring flash flared, Wei Yuan moved like a specter, appearing before Wang Lang in the blink of an eye and stabbing seven or eight times in a single breath, piercing through his chest and abdomen with every thrust. Yet a flash of white light erupted before Wei Yuan, and Wang Lang's figure dispersed. Pierced upon Wei Yuan's longsword was merely a paper effigy, riddled with holes.
"Cunning bastard!" Wei Yuan cursed under his breath. He slipped into an alleyway between the shops, activated breath-concealment and invisibility techniques, and vanished on the spot. To flee a thousand li after a failed strike was the very essence of an assassin.
A hundred zhang away, inside a closed storefront, Wang Lang's figure materialized. Rubbing his swollen, tearing eyes with force, he spat out with bitter fury, "Cunning bastard."
The moment Wei Yuan appeared, Wang Lang had sensed something was amiss and quietly swapped himself with a paper double. What he had never expected was that a sword cultivator who seemed so upright would actually be so treacherous. Using a sword to blind someone's eyes—how was that any different from street thugs tossing quicklime before a brawl?
Still shaken, Wang Lang found the encounter stranger the more he thought about it. The man displayed no sword forms, no sword intent, and no sword qi. He never even let go of his weapon, doing nothing more than flailing and stabbing blindly. He was almost certainly a fake sword cultivator.
***
By nightfall, having wandered the city all day, Wei Yuan finally returned to Lie-Flat Inn. Back in his courtyard, he shed his cloak and took out the formation plate to examine it closely.
A jade earring now rested in the center of the plate. Though nothing appeared to be happening, Wei Yuan could sense subtle, esoteric forces shifting slowly in rhythm with the formation plate.
In truth, Wei Yuan had never intended to kill Wang Lang. If he had genuinely struck with full force, a mere Mortal Foundation cultivator like Wang Lang would not even know how he died, let alone have time to activate a body double technique. Wei Yuan had simply been delivering a message to let Wang Lang know someone wanted him dead, nudging him to make his next move.
Wei Yuan had only just begun angling when the innkeeper handed him the contract to kill Wang Lang, meaning Wang Lang was almost certainly closely connected to Yun Feifei. Once Wang Lang stirred, it would trigger a chain reaction, forcing many hidden figures into motion as well. These fish had to start swimming before they could spot the bait Wei Yuan had set, and only then could he reel in a big catch.
For now, all Wei Yuan had to do was wait patiently.
Just then, a commotion broke out in the neighboring courtyard. The guest next door was swearing loudly while an errand boy pleaded submissively. Emboldened, the guest grew even more abusive, until the boy's voice suddenly shot up an octave—at which point the guest promptly regained his senses.
Wei Yuan paid no heed to his new neighbor's antics. No one staying in a place like this could be considered normal. After eating a simple dinner, he noticed that the books in the room's case had been replaced once again. It seemed the inn had a considerable collection and rotated it frequently; the proprietor was indeed a man of culture.
Wei Yuan picked up today's new arrival and flipped through it.
This story followed a female cultivator who forged a Dao Foundation and set out on the immortal path. Although she had forged a trash Mortal Tier Dao Foundation, that hardly stopped her from consecutively meeting a youthful True Monarch, a middle-aged True Monarch, an elderly True Monarch, as well as a Sovereign True Monarch, a Crown Prince True Monarch, a General True Monarch, a Top Scholar True Monarch, and so on.
At first, all the True Monarchs looked down on her rubbish Dao Foundation. But after spending time together, each discovered her unique, pure heart and fell deeply, unswervingly in love with her. The female cultivator shared deeply poignant, touching romances with every single True Monarch, remaining devoted and sincere in each relationship. Finally, after experiencing all these True Monarchs and exchanging vows of life and death with the youthful True Monarch, she attained enlightenment and resolved to be true to herself, departing for the Immortal Realm to open a new chapter.
Unfortunately, the Immortal Realm section only had an opening; the story cut off after two chapters. Wei Yuan guessed that the author had probably been struck down by a lightning tribulation mid-writing, leaving the work forever unfinished.
In addition, the book featured many True Persons of the Dharma Idol realm who, lacking sufficient cultivation, were deemed unworthy of sharing karmic ties with the heroine. Only the most handsome among them were granted endings of unrequited love and desolate sorrow, while the rest were mere passersby.
Naturally, the story did not lack for the Great Dao of Yin and Yang, serving it up in generous, potent measures.
While Wei Yuan appeared to be reading late into the night, he was actually studying the Outlaw of Heaven and Earth within his sea of consciousness. He sat leaning against the jade mountain beside a withered branch, the full moon hanging overhead and joining him in contemplating and unraveling its mysteries.
Just as Wei Yuan reached a profound juncture in his insights, the shadow within the moon suddenly surged, tossing out three wisps of black qi that drifted before him. Unlike the qi Wei Yuan had previously refined through his own breathing, these three wisps were far deeper, thicker, and practically corporeal.
Over the past ten years, Wei Yuan had accumulated several thousand wisps of black qi, but they had all been faint and sparse—it would have taken hundreds of them combined to match even one of these new wisps. Half of that accumulated fortune had been expended in the battle against the Snow Mountain giant eagle, while the other half had merged into the Dao Foundation of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, leaving only a dozen or so scattered wisps in his sea of consciousness. Now, having abruptly received three wisps of fortune of a distinctly higher rank, Wei Yuan was thoroughly astonished.
He raised his head to gaze at the full moon in the sky, suddenly understanding the intent of the shadow within:
*A reward for you.*
Wei Yuan felt that if he were playing the role of an autocratic court eunuch rather than a hot-tempered sword cultivator on this trip, he would have had to kneel and thank Heaven for its grace.
Of course, that was merely a passing thought; the shadow in the moon could hardly harbor such deliberate notions. Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, reasoning that these three wisps of fortune were likely tied to the Outlaw of Heaven and Earth. Back when he had written the Dao Foundation chapter of the Outlaw of Heaven and Earth, he had felt a tremor through heaven and earth. It was just that inside the Hanging Azure of the Empty Valley, natural anomalies were barely noticeable within the sect grounds unless they were lightning tribulations of ascension.
What insight had he grasped that drew down otherworldly fortune once more? Feeling confident that he was walking the right path, Wei Yuan put aside the biography of the female cultivator and picked up the next book in the stack.
The Wei Yuan inside his sea of consciousness resumed scrutinizing the Outlaw of Heaven and Earth from the very beginning, while the Wei Yuan in the room opened the new storybook. What met his eyes was a beautifully rendered illustration, executed with lifelike, delicate brushwork that showed genuine craftsmanship.
Just as he was absorbed in comprehending the true meaning of the Great Dao, utterly lost to time, a premonition struck him. Wei Yuan looked toward the door and saw a large object fly over the courtyard wall with a whoosh, landing inside the courtyard!
Annoyed that his train of thought had been interrupted again, Wei Yuan walked out into the courtyard with a cold expression. He glanced around first before turning his attention to the object that had been thrown in. It was a human-shaped parcel, wrapped entirely in black cloth.
Naturally, in storybooks, unwrapping a human-shaped bundle usually brought a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, this was reality, not fiction.
Wei Yuan beckoned his longsword to his hand, slashed through the black cloth with a flick of his blade, and revealed the person inside—or more accurately, the corpse.
Wang Lang!
His face was deathly pale, his eyes wide and pupils fully dilated, devoid of any breath. Across his throat was a scorched sword wound, strikingly similar to the marks Wei Yuan had left on the cavalrymen's throats that morning.
Yet the wound was only superficially similar; in reality, they were vastly different. Wei Yuan had merely slashed the throat and scorched it with fire-attribute Dao power to mimic Great Sun Sword Qi, whereas Wang Lang's throat had been inflicted by a genuine fire-attribute dharma sword. The two could not be mentioned in the same breath.
*The fish has taken the bait!*
Wei Yuan sneered inwardly. The courtyard was guarded inside and out by formations that could detect and track incoming enemies, complemented by the formation plate bestowed by an Immortal Monarch. Whether someone stepped inside or not, tossing something in here forged a karmic tie. Did they really think they could get away?
Not far off, a dull thud sounded. Whoever had thrown the body had crashed into something, and judging by the noise, it had hurt terribly. Then came a loud crash as a building inexplicably collapsed, suggesting the person had slammed hard into it. The feng shui formation Wei Yuan had set up was hardly a pleasant experience. Yet the culprit proved resilient, pressing on and fleeing into the distance despite leaving a trail of ruined walls in his wake.
Wei Yuan was in no hurry to give chase. The formation plate materialized in his palm, glowing with a faint azure light. A minuscule dot of light was rapidly pulling away toward the west. In this brief span, the runner had already fled several li—swift indeed, though the faster one fled, the more mishaps occurred; the person had likely lost nearly half their life by now.
Such a clumsy attempt to lure the tiger away from the mountain required no guesswork. One look at that tiny dot of light on the plate made it clear it was merely bait. After all, there was another dot of light—dozens of times larger—hovering stationary just one li away!
This formation plate tracked karma, not mundane traces. The person who threw Wang Lang's corpse had bolted at top speed to draw Wei Yuan away, but compared to a mere body-dumper, the mastermind behind the scenes naturally bore vastly greater karma. Even though that mastermind had not directly intervened, they were still hooked by the formation plate. Hiding one li away, they were presumably intending to observe Wei Yuan from the shadows before deciding their next move.
Wei Yuan pushed open the gate, intending to conceal his figure and give the big fish one li away a surprise. But after taking only two steps, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. A brilliant dot of light flared up on the formation plate, vastly larger and brighter than either of the first two! This person was right next door to Wei Yuan—the very guest who had just been arguing with the errand boy!
Wei Yuan was standing directly before the gate of the adjacent courtyard. He took two steps back, and the brilliant dot of light gradually faded. He stepped forward two steps, and it reappeared.
*This is the real big fish!*
The person was concealed so thoroughly that had Wei Yuan not stood right outside the door, within an extremely close range, not even the Immortal Monarch's feng shui formation plate would have picked up their anomaly. What was more, this person had already been staying next door when Wei Yuan first arrived at Lie-Flat Inn.
Wei Yuan felt his scalp tingle. Was he the one fishing, or was the fish angling for him?
A calm mind was essential when facing grave matters. Wei Yuan took a deep breath, steadying his heart so he could plan before acting.
Then he kicked the gate open and charged inside!
Chapter 103