At his house, Lan Rui went to his study room and continued working on talismans. His supplies were running low, with just a little over a hundred sheets of blank talisman paper remaining.
Time quickly passed as he followed his usual routine. Before he knew it, midnight had arrived. Seated beside the wooden table, talisman brush in hand, he stared intently at one place.
[Name]: Lan Rui
[Lifespan]: 21 / 85
[Spirit Roots]: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth
[Realm]: Fourth Layer Qi Refining Realm (7/100)
[Cultivation Technique]: Five Elements Cultivation (Beginner Level 140/200)
[Techniques]: Cleaning Technique (Beginner Level 79/200), Earth Pillowing Technique (Minor Achievement 12/300), Cloud Rain Technique (Minor Achievement 45/300), Entanglement Technique (Beginner Level 1/200), Geng Metal Finger (Beginner Level 32/200)
[Skills]: First Order Talisman Master: Cleaning Talisman (Minor Achievement 10/200), Light Shield Talisman (Beginner Level 38/200), Evil-Repelling Talisman (Beginner Level 23/100), Fireball Talisman (Beginner Level 10/100)
[Comprehension Points (CP)]: 0
He nodded in satisfaction.
"Let's cultivate. I'll continue this tomorrow morning."
Blowing out the oil lamp, he stood up and walked over to his meditation mat.
After a few incense sticks' time, as he cultivated, he suddenly heard a faint sound in the courtyard.
According to the previous owner's memories, he would always spread dry leaves and thin sticks around after returning from the market. At first, Lan Rui didn't understand why, he even thought it was some sort of ritual. But out of habit, he had continued the practice.
Now, it was proving useful.
He halted his cultivation and got up without making a sound. Instead of checking the disturbance directly, he went to the kitchen and grabbed the only sharp weapon in his possession, a kitchen knife.
Positioning himself at the corner of the house, just a few meters away from the door, he waited. He avoided standing right next to the entrance, knowing that any intruder would likely scan the area with their divine sense before stepping inside. If he were too close, he would be exposed.
A few breaths passed.
Then, right before his eyes, the lock on the door was silently sliced open as if cut by an invisible force.
The door creaked as it swung open, revealing a figure clad entirely in black. A cloth covered the lower half of his face, obscuring his identity. Silent and precise, the intruder stepped inside and carefully shut the door behind him.
At that moment, Lan Rui sprang into action.
He lunged forward, his grip tightening around the kitchen knife. Before the intruder could react, the blade embedded itself deep into his throat.
The man's eyes widened in shock. Blood gushed from the wound as he clutched at his neck, his body convulsing. He reached out as if trying to grab something, perhaps seeking salvation but all he grasped was empty air.
A moment later, he collapsed lifelessly onto the floor.
Lan Rui stared at the unmoving body, his own hands trembling despite his cold, expressionless face.
Slumping against the wall, he looked down at his bloodstained hands. The thick, crimson liquid felt warm, sticky. His stomach churned. He fought the urge to vomit but managed to hold it back.
Only after several cups of tea's time had passed did he finally calm down. That was when the realization struck him, he had just killed someone for the first time.
In his past life, he had lived in a peaceful world. Even though he had served in the military, he had never experienced real combat, let alone taken a life.
As he prepared to stand, another sound reached his ears, the crunch of dry leaves being stepped on.
His body tensed again.
But then, a familiar voice called out from a distance.
"Xiao Lan, is everything alright?"
Hearing the gentle voice laced with concern, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
It was Sister Wei Xin.
Regaining his composure, he responded, "Wei Jie, I'm alright. I was cleaning up some talisman ink spilled on the table."
"Alright, I'm heading back. Just let me know if you need anything."
Strangely, the usually talkative and nosy Sister Wei Xin, who always pried into every little thing, didn't press him for details today.
But now was not the time to dwell on that.
He had something far more urgent to deal with, the body.
How should he handle this? Burying it was out of the question. If an evil spirit discovered the corpse, it could possess it and turn into a Corpse Evil Wraith.
That would be disastrous.
Letting out a deep sigh, he dragged the corpse to the back of his house. Without hesitation, he pulled out a talisman, activating it.
The temperature around him spiked instantly as an orange fireball the size of his head formed, floating in the air before shooting toward the body.
The moment it made contact, a blazing inferno erupted, engulfing the corpse.
He watched as the flames consumed the body, reducing it to ashes in a matter of minutes.
Once only ashes remained, he carefully gathered them and scattered them outside his courtyard.
With that taken care of, he used a water spell to wash the blood off his hands and body before heading back inside to clean up the mess.
After an incense stick's time, he finally sat in his room, deep in thought.
"What if I had tried talking to him first? But that would have been foolish. If he had attacked me outright, I wouldn't have had the confidence to defend myself, let alone kill him without a sneak attack."
But the real question remained,why?
Why had he been targeted?
He never flaunted his wealth. He kept a low profile. So who had exposed him?
There were only two people he regularly interacted with, Old Wang and Sister Wei Xin.
If Old Wang had wanted to kill him, with his extensive network, he wouldn't have hired a mere low-level thief. He could have easily commissioned a Late-Stage Qi Refining Realm cultivator to do the job.
"As for Sister Wei..."
Her behavior had been a little strange today. It was possible she had sensed something was wrong or maybe she had even detected the intruder.
But if she really intended to harm him, Lan Rui doubted he would have even realized how he died.
He carefully recalled every person he had interacted with from customers at his stall to the salesmen at the Li Family Talisman Shop to random pedestrians in the market.
No one had stood out as suspicious.
"Haa… no point thinking about it any further."
Letting out another sigh, his gaze finally fell upon a storage bag lying in front of him.
"Let's see what we've got here."
.....