Yin Luoling quietly followed behind Ling Huan, beginning to observe his every move.
As always, when Ling Huan went out, he was accompanied by a Dark Guard.
With strength at about the sixth layer of Qi Refining, he was considered a master among commoners.
But to Yin Luoling, he was just a minor nuisance.
Before reaching Foundation Establishment, all Qi Refining cultivators were about the same.
Even if there was a huge gap between the first and ninth layer, with the right sneak attack, even a ninth layer cultivator could be killed by someone at the first layer.
When it came down to it, before Foundation Establishment, Qi Refining cultivators were just ordinary mortals, only differing in how much spiritual energy they had.
To put it bluntly, if a sect disciple at the second or third layer of Qi Refining received proper guidance and had good control over spiritual energy, they might not always beat a ninth layer cultivator, but at least they’d have the power to fight back.
As for those rogue cultivators without sect affiliation, their spiritual energy control was crude and wasteful.
They’d usually get drained of energy quickly, and then be counter-killed.
Yin Luoling had met quite a few of those rogue cultivators.
Relying on their high Qi Refining stage, they committed all sorts of misdeeds.
But in reality, their use of “spiritual energy” was nothing but brute force.
For them, using spiritual energy was just throwing punches, using as much strength as possible, with no thought for skill or efficiency.
In the end, unless a rogue cultivator had stepped into Foundation Establishment, their understanding and use of spiritual energy was limited to a game of arm-wrestling—just seeing who was stronger, who had more spiritual energy, and that was it.
If Yin Luoling wanted to make a move, none of the Dark Guards or regular guards in the Ling Residence would be her match—of course, that was only if they came one at a time.
If they all attacked at once, even she couldn’t handle that many at once.
So Yin Luoling wasn’t afraid of Ling Huan suddenly turning on her and ordering the guards to kill her.
Instead, she was more worried about her stalking being discovered by Ling Huan, making him more vigilant in the future and making it harder for her to gather information about him.
This life’s Ling Huan unsettled her.
He seemed harder to deal with than in her previous life.
Could it be… that beast has been reborn as well?
Hard to say.
For now, Yin Luoling decided to keep this thought in mind.
She would treat Ling Huan as someone who had also been reborn.
There was no harm in being more cautious.
As for tailing Ling Huan, there was nothing to worry about.
At least compared to fighting, Yin Luoling thought she was better at hiding.
Of course, her skill at hiding was all thanks to her previous life.
In her past life, Yin Luoling was constantly hunted by others.
To escape their pursuit, she had learned many techniques for concealing her presence, even creating her own secret technique that could be used at any stage.
Now, unless someone was Foundation Establishment or above, no one could notice her—a little first-layer Qi Refining child—following behind.
Yin Luoling began monitoring Ling Huan’s every action, hoping to find some clues about demon arts.
Ling Huan left home and headed straight for the Flowing Cloud Pavilion.
The moment he saw the beautiful hostess, Zhang Yun, his smile grew especially bright.
Yin Luoling dared not go inside.
The manager of Flowing Cloud Pavilion was at least Foundation Establishment.
Her concealment technique wasn’t good enough to fool a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spiritual sense, so waiting outside was the best choice.
But soon after, Ling Huan came back out.
He hadn’t stayed long in Flowing Cloud Pavilion, but now a sword hung at his waist.
Seeing it was a sword, Yin Luoling felt puzzled.
Was Ling Huan really planning to walk the path of the Sword Cultivator?
She hadn’t known much about Ling Huan in her previous life, let alone what kind of technique he practiced or what path he took.
After all, she killed him with a single sword, not even giving him a chance to show his skills.
Could it be the system wanted him to practice this? Was he going to meet his “system” mentor next?
Should she follow him?
At this point, she knew nothing about that system.
Although she suspected it was related to those old fellows’ tricks, she wasn’t sure if it would affect her…
Wait, Yin Luoling realized something.
Maybe she could follow and have a look.
If the Law of Time could reach back so far, and if someone could influence the past to this degree, the Time Emperor would have crushed all the other Emperors long ago.
He would’ve choked all his rivals in the cradle.
Even if the Emperors’ karma was too great to bear, at the very least, someone like herself, who would never reach Emperor, could have been wiped out by someone going back to the past, right?
So, yes, he could influence the past a bit, but that influence must be very limited, with many restrictions.
Maybe he could only send some messages, or pass on a few items, but definitely not transmit his full power or techniques to the past.
Yes, that must be it.
For example, his spiritual sense couldn’t fully spread.
Otherwise, Ling Huan in her past life wouldn’t have been killed by her sneak attack.
While pondering, Yin Luoling moved again, but this time, the direction was neither back to Ling Residence nor out of the city.
Instead, Ling Huan first went to the city center.
Yin Luoling kept following, thinking he might go buy some shady poison or such, but he didn’t.
He strolled through the circle of food stalls.
It had to be said, this time Ling Huan really knew how to win people’s hearts.
Or perhaps, he had used his demon art on everyone?
Unlike the previous life, back then everyone was terrified of Ling Huan, afraid that this arrogant young master would flip their stalls if they displeased him.
But now, none of that.
All the vendors greeted Ling Huan with friendly smiles, smiles that didn’t look forced, but rather a sincere welcome.
Some even teased him, chatting and laughing as he left with the crowd.
Then Ling Huan went to a restaurant, where a storyteller was passionately recounting a legendary battle between Golden Core cultivators.
He stood in the crowd, not demanding anyone make way.
He was short, buried behind the crowd, even standing on tiptoe he couldn’t see the storyteller, but he still listened with great enjoyment.
Munching on a candied skewer, biting sugar balls, he listened intently, sometimes even making gestures along with the story.
When the storyteller finished, he tossed down two copper coins and bounced away.
Yin Luoling was shocked.
If at home, he was just putting on a show of kindness, then what about here…?
Ling Huan, who once thought so highly of himself, could actually tolerate people standing in front of him?
With their backsides facing him?
In the past, he would have ordered his guards to push these paupers aside, or made the shop owner set a special chair just for him.
Or simply chased everyone else away to listen by himself.
But after that, Ling Huan still didn’t go home.
He kept strolling, eventually making his way back to the huge old tree where the festival had been held.
This was usually where the neighbors rested.
Under the tree, two old men were playing chess.
Ling Huan walked over, watched for a while, then offered some advice, even confidently saying to one of the elders, “Old man, trust me? This move will guarantee victory.”
The old man actually listened and made the move.
With that move, he was immediately countered, and his winning position became a dead end.
The situation reversed.
Ling Huan watched the old man for a moment, then grinned, and—taking advantage of the old man’s slow legs—dashed away.
After running off, he joined a group of children.
These weren’t rich kids, but rather ordinary children, some even barefoot, with coarse hemp clothes patched in a few places.
As soon as Ling Huan arrived, the kids cheered, “Boss! Boss! What are we playing today?”
How did Ling Huan get so close with this group of kids?
Wasn’t he always the one who hated poor kids the most?
Despising them for being dirty, for being useless to him.
But now…?
Is he pretending? But who would he be pretending for?
If you’re putting on a show, there needs to be an audience, right?
Yin Luoling watched even more closely.
Ling Huan went out of the city with these kids to the riverbank to catch shrimp and fish, swimming and playing, making quite a lively scene.
There was no sign of any pretense—his happiness was genuine.
Yin Luoling could tell.
When Ling Huan tormented her in their past life, the smile on his face was just like this, except now it lacked that sinister madness and violence.
Watching them play until dusk, Yin Luoling didn’t know why, but a strange emotion welled up in her heart.
It was like… she couldn’t quite say.
All in all, Yin Luoling was just supposed to be watching Ling Han’s every move, but for some reason, she suddenly wanted to jump out from her hiding place and join in their fun.
That feeling grew stronger and stronger, making Yin Luoling uneasy—was her state of mind being influenced by this childish body?
It seemed she needed to put cultivation at the top of her daily routine.
She didn’t want to really turn into a naive child.
Anyway, as dusk fell, as the children parted ways with Ling Han, nothing unusual happened.
The first day of surveillance should be over.
Just as Yin Luoling thought so, a faint sound suddenly came from behind.
She immediately became alert.
Her first thought was that she might have been exposed.
Almost at the same instant the sound appeared, Yin Luoling left her original spot.
Sure enough, if she had been a second slower, two darts would have struck her squarely in the back.
Aimed right at her heart.
Damn, she’d been discovered!?
How could this be?
Yin Luoling was shocked and quickly looked towards where Ling Huan had been, only to find he’d already vanished.
Did that mean they’d spotted her long ago and put on an act just for her?
Was it all just to wait for her to let down her guard so the guards could sneak up from behind?
Too many questions tangled in Yin Luoling’s mind.
Yin Luoling kept darting and dodging, shifting positions, trying to escape their line of sight as quickly as possible.
But for some reason, her pursuers clung to her like glue, never closing in completely, as if playing with their prey—always keeping a distance, continually launching darts.
Luckily, the riverbank was near a dense forest, with plenty of trees to use as cover.
Soon, as Ling Huan sped up, he vanished into the thickets and was nowhere to be seen.
Voices came from her pursuers behind, full of worry: “Damn, she’s gone. How are we supposed to explain this?”
“Calm down.”
Another person spoke up, voice low and muffled.
“She’s just hiding. No need to panic. She’s only a little Qi Refining brat. No matter how she runs or hides, she can’t get far. Now that we have the compass, she can’t escape us. Once this job’s done, we’ll be set. Stay sharp, don’t panic, there’s no problem. Now take out the compass—where’s the needle pointing?”
As he spoke, one of the two black-clad men pulled out the compass, but the needle was spinning wildly.
“Huh? Is the compass broken?”
One of them suddenly asked.
“No way, this is a premium item from Flowing Cloud Pavilion. How could it break so easily?”
The slightly chubby one next to him sounded exasperated and whispered, “Boss, does this mean the target isn’t nearby?”
“If not nearby, then where?”
“Hey… boss, could it be up in the sky?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp dagger plummeted from the heavens!