A Spirit Beast Sect token and a Spirit Beast Bag.

Through the eyes of his puppet, Li Ya, Han Yu examined the items held by the burly cultivator. A flicker of suspicion crossed his mind.

“You killed a disciple of the Spirit Beast Sect?” Li Ya asked, his voice flat.

“So what if I did? What of it if I didn’t?”

The burly man, unable to use voice transmission, boomed in a muffled, thunderous voice. “This is a Small Gathering. Do I need to provide a genealogy for my goods?”

As if on cue, a thin cultivator sidled up to the stall. “How much for the Sect token?”

“The life of a Rogue Cultivator is a bitter one,” the burly man sighed, feigning sorrow. “Better to join a Sect if you can. Fifty Spirit Stones, or five bottles of Qi Condensation Pills. If you have Qi Gathering Pills, two bottles will suffice.”

The thin man hesitated, wringing his hands in a performance of indecision.

Before the silence could stretch, a female cultivator approached. “And the price for the Spirit Beast Bag?”

“A hundred Spirit Stones or four bottles of Qi Gathering Pills,” the burly seller grunted. “I’m open to barter, but don’t insult me with Qi Condensation Pills, early-stage Talismans, or trash like Moon Gazing Herbs.”

“Hold on,” the woman said hurriedly. “Let me fetch Spirit Stones from my Dao Companion…”

“I don’t wait for anyone!”

The burly man snorted with disdain, shifting his gaze back to the puppet Li Ya. “Well? Do you want it or not? If not, step aside. I have business to conduct.”

“I want the Spirit Beast Bag,” Li Ya stated. “But I, too, must retrieve my Qi Gathering Pills.”

“Be quick about it,” the seller warned. “If you’re late, it’s gone. Money talks, I don’t care whose hand it comes from.”

At that moment, the thin cultivator slapped fifty Spirit Stones onto the table.

“I’ll take the token!”

“Done. Inspect the goods.”

The thin man took the beast-head token, scrutinized it, and nodded wordlessly.

Having witnessed the transaction, Li Ya turned and walked away. Simultaneously, the thin cultivator seemed to finish his business and departed as well.

They left the Small Gathering one after another. After a short distance, the thin cultivator stopped and looked back at Li Ya, his expression guarded. “Fellow Daoist, after you?”

Han Yu, controlling the puppet from afar, mentally primed a Talisman.

Something is wrong.

From the moment he attempted to buy the bag, the rhythm felt artificial. It felt as though no matter what he showed interest in, a competitor would immediately appear. And no matter the outcome, someone would always happen to leave the gathering at the same time he did.

Suspicion took root in his mind.

“Very well,” Li Ya rasped.

The puppet took two steps forward.

Suddenly, the female cultivator—the one who claimed to be fetching stones—emerged from the path ahead. She wore a mask of anxiety. “Is the seller still there? I finally brought the Spirit Stones—”

Han Yu didn’t wait for her to finish. His speculation had hardened into certainty.

There were no such coincidences in the cultivation world.

They were a pack.

Han Yu immediately commanded Li Ya to veer off the path, shooting toward the dense forest at a sharp angle. At the same time, he summoned his murder of crows to converge on the location.

“Slippery bastard!”

The woman’s anxious façade shattered, replaced by cold annoyance. She stomped the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as she launched herself forward with explosive speed. With a flick of her wrist, she scattered a dense cloud of fine needles, aiming directly at Li Ya’s back.

Han Yu ignored the attack. He drove the puppet forward without pausing to block.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

The woman watched several needles bury themselves in the puppet’s black robes. Yet, the figure didn’t flinch, didn’t stumble, didn’t even cry out. He simply kept running.

She faltered, astonished. What is this guy? Is he immune to my poison?

Seeing her prey widening the gap, she screamed, “Cut the act! Don’t let the fat sheep escape!”

Hearing the shout, Li Ya sprinted a few more steps before throwing out a green Plantain Leaf. He leapt onto the Magical Artifact, intent on taking to the sky.

Where did I expose myself? Han Yu wondered coldly. I was marked as a ‘fat sheep’ the moment I entered the Small Gathering.

As the puppet rose, the trap snapped shut.

The thin cultivator, who had purchased the token, drew a flying sword. He stepped onto the blade and rocketed into the air, his speed surging as he chased Li Ya.

“A Wanchun Valley disciple!”

From the other direction, the burly seller burst through the underbrush astride a golden-spotted leopard. He roared, “Stop and I’ll spare your life! I have questions for you!”

Li Ya didn’t slow down. However, the Plantain Leaf was a travel artifact, not designed for high-speed chases or aerial combat. Even at full throttle, it was sluggish compared to a flying sword or a spirit beast.

Within ten breaths, they had him.

The thin man on the sword and the burly man on the leopard flanked him. Moments later, the woman arrived on her own Plantain Leaf, blocking the rear.

“Why haven’t you killed him yet?” the woman demanded, breathless.

The burly man scoffed. “The Sect’s mission is to probe Wanchun Valley’s secrets. It’s rare to catch a live disciple. We can’t just waste him.”

“That’s your Sect’s business, not mine,” the woman said, dismissing him. “I’m a Rogue Cultivator. Besides, owning a Plantain Leaf doesn’t prove he’s a disciple. I’ve killed Wanchun disciples before; that’s how I got this leaf.”

The burly man ignored her, his eyes locked on Li Ya. “Are you Inner or Outer Sect? Be obedient, and you might live. Refuse, and I’ll feed you to my leopard piece by piece!”

Li Ya stood motionless on the hovering leaf.

Miles away, Han Yu’s eyes narrowed. His crows were twenty zhang out, silent shadows in the canopy.

He knew this was a killing situation. The standard Qi Condensation Talismans loaded in the puppet were insufficient for a decisive wipeout.

Silently, the puppet’s internal mechanisms shifted. A Foundation Establishment realm Geng Metal Talisman and a Thunder Lightning Talisman slid into the activation slots.

“You are a disciple of the Spirit Beast Sect?” Li Ya asked, his voice devoid of fear. “What is it you wish to know?”

“Inner or Outer?” the burly man pressed, sensing cooperation. “What secrets lie within Wanchun Valley’s earth veins—”

“Careful!” the thin cultivator on the sword suddenly shrieked. “His energy signature is spiking! He’s activating something!”

“Kill him!” the woman screamed.

“Die!” The burly man roared.

It was too late.

A blinding golden brilliance erupted from Li Ya’s chest.

The light coalesced into a slash of pure energy, over ten feet long. It moved with the speed of a lightning strike, tearing through the air with a deafening shriek as it swept toward the thin cultivator.

The thin man’s face twisted in horror. Panic-stricken, he crushed a defensive Talisman, summoning a shimmering barrier of light in front of him.

But against the Geng Metal slash—a strike containing the crushing power of Foundation Establishment—the barrier was a joke.

It shredded like wet paper.

“This is—”

The thin cultivator tried to throw himself sideways, a scream dying in his throat.

The golden light swept through him.

His protective spiritual aura flickered once and extinguished.

Squelch.

A fountain of crimson sprayed into the air.

The cultivator was bisected at the waist. His upper body spun away from his legs, entrails spilling out in a gruesome rain as both halves plummeted to the forest floor.

The golden slash didn’t stop there. Unabated, it sliced diagonally through two ancient ironwood trees behind him, shearing their trunks effortlessly, before burying itself deep in the earth.

The ground shuddered, left with a dark, smoking fissure.