Chapter 1: Can You Give Me Your Earring?

"Sorry, sorry, it wasn't intentional."

In front of the Brocade Pavilion, a youth accidentally bumped into a well-dressed young noble. He naturally clasped his hands in apology, retreating backward as he spoke, about to turn and leave when the young noble he had bumped into bellowed, "You, stop right there! You think just saying 'sorry' is enough after bumping into me?"

With that, the black-clad guards behind the young noble slowly encircled him, forming a menacing perimeter.

The youth: "..."

He halted, turning his head to face the young noble. The youth was strikingly handsome—lips red as cherries, teeth white as pearls, eyes like polished lacquer, and an expression that seemed to radiate an air of lofty defiance. Faced with this scene, he showed no fear, instead revealing a brilliant smile with a deep dimple on his left cheek, exuding a calm and collected demeanor. He asked, "Then what do you want me to do?"

The young noble glanced disdainfully at the youth's somewhat tattered clothing and sneered, "You stepped on my shoes. Do you know how expensive these shoes are? You couldn't afford a single gold thread on them in your entire lifetime. I want you to kneel and lick my shoes. Lick them clean, and I'll let you go."

Chi Yu: "..."

He hadn't stepped on the young noble's shoes at all; this was purely an excuse to humiliate him.

But what's with this script? It's so cliché.

Beside his ear, Ling Hezhou, from within the Soul Pearl earring, whispered, "Just give him some Spirit Stones to compensate and avoid trouble."

Ignoring him, Chi Yu calmly said, "And if I refuse?"

The young noble replied in a sinister tone, "Then you'll die horribly!"

Chi Yu: "Then you'll die horribly."

Their voices echoed simultaneously.

The young noble: "..."

Chi Yu: "How dare you mock me?"

The young noble: "How dare you mock me?"

Chi Yu: "You wouldn't take the easy way, so now you get the hard way."

The young noble angrily retorted, "You wouldn't take the easy way, so now you get the hard way..."

The young noble: "..."

Ling Hezhou exclaimed in surprise, "How did you know what he was going to say?"

Before Chi Yu could respond, the young noble snapped, "A mere ant dares to mimic this young master's words! Ding San, Ding Si, break his legs and pull out his tongue!"

"Yes!" The guards stepped forward, ready to attack Chi Yu.

Ling Hezhou urgently said, "Take out my Protective Amulet, quick!"

Chi Yu immediately pulled out a stack of Blast Talismans from his Spatial Ring, deliberately displaying them face up.

"Supreme-grade Blast Talismans?" The guards halted, their faces filled with shock. Talismans were rare in the market, and even when available, their quality was usually low. A single Supreme-grade Blast Talisman was already worth a fortune, let alone a whole stack in the youth's hand.

The guards were knowledgeable enough to recognize their value, so they stopped and looked to the young noble for instructions.

Though the young noble was ignorant, he too recognized the Supreme-grade Blast Talismans in Chi Yu's hand. His face turned a mixture of colors, and he gritted out through clenched teeth, "You've got nerve. Let's get out of here!"

Simultaneously, Chi Yu said under his breath, "You've got nerve. Let's get out of here."

The young noble: "..."

Furious but restrained by his guards, the young noble had no choice. With a stack of Supreme-grade Blast Talismans, even a slightly inferior Protective Amulet wouldn't withstand the damage. There was no point in confronting him.

The young noble never expected that after years of bullying others in the city, he would finally meet his match. Biting back his anger, he left resentfully with his men.

Once the young noble was gone, the onlookers dispersed, and Chi Yu leisurely entered the Brocade Pavilion.

The shop clerk had witnessed the entire scene and seen Chi Yu's extravagance, so he didn't judge him by his shabby clothes. Instead, he enthusiastically escorted Chi Yu into the innermost "VIP room."

Within an hour, Chi Yu had undergone a complete transformation. The tattered robes he had stripped from a corpse were replaced with the latest protective robe of the year, adorned with silver and gold threads embroidered with intricate patterns of flowers and plants. A pale jade belt cinched his slender waist. The luxurious robe suited him perfectly, complementing his handsome yet youthful face. His tall, slender figure made him look every bit the young master of a wealthy family, though his short hair, like that of a recently returned monk, slightly diminished his refined air.

But it was still a vast improvement. When Chi Yu first arrived in this world, he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, looking like an uncivilized barbarian in the eyes of cultivators, almost taken as a pet.

Ling Hezhou remembered something and asked Chi Yu, "By the way, how did you know what he was going to say? Do you have mind-reading skills?"

Before Chi Yu could answer, he dismissed the idea himself. "Impossible. That's a Forbidden Technique. How could you, who only recently drew Qi into your body and reached the first stage of Qi Refinement, possibly know mind-reading?"

Chi Yu replied to Ling Hezhou, "He's just cannon fodder. That's how it always goes in novels."

Ling Hezhou: "Novels? You mean those storybooks? —Hey, aren't you going back?"

Chi Yu said, "No, we're leaving the city directly."

Ling Hezhou: "Why, why? There's still luggage at the inn. You're so stingy—are you just going to abandon all that stuff?"

Chi Yu said in a whining tone, "When am I stingy? This is slander! That's slander!"

Ling Hezhou felt he couldn't understand Chi Yu.

Their partnership had begun by chance when Chi Yu was scavenging from corpses and happened upon him.

When he died, his father's Protective Amulet had activated instantly. Even though he was only at the Golden Core stage, it managed to conceal and preserve his spirit. His fellow disciples weren't as fortunate—they all died, their bodies torn apart, left to the wilds where beasts devoured them until not even bone fragments remained.

Chi Yu was kind-hearted. When scavenging from corpses, he would leave the deceased with covering garments, bury them, erect tombstones, burn incense and paper offerings, and even make sacrificial offerings.

In the cultivation world, such practices were largely meaningless. Unless a cultivator had reached the Nascent Soul stage or specifically cultivated their spirit, death meant complete annihilation; body and dao extinguished. But Chi Yu's willingness to do this showed his good nature.

It was because of this that Ling Hezhou dared to call out for help—the Protective Amulet had a time limit. Once it expired, he would die regardless.

With Chi Yu's help, Ling Hezhou's spirit could retreat into the tiny Soul Pearl, becoming a crimson earring dangling from Chi Yu's fair, full earlobe.

Though Chi Yu was kind, Ling Hezhou found some of his habits baffling. For instance, he would take anything he could get, pocket every common plant he saw, insisting they were rare herbs like lingzhi or ginseng that could be sold for money. When staying in towns, even though he had amassed a fortune in Spirit Stones from scavenging corpses, he would still haggle relentlessly, ensuring no one could take advantage of him by even a single copper.

Just earlier at the Brocade Pavilion, Chi Yu had bargained relentlessly, convincing the shop owner to throw in numerous extras. The owner had even seemed willing, smiling as he personally saw Chi Yu out.

For someone so stingy to claim slander—Ling Hezhou inwardly grumbled before changing the subject. "Are you really leaving the stuff behind? Didn't you say those weeds you dug up for so long could be sold for money?" In truth, they weren't worth much—only mortals might spend useless gold and silver on them, which held no value for cultivators.

Chi Yu had scavenged many corpses and acquired numerous Spatial Rings and storage pouches—courtesy of Ling Hezhou and his fellow disciples. Their killers hadn't bothered to loot, likely because they were already wealthy. Before them, Chi Yu's scavenging had yielded little more than bloodstained outer robes and the occasional stray Spirit Stone hidden in clothing.

This one scavenging spree had made Chi Yu a wealthy man. However, storage pouches and Spatial Rings had their limits, and ordinary plants couldn't be stored in them, so Chi Yu had to carry them on his person.

Now, Chi Yu wasn't bothered, practical as ever. "Leave them. That guy is definitely lying in wait for me."

Ling Hezhou understood. "Really? You scared them off. Would they dare provoke you again?"

Chi Yu laughed, his starry eyes sparkling with bright amusement. "No one understands cannon fodder better than me.jpg."

Ling Hezhou truly didn't understand. What did 'jpg' mean?

Ling Hezhou had no idea that on the very night they left the city, the black-clad men sent by the young master sneaked into the inn room where Chi Yu had been staying under the cover of darkness.

One of the men whispered, "Are you sure it's this room?"

"It's this one."

Even in the dark, their eyes gleamed with malice. "A mere ant, daring to provoke the Ding family. Let's go, cut him to ribbons."

They slid into the room without a sound, the clang of swords echoing briefly before lamplight flared to life. The black-clad men sounded shocked. "He didn't come back?"

Under the lamplight, they exchanged confused looks.

*

Later that night, the moon broke through the clouds, washing the forest in silver light. A soft breeze stirred the trees, and the faint caw of a crow only emphasized the eerie quiet and bone-chilling cold.

Chi Yu kept walking, Ling Hezhou talking in his ear, making the trip less boring.

Ling Hezhou said, "Are you really not joining my Tianyan Sect? With me around, I can get you to the Golden Core stage within ten years."

This wasn’t an empty boast. Ling Hezhou was a textbook immortal nepo baby, the young sect leader of the Tianyan Sect, one of the eight great immortal sects of Wangxianzhou. If he made such a promise, he could actually hook you up with the training resources needed to reach the Golden Core stage.

Method, money, connections, and territory—having a cultivation sect and resources was a golden opportunity for anyone. Ling Hezhou’s offer was sincere, a way to repay Chi Yu for agreeing to return his Spirit to the Tianyan Sect.

But to Ling Hezhou’s surprise, Chi Yu refused! He actually refused!

Ling Hezhou was utterly baffled, but Chi Yu had no intention of explaining, simply saying that taking his stuff was payment enough.

Now, Ling Hezhou brought it up again, and Chi Yu still refused, smoothly changing the topic. "Were the ones who killed you demonic cultivators?"

He remembered Ling Hezhou mentioning that he and his fellow disciples had been pursuing a demonic cultivator.

Ling Hezhou’s voice tightened instantly. "No, that demonic cultivator wasn’t shit. My senior brother beheaded him quickly. The one who killed us was someone else. He radiated an extremely terrifying pressure, though his cultivation wasn’t particularly high—probably only one or two levels above mine. There was no demonic energy around him, and his spiritual energy fluctuations were very strange. The moment we faced him, in a heartbeat, we were all wasted."

Chi Yu: "...So you didn’t even have time to fight back before being one-shot?"

"Mm." Ling Hezhou’s voice carried a trace of fear and unease. "He was bizarre. Just looking at him made my soul tremble, as if countless needles were piercing me, and my organs felt like they were melting. I’ve never seen anyone like him."

Chi Yu asked, "What did he look like?"

Ling Hezhou replied, "He was dressed in black, wearing a mask, very tall and imposing. It was as if he was shrouded in black mist, making it hard to see any details. We had plenty of spirit stones and treasures on us, but after we died, he didn’t take a single thing. It clearly wasn’t a robbery. That leaves only one possibility."

Chi Yu answered, "He’s a psycho killer."

Ling Hezhou roughly understood what he meant. "Yes. Even if he isn’t a demonic cultivator, he should be taken out. Besides, he killed my senior and junior brothers. Once I return to the Tianyan Sect and report to the Sect Leader, we’ll deal with him."

He then asked, "What about you? Since you don’t plan to join the Tianyan Sect, what are your plans for the future?"

Chi Yu laughed, his tone light. "I need to kill someone. Once that’s done, I can go home."

Ling Hezhou: "You? Kill someone? You couldn’t even bring yourself to kill a wild rabbit. How could you kill a person?"

Ling Hezhou didn’t understand Chi Yu. He seemed to have a heart softer than a mortal’s—camping outdoors, he couldn’t bring himself to harm a wild rabbit, instead catching it, petting it, feeding it grass, and releasing it like a young girl. He ended up eating wild berries to fill his stomach. When he saw ants moving on the road, he even went out of his way to avoid them. This was the heart of a saint.

Chi Yu said, "I can’t do it now, but killing is something for the future. I’ll worry about it when the time comes."

Ling Hezhou: "?"

Once again, Ling Hezhou didn’t understand Chi Yu.

They hadn’t walked far when Chi Yu suddenly stopped. Ling Hezhou asked, "Why did you stop?"

Chi Yu let out a soft "ah," his clear, pleasant voice tinged with hoarseness for the first time. "...Someone’s here."

Ling Hezhou: "Who?"

Chi Yu didn’t answer, and Ling Hezhou didn’t need him to—from within the Soul Pearl, he could already see the approaching figure.

The man was dressed in black, his face hidden behind a fearsome ghost king mask, moving sleekly through the moonlight.

Chi Yu tensed up. The man was extremely tall, Chi Yu estimated around 195 cm, his form faintly shrouded in black mist that blurred his outline. He radiated a crushing pressure and a cold, sharp killing intent that made Chi Yu’s limbs go weak, his head spin, and his knees almost buckle.

The man landed about five meters away from Chi Yu, holding a strangely shaped sword that glowed with a faint bloody light. The thick scent of blood made the air feel thick and sticky.

"May I ask," the man’s voice was pleasant, magnetic, brimming with an indescribable, creepy delight, "could you hand over your earring to me?"

The face behind the mask seemed to smile, his voice smooth and amused, like a spring breeze. "That’s my prey."

Ling Hezhou was stunned, then incredulous. "He’s here for me?"

Chi Yu: "..."