Do You Enjoy Killing?

"There's something I want to ask you."

Yaan paused for a moment. He saw Zue Yin, once again waiting for him outside of his temple. Yaan wasn't exactly surprised to see her, he had done something quite shocking after all. However, her following question was outside of his expectations.

"Do you enjoy killing?"

"Huh?"

Yaan blinked, looking startled for a moment at this sudden, very personal question. As Zue Yin stared at him and remained silent, he pondered for a moment, before lightly shaking his head.

"I don't."

"You don't seem to have any issue with taking the lives of others. How is it that you…that the demonic path…can do this, seemingly without feeling anything?"

Yaan frowned. This was too personal, she was probing into his life more than she was welcome to do so. He was about to tell her to leave, but then stopped himself.

Zue Yin was clenching her fists, staring at Yaan with a resolute expression. She clearly knew that she was overstepping the unspoken boundary between them, yet she asked him this anyway. She asked Yaan, someone who frankly made her feel wary, a question that she knew might annoy him.

Why?

As Yaan scrutinised Zue Yin further, he was able to see some clues.

'So that's it.' Yaan relaxed slightly as he understood why she was asking this. He even smiled, startling Zue Yin and making her feel confused.

"You're not suited to this sort of life, Zue Yin. But I suppose that you also don't have any other choice…"

Zue Yin trembled slightly, clenching her fists tighter as she realised that Yaan had seen through her so easily.

He knew that although she had seemingly embraced this lonely, ruthless life of killing and cultivating without a trace of love or kinship, Zue Yin secretly hated living like this. She didn't like killing, she couldn't understand why everyone around her seemed to have no problem with killing others…it was as if the material benefits gained from such murders was their only concern!

And she knew that she had also become somewhat like these people. She also killed to advance, only, she did so with reluctance, and because there was no other way to escape this damnable place.

"I don't enjoy killing." Yaan spoke again, drawing her attention. "Like you, I kill because I have to. As for others…I don't know, I can only speak for myself."

"You're saying that you're like me?" Zue Yin laughed despite herself and shook her head. "You are a demonic path follower, I am not."

"Demonic, righteous, in the end, everyone is willing to forsake their principles when the situation calls for it."

"You're wrong. Not everyone is like you."

"You're overstepping the bounds of our relationship, Zue Yin." Yaan replied sharply, looking at her with a dark gaze.

Did she approach him today just to insult his moral integrity? Whilst he couldn't really deny that his moral character was not quite up to the standards of the righteous, the way she was saying this was quite unpleasant, not to mention rude.

Zue Yin looked taken aback for a moment as her eyes widened, before she quickly straightened up and clasped her hands together.

"I apologise, I spoke without thinking."

After a moment of thought, she waved her hand and sent a spatial ring flying towards Yaan. He casually caught it and swept his Astral Power through the treasure, looking inside.

"This is payment for humouring my question…I hope we can continue working together in the future."

Just as Zue Yin was leaving, Yaan sighed and called out to her. She did not turn back to him, but stopped for a brief moment with her back facing him.

"You're right to say that you're not like me. You are forced to kill because it's your only choice if you want to leave this place…I am forced to kill because it's the only way I know."

And with that, she departed.

Yaan stared after her leaving figure for some time, before returning his attention to the spatial ring with a contemplative expression.

"She actually gave me all of the Rank 4 and Rank 5 unique body tempering pills…the value of this 'payment' is not small at all. It seems she anticipated that this conversation might impact our relationship, so she planned to patch things over with this compensation. But still, to pay so much just for a brief chat…Zue Yin has been struggling more than she shows. She has been living in the 4th Trial Realm for nine years, yet even so, the only person whom she felt able to ask this, was actually me…"

After shaking his head, Yaan cleared his mind and forgot about this matter. To Zue Yin, the answer to her question was important, but to Yaan, it was just a fleeting moment.

"I need to get moving."

And so, the collection of his loot began.

Scouring over 35,000 homes was nothing simple. Yaan tried to request that the spirits give him some assistance, but they refused. In the end, he could only spend a few days going door to door, looting everything of worth and then moving onto the next.

When he was done, Yaan immediately challenged the highest ten ranked individuals on the 4th level.

This was the highest level that he managed to reach prior to his time spent in the illusion world, but now, Yaan was incomparable to before. His strength had improved by leaps and bounds since that time, he was now far beyond anyone on the 4th level.

Word had long since spread that Yaan possessed Rank 4 battle strength, but that was before he formed the 4-Star Astral Tattoo. Even though nobody yet knew about his Astral Power cultivation level, those on the 4th level were not stupid, they knew that they were not his match.

In fact, after Yaan's actions on the 3rd level, many residents on the 4th level began making their preparations…

Not to fight, but to surrender as quickly as possible.

To be honest, even Yaan felt somewhat stunned when the ferocious and serious looking group of highly ranked competitors on the 4th level, actually surrendered as quickly as humanly possible after the match began. As it turned out, their serious and focussed expressions were only due to them being determined to surrender as quickly as possible…

It made sense when he thought about it though. After all, when Yaan challenged the top ranked individuals on the 1st through 3rd levels, he killed everyone who failed to surrender in time.

And honestly, he had planned to use this same deterrent on the 4th level, so their reactions were quite smart.

"No matter, since they're already scared of me, I suppose it's fine."

Yaan didn't overthink it too much and proceeded to challenge, and defeat, everyone on the 4th level.

Unlike on the 3rd level, he did not fight a single time.

Yaan needed to ascend to the 4th level in order to make use of the Temporal Acceleration Chamber, so he decided to clear out both the 3rd and 4th levels in an attempt to make it impossible for others to challenge him!

Those in the upper ranks of the 2nd level were limited to challenging those in the upper ranks of the 3rd level at most. Since nobody was allowed to challenge those on lower levels, in theory, Yaan was completely safe from being challenged right now!

He was sure that reality would somehow turn out differently, but this should at the very least buy him some time.

After gathering everything on the 4th level, Yaan made two stops before heading back to the Temporal Acceleration Pagoda.

Firstly, he visited the 3rd level pagoda, the Pagoda of Estates. In the Pagoda of Estates, he made the most shocking transaction in the history of the 4th Trial Realm; he sold all but two of his residences, a total of 35,045 on the 3rd level and 11,968 on the 4th level!

After accumulating a vast sum of Astral Crystals, Yaan headed to the 1st level pagoda, where he once again encountered the old 4th trial spirit, 'Old 4th'.

"You've been busy." The old man commented casually, looking at Yaan with a plain, analysing gaze.

Yaan nodded, but then looked around and frowned as he thought of something.

"Why is it that this place is almost always empty, when there are close to a million residents in the 4th Trial Realm?"

"What, you didn't even know about this? Did you think that one little shop could serve everyone? There are hundreds of different copies of the same store, when you enter, you are taken to the least crowded one, alongside whomever entered alongside you."

"I see, so it was like that…" Yaan understood now. He supposed that the Battle Temples probably functioned in a similar manner, otherwise the Battle Temple on the 1st level would be perpetually crowded and impossible to enter.

"Old 4th, could you-"

"I'm not telling you anything else. Just because you're an inheritor candidate, doesn't mean you get special treatment." The old man seemed to know that Yaan wanted to ask more questions regarding a few things…

This inheritance, the master of the inheritance, and perhaps even his own cultivation…but he was shot down before he could even finish speaking.

"No special treatment? Isn't special treatment exactly what this title means, though…?" Yaan muttered, then shook his head and asked:

"Can you at least tell me why I received no reward from completing the True-False Illusion Trial?"

"Because you're not a 9th level resident. Return to the 9th level quickly if you want a reward." The old spirit replied simply. Yaan nodded, then fell silent.

"Are you buying anything or not?"

"Ah, yes."

Not wasting anymore time, Yaan took out his ridiculous surplus of goods, as well as his disposable funds. The old spirit was already expecting the large number of high-capacity spatial rings that Yaan brought out, but he still spent the remainder of the day sorting through and determining the value of everything.

In the end, Yaan was unwilling to waste too much time here. After handing hundreds of spatial rings over to the old trial spirit, he decided leave, after informing the old man that he would return later on.

He had only brought with him around one tenth of everything that he owned - in terms of volume at least. In terms of value, it was probably closer to half.

Regardless, Yaan now had everything he needed, that being, almost everything within the 1st level pagoda that he thought might be useful to him. Without wasting anymore time, he quickly returned to the 4th level and booked out the chamber that linked together all nine floors, providing a 108 fold acceleration of time within!

This was extremely expensive, it actually cost him a 4-Star Astral Crystal for each day of outside world time, but Yaan was now extremely wealthy and did care about the cost. He would take any possible opportunity to buy more time for himself, since he now had everything that he needed to cultivate without worrying about his expenses for an extended period of time.

For Qi refiners, cultivation could only be approached slowly, steadily and patiently. For body temperers, the opposite was true. They would often go through extended periods in which they barely cultivated at all, simply because they did not possess the means to do so.

Body tempering was expensive, but if you were rich, progress could become rapid. Of course, merely possessing the funds wasn't all that was required; it was also necessary to have a firm will and mental resilience.

Now, finally, Yaan checked every box. From here on, his progress would no longer be hindered by any factors.

It was about time that he cultivated his Vital Energy properly, until he became a 4-Star Realm demon and formed his Vital Core!