"Ah—"

Hero Zhang let out a miserable scream and suddenly retreated violently.

He looked up in terror and saw you holding the Soul Awakening Blade, having appeared at the seat he had just occupied without anyone noticing.

"Who are you!" He stared at you suspiciously while circulating his true qi to stop the bleeding from his wrist that was pouring blood.

"Which organization are you from?" you asked coldly.

Hero Zhang shuddered all over under your icy killing intent. He felt it keenly and stammered, "I-I have no sect, no faction. I’m a lone warrior!"

"No sect or faction?"

"No sect or faction!"

Clang—

You sliced Hero Zhang from head to toe with one stroke, producing two fresh corpses.

"If you had said no gang earlier, I wouldn’t have had to hide for so long!"

You ordered Ruan Bai to clean up the bodies and conceal the news, making sure no one knew.

However, Ruan Bai stared at you blankly for a long while without moving. Your strength shocked him for ten thousand years.

He had expected a fierce life-and-death battle between you and Hero Zhang.

But little did he know you dispatched Hero Zhang, a late-stage Dragon Transformation cultivator, with a single light stroke.

Ignoring Ruan Bai’s stunned open mouth, you returned directly to your former courtyard.

As usual, you went to pay respects at Xie Huide’s and Deng Rusong’s graves.

Ruan Bai had kept the two graves clean and tidy; from the outside, they looked like they were freshly buried today.

In the following days, you and Ruan Bai worked together running a sting operation.

Ruan Bai was responsible for luring the extorting warriors into the Danxia Sect, and you guided them toward the end of their lives.

During this period, a late-stage Grandmaster cultivator even appeared.

That day, facing the Grandmaster cultivator, Ruan Bai was so frightened that he could barely speak and his legs trembled as he walked.

He barely summoned his courage to bring that Grandmaster to the Danxia Sect’s main hall.

He thought you wouldn’t be able to defeat this person and desperately contemplated what to do.

Ruan Bai trembled inside, considering whether to just give the Grandmaster a pill.

You, however, rushed out without hesitation and clashed clang after clang with the late-stage Grandmaster.

Seeing your desperate struggle, Ruan Bai was so moved that he fled more than twenty miles on the spot.

When he sneaked back at night to collect your body, you happened to block him.

Ruan Bai sat on the ground in terror, pleading that the debts and grievances should have clear owners, telling you to go haunt whoever tried to kill you and not drag him down.

You threw the Grandmaster’s corpse in front of him, and only then did he believe you had killed this late-stage Grandmaster cultivator.

You, a mid-stage Essence Refining cultivator, killing a late-stage Grandmaster was almost a fairy tale.

Ruan Bai’s respect for you had turned into deep fear.

He asked if the Grandmaster had died from a heart attack during the fight.

You kicked him irritably and told him to handle the corpse.

In truth, this battle was not easy for you. You had unleashed a tremendous amount of Earth Source sword qi and needed ten to fifteen days to recover properly.

Fortunately, after these Dragon Transformation and Grandmaster cultivators mysteriously never returned from the Danxia Sect, no one dared to take advantage of the chaotic martial world situation to harass Danxia Sect anymore.

You also had time to heal your injuries.

While recuperating, you heard news about Lin Mo.

Lin Mo, now thirty years old, had already reached the late-stage Dragon Transformation. Your martial cultivation realm was completely surpassed by him.

He showed you no face in surpassing your realm at all.

This recent intense upheaval in the martial world also dragged Lin Mo’s Heavenly Dao Alliance into the fray, suffering considerable casualties.

Lin Mo himself rose to fame through this turmoil; his insanely fast martial cultivation speed taught a harsh lesson to everyone in the martial world.

More importantly, not only was Lin Mo advancing rapidly, his combat strength was also terrifying.

A few days ago, Lin Mo, at late-stage Dragon Transformation, successfully reversed and defeated a veteran peak Grandmaster, shocking the entire Great Qian.

This battle solidified Lin Mo’s reputation.

Everyone in the martial world now knew there was a prodigious genius Heavenly Dao Alliance leader, who, despite being only Dragon Transformation level, already radiated the aura of the number one Ultimate Grandmaster contender—extremely impressive.

Lin Mo was riding high, and you deliberately avoided contacting him to prevent anyone from noticing your connection.

After healing, you still guarded the Danxia Sect.

However, there were now absolutely no people daring to come to Danxia Sect to poke around.

Since that late-stage Grandmaster never returned, the underworld brothers guessed that Hu Zhongxuan had returned to Danxia Sect.

But soon it was discovered that Hu Zhongxuan had not returned and was still clocking in at the capital normally.

This instantly cast a veil of mystery over Danxia Sect, making outsiders even more afraid to cause trouble.

While cultivating, you looked at the chaotic martial world situation and an idea surfaced.

“Is it okay if I take advantage of the chaos to investigate Duan Qian’s house?”

According to the information Hu Zhongxuan gave you earlier, Duan Qian had a peak Grandmaster cultivator as a personal bodyguard.

You still remembered the experience of that cultivator cutting your large ball off, which was noted carefully in your little notebook.

Though the cultivator himself didn’t know he had killed you.

But this grudge had to be remembered because your mind was narrower than a needle’s eye; after all, he wasted a whole moment of your real time, an unforgivable crime.

You couldn’t kill that peak Grandmaster instantly yet, but with some effort, using fully automated Earth Source sword qi to blast him to death was still possible.

This time, you wanted to stand before him and show how much you still resembled your old self.

But this trip wasn’t to risk your life; you only wanted to check whether all the captured people Duan Qian had taken were handed over to Li Yu, and maybe you could probe Li Yu’s background a little.

With this thought, you set off the same day, fearing that if you left too late, the martial world would no longer be chaotic and you’d be easily exposed.

This time, you prepared a decent sword for yourself and arranged for a disciple of the Sword Establishment Pavilion to take the blame if anything unexpected happened.

You crossed mountains and rivers and soon arrived at Duan Qian’s residence.

By your fourth simulation, you had already figured out Duan Qian’s routine and the guard shift changes. If you wanted to enter Duan Qian’s mansion, you were as familiar with it as your own home.

But you didn’t act rashly; you waited outside until midnight before cautiously entering the mansion.

Once inside, you activated Divine Micro-Vision, which maximized your insight and perception.

However, after searching the mansion two or three times, you couldn’t find that peak Grandmaster cultivator. You even focused on the rooms around Duan Qian and still found no sign of him.

With your current martial strength, perfect Divine Micro-Vision, and innate Flying Sky Cockroach traits, a peak Grandmaster cultivator absolutely could not evade your detection.

This only meant that the peak Grandmaster really wasn’t at Duan Qian’s mansion.

“But isn’t he Duan Qian’s shadow bodyguard? Could it be that without shadows at night, there’s no protection?”

You didn’t dwell on this for now and started searching for other clues.

Soon, you discovered something very unusual.

You found that beneath Duan Qian’s residence was a huge dungeon, almost the same size as the house above ground, with three levels in total.

“How many people the hell could they fit here?”

You cautiously entered the dark, damp dungeon.

You found all three levels were empty, looking abandoned for quite some time.

But the mottled bloodstains on the walls and floors revealed that this place had been a human hell.

You estimated the brutality must have nearly matched your ten-thousand-man pit.

“The dungeon has been empty for so long, which means Duan Qian has washed his hands of it for quite a while,” your mind churned.

“If Duan Qian used these youngsters as bribes, then as long as he’s still in office, the political transactions wouldn’t suddenly stop.”

“That means these youngsters were sacrificed for cultivation, and those cultivating have reached their limit, so Duan Qian stopped capturing people.”

You roughly understood the situation.

After leaving the dungeon, you cautiously searched a few more times but found nothing else.

You slipped away only at the first light of dawn.

After leaving Duan Qian’s mansion, you didn’t return straight to Danxia Sect.

Instead, you circled several states with Divine Micro-Vision active and even went twice around the Cangwang Desert.

You visited your old home from the years you were known as the Desert Reaper, but since you hadn’t planted trees or cultivated the land, it remained a barren desert.

After confirming you weren’t being followed, you headed to Danxia Sect.

By the time you returned to Danxia Sect, it was already the next year.

Year forty, you were fifty-five years old.

After you got back, Ruan Bai found you and said that the martial world upheaval had ended.

He also said Hu Zhongxuan had come looking for you several times, telling you to return and meet him in the capital as he had something to tell you.

So, after months of rushing on the road, you set out for the capital again.

You sighed softly, "My business is just too busy!"