A day passed, and the news of Sa Juan's A-grade aptitude spread like wildfire throughout every corner of Tetra Blessing City. Though she was a woman with a seed core, indescribable joy and pride filled the residents of the city.

Last night, within Sa Clan territory, the lights had never gone off. There had been noisy celebrations and banquets. It'd felt like people were celebrating a new year.

An emergency council had also taken place, and luckily for Sa Huiqing, he'd managed to keep onto his Elder position. The Sa Clan's once weakening prestige had now risen to the sky!

Meanwhile, in the courtyard of the influential Wen family, two twin young girls, about ten years old, were clinging desperately to a man's legs, crying.

"Please don't leave us, big brother. Please I beg you..."

"I promise I won't bug you to go out anymore, brother please don't go…"

Tears streamed down their skinny faces as they pleaded with Sa Men, their cries filled the air.

Sa Men regarded them with a gaze filled with love and affection. "I've already told you. I'm not going anywhere," he said, trying to calm them down.

"Stop lying to us! Why are you carrying a backpack then?"

"You wouldn't have taken this much clothes with you if you're just…"

Their faces were pallid, their bodies weak and skinny. It was obvious that they were terribly ill.

Their appearance made Sa Wen's heart ache.

If only there is a cure… He sighed with helplessness.

Sa Men sank to his knees and caressed the hair of his little sisters with his big hands. "I'm not going anywhere. How can I just go and leave you behind? I'm just returning to the Cultivation Academy."

"But why do you appear like you're never coming back," sniffled Sa Ruiba, one of his sisters, while the other, Sa Huin, continued to sob uncontrollably.

"Because, my beautiful flower, the first year classes in the inner circle are obligatory," Sa Men spoke in a gentle tone. "Cultivation takes a lot of time, and the distance between the Academy and here is very very long. Or do you want your brother to stay weak and become a joke among his friends?"

"Why don't you just cultivate at home? Dad's got plenty of those force apples," Sa Huin said, looking totally confused.

Sa Men gave her a loving smile, wiping her tears with his thumb. "Because I don't want to be stuck here all my life. I want to get that Academy certificate and explore the world. Remember how you said you wanted to see it too?"

"You taking us with you?"

"Of course! How could I leave you behind? Just don't tell father, alright? He won't be too…happy."

The girls finally laughed, brushing away their tears with their weak little hands.

This brought warmth to Sa Wen's chest

"When you come back, don't forget to bring those pink candies," Sa Huin said.

"A lot of them," Sa Ruiba added with a serious face.

Sa Wen hugged them carefully, fearing he might hurt them. "I love you so much," he whispered.

Though Sa Ruiba and Sa Huin weren't his biological sisters, Sa Men considered and treated them as if they were. From the moment they'd entered the house, they became a part of his family, for whom he would do anything.

Just as he was about to let a tear fall, a mocking voice came. "Are you seriously going to cry?"

Sa Men drew the tear back. "In your dreams."

A lean man in his sixties came out of a room, holding a cigarette in one hand and a small tea cup in the other. Unlike Sa Men, the man had a mustache and hair, gray and messy. He was Sa Wen's father, Sa Song.

Sa Song gave the little girls a look and they immediately bowed. "Dad," they said, terrified and ran into one of the rooms.

Sa Wen slightly frowned. "Why are they terrified of you, father?"

His old man took a puff from his cigarette as he approached. "Try giving them medicine everyday and you'll see."

Sa Song's teeth were yellow and around his mouth was black. Cigarette effects. Sa Wen had always talked him out smoking. But the man's head was as hard as a rock.

"Can you take them back to the hospital in the city, they might—

"I already did."

"When?" Sa Wen asked, unconvinced.

"Last week, when do you think I asked Doctor Xun about her daughter for you," Said Sa Song, exhaling a puff of smoke. "Wait, has she responded yet?" he suddenly remembered to ask.

Sa Wen ignored his question. "I think you should take them to a big city, you migh—."

"I already asked the City Lord before he took off to Ancient Blade City to find a doctor who knows about their illness." Sa Song let out a frustrated sight. "And I've been constantly bugging the patriarch to search in the Sea of Knowledge too. I wouldn't let them suffer if there was a cure, you know that. They are my own daughters." He paused to take a drag. "Whatever those colored-eyed kidnappers did to them, it's incurable."

Sa Men could feel an uncontrollable rage surging through him. He still vividly remembered that rainy day when his father, covered in wounds, had first brought his sisters into the house. His father had told him he'd saved them from the hand of a powerful kidnaper, and that he'd found them in this state.

Who the hell wanted to kidnap innocent little girls? What had they done to put them in such a state? What's their sick purpose?

Seeing the rage on Sa Men twisted's face, the father approached him with a concerned look. "Hey, don't get involved in this matter. You've just opened your sea core. You need to focus on cultivating and advancing in ranks."

He's right. Sa Wen took a deep sigh, calming his anger. I'm too weak. I haven't even opened my Essence Core. I just need to trust the Investigation and Justice Office to do their work and find these demons."

Just as Sa Wen was about to say something else, his father grabbed his shoulder, pulling him into a hug. "Don't worry. Nobody's going to lay a finger on them while I'm here."

Ignoring the terrible cigarette smell, a strange calm came over Sa Wen. This all he needed to hear before leaving with a relieved mind.

"Go and cultivate hard and stay alive. I know you don't want to stay in the clan. Don't worry, son. Do what you think is best for you, and don't let the clan hold you back. Just make us proud, that's all."

Sa Wen felt a little embarrassed. "I'll do my bes—"

"Don't cry again," Sa Song said sarcastically, taking a drag from the cigarette that was still in his fingers.

Sa Wen, being all big and bearded and bald, you wouldn't think they two hugging each other were a father and a son.

"Alright, go," said the father with an encouraging nod and Sa Wen immediately walked away, carrying his backpack in one hand, heading to the Cultivation Academy.

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Tetra Blessing City was rectangular in shape, divided into three parts. The western part where the three major clans and the cursed zone exist. The central part was where the City Lord's mansion was located, surrounded by the wealthy families and big merchants, and beyond them lived the commoners.

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And the Cultivation Academy, by far the most important place in the city, occupied the entire eastern part.

In a fancy house in the central part of the city that was in the direction of the academy, a young woman sat, hurriedly putting on her blue lotus shoes.

"Ugh, those shoes again," groaned a woman in her forties, leaning by the door with a helpless expression. "They're too long. If you keep wearing them, no one will marry you."

Small feet were one of the conditions for women's beauty in the Xi Empire. From a young age, women used to wear very small shoes — at the expense of their suffering — to keep their feet small.

"Good," Tan Chen said with a satisfied smile. "That's exactly what I want."

Her mother, Doctor Xun, her face covered in thick makeup in an attempt to hide the traces of old age, shook her head in disbelief. "Where are you going anyway in such a hurry?" she asked.

"To the outer competition," Tan Chen said, leaping to her feet, and walking hastily towards the door. "I'm too late. They might have finished already!"

"Why are yo…" Doctor Xun paused, realizing something. "Is it Sa Min again?" she said with an amused smile

Tan Chen stopped and looked at her mother with an annoyed face before continuing her hasty walk.

"Is he your type?" Doctor Xun followed her to the courtyard, laughing. "Are you interested in him?"

Ta Chen turned, her face filled with rage. It was as if someone had touched her dignity. "Until the four great walls fall and sun turn off for good and—"

"We start pooping force apples," Doctor Xun completed Ta Chen's usual saying with a chuckle.

With an annoyed huff, Ta Chen turned around and stormed out of the house.

With a smile still on her face, Doctor Xun stared to the side at the four black Great Walls. They were very very far away, but they were clearly visible as they were scratched endlessly to the sky with no end in sight, enveloping the Eastern Plane like a box.

"I don't know about pooping force apples, but I have a feeling that one day, those walls will fall."

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It was evening; the sun had still some minutes before it completely turned off, still emitting some light.

The first year in the inner circle of the Cultivation Academy only offered twenty new seats, which were reserved for those with B-grade aptitude or above. Each of the three clans had two seats. The remaining seats would be filled through the outer competition."

The Sa Clan's two seats were occupied by Sa Juan and Sa Men. Duo Clan, who had only one B-grade aptitude this year, had the right to give the other seat to one of their own members.

As for the Lin Clan, they didn't have anyone with B-grade aptitude this year.

In addition to five people outside the three clans who had gotten B-grade aptitude, only nine seats were left for the outer disciples to fight over.

And since most of the outer disciples hadn't opened their Essence Core, the fights were done with kung fu, swords, daggers, and any other weapon they could use.

In the arena of the outer circle where the competition was taking place, a heavy silence engulfed the air.

The outer disciples, the supervising inner disciples and whoever else who was watching. They were all silent, watching what was happening with faces with absolute shock and anger and disbelief..

Over the stage, a young man dropped powerlessly to his knees, moving his mouth, trying his very best to say something, but nothing would come out. His fear, the extreme fear… prevented him from doing so.

Blood-gushing down from his shoulders, his arms were chopped off.

And then…

A young man came standing behind him, Tears streamed down from the helpless man's eyes, pleading with his face. He could see it. Death. Could someone intervene please? Someone stopped this demon.

A young man came to stand behind him. Tears streamed down the helpless man's eyes, his face was pleading. He could feel it. Death. Just behind him. He didn't want to die. He never thought he would die.

An overwhelming fear had paralyzed him.

Could someone intervene, please? Could someone stop this demon?

Sa Min drew the man's chin up with one hand, and with the other, he pressed a cold dagger against his neck.

One of the inner disciples supervising the competition, shouted. "That's enough. There's no need to kill h—-"

With a thwack sound, Sa Min started beheading the man and looking into his terrified eyes.

Blood spraying onto the floor like a fountain; screams and cries of some echoed in the arena.

This was how Sa Min liked to do it. Killing people. He liked watching their eyes as their life slipped away from them. He liked to see them realizing how stupid they had been, realizing that the thing they tried so hard to forget about was… real.

After the man completely went away, Sa Min put his dagger back behind his belt and began searching the man's pockets. It didn't take long before he found a bundle of force apples.

Sa Min casually let the dead man fall and strolled down from the arena bloodstained, indifferent to all those furious and disgusted looks directed at him.

"Husband, husband!"

A woman came running past him to the stage, crying her eyes out.

Sa Min ignored her and went straight to the supervisors who were sitting behind a table.

He gave them a respected node. "Can I have the seal of the inner circle, senior Xie Jin?" he asked one of them.

Sa Min had spent a lot of time at the Cultivation Academy, and he naturally knew many faces.

"Frowning, Xie Jin regarded him in silence for a moment. 'Why didn't you stop when I called out to you? Why did you kill him…in that way when he was clearly no threat to you?' he said, a trace of anger in his voice.

Why did I do it, Why did I do it? Sa Min paused for a moment trying to find an answer that wouldn't anger this inner disciple in front of him any further. He knew that if he told him he'd done it because he simply could, the man would hold on to the seal.

"He didn't surrender," he finally said.

He didn't lie. If the man had surrendered, like the previous five he'd faced before him, he'd have let him go. Why would he drag himself into some trouble just to kill some random person?

Though it happened that the person he'd killed was the same Sa Clan young man who had threatened him at the store yesterday.

A coincidence, for sure.

Xie Jin's frown deepened. "He was trying to surrounder; you didn't have to do it."

Sa Min shrugged. "But he didn't, and the rules are the rules. Are you going to give me that seal or should I take it from the dean?"

Xie Jin grimaced, then turned to his partner by his side.

His friend nodded, didn't seem bothered like Xie Jin was. "Give it to him. He didn't break any rules."

Xi Jin turned back to him, and threw the seal away. "Fucking demon," he muttered under his breath. "People like you shouldn't be in the academy in the first place."

Sa Min calmly went and picked up the seal. Then, wasting no time, he strolled away.

The inner circle was his destination.