Five days later.

***

As the sun above Tetra Blessing City began to set, its fading light bathed the Liu family residence within Sa Clan territory.

Inside the main hall, a family conversation took place.

“So, how’s your progress so far?” Sa Huiqing asked from his seat at the head of the hall, his gaze resting on Sa Juan, who stood before him and her mother.

Sa Juan’s face lit up with a smile she had been holding back. “I’m almost there,” she said, her voice filled with excitement. “Just three more days, and I’ll break through the blockage. I can already feel my essence core about to open.”

“Three days?” Lin Qiao’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “That fast?”

Sa Juan’s smile widened at her mother’s reaction. “The RedMind Lotus the Patriarch gifted me yesterday has truly made a difference," she said, her heart racing at the thought of her close breakthrough. She couldn’t wait to get back to her cultivation.

“Good,” Sa Huiqing said with a satisfied nod. “The RedMind Lotus is indeed a precious herb, but as you know, it can only boost your Ba by 4Q. To get through the six transformations of the Beyond Mortal stage smoothly, you’ll need to secure that Spherical Coin.”

“It’s definitely mine,” Sa Juan said firmly. "I’m certain no one will claim it before I do."

Sa Huiqing nodded again and reached to his side, picking up a small pouch. “Here are more force apples to aid your progress.”

Stepping forward, Sa Juan bowed deeply, her heart swelling with gratitude as she accepted the pouch. “I won’t let you down, Father.”

As she straightened up, Lin Qiao suddenly asked, “What of Sa Min?”

Sa Juan turned to find her mother’s warm expression had turned into a frown.

“Is he still….”

Sa Juan’s smile faded. “Yeah…” she muttered with complicated feelings.

Before the Awakening Ceremony, Sa Min had been unbearable—arrogant and always getting under her skin. Everyone else seemed to admire him, but after years of living with him, she had come to truly loathe him, especially that chilling smile of his that sent shivers down her spine.

But things had changed. Once regarded as the Heavenly Genius, he had now sunk to the status of the City’s Disgrace. He was no longer the promising young man people once admired.

Those who had looked up to him now hated on him for his cold personality, whispering insults behind his back.

Now, he was just a drunken failure, sleeping through classes and neglecting his cultivation.

Seeing him in such a pitiful state, Sa Juan couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him.

Sa Huiqing sighed heavily. "You may go now. Do everything you can to get that Spherical Coin."

Sa Juan bowed once more before turning and leaving the hall.

As the door closed behind her, Sa Huiqing and Lin Qiao’s expressions hardened.

Lin Qiao turned to her husband, scowling. "What will you do now?"

Sa Huiqing leaned back in his chair, silent.

“It’s been a week since you called for him,” she said, frustration creeping into her voice. “This bastard shows no respect for us.”

Sa Huiqing let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead. I didn’t expect him to fall so hard after finding out he has 1-star aptitude that he is no longer interested in cultivating. What a disappointment…

He had originally planned to use the cultivation resources to persuade Sa Min to open the Pointed Jade Box Ka. But who could have imagined that he ended up in such a pathetic state?

Should have comforted him that day, Sa Huiqing thought with regret. When he had learned that Sa Juan possessed 3-star aptitude, he had been so overjoyed by the opportunities it might bring to him in the clan that he had completely forgotten about Sa Min and the Pointed Jade Box Ka, only calling for Sa Juan.

If I had asked him to open it right then, he probably would have.

Waiting for her husband to say something, Lin Qiao’s frustration boiled over. “We can’t let him keep going like this,” she snapped, her voice sharp with anger. “We need to consider a different approach to make him open it.”

Finally, Sa Huiqing turned to her, anger flashing in his eyes. “What exactly are you suggesting, woman?”

Lin Qiao hesitated. "We-we should force him—" And a sharp slap that snapped her head to the other side. She instinctively held her cheek, shocked as she turned to face her husband’s furious gaze.

“How many times have I told you?” he shouted. “Even though he has weak aptitude, we cannot ignore his powerful background.”

“But—” Lin Qiao began, but Sa Huiqing cut her off.

“What if there’s a communication Ka inside the Pointed Jade Box? What if, the moment we force him to open it, a signal is sent to his real family, and they come to find out what we’ve done? What then?”

Lin Qiao opened her mouth to argue further but she stopped herself, fearing another slap.

Sa Huiqing let out an exasperated sigh and turned his gaze away from her.

Despite his words, he still believed the chances of something like that happening were slim, especially considering the terrible state the immortal had been in when he handed Sa Min over.

If the force behind him were still around, they would have come for him by now, wouldn't they?

Sa Huiqing was certain that whatever force Sa Min had come from had long gone.

But still… he needed to be cautious. Even if he decided to force Sa Min to open the storage Ka, it would be a last resort; now was still too early for that.

Moreover, the state Sa Min had fallen into presented an even better opportunity for him to seize. If he could help him get back on his feet during such a critical time, wouldn’t he truly earn Sa Min’s trust and gratitude?

Not to mention, if his powerful family was somehow still around and did show up at some point, wouldn’t they probably reward him for babysitting their precious Sa Min? Wasn’t that better?

Sa Huiqing rose from his chair and glanced at Lin Qiao. Her face was contorted with rage. He snorted in annoyance before striding toward his cultivation cushion nearby.

He had no intention of sharing these thoughts with her. After all these years, he had come to realize that her judgment was clouded by her blind hatred for Sa Min. No matter what he said, she would simply dismiss it. So what was the point?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He settled onto the cushion, closed his eyes, and began cultivating.

“What about the matter of Sa Juan and the Patriarch marriage?” Lin Qiao’s voice came from the side.

“We will inform her once she opens her essence core.”

……

With effort, Sa Min pressed the last bit of his sky-blue pure force into one of the two blocked meridians at the top of his sea core.

There were already cracks in the meridian's blockage, and now, with this final push, it shattered.

Finally, the meridian was opened.

Sa Min let out an exhausted sigh, glancing around at his empty sea core.

Its walls remained as rough and rigid, reminding him of the curse on his aptitude. Their color was still the same as before, without even a trace of change or improvement. The thick black blockage beneath, sealing off his Essence Core, also showed no signs of breaking.

With no surprise, he reached for another force apple near him and began absorbing its primal force.

This time, there was a noticeable difference. Now that he had cleared two meridians, the primal force flowed in smoothly, faster—twice as fast, in fact.

That’s… a little better, Sa Min thought with a slight relief.

Over the past few days, Sa Min had been putting all his energy into clearing one of his two blocked meridians. With his pathetic aptitude, he knew that breaking through to his Essence Core would take a long time.

So, he had decided to begin by clearing all of his two meridians instead. That way he could at least speed up the replenishment of his sea core.

Still, despite his absorption having been increased by double, compared to 2-star cultivators who had six meridians of higher quality, and 3-star cultivators with 10, he was still painfully slow.

This was one of the advantages of having a higher aptitude, besides enjoying a larger sea core with less rigid wall.

My Ba should be around 12Q now," Sa Min thought, satisfied with the speed at which his Ba was strengthening.

After these past days of relentless cultivation, Sa Min had noticed a pleasant surprise. Though his Ba had been completely drained, reverting to the state it was in at his birth, he had found strengthening it now to be much easier than he remembered.

Sa Min had been confused by this at first, but soon, he’d understood.

His Ba wasn't like others'; it had already been tempered and pushed to a level beyond what anyone in the city could even imagine. It had suffered through trials in the Sea of Knowledge, and experienced a lot.

So, even though its strength had vanished, it’s still carrying the imprint of all that effort.

It was like a seasoned warrior, who after years of grueling physical training, suddenly found himself returned to his untrained body. The process of regaining his strength wouldn’t be the same as it was for a novice who was just beginning their journey

The path to strengthening his body would be quicker and smoother.

That was exactly the state of Sa Min and his Ba.

Once I get my third meridian open, he thought, calculating, my Ba will reach close to 20Q. After that, manipulating my pure force will be quite easy, and I'll be able to absorb the force way faster.

He opened his eyes and scattered the drained force apple in his hand, his gaze hardening. When that happens, breaking through to my Essence Core won’t take nearly as long as two weeks.

Leaning against the bed, Sa Min’s eyes swept around the calm, dimly lit room, before they eventually landed on a woman who appeared to be in her thirties, sleeping naked beside him.

She was the prostitute who had served him earlier.

With a weary sigh, Sa Min turned and grabbed a cloth on the nightstand, wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead.

After some hours of combing through the cursed area in search of the Key, Wing Lian had suggested they take a break at one of the well-known brothels nearby.

Sa Min hadn’t mind, as he also had a sexual need he had to satisfy himself; it had been a year since the last time he did, and his snake had been bothering him often. So, he had seized the opportunity, feeding it enough to keep it quiet for another year.

Sa Min sat up and reached for the simple backpack he had bought to put his things, as he didn’t have a storage Ka. From it, he pulled out a manual titled Learn to Survive.

It was a guide given by the Demonic Beast instructor during class, containing general information about the demonic beasts in Shaanxi Province.

Each Plane was different in a way, each known for unique Yantras, unique demonic beasts, unique cultivation materials and things like that. And Sa Min had never been in the Eastern Plane before, so there were countless things he didn’t know.

In classes, being exhausted from the nightly search, he always ended up sleeping. So whenever he had some time, he would take it to learn something.

Information of this sort could greatly benefit him, or even save his life.

"Sa Min," Wing Lian's voice called from behind the door, followed by three sharp knocks, loud enough to wake the prostitute beside him. She stirred, eyes half-open, as Wing Lian continued, "I think we've taken long enough. Hurry up."

Sa Min sighed, glancing at the door and then at the woman.

She blinked groggily. “Who’s tha—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sa Min whispered, brushing her hair aside. "Go back to sleep."

She closed her eyes again, and Sa Min stood up, slipping the manual and two force apples back into his backpack.

Back to searching again, he thought calmly. There was no frustration, no impatience from not finding any trace of the Key over the past few days. It had only been a week, and they had covered just a third of the cursed area.

Besides, the last five days hadn’t been wasted. He had managed to glean some interesting information about the Key from Wing Lian throughout their long chatting.

Sa Min smiled at the thought as he began dressing.

A single drop of blood was enough to trigger the Key's reaction; however, Sa Min had learned from Wing Lian that a precise quantity was necessary for it to fully manifest.

Thanks to Wing Lian's naivety, Sa Min now knew the exact amount required.

As for how the Wing family had become aware of it, he didn’t know much, other than that it was through an inheritance that had sparked fierce battles among multiple clans in a city in Hubei province, leading to their current pitiable state.

There was also the matter of the Investigation and Justice Bureau. Wing Lian, in a drunken haze, had foolishly shared how they navigated the aftermath of the inheritance chaos. His father had used a Yantra called No One Knows Except Who Knows on their Ba to mask their knowledge of the Key from the investigators’ detection methods, successfully avoiding any suspicion.

This rank 3 Yantra, which Sa Min was familiar with, could not only shield specific information from detection by most well known investigation-type Yantras but also prevent the user from revealing that information to anyone who wasn’t already in the know.

That's why, despite many members of the Wing family being aware of the kidnapping of the colored-eyed individuals and the extraction of their blood, only Wing Lian, his father, and the head of their guards knew about the Key hidden in the city.

Something else had caught Sa Min's attention during his conversations with Wing Lian. More than once, Wing Lian had suspiciously brought up the Liuo family.

Do they suspect them of knowing about the Key? Sa Min wondered as he grabbed his backpack and went outside.

“Here you are,” Wing Lian said, leaning casually against the wall in the hallway with a smug grin. “Never took you for someone into women in their thirties.”

Sa Min just nodded with a mechanical smile as he walked past him.

Wing Lian followed behind him, full of energy, showing how much their relationship had grown. “So, did you enjoy it?”

Without looking at him, Sa Min replied calmly, "It was fine," he lied. He never enjoyed sex, just like he never enjoyed eating or shitting. Why would he take pleasure in something that had been forced on him.

As Sa Min descended the stairs, his eyes fell on a group of five rowdy cultivators crowded around a table on the tavern’s first floor. With their rugged looks and tattoos covering their bodies, it was clear they weren’t the righteous type.

Two of them were busy with the dancers in their laps, while the others drank and laughed wildly

Probably a local gang, he thought, with no interest in finding out. He lowered his head and quickened his steps toward the door.

But…before he could reach it, two men entered. Both were dressed like the others, but one of them made Sa Min stop.

Fuck, he thought bitterly, instantly recognizing the man.

It was his former roommate—the one he’d kicked out of their shared room in the outer circle for sneaking in a prostitute.

The man’s long, pockmarked face split into a wide grin the moment his eyes found Sa Min.

“Yo, Sa Min? What a lovely coincidence. Long time no see!”