In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

Life in the temporary housing area was more peaceful than I had imagined, but also more oppressive.

The courtyard was like an exquisite prison, its towering walls casting perpetual shadows that fragmented the sunlight. There were only two brief periods each day for fresh air, during which one could stand at the gate and observe the equally numb figures lining the narrow alleyways outside. The rest of the time, everyone was required to remain inside the courtyard.

The Initial Investigation Division conducts checks once a day, at unpredictable times. The people who arrive are dressed in gray robes, expressionless, holding a palm-sized detection crystal. They wave it in front of each person, recording their aura, asking a few routine questions, and then hurriedly leave without saying a word. They seemed somewhat surprised by Lin Qiye's large family of women and children, but didn't delve into it further; they simply made the checks more thorough.

Lin Qiye spent most of his time in the courtyard, leaning against the wall, meditating with his eyes closed. The dark golden Origin Qi within his body was like the water of a deep pool, calm and still, perfectly simulating the fluctuations of an ordinary expert. But his perception was like an invisible spider web, quietly spreading out, covering the entire temporary residence area, and even attempting to extend into the more distant main city.

The structure of the city's primal energy is extremely unique. Ubiquitous arrays, like the roots of a great tree, penetrate deep into the ground and extend from the city walls and certain core buildings, forming an energy network that covers the entire city. This network not only provides protection and maintains order, but also continuously "sorts" and "purifies" the city's primal energy, rejecting or eliminating any potential unstable factors. The source of that powerful, heart-pounding tide of primal energy is the majestic temple at the very center and highest point of the holy city.

On the evening of the third day, the people from the Preliminary Inspection Office finished their final inspection and left, saying, "Tomorrow at Chenshi (7-9 AM), someone will take you to the Household Registration Office."

As soon as the courtyard gate closed, Luo Sheng carried the sleeping Lin Xi to Lin Qiye's side and whispered, "Going to the Household Registration Office tomorrow will probably be quite a hassle. Can we really trust Steward Chen?"

"He wouldn't dare go back on his word," Lin Qiye said calmly, "but we can't rely on him entirely."

He had already sensed the presence of several discreet, watchful eyes outside the temporary residence area over the past two days. Some were sentries from the Holy City Guard, while others carried mixed auras, resembling spies from some underground force. The news that the Black Rock Merchant Guild had brought such a "special" team into the city had likely already spread to some extent.

In the dead of night, all was quiet.

Lin Qiye sat cross-legged in the room, not asleep. His senses were like the most sensitive antennae, capturing the subtle rhythms of the array flowing on the city wall, the occasional suppressed fluctuations of source energy from the distant streets, and even the faint resonance deep underground, somewhat similar to the altar of the Canggu Mountains, but even more obscure and ancient.

Just then, his brow twitched.

Sensing that two extremely faint auras, almost blending into the shadows, were slowly approaching from a dark alleyway about ten feet outside the courtyard wall, their movements were swift and agile, clearly those of highly skilled stealth fighters, and their target was this very courtyard.

They weren't Holy City Guards. The Holy City Guards possessed a more upright and imposing aura, bearing the imprint of array formations. These two, however, exuded a colder, more elusive aura, like venomous snakes lurking in the shadows.

Lin Qiye slowly opened his eyes, and a faint, dark golden light quietly appeared deep within his pupils.

……

Outside the courtyard wall, in a dark alley.

Two dark figures clung to the mottled wall like geckos, moving silently. They wore tight-fitting night clothes, their faces covered with black cloths, revealing only a pair of gleaming eyes.

"Are you sure this is the place?" one person asked in a very low whisper.

"No mistake. Old Chen from the Black Rock Chamber of Commerce personally brought them in: seventeen women, a dozen children, and a man whose background is unclear. The higher-ups ordered us to find out their details, especially the man's origins," another person replied, his voice hoarse.

"Hmph, carrying so many burdens, it's not easy to walk from the depths of the wasteland to the holy city. Maybe he has some treasure on him, or... knows some secrets." A hint of greed flashed in the eyes of the man from before.

"Hurry up. The Preliminary Investigation Division just checked and they won't be coming again for now. The Holy City Guards will be patrolling this area in about fifteen minutes. Once inside, subdue that man and interrogate him..."

Before he could finish speaking...

The shadows behind the two suddenly came to life.

A dark golden thread, deeper than the night itself, like a living serpent, emerged without warning from the shadows of the corner and silently wrapped around their ankles.

Cold, supple, with a chilling, solidified quality.

Both of them froze simultaneously, wanting to cry out, but found their throats gripped by an invisible force, unable to utter a sound. Trying to struggle, their internal energy stagnated as if trapped in quagmire. In utter horror, they looked down and saw the dark golden threads spreading upwards from their ankles, rapidly numbing their limbs wherever they touched.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them stood frozen like two sculptures in the shadows of the dark alley, only their eyes still able to move in terror.

The courtyard gate opened silently.

Lin Qiye appeared in the doorway, his shadow stretching long in the moonlight. He walked up to the two of them, his gaze calmly sweeping over their frightened eyes.

There was no interrogation, no nonsense.

He extended his right index finger and lightly touched the center of one of their eyebrows.

A fleeting, dark golden glimmer vanished.

The man's gaze instantly glazed over, his pupils dilated, and all his memories, consciousness, and even his soul were brutally seized, rummaged through, and then crushed under that single finger. A flood of fragmented information—scattered conversations, mission handovers, their affiliation with an underground intelligence organization called "Dark Viper," surveillance of the Black Rock Chamber of Commerce, and various speculations about their group—rushed into Lin Qiye's mind like a tidal wave.

The other person watched helplessly as his companion collapsed like an empty shell, his fear reaching its peak.

Lin Qiye moved his finger toward his brow.

"No... spare..." The man used his last bit of strength to squeeze out a broken, breathy sound from his throat.

Fingertips fall.

The second body collapsed.

Lin Qiye withdrew his hand, his brows furrowing slightly. "Dark Viper"... an intelligence and shady trading organization active in the shadows of the Holy City, its tentacles seemingly reaching far and wide. It appears their arrival in the city has already attracted the attention of many interested parties.

With a wave of his hand, the two corpses and the two dark gold threads simultaneously turned into fine dust, which vanished without a trace in the night wind, as if they had never existed.

After doing all this, Lin Qiye acted as if he had done something insignificant, turned around and walked back to the courtyard, gently closing the gate.