The middle-aged shopkeeper stopped bustling about. He sat back, looking calm and composed, waiting for the last easy mark of the day to return.

“Trying to bargain with me? Hah! Now you won’t even get eight-tenths of a Spirit Stone!”

“Sigh, this South Lake Market is getting less and less profitable.”

“Once I save up a few more Spirit Stones, I’ll have to pull some strings and transfer to the West Garden or East Mountain Market…”

Idly rubbing the Spirit Qi prayer beads on his wrist, the shopkeeper barked casual orders at his young assistant.

He waited.

And waited.

The sky turned completely dark, but the “mud-legged peasant” never showed up.

A seed of unease began to sprout in the shopkeeper’s gut. He waited a bit longer, but finally, his patience snapped.

“Go. Run over to Old Liu’s place and ask. That bumpkin with the Spirit Poultry earlier—surely Liu didn’t break the unspoken rules and buy them?”

“Right away, boss!”

The assistant, Erhu, took the order and sprinted toward Liu’s Shop.

He returned moments later, his expression twisted and strange.

The shopkeeper asked impatiently, “Well? What did Old Liu say? Did he actually buy the bird? That old codger! I’ll tell my big brother about this; the Liu family has no sense of propriety!”

Erhu looked troubled. “He bought it. But… Shopkeeper Liu said the man’s bearing resembled an Exalted Immortal from the Sect. Even if he wasn’t a full Immortal, his status couldn’t be low. Liu didn’t dare suppress the price according to the rules…”

The shopkeeper’s face darkened instantly.

“Nonsense!”

“Old Liu might be able to fool a simpleton like you, but he can’t fool me!”

“While it’s true that many Sect Immortals don’t care about their appearance, none are that shabby. A single Spirit Poultry might be valuable, but it’s not worth a Sect Immortal coming down to sell it personally…”

“But boss,” Erhu interrupted, his voice trembling, “Shopkeeper Liu said the man sold thirteen of them at once!”

“What?!”

The hand rubbing the prayer beads convulsed.

The shopkeeper shot to his feet, staring in disbelief. “H-How many?!”

“Thirteen Spirit Poultry. And…” The assistant stammered, unsure if he should continue.

“And what? Spit it out!” the shopkeeper roared, his face twisting.

“And… although they were all low-grade roosters, their Spirit Qi was incredibly dense…”

The shopkeeper’s complexion turned the color of ash.

Erhu hesitated before delivering the final blow. “Shopkeeper Liu… he also asked me to tell you… ‘Thanks for your generosity. Those thirteen Spirit Poultry will be quite useful for the person in my family.'”

Smack!

The Spirit Qi prayer beads were slammed onto the counter, leaving a deep indentation in the wood.

The shopkeeper’s chest heaved violently as he fought for breath. He forced himself to swallow the rage rising in his throat.

He had to calm down.

Anyone who could casually produce thirteen Spirit Poultry at once—even if they weren’t a Sect Disciple—had a massive tree protecting them.

He didn’t dare direct his anger at such a person.

No, he didn’t just ‘not dare’—the thought shouldn’t even exist!

As the resentment faded, it was replaced by a crushing wave of regret.

“I misjudged him!”

“If I had known… If I had only known, I would have offered him three Spirit Stones right from the start!”

“My big brother could have used them too! If he made a breakthrough, I could have transferred to the East Mountain Market…”

Thirteen birds. Whether used to boost his brother’s cultivation or as a bribe for a superior, it would have been a golden opportunity.

And he had personally pushed that business out the door.

The shopkeeper slapped his thigh so hard it turned red.

He paced to the doorway, craning his neck into the dark street.

But where could he find any trace of that “mud-legged peasant” now?

Wang Ba walked through the darkness, his heart hammering against his ribs.

The surrounding mountains were layered like heavy curtains, shadows upon shadows, resembling the prying eyes of Sect Disciples watching his every move.

He could feel the heavy weight of the Spirit Stones in his pocket. Every time his fingers brushed against them to count, his panic spiked.

Too many!

Too many Spirit Stones!

Forty-two and nine-tenths!

He had practically drained the liquid capital of the grain shop dry.

To be honest, if it weren’t absolutely necessary, he never would have exchanged them for so much cash.

It felt completely unsafe.

What was the difference between this and a toddler walking through a riot clutching a brick of gold?

If he encountered a greedy Sect Disciple…

If a Laborer Disciple died, they died in vain. No one would care.

Terrified of being followed, Wang Ba took the long way home. He alternated between sprinting through open areas and creeping like a thief through the brush.

He scanned the road constantly. If he saw anyone, he dodged. If he couldn’t dodge, he desperately poured energy into his Yin Spirit Power.

Even when the road was empty, he kept the Yin Spirit Power active, just at a lower output.

This led to a discovery: the power had a passive mode. When no one was looking at him, the Yin Spirit Power didn’t need to actively deceive anyone’s senses, so the consumption was negligible.

It only drained when he was observed.

Back at the South Lake Market, even near closing time, there had been enough people to burn through more than half his reserves. On the road, passing a few stray Laborer Disciples had consumed a bit more.

To his immense relief, just as the droplet of Yin Spirit Power in his brow’s Abode shrank to the size of a grain of rice, the silhouette of his manor appeared in the distance.

“Hoo…”

Wang Ba let out a long, shuddering breath.

Safe. More scare than harm.

Thinking back to his experience in the market, Wang Ba felt a mix of exasperation and vindication.

Out of caution, he had crafted the persona of a humble, low-key laborer. The result? The shopkeeper at ‘Burning Blade’ took him for a fool.

After leaving that shop, he realized the error. He made a subtle adjustment to his bearing before entering the second shop.

Sure enough, the slight shift in attitude bluffed the second shopkeeper completely.

Even in an Immortal Sect, judging a book by its cover was the norm.

Of course, the risk had been enormous. But he had returned safely.

Just as he relaxed, Wang Ba suddenly froze.

His Yin Spirit Abode shuddered, sensing an invisible, crushing pressure.

In the vast, boundless void of his Abode, the remaining water droplet of Yin Spirit Power suddenly began to spin at a terrifying speed!

It was shrinking. Rapidly.

What is going on?!

Wang Ba’s heart pounded so hard it hurt.

What’s happening?

He had never seen the Yin Spirit Power drain this fast. It was evaporating!

Suddenly, a clear, melodious voice rang out from the darkness behind him.

“Senior Brother, may I ask how to get to the ‘Merit Hall’?”

Se… Senior Brother?!

Wang Ba was paralyzed with a mixture of panic and confusion.

Who was he calling? Was there someone else here?

“Senior Brother, sorry to disturb you. I, your Junior Brother, have just joined the Sect and recently broke through a realm. I’m not familiar with the layout yet. Could you please point me toward the ‘Merit Hall’? Thank you!”

The voice sounded urgent. Footsteps approached.

What terrified Wang Ba the most was the silence that followed. No one else answered.

Time seemed to congeal into a solid block of ice.

Wang Ba’s limbs went cold. His mind went blank.

Inside his head, the Yin Spirit Power screamed as it spun faster and faster, matching the approach of the footsteps.

The droplet, already reduced to a grain of rice, was now a speck of dust.

It was on the verge of annihilation.

In that moment of extreme chaos, Wang Ba’s mind suddenly snapped into a state of unnatural calm.

Senior Brother? Junior Brother? Merit Hall?

Hiss—

Wang Ba instantly deduced the identity of the speaker.

In the swirl of panic, an invisible thread connected the clues.

He didn’t hesitate. He raised a hand and casually pointed in a direction.

“Thank you, Senior Brother!”

The voice didn’t linger. After expressing gratitude, the presence vanished into the night.

Wang Ba stood frozen. He waited until he sensed the Yin Spirit Power in his brow finally stop its frantic spinning. Only then did he carefully turn around.

The night was vast. The mountain winds howled. The distant peaks undulated like sleeping beasts.

But there was no one there.

It was as if the encounter had been a hallucination.

Wang Ba’s legs gave out. He collapsed onto the dirt, his knees hitting the ground with a thud.

His inner robes were soaked in cold sweat. He sat there, gasping for air like a drowning man, his eyes wide with the sheer terror of survival.

“Just now… that was a Sect Disciple, wasn’t it?”

“Too terrifying!”

Even though he hadn’t seen the person’s face, the memory made him tremble.

This wasn’t his first time encountering a Cultivator.

When he had first tried to join the Sect to seek the Dao, he had witnessed their methods. The Immortal Master testing Spirit Roots had finished his work and simply stepped into the sky, vanishing in an instant. A true god among men.

But back then, he knew he was safe.

This was different.

If that self-proclaimed “Junior Brother” had seen through his disguise… if he had discovered a lowly laborer carrying a fortune in Spirit Stones in this desolate wilderness…

Greed creates demons.

The thought made Wang Ba shudder violently.

“But… the Yin Spirit Power actually deceived a Disciple of the Sect!”

“It seems I need to put more effort into mastering this.”

Recallling the brush with death, Wang Ba’s face turned pale again.

If he had hesitated for just a few seconds more, the Yin Spirit Power would have run dry. The disguise would have failed. And then, he would have been finished.

Fortunately, his survival instincts had kicked in, and he had sent the man away immediately.

But this was a mistake he couldn’t afford to repeat. He never wanted to feel that helpless terror again.

Although his limbs were still jelly, the fear that the Sect Disciple might get lost and return forced him to stand. He dragged himself back to the manor.

Upon returning, his first act was to bury the Spirit Stones deep beneath the chicken coop.

The Rare Fowl were naturally rich in Spirit Qi. Their aura, combined with the filth, would mask the fluctuations of the Spirit Stones. It was the perfect hiding spot.

After that, he didn’t even bother to wash. He stumbled into his small hut, collapsed onto the bed, and fell into a coma-like sleep.

When he woke the next morning, he found himself sick.