Chapter 103: The Big Fish

Leaving the northern district, Wei Yuan strolled through the eastern district.

Unlike the eerie western district or the sharply divided northern district, the eastern district had many shops selling everything from raw materials to human heads and shaman heads. The streets here were clearly wider and cleaner, with drainage ditches dug along both sides to carry away wastewater. As Wei Yuan walked down the street, he saw human heads embedded in the signboards of shops on the left, and several heads of the Wu Yu tribe embedded in those on the right.

The eastern district was packed with shops and thrived with activity; many caravans maintained permanent outposts here. Wang Lang often moved about this area. Wei Yuan thought that if he was lucky, he might find clues related to him.

Just as he thought this, Wei Yuan saw a middle-aged man with a stern face emerge from the far end of the long street, followed by several guards. A large black mole on his face was strikingly prominent.

The Immortal Lord's intervention is truly extraordinary!

Wei Yuan suddenly stepped into the center of the road, blocking the man’s path. The middle-aged man halted and said in a low voice: “Friend, the road is wide—why not walk on the other side?”

Wei Yuan sneered: “The road may be wide, but with me here, there’s no place for you to walk. You’re Wang Lang, aren’t you?”

The middle-aged man stopped his guards from rushing forward and said lowly: “It’s me. What do you want?”

Wei Yuan drew his sword, pointing it to the sky, and said: “Someone has paid to buy your dog’s life. But Li Mou prefers to kill with honor—so I give you a fair chance to fight. I’ll show you now what true swordsmanship is!”

Dao energy surged wildly along the tip of the long sword; everyone instinctively stared—and then Wei Yuan roared: “Immortal Sword. Pure White!”

The sword suddenly erupted in a blinding flash of light, illuminating half the district! Everyone who looked toward it instantly felt their eyes sear shut, comprehending the Pure White Sword Intent.

The blinding light faded. Wei Yuan moved like a ghost, appearing before Wang Lang in an instant, thrusting seven or eight times in rapid succession—each blade piercing through chest and abdomen. Yet before Wei Yuan’s eyes, a flash of white light appeared—Wang Lang’s figure dissolved. His sword pierced only a paper doll, riddled with multiple holes.

“Cunning!” Wei Yuan cursed inwardly, darting into a narrow alley between shops, activating his Concealment and Stillness Techniques, and vanishing. One strike, then flee a thousand li—this was the assassin’s essence.

In a closed shop a hundred zhang away, Wang Lang’s form materialized. He rubbed his swollen, teary eyes fiercely and muttered: “Cunning.”

The moment Wei Yuan appeared, Wang Lang knew something was wrong and secretly activated his paper-body substitute. But he never expected the swordsman, who seemed upright, was actually treacherous. Using the sword to blind the eye—what difference was there from a street thug throwing lime before a brawl?

Wang Lang, still shaken, grew more suspicious. The man had no sword techniques, no sword intent, no sword aura—and his sword never left his hand, only jabbing randomly. He was likely a fake swordsman.

At nightfall, after wandering the city all day, Wei Yuan finally returned to the Liangping Inn. Back in his courtyard, he removed his cloak and took out the array plate for careful study.

The array plate now held an additional jade earring. Though nothing appeared changed, in Wei Yuan’s perception, subtle, mysterious forces around him were slowly shifting in sync with the plate.

In truth, Wei Yuan never intended to kill Wang Lang. Had he truly unleashed his full power, Wang Lang—a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator—would have died before he could activate his substitute technique, never even knowing how. Wei Yuan merely warned Wang Lang: someone wants you dead—hurry and make your next move.

Wei Yuan had just begun fishing when the innkeeper delivered the contract to kill Wang Lang. Wang Lang was almost certainly closely tied to Yun Feifei. Once Wang Lang moved, a chain reaction would follow, forcing many hidden figures to act. These fish must swim—only then would they see Wei Yuan’s bait, and only then could he catch a big one.

Now, all Wei Yuan had to do was wait patiently.

At that moment, a commotion erupted from the neighboring courtyard: a guest cursed loudly, the servant pleaded humbly, the guest pressed his advantage with even harsher curses, then the servant’s voice suddenly rose eight octaves—whereupon the guest immediately regained his composure.

Wei Yuan paid no mind to his new neighbor’s antics—no one who lived here was normal. He ate a simple dinner, then noticed a new book had replaced the one in his room’s bookshelf. Clearly, this inn held a large collection and changed its books frequently; the owner was indeed a refined man.

Wei Yuan picked up today’s new book and opened it.

This one told the story of a female cultivator who forged a Dao Foundation and embarked on the Immortal Path. Though she forged a pitiful Human-Class Dao Foundation, that didn’t stop her from encountering a teenage True Person, a middle-aged True Person, an elderly True Person, a Human King True Person, a Crown Prince True Person, a General True Person, a Metropolitan Graduate True Person, and so on.

All the True Persons initially scorned her pitiful Dao Foundation, but after spending time with her, each saw her unique, irreplaceable sincerity—and fell in love with her, bound by life and death. Each romance with every True Person was deeply moving, and in each, she remained faithful and earnest. Until one day, having met them all, after pledging eternal life and death with the teenage True Person, she finally awakened, resolved to return to herself—and departed for the Immortal Realm to begin a new chapter.

But the Immortal Realm section of this book had only just begun—only two chapters written before it ended. Wei Yuan guessed the author encountered a heavenly tribulation mid-writing, leaving this half-finished work as a posthumous masterpiece.

The book also featured many True Persons of Manifestation, who, due to insufficient cultivation, were unworthy of karmic ties with the female cultivator; only the most handsome few received tragic endings of unrequited love and sorrow, while the rest were mere bystanders.

Of course, the tale naturally included Yin-Yang Dao, abundant and potent. Wei Yuan appeared to be reading the book by night, but in truth, he was refining the Heaven’s Wild Disciple in his spiritual sea. He leaned against a jade mountain, beside him a withered branch, above him a full moon—both sharing his study and contemplation.

As Wei Yuan delved deep into the cultivation, the shadow within the moon suddenly surged, spewing three dark threads that hovered before him. These three dark threads differed from those Wei Yuan had previously absorbed—deeper, darker, thicker, appearing almost solid.

Previously, Wei Yuan’s decade-long accumulation of dark threads numbered in the thousands, but all were faint, sparse, barely perceptible—hundreds combined might equal one of these new ones. Half of those threads had been spent battling the Snow Mountain Giant Eagle; the other half had merged into his Ten Thousand Li River and Mountain Dao Foundation. His spiritual sea now held only a dozen scattered, dim threads. To suddenly gain three new threads, clearly one rank higher, left Wei Yuan deeply startled.

He looked up at the full moon—and suddenly understood the shadow’s meaning:

For you.

Wei Yuan thought that if he were playing not a furious swordsman, but a powerful eunuch, he would now kneel and thank Heaven’s grace.

Of course, Wei Yuan only thought it—there was no real consciousness in the moon’s shadow. He pondered briefly, concluding the three threads must be tied to the Heaven’s Wild Disciple. When he first wrote the Dao Foundation chapter of the Heaven’s Wild Disciple, he had sensed cosmic disturbances—but he’d been in the Hollow Valley of Hanging Green, where cosmic changes, unless they were Immortal Ascension tribulations, were barely noticeable within the sect’s borders.

What had he comprehended to draw this celestial fortune again? Wei Yuan felt he walked the correct path. He set aside the female cultivator’s biography and picked up the next book.

In his spiritual sea, Wei Yuan began meticulously studying the Heaven’s Wild Disciple from the beginning. In the room, he opened the new tale—and saw a frontispiece: exquisitely rendered, realistically detailed, a work of true sincerity.

While immersed in the profound truths of the Dao, unaware of day or night, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something and looked toward the door. A large object flew over the courtyard wall and landed inside!

His train of thought shattered, Wei Yuan grew angry. He strode out coldly into the courtyard. He glanced around, then looked at the object thrown in: a human-shaped bundle wrapped entirely in black cloth.

Of course, in a romance novel, opening such a bundle would bring a surprise. But this was not a novel—it was reality.

!.

Wei Yuan summoned his sword, slashed open the black cloth—and revealed the figure within. More precisely, a corpse.

Wang Lang!

His face was deathly pale, eyes wide open, pupils fully dilated—no breath remained. Only a charred sword wound marred his throat, strikingly similar to the one Wei Yuan had left on the knights’ throats that morning.

But the wound only looked similar—it was fundamentally different. Wei Yuan had cut and then seared with fire-based Dao energy to simulate Great Sun Sword Qi. Wang Lang’s throat wound was inflicted by a true fire-based magic sword. The two were incomparable.

The fish has bitten!

Wei Yuan sneered inwardly. His courtyard was guarded by array techniques capable of detecting and tracking intruders; within it lay the Immortal Lord’s array plate. Whether one entered the courtyard or merely tossed something inside, karma was sealed. Did they think they could escape?

Nearby, a dull thud echoed—the person who threw the body had clearly collided with something, judging by the sound, painfully. Then, with a crash, a house collapsed without cause—likely crushed under its own weight. Wei Yuan’s fengshui array was no gentle thing. The man was tough—he endured collapsing roofs and walls all the way, still managing to flee far away.

Wei Yuan made no move to chase. In his hand, the array plate glowed faintly green, revealing a tiny speck rapidly retreating westward. In this short time, he had escaped several li away—impressive speed. But the faster one flees, the more accidents follow; he was likely already half-dead.

This diversion tactic was crude. Wei Yuan didn’t need to guess—the tiny speck on the array plate was clearly bait. After all, another speck, dozens of times larger, remained stationary just one li away!

The array plate tracked karma, not ordinary means. The man who threw Wang Lang’s corpse fled desperately, hoping to lure Wei Yuan after him. But compared to the corpse, the mastermind’s karma was vastly greater—so even though he had done nothing directly, the array plate still drew him out. He hid one li away, likely observing Wei Yuan in secret, waiting to act.

Wei Yuan pushed open the gate and stepped out, ready to conceal himself and surprise the big fish one li away. But after only two steps, he froze—another bright speck suddenly appeared on the array plate, far larger and brighter than the previous two! The man was right next door—the one who had argued with the servant.

Wei Yuan stood before the neighboring courtyard gate. He stepped back two paces—the bright speck faded. He stepped forward two paces—the speck reappeared.

This was the big fish!

He had hidden so deeply that had Wei Yuan not stood right outside the gate, close enough, even the Immortal Lord’s fengshui array could not detect his anomaly. Moreover, this man had already been living next door when Wei Yuan arrived at the Liangping Inn.

Wei Yuan felt his scalp prickle. Who was fishing whom?

When great matters arise, one must remain calm. Wei Yuan took a deep breath, steadied his mind, and prepared to act with strategy.

Wei Yuan burst through the courtyard gate!

(End of Chapter)