Chapter One Hundred and Five: A Deliberate Plan

After the fire had burned itself out, I hurried back.

My plan for the night had originally been to go up Giant Wolf Mountain and look over the terrain, but this sort of mishap had ruined everything.

I took a side path back to the dormitory, moving with great caution all the while, glancing over my shoulder every few steps.

Fortunately, I made it back without incident. I tossed the bloodstained shirt, torn with a hole in it, into the trash and went to take a shower.

My body’s recovery was still terrifying. In less than an hour, most of my injuries had already healed.

While showering, I noticed the hard, well-built muscles on my body. I was now in that sort of state where I looked lean in clothes, but muscular once undressed.

After the shower, I sat on the sofa, smoking and lost in thought. Tomorrow was my day off, so I did not need to attend class, and staying up a little late would not matter.

I turned on the television provided in the room and idly flipped to the evening news.

Lately, whether on television or on my phone, there had been all kinds of reports about cultivators emerging into the world.

Could it be that those reclusive masters could no longer hold back and were stepping out to face the world? That could not be right. The balance between the cultivation world and the mortal world could not be broken just like that.

Then I thought again: what did any of that have to do with me? I could barely keep myself alive as it was. One day I might be killed by the Ghost King or some enemy, and I had no time to worry about such world-shaking affairs.

And now I had gained yet another enemy: Shi Lei. If the four men he had sent did not return tomorrow, he would surely guess that I had turned the tables and killed them all. In that case, my peaceful life on Sun Sky Mountain would be over too.

"Ah..." I sighed, then returned to my room to sleep.

The next morning, I was once again woken by that bell, but since I had the day off, I fell asleep again after it stopped.

That second sleep lasted for several hours. I did not wake until around ten.

After washing my face, I changed clothes and went out for a walk.

My injuries were much better now. Only my back and one thigh still hurt a little, but it did not affect my movement.

At this hour, almost everyone was attending classes in the lecture hall; even those who had been given a holiday yesterday were still holed up in their rooms.

When I went downstairs, I saw that familiar old woman again.

"Good morning, ma'am."

I bowed slightly and smiled at her.

"Morning."

I had assumed the old woman would ignore me as always, but this time she actually replied.

I knew that was already pretty good, so I did not try to force any more conversation and left.

There were quite a few disciples on the various open courtyards, attending outdoor lessons. Some were learning sabers, others boxing.

If not for the rotten fish and shriveled shrimp hidden in the dark corners of the sect, this place would have been my ideal sect.

From a distance, I also saw our inner disciples taking outdoor classes. I had nothing else to do, so I went over to take a look.

I did not disturb them, though, and simply stood off at a distance and watched quietly.

I wandered all over Sun Sky Mountain, walking through every place I had not yet been.

As I walked, I came across the Elder, who was out for a stroll.

"Got time for a walk today?"

After I greeted him respectfully, the Elder told me there was no need to be so formal with him.

"Been cooped up in my room too long, so I came out to look around and do a routine inspection while I was at it."

I had thought the Elder spent every day sitting idle in his bamboo house. It turned out he had things to do after all. Like the person who told me about him last night had said, the Elder was in charge of this area.

"By the way, have you been to Giant Wolf Mountain yet?"

I followed behind the Elder when he suddenly asked me.

"Not yet. I’ll go when I have time."

I had not gone last night anyway, so there was no need to lie.

After I answered, the Elder smiled faintly, looking as though he already knew something.

I probed carefully, "Elder, do you know something?"

The Elder gave me a sharp look, then clasped his hands behind his back and said, "You brat... you killed four people?"

My heart lurched. How could the Elder know?

"Hit the mark, did I?"

With a wry smile, I nodded, not knowing what else to do.

This was not out in the world, but inside someone else’s sect. And the Elder happened to be the most revered grand elder here, the very person in charge of matters like this.

"It’s nothing. I’d already guessed as much."

"That Shi Lei fellow is young, but his ambitions are enormous. He does not properly cultivate; instead, he has been secretly practicing demonic arts. He is already close to losing control."

"He has proposed promotion to grand elder several times, but I turned him down every time. Now that you have become somewhat of a celebrity in the sect, and everyone knows you were brought here by me, he naturally wanted to capture you and use you to threaten me."

"And just now, I also noticed signs of a fire by the small bridge, along with obvious bloodstains."

The Elder’s deductions matched the truth exactly, except that he did not know Shi Lei also knew about the treasure on Giant Wolf Mountain.

"So what do we do?" I asked him, ignorant and uncertain.

"Nothing much. Just be careful during this period. If there is a chance, I will personally deal with Shi Lei."

After saying that, the Elder entered a building called the Enforcement Hall. I heard he had gone there to handle some matters.

I could not very well keep following him, so I had no choice but to head back to the dormitory.

On the way, I kept thinking: why was Shi Lei so strong, strong enough to stand nearly on equal footing with the Elder? So he had been cultivating demonic arts. A man like that was a scourge even within a sect. As long as he kept coming after me, I would make sure he ran into a brick wall every time.

That said, words were one thing, reality another. With my current strength, if I fought Shi Lei head-on, I would most likely lose, and that would be disastrous.

So during this period, I really did have to be careful everywhere and watch out for him.

Once I got back to the dormitory, I sat on the sofa and took out the Sky-Passing Finger Art.

Thunderbolt Strike really was useful. Though its range was short, as long as I controlled the distance properly, it was a guaranteed killing blow.

That was why I was very interested and decided to keep studying it.

I turned to the next page of Thunderbolt Strike. Across the top were written the three bold characters of Five Thunder Strike.

Counting Thunderbolt Strike, I had now learned four finger techniques, and Five Thunder Strike would be the fifth.

According to the introduction, Five Thunder Strike was an advanced version of Thunderbolt Strike, splitting a single bolt of lightning into five. Its power increased exponentially, and it consumed far more spiritual energy as well.

I rubbed my hands together and buried myself in practice.

The difficulty of each page in the Sky-Passing Finger Art increased. By the time I reached Five Thunder Strike, there were only a little over twenty movements, but the mental method alone ran to more than a hundred lines.

I had encountered most of these movements before in one way or another, so linking them together was not too difficult, but the mental method was another matter entirely.

While performing the movements, I also had to coordinate dozens of lines of inner guidance, making practical execution extremely difficult.

Still, none of that could stop me. My unbreakable nature carried me from morning all the way into the afternoon.

Fortunately, Bai Liuhua would occasionally send me a stream of pure, cool energy, letting me cool off a little. Otherwise, I would have already been drenched in sweat with my head ready to burst.

Around three in the afternoon, I went downstairs to the dining hall for a meal.

At that hour there were not many people in the cafeteria; those present were mostly teachers or a few elders.

I sat in a corner, ordered a few dishes, and began eating ravenously.