Is It Wrong to Bully the Novice Village for System Rewards?

“Found them.”

As Qi Yuan and Bai Xirou exited the city, they didn’t have to travel far before stumbling upon a desperate scene. Four or five Foundation Building cultivators—men and women alike—were being savagely thrashed by a Ghost Face Moth at the peak of the Foundation Building realm.

The monstrous moth was pitch-black, its wingspan stretching over thirty meters. White speckles on its wings formed the faint, terrified visage of a screaming ghost. Every flap of its wings whipped up violent, howling gales.

One cultivator already lay on the ground, drenched in blood, his chest barely rising. The remaining four were all wounded, struggling to maintain a crumbling defensive formation against the moth’s relentless assault.

Despair was etched onto their faces. It was only a matter of time before this hunter squad was wiped out.

Why are they so weak? Qi Yuan thought, frowning. Is the ghost not possessing An Cailan?

After a moment of contemplation, Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes. He raised a hand and slapped the air casually.

Instantly, spiritual energy coalesced in the void, forming a colossal palm that blotted out the sky. It crashed down on the moth with the weight of a mountain.

BOOM!

There was no struggle. The arrogance of the demonic moth vanished in a heartbeat, crushed flat like a common housefly. All that remained was a thin layer of black paste splattered across the earth.

The surviving cultivators stared at Qi Yuan and Bai Xirou, their faces pale with shock. Their gazes held a mixture of profound awe and the giddy disbelief of escaping death.

To insta-kill a peak Foundation Building monster… that kind of power was terrifying.

“Many thanks, Senior, for saving our lives!”

Snapping out of their daze, the group straightened up and bowed deeply.

“If not for Senior’s hand, we would have been buried in that insect’s belly today.”

“I thought I was dead for sure… Thank you, Senior!”

…

“Sister Bai, is this the powerful Senior you mentioned?”

An Cailan, spotting Bai Xirou next to the mysterious expert, felt a surge of surprise and joy. She hurriedly wiped a trail of blood from her lip and stumbled toward them.

“Junior Sister An.”

Bai Xirou moved to support her, but Qi Yuan reached out and blocked her path. “Don’t get close. Let me handle this.”

If it were any other type of evil entity, he might have been cautious. But ghosts? Ghosts were different.

To ordinary cultivators, ghosts were sinister, treacherous, and unpredictable. To Qi Yuan, they were walking experience points. One comes, one dies. A pair comes, both die.

Qi Yuan possessed the Innate Pure Yang Body. He was a walking nuclear reactor of Yang energy. Even when he was a mortal, ghosts couldn’t touch him.

Now, his physique had been enhanced twice by the System. He didn’t even know how potent his Yang energy was anymore. Combined with his cultivation, he had zero fear of wraiths or spirits.

Unless he ran into a Ghost Emperor or Ghost Sovereign capable of inverting Yin into Yang, even a Void Refinement stage Ghost King wouldn’t make him sweat.

It was pure elemental suppression.

Of course, once a ghost reached the Emperor or Sovereign level, they were indistinguishable from the living. They could walk under the blazing sun without leaking a wisp of ghostly aura, making them impossible for a Nascent Soul cultivator like Qi Yuan to detect.

“You are the City Lord’s daughter, An Cailan?”

Qi Yuan looked the girl up and down, his suspicions growing.

Her lips were blue, and her face bore a sickly, ashen pallor. She looked thirty percent human, seventy percent ghost.

However, An Cailan didn’t seem to be the source of the ghostly energy. Rather, she looked deeply corroded by it.

To completely rule her out, he needed to verify.

“Se-Senior… this junior is indeed An Cailan,” she stammered, flustered by his intense scrutiny. A faint, embarrassed blush rose on her pale cheeks. “May… may I ask what instructions you have?”

Qi Yuan smiled faintly, then adopted a look of absolute seriousness.

“Little sister, come here. Let me check your body.”

Huh?!

The surrounding air froze. Everyone stared at him, their expressions turning bizarre.

Is that a serious medical check, or are you just trying to cop a feel?

Although they were inwardly scornful, the image of the giant palm crushing the moth was still fresh in their minds. No one dared to speak up. They simply stared at Qi Yuan with “eyes of justice,” attempting to shame him into behaving.

An Cailan gulped nervously. “Se-Senior… wh-what do you want to do?”

Even Bai Xirou looked at him with confusion. “Junior Brother Qi?”

Realizing his phrasing might have been a bit… open to interpretation, Qi Yuan waved his hand dismissively.

“Miss An, don’t be nervous. I just need to confirm something.”

Too lazy to explain further, he made a grabbing motion. An invisible force pulled An Cailan directly in front of him. He extended a finger and tapped the center of her forehead, accessing her Sea of Consciousness.

“Senior?”

Before An Cailan could react, a warm, vibrant current rushed into her body.

It surged through her meridians, instantly vaporizing the deep-seated bone-chilling cold she had been suffering from. It was replaced by a sense of comfort and relief she hadn’t felt in months. She couldn’t help but let out a soft, contented moan.

Having confirmed her status, Qi Yuan slowly withdrew his finger.

Her spiritual platform was clear. No signs of possession. The ghostly aura on her was likely passive contamination from long-term exposure to a powerful entity.

Just as he was analyzing this, An Cailan dropped to her knees. Tears welled in her eyes as she kowtowed heavily.

“Senior, for your righteous aid, Cailan is eternally grateful!” Her voice trembled with emotion. “Please… I beg you, come to the City Lord’s manor and save my mother! If you can cure her, I will be your ox or horse for the rest of my life!”

“The City Lord’s wife?”

Qi Yuan raised a brow, his mind flashing back to the Wang family case. He lowered his voice. “What exactly is going on?”

“It is exactly as you suspect.”

An Cailan nodded, her face filled with grief. “I came to hunt the Ghost Face Moth because I heard a rumor. If you grind its eyes into powder and ingest it, you can see ghosts whose cultivation far exceeds your own…”

She looked up, terror in her eyes. “I suspect… my mother is no longer human. She is… a ghost!”

Meanwhile, at the City Lord’s Residence.

Richie Zhang walked through the compound wearing a look of utter misery. Balanced on his shoulder was a pole carrying two buckets of “night soil.”

Servants passing by covered their noses and gave him a wide berth, their eyes filled with disdain.

Fuck!!!

I actually listened to Lucky Li’s bullshit! He said cleaning the latrines was a ‘cushy job’!

Cushy my ass! It’s dirty, it stinks, and it’s exhausting! I haven’t seen a single beautiful lady, but I’ve seen enough dudes to last a lifetime!

Richie Zhang cursed internally, feeling deeply depressed.

He genuinely hadn’t known that in high-class households like this, the outdoor latrines were strictly for men. The female relatives—and even the maids—used chamber pots in the privacy of their rooms.

And here I was, planning to secretly stick a few recording talismans on the walls when no one was looking…

Of course, as a disciple of a righteous sect, Richie Zhang harbored absolutely no impure thoughts. His desire to place cameras in bathrooms was purely for investigation! To root out the evil cultists hiding in the shadows, one must inspect the most private and secluded locations!

Fortunately, his current identity as the “Night Soil Man” gave him legitimate access to anywhere in the residence that possessed a chamber pot.

At the very least, he was going to win the bet against Lucky Li.

Before infiltrating the residence, they had made a wager: whoever saw the mysterious City Lord’s wife first would win five hundred high-grade spirit stones.

Richie Zhang was counting on those stones to turn his life around.

Soon, he arrived outside a secluded, elegant courtyard.

Seeing the dung buckets on his shoulder, the guards at the gate didn’t even bother to stop him. They simply frowned and stepped aside to avoid the smell.

I’m in!

The corner of Richie Zhang’s mouth twitched upward as he swaggered into the private courtyard of the City Lord’s wife.

The garden was vast and beautifully landscaped. Pavilions, rockeries, and flowing streams were nestled among lush greenery, displaying the immense wealth of the City Lord.

Nice place, Richie Zhang thought. But why is it so damn cold in here?