Cultivation is Just That Scientific

Shi Ximing stood atop the eaves, his body light as a feather, his legs shimmering with a blue glow.

This time, his visit to Great Xia was for the sake of a legacy.

His talent was mediocre; in over twenty years, he had only cultivated to the third level of Qi Refinement.

This level of strength was an awkward threshold. Typically, a Qi Refinement cultivator traveling the world would not have a lower level than this.

Having spent so much time cultivating, he hadn’t mastered many combat techniques, and even committing a robbery was beyond his capability.

Were it not for some resources passed down through his family, he might not have even reached the third level of Qi Refinement.

When he inadvertently flipped through his ancestral notes, he found a personal essay mentioning an old friend of his ancestor who, after suffering a grave injury that ended his path to immortality, returned to Great Xia.

The essay described how this ancestor’s friend had been fortunate enough to obtain a high-grade cultivation artifact during the early stages of Qi Refinement.

A high-grade cultivation artifact was something that even most late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators couldn’t acquire, underscoring its preciousness. Even more remarkably, this ancestor’s friend’s artifact was a high-grade offensive weapon.

Perhaps Shi Ximing’s ancestor recorded this merely as a memory, but upon reading it, Shi Ximing’s first thought was that if he could obtain a high-grade offensive artifact, he could rob most low-to-mid-level cultivators.

Though a low-level cultivator couldn’t sustain the use of a high-grade offensive artifact for long, even mid-level cultivators without good defensive artifacts would struggle to withstand an attack from a low-level cultivator wielding one.

To him, this was his fated opportunity, and so he came to Great Xia.

However, having no connections in the mortal world, his inquiries into his ancestor’s friend’s descendants led to the leak of information.

The ancestor of Chief Escort Wang was precisely the friend mentioned in Shi Ximing’s ancestral notes. The legacy left by Chief Escort Wang’s ancestor became the foundation of the Wang family.

This legacy wasn’t merely an immortal cultivation inheritance but also included several top-tier martial arts techniques.

In the cultivation world, top-tier martial arts techniques held little value, but these techniques allowed the Wang family to produce a continuous line of skilled experts.

In this generation, Chief Escort Wang had even reached the level of a grandmaster, making Weiyuan Escort Bureau one of the top escort agencies in Great Xia.

Chief Escort Wang understood the importance of his ancestral legacy. When he learned that someone was probing into his family’s history, he took precautions.

That day, while convening his escorts to discuss countermeasures, Shi Ximing found them.

Seven escorts desperately blocked Shi Ximing, allowing Chief Escort Wang to escape Tianxiang Tower. With his familiarity with the surroundings, he successfully evaded Shi Ximing’s pursuit.

Shi Ximing hadn’t expected Chief Escort Wang to be so cunning. A mortal grandmaster was nothing compared to a third-level Qi Refinement cultivator. He thought it would be a simple task, but his momentary carelessness allowed Chief Escort Wang to slip away.

The incident at Tianxiang Tower caused a significant uproar. Many scholars were present at the time, some of whom were injured, and seven lives were lost. The authorities were now fully focused on capturing Shi Ximing.

Shi Ximing didn’t fear the authorities, but he didn’t want to escalate matters with Great Xia’s government until he obtained what he sought.

If things escalated too far, the immortal sects behind Great Xia would send cultivators to handle the matter.

The cultivators dispatched for such tasks were far beyond the ability of a mere third-level Qi Refinement cultivator to contend with.

For this reason, he refrained from further incidents, instead employing various means to track Chief Escort Wang.

Yet after searching nearly all of Nanling City, he still couldn’t find him, which frayed his patience.

Shi Ximing stormed Weiyuan Escort Bureau, killing everyone inside. He then used the blood of Chief Escort Wang’s direct descendants to activate a low-level bloodline tracking talisman.

But to his great disappointment, the low-level bloodline tracking talisman failed to pinpoint Chief Escort Wang’s exact location.

There were two possibilities: either Chief Escort Wang had traveled more than five hundred li away from Nanling Prefecture, or he was dead, rendering the tracking talisman ineffective.

Standing on the eaves, Shi Ximing gritted his teeth and pulled out a new tracking talisman. Unlike the previous one, this talisman was brimming with dense spiritual qi.

It was a mid-level Qi tracking talisman, one of the few precious items left by his ancestors.

A single mid-level talisman was worth a hundred low-level talismans. With his third-level Qi Refinement cultivation, Shi Ximing couldn’t craft mid-level talismans himself.

Using a mid-level talisman to track a mere mortal filled him with pain and reluctance.

“Once I track you down, I’ll rip out your soul and turn your corpse into a puppet!” he muttered bitterly, taking out a piece of clothing from his waist pouch.

This piece of clothing, found in Weiyuan Escort Bureau, belonged to Chief Escort Wang and retained his aura.

Activating the mid-level tracking talisman with his spiritual qi, the talisman transformed into a ray of light that landed on the clothing. Immediately, Shi Ximing sensed Chief Escort Wang’s movements.

The mid-level talisman was effective for three hours. If Chief Escort Wang was still in Nanling City, Shi Ximing was confident he’d find him.

Even if Chief Escort Wang were dead, the places he passed through would still bear traces of his aura.

Having searched Weiyuan Escort Bureau and found no sign of the legacy, Shi Ximing learned from Wang’s family members that Chief Escort Wang had taken something with him.

Thus, whether or not he found Chief Escort Wang, finding the item was highly likely.

Shi Ximing applied a low-level lightness talisman, maintaining his feather-light agility.

He was now lavishly burning through talismans he normally wouldn’t use, all to achieve his goal.

Guided by the mid-level tracking talisman, his figure darted across Nanling City’s rooftops.

Half an hour later, he arrived outside the yamen (government office).

Sensing the talisman’s guidance, he finally understood why his previous searches failed.

Chief Escort Wang was hiding inside the yamen. The most dangerous place was indeed the safest.

Who would expect that the man sought by both Shi Ximing and the authorities was hiding in the heart of the government office?

Without hesitation, even if discovered by the officials, Shi Ximing was determined to enter.

The tracking pointed toward the rear garden. To him, the tall courtyard walls were meaningless.

He leapt over the wall, his feet lightly stepping across the treetops, moving forward without touching the ground.

The garden was empty. Recently, Li Wenyuan had been extremely busy. The Li family had only Li Wenyuan and Li Shiming, with few servants.

Due to the recent major events in Nanling Prefecture, most personnel were dispatched for investigations.

Though Shi Ximing’s strength was weak by cultivator standards, with the aid of the low-level lightness talisman and his own perception, he slipped deep into the garden without alerting anyone.