The narrow path leading to Mist Valley Village was anything but welcoming. Mud clung to their boots, tree roots jutted out like the claws of corpses, and thick fog limited their vision to barely ten steps ahead.
Yan Kesh limped forward, occasionally leaning on He Qiu's shoulder. His face was still pale, but his eyes darted restlessly, scanning their surroundings.
"Young Master Yan," He Qiu whispered tensely. "There's someone ahead."
Yan Kesh raised a hand. Stop.
By the roadside sat a middle-aged man dressed like a traveling merchant. His woven basket had overturned, its contents—low-grade medicinal herbs—scattered across the ground. He clutched his leg, which was bent at an unnatural angle, his face twisted in pain.
"H-Help…" the man groaned when he saw them. "I was attacked by a wild boar… my leg is broken. Please, honored cultivators…"
He Qiu, with his naive youthful heart, instinctively stepped forward. "He's badly injured, Young Master. We should—"
"Wait," Yan Kesh cut him off.
Yan Kesh narrowed his eyes. He did not rely on compassion. He relied on the Audit.
In his mind, the pages of the ledger rustled open.
[TARGET: LIN SHUO]
[Physical Status: Critical (Right Leg Fractured)]
[Energy: Low (Qi Refinement Stage 1 – Depleted)]
[Potential Value: Low (Basket Contents)]
[Risk Level: Extremely Low]
The report looked convincing. The red ink marking "Critical" was glaringly clear.
Yan Kesh calculated swiftly. A weak, injured merchant. Low risk. If they helped him—or at least "picked him up"—they could take his goods as compensation. He Qiu could carry him.
"Go," Yan Kesh said softly. "Check his injury. If he has money, we help him. If not, we leave him."
He Qiu hesitated at the coldness of the order, but still stepped forward. Yan Kesh followed behind, keeping a safe distance of five steps.
Just as He Qiu crouched to examine the merchant's leg, Yan Kesh sensed something wrong.
Not from the man—but from the air itself.
There was a faint sweet scent. Not the fragrance of forest flowers, but the smell of illusion incense.
Suddenly, the text in Yan Kesh's mental ledger flickered. The ink that had been firm and black began to melt, as if drenched in water.
[WARNING: DATA INCONSISTENT]
[Detecting Abnormal Qi Fluctuation]
Too late.
The groaning merchant suddenly smiled. A wide grin tore across his pitiful face.
"Fish caught in the net," he chuckled.
The "broken" leg snapped straight with a sickening crack—not the sound of fractured bone, but of a bone-folding technique. The man kicked He Qiu in the chest with lightning speed.
BAM!
He Qiu was sent flying three meters back, blood spraying from his mouth.
The man—Lin Shuo—leapt to his feet with ease. The weak aura he had shown earlier erupted violently. He was not at Qi Refinement Stage 1. He was at the peak of Stage 3, equal to He Qiu, but with far more experience in killing.
"Damn Audit…" Yan Kesh cursed inwardly.
Only now did he realize the fatal flaw of his power. The Audit recorded presented facts. If the enemy used high-level disguise techniques or deliberately manipulated their own Qi flow to appear weak, the ledger would register that "lie" as truth.
The ledger wasn't wrong.
Yan Kesh had misread the report.
He had been fooled by falsified accounts.
"Two foolish youngsters," Lin Shuo laughed, drawing a pair of poisoned daggers from his sleeves. "You really thought I was a merchant? This is border territory. Anyone traveling alone here is either prey—or bait."
Lin Shuo wasted no time and charged straight at Yan Kesh, who looked the weakest.
Yan Kesh couldn't fight. His body was still damaged. He couldn't delay pain any further—the "debt ceiling" of his body had already been reached.
"He Qiu!" Yan Kesh shouted sharply. "Hold him, or you die!"
He Qiu, despite the pain, rose on pure survival instinct. He drew his sword and blocked Lin Shuo's strike right in front of Yan Kesh's face.
Clang!
Sparks flew.
"Run, Young Master!" He Qiu shouted.
Yan Kesh staggered backward. He watched the fight unfold. Lin Shuo was far more vicious. Every strike targeted vital points, while He Qiu fought with the rigid techniques of his clan.
Yan Kesh reached into his pocket. Empty. No weapon.
His gaze shifted to a large rock on the low cliff beside the road.
Use Balance?
No. My body won't survive the backlash. I'd die on the spot.
He needed a trick. Something cheap. Something that cost no energy.
His eyes caught the white powder spilled from the merchant's basket earlier. Lime Bone Powder—normally used to preserve medicinal herbs, but excruciating if it got into the eyes.
"He Qiu! Duck!" Yan Kesh ordered.
He Qiu, trained to obey commands, dropped instantly.
Lin Shuo froze for a split second when his opponent suddenly went prone.
Yan Kesh kicked the overturned basket with all his remaining strength, sending it flying straight at Lin Shuo's face.
Pwah!
White dust exploded into the air, engulfing Lin Shuo's head.
"Argh! My eyes!" Lin Shuo screamed, stumbling backward and slashing wildly with his daggers. The powder burned his eyes and mucous membranes.
"Run! Now!"
Yan Kesh didn't waste a single second. He turned and fled into the thorny bushes, ignoring the burning pain in his legs. He Qiu followed, panting heavily.
They ran blindly for a full ten minutes, leaving the path behind and plunging deeper into the wild forest.
Only after they were certain no one was chasing them did Yan Kesh collapse beneath a massive tree. His breathing rasped like iron being grated against stone.
He Qiu slumped down beside him, his face swollen and bruised.
"We… we survived?" He Qiu asked between gasps.
Yan Kesh didn't answer. He closed his eyes, berating himself.
Stupid. Naive. Careless.
He had nearly died because he trusted the Audit too much. He had treated it like the eyes of a god, when in truth, it was nothing more than a calculator.
And a calculator is only as smart as the person pressing the buttons.
"This world…" Yan Kesh hissed, staring up at the sky obscured by branches. "…is full of falsified accounts."
He looked at He Qiu.
"Did you see his leg technique just now?" Yan Kesh suddenly asked.
"The… bone-folding technique?"
"Yes. Soft Bone Disguise. A cheap trick commonly used by market pickpockets to pretend they're crippled," Yan Kesh spat blood onto the ground. "We, two trained cultivators, were just outplayed by a beggar's street trick."
It was humiliating. But it was a valuable lesson.
Yan Kesh touched his temple. The ledger in his mind had returned to stillness.
From this day onward, Yan Kesh engraved a new rule into his heart:
Never trust what's written in the Ledger until it has been tested with blood.
"Get up," Yan Kesh ordered, even as his own legs trembled. "We need to find a place to spend the night. Lin Shuo will wash his eyes and start hunting again."
"We're prey that escaped. And hunters hate prey that escapes."
They resumed walking. This time, Yan Kesh no longer walked with his head held high in blind confidence. He walked hunched, his eyes wary of every shadow, every stone, every leaf.
His mentality had evolved another stage.
From an Accountant,
into a Paranoid.