Guyun City, Shatou Town, tavern.
Wild singing, heavy drinking, wild dancing, an aging prostitute.
A tall man, unkempt with messy hair and a stubbly beard, dressed in rags and exuding a stale, decaying aura, pushed the door open and walked in.
"Hey, hey, hey, why are you here again?" The innkeeper stepped forward to meet him.
"Master, I'm begging you, please! My shop is a small business, if you come by a few more times, all my customers will run away!"
A customer nearby chimed in with a look of disgust, tightly covering his nose: "You're not short on money, so why can't you take a bath before coming here?"
The man said nothing. He simply picked a corner and sat down quietly, then slapped down a line of copper coins.
The owner sighed helplessly, reaching out to sweep the copper coins into his sleeve: "Fine, since you're here, you're a customer. Sit wherever you like."
Reluctantly, the owner made a little space between the man and the people around him.
Nobody wanted a stinking bug squatting around while they were drinking, even though this group of drunkards reeked of alcohol themselves.
The man gave the crowd an indifferent sweep of his eyes, then shifted his gaze to the aging prostitute ahead.
His fingers tapped a gentle rhythm along with the music.
Suddenly, the man's rhythm faltered. At that very moment, a green-robed woman wearing a veil walked up, holding a pipa.
Her skin was smooth, her beautiful eyes sparkled with intelligence, and her figure was slender.
Her jade-green fingers lightly plucked the pipa strings, and the sound that drifted out was none other than the fiercely murderous "Ambush from Ten Sides"!
With black grease stains at the corners of his mouth and mud caked deep into his fingers, the man stared blankly at the delicate beauty before him.
Despite possessing striking, sword-like eyebrows and a sharply chiselled, angular face, his eyes were filled with confusion, longing, and unease.
The song ended, but the notes of warfare still echoed.
The man slammed his hand down on the table. The pot of aged wine the proprietor had just brought up was blasted into the air, and the already dilapidated wooden table shattered on the spot!
"Audacious monster! Still trying to trick me?" The man gave a grim, chilling smile, and a short blade suddenly appeared in his hand.
"Alas!" The woman let out a soft sigh.
With the man's hand rising and the blade falling, not a single living soul remained in the tavern.
Ignoring the wails of the drinkers and the kneeling pleas for mercy from the proprietor, the man brutally slaughtered everyone except the woman.
Yes, everyone.
Including himself.
With bloodshot eyes, the man watched as his own blade plunged straight into his chest. Amidst this slaughterhouse of severed limbs and broken bodies, he looked like a starving ghost crawling up from hell.
The woman gently stroked the man's face, and he slowly collapsed to the ground.
"Still not working?" a hoarse voice asked.
"No," the woman said coldly. "Go make preparations again."
The moment she turned her head, a tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
"Master, this old servant means no offense. But we don't have many chances left." The hoarse voice was laden with deep helplessness.
As soon as the voice faded, the surrounding slaughterhouse vanished entirely.
In a filthy alleyway in Shatou Town, Guyun City.
A tall figure lying on the ground suddenly sat up.
He routinely felt for his money pouch, then got to his feet and walked toward the tavern.
...
"With extraordinary meridians and bones, my might can shatter the heavens; a righteous aura swirls through the mortal realm..." Fan Yi hummed a song with a bizarre melody in the eyes of everyone.
It was a pity that, tone-deaf in his past life, he had been blessed with a fine singing voice in this one.
This had once made him regret not transmigrating to 1997; he was confident he could have beaten Xia Luo and become the godfather of Mandopop.
A light drizzle had just fallen, and a tender green blade of grass sprouted from the earth, its leaves stretching upward as if waking up and giving a stretch.
Having just experienced the rain, the grass blades were plump, erect, full of fighting spirit, and brimming with vitality.
Had it grown back in the primeval primordial era, it might well have become an immortal herb capable of slashing apart the sun, moon, and stars!
Unfortunately, a bay horse carrying Fan Yi and Gu San, alongside a black steed bearing Xia Wuxiu and his cute yet foolish little sister, ruthlessly trampled right over it.
"Old Han, hurry up, there's a small town ahead!" Lord Wushuang urged.
Old Han grunted a response and quickened his pace.
Sitting astride his horse, Fan Yi narrowed his eyes as he stared at the small town ahead. To his senses, the aura of the town was utterly unnatural.
That discordant aura wrapped tightly around the entire town like a massive spiderweb.
As for how he sensed it, that brought up the realm of Dan Jin.
Fan Yi had just stepped into the Dan Jin realm, and this realm had left his jaw on the floor.
It actually required comprehending nature and mobilizing the momentum of heaven and earth!
What the hell was this? Why did it suddenly feel like the art style had abruptly changed?
They had agreed everyone would play as warriors and brute-force things with muscle, but once you reached Hua Jin, you started cheating and installed your own mana bar.
And now it was even more direct—you practically turned into a half-mage.
Eventually, Fan Yi came to terms with it. Perhaps he had been misled by his past life all along; many things here were only superficially similar.
Could it be that the ultimate goal of Internal Force was actually to comprehend nature?
Thinking about it this way, the cultivation of Internal Force expanded outward from a person's core to encompass the entire world—first understanding oneself, and then aligning with the great nature.
"No wonder there are so few in Dan Jin." Fan Yi patted his forehead. "This step is way too huge."
It was equivalent to climbing a towering cliff.
A Qi Refiner would tell you that you could climb slowly, step by step, being careful, and then teach you the techniques for scaling cliffs.
An Internal Force martial artist, on the other hand, would have you climb a cliff that looked neither too high nor too steep. Once you made it to the top, he would point to the cliff across the way and say, "Come on, buddy, jump across and we've reached our destination!"
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people could not jump across a canyon to a finish line on the opposite side that was even a head taller than where they started.
Fan Yi had jumped across because he had a catapult strapped to his feet.
Fan Yi had experienced it: this so-called momentum of nature was indeed somewhat different from the Qi Refiners he had encountered that time.
He wondered if he would have to jump off another cliff next time.
Quietly sensing his still-rising cultivation, Fan Yi thought to himself: "The next step must be See God and Not Destroy, right? Am I going to be the first genius in thousands of years to step into See God and Not Destroy?!"
Pushing aside his little ambitions, Fan Yi looked with curiosity at the invisible web that he felt he could erase at any moment.
"I just wonder if I can get a manual on Qi Refining?" Fan Yi muttered to himself, then patted Gu San, who was sitting in front of him making funny faces to make Xiao Junyao laugh.
Did he not see the icy expression on Xia Wuxiu's face as the boy held his giggling sister?
And seriously, could this kid stop using such low-tier methods to win over a girl?
Looking at these three kids—one cute and silly, one blockheaded, and the other a hopeless siscon—
Fan Yi felt it was necessary to properly teach his foolish disciple a lesson; otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to win a bride in the future!
"Once we enter the town, listen to me about everything, and it's best if you all stay in your rooms and don't go out, understand?" Fan Yi turned his head to warn the only person in the group with rebellious, secretive thoughts: the hopeless siscon.
Feeling the deep malice radiating from Fan Yi, Xia Wuxiu involuntarily shivered. "Y-yeah, I know."
Behind them, Old Han furrowed his brows upon hearing this. "Young Master, is there danger? Should we take a detour instead?"
"No need," Fan Yi waved a hand. "A bunch of minor ghosts and specters, nothing to make a fuss over."
Hearing this, Xia Wuxiu instinctively glanced at his younger sister.
He decided that once they entered the inn room, he would absolutely not go outside with his sister. Besides, that would also keep the stinking brat opposite him from coming over to annoy her.
Seeing the slight smirk on Xia Wuxiu's face and guessing his little thoughts, Fan Yi was left speechless.
...
In a dimly lit secret chamber, the Assassin Leader knelt on the ground, trembling.
"Do you want to die?" The heavy door was kicked open with a loud crash.
A panting, red-eyed, chubby man roared furiously, "Who gave you the gall!"
The Assassin Leader did not reply, because that question was meant for the person hiding in the shadows.
"Not talking?" The big fatty gritted his teeth, drew his long sword, and viciously skewered the Assassin Leader on the ground from back to front.
"Your Highness, the man is dead, you should calm your anger now." A completely emotionless, gender-neutral voice sounded.
Gritting his teeth, the big fatty hurled his long sword in the direction the voice came from.
"Clang!" A spark flashed in the darkness, and then there was absolute silence.
The big fatty slumped onto the floor. With his benevolent, Maitreya Buddha-like appearance, he now embodied an enraged Vajra: "You lot, understanding nothing yet acting on your own authority—this prince will be killed by you idiots sooner or later!"