Ijilner felt the dressing around his chest. The breaths were strained and slightly shorter than usual, but he slowly adapted to the change. He was resolute on continuing to compete—with or without a healed chest.

He got up to leave his room in the treatment area. There were occasional screams of pain coming from the other rooms. It was not something that anyone sane would be fond of—even for Ijilner. But before he could make it to the door, it had opened by itself, and Elder Kun strolled in.

Seeing Ijilner standing up, Elder Kun frowned, "What are you doing? You're injured."

This brick-like elder was not someone Ijilner could easily swat away, so Ijilner got back onto his bed. He looked behind Elder Kun and asked, "Where's Elder Hao?"

"Shut up. Just hearing that name makes my stomach sick," Elder Kun snorted, "He's afraid of hurting good relationships, so he's off accompanying the Rising Phoenix elders for your actions. It's so obvious that the match was tampered with, but he doesn't believe it."

Ijilner didn't say anything. It was not his place to say something.

Elder Kun walked over and put his hand on Ijilner's shoulder. His spiritual sense swept over Ijilner's body, checking for hidden wounds.

Ijilner asked, "There's no need is there?"

"I don't trust the medics here," Elder Kun took out a pill bottle. "Take these. You'll need them."

After looking at the bottle's contents, Ijilner exclaimed, "Elder Kun, these are rank 2 healing pills! I can't accept this."

"From here on, the competition will only get fiercer. Besides, you bashed in that Elder Ye's disciple. I can't stand him. So think of this as my thanks," Elder Kun started to leave.

He paused right in the doorway, "Oh right, I ordered a new boomerang that should be ready by the time you're healed. It was odd how she shattered a quicksilver weapon. Do you have any idea how she did it?"

Ijilner pondered before guessing, "I felt like she was waiting for something when I exchanged blows. Then, it came suddenly. I'm not sure what happened. But when I looked at the broken fragments, I saw traces of Runes from the Rising Phoenix Arts."

"Are you sure? Runes can't be that powerful."

Ijilner answered with confidence, "I'm almost completely sure that it was Runes."

Elder Kun frowned before leaving Ijilner alone to rest.

Ye Tian put on a hooded cloak and left the Rising Phoenix residence at night. These days, Ji Xuan trusted him a lot more after he hadn't done anything traitorous and survived an assassination attempt. Although it was dangerous outside, he was not going to sit around and wait for eventual death. No one could guarantee that City Lord Deng was a patient man.

He stuck to the shadows—a scene that jabbed at his past— and crept around the darker streets, ones that were too poor to maintain anything. There was surely someone monitoring him from the moment he left the residence, so he was looking to lose the tracker.

Ye Tian wandered around the city. He was not a local, so he had to search for what he was looking for by himself. Soon, he came to a small, wooden house that had a worn-out wall. The areas left untouched by mold had formed a faint symbol of a sickle that was left by the local gangs.

A gold coin was paid to the old man who lived there, and a cellar was opened.

Where there was law, there was the opposite. Every city had one of these underworlds. Some came in the form of underground tunnels while others were in the open.

Moments after Ye Tian entered, a man in a hooded cloak walked out in the distance while grumbling. He wasn't allowed to enter the underworld lest he created new enemies for the city lord. Unable to accept that Ye Tian escaped, the cloaked man walked towards the old man, "Why did you let him go?"

"Sir, we allow entry for men and women of all origi-."

A head full of wrinkles fell to the ground.

"Is the City Lord turning on us?" an enraged voice suddenly boomed in the head of the cloaked man.

A cultivator that looked like a kid emerged from the dirt ground. His face was chubby with baby fat while his voice was squeaky, but his cultivation was in the dao-domain realm.

The cloaked figure fell over onto his butt from the pressure, "No! I-"

"What's going on?" A blue-robed man carrying a pink fan walked out of the wooden building. He looked at the blood-covered ground and the old man's corpse before chuckling to himself.

The kid answered, "Nothing, some stupid guy with a sky-high ego thought he can just ignore the rules."

"I-I know the rules! No one from the City Lord's forces can probe or enter the underworld. There's no reason for an esteemed cultivator like you to take revenge for a random guard dog!"

"He's still one of my men. Enough, you're executed for trespassing territory," the kid waved his hand, and the cloaked man was impaled in the heart by a spike of dirt.

The kid turned towards the blue-robed man, "Is it worth it to help that previous guy?"

"Yes, he's a part of the general's plan, and the general does not like it when his perfect plans are disrupted," the blue-robed man responded. "Now, was that a confirmation?"

The kid sighed, "That 20% cut is truly generous. How could I refuse? That bloodsucking City Lord takes 90% of all earnings in the underworld. I truly don't know who's the actual leech here. When the time comes, I'll send you half of my men."

The blue-robed man nodded, "However, I think we will need a small deposit to complete this pact. I've heard that you possess some Argonite ore?"

The kid's brows furrowed, but he thought about the possible profits and gave in, "I do. Does the general want to create a new suit of armor? I thought he possessed an armor that's as durable as Argonite."

"No, it's for his disciple."