Two days later, night.
Sanhe City Lord's Mansion, storeroom.
Steward Liu An sat in a grand chair, his eyelids twitching constantly, a sense of panic in his heart.
Two days ago, an assassin attempting to kill Aunt Xue was caught in the mansion. Although the person's cultivation was crippled and he was thrown into the dungeon, the City Lord was still furious, and the atmosphere throughout the mansion became extremely tense.
The storeroom he was in charge of was the top priority for defense, with three layers of guards added inside and out, not even a fly could get in.
But he was still panicking.
He picked up his teacup, wanting to drink some water to calm his nerves, but found the tea was already cold.
"Someone!" he called out.
Outside the door, two guards pushed it open and entered: "Steward Liu, what are your orders?"
"Bring a fresh pot of hot tea," Liu An waved his hand impatiently.
"Yes."
One guard turned to fetch the tea, while the other dutifully stood by the door.
Everything seemed no different from usual.
Liu An did not know that at the moment he called out "Someone!", a dark shadow, like a gecko, silently glided across the beam above his head, avoiding all lines of sight he might have swept over when looking up.
Jiang Chen had been lurking here for an hour.
Like a ghost, he used his Eye of Insight to clearly see the entire storeroom's defensive layout, the rotation patterns of personnel, and even the secret compartments beneath each floorboard.
He saw the path to death in Liu An's fate line, leading to his demise.
He also saw that the guard who went to fetch tea would slip on a patch of oil at the corner and break the teapot.
The timing was just right.
Just as that guard left, and the other guard leaned against the doorframe, yawning out of boredom.
Jiang Chen moved.
He didn't use a sword.
He plucked a wormwood rope, used for repelling insects, from the beam, and with both hands, silently strangled Liu An's neck, while pressing his knee firmly against the back of his heart.
Liu An's eyes bulged, a gurgling sound came from his throat, and his limbs struggled desperately.
But all his struggles seemed pale and powerless in the face of Jiang Chen's inhuman strength, enhanced by the Formless Life Essence.
After a few breaths, Liu An's body went limp, and he completely lost his breath.
Jiang Chen did not leave immediately.
He positioned Liu An's corpse to look like he was sleeping in the chair, then used a silver needle to pierce a certain Acupoint at the back of his head, creating a state of suspended animation.
Then, he took the candlestick from the table and dripped wax onto Liu An's sleeve, igniting it.
The flame quickly spread along the sleeve.
After doing all this, he left silently through the ventilation opening in the beam, just as he had arrived.
When the guard, flustered by breaking the teapot, ran back, he only saw a raging fire in the storeroom and a piercing scream.
"Fire! Steward Liu is burned to death!"
A perfect accident.
The next day, Jiang Chen exchanged Liu An's head with Ghost Hand for five hundred Spirit Stones, and a detailed map of Luan Shi Zang (Chaotic Stone Burial) that even marked where ant nests were under which stones.
Ghost Hand's gaze towards him became even more profound.
She only required the target to be killed, but this newcomer named A Yu had completed a flawless accidental assassination.
This was the mindset of a top assassin.
She had found a treasure... In the southern suburbs of Sanhe City, Luan Shi Zang (Chaotic Stone Burial).
This place was less a graveyard and more an abandoned Formation experimental ground.
The ground was covered with crisscrossing ravines, and strangely shaped boulders were piled up in a completely irregular manner, with a faint, burnt metallic smell lingering in the air, like something after being scorched.
Countless broken Formation energies intertwined here, forming many natural illusions and small spatial distortion zones.
Flocks of crows circled here, emitting hoarse cries.
They weren't eating carrion.
Instead, they were pecking at the wandering Souls that had been torn apart by the chaotic Formation energy and dispersed into the air.
When Jiang Chen arrived here, it was already dusk.
He did not rush to search for an ancient Immortal Cave according to the map.
He just stood at the edge of Luan Shi Zang (Chaotic Stone Burial) and closed his eyes.
The Eye of Insight was fully activated.
The entire "fate network" of Luan Shi Zang (Chaotic Stone Burial) was revealed in his eyes with utmost clarity.
Countless complex, chaotic lines, like tangled hemp, were intertwined here.
There were the "Greed Lines" of treasure-seeking Cultivators.
There were the "Lost Lines" of those who had mistakenly entered this place.
And there were also some deep red "Death Lines" buried underground, representing danger.
And amidst these chaotic lines, there was one line that was so different from the rest.
It was bright, dazzling, and full of vibrant vitality.
Like a golden thread, it drew an incredibly clear trajectory on a black canvas.
Its source was a dirty little beggar, curled up in a corner.
Jiang Chen's gaze instantly locked onto that figure.
Shi Lei.
He had found him.
Jiang Chen did not approach, but like a true hunter, found a high vantage point, concealed all his Qi, and observed quietly.
He saw that the little beggar was oblivious to everything around him, merely squatting on the ground, using a twig to repeatedly draw complex symbols that outsiders could not understand at all.
His eyes were focused yet ethereal.
As if the entire world only consisted of him and the lines at his fingertips.
Occasionally, other Cultivators, attracted by rumors, passed by.
Seeing Shi Lei, they merely glanced at him disdainfully, then cursed "stinky beggar" and hurried away.
No one knew that they had just brushed past a heaven-sent Opportunity.
And this Opportunity was about to belong to him.
An indescribable thrill surged in Jiang Chen's heart.
This feeling of manipulating and plundering the fates of others from a god's perspective was thousands of times more wonderful than simple killing.
He waited patiently.
Finally, at the moment the sun was about to completely set.
Shi Lei stood up.
As if guided by some unseen force, his eyes, both bewildered and resolute, walked towards an inconspicuous pile of rocks.
That was a blind spot that all Cultivators would overlook.
Jiang Chen saw that as Shi Lei approached, the golden "Fate Line" became brighter and brighter, almost materializing.
It was there!
Shi Lei walked to a rock half-buried in the earth, shaped like a reclining ox, and extended his dirt-covered hand.
His hand was about to touch the rock.
His fate was about to usher in its most glorious turning point at this moment.
And Jiang Chen, at this moment, also moved.
He didn't draw his sword, nor did he even stand up.
He merely picked up a small fragment of stone, the size of a fingernail, from the ground.
A barely perceptible trace of Formless Life Essence entanglement was wrapped around the surface of the stone.
Then, he flicked his finger.
The stone shot through the air, making no sound.
Its target was not Shi Lei, nor was it the reclining ox stone.
Instead, it was a smaller, more inconspicuous moss-covered stone three feet away, next to the reclining ox stone.
There, Jiang Chen, using his Eye of Insight, had seen another "energy node" of a broken Formation.
An unstable, long-forgotten, miniature repulsion Formation.
Just as Shi Lei's finger was about to touch the reclining ox stone.
The stone flicked by Jiang Chen accurately struck that node.
Buzz—
An invisible fluctuation instantly erupted!
The repulsion Formation was ignited by that wisp of Formless Life Essence, forming a violent and chaotic energy current that fiercely slammed into Shi Lei's body!
This process was incredibly precise.
It was like a person about to open the door of a treasure vault, and the key in his hand, at the moment it was inserted into the keyhole, was violently broken from the side by another force!
"Puff!"
Shi Lei was hit hard, his entire body was sent flying, spitting out a large mouthful of blood in mid-air.
His eyes, which had originally shone with the light of a Genius, instantly became dim and hollow.
A feeling more painful than death came from the depths of his Soul.
He felt that something innate and incredibly precious was being forcibly... torn out of his body by an invisible force!
"Ah—!"
A mournful scream pierced the dusk of Luan Shi Zang (Chaotic Stone Burial).
And on the high ground a hundred zhang away.
In Jiang Chen's mind, the most wonderful prompt he had heard so far sounded.
【Successfully interfered with "Child of Destiny Shi Lei's" core fate anchor point: "Obtaining Legacy in the Chaotic Stone Burial."】
【Fate backlash activated!】
【Stripping target's core talent...】
【Stripping successful! Congratulations to the host for acquiring the talent: Array Dao Heavenly Heart (Incomplete)!】
【Absorbing target's fate backlash power...】