Astonishment

Li Miao was aware that Xie Shuangren was unhappy with his tone earlier, but he had no intention of explaining himself. He simply said, “We’ll know when the time comes.”

“Very well, I look forward to it,” Xie Shuangren replied with a faint, mocking smile.

He then added, “We still have some matters to attend to at our family’s market, so we won’t keep you any longer. Farewell for now, Li. Let’s meet again at the Huangting Academy.” With that, he took Zhu Zifeng and Zhu Ke and left.

Watching Xie Shuangren depart, Li Miao’s eyes held a trace of amusement.

It was clear this man harbored a strong desire to challenge him, but lacking a suitable excuse, he refrained from proposing a match. Once Li entered the inner court of Huangting Academy, he wouldn’t even need to seek out Chi Xi’er. Xie Shuangren and the other top-ranked disciples would surely come to test him one after another.

“The most promising youths of this entire region—surely they won’t let me down,” Li Miao murmured to himself as he led Xiao Yun northwest.

…

Unbeknownst to him, as he conversed with Xie Shuangren, a shadowy figure had been lurking beneath an ancient pine at the street corner, silently observing.

Only after they had all left did the figure slip soundlessly from the shadows.

“The people from Illusion Sword Hall have gone. We can make our move.”

Pangshan City was vast, and the Huangting Academy was some distance away. Li Miao wasn’t in a hurry. He strolled through the winding, intricate streets, heading northwest at a leisurely pace.

The city’s layout was exceedingly complex. Not a single street was straight; each rose and fell, twisting around the contours of the mountains. Sometimes, turning a corner led to a dead end; other times, what seemed a blocked path would open up into a spacious lane after squeezing through a narrow alley.

The city above ground was already a labyrinth, and the multi-layered city beneath was even more convoluted.

The “foremost city within ten thousand miles” truly deserved its reputation.

As he wandered, Li Miao passed many marketplaces. Each had its own name—apart from “Sword Yi,” there were “Bamboo Gui,” “Wind Ding,” “Sand Yi,” and so on.

According to the locals, markets with the Heavenly Stems in their names were all small marketplaces. In the city’s north, center, and under the inner citadel, there were several large markets with grander names, such as “Xiaoyao Market” and “Spirit Stone Street” in the north, or “Seeking Sword Market” and “Thousand Gold Lane” in the inner citadel.

Small marketplaces mainly sold everyday goods for commoners. Even when selling magical treasures or spirit materials, they rarely offered anything above the middle grade, and purchases seldom exceeded a hundred spirit stones.

The large markets were different—they exclusively sold items for cultivators: treasures, elixirs, materials, jade slips of techniques, secret puppets, and more.

It was said that in “Spirit Stone Street,” some shops frequently sold spiritual treasure-level artifacts and divine weapons. Buyers would spend tens of thousands of spirit stones in a single transaction, astounding many.

After browsing for half a day, Li Miao bought Xiao Yun a jade pendant and picked up some extra clothes, dry rations, and other sundries, spending a little silver.

As he walked, the road suddenly ended, and he found himself in a dead-end alley.

He turned to leave and take another route, but noticed Xiao Yun had stopped, head lowered, lost in thought.

“Xiao Yun, what’s wrong?” Li Miao asked.

“It’s nothing… I just feel like someone’s following us,” she replied, her tone uncertain.

Li Miao’s heart skipped a beat.

Xiao Yun, a mid-stage Return to Origin-level demon, was far more perceptive than he. If she sensed something, it was likely true—someone was tailing them.

“So the Shadow Ghost Sect has arrived quickly,” he thought.

After a moment’s thought, he said to Xiao Yun, “Leave this alley and wait for me at the general store we just passed. I’ll deal with the assassin from the Shadow Ghost Sect.”

This little demoness had no combat ability and would only be a hindrance. Better to have her wait elsewhere than risk her being caught in the crossfire.

Xiao Yun nodded obediently. “Alright, I’ll wait back there. Master, be careful—don’t die.”

She turned and dashed out of the alley.

Li Miao couldn’t help but feel helpless at her parting words.

This little demoness had no sense of tact. Even if she feared his death would drag her soul down with him, she should have found a more subtle way to express it. Saying it so bluntly was just awkward.

“I’ll have to find time to teach her some social graces. If she ever reminds me like that in public, how will I save face…”

With a sigh, he walked to the deepest part of the alley and waited for the assassin to appear.

The alley wasn’t very deep—thirty to fifty paces at most.

There were only a few households on either side, making it a quiet and ideal spot for an ambush.

Leaning against the wall, Li Miao waited. But the assassin’s presence didn’t reveal itself.

Just as he began to suspect the enemy had sensed something and withdrawn, a figure abruptly materialized in the alley.

The appearance was utterly silent—one moment, the space was empty; the next, a black-clad figure stood there.

“How did you discover me?” the assassin asked.

His face was masked, revealing only his eyes. He was tall, and his voice marked him as a middle-aged man.

Li Miao’s gaze sharpened as he scrutinized the figure. No aura leaked from the man, making it impossible to judge his strength. Li Miao felt a surge of uncertainty.

He didn’t answer the question but instead asked, “How much did He Xianyuan and Yan Ruofei get for selling my whereabouts?”

The assassin snorted. “The soon-to-be-dead don’t need to know.”

With that, he attacked.

With a muffled thud, the assassin dissolved into a cloud of mist.

The next instant, black mist condensed before Li Miao.

“What speed!” Li Miao’s heart tightened—a strong sense of danger surged within him.

The black mist formed a massive fist and shot toward him. Trapped in the narrow alley, he had no room to dodge. He could only bring his arms up to guard his chest.

But unexpectedly, the fist of black mist carried no crushing force. Instead, the moment it touched him, it burrowed straight into his body.

A chilling coldness shot up his arms as the black mist invaded, racing through his meridians toward his heart.

Li Miao dared not be careless. He summoned his genetic primal energy to forcefully block the attack.

Fortunately, while the black mist was eerie and possessed a freezing, blood-congealing chill, its essence was fragile. Against the overwhelming strength of his genetic primal energy, it was quickly dispelled.

Li Miao breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

This assassin’s method was insidious indeed—silently invading the body to attack from within.

Luckily, his cultivation was unique. A typical cultivator of similar rank would have suffered grave injuries from that strike.

The assassin was confident. After the attack, he reformed at a distance, arms folded, waiting for Li Miao to collapse under the “Heart-Eroding Curse.”

Yet the expected screams never came.

Li Miao’s breath was steady, his expression dark as he charged forward.

The two were only ten paces apart—a negligible distance for cultivators at this level. With a burst of force, Li Miao closed the gap in an instant.

“Let’s see how you take a punch,” he said coldly.

The alley was narrow. Just as Li Miao had been unable to dodge earlier, now it was the assassin’s turn.

With a resounding crack, Li Miao’s full-force punch landed squarely on the assassin. The man’s reaction was almost identical—he barely managed to raise his arms to block.

But that was where the similarity ended.

The assassin wielded chilling, insidious force; Li Miao wielded pure, brutal power.

There was a distinct snap of breaking bones.

The assassin’s eyes widened in terror beneath his mask. His protective aura shattered like a soap bubble, and his forearm bones splintered into dozens of fragments. The force crashed into his chest, shattering his breastbone. He was grievously wounded.

“The information was wrong! He’s a body cultivator of such terrifying strength!” the assassin thought in horror.

Blood spurted from his mouth.

Enduring the agony, he hastily circulated his energy, dissolving into black mist and melting away into the alley.

The assassin had arrived without warning and vanished without a trace.

Only a pool of blood on the empty ground attested to his presence.

“The Shadow Ghost Sect’s techniques for concealing presence are truly formidable. That assassin was, at most, late Foundation Condensation stage, yet I couldn’t sense him at all. And that mist-form movement technique—unnerving…”

Li Miao’s face was grave.

If not for Xiao Yun’s warning, he wouldn’t have known the assassin had found him so quickly.

Even standing face to face, he couldn’t sense the killer’s aura. Such mastery of stealth explained why the Shadow Ghost Sect was so feared by solitary cultivators.

“They underestimated me this time. Next, they’ll likely send a Return to Origin expert. If every Shadow Ghost Sect assassin possesses such tricks, I’m in for a rough time,” he mused.

No one could stay vigilant at all times. Being hunted by wolves was a miserable state—any lapse could mean disaster.

With a sigh, Li Miao left the alley, murmuring, “It seems joining Huangting Academy is indeed necessary. If nothing else, its Eighteen Hells should be one place even the Shadow Ghost Sect cannot infiltrate.”

Outside the alley, Xiao Yun was sitting on a stool in front of the general store, playing with the feathers on her arm.

Seeing him return safely, she smiled. “Master, are you alright? The one following us seems to be gone. I can’t sense his presence anymore.”

Her face was bright with joy—whether for her master’s safety or her own, it was hard to say.

Li Miao felt a touch of helplessness toward this little demoness, who was so terrified of death. “He’s probably as good as dead, but stronger ones will come for revenge. Your senses are keener than mine—stay alert at all times. If anyone sneaks up on us, let me know right away. If I die, you’ll be in trouble too.”

“Don’t worry, you can count on me,” Xiao Yun replied earnestly.

When it came to her own safety, she was highly motivated.

“Let’s go. Time to visit Huangting Academy.”

Li Miao quickened his pace, taking Xiao Yun with him as they headed northwest.

Pangshan City’s east and south were bordered by the Cangyun River, while the west and north pressed against rolling mountains.

Huangting Academy lay in the city’s northwest corner, occupying the highest ground and spanning tens of thousands of mu—almost as large as a city itself.

Even before they arrived, the immortal academy on the mountainside was visible from afar.

On the way, Li Miao overheard many things about Huangting Academy.

For instance, it was the institution that produced the most cultivators within the county. Every year, over five hundred children entered the academy and successfully became body refinement cultivators. If their families were wealthy enough to pay the tuition and spirit stone fees, they could even advance to Qi Refinement, or Foundation Condensation.

It was also said that the current headmaster, Master Qianji, was a peerless expert at the peak of the Profound Comprehension stage, and had protected the city for centuries. Even the county governor, Lord Yang Kaishan—himself a Profound Comprehension cultivator and city lord—had been his personal disciple.

With a reputation for producing outstanding disciples, the academy naturally attracted countless mortals and cultivators.

Families of modest means, unable to obtain cultivation methods by other means, saw paying the academy’s tuition as their greatest hope. They would do whatever they could to send their children to study, hoping for a chance at transcendence and family honor.

Thus, the northwest corner of Pangshan City was always one of the busiest places in town.

It was now September, the annual season for Huangting Academy’s new student intake, and the area was even more crowded than usual.

Li Miao and Xiao Yun arrived at the academy’s gate at the height of the day. The spacious forecourt was packed with at least several hundred people.

Most were ordinary folk, parents gathered with their children beneath a sign reading, “Lower Academy.”

The “Lower Academy” accepted young children, guiding them onto the path of cultivation.

On the other side was the “Outer Academy,” open only to those who had already reached the Qi Refinement stage.

The queue under the “Outer Academy” sign was much shorter—less than a hundred, mostly youths.

The reason for the smaller number wasn’t a lack of interest, but the high tuition. The Lower Academy required only a hundred taels of silver per year, but the Outer Academy demanded a full hundred low-grade spirit stones—equivalent to a high-quality magical treasure annually. Few Qi Refinement families could afford it.

But for Li Miao, this was no obstacle at all.

A long line waited under the Outer Academy sign—processing each applicant would take some time.