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

He clenched his fist, turned around, and walked towards the valley entrance.

As he walked out of the valley, he paused and looked in the direction of Ironwall City.

He looked away and continued walking forward.

It was noon when we left Black Wind Valley.

The air at the valley entrance was much fresher than inside, but Lin Qiye's brows furrowed slightly. He had barely stepped out of the valley entrance, less than a hundred feet, when he sensed an extremely faint, almost imperceptible gaze coming from the direction of a pile of rocks in the distance.

His gaze was well concealed. If his perception hadn't far surpassed that of ordinary people, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

He didn't stop walking, continuing at a leisurely pace, as if completely unaware. He even picked up a twig by the roadside like an ordinary traveler, casually poked at the ground, then stopped, looked up at the sky, and adopted the posture of "having just completed a task and relaxing his vigilance."

Just as he walked past the pile of rocks and his figure was blocked by a protruding rock, his figure suddenly flickered and disappeared into thin air.

Behind the pile of rocks, two figures dressed in gray-brown short robes were crouching behind a boulder. One of them was holding a palm-sized bronze mirror, the reflection showing the scene Lin Qiye had just walked through. The other was carefully writing something on a piece of animal hide, his handwriting neat and orderly, clearly indicating he was well-trained.

"He's out of the valley." The person holding the bronze mirror lowered their voice. "He looks... completely unharmed. All the unusual activity in Black Wind Valley has disappeared. He went in alone and came out alone, clean and tidy. It all took less than half a day."

"Are you sure he went in alone?" The person taking notes didn't look up, the pen tracing a line across the animal hide. "The news from the Holy City says he accepted a mission and went into the valley alone. An ordinary person, resolving an anomaly that no one has been able to solve for decades in half a day—do you think that's normal?"

"What did they say?"

"What the higher-ups want is what he has on him." The person recording finally raised his head, revealing a thin face with a shrewd glint in his eyes. "I heard that when he entered the city, he brought with him a fragment of a crystal core, which is related to the Canggu Mountains. And his women and children—the higher-ups suspect that he is not an ordinary person from the borderlands. The great upheaval deep in the Canggu Mountains is also said to be related to a mysterious expert. Whether it's the same person or not, nobody can say for sure."

"What should we do then? Follow them?"

"No need. He's already found out—"

Before the person recording the event could finish speaking, a dark golden light silently shone from behind him.

He whirled around, only to see a pair of calm, unfathomable eyes. Lin Qiye was already standing behind him, less than three feet away. He hadn't even seen how Lin Qiye had gotten there; it was as if this person had always been there, but they had never noticed.

"Whose people are you?"

The man recording the events constricted his pupils and opened his mouth as if to say something, but he found that his throat was being choked by an invisible force, and he could not make a sound. The animal hide in his hand slipped to the ground, revealing lines of neat small characters—densely recorded every detail of Lin Qiye's entry into Black Wind Valley, including the time he entered the valley, the length of time he stayed in the valley, his condition when he left the valley, and even whether there was any dust on his robes.

Lin Qiye bent down, picked up the piece of animal hide, and glanced at it.

At the end of the animal hide, where the signature is located, is drawn an extremely small symbol—a coiled snake.

Dark viper.

Lin Qiye's gaze sharpened slightly.

He didn't kill them. He raised his hand, joined two fingers together, and tapped each of their foreheads. A flash of dark golden light appeared and disappeared, and their eyes instantly became empty before returning to normal. They stood there blankly, as if something important had been taken from them, looked at each other blankly, then turned and mechanically walked back the way they came.

They won't remember anything that happened today. They'll forget they met Lin Qiye, forget who they were tracking, and even forget that the Black Wind Valley disturbance has been quelled. By the time Dark Viper's superiors discover that these two spies have "amnesia," they will no longer be able to provide any valuable information.

Lin Qiye stood there, watching them walk away, and looked down at the animal hide in his hand.

Dark viper.

This organization has been watching him ever since he entered the city. First, they sent spies to investigate him, and now they've followed him to Black Wind Valley. Their interest in him goes far beyond simply being a "vagrant of unknown origin."

What they wanted was that crystal core fragment.

Or rather, it's the coordinates sealed within that fragment.

Lin Qiye put the animal hide into his pocket, his gaze becoming deep.

He had originally intended to keep a low profile, establish a foothold in the Holy City, and then slowly investigate the ancient realm that the fragment pointed to. But now it seemed that things were not going smoothly. Before he could even make a move, the snakes lurking in the shadows had already eagerly poked their heads out.

That being the case.

Let them taste the price of provoking a dragon.

He turned and walked towards the holy city. His pace was slow, but each step carried a strange rhythm, as if he were calculating something.

An hour later, outside the west gate of the holy city.

Lin Qiye could see a long queue forming at the city gate from afar, even more crowded than when he entered the city before. The queue included many caravans and traveling merchants, most of whom had come because the strange activity in Black Wind Valley had subsided—the news spread quickly, and in just half a day, the news that the "strange activity in Black Wind Valley had disappeared" had spread to all the forces around the Holy City.

He mingled in the crowd, queuing at a leisurely pace, while his ears caught the surrounding chatter.

"Have you heard? The black winds in Blackwind Valley have stopped!"

"It's stopped? How is that possible? That wind has been blowing for hundreds of years..."

"It's absolutely true! My third son went to the valley entrance this morning and there wasn't a breath of wind, and grass has even grown in the valley!"

"Tsk, this commotion... could it be that the Temple has made its move?"

"The Temple? If the Temple were capable, they would have acted long ago. How could they have allowed that awful place to wreak havoc for so many years? I heard that a ruthless person has arrived..."

"A ruthless person? What ruthless person?"

"I don't know, but I heard that a lone traveler came out of the valley this morning, completely clean, without even a speck of dust on him. Isn't that strange?"

Lin Qiye listened to the discussions without expression.

When he reached the registration desk at the city gate, he took out his temporary jade token. The guard took it, glanced at it, then looked him up and down, his gaze lingering on him for a moment—but he quickly looked away and waved him through as a matter of routine.

Lin Qiye passed through the city gate and entered the outer city.

Instead of going straight back to Qing Shi Lane, he first went around to the mission square, found the semi-open stone chamber, and placed the detection compass on the table.

The old man behind the registration desk was dozing off in his chair. Hearing the noise, he opened his eyes, saw the compass, and then looked at Lin Qiye. A hint of surprise flashed in his cloudy eyes: "You're back? So soon?"

"Mission complete." Lin Qiye placed the mission token on the table. "The source of the anomaly has been dealt with, and the black wind in Black Wind Valley has stopped."