It didn’t take long before they caught sight of the carriage ahead. The trio slowed down, keeping their distance as they trailed it silently. By now, Jin Yu had already withdrawn his mist—his Qi was draining fast.

  If it’s not absolutely necessary, I shouldn’t use this technique. It burns through Qi like mad.

  “So, Master, what are we going to do now?” Min Lei asked, eyes gleaming with eagerness.

  “Obviously, we follow them and find the rest,” Haozi chimed in.

  “Brat, I haven’t even settled the earlier score with you, and now you dare speak?” Min Lei shot back, still irritated.

  Haozi gave him a sideways glance but said nothing.

  “Hmph.” Min Lei scoffed, then turned his gaze forward toward Jin Yu.

  “Master, are we going to finish them off or hand them over to the authorities?”

  “You’ll know when we get there,” Jin Yu replied vaguely. Truthfully, he didn’t know what he would do yet.

  “Yes, Master is wise beyond measure. I believe in whatever decision you make,” Min Lei immediately switched to flattery mode.

  “Master… both smugglers are in the mid-Essence Core Realm. What if their base has someone in the Nascent Soul Realm?” Haozi asked quietly. His meaning was clear.

  Jin Yu, their strongest, was only at the late stage of Essence Core Realm. If they ran into a Nascent Soul cultivator, their only choice might be to flee.

  Jin Yu’s eyes narrowed, his voice dropping cold and sharp. “Any Nascent Soul Realm cultivator will die by my hands. No matter how strong they are—” his tone turned venomous, “—their death is already certain.”

  “Master, you’re truly Heaven’s Child,” Min Lei said with a serious face. “How about you break through again like before? If you hit the Nascent Soul Realm, we’ll have nothing to fear. I can slap any cultivator we meet without worry!”

  His tone was pure reverence, like he truly believed Jin Yu could reach that level on a whim.

  Jin Yu chuckled. This idiot...

  Even Haozi nodded solemnly, fully buying into it. After all, Jin Yu had crossed a whole realm in just a day—who was to say he couldn’t do it again?

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Feeling the weight of their blind admiration behind him, Jin Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. These guys really worship me...

  He glanced at the numbers in his mind.

  Influence Points: 22,569

  Tsk. Not enough at all.

  He remembered the elven territory clearly—just raising a single stat had cost him ten thousand points. And he needed to upgrade ten stats to hit the peak of Essence Core Realm. That meant…

  A full hundred thousand points!

  “So expensive...” he muttered internally.

  The best I can do now is learn the Divine Phase Technique…

  Ding!

  —10,000 influence Points deducted

  Initial Stage Divine Phase Technique learned

  Ding!

  Beginning Stage Divine Phase Technique learned

  Suddenly, his body felt... strange.

  Absent.

  Present.

  Both absent and present.

  It was like he could step through space, crossing a thousand meters in the blink of an eye.

  I feel… uncatchable.

  He exhaled sharply. "Aaaah." A grin stretched across his face.

  This... this is the perfect technique for revenge—I mean, justice!

  A bold thought crept into his mind. Should I test it? Just once… It won’t alarm them.

  And so, he did.

  One moment he was there—

  Then gone.

  It took several seconds for Haozi and Min Lei to even react.

  “Ah!”

  “Where did—!?”

  Before either could finish their sentence, Jin Yu phased back beside them.

  “Master!” they both exclaimed.

  A cheeky grin tugged at his lips as the carriage continued its slow roll forward, horses trotting steadily.

  Min Lei turned to him, awe written all over his face. At this point, he looked ready to kneel on the ground and declare eternal loyalty.

  We just talked about it and Master already did it… so scary!

  Haozi wasn’t any different. His eyes shone with the same worship and admiration.

  The two men’s gazes followed Jin Yu as they rode on.

  Minutes turned into hours. They were still on the road. The forest lining the path had thinned—no longer dense but sparse, letting more sky bleed through.

  Looks like we’re almost at the gate.

  Jin Yu peered into the distance. A towering structure loomed ahead—a massive gate with walls stretching far across the horizon. God knew how many gates this colossal city had.

  He was almost lost in thought when something tugged at his memory—

  Haozi.

  That brat still hasn’t given me an answer!

  “Haozi,” he called out.

  "Yes, Master!” Haozi replied quickly, his voice a little tense. He sat upright, as if bracing himself.

  “When are you giving me an answer?” Jin Yu asked, keeping his tone as light as possible. He didn’t want to press too hard—but something about that gambling den just felt wrong. A place like that, and a boy like Haozi walking in alone? No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t sit right.

  Haozi tensed. Young master is asking again!

  Ding!

  (Emotion provoked: Fear)

  What could he possibly do wrong to make him fear me?. Jin Yu wondered.

  For a moment, Haozi didn’t say anything. His fingers curled tighter around the reins.

  Though he didn’t look as frightened as before, his head was lowered—guilt and self-reproach written all over his face.

  “…Young Master,” he finally said, voice small.

  He hesitated.

  “I didn’t lie when I said I was sent to the city on an errand. But that wasn’t the full truth either.”

  He took a shaky breath.

  “One day, I overheard a merchant talking… He said he bought young slaves from the gambling den—and planned to sell them to aristocratic families…”

  A tear slid down his cheek.

  Both Jin Yu and Min Lei remained quiet, letting him speak.

  “I—I was sold off too. A merchant sold me to the Jin family when I was ten.

  I swear by the heavens, I didn’t have any other thoughts. I just wanted to know where they took the children like me. I—I only wanted to know where I came from… to know my home.”

  At this point, tears flowed freely from his eyes.

  Jin Yu’s heart stirred.

  If he claimed not to be moved, it would be a blatant lie.

  All along, he thought Haozi was like any other servant—just someone trying to survive in a powerful family.

  He had never once considered what might be going through the boy’s heart.

  Silence fell as the three rode onward, their horses’ steady hoofbeats filling the void.

  Jin Yu remained quiet. He didn’t know what to say.

  Min Lei, on the other hand, was stunned.

  For a servant to show such boldness—to search for his origins? That was courting death.

  Now he even dared to say it out loud, and worse—to his master?

  Such an act could easily be seen as rebellion. Beheading wouldn’t be out of place.

  He glanced at Jin Yu, silently awaiting his response.

  Haozi’s head remained bowed, tears still falling like rain.

  For minutes, no words were spoken—

  Only Haozi’s soft sobs and the quiet rhythm of hooves broke the silence.