Zihan tilted his head. "Someone you shouldn't have tried to follow." He opened his fan and waved it releasing a string of chaotic qi. She turned into dust.
He turned, stepping back into the carriage without looking as the wind carried her dust into the dark.
[System Notification: Enemies defeated. Sin Points +10. Madness Points +3.]
[Reward: "Soul Reading Eye" upgrade of Resonant gaze. Allows Host to perceive others' essence, cultivation techniques, method and emotional state. Caution: prolonged use may affect sanity.]
He leaned against the window, wiping a faint smear of blood from his sleeve. "Madness for knowledge," he mused. "Fair trade."
[System: You're starting to sound like one of those tragic villains from the Mortal Earth web novels you used to read and mock.]
[Pause.]
[Actually… fitting.]
Zihan smirked. "Tragic villains die too easily. I intend to live long enough to become a problem. A big one actually."
The carriage rattled forward once more, now carrying the faint scent of burnt metal and ambition. The forest swallowed the evidence of battle, and the moon climbed higher silver light spilling over the quiet road toward the Flame Sovereign Tournament.
Somewhere behind him, the capital stirred. Whispers of an attack on the young prince spread like wildfire. But Yue Zihan didn't care. For the first time, the chaos within him was still and the path ahead, though bloodstained, felt almost beautiful. Poetic.
.....
By the time Yue Zihan's carriage rolled through the gates of Jiangyun Border Town, dawn was painting the eastern sky in thin streaks of ash-gold. The place was no imperial jewel more a rough vein of life clinging to the empire's edge. Market stalls leaned drunkenly against one another, their awnings patched with old banners; spirit-lamp smoke mixed with the smell of fried dough and horse sweat.
Zihan stepped down slowly, cloak drawn tight, blindfold immaculate. The driver ,Ruo jin bowed once and vanished into the crowd. Zihan didn't bother to pay attention he'd already known he will be followed.
[System Notification: Arrival Location Jiangyun Border Town. Population : 12 700. Ambient qi density = Low. Hygiene density = Lower.]
He smirked. "Perfect place to disappear."
[System: Also a perfect place to get tetanus, but sure romanticize it.]
The streets bustled with travelers, merchants, and mercenaries. He walked among them, unseen, just another dusty wanderer. Beneath his blindfold, the faint light of his newly-awakened Soul Reading Eye shimmered. With a thought, the world changed color every passerby glowed faintly, threads of qi mapping their vitality. Most were dull greys and browns: ordinary mortals. But now and then, a flash of crimson or azure cut through the haze cultivators hiding in plain sight.
One of them, a woman leaning against a tavern post, glowed faint violet. Her smile was pleasant, her heartbeat calm but her qi coiled like a snake. An example of a white lotus.
[System Observation: Illusion Arts detected. She's watching you.]
Zihan entered the tavern anyway. The place reeked of cheap rice wine and old wood, laughter spilling through cracked windows. He took a corner table, ordered tea that tasted like despair, and listened.
"…heard the assassins vanished without a trace," a merchant whispered to his partner.
"Burned, they say. Some say the prince himself did it."
"Nonsense. The Prince hasn't left the palace since he was born."
Zihan sipped his tea. People forget so easily.
Then something shifted a faint pulse beneath his seat. A small rune etched under the chair flickered, releasing a breath of shadowy qi. It was subtle, but not enough to escape his senses. He pressed his palm against the wood and drew it out.
The qi resisted cold, oily, ancient.
[System Alert: Signature Match 89%. Cultivation Energy Type: Void Vein Technique.]
[Possible Affiliation: The Black Hand Pavilion (Shadow Organization).]
Zihan's lips curved upward. "Finally, a name."
The violet-qi woman rose from her seat and drifted toward him, graceful as a dancer. "Traveler," she said sweetly, "you've touched something best left untouched."
He gestured to the now-cracked chair. "You mean this cheap furniture?"
Her smile sharpened. "You carry an aura that doesn't belong to the mortal realm. Tell me, what sect trained you?"
Zihan leaned back lazily. "The Sect of Mind-Your-Own-Business."
She flicked her sleeve; dark tendrils of qi lashed toward him like knives. The tavern froze. The patrons didn't even see the attack; one moment Zihan sat drinking tea, the next, he was gone.
He reappeared behind her. A his fan tapped the back of her neck. The tendrils shattered like glass.
[System Commentary: Efficiency Rating – 9/10. Sass Rating – 10/10.]
She stumbled, gasping. The blindfolded man's calm voice followed, soft as velvet. "Now, you'll tell me where your little Pavilion hides, won't you?"
Her eyes darted wildly. "Y-you can't fight them… they're already….." Her words cut off. A rune flared on her skin, and she crumpled lifelessly.
Zihan crouched beside her, studying the fading sigil. "A self-destruct seal. How cute."
[System: Shadow Organization members usually vaporize themselves, so this is progress.]
He crouched where the woman's body had vanished, fingertips tracing the faint black dust that remained of her seal.
He stood, dusting off his sleeves, while the tavern slowly remembered to breathe. Patrons blinked, oblivious that death had brushed past them. It had been fast for mortals to see. Her body started to drift away quickly into the wind.
Outside, the night wind howled through the narrow streets. Zihan stepped back into it, expression thoughtful. The words Black Hand Pavilion lingered in his mind like a whisper from the abyss. Whoever they were, they had the means to infiltrate the empire and the arrogance to target him twice.
"Looks like my journey just became interesting," he murmured.
[System Notification: New Quest Unlocked – 'Trace the Hand.' Objective: Find the Pavilion's Shadow Branch before the Flame Sovereign Tournament begins.]
[Reward: Hidden Authority Upgrade + Unknown Title.]
Zihan smiled beneath the blindfold. "Perfect. I was getting bored."
As he walked toward the city outskirts, the rising sun cut through the fog, throwing long shadows ahead of him each one whispering of blood, secrets, and destiny waiting to be burned.
The chaotic qi within him had responded to the residue faint ripples of void energy. Not spiritual power, he noted. Something older. Hungrier.
[System Notification: Void Vein energy confirmed. Residual trail extends north-west approximately 8.3 li. Warning: Host may encounter morally questionable company.]
He smiled faintly. "Morally questionable is half the fun."
He moved like mist through the alleys, his cloak brushing against walls carved with talismans and wanted posters. The town's noise dimmed the further he went until only the whistle of the night wind remained. Ahead lay a narrow ravine, hidden behind a crumbling wall. A faint rune pulsed there if one didn't know how to look, it would seem like moss.
Zihan pressed his palm against it. The rune shivered. A sliver of space peeled open, revealing a dark tunnel with stairs descending into the earth. Convenient. He had expected to jump into a deep dark, bottomless hole.
[System Commentary: You're entering a hidden, ominous underground lair, alone, following the trail of a death cult. You truly have learned nothing from Earth's horror movies.]
"Relax," Zihan murmured with a smile, stepping into the darkness. "I'm the monster in this one."
The tunnel stretched deep, lined with bone lamps and iron chains that hummed faintly. Voices echoed below, soft, ritualistic chanting. He descended quietly until the corridor opened into a vast underground hall.
It was carved from black stone, lit by crimson flames that burned without fuel. Dozens of figures knelt in concentric circles, cloaked and masked, their leader standing at the center before a stone altar. On it lay a crystal orb filled with writhing shadows.
Zihan crouched above, concealed behind a pillar, watching. His Soul Reading Eye activated with a pulse of violet light beneath the blindfold. Every figure flared with qi signatures some weak, some pulsing like twisted stars. The leader's aura, however, was different fractured, half-real, like the world couldn't decide if he existed.
[System Analysis: Target identified – "Black Hand Envoy." Estimated cultivation: Late Nascent Flame. Recommendation: Run away or be creatively homicidal.]
"Creative homicide sounds therapeutic," Zihan whispered.
Below, the envoy raised a dagger. "The assassins failed," he hissed, voice metallic through the mask. "Our informant says the Yue brat wields something… ancient. The Pavilion must have his essence before the tournament. If not…"
His words cut off.
Zihan dropped from the shadows, landing silently atop the altar. The cloaked members froze, disbelief echoing in the flickering firelight.
"Talking about me behind my back," Zihan said mildly, "how rude."
[System: And here begins another episode of "How to Lose the Element of Surprise in Ten Words or Less."]