Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Evening, Yujing City.

Yangming Road.

The unexpected explosion last night turned the original villa into a charred wasteland, pitch black everywhere, ruins piled up, and the area was cordoned off by police lines.

The official report attributed the accident to a natural gas leak, with an explosion caused by aging pipelines.

Crack...

At this moment, a series of footsteps echoed, treading across the charred ruins. Amidst the crisp sounds, the faint moonlight stretched the shadow long until it blended with the pitch-black ground.

Zhang Fan’s gaze was cold as he scanned the surroundings. He could feel the lingering fluctuations of the Primordial Spirit in the air.

This was obviously no ordinary accident; cultivators had clashed here.

"I’ve let you go twice, I won’t let you go a third time."

"Human Xiao, I can kill one, and I can kill a second one."

That night, Chen Dragon’s words, or rather his threats, echoed once more in Zhang Fan’s mind.

He was mentally prepared, yet he hadn’t expected the opponent’s actions to be so swift, so fierce, so ruthless.

"Could it be her?" Zhang Fan’s face was grave. He had completely lost contact with Li Yishan, and despite trying every means of communication, he couldn’t reach him.

Even Li Yishan’s stepmother, Jiang Yunxian, was missing. Uncle with the hat said the accident site only revealed five bodies, namely Li Yishan’s driver, the housekeeping aunt, the cook, and two staff members from Jiang Yunxian’s company.

As for Jiang Yunxian and Li Yishan, they are currently missing.

Zhang Fan’s eyes were as sharp as knives, his expression chilling to the extreme as he walked through the rubble, searching for usable clues.

Suddenly, a dim luster flickered into view.

Zhang Fan approached, crouched down, and rummaged through the brickwork, finding a talisman made of copper-gilded material beneath the stones, inscribed with an ominous omen.

Zhang Fan’s gaze lowered, yet he recognized it.

That summer vacation, he, Li Yishan, and Xu Zhixia had gone to Nanquan Town to play, and they had asked for a couple of talismans in a Daoist temple.

Li Yishan drew a highly favorable talisman.

Zhang Fan and Xu Zhixia drew ominous talismans instead, at which Xu Zhixia was somewhat displeased upon seeing what they had drawn.

Li Yishan then exchanged his favorable talisman with them. Later, Zhang Fan even inscribed both his and Xu Zhixia’s names on that talisman.

Li Yishan joked that all couples locking love in scenic spots, asking for marriage talismans, and burning everlasting incense usually meet a bad end. Sure enough, they broke up the year after graduating.

Holding that ominous talisman, Zhang Fan was flooded with memories, flipping over the talisman to find characters inscribed on its back, likely carved by Li Yishan himself upon return.

"In cultivation, only can one know, colors are not empty, one thought ignites remnant red. What exquisiteness in transcending life and death exists? The human form remains amid tribulation."

"What exquisiteness in transcending life and death exists? The human form remains amid tribulation..." Zhang Fan softly murmured, his gaze gradually dispersing, his mind involuntarily conjuring the figure of Li Yishan.

"Who’s there?"

Just then, a sharp voice interrupted Zhang Fan’s thoughts.

He turned to see a man and a woman approaching, holding flashlights. The bright light shone on Zhang Fan, as their gazes appraised him brazenly.

"This is an accident scene; who allowed you to wander in so casually?" said the man, wearing a black short-sleeve, with black sports shoes, in a deep voice.

"You’re from the Daoist Alliance?" Zhang Fan’s eyes slightly narrowed, glancing at the woman with a ponytail dressed in a Daoist Alliance uniform beside him.

"Since you know we’re from the Daoist Alliance, it seems you didn’t enter here unintentionally..." The man in the black short-sleeve raised an eyebrow, his expression turning suspicious.

Zhang Fan glanced, pocketed the ominous talisman, and turned to leave.

"What did you take? You expect to walk away without explaining?"

The man called out, stepping forward.

In an instant, Zhang Fan flickered and leaped a hundred meters away.

The man in the black short-sleeve’s expression changed drastically, instinctively calling out: "Junior sister, stop him, he’s not an ordinary person."

Boom boom boom...

As his words fell, the woman with the ponytail sealed her hands, and a blaze shot up into the sky, fiery and bright, like a daybreaking sunray, igniting True Flame in darkness, illuminating the eternal silence.

"Lao Mountain Red Fire Technique!?"

Zhang Fan saw it, as the fiery blaze pierced the eternal night, lighting up his face.

The Red Fire Technique, derived from the Lao Mountain Great Flowing Flame, was but a Small Skill.

"Lao Mountain Disciple!"

Zhang Fan softly spoke, remaining still as the fiery blaze quaked and shattered with a boom, scattering blazing lights in all directions, yet couldn’t penetrate within ten steps of him.

"You..."

The woman with the ponytail panicked, deep fear rising in her eyes. She hadn’t expected that the man before her would possess such terrifying methods, defeating her Red Fire Technique while remaining motionless.

"I don’t have time to play with you," Zhang Fan softly spoke.

Boom boom boom...

Suddenly, a terrifying pressure crashed down, like raging waves surging, as if an angry sea overturning.

The man and woman’s expressions changed dramatically, collapsing to their knees. Their Primordial Spirits felt fettered, their bodies burdened as if carrying Cang Mountain, each nerve on the verge of collapse under the terrifying pressure.

"Who... who is this person..." The man in the black short-sleeve kept his head down, big beads of sweat continuously falling.

"Zhang Fan..."

At this moment, a hurried shout came from afar. Zhang Fan turned and saw an old acquaintance rushing over.

"Sui Chunsheng!?"

"A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding..." Sui Chunsheng approached, seeing the man and woman kneeling on the ground, quickly explaining: "We’re on the same side, all of us..."