"Yes, I was planning to look around for any suitable ruins and hunt for some materials I need," Lin Hui replied, making up a casual excuse.

"I see. We are Blood Guardians from the Tu Yue Moon Tower. An Original Blood Noble was just murdered in this area, so we rushed over to investigate," the old man said quickly.

"Original Blood Nobility?" Lin Hui nodded. "I did just see a merchant ship pass by, but I haven’t seen anything else."

"We found the merchant ship and spoke to a survivor who saw the body. According to them, they couldn’t get a clear look at the killer. The fog was too thick, and the perpetrator was shrouded in a swirling, transparent, distorted power that completely obscured their form." The old man paused, then continued, "Sir, I wonder if you’ve seen anyone... someone enveloped in layers of that distorted, transparent power..."

As he spoke, he glanced at the formless, twisting stream of air circling Lin Hui.

Lin Hui glanced down at the Wind of Surrounding Special Effect around him. After fusing with his Wind Disaster Affinity, the effect seemed to be growing more and more turbulent.

’Wait a minute,’ he suddenly realized. ’The formless, transparent power swirling around me... it sounds a lot like what they just described...’

The three of them fell silent. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The blue-haired woman suddenly chuckled.

"Uncle, you don’t actually think he’s the killer, do you? Didn’t the survivor say they could faintly make out horns on the killer’s head?"

"Ah, that’s right." The old man caught on and smiled. "This gentleman has no horns. It’s clearly not him."

"Right. In that case, let’s be on our way and check the other areas," the blue-haired woman said quickly.

"Good point. Well then, sir, if you happen to see anyone with horns and the other features we mentioned, please report it to the Tuyue Inner City Government Office immediately. The lords of the Moon Tower will reward you handsomely if the killer is captured," the old man said gravely.

"Alright," Lin Hui nodded.

The old man and the young woman turned and sped off into the distance. They quickly vanished into the fog...

"Wait."

A voice suddenly rang in their ears.

Lin Hui’s figure had appeared abruptly on the path before them, blocking their way.

"I have a question," he said, smiling at them.

He hadn’t even had a chance to ask about the ruins when he saw their bodies shaking.

The trembling was so violent it was clearly visible even through the fog.

"Run!" the young woman shrieked, darting to the left as a streak of blue.

The old man shot to the right, a white blur, as they split up and fled at full speed.

They didn’t even try to fight. Without a single exchange, they had already determined that Lin Hui’s power was far beyond their own.

As he sprinted, the old man quickly pulled an irregular, fist-sized stone from his robes.

This was a strength-testing stone, standard issue for all Blood Guardians. They had to carry it at all times, allowing the aura of their power to saturate the stone until it was attuned to them.

When they encountered an opponent, the stone would blacken to a corresponding degree.

The degree of blackening indicated the approximate power gap between them and their opponent.

The stone was benchmarked by a line through its center. The more the lower half blackened, the closer an opponent’s power level was to their own.

If exactly half turned black, it meant their power levels were equal, and a fight was possible. The outcome would then depend on other factors: execution, Martial Arts, special Secret Techniques, abilities, one’s current condition, even drugs.

But if more than half turned black, it meant the opponent was on a higher level of power, and caution was needed.

If the entire stone turned black, it meant they were at least a major realm stronger, and it was time to flee for one’s life.

Of course, there was another possibility: the strength-testing stone showed no reaction and remained white.

This meant they had encountered an ordinary person, with no Inner Strength, not a Summoner, and who hadn’t cultivated even a sliver of Mental Power.

And right now, the stone in the old man’s hand was in exactly this state.

Pure white.

And yet, they had met Lin Hui strolling alone in this high-risk Fog Area near the Jade Sea.

There was no way he was an ordinary person.

Ordinary people couldn’t even make it this far. Shortly after leaving Ning Xiang, they would be corrupted by the fog—falling gravely ill at best, or transforming into a decaying monster at worst.

And for someone like that, the strength-testing stone had no reaction!

’What could this mean?’

In that instant, both the old man and the young woman arrived at the same conclusion.

His power level was so far beyond theirs that the stone couldn’t even register it!

This was what it meant to be unfathomable!

Add to that the fact that Lin Hui’s description was a perfect match for the killer they were looking for.

In truth, the killer didn’t have any horns. That was just an excuse they had fabricated to get away.

After all, their "interrogation" hadn’t been a simple questioning. They had used a relic to forcibly extract fragments of the survivor’s memory.

There was no way they could have been deceived.

As he ran, the old man saw the stone remained unchanged, and his panic intensified.

Sprinting for his life, he risked a glance over his shoulder.

"What are you running for?"

A voice drifted out eerily from the fog directly in front of him.

The old man’s heart seized with terror. He skidded to a halt, his feet digging two deep grooves in the ground.

"We... we suddenly remembered we have urgent business to attend to... so..." The old man stood in place, his mind racing to justify his recent actions.

From the fog ahead, Lin Hui slowly walked out, grasping his sword.

"I wasn’t finished talking. What was the meaning of that?"

"Sir, you misunderstand. We really do have urgent business..." The old man’s heart was in his throat.

"What urgent business? Do tell." Lin Hui had only been a little suspicious, but their reaction made it clear they truly saw him as the one who killed the Original Blood Noble. That wouldn’t do.

’The person I killed was so weak, there’s no way they were an Original Blood Noble. If I get blamed for this, it’ll be a huge mess—a mess so big that even I, or even my brother, might not be able to suppress it.’

After his last visit to the Moon Tower, Lin Hui had a much clearer understanding of the status the Original Blood Nobility held in Tuyue.

All the more reason to clear this up.

"You don’t actually think I’m the killer you’re looking for, do you? I can’t be the only person with a power that swirls around them. Isn’t it a bit rash to pin it on me based on that alone?" Lin Hui said with a sigh.

"Well..." Seeing his frank tone, the old man began to waver.

"So, if you have any other way to identify the killer, you should use it. Don’t jump to conclusions based on a single detail. It would be... unfortunate... to accuse the wrong person," Lin Hui suggested earnestly.

"Well... I’ll try. We have another relic that detects the residual Evil Energy of the Original Blood Nobility. It can find even the faintest trace..." The old man rummaged through his pouch again and pulled out a palm-sized, black octagonal mirror.

"This mirror doesn’t just detect Evil Energy. It can also link to the master mirror and check against all registered wanted..." His voice trailed off as he stared at the mirror, his hand beginning to tremble once more.

He didn’t detect any Evil Energy.

But...

The information displayed in the mirror...

The capture notice for the high-priority wanted criminal ’Four Faces’...

He looked up at the four masks on Lin Hui’s head, then looked back down to verify the information displayed in the mirror.

"So? Am I in the clear?" Lin Hui’s voice came from right behind him, unsettlingly close, as if less than a yard away.

At this distance, Lin Hui’s gaze easily moved from the old man to the small mirror in his hand.

The air seemed to freeze.

He, too, saw the information displayed on the mirror.

He looked up, meeting the dazed eyes of the old man, who was also looking up at him.

"..."

"...!"

PFFT!

With a spray of blood and the ring of a sword.

The old man’s head flew high into the air. His Inner Strength and the Summoner’s Copper Skin and Iron Bones might as well have been tofu, offering no resistance as the blade sliced through.

Lin Hui sighed, flicking the blood from his blade. He picked up the small black mirror, thought about keeping it, but then paused. He tossed it back onto the ground and shattered it with a single strike.

With a CRACK, the relic shattered into a thousand black fragments.

As the shards rained down, Lin Hui’s figure was already gone.

「Elsewhere.」

The blue-haired young woman was sprinting frantically in the direction of Tuyue.

But in the next second, she was airborne. Her head continued to fly forward while her body suddenly collapsed to the ground. Blood splattered everywhere, leaving a long, crimson trail.

Her head, a look of confusion still on its face, slammed into a grove of withered trees and fell still.

Lin Hui sighed, flashed through the woods, and disappeared in an instant.

’An Original Blood Noble... I never thought the death of one would be pinned on me out of nowhere.’

’And it even forced me to kill two of their so-called Blood Guardians.’

He had a feeling this was going to be big trouble. He didn’t linger, instead continuing along the edge of the Jade Sea, running farther and farther away.

After cleansing his entire body several times with his Wind Disaster Affinity, he quickly returned to the Tuyue Outer City. He went to Qingfeng Temple for a shower before heading back to the Lin Mansion to rest.

He usually cultivated at Qingfeng Temple and returned to the Lin Mansion to rest with his parents and sister.

But since he spent most of his time cultivating, he usually stayed at Qingfeng Temple.

Killing the Blood Guardians had left him mentally drained, so he decided to go back and rest for a bit.

He was confident in the cleansing power of his Wind Disaster Affinity. The old man hadn’t detected anything wrong with him. If the mirror hadn’t revealed his wanted status, they might not have had to die.

’Parting ways peacefully would have been the best outcome for everyone.’

’Too bad...’

*

*

*

"One, two, three, four, five, going up the hill. If the tiger isn’t there, a little squirrel will!"

In a courtyard of the Lin Mansion belonging to the Second Mistress, Lin Shunhe was playing a clapping game with his daughter, Lin Xiaoliu. In her small, milky voice, Lin Xiaoliu tried to recite the rhyme along with her father, but she could only manage a few words before falling behind.

Nearby, Liu Shenglan sat in a chair, a gentle smile on her face, as she knitted a wool sweater for her daughter.

Soft daylight spilled into the yard, bathing the family in a serene and tranquil light.

"Master, Young Master Hui has returned," Elder Du, who had been standing unseen in a corner, suddenly stepped forward to announce softly.

"Ah Hui is back? Perfect. Have him come over and see his little sister," Lin Shunhe said with a smile.

"Brother Hui?" Lin Xiaoliu mumbled. The smile vanished from her chubby face, replaced by a timid, shrinking expression.

"Mama..." She scrambled to her feet and rushed over to Liu Shenglan, burying her face in her mother’s lap. She curled into a ball and went silent.

"That’s strange. Xiaoliu is usually the liveliest and loudest of the bunch. But whenever Ah Hui comes home, she gets as quiet and timid as a quail..." Lin Shunhe chuckled.

Lin Xiaoliu said nothing, ignoring him completely. She kept her head buried in her mother’s embrace, presenting only her little backside to the world.