The moment Shi Jin stepped into the room...

Shen Yuan could feel movement outside his house.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

...

More and more presences slowly appeared within his perception. Some stood behind neighboring servant huts. He could even feel the ones running around over his hut, trying to eliminate their footsteps, which they failed at miserably.

Not only that, Shen Yuan could even see the qi moving around their bodies even from the inside.

Several had already surrounded the narrow path leading away from his house. None of them knew to conceal their spiritual fluctuations.

From what he counted, there were more than Five Qi Condensation Realm experts.

More than ten were on the cusp of breaking through to the realm.

’This will be a bit tricky but... I can handle this.’ Shen Yuan calmly withdrew his senses.

His expression never changed, and neither did Shi Jin’s.

It was as though the two of them were the only people inside the room.

Shi Jin casually dusted his sleeves before looking around the tiny servant hut. I have to admit..."

"For someone who just returned from disappearing for an entire month..."

"...your room is cleaner than I expected."

’What a snake. I never knew how much you hid yourself.’ Shen Yuan smiled on the outside. I like keeping things tidy."

"So I can see." Shi Jin’s gaze briefly landed on the book resting atop the table.

He slowly walked further into the room before stopping beside the table. His fingers lightly brushed across its rough wooden surface.

"So..."

"You went through all this effort. You asked around about me, and when that did not work, you killed several of my men."

"All for what? Just to call me here?" He slowly turned around with a warm smile, as if none of the abovementioned things bothered him at all. What exactly did you wish to discuss?"

Shen Yuan looked at him as though the answer were obvious.

"...Did you forget?"

Shi Jin raised an eyebrow.

"Our deal." The smile on Shi Jin’s face widened in realization.

"Ah..."

"That."

"You promised to find out who took the Spirit Grass. And in return..."

"You were going to tell me the secret of the Qi Condensation Realm." Shen Yuan nodded once. "I kept my end."

Shi Jin let out a quiet laugh before stepping closer. "So..."

"You butchered my people..."

"...just to tell me that?"

"Haha..." Shen Yuan laughed together with him. I don’t like keeping people who hire me waiting."

For a brief moment...

Both men laughed, and their smiles never reached their eyes.

Shi Jin slowly reached out and rested one hand upon Shen Yuan’s shoulder.

The gesture looked almost friendly.

Almost.

His fingers gently squeezed the fabric of Shen Yuan’s servant robe.

"I appreciate your professionalism." He leaned in slightly.

"So... Tell me. Who was it?"

"Although..." Shi Jin’s eyes flashed with an unreadable glimmer. "I already have a pretty good idea."

Shen Yuan didn’t hesitate. "Peng Ho."

"He stole the Spirit Grass. When he realized I knew... He tried to silence me."

A faint smile appeared on Shen Yuan’s face.

"He threw me down the cliff, but you see... I was fortunate enough to survive."

Shi Jin quietly nodded.

"I see. Good work."

His grip upon Shen Yuan’s shoulder tightened ever so slightly. The smile on his face never disappeared.

"But the funny thing is..." He leaned closer until only a small distance remained between them.

His voice became almost a whisper. "I told him..."

"...the exact same story." Shen Yuan remained silent.

Shi Jin’s smile slowly widened. "I told Peng Ho..."

"...that you were the one who stole his Spirit Grass. Why else do you think... he came looking for you?"

The room fell completely silent.

Only the oil lamp continued burning quietly between them.

"Why did you think he threw you down the cliff? That was all my idea. Just like all the others, I have slipped into his ears over the years." Shi Jin lowered his head slightly and pressed on the ground like he was crushing an ant.

"The difference between our stories..." His smile finally disappeared. "...is that I didn’t lie."

The instant those words left his mouth—

Shen Yuan’s pupils constricted.

Time seemed to slow.

He watched spiritual qi erupt from Shi Jin’s dantian before rushing through the man’s meridians with terrifying speed.

It surged into the arm resting upon his shoulder. The muscles beneath Shi Jin’s sleeve expanded ever so slightly.

Veins glowed with faint streams of condensed qi.

He did not use any technique, and there was no killing intent in his move. It was just a simple punch, straight to his abdomen.

Boom!

The condensed qi crashed into Shen Yuan’s abdomen like a battering ram. The world twisted violently.

The ground beneath his feet exploded apart, and before Shen Yuan could even react, his body had already been launched backwards.

Bang!

The rear wall of the servant hut shattered into countless splinters.

Fragments of wood flew through the night.

Shen Yuan’s body tore straight through the building before crashing into the dirt outside, carving a deep trench across the ground.

The surrounding servants instinctively retreated several steps, while a figure stepped out of the wreckage.

The ringing inside Shen Yuan’s ears drowned out every other sound.

His vision blurred, but he could still see Shi Jin’s figure walking towards him. Warm blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The last thing he saw—

Was Shi Jin’s blazing qi reserve that he first saw when the man stepped into his house. They were ten times the size of everyone else present in the area with the cultivation of the Qi Condensation Realm.

If he had to guess, then the man was already at the peak of the realm while everyone else had just stepped through the threshold of it.

Then...

Everything went dark.

"Come on, people, take him. We cannot leave him here in the middle of the night. He might catch a cold." Shi Jin’s voice drifted into his ears before fading away. "After all, he has a lot to answer—"