The night had grown late. The motion-sensor lights in the apartment building's corridors flickered on only when late-returning residents triggered them, casting a dim, amber glow over the hallway. I eased the front door open as quietly as I could. The living room was lit by nothing but a small nightlight — Jade Lin had already taken River to bed. On the sofa lay the meteoric iron cutting board I hadn't put away after the day's work, its dark-gold runes along the edges shimmering faintly in the low light, like the breathing glow of a mechanical keyboard.

I kneaded my aching shoulders. Cultivating to the Fourth Layer of Qi Refinement had made the spiritual energy flowing through my meridians noticeably smoother, but spending an entire day drawing water for half the apartment complex had still wrung me out completely. I flopped down onto the sofa, my hand reflexively reaching into my pocket to feel the Tide-Sea-Sea-Suppressing Jade Pendant. Ever since I'd returned from the Secret Realm, the thing had been running hot at odd intervals. It had suddenly lit up in the corridor just a moment ago and nearly scared me half to death — I'd thought I had a firefly stuffed in my pocket.

System panel, open, I recited silently.

A pale-blue holographic display unfurled before my eyes. The little old man was perched at the top of the panel with his legs crossed, cradling a virtual bucket of popcorn in his arms. When he caught me looking, he made an exaggerated munching sound. "Well, well, if it isn't the rookie. Had quite the splash with those water-affinity spells today, didn't you? Nearly flooded the whole complex."

I rolled my eyes at him and shifted my gaze to the task bar:

---

【ACTIVE SYSTEM TASKS】

Main Quest: Locate the headquarters of Baizhen Pavilion within the city. (Progress: 0%)

Hidden Quest: "Immortal Cultivation on the Tip of the Tongue" — use spiritual energy to grill fish for 100 mortals and improve their constitutions. Task Reward: Introduction to Basic Alchemy — Beginner Volume. (Progress: 12/100)

Main Quest: Destroy the Fetid Scale Powder stockpile used by Baizhen Pavilion to mask spiritual energy fluctuations. Task Rewards: Introduction to Basic Talisman Craft — Beginner Volume (already learned; reward will be randomised upon completion) + 100 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. (Progress: Spirit-Gathering Array destroyed — target transferred, update pending)

New Quest: Investigate the secret of the Tide-Sea-Sea-Suppressing Jade Pendant; seek an opportunity for breakthrough. (Trigger condition: Obtain the complete Tide-Sea-Sea-Suppressing Jade Pendant)

---

"Look here, old man," I said, staring at the 0% progress bar on Locate Baizhen Pavilion HQ with a throbbing headache, "Baizhen Pavilion is slippery as a loach. They're hiding even better than the place I stash my secret pocket money. Where am I supposed to start investigating?"

The little old man tossed a piece of popcorn into the air and caught it in his mouth. "Idiot. Nobody said to go charging around like a headless fly. Have you forgotten the Scale-Claw Demon from yesterday? And that scout with the compass today? Baizhen Pavilion definitely has a contact point in this district. Follow the stench and you'll find the nest."

Easy for him to say. But how exactly was I supposed to follow this "stench"? Was I meant to get down on all fours and sniff around like a dog? I was still turning it over in my mind when my fingers, moving on their own, began to rub the surface of the Tide-Sea-Sea-Suppressing Jade Pendant. The cool jade stone abruptly grew hot again, and a faint blue light bloomed across my palm.

"Again?" I quickly pulled the pendant out. The half-piece of jade, which had always looked so dull and ordinary, was now alive with light — the carved patterns on its face were slowly flowing, swirling with a soft luminescence, and through it I could faintly make out the image of churning ocean waves.

"Meditate — focus your mind on the pendant!" The little old man's voice turned suddenly serious. "The thing is sending you a signal!"

I did as I was told, folding my legs beneath me and cradling the pendant in both palms. I closed my eyes. At first there was nothing but darkness — until I slowly channelled spiritual energy into the jade, and then a blinding white light exploded across my vision —

It was the sea. A boundless, endless sea. Waves crashed against towering warships, their decks crowded with cultivators in ancient robes, spell treasures in hand, incantations on their lips. Beneath the surface, countless monstrous sea creatures writhed and surged, their gaping maws lunging at the hulls. The foremost cultivator — a white-robed figure — suddenly hurled a jade pendant skyward. It erupted with ten-thousand-foot radiance, forming a colossal curtain of water that repelled every beast. Then the image flickered. The white-robed cultivator appeared gravely wounded, staggering, splitting the pendant in two with trembling hands — and cast one half out into the towering, crashing waves...

"Hah—" I snapped my eyes open, forehead drenched in cold sweat, heart hammering. The vision had been too vivid — the briny smell of the sea wind felt as though it still clung to the tip of my nose.

"Did you see it?" The little old man's projection hovered before me, his usual smirk nowhere to be found. "That was a memory fragment from an ancient Tide-Calming cultivator. That pendant in your hand was a sacred treasure once used by the Tide-Calming lineage to suppress the Sea Eye. No one knows exactly what went wrong, but the treasure shattered, and the pendant drifted into the mortal world."

"Suppress the Sea Eye?" I looked down at the pendant. "And that vision just now... was a naval battle?"

"More or less." The little old man nodded. "The Tide-Calming cultivators guarded the sea for generations, standing against the dark creatures of the deep. That pendant of yours is only a fragment, but it still carries a faint trace of a Dao Ancestor's sword intent — that white-robed figure you saw. The vision was most likely the pendant sensing that you've broken through to the Fourth Layer of Qi Refinement and that your spiritual energy reserves are finally sufficient — enough to release a sliver of the remnant soul's memory."

A Dao Ancestor's sword intent. My eye twitched just hearing the words. This battered little piece of jade looked like nothing at all — how could it have such a history?

"So what's this breakthrough opportunity you mentioned?" I pressed him immediately.

"What's the rush?" The little old man rolled his eyes. "A Dao Ancestor's sword intent isn't something a Fourth Layer Qi Refiner can just casually comprehend. That said, the water-attribute energy inside the pendant does have something in common with those water-affinity spells you just learned. Keep it on you when you cultivate — who knows, you might work something out. Oh — and when you were meditating just now, your spiritual energy fluctuations were quite large. Mind the walls — they have ears."

The words were barely out of his mouth when I felt it: a faint, icy presence drifting in from beyond the window, like someone pressing an ice pick against the back of my neck. I leapt to my feet, grabbed the meteoric iron cutting board off the sofa, and crept toward the window. Carefully, I pinched the edge of the curtain and peeled it aside —

In the moonlight, a dark figure crouched in the branches of the old locust tree in the courtyard below. He wore a tight-fitted night-stalker's suit, a black cloth masking everything below his eyes — two sharp, glittering points of light, boring directly at my window. In his hand was a pitch-black compass, its needle spinning frantically, filling the silence with a rapid, clicking clack-clack-clack.

End of Chapter 18: The Jade Pendant's Secret