As Ji Lin swiftly moved away from the Magic Beast Mountain Range, his thoughts drifted back to the memories of the clone he had left behind three days earlier.
…
Three days earlier…
In one of the quiet alleys of Azure Cloud City, a faint smile appeared on the clone’s face before he turned around and walked away with steady steps toward the Liu Family estate.
The mission Ji Lin had assigned to him from the very beginning had been perfectly clear.
To ensure that the events of the original storyline unfolded exactly as intended.
At that time, Ye Fang had yet to realize that the Shim lying beside Liu Xiaotian’s corpse was the true treasure.
Thus, after the battle ended and the Demonic Clan girl departed following her brief encounter with Ye Fang, he entered the alley, knelt beside the body, and began searching through Liu Xiaotian’s belongings for anything of value.
At the very same moment, Ji Lin’s clone had already arrived near the Liu Family estate.
Without revealing himself, he deliberately released a faint trace of spiritual energy, luring the Liu Family experts toward the alley.
It did not take long before several members of the Liu Family, led by its elders, rushed toward the source of the disturbance.
The moment they arrived…
They froze in place.
Liu Xiaotian lay motionless in the middle of a pool of blood, long since dead.
Standing beside the corpse was Ye Fang, calmly searching through the dead man’s possessions with his own hands.
That sight alone erased every other possibility.
There was simply no room for any explanation other than what they had witnessed with their own eyes.
After the battle ended, the area surrounding the Liu Family estate was no longer the same.
Scorched rocks were scattered across the ground, the earth had turned black from the aftermath of the fierce clash, and chaotic currents of spiritual energy still lingered in the air, silently bearing witness to the intensity of the battle that had taken place only a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, throughout Azure Cloud City, there was only one topic anyone could talk about.
Have you heard?
Ye Fang killed Liu Xiaotian!
Liu Xiaotian wasn’t just another member of the Liu Family.
He was the grandson most favored by the Family Patriarch and one of the city’s most renowned young geniuses.
This time, Ye Fang has gone far beyond the line.
It’s true that he and the Liu Family have held a grudge for years, but murdering the direct heir is an entirely different matter.
The Liu Patriarch will never let something like this pass.
I heard he personally led several family elders to the Ye Family estate to demand that Ye Fang be handed over.
If this matter isn’t settled quickly… I’m afraid Azure Cloud City itself will become a battlefield.
Before long, those conversations spread through every street and alley of the city.
Within only a short time, the entire Azure Cloud City was shrouded in an atmosphere of tension, as though a violent storm were on the verge of descending at any moment.
Three days later, Azure Cloud City had become almost unrecognizable.
The bustling streets had grown noticeably quieter, the familiar noise had all but disappeared, and crowds gathered at street corners and marketplaces, exchanging rumors in hushed voices.
Ji Lin walked calmly among them like nothing more than an ordinary passerby.
With every step he took, fragments of the surrounding conversations drifted into his ears.
I heard Ye Fang is still in hiding.
How could he not be?
The Liu Family is hunting him now.
This time it’s different.
The Liu Patriarch has sworn that he won’t rest until he’s avenged his grandson.
Even if the Ye Family intervenes, they can’t protect him for the rest of his life.
Ji Lin listened in silence.
A faint smile appeared on his lips before quietly fading away.
Everything had unfolded exactly as he had anticipated.
Ye Fang’s name was now being discussed in every corner of Azure Cloud City.
Instead, he had become the center of the conflict between the two most powerful families in Azure Cloud City.
From that moment onward, he could no longer continue along the path originally destined for him in the storyline.
Merely staying alive would now cost him an enormous amount of time, effort, and resources.
Some time later, Ji Lin returned home.
He quietly entered his room, closed the door behind him, and sat cross-legged upon his bed before summoning the System Interface.
A transparent screen materialized before him, displaying the rewards accumulated over the past three days.
Throughout that period, Ye Fang’s Destiny Luck had been continuously drained, while Luck Points steadily flowed into Ji Lin’s possession.
5,000 Luck Points — The Winged Frost Wolf King had become Ye Fang’s mortal enemy, eliminating any possibility of reconciliation between them.
15,000 Luck Points — For seizing the destined opportunity hidden within the Wolf King’s lair and completely depriving Ye Fang of it.
20,000 Luck Points — After the Liu Family came to regard Ye Fang as an irreconcilable enemy, forcing the Ye Family to exhaust an enormous amount of resources either to appease the Liu Family’s fury or prepare for its inevitable retaliation.
Ji Lin let out a quiet breath before lowering his gaze to the system balance.
Current Luck Points: 47,000
Only a few days earlier, he could never have imagined possessing such an amount.
After a brief moment of thought, he calmly said
System, spend two hundred Luck Points to purchase a Bone Strengthening Pill, then consume whatever number of Luck Points is necessary to raise my cultivation foundation to the absolute peak of my current realm.
This decision was anything but impulsive.
From the memories of the original storyline, Ji Lin knew that Ye Fang never advanced to a higher cultivation realm until he had first reached the Absolute Peak of his current one.
That was precisely why his combat strength consistently surpassed that of most cultivators, even those several minor stages above him.
Only cultivators who had likewise reached the Absolute Peak of the same realm possessed any hope of matching him.
For that very reason…
Ji Lin had no intention of allowing his opponent to keep that advantage for himself alone.
The moment his command ended, the system’s voice echoed throughout the room.
[Ding! 200 Luck Points have been consumed to purchase one Bone Strengthening Pill.]
[Ding! 100 Luck Points have been consumed to elevate the Host’s cultivation foundation to the Absolute Peak of the current realm.]