The climb was silent. Mo Tian's fingers, now hardened like steel hooks by the Corpse-Refining Heaven-Eater Art, pierced the damp stone of the shaft with ease. He moved not like a human, but like a spider—rhythmic, predatory, and unrelenting.
Two hundred meters up. One hundred. Fifty.
He could hear a voice drifting down from the iron grate above. It was whiny and nasal.
"Damned Elder Li... sending me to guard the pit. 'Watch for scavengers,' he says. What scavengers? Even rats don't come here. It stinks of rotting corpse fluid."
Mo Tian stopped five feet below the grate. He hung by one hand, his body suspended in the darkness. He looked up.
Through the gaps in the rusty iron bars, he saw the flickering light of a spirit lantern and the boots of a disciple pacing back and forth. The disciple stopped, unzipping his pants to relieve himself into the pit.
"Take this, you dead trash," the disciple muttered, laughing.
Mo Tian didn't move. He didn't feel anger at the insult. Anger was an emotion for those who had egos to bruise. He simply felt... hungry.
[Active: Eye of Truth]
A faint golden light flashed in Mo Tian's right eye. The darkness above became transparent. Information hovered over the disciple.
Name: Wang Er Identity: Outer Disciple, Azure Cloud Sect Cultivation: Qi Condensation - Stage 3 Status: Bored, Defenseless Weakness: Right knee (old injury), Throat (exposed)
Stage 3, Mo Tian analyzed. Two stages higher than me. In a fair fight, his spiritual pressure would suppress me. But the dead do not fight fairly.
As the stream of urine began to fall, Mo Tian acted.
He didn't dodge. He launched himself upward, shattering the stone handhold. He moved with explosive velocity, his hand shooting through the gaps in the grate like a spear.
Crack.
His fingers, pale and cold as marble, wrapped around Wang Er's ankle.
"Wha—?"
Wang Er didn't even have time to zip his pants. Mo Tian yanked downward with the strength of ten bulls. The rusty iron grate, weakened by years of corpse vapors, groaned and buckled. Wang Er's skull slammed against the iron bars with a sickening crunch.
"Ghhk!"
"Open," Mo Tian commanded.
He flexed his arm, ripping the grate from its hinges. Wang Er fell into the shaft, but Mo Tian caught him by the throat mid-air, slamming him against the wall of the tunnel before swinging himself up onto the solid ground of the cave entrance.
They were now face to face.
Wang Er's eyes bulged. He saw a naked man covered in grey dust, with eyes like abysses and an aura that felt like the grave itself. He tried to channel his Qi, to summon a fireball, to scream.
But Mo Tian's grip was absolute.
"You have good blood," Mo Tian whispered, sniffing the air. "Cultivated with spirit rice and pills. Pure."
Wang Er's struggle was frantic. He kicked Mo Tian's chest, his boots glowing with weak spiritual energy. Thud. Thud. It felt like kicking an iron plate. Mo Tian didn't even blink.
"P-please... Senior..." Wang Er gargled, realizing the disparity in pure physical horror.
"Shh." Mo Tian leaned in, his voice gentle. "Don't waste the Qi. I need it."
Mo Tian activated the Corpse-Refining Heaven-Eater Art. But this time, on the living.
His grip tightened. The black runic lines on Mo Tian's arm flared with crimson light. A suction force erupted from his palm, directly into Wang Er's neck.
"AAAAII—!"
The scream died in Wang Er's throat as his essence was forcibly ripped out.
This was not the slow absorption of the dead. This was violent extraction. Wang Er's skin withered instantly. His eyes sunken into his skull. His Qi, his blood, and even the fragment of his soul were dragged out of his meridians and poured into Mo Tian like water into a drain.
[System Notification] [Devouring Target: Qi Condensation Stage 3] [Gained: 300 Experience Points] [Gained: Low-Grade Spirit Root Fragment (Impure)]
Three seconds. That was all it took.
Mo Tian dropped the husk that used to be Wang Er. The body hit the floor, dry as parchment.
Mo Tian exhaled, a visible cloud of grey vapor escaping his lips. He felt the energy settling in his dantian, stabilizing his forbidden foundation.
[Mission Complete: The First Blood] Reward: 100 Villain Merit, [Soul-Binding Chain (Consumable) x1]
"Check status," Mo Tian thought.
Host: Mo Tian Realm: Qi Condensation - Stage 2 (Breakthrough Imminent) Villain Merit: 100
"Efficient," Mo Tian noted. He looked down at the corpse. "But wasteful. I ruined the robes."
He stripped the dried corpse of its outer sect uniform. It was loose on Wang Er, but it fit Mo Tian's new, muscular frame perfectly. He found a storage pouch at Wang Er's waist—a low-grade item, but functional.
Inside:
Three low-grade Spirit Stones.
A Sect Identity Token (Wang Er).
A rusty iron sword.
Mo Tian tied the robe's sash. He tied his long, wild hair back with a strip of cloth from the dead man. He picked up the iron sword. It was heavy, unbalanced, and dull.
He channeled a wisp of his Death Qi into the blade. The rust hissed and turned black. The metal groaned but held.
"It will do for now."
He walked to the entrance of the cave. Outside, the moon hung high. The Azure Cloud Sect was asleep, unaware that a cancer had just taken root in its backyard.
[System Query] Host, detecting high concentrations of Righteous Qi in the vicinity. Recommended course of action: Concealment.
"No," Mo Tian replied internally, staring at the distant lights of the Outer Sect dormitory. "If I hide, I am prey. If I hunt, I am the predator. The Outer Sect Exam is tomorrow, is it not?"
He remembered. In his past life, before his execution, he had been the pride of the sect. He knew their schedule better than they did. Tomorrow, thousands of hopeful mortals and outer disciples would gather to fight for a spot in the Inner Sect.
A massive gathering of weak cultivators. A buffet.
"System," Mo Tian asked. "Does the Corpse-Refining Art have a disguise technique?"
[Negative. However, the 'Villain Shop' is now open. You have 100 Merit Points.]
Mo Tian opened the shop interface in his mind.
[Villain Shop - Tier 1]
Bone-Masking Pill (50 Merit): Hides evil aura for 24 hours. Mimics standard Qi.
Poison Needle (20 Merit): Instantly paralyzes Qi Condensation cultivators.
Basic Array Breaker (100 Merit): Shatters low-level formations.
"Purchase two Bone-Masking Pills," Mo Tian ordered without hesitation.
[Transaction Complete. Remaining Merit: 0.]
A small black pill appeared in his hand. He swallowed it. The cold, chilling aura of death retracted deep into his bones, covered by a fake, warm layer of standard spiritual energy. To anyone watching, he now looked like a generic Qi Condensation disciple.
He clipped Wang Er's identity token to his waist.
"Wang Er," Mo Tian said, testing the name. "You have a big day tomorrow. You're going to become famous."
He stepped out of the cave and into the moonlight, heading straight for the Outer Sect dormitories. He needed to find a place to rest, and perhaps... a midnight snack.