The acolyte finished his task and was about to head back when his body suddenly froze in place as if hit by a Body-Fixing Spell. The moment the light in his eyes began to fade, Wang Ping used his Wood Spirit Qi to land beside him and immediately cast the Soul Searching Technique.

Countless memory fragments instantly flooded into Wang Ping’s divine soul. Simultaneously, with Wang Ping at its center, a dense cloud of Wood Spirit Qi silently formed a small barrier, while the Water Moon Bell’s illusion concealed the real-world events.

The acolyte’s real name was Wu San, and his memories began at the age of five. He had grown up in the Single Saber Sect of Ningde Prefecture. Due to an upheaval in the sect a hundred years ago, most of his family had been imprisoned in the dungeons of the Daoist Scripture Hall, where they remained until their deaths.

His branch of the family was the single bloodline spared by the disciples of Sanhe Temple out of a shred of mercy when they were handling the aftermath. However, his family was not grateful. Instead, the act only planted the seeds of hatred.

Wu San’s memory clearly depicted the day his fate changed. The sky was clear and cloudless. When he left home, his father told him many things, the most profound of which was to never forget their family’s hatred.

At that time, he didn’t even know what hatred was. Perhaps even up to the moment he was caught, he still couldn’t comprehend it. He was simply following the orders given to him.

After leaving home, he was placed in a stockade to learn the basics of intelligence work. Then, he was passed along with human traffickers and was eventually sold to his current father.

In Wu San’s memories, though his current father was disabled, he was genuinely good to him. Back then, Wu San didn’t understand the complexities of the human heart; he just thought that life was pretty good. He even fantasized about the wonderful future his ’father’ occasionally described.

Unfortunately, in the year he turned ten, he was dragged back into a world full of hatred, and happiness left him for good.

At the age of eleven, he successfully passed multiple rounds of assessments to enter Qianmu Temple. Due to his outstanding performance and his middle-to-low grade root bones, he was selected during an internal screening and assigned to the area outside the Mountain Peak Dojo.

Thus, he began a life of daily repetition that lasted for years.

The substance he sprinkled in the Mountain Peak Dojo was a very fine powder. This powder was an extra-planar substance; it had no spiritual nature of its own but was drawn to things that did. And because it was harmless to Cultivators, it was very difficult to detect.

Wu San didn’t know its specific purpose. Every seven days, when his day off arrived, he would go to the cockfighting ring near his home at the foot of the mountain to watch a match. When he returned home, a packet of powder wrapped in low-quality oil paper would have appeared in his pocket. His mission was to sprinkle this powder in the mountain peak’s gardens.

He had been doing this for three years!

After he finished reading the memories, Wang Ping exhaled a turbid breath. He glanced at Wu San, whose eyes had now completely lost their light. With a casual wave of his hand, Wu San’s body was completely overrun by Wood Spirit Qi and then rapidly dismembered. His flesh and blood were dragged through a crack in the ground at incredible speed, becoming nutrients for the earth.

Compared to mortals, an Entering Cultivator truly only needed a single thought to kill someone without them ever realizing it, leaving not a single clue behind.

Having done all this, Wang Ping silently returned to his hiding spot above the clouds. Yu Lian immediately asked, "How did it go?"

Wang Ping coldly recounted Wu San’s memories.

After listening, Yu Lian commented, "He was a pitiful person, too. It’s for the best now. You could say this is a release for him. Otherwise, only a tragic life awaited."

"This intelligence will most likely lead us to the people behind them." As Wang Ping spoke, he took a handful of seeds from his storage bag and tossed them toward the town below. He then used the Water Moon Bell to summon an illusory figure, silently projecting it into Yang Hou’s room in the rear courtyard of the front hall.

Yang Hou sensed it at once. His expression froze when he opened his eyes and saw Wang Ping’s figure, and he immediately stood to bow.

"Dispense with the formalities. I’ve come to you at this hour because I have a task for you, one that allows for no mistakes. And you only have six days."

As Wang Ping spoke, he displayed portraits of six people in front of Yang Hou. "These people frequent the cockfighting ring behind the academy in the town below. I need to know all of their connections. Some of them are undoubtedly innocent, so you’ll need to sort them out quickly. Oh, and you need to investigate these two with special focus."

A stack of portraits drawn on Xuan paper landed on the nearby table. Two were set aside separately. One depicted a city guard, sturdy-looking with a full beard. His clothes were no different from a commoner’s, save for the Official Family belt at his waist, from which hung two gleaming waist tokens.

Such an appearance was the easiest to disguise. The simplest method would be to shave the beard and change his outfit; most people wouldn’t recognize him at a glance. He had been constantly near Wu San.

The other person was a gambler who moved from spot to spot, watching the fight inside the ring. When he got excited, he liked to celebrate with those around him. He had even grabbed Wu San’s hand to make a victory gesture.

The man’s face was pale from debauchery, and he had the ordinary features of a southerner. His hair was somewhat yellowish and tied back with a hemp rope—casually, yet with a neatness that suggested he was either a very particular man or had a virtuous wife.

"Remember, there can be no mistakes with this. Do you... understand what I mean by that?" Wang Ping stared intently at Yang Hou.

"Yes!" Yang Hou knew the task was difficult, but he had no choice but to brace himself and take it on.

"Good!"

After saying "Good," Wang Ping’s illusory figure vanished.

「Amidst the clouds.」

Yu Lian said with some confusion, "I still can’t perceive exactly what that substance he sprinkled was. But if I sense carefully, I can feel its presence. It’s like how a mortal can sometimes see Spiritual Qi but is unable to grasp it."

Wang Ping understood what she meant. He thought for a moment, then said, "Their purpose is likely to help those two Star Gods pinpoint our location."

"That’s what I was thinking, too."

"For now, we’ll have to resolve this matter first, and then have the specialists from the Daoist Scripture Hall come examine it."

As they spoke, the two landed in Yu Cheng Taoist’s courtyard. In the process, Yu Lian used her water spirits to make the surrounding acolytes fall into a deeper sleep.

The master and disciple spoke for less than a quarter of an hour before Yu Cheng Taoist flew south under the cover of night.

Wang Ping, meanwhile, sat down in Yu Cheng Taoist’s room to meditate. While meditating, he wrote two letters and sent them off with Puppet Birds—one to Zuo Xuan, and one to Elder Wu.

’Since he knew he might be facing two crazed Star Gods, Wang Ping certainly wasn’t foolish enough to rush in alone. The correct choice was to contact backup first and swarm them.’

After sending the two letters, Wang Ping used his divine soul—which had fused with the memories of a locust tree—to summon a Spirit Communication Talisman. He used it to communicate with the Wood Spirit Plants that had sprouted from the seeds he’d scattered earlier, allowing him to monitor every move in the area.

「Six days passed in a flash.」 On the night before Wu San’s scheduled day off, Wang Ping suddenly received a letter from Dan Chen Daoist, delivered by a Puppet Bird. This was a communication channel used between Daoist Scripture Hall Patrol Envoys for major incidents.

The letter began as follows:

By the time you receive this letter, I may already be dead in some unknown place. There is something I must tell you: I was the one who personally assassinated your senior brother, Liu Zixiu...