The first light of morning crept through the window lattice and danced playfully across Mo Fan's eyelids before he finally stirred awake.
No grating beast cries. No steward's whip hammering at the door.
Just the bright birdsong echoing through the valley and the soft rustling of the breeze through the leaves.
Mo Fan pushed himself up from the bed padded with soft spirit beast hides and stretched a massive, incredibly comfortable yawn.
Crack, crack, crack...
His body answered with a rapid-fire string of pops, like roasting beans hitting a hot pan.
The recovery power of Tier-2 had played its ultimate role during this night of deep sleep.
Washing away all his accumulated mental fatigue and hidden injuries until nothing remained.
He felt like he could punch a bull to death right now.
"A new day begins. What's on the agenda?"
Mo Fan walked out into the yard, cupped a handful of ice-cold spring water, and splashed it across his face. His brain sharpened instantly.
Normally, having just advanced to Tier-2 with his strength skyrocketing...
He would have been itching to run out, find a place to go on a rampage, and properly test the power of his new skills and realm.
But then his gaze drifted, almost without thinking, toward the bare summit of the mountain behind the valley.
The contentment on his face froze solid. He shuddered violently.
"Absolutely not. I am not leaving this courtyard today!"
His survival instincts were screaming alarm bells.
He hadn't forgotten that Lin Dong was still up there on that summit.
Waiting eagerly for Mo Fan to introduce him to that non-existent "Venerable Zishan" father figure!
If he wandered outside for a stroll right now and had the spectacular misfortune of bumping into that old monster again...
He might as well be seasoning himself for the pot.
Can't fight him, but I can sure as hell hide. It's too dangerous outside; home is the safest.
Having extremely rationally implemented his own Dao of survival, Mo Fan turned and walked back inside.
If he couldn't stay above ground, there was always underground.
Following the hidden passage beneath his bed, he familiarly slipped into the depths of the underground mine shaft he had meticulously built.
Perfect timing. I'll go to the underground farm and use those Qi Condensation beasts for practice, warm up to this Tier-2 power, and gather some EXP on the side.
Deep underground, gusts of sinister wind blew through the dark.
For the low-tier beasts that occupied this place year-round, today was absolutely going to be their doomsday.
BANG.
Accompanied by a muffled explosion, a massive mutated centipede covered in stony scales didn't even get the chance to spit its venom...
Before its head was forcefully smashed to pieces by Mo Fan's iron fist covered in [ Bone Armament LV. 2 ].
Fluids splattered everywhere. Instakill.
Mo Fan retracted his fist, blowing away the non-existent dust from his knuckles with satisfaction.
Tier-2 physical strength plus LV. 2 bone armor was simply a devastating dimensional strike against these Qi Condensation stage beasts.
Full of expectation, he looked toward the lower right of his vision, waiting for the beautiful cascade of EXP notifications.
However— One second later, the smile on Mo Fan's face stiffened.
[ Mutant Stone Centipede slain (Mid Qi Condensation). EXP gained: +1 ]
"..."
Mo Fan rubbed his eyes, thinking he'd read it wrong. He turned his head and stomped a mine rat attempting to ambush him.
[ Mine Rat slain (Early Qi Condensation). EXP gained: +1 ]
He stared at that pitiful little "+1" for a long moment.
Then he let out a deep, weary sigh, helplessly massaged his forehead, and felt a profound sense of powerlessness wash over him.
"You've got to be kidding me."
The System's "Level Suppression Penalty" had coldly descended once again.
He was now a high-level LV. 13 Tier-2 Mage.
This meant that in this underground mine he had once regarded as a treasure land of easy EXP, the small Qi Condensation mobs had thoroughly been reduced to worthless junk.
Do I have to go deeper into the back mountain to hunt those Foundation Establishment beast lords?
Mo Fan rubbed his chin, rapidly calculating the costs in his mind.
Within Azure Cloud Sect's jurisdiction, a Foundation Establishment stage beast was absolutely a local overlord claiming a mountain as king.
An old monster of this level would be surrounded by hundreds of Qi Condensation underlings.
If he wanted to kill one Foundation Establishment beast, he would first have to act like a coolie and clear out hundreds of small mobs that only provided "1 point of EXP."
Exhausting all his trump cards and tiring himself half to death, just for the EXP of that one final Foundation Establishment beast?
The Return on Investment (ROI) was absolutely abysmal.
Grinding beasts is a dead end in the short term.
Mo Fan sat down on a clean rock with some irritation.
If grinding beasts wasn't cost-effective, what was the fastest path to acquire a large amount of EXP?
In the dead silence of the underground mine shaft, Mo Fan's thoughts drifted irresistibly.
In his mind, a scene suddenly flashed: the ruins of Linshui Village, the moment he personally pierced Venerable Miasma Dust's heart.
And, after siphoning the remnant soul of that peak Foundation Establishment old monster...
The ultimate explosion of EXP on the System Panel and the ecstasy of crazily leveling up twice in a row.
Killing people.
Killing a high-tier cultivator was faster than slaughtering an entire mountain of beasts.
When this thought arose, Mo Fan himself froze for a moment.
He closed his eyes and began to analyze his own heart extremely calmly, even coldly.
He had originally thought that as a modern person educated in a law-abiding society for over twenty years...
Personally killing a fellow human being, draining their soul dry, and utilizing even their bones to the absolute limit.
There should be some physiological nausea or psychological fear and guilt afterward.
Even if Miasma Dust was a damned demonic cultivator who deserved it, killing a person was ultimately killing a person.
But, rarely, he found that his heart at this moment was actually as calm as stagnant water!
There was no fear, no disgust, not even a ripple of righteous satisfaction born from "enforcing justice on behalf of heaven."
In his subconscious, depriving Venerable Miasma Dust of his life registered as nothing more significant than pressing a button labeled "Gain EXP."
Hiss...
Mo Fan shuddered violently. A chill even colder than this underground mine shaft seeped out from the depths of his soul.
He couldn't see his own heart.
But he could feel it—with uncomfortable clarity—that with the increase of his level, the continuous elevation of his Soul Strength, and his growing reliance on Necromancy spells...
His heart seemed to have unknowingly been covered with a layer of icy, bone-chilling "death-qi."
He was being assimilated by this magnificent power belonging to the undead!
While this power granted him unparalleled survival ability and razor-sharp rationality, it was also, like a frog being boiled in slowly heating water...
Stripping away his common-sense emotions as a "human" bit by bit—peeling off his joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, compassion, and empathy.
If he let this state develop unchecked, sooner or later, he would become a pure undead monster wearing a human face...
With only "Experience Points" and "Materials" in his eyes, viewing all living beings as mere grass.
Is this the most fatal side effect of the Necromancer class?
Mo Fan stared at his hands, still as steady as Mount Tai in the darkness, and broke out in a cold sweat on his back.
He took a deep breath.
In his mind, the letter Zhao Ziwei had left on his table when he returned yesterday—with wild handwriting yet revealing warmth—suddenly surfaced...
He remembered Old Lü's wrinkled yet always smiling old face; he remembered A-Song's resolute gaze before leaving.
These scenes full of the warmth of human life acted like tough ropes, forcefully yanking his heart—which was about to drift toward the abyss—back.
Phew...
Mo Fan slowly opened his eyes. His gaze became profound and clear once again, carrying a trace of rejoicing over narrowly avoiding a disaster.
If it weren't for Old Lü's nagging, Senior Brother Ziwei's care, if it weren't for these bonds with mortals and cultivators anchoring me... I'd probably have gotten lost in the thrill long ago, turning into a homicidal maniac who would stop at nothing to level up.
The anchor of humanity, in this icy cultivation world, turned out to be far more important than he'd ever thought.
Just as Mo Fan was immersed in this profound reflection, reinforcing his moral defense line from the bottom of his heart—
Hum—!
His [ Death Vision LV. 2 ], which was always kept active, suddenly caught an extremely keen perceptive fluctuation from the direction of the surface directly above.
Mo Fan was on his feet from the rock in an instant, retracting all complex thoughts, his eyes becoming as sharp as a knife.
After upgrading to LV. 2, Death Vision could not only see through life and death, but its detection radius had also skyrocketed to over a hundred meters.
At this moment, in his field of view.
An extremely familiar humanoid silhouette, carrying a blazing, ostentatious fire-attribute Mana fluctuation like a raging furnace...
It swaggered defenselessly into the hundred-meter detection radius above his courtyard.
Watching that fire-attribute life light cluster jumping around in mid-air, the tension at the corners of Mo Fan's mouth couldn't help but ease into a relaxed smile.
This undisguised, vibrant vitality was truly the best medicine to cure a "heart clouded by death-qi."
Speak of the devil.
Mo Fan dusted himself off and turned toward the stairs leading to the surface.
"Senior Brother Ziwei is here."