The opening scene reveals the story of Yao Lao, alarming the Soul Emperor.

The Heavenly Gang Hall arranged for Hun Yu to stay in the most remote courtyard in the backyard. The courtyard wall was not high, the gate was not thick, and there were storerooms for storing miscellaneous items on both sides. Further away were shared dormitories for lower-ranking Soul Clan disciples.

When Hunyu arrived at the other courtyard, it was already past midnight.

There was only one tree in the yard, all its leaves had fallen, leaving only black branches sticking out against the night sky.

The room was simply furnished with a stone couch, a stone table, and a nearly burnt-out spirit lamp.

He placed the white feather fan beside his pillow, took off his boots and put them at the foot of the bed, and lay down fully clothed.

But he didn't close his eyes.

He was counting his own heartbeats.

Once, twice, three times.

On the forty-seventh jump, the rhythm went off by a beat.

It's the fragments of the laws within my body that are active again.

He pressed his palm against his left chest, feeling the fragments inside his chest cavity hitting the wall of his heart with the flow of blood. It was very light, like someone scratching the outer wall of his heart with their fingernails.

His health was worse than it appeared in the palace.

He fully activated his Golden Eyes once in the main hall. That activation consumed half a month of his energy, but in return, he obtained five emotional spectrum charts.

Whether it's worth it or not is still hard to say.

He removed his hand from his chest, closed his eyes, and began to regulate his breathing.

It wasn't cultivation; he didn't have any battle qi to cultivate. He was just trying to prolong his life as much as possible.

Breathing changes from deep and long to even, and from even to shallow and slow.

It was very quiet outside the courtyard.

It was quiet for about half an hour.

Then that quiet undertone changed.

It's not that there's more sound, it's that there's less sound.

The chirping of insects has stopped.

The rustling sound of the night wind through the branches was gone.

Hunyu's eyelids twitched, but he did not open his eyes.

His right hand emerged from under the blankets, his thumb and forefinger pinching the end of the white feather fan's handle, the indentation containing the miniature array pattern fitting perfectly between his thumb and forefinger.

A shadow appeared above the courtyard wall outside the house.

The shadow's outline was blurry, making it impossible to discern facial features, body shape, or even whether it was human or some other form. Its entire body was enveloped in a layer of dark gray battle aura, and even its aura was compressed to almost zero.

The shadow crouched on the wall for three breaths, and after confirming that there were no fluctuations in the protective barrier inside the courtyard, it landed silently.

The landing point was two steps away from the dead tree.

A second shadow flipped over from behind the roof, slid down along the ridge, and hung above the window.

Two figures, one in front and one behind, one on the ground and one in the air, formed a standard pincer attack formation.

The air in the courtyard became thicker, an effect caused by the concentration of spiritual energy compressed by the battle qi in the space.

The shadow on the ground drew something from its waist.

It was neither a knife nor a sword, but a translucent bone needle with a dark purple light condensed at its tip.

That's the Soul Clan's unique Heart-Eating Needle. Once it's inserted into the heart, it can simulate the symptoms of a recurrence of an old injury, and no external wounds can be seen during an external examination.

If someone dies, it's because they died of illness.

If the autopsy examiner is not thorough enough.

The shadow on the ground moved toward the doorway, the intervals between the footsteps were so precise as to be almost unbelievable, each step landing precisely avoiding the seams of the stone slabs.

The shadow of the rooftop moved closer to the window in sync. A hand pressed against the window frame, and a trace of fighting spirit seeped from the fingertips, flowing silently through the gaps in the window frame, thus unlocking the simple latch on the inside of the window.

The two worked together seamlessly, clearly indicating this wasn't their first time doing something like this.

The shadow on the ground came to the front of the house.

The door was unlocked.

There wasn't even a latch.

The shadow hesitated for a moment.

This hesitation lasted less than half a breath before he pushed open the door.

The door hinges made no sound.

The soul lamps inside the room had gone out, leaving only a low-grade soul bead hanging above the stone bed emitting a pale, faint light that illuminated the white figure lying flat on the stone bed.

He was dressed in white, thin, with his chest rising and falling slowly, and holding a white fan in his hand.

She looks like she's sleeping soundly.

The shadow on the ground raised the bone needle, aiming the tip at the heart of the person on the stone bed, and quickened its pace.

Three steps.

Two steps.

step.

As the bone needle fell, the stone slab beneath the shadow's feet lit up.

Not one piece, but seven pieces.

Golden patterns simultaneously appeared on the seven stone slabs, intertwining to form a pattern he had never seen before.

The pattern closed faster than the bone needle fell.

Golden light burst forth from the stone slab, not as an upward beam, but as an inward convergence.

Seven golden rays simultaneously pierced the shadow's seven acupoints, sealing off the flow of fighting spirit throughout his body.

The bone needle slipped from his hand, landing with a clang on the edge of the stone bed before bouncing to the ground.

The shadow's body froze in place, and the dark gray fighting spirit membrane peeled away layer by layer under the scorching golden light, revealing the face beneath.

At the same time, the second shadow at the window realized something was wrong and turned to retreat.

As soon as his feet left the window frame, golden threads simultaneously sprang from the three bricks below the windowsill, wrapping around his ankles and climbing up his calves.

He lowered his head to break the silk thread, and the instant his fingers touched the golden thread, a force of law far exceeding his cultivation limit poured into the thread, rushing back along his meridians and turning the fighting spirit in his dantian into a tangled mess.

A cloud of blood gushed from his mouth and nose.

Then the golden thread tightened, pulling him in from the windowsill and slamming him heavily next to the stone table.

Two shadows, one standing still, the other lying down, unable to move.

Hunyu, lying on the stone bed, opened his eyes.

He sat up, picked up the fan that had slipped to the side, unfolded it, and fanned himself.

"It took me two hours to set up this formation."

He glanced at the frozen shadow.

"You squatted on the wall for the time it takes to burn three incense sticks, waiting for me to fall asleep."

I glanced again at the one that had been slammed against the table.

"If you wait another quarter of an hour, the formation's mana supply will run out, and you might actually succeed."

He bent down to pick up the bone needle from the ground, circled around the soul lamp, and looked at the dark purple light on the needle tip.

"The Heart-Eating Needle simulates a recurrence of an old injury to the heart meridian, with the cause of death being sudden natural death and no external injury detectable."

His gaze shifted from the bone needles to the frozen face of the shadow.

"That's very thoughtful; they even chose the way I'll die for me."

The frozen shadow couldn't speak, but its eyes were darting around violently, revealing extreme panic.

The golden array patterns continued to burn his battle qi, and with each breath, his cultivation was irreversibly drained.

Hunyu placed the bone needles on the stone table, picked up the fan, and walked to the frozen shadow.

Golden Eyes activated one layer, not fully open, just the shallowest layer, enough to clearly see the remaining battle qi attributes on the other party.

The Bagua pattern deep within the pupil slowly rotated a quarter turn and then stopped.

He saw it.

Within the remnants of battle energy being stripped away by the formation, a tiny arc of purplish-blue electricity flickered.

Lightning-type battle aura.

Hun Yu had already checked the battle qi attributes of the five Heavenly Venerables of the Heavenly Gang Hall before he arrived.

Fire, Dark, Wind, Earth.

There is only one person in the Thunder faction.

The Three Venerable Ones.

Hunyu closed his golden eyes, shut his fan, and twirled it in his hand.

He didn't say the name directly.

He walked to the door, pushed it open, and looked out at the dark night sky beyond the courtyard wall.

The night sky was clear, without clouds or a moon.

But in the remaining visual signals from his golden eyes, he caught a faint, receding aura.

The source of that fluctuation was not on the ground, but in the void three hundred feet above the Heavenly Gang Palace.

Someone has been watching.

From beginning to end.

Hunyu's lips curved into a smile.

He went back into the house, closed the door, and sat back down on the stone couch.

The white feather fan rested on my lap. The golden light on the fan surface had mostly dissipated, with only the innermost main feather still shining.

The two assassins had completely lost their ability to move within the formation, and their cultivation had been stripped down to less than a one-star Dou Zun level, making them no different from ordinary people.

Hunyu didn't look at them again.

He lay back down, hugged the fan to his chest, and closed his eyes.

"The third step is to trap them."

After saying that, he really fell asleep.

The chirping of insects outside the courtyard wall began again.