I Have a Compass for Opportunity

"Reporting Pan Yang’s death is impossible to conceal—I’ll have to shoulder the blame for harming a fellow disciple. Damn, that’s a tough spot."

Liou Yuan rubbed his brow and had to dismiss the idea of sending news about the Evil Corpse to Five Extremes Mountain. Then another thought occurred.

"Why not print several more copies of this map? Spread it all over Jiuli State?"

"Aren’t there still three major sects in Jiuli State, each with a heritage matching Five Extremes Mountain? Dealing with an Evil Corpse should be no problem. Why not use their hands to get rid of it?"

But if it went like that, the Foundation Establishment Array Disc definitely wouldn’t end up in his possession.

The only benefit Liou Yuan could get would be the reward from the Compass for slaying the Evil Corpse.

"That’s still better than gaining nothing at all."

"Give a little, get a little." Liou Yuan already had his calculations, his eyes flashing with a sly smile.

Days turned into months.

Ever since he returned from the Corpse Nurturing Land, Liou Yuan settled in Yunlai Inn.

Of course, the main reason was because the Evil Star Pleiades was on shift—he couldn’t go anywhere anyway.

Luckily Liou Yuan was the sort to go with the flow.

You could tell just from how quickly he adapted when he first came to this world.

Staying in Lingjun County was really just a change of scenery for cultivation.

Life each day wasn’t much different than up on Five Extremes Mountain.

Cultivating at night, wandering the marketplace area where the cultivators gathered by day, getting familiar with Jiuli State’s customs.

Checking out the treasures of cultivators setting up stalls along the street; sometimes even haggling for fun.

After a while, he’d made some connections among the cultivators in Lingjun County’s marketplace.

Occasionally when heading out, he’d run into a familiar cultivator and exchange greetings.

That sweltering season quietly ended during this period.

Until one day, Liou Yuan emerged from cultivation—a dry leaf floated in through the open window, carrying a hint of chill. Only then did he realize it was already autumn.

It had been autumn when he first arrived in this world—by his calculations, he’d been here for two years now.

"I’m eighteen too." Liou Yuan counted the age of this body on his fingers and sighed, his voice rich with self-mockery: "Back to eighteen years old!"

During this time, Mr. Li came looking for Liou Yuan several times.

With the Evil Star shift outside, Mr. Li definitely wasn’t here for Ji Jie—Liou Yuan knew exactly why. Mr. Li was checking whether Pan Yang had returned.

It was nearly a month since Liou Yuan left the Corpse Nurturing Land—Pan Yang’s corpse must be festering and reeking by now, his chance of resurrection was nil.

But Liou Yuan couldn’t show anything; whenever Mr. Li came, he had to put on a sorrowful face, muttering about how Senior Brother Pan Yang was blessed by the heavens and such.

That shrewd Mr. Li was already certain Pan Yang had died out there.

He’d never seen anyone below Foundation Establishment survive seven days out in the Evil Star shift.

Those Star Evil would devour living people like locusts, chewing them to bits.

Of course, Mr. Li only spoke comforting words—over the next few days, he didn’t bother Liou Yuan again.

Liou Yuan kept busy anyway; during his days cultivating in Lingjun County, he took time to draw over a dozen maps leading to the Corpse Nurturing Land.

Liou Yuan had given up on the Foundation Establishment Array Disc, but the reward for slaying the Evil Corpse was something he couldn’t let go.

He hoped this method would attract more cultivators to that Corpse Nurturing Land.

Liou Yuan was sly enough not to include the path through the Illusion Array on the map.

Ordinary Qi Cultivation cultivators wouldn’t even be able to get past that array.

In the end, it would sooner or later attract Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators to break the formation, who would then notice Han Zhenzi’s remains were off. Then the major sects of Jiuli would catch wind of it.

"As long as the word spreads, with the first person entering that Corpse Nurturing Land, that place won’t be a secret anymore."

"I’ll definitely borrow Jiuli State cultivators’ hands to slay the Evil Corpse."

Liou Yuan righteously thought: "The Evil Corpse is something even gods and ghosts despise, calamity incarnate—your little lord is just carrying out heaven’s will."

As for how to spread these drawn maps, Liou Yuan had it well planned.

If he could get rid of Ji Jie, he’d take the treasure that could change appearance and conceal aura, adopt a new identity, and scatter the maps throughout surrounding cities and counties.

That way, it would be practically foolproof.

The only weak spot was that Pan Yang’s corpse was still in the Corpse Nurturing Land.

But what does that have to do with Liou Yuan? The corpse had been gnawed to mush by living corpses, whether anyone could identify him was another matter.

Even if his identity got exposed, who could link Pan Yang’s death to him?

Liou Yuan only needed to say that during the Evil Star shift, he and Senior Brother Pan Yang split up.

He had no idea where Pan Yang went—easy enough to deflect suspicion.

Liou Yuan leisurely stayed in Yunlai Inn, patiently waiting for the Unlucky Month to pass so he could start his plan.

Liou Yuan’s luck wasn’t bad. After the Pleiades constellation, the following month was blessed by the Auspicious Star.

Thinking about the Auspicious Star shift, Liou Yuan guessed that Five Extremes Mountain’s covert agents in the two nearby counties might have word about Ji Jie, so he wrapped up a night of cultivation early and sat up from his soft bed.

The floor of his room was strewn with star stones.

At least a dozen or twenty.

This was his cultivation consumption during the Pleiades period.

With his Four-Star Gold Acupoint upgrade, his star stone consumption was even more insane. One month, he needed at least twenty star stones just to maintain his cultivation speed.

The ones he’d brought out from Five Extremes Mountain had all been dumped into the teleportation array leading to the Corpse Nurturing Land. These star stones he’d exchanged from Mr. Li using merit points.

He spent ten merit points for thirty star stones, and now had seven or eight left for later use.

"Cultivation is damn expensive!" Staring at the discarded star stones littering the place, Liou Yuan was once again struck by this fact.

And that was with Liou Yuan able to cultivate during the Evil Star phase—other people probably needed even more.

The further he walked down this road of cultivation, the more Liou Yuan admired the Foundation Establishment loose cultivators who didn’t even have a sect.

God knows how much hardship they had to build their foundation.

"At least the money didn’t go to waste." He closed his eyes, sensing his current cultivation, then nodded in satisfaction.

Now, twenty-five streams of spiritual power coursed through his meridians; he’d had twenty-three leaving Five Extremes Mountain. The extra two were his gains during this period.

As Liou Yuan was washing up, preparing to go find Mr. Li—

The sect’s covert agent arrived a step ahead, knocking on his door.

With him came a man with a dark face, stocky and short, dressed as a traveling merchant.

Thanks to Mr. Li’s introduction, Liou Yuan learned this man was the Five Extremes Mountain agent planted in Huifeng County.

Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer, looked older even than Mr. Li.

The Evil Star shift had just ended—a secret agent arriving now was obvious about his intentions.

Liou Yuan didn’t ask much, exchanged a knowing glance, and went with the two to Mr. Li’s secret chamber.

Once they’d confirmed the place was safe, the black-faced merchant began to slowly report the intel: "After Mr. Li issued the order, I spent the month watching Huifeng County and found traces likely belonging to Ji Jie."

"A female cultivator has been hiding out in the marketplace during the Evil Star shift, everywhere buying healing elixirs."

"I checked the shops and pill masters where she bought the elixirs. All the pills had one thing in common—they neutralized fire poison."

"Fire poison." Liou Yuan raised an eyebrow.

The Disciplinary Hall’s Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer disciple who badly injured Ji Jie specialized in Fire Dao Skills.

The magic that wounded Ji Jie included the very troublesome fire poison; to purge it, you had to buy pills that neutralized fire poison.

This intel could serve to identify Ji Jie.

But it wasn’t entirely reliable—many Qi Cultivation Skills and some magical artifacts could carry fire poison.

So Liou Yuan deliberated for a moment, then looked to the black-faced man and cautiously inquired: "How certain are you, Senior Brother?"

"Seventy percent sure." The merchant kept his head down, giving a conservative estimate.

He added: "Though it’s a female cultivator’s face, some mannerisms and accidental male traits show through—can’t quite cover them up."

"Most likely disguised."

"With someone able to change appearance so thoroughly, in these counties and cities, who else could it be but Ji Jie?"