“What was your purpose, leeching off of a Son of Heaven? Don't even try saying it was out of goodwill.” Ah yes, me asking what the ring spirit was doing, they always have a goal or some shit. Still, to play the part better I let my face fall into a natural sneer.

“You knew he was a Son of Heaven and you still killed him?!” Huh, the Ring Daddy was in fact, not a Daddy. I couldn't tell the first time they spoke, with how quiet and gruff she was. “More importantly, how were you even able to? I felt no sign of Heavenly judgment, nor the attempt to save my disciple's life, as it had many times before.”

Instead of answering immediately, I close the door, putting Qi in the place where the lock used to be as a temporary fix. Then I walk over to the small table by the window, take a relaxed seat, and summon a bottle of wine from my ring. The ring spirit doesn't say anything, seemingly pondering her own question. What she doesn't realize is I too am pondering on what the fuck do I even tell her here? Wait a minute, I'm the bad guy now! I don't gotta tell her shit!

“Don't think you can get away with not answering me, leech. I, myself have no need to tell you anything, it's not my fate in the palm of my hand.” I clench my fist around the ring.

“You arrogant bastard…” Ah, wait, this was supposed to be a pleasant conversation. Whoopsies, teehee.

“Despite this, I shall show you a small mercy and answer one thing.” The soul stays quiet, waiting for me to continue, I fill my wine bowl and take a sip. Damn, I'm running low on mid-grade Spiritual wine, gotta go out soon. Oh wait, I was talking, where was I? “I killed him explicitly because he was one of Heaven's chosen, one that the Heavens can do easily without seeing they abandoned him moments before his death.”

“Moments before his… You mean to say that you, a Demonic Cultivator, can see the Mandate of Heaven?” She scoffs. I just hum noncommittally in response. I mean, technically it's true, right? I'm assuming I'm the only asshole going around that can see Providence halos. At the reminder, I glance at my halo for a brief moment. I… What the fuck is going on with my halo? It's still black but the wisp of red has grown a bit more in color, and with it, there's now a small wisp of gold. My eyes glance over to the ring in my hand, when I gained the first wisp of red I'd dimmed the Wei dudes halo some, the second I presume came from that corpse on my floor.

So why didn't the Soul in a Ring lose some of her gold? I almost widened my eyes at a realization, barely stopping myself from doing so by taking a sip of wine. She hasn't lost any of her gold, because I'm still being counted as her opportunity. I'm unsure whether I should laugh or cry for this pitiful woman.

“You… you really can see the Mandate of Heaven, can't you?” She says after a while, I've just been taking this time to get drunk again off of spiritual wine. “Tell me what it says of me, I must have lost its favor many years back.” She all but demands, albeit rather bitterly. Also, lady, are you not the least bit concerned about your disciple's body on the floor, full of holes? Am I the only sane person in this world? Wait no, I've never been sane.

“You make far too many demands for someone so vulnerable,” I say with a shake of my head. Back to Villain acting to get my point across it is.

“Gahahaha, I've killed hundreds of thousands of scum like you. What need do I have to be afraid? Even if I die in full, it's not decided by me.” I squint. Fuck it, time to get a point across. Also, she has a grandpa laugh, it's mildly amusing, but that's not important right now.

“You're still favored by Heaven. More so than the ‘disciple’ you stuck yourself to.”

“Truly? Then I-”

“Yet, like that disciple, that favor can be destroyed. Snuffed out like a candle left outside on a stormy night. Do you know why?”

“...” No words are spoken, but she seems to get my point. Phew, that's good, I really didn't want to bully her more, but I still have my pride as a villain to uphold.

“So I can assure you, Spirit, you've never met someone like me.”

Boom, mic drop.

“Long Yu Shan… Call me by my name you brat.” It's almost mumbled, and with that, I know she was thoroughly defeated.

“Dragon Fish Mountain? A fitting name for you, little fish.” One day, I'll call her Magikarp.

“It's Jade! Dragon Jade Mountain!” Huh, who knew purposely getting her name wrong would cause such a big reaction?

Cultivators, amirite?

///___///

Long Yu Shan, when more relaxed, is a chatterbox. Oh, she still seethed and whined but it was in that old man grumbling kind of way. Someone that knew they were wrong and couldn't do shit about it. For all intents and purposes, me having her ring is a whole lot better than me throwing it out or destroying it. Instead of wearing it in fear that'd allow her to do something to me, I've gone with putting it on a necklace, as apparently, all it needs is skin contact to let me speak to her. If she could do something with just that, she would have by now. Or do I just have a gambling addiction? Yes.

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On the subject of destroying her ring, however, if I somehow figured out a way to destroy the ring, she'd probably die. She's both bound to it and her soul is sealed tighter than a pickle jar that's been glued shut (fuck people that do that). Who did it? I dunno, my affection points aren't high enough, and she didn't tell me when I asked. I just know she seems to have truly been a powerhouse back in the day. On that note, could I pester her to teach me? No, and I didn't even ask. She brought up that her techniques wouldn't be suitable for someone so demonic in nature. In short, she's kind of useless to me, save for stories of the past of places and people even the old Xiang Rong had never heard of.

As for her disciple whose corpse is now sitting preserved in my spatial ring? She didn't actually care for the guy all that much. Cheng Hong was exactly the type of guy I'm most worried about in this world, but also my best target. Arrogant beyond belief, a huge hypocrite, and lecherous, but the worst thing of all is that he was next-level self-righteous. Look, I am the first three of those things, but I don’t try to justify any of the bad shit I do. Even in my last life, this life it’s kind of a given for my future I’ll be doing more bad shit. Those self-righteous types delude themselves into thinking they can do no wrong. That yes, they who rape and pillage are indeed heroes of justice. Fucking disgusting, I'll take their luck and their unique Physique’s without hesitation ten times out of ten.

As for keeping his corpse… I'm a Demonic Puppet Master in the making, so why wouldn't I keep the corpse of a 5th stage Foundation Establishment? It's free real estate. Besides, protagonist templates always have bullshit body strength even if the technique they cultivate isn't a body one. Cheng just proved that theory right. Along with his corpse, however, he left a lot of other goodies behind in his spatial ring.

The things specific to his clan I put aside. None of it's useful for me since I don't have the right Roots to use them. His sword however is a Flying Sword. A mid-grade Earth artifact at that. Which is something I can use even if it has that pesky blood-binding requirement. I'm sure Book-chan can help me get around that. Ignoring the feeling of said book grumbling in my soul, I carry on with my perusal of Cheng's lootbag spatial ring.

Lots of alchemy supplies, pill recipes, ingredients, a cauldron, a mortar and pestle. We can see what his main occupation was here. Decent amount of pills too, most of which would be useful in combat. The Essence Refining and Soul Nurturing Pills especially catch my eye. While the Essence Refining Pills are only a Tier 2 pill, they are why he's so tough despite not being a body cultivator. As for the Soul Nurturing Pill, those things are Tier 5. There's a whole bottle of them here. Taking these strengthens the Soul rather significantly. If he had used them before coming here I doubt my Intent would have worked.

“I made those, I urged him to take them immediately after we reached my stash.” Long Yu Shan, or Shan I'm gonna start calling in my head, pipes up with some lament in her tone.

“I had thought you were too obtuse to make pills.” I hum. I mean, a bit harsher than I was going for but it gets what I meant across.

“Bastard, just because I only cared for fighting you thought me an invalid?!”

How to win an argument with a woman 101. Let the implications win it for you, and minimize voice usage. They usually dig themselves into a pit. Only fails sixty percent of the time. I like those odds. Instead of responding verbally, I glance at the full bottle of Aphrodisiac Pills. Eyes full of judgment.

“I didn't teach him how to make those!”

Nailed it. Shanny shuts up after that so I resume my examination. Oh, look, a diary. A quick skim has me confirm that yes, Cheng did indeed use those pills rather often. He even planned on using them on his former fiancé after winning their duel. I'll keep this book and show it to her if we ever meet. I can probably get a favor out of it. There's also a locket with a picture of a stern-looking man in golden robes, his dad maybe? The last personal thing however is a jade token with a cherry blossom engraved on it along with the name Liu Mei. Heroine is my bet, there's a good chance she'll try to kill me, maybe I can show her the diary as well? Multi-use tools are the best kind of tool after all.

Spirit stones he had a decent amount of. 1000 Low, 500 Mid, 80 High, 30 Ancient. It's actually both my and Rong's first time seeing Ancient ones. These things are so rare you only really see them in the really big sects. I'm half tempted to auction one or two. Auctioning money for more money is highly amusing to me. It'd work too, as spirit stones are used to help break through bottlenecks. Something I don't have.

Next, I take a glance over his one-use combat scroll collection. No repeats so truly one-use items, a shame. Most of these will be useful when or if I ever decide to use them. I'm probably better off giving them to Blue since I know I'd just hoard them forever. Another thing I'll give to Blue is this Celestial staff I found. It's a low-grade Mortal artifact that has a small amount of holy magic in it. Good weapon for matching his Roots. Maybe it'll suppress the Demonic Physique a little. The other artifacts are a Defensive Talisman that's worse than the one I have, a Healing Bracelet, a pair of earrings, a large black cloak, and five serpentine daggers. The earrings are the highest-grade item I've seen at High-Grade Sky, with the cloak not far behind at Mid-Grade Sky.

“Those are mine, another thing that would have saved him from you.” Shan chimes in again.

“Nothing would have saved him from me.”

“Bah, it would have made him run away when I told him to.” She scoffs. Interesting, for the first time in both lives I might have to pierce my ears. For now, however, what takes my attention is the cloak. More importantly, it's the book that it was wrapped around.

Shade Serpent Assassin Manual? With these daggers and cloak? This fucker had found an inheritance.

“He couldn't use any of that. The techniques I taught him and his clans directly clashed with them.” Shan exposition dumps. Despite being a chatterbox and a woman, she really is helpful on occasion. Skimming through the book, I'm rather delighted. While it's not a perfect fit, these techniques are actually something I can very much use. My problem before now was I didn't have any combat techniques. This fixes that. I'll have to put my own spin on these however, hiding isn't really my style. I'm the Villain, after all, I need to be flamboyant and showy as fuck. Especially this spell, Eclipse Escape. It's basically a very short-range teleport. Instead of using it to escape, however, I'll use it to Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru people. Or just scare them.

Well, that's enough for now. Before I take any of these pills or learn any of the techniques, I need to make sure shit like the Cheng situation doesn't happen again. I leave my room with a purpose in my steps.

///___///

“I'm sorry Young Master Xiang. Can you repeat that?” The balding owner of the Inn who also acts as its manager asks with wide eyes. Yet another person I don't know the name of. I can't call him by his halo color because I already have a Green. Baldy it is. Baldy here seems to have expected me, if not for the reason he thought. Upon my arrival at the front desk, he was already waiting. He quickly informed me the woman from earlier was fired. I mean, I didn't ask for that but it's not like I care regardless. Instead, I told him something he clearly didn't expect.

“I want to buy this establishment and hire the current staff as servants. Don't make me repeat myself again, name your price.” Yes, this was my genius idea for the lack of manpower. Admittedly I've also grown somewhat attached to drinking in the garden at night here.

“I… can I be honest, Young Master Xiang?” Ohohoho, aren't you a brave one? I raise a brow as my respect for Baldy goes up a notch. I wave to him to go on. He takes a deep breath, then his eyes harden. “Most of the staff would likely quit, they fear you too much.” Damn, harsh, very true but it still stings a lil.

“As they should.” FUCK YOU XIANG RONG! Baldy actually grins a little at that. Maybe, just maybe, he heard my internal dialogue? Nah, who am I kidding here? The man just has balls of steel for not even being a cultivator.

“Indeed, and so I offer a proposal. You can buy the Inn.” he gestures around with his hand. “Instead of me leaving with the funds of that sale, I request you hire me to manage your new servants.” He says with a deep bow. Hold on, doesn't that fix like, all the problems my buying this place would cause? I can't tell if this guy actually cares about his employees, or if he just wants to make more money. I fear it's both. Competency scares me in a world like this.

"That is… surprisingly intelligent, and kind for a Mortal.”

Right!? I'm not going crazy, even the ancient ghost is surprised here. Ah fuck, whatever, I'll just keep a close eye on this guy. Not like he can skim from a cultivator's wallet here.

“I can respect your boldness. Kowtow only fifty times and I will accept that arrangement.”

Rong, buddy, pal, why are you the way that you are?