The Blue Mist Sect had never been so quiet.
No clashing weapons.
No shouting deacons.
No disciples cultivating recklessly at dawn.
Only wind.
For Wei Yuan, the silence was nourishment.
He spent three full days sitting on the porch of his shack, doing nothing—breathing, listening, watching his Ripple Value hover at a flawless 0.00001.
Perfect stillness.
But Wei Yuan had never trusted peace.
In the cultivation world, he thought calmly, activating Eye of the Ripple,
an empty sect is a wounded beast surrounded by wolves.
The Spirit Boats had departed openly. Anyone with eyes—and greed—would notice.
Rogue cultivators.
Predatory clans.
Scavengers who fed on the aftermath of other people's ambition.
They would come.
So Wei Yuan moved first.
Instead of hiding, he walked toward the Scripture Pavilion.
Most guards were gone. The few who remained were elderly Qi Refinement disciples, nodding off beneath pillars. No one questioned a coughing waste laborer.
Wei Yuan didn't approach the upper floors.
Those were protected.
Instead, he descended into the basement—the Archive of the Mundane.
Dusty scrolls.
Tax ledgers.
Topographical maps spanning a hundred thousand miles.
Ancient records labeled "Useless."
To Wei Yuan, they were priceless.
[Detected: "Chronicles of the Azure Cloud" (Fragmented)]
[Action: Record into System Memory? Cost: 10 Stillness Essence]
"Record."
Hours passed as the System quietly copied everything.
One scroll—four thousand years old—mentioned the Azure Lute.
Not as a Secret Realm.
But as a tomb.
A burial site for a Grandmaster of the Resonating Soul—one who consumed Spirit Roots to extend his life.
Wei Yuan closed the scroll gently.
As expected, he thought.
It isn't a gift. It's a dinner table—and the sect is the main course.
As he exited the Pavilion, Eye of the Ripple flared violently.
Jagged yellow warnings tore across his vision.
[Hostile Entities Detected Within Sect Perimeter]
[Target: Black Vulture Trio – Rogue Cultivators]
[Cultivation: 1 Foundation Establishment (Early), 2 Qi Refinement (Level 10)]
[Intent: Pillage and Slaughter]
Wei Yuan stepped into shadow.
No fear.
Only mild irritation.
Vultures were predictable.
Option 1: Eliminate directly
Reward: Weapons, Spirit Stones
Ripple Cost: 150 (Post-event investigation)
Option 2: Flee immediately
Ripple Cost: 5.0 (Lose cover identity)
Option 3: Weaponize the Medicine Hall
Reward: Illusion Mastery Upgrade
Ripple Cost: 0.01
Wei Yuan turned calmly.
"Option three."
He arrived at the Medicine Hall moments before the intruders crossed the inner gate.
No arrays.
No formations.
Just filth.
Years of alchemical waste.
He mixed Enhanced Fertilizer with Bone-Melting Slag, poured it into the primary pits, and vaporized it with a controlled pulse of Foundation Qi.
Green fog rolled outward.
Not smoke.
Something heavier.
Qi-corroding.
Soul-stinging.
He tossed Spirit-Dampening Stones into the mist, creating invisible dead zones where spiritual sense simply failed.
At the gate, the three rogues stopped.
"That fog…" one whispered. "It looks like Heavenly Plague."
Their leader—Han Lu—extended his spiritual sense.
Pain stabbed his mind.
It fractured.
Skipped.
Something vast and unstable seemed to breathe within the fog.
"The sect was supposed to be empty," Han Lu muttered. "Then what is that?"
Wei Yuan lifted a hollow gourd and blew.
A low, mourning moan echoed across the sect.
With a light-refraction trick, a massive, multi-limbed shadow rippled across the alchemy tower.
"The sect is cursed!" the youngest rogue screamed.
"They didn't go on expedition—they fled from backlash!"
Han Lu hesitated only a moment.
Then he turned.
"Forget it. The loot isn't worth dying for. We'll hit Clear Water Sect instead."
They fled.
[Destiny Event Diverted]
[Ripple Spike: 0.005 → Receding]
[Reward: Illusion Mastery → Veil of the Hidden Truth]
Wei Yuan waited until they crossed the mountain boundary before dispersing the fog.
The world is a stage, he thought.
The best actors convince the audience there was never a play.
He updated his ledger:
Fear is cheaper than combat.
Two weeks later—
The disaster spoke.
A blood-soaked messenger crane crashed into the plaza.
Wei Yuan found it accidentally and waited for an elder to activate it.
The projection was hell.
Crystalline caverns strangled by flesh.
Thousands cocooned.
A massive heart beating at the center.
"It's a trap!" the jade screamed.
"Seal the gates—seal the—"
Silence.
The deacon collapsed.
Wei Yuan bowed his head.
Internally, he read calmly.
[Global Event: Fall of the Blue Mist Sect]
[Soul Transformation Entity Expanding]
[Region to Become Forbidden Zone in 3 Years]
Option 3:
Fake death. Relocate. Disappear.
Reward: Mortal Dust Concealment
Ripple Cost: 0.005
Choice made.
That night, the Medicine Hall exploded.
Waste pits ignited.
By dawn, only ash remained.
Including a shattered identity token.
Wei Yuan was mourned.
Elsewhere—
A young man with no cultivation aura walked among refugees.
22 years old.
Foundation Establishment.
Nonexistent.
First rule of a long life, Wei Yuan thought, glancing back once.
When the theater burns—leave before the encore.