After leaving the northern district, Wei Yuan began roaming the eastern district instead.

The eastern district wasn’t as bizarre as the western district or as polarized as the northern district. There were a lot of shops here selling materials, human heads, Shaman heads, and more. The streets here were visibly wider, tidier, and neater as well. Gutters had been dug out on both sides of a street to drain away the sewage. As he walked down a street, he saw the shop signs on the left featuring several human heads, while those on the right displayed the heads of the Shamans.

The eastern district was filled with shops and extremely busy. Most caravans maintained permanent bases in this district. Wang Lang, for example, often frequented this place. Wei Yuan believed that he might be able to find a clue related to the man if he was lucky.

The thought had just flitted through his mind when an imposing middle-aged man appeared from the other end of the street. He was accompanied by several bodyguards. The man also had a massive mole on his face. It was incredibly distinct.

The power of an Immortal Lord truly was quite extraordinary!

Wei Yuan suddenly strode to the center of the street and blocked the middle-aged man’s path. After the middle-aged man came to a stop, he asked solemnly, “The road is very wide, my friend. Why not use a different lane?”

Wei Yuan sneered. “The road may be wide, but there is nowhere for you to go. You’re Wang Lang, right?”

The middle-aged man stopped his bodyguards from rushing forward before asking, “I am. What do you want, friend?”

Wei Yuan unsheathed his sword and pointed it toward the sky. He declared, “Someone paid me to take your life, but this Li prefers to kill his quarry in an honorable manner. Thus, I will grant you a chance to fight me fairly. Now, allow me to show you what a true sword is about!”

Dao energy began gathering like crazy at the tip of his sword, causing everyone to turn toward it instinctively. At the same time, Wei Yuan yelled, “Immortal Sword—Pure White!”

The Dao energy gathering at the sword tip suddenly exploded in a blinding flash that illuminated half the city district in an instant! Everyone who was looking at it instantly turned blind and grasped the essence of Pure White sword intent!

As soon as the flash took off, Wei Yuan appeared in front of Wang Lang like a ghost and stabbed him eight times in a row, each stab piercing through his abdomen and out of his back. However, a white light flashed before his eyes, and the skewered man faded away into a paper doll. It clearly had several holes in it.

“Cunning bastard!” Wei Yuan cursed under his breath before dashing into an alleyway between the shops. Then, he cast a Conceal Presence spell and Invisibility spell and vanished on the spot. If the strike misses, flee a thousand li—such was the essence of a killer’s craft!

In a small, closed storefront a hundred zhang away, Wang Lang was rubbing his reddened, teary eyes furiously as he manifested into view. He cursed angrily under his breath, “Cunning bastard.”

He had known that something was wrong and used his paper doll substitute the moment Wei Yuan appeared. However, he mistook the sword cultivator for an honest man and fell for his devious scheme. What was the difference between blinding someone with the sword and throwing dirt before a fight began?

Wang Lang’s nerves had barely settled when he noticed something else that was amiss. The “sword cultivator” had not used any sword technique or emitted any sword intent or sword qi. Moreover, he kept a firm grip on his sword and thrust it wildly like a complete beginner. This meant that he was probably a fake sword cultivator.

Night eventually fell. After spending the entire day wandering the town, Wei Yuan finally returned back to the Lie Flat Inn. After he returned to his small courtyard, he removed his cloak and took out the array disc, examining it closely.

A jade earring had appeared inside the array disc. On the surface, it looked like nothing was happening. However, he could sense that something inexplicable and profound was slowly changing according to the jade disc.

In fact, Wei Yuan wasn’t planning to kill Wang Lang at all. If he had really gone all out, forget activating his substitution spell, the Human-tier cultivator wouldn’t even know how he died. No, he was simply informing Wang Lang that someone was plotting to kill him and urging him to get moving.

Wei Yuan’s fishing had just begun, and the innkeeper had already delivered a mission to kill Wang Lang right into his hands. The middle-aged man was probably intricately connected to Yun Feifei as well. If he made a move, then a series of chain reactions would occur, and those in hiding would be forced to make a move as well. Only by moving could the fishes notice Wei Yuan’s bait and allow him to fish up a big one.

At the moment, all he needed to do was to wait patiently.

It was at this moment he heard a bunch of commotion from the neighboring courtyard. The guest living in the courtyard was ranting and raving about something while the waiter groveled and apologized. The guest, feeling justified, only grew more abusive. When the waiter’s voice suddenly shot up an octave, the guest abruptly regained his senses and became much meeker.

Wei Yuan cared not for the actions of his neighbor. As if anyone living in such a place could be normal. He ate a simple dinner and checked out the book chest. It was at this moment he noticed that new books had been added. It would seem that the inn had quite a collection of books, and they were replaced quite frequently. The owner of this place was indeed a man of refined taste.

Wei Yuan picked up a new book and pored over its contents. Today’s story followed a female cultivator who had just forged her Dao Foundation and was ready to embark on the path of immortality. Although her Dao Foundation was just a Human-tier garbage, it did not prevent her from running into a youthful True Lord, a middle-aged True Lord, an elderly True Lord, a king who was a True Lord, a crown prince who was a True Lord a general who was a True Lord, a principal graduate[1] who was a True Lord, and more.

Initially, every True Lord dismissed the female cultivator for her garbage Dao Foundation. Yet, upon getting to know her, they all recognized the uniquely true heart that resided within her bosom and fell deeply in love with her, vowing undying devotion. Thus, the female cultivator developed touching, poignant stories with every True Lord, earnest and devoted in every relationship[2].

This continued until one final day, when the female cultivator had met all the True Lords. After pledging life and death to the young True Lord, she finally attained enlightenment and resolved to return to her true self. Thus, she journeyed to the Immortal Realm to begin a new chapter in her life.

Unfortunately, the Immortal Realm arc of this book had only gotten off to a start—two chapters to be exact—when it abruptly ended. Wei Yuan speculated that the author must have encountered a lightning tribulation mid-writing. Thus, the book was never finished[3].

On a related note, the book featured many Avatar Truemen as well, but they did not deserve to form karmic ties with the female cultivator because their cultivation was insufficient. Only the most handsome got to experience the heartbreak of unrequited love with her. Everyone else were mere bystanders.

And of course, the novel was packed with content regarding the great Dao of yin and yang. It was as abundant as it was potent.

Outwardly, it appeared as if Wei Yuan was engrossed in the novel. In reality, he was studying Outlawed by Heaven and Earth in his sea of consciousness. He was sitting with his back against his jade hill, a dead branch by his side and a full moon above his head. They were all contemplating the method with him[4].

Wei Yuan was deep in contemplation when suddenly, the shadow in the moon surged unnaturally. Then, three wisps of black qi shot out of it and floated in front of him.

Unlike the ones he had cultivated during his exercises, these ones were darker, thicker, and almost solid.

Wei Yuan had accumulated thousands of wisps of black qi over the past decade, but they were all dim, sparse, and almost non-existent. It would probably take a few hundred of them combined to match the strength of one of the new black qi. Half of his reserves had been spent during the battle against the Sky Snow Hawk, and the other half had merged with the Great Realm. Thus, only a dozen or so wisps of black qi remained in his sea of consciousness. Naturally, he was profoundly astonished to receive three new wisps of fortune to say the least, all of them clearly a tier higher in terms of quality.

When Wei Yuan looked up at the shadow in the moon, he suddenly understood its meaning:

A gift for you.

If he was pretending to be an autocratic eunuch instead of a hot-tempered sword cultivator, Wei Yuan felt that he would be on his knees thanking the shadow for its heavenly grace at this very moment.

But of course, it was just a thought. The shadow in the moon could not possibly possess a mind either. After pondering about this for a moment, Wei Yuan decided that the three wisps of fortune had appeared because of Outlawed by Heaven and Earth. The day he had written the Dao Foundation Chapter, he had clearly sensed some sort of anomalous reaction from the world. It was just that the feeling wasn’t obvious because he was at the Green Cliffs That Hang Over An Empty Valley. As long as it wasn’t the lightning tribulation of immortal ascension, practically all worldly anomalies seemed mild within the mountain gate.

Did he fathom something out and attract a few wisps of otherworldly fortune as a result? Wei Yuan believed that he was on the right track. So, he set down the book about the female cultivator and picked up a new one.

Inside his sea of consciousness, Wei Yuan started studying Outlawed by Heaven and Earth. Inside his room, Wei Yuan opened the new novel. The very first page featured a beautiful illustration that was exquisitely crafted with realistic and meticulous brushwork. It was truly a work of heartfelt sincerity[5].

While studying the essence of great Dao until he had forgotten time itself, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something and looked out of the door. As if on cue, a large object flew over his wall and hit the courtyard grounds with a thud!

Once again, his train of thought was interrupted. Wei Yuan was quite annoyed as a matter of course. He stepped out of his house and checked his surroundings first. It was only then he stared at the humanoid-shaped bundle wrapped entirely in black cloth.

If this was a novel, he would probably be met with a pleasant surprise when he opened the bundle. Unfortunately, this was reality.

Wei Yuan summoned his sword and cut open the black cloth, exposing the man—or more accurately, the corpse—within.

It was Wang Lang.

Wang Lang’s face was deathly pale, eyes wide and staring at nothing. His pupils had long since dilated, and his body was as cold as stone. There was a scorched sword mark on his throat—it looked strikingly similar to the ones Wei Yuan had left on those riders earlier this morning.

They only looked similar, however. Wei Yuan had burned his enemy using fire type Dao energy—one that emulated The Sun’s sword qi—after cutting open their throats. However, the wound on Wang Long’s throat was left behind by a genuine fire-type mystic sword. They were completely different.

The fish had taken the bait!

Wei Yuan sneered internally. Outside, he had set up an array that automatically tracked down a pursuing enemy. Inside, he had the array disc bestowed upon him by the Immortal Lord himself. It did not matter that the mysterious person did not enter the courtyard, a karmic bond was formed the moment he tossed something in. There was simply no way they could escape.

Suddenly, a muffled thud echoed from somewhere near. It sounded like the body thrower had run into something very painful. Not a moment too soon, it was followed by the noises of a house collapsing. The fengshui array Wei Yuan had set up was no joke.

To the culprit’s credit, they did not give up easily. Despite houses falling on top of their head one after another, they eventually managed to put some distance between themselves and Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan did not rush to pursue his quarry. Instead, he summoned the array disc and watched a small blue dot rapidly moving toward the west. Only a few moments had passed, but the culprit was already several li away from the courtyard. They were pretty swift for sure. That said, the faster they ran, the more accidents they would encounter. Wei Yuan reckoned that the culprit was one-quarter-dead at this point.

It was such a shoddy attempt to lure him away from his residence. Wei Yuan did not even need to guess to know that the tiny dot on his array disc was a bait. After all, another light dot was flashing just one li away from his courtyard, and it was dozens of times bigger than the bait’s!

The array disc tracked its quarries through karma. Naturally, it was anything but ordinary. The person who threw Wang Lang’s body into the courtyard was running away at full speed to bait Wei Yuan into chasing them, but unfortunately for them, the mastermind’s karma was so much bigger than theirs. Although the mastermind wasn’t doing anything, the array disc had still managed to fish them out without fail. They were hiding a li away probably because they were secretly observing Wei Yuan so that they could make their next move.

Wei Yuan pushed the gate open and stepped outside. He was going to hide himself and give the big fish a li away a pleasant surprise. However, he had just taken two steps when suddenly, another flashing dot appeared on the array disc. His heart skipped a beat. Not only was it much bigger and brighter than the previous two light dots, it was located right next to his courtyard! It was none other than the person who was arguing with the waiter earlier!

Right now, Wei Yuan was standing in front of his neighbor’s courtyard gate. He took two steps backward, and the dot gradually disappeared. He took two steps forward, and the dot reappeared once more.

This was the big fish!

The person was extremely well-hidden. Had Wei Yuan not been standing right outside their gate, not even an Immortal Lord’s fengshui array would have detected their presence. Moreover, the person was already living in the courtyard when he first arrived at the Lie Flat Inn.

The chilling realization made his scalp crawl. Who was the real fisher here, the man or the fish?

One must remain composed during times of great importance. Thus, Wei Yuan sucked in a deep breath and steadied his nerves. He told himself that he would plot out his moves before acting.

Wei Yuan burst through the courtyard gate and charged inside!

1. Referring to Zhuangyuan, the top scorer of an imperial examination. Wikipedia states that primus and optimus are viable translations of it as well, but it’s a tad too IDK Latin? And considering the setting of this story I decided to avoid such translations until later. ☜

2. If you don’t get this, she loves every True Lord she encounters like they’re her one true love. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜

3. That’s why your favorite novel is unfinished, btw. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜

4. Bro... bro! Look around you before it’s too late! ☜

5. Indeed, it is most realistic and meticulous! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜