If you die, I will be able to inherit your cultivation.

Zhou Ming, who was sleeping soundly, was awakened by a scream.

The sound was sharp and piercing, like a knife suddenly slicing through the silence of the morning.

Then came a flurry of footsteps and gasps of surprise.

Zhou Ming sprang out of bed, his sleepiness vanishing instantly.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath, put on his shoes, pushed open the door, and rushed into the alley.

The sky outside was still somewhat dark, but a large crowd had already gathered outside the alley.

They were all lower-ranking servants from the outer courtyard, including third-class servants, handymen, and kitchen helpers.

The crowd formed an irregular circle, all eyes fixed on the center. No one spoke, only a suppressed, intermittent gasp of breath escaped their lips.

Zhou Ming pushed through the crowd and looked inside. He saw a dark-skinned, thin, and short man squatting on the ground.

At this moment, he was holding his head in his hands, his ten fingers tightly gripping his hair.

His shoulders were shaking violently, his whole body was trembling like a leaf, and he was spitting out words in broken sentences.

"I didn't want to either..."

"He's the one who bullied me...he's the one who wanted to hit me."

"That's why I fought back... I just lightly punched him..."

"I really didn't mean to... I really didn't want to kill him..."

The voice was squeezed out from between the teeth, hoarse and broken, with a sobbing tone, yet unable to cry out, as if there was cotton stuck in the throat.

Zhou Ming's gaze shifted from him to the cart beside him, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

A massive body lay supine on the ground, weighing at least two hundred pounds, with fat bulging from the gaps in its clothes.

But now there's a hole in her stomach.

A hole the size of a fist pierced through the center of the abdomen, its edges jagged, as if it had been blasted open from the inside by something.

Fragments of intestines and internal organs flowed out of the hole, emitting faint warmth in the cool morning air.

The fat man was spitting out blood and foam, making a "heh heh" sound in his throat, like a leaky bellows, unable to breathe or swallow his last breath.

His fingers were still twitching, digging into the soil on the ground, creating several shallow grooves.

Zhou Ming saw that the fat man's eyes were still moving. He wasn't quite dead yet.

His stomach churned, but he forced it down.

Then he noticed something else: above the head of the thin, dark figure crouching on the ground, pulling at his hair, hung a solid chain of cause and effect.

Although the chain was not as thick as Fang Yuan's, it had already taken shape and gleamed in the morning light with a faint glow that only Zhou Ming could see.

The other end of the chain was attached to his own forehead.

Zhou Ming's heart skipped a beat.

Isn't this one of the causal chains that Fang Yuan has spread out?

Fang Yuan passed it on to Zhu Zi, A Gui, and a few others, some of whom have already mastered it.

The dark-skinned, skinny boy in front of me is one of those who have successfully completed the process.

Before Zhou Ming could take a closer look, a series of hurried footsteps sounded at the entrance of the alley.

Chunlan, the head housekeeper of Haitangyuan, arrived at the scene quickly with a team of guards.

Chunlan is one of the eldest young lady's four personal maids, and she is in charge of all affairs in the Begonia Garden.

Her gaze swept across the ground, first looking at the fat man who was still convulsing, then at the thin man squatting on the ground pulling his hair. Her brows furrowed slightly, but she quickly regained her usual composure.

"Disperse the crowd," she said calmly.

The guards immediately stepped forward and pushed the onlookers away.

"Everyone, disperse! What are you looking at? Go do what you were doing!"

The crowd was pushed back, staggering, but no one was willing to actually go far. After taking a few steps back, they stopped and craned their necks to continue looking.

Two more guards stepped forward and lifted the thin man who was squatting on the ground up, one on each side.

When the skinny man was lifted up, his legs went weak, his knees dragged on the ground for a couple of steps, and he kept muttering, "I really didn't mean to."

The guard deftly pulled out a rope and tied his hands behind his back securely.

The crowd dispersed to the perimeter began to discuss the matter in small groups.

His voice was very low, as if he was afraid that Chunlan would hear him, but he couldn't suppress his shock and curiosity.

"Isn't that a pillar? The pillar at the horse farm?"

"When did Zhu Zi become so powerful?"

"How dare he kill Manager Zhang... Manager Zhang was the head of the kitchen!"

"Look at Manager Zhang's belly, could that have been punched out like that? Is Zhu Zi's hand made of iron?"

"Is Zhu Zi possessed by a demon? I heard there's been a disturbance at the dilapidated temple outside the city lately..."

"Don't talk nonsense! Do you have a death wish?"

"I heard that Steward Zhang and Zhu Zi are from the same village."

"What do you know? Steward Zhang has been bullying Zhu Zi for years. Ever since they were sold into the Marquis's mansion together, Zhu Zi has been beaten by him countless times."

"Were they both sold to the Marquis's mansion together?"

"They came together, but Steward Zhang is good at currying favor and has climbed up from a third-class servant to the head of the kitchen."

"Zhu Zi is honest but not good with words, so he has always been kept at the horse farm to raise horses."

"I heard that Manager Zhang has been swindling most of Zhu Zi's monthly allowance every year, and it's been like this for years."

"That pillar has finally reached its limit..."

"You can't just endure it to the end and kill someone. Now look what's happened, murder is punishable by death, and Zhu Zi's life is probably in danger too."

Zhou Ming stood at the back of the crowd, taking in every word of the discussion.

The identity of Zhu Zi, the identity of Steward Zhang, and the grudge between the two.

He quickly pieced together a complete picture.

Zhu Zi was one of the third-class servants who raised horses for the young lady, and also one of the first people in Fang Yuan to teach the "Scripture of Crossing the World".

The fat man lying on the ground, seemingly about to die, was the manager of the kitchen at Haitangyuan. His surname was Zhang, and he was from the same hometown as Zhuzi.

The two were sold into the Marquis's mansion together when they were young, but one climbed up while the other was trampled underfoot for who knows how many years.

Early this morning, Zhu Zi and several third-class servants from the horse farm were carrying soybeans from the storeroom when they ran into Steward Zhang, who was on his way to the kitchen, as they passed through this alley.

Manager Zhang was probably bored, or perhaps bullying Zhu Zi had become a habit, and he made fun of Zhu Zi as usual.

Push him twice, slap him twice, and hurl a few nasty insults.

Manager Zhang probably thought these were just amusement, but he didn't know that Zhu Zi was no longer the same Zhu Zi who could be slaughtered at will.

Zhu Zi cultivated the "Scripture of Crossing the World," reading it a hundred times, and had already cultivated magical power in his dantian.

He was unaware that he was already a Qi Refining stage expert.

Having been bullied by Manager Zhang for so many years, all the grievances accumulated in the heart of this taciturn person were like gunpowder being pressed layer by layer into an iron barrel.

Until this morning, Manager Zhang's slap was probably the final layer of pressure.

In a fit of rage, Zhu Zi punched Steward Zhang in the stomach.

He probably just wanted to rebel once, to tell this person, "I have strength now, so stop bullying me."

However, he had only been cultivating for a short time, and his internal magical power was far from being able to be controlled at will.