When Ji Chan’er fell silent on the other end of the communication talisman, Qi Yuan’s heart skipped a beat. A cold drop of sweat rolled down his temple.

“Fairy Ji…” he asked, his voice laced with genuine anxiety. “Is this matter… really that serious?”

If even the Direct Daughter of the Ji Clan couldn’t smooth this over, he was done for. He’d have to pack his bags and flee the sect tonight.

This Demonic Sect really isn’t a place for humans, Qi Yuan grumbled internally. I’ve been keeping such a low profile! I’m practically invisible! And yet, I still get targeted by this kind of dog-shit situation.

Just as he was mentally cursing his luck, Ji Chan’er’s voice cut through the static. She let out a cold, sharp snort.

“Hmph! Stop pretending. Besides you, who else in the Outer Sect has the ability to pull off such an earth-shattering feat? This ‘friend’ you mentioned… it’s you, isn’t it?”

Qi Yuan’s expression froze. The gig was up.

He rubbed his nose awkwardly and braced himself. “Fairy Ji is truly as clever as ice and snow, seeing through the smallest details. I, Qi Yuan, admire you… Actually, it wasn’t me who killed them. It was my sword…”

“Great! So it was you!”

Ji Chan’er interrupted him, her voice trembling with a mix of anger and shock. She sounded like she was grinding her teeth. “Qi Yuan, you actually hid such a huge disaster from me! Where are you right now? I’m coming to find you immediately.”

Knowing he was in the wrong, Qi Yuan answered obediently. “I’m at Blood Refining Peak in the Outer Sect. You can’t miss it. Just look for the place where… well, where there are no living people besides me.”

“Stay there. Don’t move,” she commanded. “If any Outer Sect Elders or Enforcement Hall disciples arrive before I do, show them the token I gave you. Do not go with them. Do you understand?”

She hung up immediately, likely already speeding toward his location.

Qi Yuan put away the talisman and looked around. The courtyard was a literal mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

He briefly considered destroying the evidence, but shook his head. No. These people died inside my property lines. Leaving the bodies here proves they were trespassing. It supports my ‘self-defense’ plea.

That settled, Qi Yuan got to work. He moved through the carnage with practiced efficiency, stripping every Storage Bag and Storage Ring from the fallen disciples.

“Waste not, want not,” he muttered.

Sure, Outer Sect Disciples were poor, but even mosquito legs were meat. And here, he had several hundred mosquito legs. It added up. Besides, if he didn’t loot them, the corrupt Enforcement Hall would just pocket it all later.

“According to Ji Chan’er, the penalty for killing fellow disciples is a heavy fine,” Qi Yuan mused, weighing a pouch of Spirit Stones. “This harvest should help me recoup the losses.”

Then, a thought struck him. His eyes narrowed.

He reached into his storage bracelet and pulled out a small, eerie black flag—the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

He gave it a light shake and stabbed the shaft into the blood-soaked soil.

Hum—

A sinister, freezing black mist erupted from the banner, instantly enveloping the entire courtyard.

The temperature plummeted. Ghostly shadows began to flicker in the mist. The confused, freshly severed souls of the hundreds of dead disciples were dragged out of their corpses, wailing silently as they were sucked into the vortex of the banner.

Within moments, the last wisp of soul was devoured. The pitch-black cloth of the banner pulsed with a deep, dark sheen, overflowing with heavy Yin energy.

Swoosh!

With a flash of black light, the banner shrank back to the size of a palm. Qi Yuan tucked it away into his inventory.

“Perfect.”

He dusted off his hands, then paused, realizing how that looked.

“Thanks to this dog system,” he grumbled indignantly. “I am clearly a righteous cultivator from a reputable sect! But look at me—looting bodies, harvesting souls… I’m acting more like a demonic path villain every day. It’s ridiculous!”

The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls was a trophy he had looted from a evil cultivator back in Qing’an City. It was definitely a wicked artifact, but it was practical. Without a vessel, these new souls would dissipate quickly.

Collecting them wasn’t just for fun; it was a precaution.

Preparing for a rainy day, Qi Yuan justified. This retard system is unpredictable. It made me fight the Wang Family Ancestor’s corpse before. Who knows? Maybe next week it will give me a mission to ‘Recruit an Army of the Dead’. If I don’t save these souls now, I’ll be blind-sided later.

He had been pitted by the system too many times to take chances. The system was deaf and blind to reality; it would assign brain-dead tasks just to torture him.

Just as Qi Yuan was lost in his complaints, a streak of light appeared in the distant sky.

A passing cultivator on a flying artifact was cruising by. He looked down, saw the slaughterhouse below, and slammed on the spiritual brakes.

The figure hovered for a split second, frozen in horror. Then, he whipped his artifact around and fled at double the speed, disappearing over the horizon.

“Spotted,” Qi Yuan noted. “The authorities will be here soon.”

He straightened his robes, took out the token Ji Chan’er had given him, and waited.

It didn’t take long.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Dozens of dark figures tore through the sky, descending rapidly toward the courtyard.

They wore uniform black robes embroidered with the Xiezhi—the mythical beast of justice. It was the Outer Sect Enforcement Hall.

The leader was a short, thin middle-aged man with sunken cheeks and narrow, reptilian eyes. He radiated a gloomy, vicious aura.

Qi Yuan scanned him. Golden Core Peak. Manageable.

Qi Yuan relaxed his posture and walked forward to greet them, a polite smile on his face.

“Stop!”

The middle-aged Deacon’s eyes widened. Seeing a stranger walking calmly toward him over a literal carpet of severed limbs, his heart gave a lurch of primal fear. He instinctively raised a hand, halting his squad.

“You… don’t come any closer!”

When the report had come in earlier, the Deacon had assumed the witness was exaggerating. ‘A massacre at Blood Refining Peak’ usually meant five or six guys dead in a gang war.

He looked around, his stomach churning.

The report had been conservative. This wasn’t a crime scene; it was a war zone.

He had handled countless bloody cases in the Demonic Sect, but he had never seen anything this grotesque. Hundreds of bodies. Limbs scattered like leaves. And standing in the middle of it all, a young man with a smile as bright as the sun.

The Deacon stared at Qi Yuan with a mixture of terror and vigilance.

“Who are you?” he demanded, his voice tight. “And… how did all these people die?”

Qi Yuan cupped his hands respectfully. His tone was calm, reasonable, and utterly delusional.

“Senior Brother, greetings. My name is Big Qi. I am a new Outer Sect Disciple who just joined today.”

He gestured vaguely to the carnage around his boots.

“I found this vacant courtyard and moved in. But…” He pointed to the sign hanging on the gate—【This Courtyard Has an Owner. Do Not Disturb】.

“Unexpectedly, just as I settled down, a large group of bandits broke in with ill intentions. They ignored my sign and attacked me.”

Qi Yuan sighed, looking aggrieved. “Out of self-defense, I had no choice but to kill everyone who trespassed. And, well… this is the result.”

His voice carried three parts grievance and seven parts sincerity.

“What?!”

The Deacon and his squad gasped in unison. The air left the clearing.

They looked at Qi Yuan like he was a monster wearing human skin.

Self-defense?

A rookie? A kid at the mid-stage of Foundation Building who joined today?

He had single-handedly wiped out the entire population of Blood Refining Peak.

The Deacon’s eyes darted to the pile. He spotted the severed heads of Chi Yinghu and Wu Renjie—two ruthless tyrants who terrorized the Outer Sect. They were dead. Chopped up like firewood.

And this kid was standing there, chatting and smiling, splashing dirty water on the dead victims.

Insane.

Absolutely insane.

And his excuse! ‘They broke in so I killed them.’

Did your courtyard have a gold mine underneath it? Why would hundreds of disciples rush to their deaths one after another?

The way the Enforcement Hall disciples looked at Qi Yuan changed instantly.

This wasn’t a rookie. This was a calamity.

To slaughter hundreds of fellow disciples on his first day, without blinking an eye, and then loot the bodies? This was a level of ruthlessness that made even Demonic Cultivators shiver.

This was a Peerless Demon Lord that appeared once in ten thousand years.

The middle-aged Deacon swallowed hard, sweat dripping down his back. He made a snap decision.

He turned to his subordinates, his voice shaking but resolute.

“This target… is beyond our capability to handle.”

He backed away slowly.

“Quickly! Report to the Main Hall! Request reinforcements immediately!”