Early morning, Jiang Family Town.
A middle-aged woman carrying two steamed buns entered the courtyard where Jiang Li was imprisoned. She opened the door, stepped inside, and scanned the room until she spotted the girl crouched in a corner, her hair disheveled.
Jiang Li was curled up, hugging her knees, her head buried as her frail body trembled slightly. She looked like a quail shivering in the dead of winter, utterly pitiful.
The middle-aged woman felt not a shred of pity. Instead, she marched over with a face full of anger. Towering over Jiang Li, she demanded, “Jiang Li, you refused to eat all of yesterday. Are you trying to starve yourself to death?”
Jiang Li’s head shifted slightly, but she neither looked up nor spoke. She only curled herself tighter.
“Are you deaf?!”
The middle-aged woman roared, grabbing Jiang Li by the hair and yanking her head back. The young girl’s thin, pretty face was forced up, and her clear, pure eyes glared hatefully at the woman.
Slap! Slap!
The woman raised her hand and delivered two vicious slaps, leaving two bright red prints on the girl’s delicate face. She shrieked maliciously, “You dare glare at me? Do you believe I won’t beat you to death right now? If you know what’s good for you, eat these buns!”
Jiang Li’s face burned with pain, but she did not rub her cheeks or reach for the food. She continued to stare fixedly at the woman.
Furious, the woman raised her hand to strike again. But remembering that Han Shiqi would be arriving in a little over ten days to claim the girl, she knew that bruising her too badly would be difficult to explain to the Third Elder. Suppressing her rage, she lowered her hand.
She paced back and forth, growing more irritated by the second. She violently smashed the bowl against the floor, sending the buns rolling into the dirt.
A moment later, she seemed to remember something and pointed at the girl with a sinister sneer. “You won’t eat, will you? Fine. I will go report to the Third Elder right now and have your brother beaten to death. After all, you two are nothing but worthless wretches whose lives aren’t worth a copper…”
With that, the woman turned on her heel to leave. Jiang Li’s small body violently trembled, panic seizing her face. She quickly cried out, “I’ll eat! I’ll eat!”
Scrambling forward, Jiang Li picked up the dirt-covered buns and began stuffing them into her mouth. Through tear-filled eyes, she looked up at the woman and pleaded, “Don’t hurt my brother. I’ll listen to you! I’ll marry him! I’ll marry him…”
“You should have been obedient from the start!”
The middle-aged woman snorted coldly. “Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. Little wretch. Pah!”
…
Jiang Han knew nothing of Jiang Li’s suffering.
After spending another night in the ruined temple, he headed up the mountain early the next morning.
Just as he had the day before, Jiang Han gathered some brown plant roots and set his traps in areas frequented by Phantom Mice.
Unlike Heavenly Fragrance Fruits, these roots possessed no alluring scent that could be carried by the wind. Luring the creatures proved difficult, so Jiang Han could only calm his mind and wait patiently.
Fortunately, this peak held a large number of Phantom Mice. After a morning of waiting, Jiang Han successfully hunted three more. The carving of the Phantom Mouse on the Heavenly Beast Cauldron gradually deepened in color.
Anticipation swelled in his chest. He wondered what Bloodline Divine Ability he would acquire once he refined ten drops of Phantom Mouse essence blood.
Time slipped away. Just as the sun began to set, Jiang Han finally secured his tenth kill.
“Refine!”
Holding the final drop of Phantom Mouse essence blood, Jiang Han’s eyes burned with fervor, his entire body thrumming with excitement.
Closing his eyes, he immediately focused his mind on the Heavenly Beast Cauldron.
Just as before, the cauldron erupted with blinding golden light. The lifelike Phantom Mouse tore itself from the cauldron’s surface, dissolving into a wisp of azure smoke that merged directly into Jiang Han’s soul. Simultaneously, a wave of bizarre energy swept outward from the cauldron, surging through his entire body.
A moment later, Jiang Han opened his eyes. His gaze was sharp and spirited as he let out a low shout. “Phantom Shift!”
Hum!
His body gave a slight shudder, and an instant later, he appeared a full zhang away. Even more astonishingly-another Jiang Han still stood at his original position. A full breath of time passed before the stationary figure gradually turned ethereal and faded into nothingness.
“This… this…”
Jiang Han stared as the other version of himself vanished, dumbstruck.
He had assumed the “Phantom Shift” divine ability was merely a sudden burst of speed, an instantaneous repositioning. He never expected it would leave an afterimage in his wake, nor that the phantom could persist for an entire breath of time.
“The world is vast… truly full of wonders!”
Jiang Han marveled, his heart surging with excitement. This divine ability might be of limited use against true experts, as the shifting distance was relatively short; a powerful cultivator could react instantly and strike him down. But against martial artists of similar strength, the advantage would be staggering…
“Time to head back!”
Jiang Han did not linger. Grabbing the Profound Iron Beast Cage, he bounded swiftly down the mountain.
It seems that in this world, abilities truly are a martial artist’s primary method for killing enemies. Profound skills pale in comparison…
Jiang Han pondered as he walked. Different abilities granted all manner of unimaginable powers, and his was still considered relatively weak.
If he possessed a truly devastating ability, wouldn’t he be able to shatter the heavens and sunder the earth with a mere wave of his hand? It seemed the legends of mighty Demon Beasts blowing experts on the level of the Third Elder to dust with a single breath were not exaggerated rumors.
The Nine Provinces Continent was teeming with martial artists and countless experts. Those who could truly command awe and dominate their surroundings possessed not only exceedingly high cultivation realms but also terrifyingly powerful divine abilities.
A high cultivation realm without divine abilities was nothing but a castle in the air-impressive to look at, but ultimately useless in a real fight.
Soon, Jiang Han reached the foot of the mountain.
He hesitated briefly before deciding to return to the ruined temple for the night. The temple was rarely visited and provided shelter from the wind and rain, allowing him to sleep with some peace of mind.
Chewing on some dry rations along the way, he arrived at the ruined temple just as darkness completely overtook the sky.
The night was still, the air heavy and sweltering-a clear omen of an impending downpour.
Jiang Han secretly rejoiced. If he had tried to sleep out in the open, he would likely have ended up drenched to the bone.
“Something’s not right-“
The moment he drew near the temple, Jiang Han abruptly halted. His eyes instantly turned icy. Tossing the Profound Iron Beast Cage aside, he drew the war blade from his back, leveled it at the ruins, and shouted, “Who’s there? Come out!”
“Hmph!”
A cold sneer echoed from within, followed by two figures stepping out of the ruined temple. Simultaneously, two more silhouettes flickered into existence behind Jiang Han, completely surrounding him and cutting off every avenue of escape.
“Jiang Xiong, Jiang Xie, Jiang She, Jiang Hou!” Jiang Han swept his gaze over them, recognizing all four.
The branch of the Third Elder, Jiang Xiaotian, was highly prosperous. He had six brothers, and the second generation boasted seventeen male heirs alone. The four men blocking his path were all cousins of Jiang Long and Jiang Hu. Jiang Xiong was the strongest, at the seventh level of the Purple Mansion Realm. Of the remaining three, two were at the sixth level and one was at the fifth.
“Jiang Han, so you really are hiding here!”
Jiang Xiong was a towering, heavily built man with a thick beard. He glared coldly and demanded, “Spit it out. Where did Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao go?”
Jiang Xiong and his companions had scoured the mountains for two days and even checked the gambling dens in Du Family Town, but had found neither hide nor hair of Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao. They had been on the verge of abandoning the search to report back to the Third Elder, planning to rally more men the next day.
But on their way down the mountain, Jiang She had remembered this ruined temple. Deciding to try their luck, they had discovered the leftover crumbs of dry rations. They chose to lie in wait, never expecting that Jiang Han would actually walk right into their snare.
After two days of endless searching, scaling countless peaks, and exhausting themselves half to death for absolutely nothing, finally cornering Jiang Han gave them a much-needed jolt of excitement.
Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao had never gone gambling in Du Family Town. They had set out to hunt down Jiang Han. Now that the two had vanished without a trace, the group naturally assumed Jiang Han had a great deal to do with it.
They haven’t found their bodies?
Jiang Han felt a slight wave of relief. His grip tightened on his war blade as he kept his face perfectly impassive. “How should I know where they went? I haven’t seen them!”
“Bullshit!”
Jiang Xiong bellowed in anger. “Those two went out to track you, and now they’ve vanished. You haven’t dared to return to town to sleep for two nights-clearly the actions of a guilty conscience. Refusing to talk? Then don’t blame us for getting rough.”
“Jiang Han, this is your last chance!”
Jiang She lived up to his namesake, his entire being exuding a cold, venomous aura. He slowly advanced on Jiang Han with his sword drawn, sneering, “If you still refuse to speak, we’ll just have to sever your tendons and drag you back to the Elder Hall to face my Third Uncle’s judgment!”