The night had grown late.

The streetlamps in the residential complex cast a sickly yellow glow. I crouched in the shadows of the stairwell, listening to the faint footsteps drifting up from below — the third wave tonight. The bounty notice from Baizhen Pavilion was like a piece of rotten meat drawing flies from every direction; loose cultivators at the fifth level of Qi Refinement were pouring into my apartment complex like it was an open market.

"What the hell, do they think this is some kind of wet market?" I muttered under my breath, tightening my grip on the meteorite-iron chopping board. The dark-gold runes burned warm against my palm, offering a thin thread of comfort. My sixth-level Qi Refinement spiritual energy cycled slowly through my meridians — noticeably smoother than before — but faced with this endless stream of hunters, I still felt the strain.

"System," I whispered into the bronze ring, "if this keeps up, these bastards are going to be the death of me. Is there any way I can go into hiding?"

The ring grew faintly warm. The old man's holographic projection flickered to life, swaying gently, a bowl of Kang Shuai Fu goji berry and black pepper pork belly chicken noodle soup cradled in his hands. "Idiot. You forgot there's still a side quest you haven't done — 'Secrets of the Old Complex.' Investigate the hidden cultivator stronghold. The reward is the Basic Concealment Art. Perfect for a rookie like you."

I smacked my forehead. "Right! How did I let that slip my mind?!"

The side quest "Secrets of the Old Complex" had triggered when I broke through to the fifth level of Qi Refinement. I'd been too busy dealing with Baizhen Pavilion's assassins to follow up on it. Thinking about it now, this old complex really was strange in all kinds of ways. Old Man Zhang's walking cane could draw transmission talismans. Auntie Wang could hang her shoe insoles to dry while levitating in midair. The little bell Auntie Li had casually handed me turned out to be a spirit artifact. There was a very real chance a hidden stronghold was lurking somewhere in here.

"So where is this stronghold?" My interest was piqued.

"How would I know?" The old man rolled his eyes. "Go find it yourself. I'll give you one hint: it has something to do with the ley line spiritual energy."

Typical. All talk, no action.

I didn't waste any more time. I changed into dark clothing, shoved the meteorite-iron chopping board and the Wave-Breaker knife into a canvas bag, and slipped out through the rear window. The Boston ivy blanketing the building had grown in thick — a natural green carpet — and I used the vines to slide down to the ground floor, landing without a sound.

The complex was eerily quiet at night, nothing but the soft rustle of wind through the leaves. I circulated my sixth-level Qi Refinement spiritual energy, letting it spread outward like a spider's web, carefully sensing every fluctuation in the surrounding spiritual energy. The ley line energy running beneath the complex was definitely irregular — a faint, looping current was forming underground, its center appearing to originate somewhere near the small garden deep within the complex.

A ley line energy circuit? My heart stirred. I made my way silently toward the garden.

It wasn't a large garden — a circular flower bed in the middle, with a few old Chinese scholar trees growing from it. During the day it was where Old Man Zhang and the others played chess; at night it felt distinctly eerie. I circled the flower bed once without finding anything unusual, only noticing that the ley line energy here was unusually dense.

Could the stronghold be underground? I crouched down and pressed my hand to the ground. When I pushed spiritual energy into it, the earth grew faintly warm beneath my palm, and I could just barely sense a weak flow of energy moving below.

"System, scan underground."

Ding. Detecting spiritual energy fluctuation at ten meters depth. Suspected array formation barrier.

There it was.

A rush of excitement ran through me as I began searching for an entrance. I checked every inch of ground around the flower bed and found no mechanism whatsoever. Just as my spirits were starting to sink, my gaze landed on the old scholar tree at the center of the flower bed. It was an unusually thick tree, its bark carved deep with wrinkles, like the face of an ancient elder.

I tried channeling spiritual energy into the trunk. The moment they made contact, a faint golden light flared across the bark, and a complex rune surfaced from within it. The rune flickered several times, then vanished just as quickly.

"What the — it's actually a spirit plant!" I blurted out, startled.

At that exact moment, soft footsteps sounded behind me. I spun around. A dark figure stood not far away, holding a compass that was spinning continuously in their hands.

Someone from Baizhen Pavilion? My chest tightened. I curled my fingers around the Wave-Breaker knife inside the canvas bag.

The figure seemed to notice me as well. They raised their head — face wrapped in black cloth, only a pair of cold, vicious eyes exposed. "Ethan Lu?"

I didn't answer. Instead I surged forward in a single explosive step, pushing my Water Escape Art to its limit, my body flowing into the ground like water itself and reappearing directly in front of the figure in an instant.

"Flowing Wave Slash!"

A pale-blue water blade shot from the Wave-Breaker knife, blindingly fast. Clearly not expecting me to strike without warning, the figure barely managed to raise the compass as a desperate guard.

Crack!

The water blade slammed into the compass, sending a spray of water exploding outward. The compass shook violently, countless fractures spreading across its surface. The force left the figure's arm numb, and they stumbled backward several steps.

"You're looking to die!" the figure snarled, hurling the compass into the air. It instantly expanded in size, unleashing a thick surge of black energy that formed a massive vortex — and it was dragging toward me.

"Interesting," I said with a cold snort, forming a hand seal. "Water Condensing Shield!"

A curtain of water appeared from thin air, rising in front of me. The vortex crashed into the barrier with a sizzling hiss; the shield began thinning rapidly.

"That's Baizhen Pavilion's Spirit-Draining Compass," the little old man's voice rang out. "Designed specifically to counter water-affinity cultivators like you. Watch yourself — this one is mid-stage sixth level Qi Refinement, half a sub-realm above you."

"You want to drain my spiritual energy? Not that easy!" I gritted my teeth and poured spiritual energy into the meteorite-iron chopping board. "Evil-Breaking Strike!"

A streak of dark-gold sword energy launched from the edge of the chopping board and cleaved toward the Spirit-Draining Compass.

Crack!

End of Chapter 28: The Secret of the Old Residential Complex