Sa Min jolted awake, his eyes instantly darting to the right where he felt someone pulling that needle that had put him to sleep. He could smell a faint scent of smoke, but everything around him was pitch black. It was as if he hadn’t opened his eyes at all.

The feel of something on his face and the sound of his stinky breaths so close it filled his ears made it obvious—there was a cover draped over his entire head, blocking his sight and hearing.

Tiredness was still aching his eyes, his head still heavy. It couldn't have been long since he had lost consciousness.

Sa Min didn't panic. He had an idea of who might have attacked and apparently kidnapped him.

Probably the Wing family, he thought to himself, though he was not entirely certain yet.

It could have been the one who marked his back, or perhaps just some random thug looking for an easy target.

Many possibilities could have happened, and Sa Min had to prepare himself for the worst.

Trying to move, Sa Min felt this familiar feeling. His arms were heavy, as though there was lead within them, pulling them down.

He frowned. I’m chained.

The feeling stirred some old, horrific memories, ones he normally shrugged off, but…

The chains—they bothered him deeply. If there was one thing Sa Min hated with every fiber of his being, it was being chained.

Why the hell am I even chained? I haven’t opened my essence core yet, he thought with a slight of anger.

Drawing in a deep breath to calm himself, Sa Min sat up. “Where am I? Is anyone there?” he called out, letting his voice tremble, hoping to sound genuinely shaken and worried.

The cloth over his head lifted, and the dim glow of lanterns flooded his vision. Fresh air hit his face, and the sound of his breathing vanished. Blinking to adjust to the light, he ignored the man at his side and fixed his gaze on the elderly figure standing ahead.

Sa Min held back a smile of relief. He recognized the man before him instantly.

With only a few long, wispy white hairs clinging to his head, the man was unmistakable—the head of the Wing family, Wing Xieren. People in the city called him The Man with Three Hairs.

He was glaring down at Sa Min.

But despite his best efforts to look stern and authoritative, Sa Min could see the helplessness in his eyes.

This reassured his heart.

If Wing Xieren had some Mind-Highway Yantra that could dig into memories or any other investigative Yantras and had used it on him to find answers, he wouldn’t be standing there glaring.

And Sa Min wouldn’t be sitting here like this.

These kinds of Yantras weren’t just rare; they were illegal to use, even for authorities, unless it was on convicted criminals.

Sa Min glanced around. This seemed like a normal hall with closed windows.

Wing Xieren’s gravelly voice broke the silence. “Who told you about the Key?” He threw a parchment toward Sa Min. The same parchment Sa Min had written. “How the hell do you know about this?”

Sa Min looked up at him, his heart calm and cold. Wing Xieren’s murderous stare would have rattled anyone else of his rank, but not Sa Min. Who is Sa Min?

Not to mention, he had expected this moment would come, and he had already considered every possible angle and planned how to turn it to his advantage.

Scowling as though he were frightened, Sa Min stared down at the parchment at his feet. Who told me about the Key? he thought. It was a reasonable question. They didn’t believe that someone who hadn’t opened his essence core and had never gone beyond this area could possibly know about such a concept. Good. This is exactly what I want.

He was involved with some groupe., they likely assumed, or someone must have told him.

They were partially correct. Someone had indeed informed him.

“I can tell you,” he began, feigning hesitation, “but… how can I be sure you won’t just kill—” And a fierce kick slammed into his temple, knocking him sideways. He turned his head slightly and saw the man who had been standing beside him earlier approaching, a cigarette dangling from his thick lips.

“Who told you about the Key? Answer the damn question!” the man barked.

You don’t threaten people with annihilation and expect them to act rationally, Sa Min sneered inwardly.

“I’m not going to tell you until yo—” And the man’s black boot came crashing down into his face with brutal force. The blow was so hard that Sa Min blacked out for a few moments.

Chained up and without even having opened his essence core, Sa Min looked utterly powerless. They could kill him easily if they wanted to, as simple as drinking water, and his 600 years of experience could do nothing to protect him. He was weak—far too weak.

But he wasn’t truly helpless. In fact, it was they who were.

“Do you want to die?” the man screamed.

Blood trickled from Sa Min's left ear and nose as he struggled to sit up. “No, I don’t want to die,” he said, shaking his head. Then he motioned to Wing Xieren. “You want to die?”

“Are you threatening… us?” the shaven-headed man growled, then threw a sharp blow at Sa Min’s head, sending him flipping across the wooden floor.

With a blank expression, Sa Min picked himself up again, spitting out a mouthful of blood. It’s time to show some dominance.

“Every single word on that parchment is a fact,” he reminded them, locking his icy blue eyes on Wing Xieren. “If anything happens to me, everyone in the city will know who’s responsible for the kidnapping and killing of the colored-eyed people.”

Furious, the man approached Sa Min once again, and Sa Min squinted, ready for another hit.

But then Wing Xieren intervened. “Wing Yun,” he said, shooting the shaved man a look that said it was enough. He turned to Sa Min, stepping forward. “You understand the meaning of your words, right?” he asked.

Of course I do, Sa Min thought coldly. If the city authorities found out about this, the Wing family would be wiped out—no question about it.

“Do you know what an animal pushed into a corner with no escape route does?” Wing Xieren pressed.

Sa Min held his silence for a moment. He understood the meaning behind the question, and Wing Xieren was right. The most dangerous were those who had nothing to lose.

“I have no intention of exposing you,” he said finally, glancing down at the parchment. “This is merely a means of insurance if you people come for my blood.”

He spoke nothing but the truth.

Wing Xieren squatted down, peering at him. “Hmm,” he murmured, unconvinced.

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“Why do you think I’ve never told the authorities about what you’re doing, even though I know all about it?” Sa Min noted.

“Fear, perhaps.”

“Trust me. The reward they're offering for any information related to the disappearances is enough to erase any fear,” Sa Min added, his tone full of confidence.

Once again, he found himself speaking the truth. The bounty offered by the Investigation and Justice Bureau varied depending on the usefulness of the information. However, if you provided clear evidence of the perpetrators' identities, a massive reward of 1,000 force apples would await you.

The thought of claiming such a prize, which would greatly aid his cultivation, had crossed Sa Min's mind. But he knew that doing so would put him in grave danger. How had he even come to know about them?

Reporting them anonymously was an option, but it would also mean no bounty.

Besides, entering the Inner Domain would be far more advantageous.

For now, reporting them didn’t seem like the best idea.

Wing Xieren gazed into Sa Min’s blue eyes, and Sa Min didn’t flinch or look away.

They sat there in silence for what felt like a long time, tension thick between them.

Finally, Wing Xieren let out a sigh, scowling as he stood up. Perhaps because of the stench emanating from Sa Min.

Or perhaps he’d come to realize that Sa Min, despite being weak and young, had the ability to destroy him and his family—and even with his True Master cultivation and all his subordinates, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Sa Min watched Wing Xieren with a blank expression as he strolled away.

"So, what do you want?" Xieren finally asked, glancing back.

A half smile tugged at Sa Min’s lips, and he wiped the blood from his mouth, trying to hide it. "All I want is to leave this place alive."

"Nonsense!" Wing Xieren snapped, spinning around. "Why the hell were you following my son, then? You clearly want something. And how can we trust you enough to let you go? How do we know you won’t run straight to the authorities and expose everything?"

Sa Min suppressed the urge to let his smile widen. "What if I told you there’s a way to be absolutely sure I’ll stay quiet? A way to keep your operation safe?"

Wing Xieren snorted, unconvinced. "Why should we believe anything you say? And you still haven’t answered me—why were you following my son?"

Sa Min gave a slow nod. "I understand your doubts, and I’m ready to answer all your questions, but first..." He glanced down at the heavy stone-gray chains binding his wrists.

Wing Xieren’s frown deepened. "What exactly are you after?"

Sa Min leaned forward slightly. "You need to understand my position too. Remove these chains as a gesture of goodwill, and I’ll clear up all your doubts. How I know about the Key, how I came to know about your search, and why I was following your son. I’ll explain it all."

Wing Xieren stayed quiet, clearly weighing his options. And what choices did he really have?

After a moment, he gave Wing Yun a slight nod.

Wing Yun stepped forward and yanked Sa Min’s hand up.

Sa Min shot him a cold glance but didn’t really care; he was already considering his next words.

Wing Xieren made his way to his chair. "Let's start with how you know about the Key."

Sa Min said nothing, calmly waiting for Wing Yun to unlock his chains.

"Only when the chains fell away and he rubbed his wrists did he bother to look up. 'The answer to your question is simply...'"

….

The sun shone brightly, and the rain had stopped for a while now, leaving Tetra Blessing City smelling of damp earth.

"Why the hell are they taking so damn long?" Wing Lian thought, anxiously pacing back and forth outside the main hall, his eyes glued to the door.

Every time he imagined what would happen if the city lord discovered their secret, fear crept into his heart.

The whole Wing family was freaking out, darting around the wide courtyard like crazy and remaining on high alert. The patriarch had ordered everyone to be ready to bolt out of the city at a moment's notice, just like last time.

Last time, they had to fight their way out, and a huge number of them ended up getting killed.

Most of the subordinates had no idea about the Key or what the family was doing in the city. It was too risky; anyone could betray them to claim the reward from the Investigation and Justice Office.

And so, only a select few were aware of the danger the family was currently facing.

At that moment, a scruffy-looking man rushed up to Wing Lian, urgency written all over his face. It was Wing Lian’s subordinate, the same one who had attacked Sa Min and brought him here. Always lurking in the shadows, he kept a watchful eye on Wing Liang, ready to confront any dangers that might arise while searching for the Key.

That was how he had found out about Sa Min.

Wing Lian halted and fixed his gaze on the subordinate. "Well?" he asked impatiently.

"We just communicated with your sister, young master… She…" the man replied, hesitating.

A knot tightened in Wing Lian’s chest. “Did you tell her to hurry to the meeting place?”

"Yes, but… she said she can't make it in time."

“Damn it!” He felt his exasperation bubbling up and clenched his fists, heat rising in his chest. Taking a swig to calm down, he threw the minibottle against the wall, shattering it everywhere. “This is all falling apart!” he yelled, running his hand through his hair in helplessness.

In that moment, he couldn’t help cursing the day he crossed paths with that strange, black-clad man who had told him about the Key.

He opened his mouth to tell his subordinate to gather some guards and rush to the Sa Clan and get his sister out there, but then he remembered—the Sa Clan had super tight security. Only people with Sa in their name could get past those walls.

That’s the main reason Wing Xieren had pushed his daughter to become that womanizing patriarch’s concubine in the first place. They needed to search the Sa Clan territory for the Key, and that was the only safe way to do it.

This is it. I can’t wait any longer. I have to open my essence core now.

At first, he planned to save the Black Force Olive until he opened his essence core so he could advance quickly through transformations. But the situation had changed. If a battle broke out, he didn’t want to be caught without a weapon.

And the cultivators' primary weapons were the Yantras, and you couldn’t craft a Yantra without Imprints, and there were no Imprints without the essence core.

Just as Wing Lian turned to head back to his room to use the Black Force Olive, the main hall doors swung open with a crack. He spun around immediately. Finally…

A young man stepped out, and it was Sa Min. His face was bruised and bloodied. He paused for a moment, staring blankly at the sun before continuing to walk away.

What the hell? Wing Lian scowed. Why is he… leaving? Confused, he decided not to wait any longer and hurried toward the main hall, looking at Sa Min as he passed him.

Sa Min, with his expressionless face, didn't even bother to glance at him. It was like he had no idea who Wing Lian was, like he hadn’t been following him just hours ago.

He simply strolled away, acting as though nothing had happened at all.

What the fuck?

Wing Lian pushed the doors open and walked in.

His father sat in the main chair, one hand clutching his head, a look of deep concern on his face. Wing Yun stood before him, puffing away on a cigarette, the smoke curling around them.

They were so engrossed in their serious conversation that they didn’t even glance his way.

Wing Lian silently greeted them and moved closer to stand beside Wing Yun. It didn’t feel like the right moment to interrupt, so he just listened, hoping to figure out what the hell had happened. Why had Sa Min been allowed to walk free?

“...a vision from Heaven when he was a kid?” Wing Yun chuckled, exhaling a plume of smoke. “Does he seriously think we’d believe that a cultivator with 1-star aptitude got a vision from Heaven?”

“How do you think he knew about the Key?” his father asked Wing Yun.

“There’s definitely another group in the city searching for it,” Wing Yun replied. “He must be working for them.”

His father nodded thoughtfully. “And they know about us. That kid Sa Min might have spoken some truth. I think he prepared that parchment just to cover his own back,” he paused, contemplating. “Killing him would only harm us.”

“There are still some questions I can’t shake…” Wing Yun said, his brow furrowed. He didn’t look as worried as he should have, but confusion flickered in his eyes. “If they already know about us, why haven’t they reported us or tried to eliminate us? Wouldn't they want to be the only ones who know about the Key?"

“Because if they do that, not just us, but the entire city will learn about the Key. With the City Lord involved, they won’t stand a chance of getting it,” Wing Xieren explained.

Wing Yun puffed on his cigarette. “But why would anyone want to recruit someone who hasn’t even opened his essence core?”

“Maybe it’s because he’s just like Wing Lian,” Wing Xieren said, finally looking at his son as he stood up. “Weak people don’t attract attention. Or maybe… the other group Sa Min is working for is actually his...”

Wing Yun squinted. "The Sa Clan?"

"The Liuo family," Wing Xieren corrected. "I'm not certain yet, but there’s something in that family’s past that… do you know what happened to Sa Liuo Long 60 years ago?"

Wing Yun’s eyes widened in shock.

Wing Lian frowned, piecing it together. Wait, isn’t that Sa Min’s immediate family?