Xuan made his way down the spiral path leading to the foot of the mountain, trailing the bloodstains on the ground. He didn’t rush, however, and simply walked at a normal pace.

‘If that person has injuries, then it’s best to let them bleed as much as possible before confronting them.’

While he was confident he could beat them in a fight, Xuan was a careful man. If he could afford to weaken his opponents before the fight even began, why refuse?

After just a few minutes of walking, Xuan arrived at where the trail of blood ended. They led into a patch of bushes on the side of the path, hidden from view. After some deliberation, he used Ruo Xi’s brooch to apply a light disguise onto himself by channeling Qi into it and imagining his new appearance—a few freckles here and there, hiding the beauty mark beneath his right eye, and adjusting his facial features a bit.

The disguise was just strong enough to conceal his true identity, but was also weak enough that he wouldn’t be considered a whole new person. After all, he liked his appearance. Once he was satisfied, he stored the brooch back into his inventory and parted the brushes with his hands.

There, laying defenselessly, was an unconscious young woman, with flowing long white hair and pale light skin. Xuan recognized her attire to be the undergarments of the Sky Cloud Sect’s female disciple uniform, while the outerwear seemed to have been turned into a makeshift bandage wrapped around her heavily bleeding stomach. A beauty by every means, despite her injuries.

“… Dressed like that, you’re lucky I’m the only wild animal that’s found you.”

‘It really is her, though,’ Xuan thought, narrowing his eyes. This girl had been the same one who confidently stormed off the sect hours earlier to take on the night-time wilderness alone—the same girl who, by the way, had no cultivation base.

Back then, he’d already surmised that she was a hunter, and when he saw the bodies of the Direwolves, she was the first person to come to mind. Looks like his guess had been right. But… as skilled of a hunter as she was, it seemed that was limited to the animals on Earth. She likely underestimated the power of the beasts from this world, resulting in this injury.

Bending down, Xuan gently undid the bandages covering the wound around her waist. The girl, hanging on to life by a mere thread, did not wake up from his movements, and her breathing remained shallow and strained. After seeing the severity of the injury—a large and bloody scratch mark no doubt received from an adult Direwolf—Xuan gave a sigh.

‘… The injury’s fatal.’

He was no genius doctor like one of his wives—an Elf, whose race specialized in the pharmaceuticals and medicine branches of alchemy—but over the years, he’d learned a thing or two. This wound was most certainly going to kill this girl sooner or later—that is, if no one did anything about it.

It was a miracle she was still alive, really. Xuan didn’t know how she even managed to survive for so long with this big of an injury, not to mention taking down the Direwolf after getting hit like this. It was a shame Xuan wasn’t at the Origin Comprehension cultivation phase yet and had yet to develop a knowledge sea. Otherwise, he would’ve already turned this girl into his servant with a Soul Mark, a powerful branding technique. Unfortunately, it was only possible through a cultivator’s knowledge sea, which stored, empowered, and protected their soul.

‘… Well, I suppose I’ll put her out of her misery.’

Spotting the weapons she’d used earlier clutched tightly in her hands, Xuan forcefully pried the wooden stake away from her and lifted it above her chest, eyes cold and remorseless.

“Sorry, but you have something I need.”

Once he killed her, he’d be able to access her inventory and claim the Beast Cores in there for himself, which would bring him one step closer to the Core Formation stage. Steeling his resolve, he prepared to slam the stake down towards her heart, but-

“…”

-He stopped.

‘The Heavenly Way…’

Xuan was so used to killing that he forgot about it. In his past life, he wouldn’t have cared. Back then, he had been far too powerful for anything the Heavenly Way threw at him to be of any threat. After all, he had been just one step away from conquering it.

But right now, he was still nothing but a Body Tempering stage cultivator. This girl had no grievances with him whatsoever—if he were to kill her while she was down like this, the Heavenly Way’s karmic attributes were sure to backfire on him. When that happened, there would be no telling what could happen.

Knowing that, he may as well rack up some good karma instead. Who knows? Maybe something good fortune will come his way. The Heavenly Way always delivered.

Xuan also briefly considered the option of not doing anything, and simply waiting for nature to take its course with the girl, but the Heavenly Way might consider that, too, to be ‘evil’ given his intentions.

In the end, he settled for the safest option. With a sigh, he opened his System menu. From there, he navigated to the tab, revealing the familiar screen of the System shop he’d made good use of so many years ago.

“Long time no see, old friend.”

With a smile, he browsed through the recommended items listed for him on the front page, filtered in correspondence with his combat style and current cultivation.

“Basic weapons… armor… Core Condensing Pills… aha.”

Pausing as he found what he was looking for, he tapped on the selection and was brought to a new pop-up menu.

Without hesitation, Xuan pressed on the button. The transaction completed immediately, with the item being sent to his inventory. He’d bought things from the System shop many times before, so he knew exactly what to expect.

Moving to his , Xuan retrieved the Health Rejuvenation Pill and gave a sigh.

“If any of my wives find out, they’ll hate me for what I’m about to do, but…”

Placing the pill in his own mouth, Xuan leaned in and kissed the huntress, using his tongue to forcibly push the medicine down her throat. There was no love or lust involved in the action; just another necessary step for Xuan to accomplish what he wants. After the deed was done, he backed away, and wiped his mouth.

“… I can just blame the System shop for not having liquid-state elixirs instead.”

If he had a higher mastery of Qi, he could've just used that to force the pill down her throat, but given he was technically still a Body Tempering stage cultivator, accomplishing that simply wasn't feasible. He would need to at least be in the Flowing Qi stage, when he can use and bend Qi to his liking. And since this was a mountain, there was no water to be found anywhere either. He could spend Credits to get some through the System shop, but why would he do that? Ridiculous.

Regardless of the methods used to deliver it, the pill immediately began to take effect. Like magic, color returned to the girl's cheeks, and the wound on her stomach began to close—just a tiny bit, but it was enough to keep her alive for the time being. Her breathing evened out, and slowly, she opened her eyes.

“… Who… are you?”

“The name’s Xuan,” Xuan replied, not bothering to use a polite tone of voice as he stared unflinchingly into her weary eyes. “And you, young huntress, have something I want.”

Immediately, a jab came flying towards Xuan’s face.

He evaded with ease, of course, but the attack was still dangerously close for someone who'd literally just been on the brink of death a second ago. The girl, however, crawled to her feet, for some reason seeing her savior as an enemy, and unleashed another flurry of attacks towards Xuan, who foresaw each and every one of her punches and evaded accordingly.

“Your attacks are far too predictable. They may work on mindless beasts on Earth, but they won’t do you any good against another human. That is, unless they’re ridiculously stupid.”

“You… pervert!” The girl yelled, clearly not listening. “You want to defile me? I’ll kill you first…!”

Saying that, she kicked upwards at him, but he caught her leg by the ankle and slammed her onto the ground.

“Ngh!”

“Calm down. I’m not interested in defil-”

“You’re not interested… so you’re going to sell me to someone who is? In your dreams!”

Xuan sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm. “I never said that.”

Despite clearly not having any winning chance against Xuan, who was far more experienced than her in combat against other people, the girl attempted to drag Xuan down to ground level with a leg clamp.

“A… commendable attempt, but also a pitiful one.”

Xuan slipped out of the headlock with ease, grabbed her ankles, and hoisted her off the floor upside down, like she was nothing more than a rabbit. She tried to throw out another attack, but since she was facing away from Xuan, she failed to reach. there was really little she could do—not to mention her being upside-down. If she tried anything, he’d be able to retaliate a thousand times worse.

“So… are you going to calm down and listen to what I have to say, or are we going to continue the conversation like this?” Xuan asked calmly, completely unfazed.

“Tch… you’re lucky I’m injured, bastard,” she hissed.

“Even if you weren’t, you still wouldn’t be able to defeat me. You hunt animals. I hunt people. This awkward position we are in right now is evident enough of that, no?”

“If you know it’s awkward, then are you going to put me down, or keep standing there and spouting bullshit?”

Xuan chuckled. “That depends on your attitude, beautiful. I can hold you up like this all day. Incidentally…” He peered down, spotting what was between her legs. “It’s white, huh? I didn’t expect such a timid color choice from someone as wild as you.”

“Wha- where are you looking?!” The girl cried, blushing furiously as she attempted to fight back by flailing her arms around wildly. “I didn’t even get to choose the colo- wait, that’s not the point! Put me down right now, or I swear to god, I’ll-”

“Threats won’t do you any good here, young lady. I’ll put you down when you calm down.”

“…”

The girl fell into silence for a brief moment, growing redder by the second both from embarrassment and anger, before finally taking a deep breath to calm herself, before finally speaking after a brief silence.

“… I’m calm now. Put me down.”

“You’ll listen to what I have to say?”

“Yes,” she sighed in resignation.

“Perfect. You could’ve just done this from the very beginning, you know? That would’ve saved us a lot of time and effort.”

With that, Xuan let go of her ankles, letting her drop to the floor headfirst.

“Agh-!” She cried out as she hit the ground, but since it was just dirt, the impact probably wouldn’t actually cause any lasting damage—not anything that would concern Xuan, at least. Rubbing her head, she gradually sat up straight, and glared at Xuan. “… So? What do you want?”

“Like I was saying earlier… I am looking for a few items,” Xuan said, folding his arms. “Items that are currently in your possession.”