While I was chanting a curse, the system said I was Xiao Yan?

Tianyan stretched his neck, and his joints made a crisp cracking sound.

He raised his head and looked in the west.

With a sudden flap of his bone wings, his body lifted off the ground and flew westward.

The residence of the Shin-Kage-ryu sect leader is a wooden house built on the mountainside.

It wasn't large, but it was exquisite. The exterior walls were made of gray-black wooden planks, the roof was covered with dark brown tiles, and a polished bluestone slab paved the steps in front of the door. Several wind chimes hung under the eaves, making a crisp sound in the breeze.

There were several unidentified trees planted in the yard, and under the trees were several neatly trimmed potted plants.

An old woman sat on the porch in front of the door, holding a palm-leaf fan in her hand and slowly fanning herself.

Her hair was completely white, her face was wrinkled like a cracked riverbed, and her eyes were small, almost squinting.

She was wearing a faded gray kimono and wooden clogs, and looked no different from an ordinary old lady from the old days.

Tianyan descended from the sky, his purple-gold bone wings retracting and dissipating into tiny specks of light.

He stood in the courtyard, looking at the old woman under the eaves, and a slight smile curved his lips: "I am Zen Temple Tianyan."

Tianyan's voice was calm: "Students from Tokyo High School have come to visit the leader of the Shinkage-ryu sect."

The smile was gentle and polite, without a single flaw.

The old lady looked up at him, a glint of light flashing in her narrowed eyes.

It wasn't fear, nor surprise, but a more complex kind of light, as if I had known this day would come, but I didn't expect it to arrive so quickly.

"New Yin Flow?"

Her voice was hoarse, with a tremor characteristic of elderly people: "Are you sure you haven't got the wrong person?"

Tianyan did not answer.

He just stood there, hands in his pockets, looking at her and smiling.

The old woman's hands trembled even more violently, and the palm-leaf fan slipped from her grasp, falling to the floor with a soft "thud".

She didn't pick it up, but just looked at Tianyan, whose hands were clenched tightly on his knees, his knuckles white.

"I...I don't know what you're talking about..." Her voice trembled. "I really don't know...you've got the wrong person...you must have the wrong person..."

Tianyan remained silent.

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and took something out of his storage ring.

Xuanzhong Ruler.

The giant black iron ruler, as tall as a person, was completely black, without any sharpening, and had a very faint, mysterious pattern on its surface, as if it had been worn away by time.

He planted the heavy ruler on the ground. The moment the ruler touched the ground, it made a muffled "thud," and gravel flew in all directions.

The old woman's body stiffened.

She looked at the giant black ruler, then raised her head to look at Tianyan's still smiling face.

Tianyan spoke, his voice not loud, but very clear.

"How much?"

The old woman was stunned: "...What?"

"I said, how much do you want?"

Tianyan tilted his head, the corners of his mouth curving wider: "Only then will you give up the constraint that 'learners must sacrifice their lifespans to you'?"

The old lady's expression changed.

Those eyes, which had been narrowed to slits, suddenly widened, revealing their cloudy yet still sharp pupils.

Her lips were trembling, her fingers were trembling, and her whole body was trembling.

"I...I don't know what you're talking about..." Her voice trembled, but her tone was firmer than before. "I'm not some sect leader...I'm just an ordinary old woman...You've got the wrong person..."

Tianyan looked at her and remained silent for a moment.

Then he sighed.

The sigh carried a sense of helplessness: "Old lady."

"I didn't pick the wrong person."

He lifted the Xuanzhong Ruler from the ground and held it in his hand. The mysterious patterns on the ruler gleamed with a dark luster in the sunlight.

"And you..."

He looked into the old woman's cloudy eyes, and the smile on his lips widened even further.

"I understand exactly what I'm saying!"

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, scattering like shattered gold across the ground.

Kusakabe's eyelids twitched, and then his eyes snapped open. His first instinct was to reach for his knife.

He reached for his waist, only to find nothing; the knife was gone. His body stiffened for a moment, then slowly relaxed as a hand appeared in his field of vision, holding his knife.

It wasn't that they wanted to cut him; they just handed him the knife.

"Your sword, Mr. Kusakabe."

Kusakabe lay on the ground, looking at the gentle smiling face, remained silent for a moment, then propped himself up to sit up, took the sword, and tucked it back into his waistband.

My neck hurts a bit, and there's a bruise on the back of my neck where I was cut by a scalpel; it hurts when I touch it.

He grinned, rubbed his hand, and then looked up at Zenyuan Tianyan, who was sitting on a nearby rock.

Tianyan sat there, toying with something in his other hand. It looked like a torn piece of cloth, with jagged edges and a darkened color, making it impossible to tell what it originally looked like.

He twirled it between his fingertips, his gaze fixed on it as if he were looking at something very interesting.

Kusakabe propped herself up on her knees and asked, "How is that old woman...?"

Tianyan paused for a moment, put the piece of cloth into his pocket, looked up at him, and smiled slightly, a smile that carried an indescribable meaning.

"The negotiations are not going very smoothly."

The lower half of his eyebrow twitched slightly.

Tian Yan shrugged, his tone as indifferent as if he were commenting on the nice weather: "Please accept my condolences."

Kusakabe looked at him, his eyes showing no sadness, no anger, not even surprise. He simply stared at Tenen, remained silent for a moment, then clicked his tongue, looked away, and brushed the dust off his clothes.

"I'm not sad at all. That old woman isn't a good person either."

Tianyan looked at him, the corners of his mouth curving into a wider smile: "Mr. Kusakabe seems to have a very open mind."

Kusakabe waved his hand: "What's there to be upset about? I didn't like her that much when she was alive, and I'm not that sad about her death."

"Mr. Kusakabe, are you now the leader of the Shinkage-ryu sect?"

Kusakabe looked at him and remained silent for a moment.

Then he sighed, looked away, and continued to gaze at the distant sky.

"How did you know?"

"I have my own sources," he said calmly, without any flaws.

Kusakabe glanced at him sideways, his gaze lingering on his face for a moment before returning to his own.

No further questions were asked.

He simply nodded, his voice very soft: "Mm."

Then he stood up, dusted off his trousers, hung the knife at his waist, turned to face Tianyan, put his hands in his trench coat pockets, and tilted his head to look at him.

"Speak."

Tianyan's eyebrows twitched slightly: "What did you say?"

"Your request."

Kusakabe's tone was as calm as if he were stating a matter of course: "You came to see that old woman, so you must have something to say. Now that she's dead, I'm the head of the Shinkage-ryu. Just tell me what you want."

Tianyan looked at him and remained silent for a moment.

Then he stood up from the steps, dusted off his trousers, walked up to Kusakabe, and stopped.

"Mr. Kusakabe."

"Um."

"Let's discuss a business deal."

The lower half of his eyebrow twitched slightly.

"Business?"

"Business."

Tianyan nodded, his tone resolute: "A business deal that benefits us all."

Kusakabe looked at him, remained silent for a moment, and then the corners of his mouth slowly curved up.

"Okay, tell me about it."