In the Twenty-First District of the Outer City, a cloaked Li Yuan appeared before a pile of ruins.
To be precise—he appeared where his teahouse used to be. Nearby, several fires that had yet to be extinguished flickered among broken timber and rubble, casting a dim, pulsing light across the debris on the ground. The air was thick with the smell of scorched wood and brick dust; the destruction was absolute.
He stood where the entrance should have been. The stone pavement beneath his feet had been blown upward, and the door frame was nowhere to be found. The wooden door he had personally polished, the copper bell, the wooden sign he flipped every single day, the counters and bookshelves he had used for two years—all of it was gone. Shards of porcelain were scattered among the broken bricks—fragments of the porcelain pot he used to brew black tea for his guests. Near the wall, where a small stove had once sat, there was now only a pile of mangled sheet metal.
Li Yuan stood blankly in the center of the ruins, looking down at the half-charred wooden sign by his feet. He could just barely make out the character for “Tea” on it; its edges were burnt and curled, and a corner crumbled away at the slightest touch.
Two years! From his travels in the Bacas Principality to his arrival in Kajinson, from buying this shop from the Hyatt Chamber of Commerce to hammering in the first plank and setting the last tea set on the shelf.
He had spent hours haggling with suppliers to save a few gold coins. He had scoured every general store in the Inner City just to find a tea scoop that felt right in his hand. He had worked so hard to finally make this shop look respectable.
True, business wasn't great. The number of daily customers could be counted on one hand, and most of his income went toward taxes—but this shop was his. Every time he opened the door and heard the bell ring, every time he served a freshly brewed cup of tea to a guest, he felt like he had at least left some small mark on this world.
Now, everything was gone...
A burst of triumphant laughter drifted from nearby. A few Blood Moon Cultists in dark red robes rounded the street corner, their staves still emitting faint trails of smoke from recent spellcasting. One of them kicked an overturned wooden crate and called out to his companions, “There are still a few shops over here that haven't burned completely. Finish them off.” Another pointed toward Li Yuan’s teahouse. “That one’s already leveled. Save your mana.” The first man spat. “A pity. I heard there was a tea shop around here that only opened at night. I wanted to see it for myself.”
The group walked away, chatting and laughing.
Li Yuan glanced at them.
The mana fluctuations from these people were at most at the Qi Refinement stage—converted to this world’s standards, that was about Rank 1 or Rank 2. He could have turned them into nothing but ash with a single finger.
In fact, he had already raised his hand, a faint golden light coalescing at his fingertips.
Then he thought about it and lowered his hand again.
Slapping them to death would be cathartic, but according to the Unified Laws of the Kyushu Continent, they hadn't committed a capital offense.
Moreover, these small fries were the ones who blew up his shop. Killing them would be too easy—the books wouldn't balance. Li Yuan was, after all, a Mahayana stage cultivator in the Kyushu Continent; he never lost out on a deal. If a debt was to be settled, it had to be settled with the one in charge.
If he only took his frustration out on these low-level thugs, wouldn't that lower his standards to their level?
He withdrew his gaze from the retreating figures and looked toward the academy in the distance.
Above that direction, the dark red curtain of light still hung like a filthy shroud. When he had swept the area with his Divine Sense earlier, he had clearly sensed the densest aura of karmic debt—if he wasn't mistaken, that person was inside the academy. Someone stained with that much karmic debt had to be a leader of the cult, or at least close to it. Though he didn't want to get involved in this world’s messes... this time, he would consider it doing a service for the heavens on the side.
Li Yuan straightened his collar and began walking toward the academy.
He planned to walk there step by step. It wasn't that he couldn't get there faster, but rather that he was afraid if he rushed over and saw the culprit face-to-face, he wouldn't be able to hold back and would wipe the person—and the entire academy—off the map.
Slaughtering the innocent was not in Li Yuan’s nature. To reach the Mahayana stage, one needed more than just hard work and talent; accumulating merit and virtue was also crucial. The path of cultivation was already an act of defying heaven; if one added a heavy burden of karmic debt to the journey, they could essentially expect to be obliterated during the heavenly tribulation.
Being able to hold back was one thing, but the prerequisite for holding back was—don't get too close. By walking slowly, he could suppress his emotions along the way. Once he arrived, he would ask what needed to be asked, and then settle the accounts one by one. But if the other party refused to pay up—then there would be nothing left to say.
As for what methods he would use, he would decide then. He hadn't lived for over a hundred years for nothing.
...
The northwest corner of the academy, beneath the outer wall.
Adrian arrived with his men at an inconspicuous iron gate. This was one of the exits for the academy’s supply passage, usually used for transporting kitchen ingredients and cleaning tools. It was in a remote location, surrounded by overgrown weeds. Less than three meters above the gate, the dark red barrier shimmered slowly.
Lanqiu was not with the group. According to the previous division of labor, he remained at the warehouse to handle coordination and the aftermath. Accompanying Adrian were three of the four Rank 7 practitioners—Tyris, Fielding, and Hector. The fourth remained at the warehouse to guard against any external surprises.
“Open it.”
The mage responsible for operating the reverse runes stepped up to the gate, pulling a stone tablet covered in runes from his robe and pressing it against the frame. Mana was injected, and the runes on the tablet lit up one by one. The small section of the light curtain above the gate began to vibrate violently. A few seconds later, the curtain split from the center, silently receding to the sides to reveal a passage just wide enough for two people to walk abreast.
“Operating normally,” the mage reported, looking back.
Adrian scanned both sides of the passage, his gaze lingering for a moment on a few stones on the ground. There were a few drops of blood on the stones, not yet fully dry. He then looked at the spot next to the gate where a contact should have been waiting—it was empty, with no one in sight.
“Where is the plant?”
The mage was also stunned. He looked around and shook his head. “I do not know, sir... the signal to activate the runes was sent out.”
“Could he have been discovered by the Blood Moon Cult?” Tyris asked with a frown.
Adrian didn't answer. He knelt down and rubbed a bit of the blood with his fingertip. It hadn't coagulated yet—meaning the person hadn't been gone for long. He stood up and brushed the dust off his hands.
“No matter. The fact that this place is still here means he didn't betray us. It’s just as well if he’s dead; it saves me the trouble of dealing with him afterward.”
His tone didn't change as he spoke, as if he were simply checking the inventory of a shipment. Then, he was the first to step into the passage, with the two hundred elite soldiers following in single file. After the last person crossed the gate, the mage maintaining the passage withdrew the stone tablet, and the curtain closed back up, returning to its original state.
The situation inside the academy was even more gruesome than what could be seen from the outside. There were burn marks and collapsed buildings everywhere. The ornamental trees and greenery along the main road were almost entirely destroyed. The sounds of battle continued to drift from the distance, though they were sparser than before.
“Proceed as planned. Tyris, take your men to the main plaza and clear out the remnants. Fielding, you and teams three and four go to the library and the training building—anyone in a red robe is not to be left alive. Hector, you are responsible for taking the fifth team to secure the mana nodes. Clear the three marked points one by one; leave no survivors.”
The three Rank 7 practitioners accepted their orders simultaneously and split up with their respective units. Adrian himself led the remaining forces toward the center of the academy along the main road.
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