Sitting cross-legged, he took out a low-grade fatigue pill and started cultivating.

3rd Cycle!

4th Cycle!

5th Cycle!

Completing the fourth cycle, he took another fatigue pill and continued his cultivation.

6th Cycle!

7th Cycle!

8th Cycle!

….

A week later.

511th Cycle!

512th Cycle!

First Layer Qi Condensation!

Li Daozi felt an unknown energy filling up all his meridians. The feeling was extremely refreshing. Although there were no visible changes in his appearance, his face became bright.

His eyes opened as he let out a smile. “My body feels very light.” He then looked at his body which gave a weird smell. “I guess I should clean myself.”

A week ago, he informed his friends and Gu Han about his plans. Fortunately, Gu Han allowed him to take leave. Else, it would have been troublesome. That morning, he also exchanged the high-grade fatigue pills.

Taking a bath, he went to Gu Han’s residence.

“Hm? First Layer?” Gu Han squinted his eyes as he looked at Li Daozi. He didn’t have much of a shock because he knew the effect of a large number of fatigue pills. It is one of the pills which doesn’t lose its effects no matter how much you take.

Li Daozi quietly nodded.

“Go reach the Second Layer. Why are you here?” Gu Han waved his hands indicating him to leave.

“I can’t possibly become an Outer Sect Disciple just by reaching the Second Layer, right?”

Gu Han’s eyes turned sharp but eventually returned to normal. “Indeed. Every year, there are more than two thousand Trial Disciples who take the exam but only about five hundred become Outer Sect Disciples. Is there anything else?”

“I want to learn some Martial Arts.” Li Daozi went straight to the point.

Gu Han looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Let’s not talk about the fact that it is against the rules to give away Sect Skills to an outsider but even if it was legal, why should I give you?”

“Because you want me to become an Outer Sect Disciple.” Li Daozi smiled.

“Oh? How do you know that?” Gu Han didn’t take any offense to his smile and questioned again.

“Based on the fact that you were the one who told the Old Shopkeeper to pass me the .”

Gu Han didn’t speak for a while. After a few seconds, he smiled. “Take this.” He took out a manual from his Spatial Bag and tossed it to Li Daozi.

Li Daozi carefully looked through the manual - “Elementary Grappling Method”.

Without talking anymore, he departed.

Gu Han looked at his departing figure and sighed. “This kid is getting smarter.”

***

After reaching home, he didn’t immediately start cultivating. He meditated for an hour and then tossed the fatigue pill in his mouth.

“To reach the Second Layer, I have to complete 1280 cycles. Since I’m a First Layer, my speed in completing a full cycle increased a bit. If I have to estimate, I would not need more than 15 days to reach the Second Layer. Truly, the fatigue pills are out of the ordinary.”

Two weeks later.

A gentle but firm aura burst out of Li Daozi’s body.

Second Layer Qi Condensation!

Li Daozi surprisingly didn’t feel any sense of achievement reaching the Second Layer. “It is just the first step. I have to make preparations. But first, I should clean myself.” He helplessly glanced at his inner which was wet with sweat and filth.

Taking an usual bath, he went out of his hut and found a leather pouch attached to the door. Before going into closed-door cultivation, he told two of his friends to get some herbs. He smiled in satisfaction.

For the next eight hours, he brewed “Snake’s Tail Catches Fire”.

Because the herbs were very common and the poison was relatively easy to brew, the output was very efficient and failure was almost non-existent. Li Daozi himself didn’t expect this outcome. He expected some failures in the beginning before slowly getting used to it. He felt a bit uneasy for some reason but eventually didn’t think much as it was useless.

Storing the colorless and odourless liquid in three glass bottles, he got up from his bed. “Now then, let’s do some stretching.”

Doing some regular exercise and warm-ups, he picked up the “Elementary Grappling Method” manual. “Wait, what sort of movements did I perform?”

He shook his head and looked through the manual. It can’t be considered a skill but if someone perfected this, it can even kill a person. As he read the contents further, he became even more satisfied. “The only problem is that I can’t train. No wait, I can actually.”

…

Ruochen Mountains.

It was night.

The weather was cold.

A figure masked in black stood in the plains. “The cold never bothered me anyways…” It was naturally Li Daozi.

He silently watched some kids of his age picking some leaves and chatting from time to time.

Village Kid 1: “Ah Ming. What happened with Ah Xiao?”

Village Kid 2: “Aunt told me that he had mild fever.”

Village Kid 3: “I heard that he went to the other village.”

Village Kid 2: “Apparently, a doctor from the city came to the other city.”

Village Kid 4: “Right. Even my Second Uncle… urghhh!”

He fell down. His eyes dimmed as he didn’t even catch a glimpse of his murderer.

The other kids couldn’t see his fall as they were quite far and his body was hidden by the bushes.

Li Daozi heaved a sigh of relief. He then looked at the other kids who were picking up leaves without a care for the world. His groans weren’t loud enough to reach them. Although they were perplexed as to why he suddenly stopped his sentence, they didn’t mind. “This grappling method is a bit complicated but useful.”

He then silently moved towards one of the kids. The kid didn’t notice him as it was night and his footsteps were too light. Li Daozi stretched out his right hand towards the kid’s neck as fast as he could.

Elementary Grappling Method!

Crack!

As he was falling down, Li Daozi silently caught him and put him down in order to not make some suspicious noises.

After that, he knocked out the other two kids in the same manner.

“I can now one-shot kill mortals with 100% accuracy.” It doesn’t matter whether the person is of huge build or not. Because of his cultivation at the Second Layer of Qi Condensation, his prowess is far above normal mortals. “As for the First Layer Qi Condensation, as long as I can do a sneak attack, it would surely be a success. The problem is with the Second Layer Qi Condensation experts…”

He went back to his hut.

Cleaning himself, he was having his dinner when a thought suddenly came to his mind. “I… killed someone….” His face turned ugly and his breathing became quick. He choked on his food.

“Nevermind… the lives of mortals are as cheap as grasses…” Within a minute, his composure returned. Bitterly smiling, he muttered. “I hope you can take care of me.”

He slept for a while. Waking up, his eyes which were covered in confusion and guilt turned clear. “The Dao is formless and limitless. There are no useless Daos, only useless people. Every person in existence has their own Dao. Most of them are indescribable. As for mine…. it would be the Dao of Selfishness.” His eyes shined as his lips curled up. “Time to practice.”

This time, he didn’t go to the Ruochen Mountains. After all, there is a high chance for the Sect to send out disciples in order to investigate the cause for the death of mortals. Yesterday’s matter would not arouse any kind of suspicion as it was just a few mortal lives. Not enough to get into the Sect’s notice. But if he continued, things were bound to get troublesome.

He reached a village which was quite far from the Sect by afternoon.

“I should target strong mortals this time. How good would it be if there was a First Layer Qi Condensation Expert....”

“Little Brother, are you new to the village?” As he was planning, a hoarse voice entered his ears. He looked up, and saw an old man looking at him with a confused expression.

His heart thumped. This old man was a First Layer Qi Condensation Expert!

Suppressing his excitement, he smiled. “Indeed. I wonder who Fellow Daoist would be?”

“I’m just an old Doctor. Forgive me for being rude but if I may ask, what is Little Brother doing in a not-quite-known village?” The old man asked with vigilance in his eyes.

For a moment, he remained silent. He looked at the old man whose vigilance kept increasing every second. Then, he smiled. “I’m here to kill people.”

Elementary Grappling Method!

“Urhhh… w-why….” The old man let out a bitter groan before turning mute.

Thud!

Looking at the old man, he shook his head. “I was going to keep you alive a little longer but you’re a bit too smart to notice my murderous aura I suppressed…” At this point, his expression turned a bit strange. He bent down and took out the old man’s Spatial Ring. On his left hand, he noticed a green jade. Looking at the green jade, he laughed amusedly.

It was a Voice Transmission Jade Slip. If he was indecisive, he would have been wrapped up in future troubles.

“I can only hope he doesn't have a background… Oh, what’s this…?” Searching the old man’s Spatial Ring, he found a palm-sized thin black book. He didn’t look through the book. Channeling some qi, the book shined.

“No wonder he could identify my murderous aura. Turns out it was thanks to this technique. Hm. Pretty useful.” He said, then continued searching for useful items in the Spatial Ring.

“Uh… is it for real?” Holding a piece of leather, he gasped.

It was a face-changing mask! The thing he needed the most right now!

Turning into a mildly ugly man, he carried the old man and walked towards the interior of the village.

Seeing him carrying a seemingly unconscious man, the villagers were drawn into him.

“This is Doctor Mo!” A middle-aged woman cried out.

“H-how did this happen?”

“He even cured of my cold yesterday…”

Li Daozi shook his head seeing their hypocritical grief but didn’t judge them. With an anxious expression, he said, “I saw this old man lying in the street. He’s probably dead.” Saying that, he turned to leave leaving the old man in the ground.

Nobody stopped him. There were two reasons. One, his demeanor and aura doesn’t resemble a cultivator. Doctor Mo, on the other hand, was a cultivator. So it’s very unlikely for him to get killed by the ugly man. Two, even if he did kill Doctor Mo, they won’t stop him. After all, if he could kill Doctor Mo, he could also kill them.

…

Going back to the Sect, he smiled. “This time, the harvest is quite good.”