The night after the tournament was loud.
Bonfires lit up the Outer Sect plaza. The fifty winners were drinking wine, surrounded by sycophants and admirers. Iron Staff Wu, the man who had "defeated" Li Fan, was recounting the battle with exaggerated hand gestures, describing how his "invincible aura" had blown Li Fan off the stage.
Li Fan sat in the shadows of his dorm room, listening to the distant cheers.
He was polishing his shovel.
"Celebrate," Li Fan whispered to the distant noise. "Drink your wine. Fatten your livers. The wolves prefer their meat marinated."
He placed the folding shovel on his bed. Next to it, he laid out his inventory.
1. The Heaven-Deceiving Copper Coin.
2. The City Lord's VIP Token.
3. Corpse Dissolving Powder (2 bottles).
4. Spatial Bag (Containing ~4,600 Spirit Stones).
5. Star-Fall Meteorite Shard (Raw).
It was an impressive arsenal for an Outer Disciple. But for the Small Pond Secret Realm, it wasn't enough.
The Secret Realm was not a playground. It was a pocket dimension created by a dying Soul Formation cultivator three thousand years ago. It contained three zones: The Misty Forest, the Stone Labyrinth, and the Core Garden.
The danger didn't just come from the beasts. It came from the people.
In Life 17, Li Fan had entered the realm as a porter. He saw the Ye Clan ambush a rival team, hamstrung them, and left them to be eaten alive by Spirit Ants to save arrows.
In Life 200, he saw a "Righteous" disciple push his lover into a trap to bridge a gap.
"In the dark, morality is the first thing to die," Li Fan muttered.
He stood up. He changed his robes. He activated the Copper Coin, letting the familiar gray fog of obscurity wrap around his soul.
"Tonight, Zhang San goes shopping."
The Gray Market - The "Under-Stall"
The Gray Market was busier than usual. Disciples who had failed the tournament were selling their possessions to buy comfort wine. Disciples who had won were buying last-minute supplies.
Li Fan moved through the crowd like a phantom. He ignored the stalls selling "Sharp Swords" and "Hard Armor."
Armor was useless. If you got hit by a Layer 9 beast, you died. The best armor was not getting hit.
Swords were flashy. Flashy drew attention.
Li Fan walked to the far end of the market, where the trees of the surrounding forest grew thick and gnarly. Here, the stalls were less permanent—just blankets spread on the ground, lit by dim, flickering ghost-fire lanterns.
He stopped in front of a hooded figure sitting cross-legged on a dirty mat.
"Old Ghost," Li Fan rasped.
The hooded figure looked up. One of his eyes was milky white; the other was sharp and yellow. This was Old Ghost Seven, a crippled former disciple who specialized in contraband.
"Zhang San," Old Ghost Seven croaked. "You smell like money tonight."
"I need the 'Hunter's Special'," Li Fan said, crouching down.
"Which one?"
"The illegal one."
Old Ghost Seven grinned, revealing black gums. He reached under his mat and pulled out a small, lead-lined box.
He opened it. Inside sat three sticks of incense. They were pitch black, striped with crimson veins.
Blood-Frenzy Incense.
"Made from the glands of a female Iron-Hide Boar in heat, mixed with Psychotropic Spirit Grass," Seven whispered. "Light this, and every predatory beast within two miles will go insane. They won't fear fire. They won't fear pain. They will just tear apart anything with a heartbeat."
"How much?"
"Fifty stones a stick. It's dangerous stuff. If the Elders catch me selling it, they'll skin me."
"I'll take ten sticks," Li Fan said calmly.
Old Ghost Seven choked. "Ten? Are you planning to start a beast tide?"
"I'm planning a party," Li Fan said, dropping a pouch of five hundred Spirit Stones onto the mat.
Seven grabbed the pouch, checked the contents, and whistled. "You're a maniac. I like you." He handed over a bundle of the black incense.
Li Fan tucked them away.
"I also need wire," Li Fan said. "Shadow Silk."
"Shadow Silk?" Seven hesitated. "That's expensive. It's spun by Shadow Spiders. Invisible at night, stronger than steel."
"Do you have it or not?"
"I have a spool. Fifty feet. Five hundred stones."
"Done."
Another pouch dropped.
Old Ghost Seven looked at Li Fan with new respect. A thousand stones in two minutes? This wasn't a rogue cultivator; this was a hidden tycoon.
Li Fan took the spool of wire. It looked like empty air in the dim light. Only by channeling Qi into his eyes could he see the faint, deadly glimmer of the thread.
"One last thing," Li Fan said. "Flash Powder. But not the standard mix. I need the one mixed with Pepper-Spray Fruit extract."
"Ah," Seven chuckled darkly. "The 'Weeping Blindness' mix. Nasty. It doesn't just blind them; it burns the mucus membranes. If they breathe it in, they choke on their own snot."
"Ten bags."
"One hundred stones."
Li Fan paid.
He stood up, his shopping complete.
1,100 Spirit Stones spent.
Acquired: Tools of Mass Destruction.
He walked away, fading into the darkness. Old Ghost Seven watched him go, shivering slightly despite the warm night.
"That guy..." Seven muttered to himself. "He isn't going to the Secret Realm to explore. He's going to harvest."
Back at Trash Peak
Li Fan didn't return to the dorms immediately. He went to his "office"—the secluded cave in the Waste Pit.
He needed to assemble his toys.
He sat on a flat rock and pulled out the Folding Shovel.
"You served me well against Zhao," Li Fan whispered, running his thumb over the steel edge. "But against a Spirit Beast, blunt force isn't enough."
He took out the Star-Fall Meteorite Iron shard—the small piece he had kept for himself.
He couldn't forge it properly without a furnace, but he could use a trick he learned in Life 600 from a dwarven smith.
He placed the shard on a rock. He channeled his Layer 4 Qi into his hand, vibrating his palm at a high frequency until it generated friction heat.
He rubbed the Meteorite shard against the edge of the shovel.
Skreeeee.
The sound was ear-splitting.
He wasn't melding the metals; he was imbedding microscopic dust from the meteorite into the steel grain of the shovel.
Star-Fall Iron had the property of "Qi Nullification." By coating the shovel's edge with its dust, the shovel would gain a rudimentary ability to cut through low-level Qi barriers.
It took three hours. Li Fan's hands were blistered, but the edge of the shovel now had a dull, matte-black finish.
Next, the Shadow Silk.
He cut the wire into ten five-foot lengths. He tied small loops at the ends.
"Tripwires are amateur," Li Fan mused. "Neck-cutters are professional."
He carefully coiled them. These wires, placed at neck height across a fleeing path, could decapitate a cultivator moving at high speed before they even realized they had been hit.
Finally, the Flash Powder.
He opened the bags. The powder was white, laced with red specks. He carefully transferred the powder into small, fragile clay balls he made from the mud of the pit.
"Impact Grenades," Li Fan nodded. "Throw. Smash. Blind."
He worked through the night. His movements were precise, practiced, and devoid of hesitation.
By dawn, his spatial bag was organized into a grid of death.
Slot 1: Healing Pills.
Slot 2: Energy Pills.
Slot 3: Flash Grenades.
Slot 4: Blood-Frenzy Incense.
Slot 5: Shadow Wire.
Slot 6: The Shovel.
Li Fan stood up, stretching his back.
The sun was rising on the day before the opening.
He climbed out of the pit and looked toward the Main Peak, where the disciples were gathering for the final ceremony.
He could feel the excitement in the air. The hope. The greed.
"They think the Secret Realm is a treasure chest," Li Fan said, activating his Coin to suppress his aura back to Layer 1.
He began the walk back to his dorm.
"They forgot that every chest has a lock. And sometimes, the lock eats the thief."
The Dorm Room
When Li Fan returned, Wang was packing a bag. He looked dejected.
"Li Fan," Wang said quietly. "You're back."
"Where are you going?" Li Fan asked.
"Home," Wang sighed. "I failed the tournament. Ye Qing kicked me out. I... I have no future here. I'm going back to my village to be a farmer."
Li Fan looked at Wang.
In Life 1, Wang stayed. He entered the realm as a porter for another group and died screaming, eaten by ants.
In Life 2, Wang stayed and was crippled by a trap.
"Going home is good," Li Fan said softly.
He reached into his robe and pulled out a small pouch. It contained fifty Spirit Stones—a fortune for a mortal.
"Take this," Li Fan said, tossing it to him.
Wang caught it, shocked by the weight. He opened it and gasped. "Li Fan! I can't... where did you get this?"
"I found Zhao's stash," Li Fan lied effortlessly. "Consider it a severance package. Go home. Buy some land. Marry a nice girl. Don't look back."
Wang teared up. "Li Fan... you... you are a true brother! I will never forget you!"
"Go," Li Fan urged.
Wang hugged him, grabbed his bag, and ran out the door before he could change his mind.
Li Fan watched him go.
One life saved, Li Fan thought. Not out of kindness, but out of efficiency. Wang would have been a liability.
Now, the room was empty. Little Fatty Zhang was somewhere kissing up to the tournament winners.
Li Fan sat on his bed.
He closed his eyes and entered a meditative trance.
He reviewed the map of the Secret Realm in his mind.
Spawn Point A (North): High chance of Spirit Wolves.
Spawn Point B (East): Near the Cliff of Echoes.
Spawn Point C (West): The Swamp.
"The City Lord's token will spawn me at a random location," Li Fan analyzed. "But I can manipulate the landing if I release a burst of Qi mid-teleportation."
He visualized the Golden Spirit Fruit.
It grew on the central island of the Lake of Mists. It was guarded by the White-Fur Giant Ape, a beast at the peak of Qi Condensation Layer 9.
"Ye Qing will aim for the fruit," Li Fan strategized. "He has a team of ten. He plans to use a formation to trap the Ape."
Li Fan smiled in the dim light.
"Let him trap the Ape. I'll trap him."
He reached into his bag and touched the black incense.
"Tomorrow, the Small Pond Sect will learn a lesson," Li Fan whispered, his eyes gleaming with cold, predatory light.
"The hunter is not the one with the biggest spear. The hunter is the one who brings the bait."