After steadying his breathing, Chen Feng pushed himself up from the floor. His body was completely drenched in sweat, but trapped in the stuffy, enclosed room, the sweat had already chilled against his skin, leaving his clothes smelling heavily of stale exhaustion. He ignored the discomfort entirely.
Walking over to the wide-open window, he gazed back out at the colossal mountain whose jagged peak still pierced the distant, cloud-filled sky.
This time, there was no terrifying void, no endless darkness, and no blood-red pupils staring back at him—because he wasn’t forcing his Secret-Seeking Eyes open. He was just looking at it with his bare eyes.
Whatever entity resided deep inside that mountain, or perhaps within the mysterious palace where he had first been teleported upon arriving in this world, it was unfathomably dangerous.
It was a terrifying existence so immense that mere mortals were not even granted the right to look upon it.
Could it be that an immensely powerful ancient entity had been sealed away here by gods of old? And every time that ancient entity struggled to break free.
perhaps portals appeared in different places, pulling people from other worlds into the palace.
Most of them died.
Only a few managed to survive.
Chan Feng’s expression gradually became serious.
"Could it be...?"
"Could everyone in this entire world have come here through those portals because of that mountain?"
"No."
He immediately shook his head.
"That’s impossible."
Even though he had never traveled beyond this town, he knew that this entire region belonged to a massive empire.
An empire with its own history and civilization.
It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with this mountain.
Whatever secret was hidden inside it...
He didn’t want to think about it anymore.
Chen Feng shifted his gaze toward the town below.
It was already night.
The streets were illuminated by the warm glow of traditional hanging lanterns, their soft light spreading between the old wooden buildings.
Thanks to his eagle-like vision, Chen Feng could see much farther than an ordinary person.
His gaze swept across the town.
On one side stood a bustling brothel area, still radiating bright lights and faint sounds of music.
On the other side, near the edge of town, stood a fortified garrison checkpoint—a heavy, ancient stone-and-timber guardhouse where imperial guards stationed to protect the town were keeping watch, illuminated by torches.
Just as Chen Feng’s gaze swept past the garrison and drifted toward a patch of deep, impenetrable darkness near the alley edges, something caught his eye.
A faint disturbance in the shadows.
Chen Feng narrowed his eyes.
After focusing his vision, he spotted three or four figures dressed completely in dark, form-fitting clothes.
They were moving silently through the darkness.
Every now and then, they stopped and appeared to exchange a few words before continuing forward.
"Assassins?"
"Ninjas?"
For a moment, Chen Feng’s heart tightened.
But he quickly took a deep breath.
There was no reason to assume they were coming for him.
Still, his curiosity got the better of him.
"Secret-Seeking Eyes... activate."
A blue glow once again appeared in Chen Feng’s eyes.
He wanted to see whether the ability could identify people from such a great distance and can he see the discription of humans?.
The mountain looked enormous from here, yet those assassins looked almost like tiny ants.
Could his eyes really analyze even them?
The moment he activated the ability, numerous notifications began appearing before his eyes.
Descriptions of houses.
Descriptions of trees.
Descriptions of various objects scattered throughout the town.
One after another, the notifications flashed before him.
Then, finally—
The descriptions of the black-clothed figures appeared.
[First-Rate Martial Artist]
[Red Serpent Assassin Guild]
Chen Feng’s expression instantly changed.
"First-Rate Martial Artists..."
There were several of them.
His heart sank.
Down in the dark, he could clearly see with his naked eyes that those assassins were moving with terrifying speed directly toward this very inn.
Navigating the pitch-black night with such absolute silence made it impossible for an ordinary person to ever detect them.
He was only a Second-Rate Martial Artist. Could the Beggar Sect have sent them to silence him? But he quickly reasoned with himself—just because assassins were heading in this direction didn’t necessarily mean they were after him. There were other buildings nearby.
He let out a shaky breath, trying to calm his racing heartbeat.
But right as he thought he was safe from that paranoid thought, his eyes drifted toward another nearby structure.
It was a traditional, multi-tiered estate building overlooking the street. Sitting casually on its tiled rooftop, completely exposed to the open night air, was a solitary figure.
The man had flowing white hair and a matching white beard. In one hand, he held an old-fashioned wine gourd, taking intermittent sips of potent liquor.
He was draped in striking crimson robes that stood out sharply against the dark night. Under ordinary circumstances, spotting someone from this distance would have been impossible for a normal human, but Chen Feng’s enhanced Eagle Eyes—still actively pulling visual data because he hadn’t deactivated his Secret-Seeking Eyes—locked onto him instantly.
A system description box materialized beside the figure:
[Su Family Elder, Su Wang]
[Martial Realm: Martial Expert]
Su Family?!
As Chen Feng watched him closely, he noticed something terrifying. Although elder su wang looked like a harmless old drunk enjoying wine under the moonlight, his sharp, calculating eyes kept darting downward into the dark alleys where the assassins were moving, and then sweeping across the inn.
Does he know I’m looking at him? Or worse... does he know those assassins are converging on this exact inn?
A story had already begun to form inside Chen Feng’s mind.
One by one, the dots were connecting.
Why was the Su Family Elder here?
Why were the assassins heading toward the inn?
Su yun belonged to the Su Family too!
A chilling realization struck Chen Feng. As an elder of the Su Family, this man was almost certainly the mastermind behind the entire operation. And the primary target of this assassination was none other than Su Yun!
Why? Chen Feng’s mind raced in a frantic blur.
True, Su Yun shared their surname and belonged to the wider Su lineage, but she possessed no martial cultivation and posed no threat to the main family. Why send elite assassins to slaughter her?
Then, the pieces clicked into place.
He remembered what Su Yun had looked like earlier that morning—she had been nothing more than a living skeleton, on the absolute brink of starvation.
If she hadn’t crossed paths with him and received high-grade nutritional investments, she would have died of exhaustion within days.
Since the day her father died and she was cast out or marginalized by the Su Family, she had secretly been kept under close surveillance.
Their cruel, calculated plan all along had been to let her slowly, agonizingly starve to death in the shadows, making it look like a tragic, natural death so nobody would ever suspect foul play.
But Chen Feng’s unexpected intervention had completely derailed their scheme.
By feeding her spiritual food and triggering massive physical restorations, he had accidentally saved her life.
Realizing their slow-poisoning plot had failed, the Su Family had now changed tactics, dispatching lethal hitmen to finish her off quickly.
How utterly vicious, Chen Feng thought, a wave of revulsion washing over him. To starve someone to death slowly just to avoid suspicion... absolute monsters.
Yet, that realization brought a terrifying problem. If they only wanted to eliminate a defenseless, starving girl, a single First-Rate Assassin would have been more than enough. But they had sent a whole team of elite first-rate killers.
That meant they weren’t just targeting Su Yun—they were planning to wipe out everyone inside this inn, burning down the building and leaving behind zero witnesses to cover up the Su Family’s involvement.
Chen Feng’s body turned icy cold once more.
His own life was now directly on the line alongside Su Yun’s.