Huang Ying sat at the side of the crack he just closed up, his eyes closed as his palms remained placed against the earth, sensing the movement going on within the grave beneath the surface. He remained there in silence for a few minutes, only when the last signs of movement beneath the earth seized did he open his eyes and let out a breath.

"Grampa Jun, it's not supposed to be this easy, is it?"

Huang Ying's eyes still looked at the patch of earth that now served as the woman's grave, she struggled fiercely in her last moments, but the earth hadn't been disturbed in the slightest. The voice of Li Jun quickly rang out within Huang Ying's mind, confirming his thoughts.

"No, not usually. In the past, whenever I saw someone kill another human being for the first time, it usually ended with them retching or heaving or at least looking a bit pale. This isn't really your first kill, but you've adapted far better than I first thought. But that's good, never let anyone tell you otherwise, you need to be like this if you want to survive in this world, anything else and you can only drop to your knees and serve others for the rest of your life."

Huang Ying gave a slight nod of his head, but even he wasn't certain if this calmness even when killing someone was his true nature or if it was something he gained, or possibly something he had lost, when the element of devouring awakened and remade him. Huang Ying stood up from his crouched position, his face once again pale after having to move so much earth. He closed his eyes once more, keeping them close for a few seconds before opening them again and letting out a bitter laugh.

"Heh, so that's how bad it really was, he didn't even see me at all."

Huang Ying had devoured everyone inside the bandit hideout and acquired all of their memories, this of course also included the one that was supposed to act as his grandfather, San Jongyu, whose memories he had just gone through for a closer look. He had died already on the second day after arriving in the hideout, but his corpse was fresh enough that Huang Ying could devour his memories.

San Jongyu had an addled mind torn apart by dementia, and it turned out that his memories were just the same as a result. Parts of them were garbled or ruined, some days even missing completely or altered by what San Jongyu believed to have happened. But one thing held true for all of the memories that San Jongyu still had, Huang Ying didn't appear in a single one. Even on days where Huang Ying knew that he had been right by his side, he was missing, it was as if San Jongyu had fully removed Huang Ying from his memories.

Huang Ying already knew this from his interactions with San Jongyu, but seeing the full extent of it made him feel rather bitter, it wasn't a good feeling to be this forgotten and ignored. But he did also learn something rather useful from going through the memories, they could be altered by outside forces or by what the person themselves believed to be true, meaning that he couldn't 100% trust all the memories he devoured. Huang Ying shook his head, his expression returning to normal as he turned towards the hut behind him.

"Nothing left to do here, it's about time I move on."

"Aye, you're no longer suited to staying here, the grander world is the stage for you."

Huang Ying ignored Li Jun's comment and once again entered the hut through the broken door. He had already devoured the corpses that he left in here, but their pouches still remained where they had died. Huang Ying picked up the three pouches that were lying on the ground, moving all the money they contained into a single pouch that he placed inside his own brown robe, which was created alongside his body, it seemed like the devouring element was kind enough to not make him walk around nude.

The bandits actually carried a surprising amount of money, a little over five silver in a mixture of silver and copper coins. Huang Ying's plan was to follow the main road and reach Wind's Touch, the closest city where he could start looking for information about both his parents and the person who paid the bandits to attack his village. Even if he didn't plan on looking for information, just living would cost him money, so he wasn't willing to leave behind the pouches of the bandits. The only one he left behind was the one on the woman that died within the grave he tossed her into.

Huang Ying also picked up what little dried meat and stale bread was in the hut, as well as the sole waterskin that still had some water in it. He packed it all up in the robe that had belonged to one of the men he killed and then tossed it over his shoulder, leaving the hut and heading for the nearby main road.

It wasn't hard to find the direction to Wind's Touch, he could find it even without the memories of the people he devoured, he just had to follow the road in a straight line, walking for about three days would be enough for him to reach it. Huang Ying didn't encounter anyone as he followed the main road, no one traveled to Green Willows village and there was no one left from Green Willows to head to Wind's Touch. As for bandits, the only bandit group in the area was the Wolf's Claw Bandits, and they had been reduced to nothing but stars within Huang Ying's dantian.

Huang Ying took this opportunity to chat with Li Jun and getting him to teach Huang Ying more about the world as well as a bit about cultivation. Following his advice, Huang Ying closed his eyes while walking and sank his mind into his dantian, arriving on the small hovering island. He raised his head and saw a small lump of nearly transparent energy floating above him, muttering softly when he saw it.

"It really is there. So all I gotta do is this?"

He stretched out his hands as he muttered, the lump of energy seemingly receiving a command as it flew over to the edge of the island. The lump sank down and positioned itself right at the edge of the island, slowly become the same ashen color as the island and then quickly turning into the same material as the island, causing it to grow by about five centimeters. Huang Ying poked the new growth with his finger, his eyes sparkling slightly when he felt no difference between the island and the new growth.

"It really works!"

The lump of transparent energy was a small amount of Qi that he had acquired after devouring the three corpses of the bandits. They hadn't started cultivating, but their bodies contained trace amounts of Qi thanks to some of the things they had eaten as well as some Qi that their dantians had naturally absorbed over the years. It was by moving this energy and fusing it with his own dantian that his cultivation would increase, reaching a new stage depending on how large his island and the other monuments of his elements became.

Huang Ying couldn't continue to grow his island, he had used up all the Qi he had acquired so he would have to devour more beings or quietly cultivate for a bit to absorb more. Wind's Touch was already visible in the distance when he opened his eyes again, the entire city surrounded by a 10-meter-tall wooden wall that was designed to keep out invaders and Demonic beasts alike.

Huang Ying quickly reached the large dual gates of the city but had to walk to the side to use a small door that would lead into the city. The gates would only open when the city's army had to leave or when they were welcoming important guests. Standing in front of the door were two tall guards clad in full-body metal armor carrying sturdy pikes.

"Halt, the fee for entering the city is 3 copper."

The guard who spoke up held out one of his arms, his hand open as he was awaiting the money. Huang Ying knew that this was a normal rule for most cities, with the larger cities having a larger tax, so he pulled out three copper coins from his pouch and handed it to the guard. The guard checked that the coin was real by checking the engravings on it, nodding to the other guard upon ascertaining that it was real. Both guards took half a step to the side, gesturing for Huang Ying that he could enter.

"Welcome to Wind's Touch, please enjoy your stay."

Huang Ying nodded at them and walked through the door, stepping onto a flat stone road that cut a path straight through the entire city, splitting off into hundreds of other roads that also moved through the city. The houses in the city were densely packed and were a mixture of stone and wood, some a grand five stories tall while others were standard one-story houses. The streets were packed with people and animals, some standing on the sides of the roads and hawking some wares that they praised as much as they could.

This was the first time Huang Ying had ever been in a city like this, and even the memories he had devoured contained very little about cities like this, so his eyes couldn't help but shine slightly when he saw his surroundings. He followed the road that would take him to the Shrouded Moon Agency, but he made sure to take a bit of a detour to explore more of the city, his eyes eagerly sweeping around all the while, causing Li Jun to reprimand him a little.

"Don't forget what you're here for. Keep your eyes on your goal or you will never achieve it."

Huang Ying clicked his tongue after being reprimanded but still chose to follow Li Jun's advice, speeding up slightly until he reached the Shrouded Moon Agency, a three-story building made entirely out of a dim gray wood. A crescent moon half-covered by a dark cloud was engraved above the two wooden doors that led into the house, the name, and the branch of the agency engraved above the insignia.

There were four guards clad in silver armor standing by the doors, but they simply cast a sideways glance at Huang Ying as he walked past them and into the building. Huang Ying entered a large reception hall after walking through the door, a large counter split up by several wooden walls located at the far end of the room. The left side of the room seemed to be a waiting area, round tables surrounded by chairs or red couches placed in a neat and orderly fashion. The right side was much the same as the left side, but there was also a small bar placed there, a cute girl who seemed to be in her twenties standing behind the counter while wearing a tight yellow dress.

Huang Ying's eyes were still sparkling as he swept them across the room, taking in the sight and enjoying the atmosphere. It seemed rather obvious that he was a newcomer who knew nothing, as a woman clad in a tight red dress embroidered with the insignia of the Shrouded Moon walked up to him and smiled sweetly.

"Excuse me, would you like some help?"

Huang Ying retracted his gaze and inspected the woman in front of him, she had smooth and clean skin, silky brown hair that had been neatly combed, and a pair of alluring orange eyes, a woman like her would definitely cause several customers to return just so that they could see her. Huang Ying calmed himself with a quick breath, nodding his head and stating his business.

"That would be nice, I'm looking for information on a couple, the man is Huang Jie and the woman is Bai Xue, they might have traveled through here about 10 or so years ago. I'm also looking for information about a man who calls himself Rang Ting."

The couple he was asking about was his parents while the man called Rang Ting was the person who had spoken with the Wolf's Claw bandits about the deal, he was also the one who delivered the first half of the payment for the job. Huang Ying thought the woman would guide him to one of the counters, but contrary to his expectations, she let out a light laugh and answered him straight away.

"That's easy enough, we don't even have to bother any of our informers about that. This branch has only existed for eight years, so there is no chance that we have information about the couple, as for Rang Ting, he's one of our Senior Informers. But you're luck is pretty bad, Senior Ting left this branch about two weeks ago, he's been accepted by one of the larger branches located beyond this small off-shoot empire and within the main empire. By now he should have already been transported beyond the Endless Wilds and reached the grand Burning Destiny Empire"

The woman guided Huang Ying over to the left side of the room and sat him down on one of the couches, swiping her ring and causing a book and a scroll to appear in her hands. The scroll was the publically known information about the branch, showing that it had indeed first opened eight years ago, about two years after Huang Ying's parents left.

She opened the book, which turned out to contain the publically known information about their members, showing that it was just as she said. Rang Ting had left to work for one of the Shrouded Moon Agencies located within the Burning Destiny empire, the empire that controlled the entire planet, even the Weeping Cliffs empire was just a small branch controlled by the Burning Destiny empire. The only reason they could call themselves an empire was the fact that they were so far away from the Burning Destiny empire thanks to the Endless Wilds.

Huang Ying let out a deep sigh after learning the truth, this made things quite a bit harder. Finding information on his parents would become harder as there was no telling where they might have gone after leaving Green Willows village. Wind's Touch city was the obvious first stop, as it was the only way one could go, but after leaving Wind's Touch, there were tens of other ways and cities one could go to, finding out which way they went was next to impossible.

Rang Ting was much the same, not just because they didn't share the information about which agency he went to, but also because finding him meant crossing the Endless Wilds, which was basically impossible unless he got help from someone else. Li Jun was residing with Huang Ying's body so he was able to guess at what he was feeling, quickly giving him his best advice.

"If you are uncertain what to do next, I would highly advocate that you join the Fierce Flame Academy. None of the elements I cultivate while alive match yours, so there are limits to what I can teach you, you will also need resources to increase your cultivation speed, and the academy can provide both. You can undertake missions to receive funds and to find Demonic beasts you can devour, and finally, the Fierce Flame Academy has ties to the Three Volcanoes Academy in the capital, which has ties to the Nine Suns Academy in the Burning Destiny Empire. If you do well enough and show your worth, the Fierce Flame Academy will send you to the Three Volcanoes Academy, which can then send you to the Nine Suns Academy. It is the perfect choice for you right now."