The blood-stained leather sack lay on the mud, a little over a meter from Shen Tian’s hiding place. Zhao Ming, his face distraught and his pupils dilated with panic, stifled a scream and stretched out his hand desperately, clawing at the damp earth to recover the package.
Before his fingers could graze the leather, Shen Tian emerged from his hiding place with a fluid, silent movement. Two steps. The sole of his worn footwear descended firmly, crushing the sack against the ground.
"M-mine... It’s mine!" the servant stammered, trying to lunge forward clumsily.
Shen Tian held his ground. His voice dropped to a murmur. He simply lowered his gaze, allowing the fine thread of Qi he had just unlocked to travel through his meridians to his eyes. His gaze carried an ancient coldness, far beyond murderous intent: the absolute indifference of a man who had survived a century of humiliation, who had learned to move among predators and keep his skin intact, who had seen death so many times that it had lost its teeth.
What he projected was the shadow of an old man who had buried his dreams and his fears in the same well.
The air between them seemed to cool abruptly. Zhao Ming froze mid-movement. An uncontrollable tremor ran down his spine, stifling the words in his throat. The boy stared at Shen Tian, feeling that he faced something belonging to an age far beyond a fifteen-year-old body: the infinite patience of someone who had already lost everything.
"Shut up if you want to keep breathing," Shen Tian murmured. His voice came out dry and flat, carrying only cold authority.
The echo of heavy boots splashing through the puddles on the main avenue interrupted the suffocating silence. Thick, harsh voices resonated at the entrance of the alley.
"Find him! That miserable dog couldn’t have gotten far with a twisted ankle!" "If we don’t recover that sack, the foreman will skin us alive. Check every damn corner!"
Zhao Ming paled until he took on the hue of a corpse. He tried to open his mouth to plead, but Shen Tian crouched with a speed that defied his malnourished frame, grabbed him by the collar of his tunic, and dragged him in a single pull toward the narrow space behind the rotting wine barrels.
Shen Tian placed a hand over the servant’s mouth and pressed two fingers on a vital point near his collarbone, forcing his nervous system into a state of functional lethargy. A trick he had learned from a crippled veteran during the war, in his past life.
Two guards in leather armor with notch-marked machetes passed within a few meters of their hiding place. The shadows cast by the rooftops and the stench of sour wine completely concealed their presence. The men stopped for a second, spat into the mud, and continued running down the alley.
When the sound of footsteps faded into the distance, Shen Tian released the boy. Zhao Ming fell to his knees, gasping for air while clutching his chest in horror.
Shen Tian took the sack from the ground. It was dense and gave off an anomalous heat that pierced through the damp cloth. With a methodical movement, he untied the hemp cord and poured the contents onto his palm.
An irregular fragment of crimson jade fell onto his hand, pulsing faintly like a tiny heart.
Moments later, the crystalline blue light shone in Shen Tian’s vision.
[Object detected: Bloody Heart Jade Fragment (Lower Quality).]
[Analysis: Contains concentrated biological energy from a cultivator of the Qi Condensation Realm.]
[Option A: Absorb energy. Will increase Qi circulation by 15%, but will damage fragile meridians.]
[Option B: Purify and deliver to the System.]
[Reward for delivery: 200 Suppression Points.]
Shen Tian chose immediately. Absorbing impure energy through a Fourth-Grade Spiritual Root was the typical mistake of an anxious novice who ended up crippled.
"System. Deliver the object."
The crimson jade seemed to dissolve into a fine powder of light that disappeared between his fingers.
[Object successfully delivered.]
[200 Suppression Points have been added.]
[Current balance: 350 Suppression Points.]
[Note: The host has reached Qi Condensation Level 1. The System Shop has been unlocked.]
Zhao Ming watched the scene with bulging eyes. He saw how the treasure for which he had nearly lost his life simply evaporated in the stranger’s hand.
"The... the treasure... What did you do to it?" he stammered, backing away in terror until he hit the stone wall.
Shen Tian observed him with indifference. In his past life, the logical decision would have been to break Zhao Ming’s neck to guarantee absolute silence. However, killing this fugitive slave now meant losing a useful piece.
Shen Tian leaned down, picked up a small ball of dry mud from the ground, and, using a thread of Qi, impregnated the earth with the impurities that the Breathing Art had filtered from the ambient Qi during his meditation.
Before Zhao Ming could react, Shen Tian gripped the servant’s jaw and shoved the mud ball down his throat, forcing him to swallow.
"Agh! W-What... what did you give me?" Zhao Ming shrieked, scratching at his throat as an icy burn spread through his stomach.
"The Frozen Woodworm Pill," Shen Tian lied, his voice flat. "A poison formulated with the impure Qi of the sewers. In thirty days, it will eat your entrails from the inside out unless you receive the monthly dose of antidote that only I can synthesize."
Zhao Ming collapsed onto his knees, trembling convulsively.
"Sir... please... I saw nothing..."
"You will return to the Zhao Family mansion. You will make up a story that some thieves assaulted you and took the sack in the market," Shen Tian said, leaning over the slave. "As of today, you are my eyes and ears in that house. Every week you will leave a report beneath the floorboards of the abandoned forge. If you comply, you will have your antidote. If you try to flee or talk... you will die writhing in your own blood."
Zhao Ming had found the sack in the sewers. A discovery that had brought him ruin where he had dreamed of fortune. The Zhao Family claimed it as theirs, and now he was trapped between two predators.
"I-I’ll do it... I’ll do it, I swear by my ancestors..." the servant sobbed, slamming his forehead against the ground.