The rain in the Black Wind Mountains was acidic, stinging the skin like weak venom.
Li Ye stood over the twisted corpse of Wang Fatty. The outer disciple's eyes were wide open, frozen in a final expression of agonizing shock. His throat was crushed, and his limbs were bent at angles that defied nature.
For a normal person, standing next to a fresh kill in a lightning storm would be terrifying. For Li Ye, it was a Tuesday.
"Rigor mortis hasn't set in yet," Li Ye muttered, wiping the mixture of blood and rain from his face. "Body temperature is dropping rapidly due to the rain. I have approximately one hour before the decomposition process begins to attract Spirit Beasts."
He didn't panic. He didn't tremble. His mind shifted into the familiar, cold gears of Protocol.
[System Notification]
[Sinner Punished: Wang.]
[Reward Distributed: 10 Cultivation Points.]
[New Skill Acquired: Bone Dismantling Hand (Yellow Grade - Perfection Level).]
[Current Status: Critical. Rib fractures (3), Internal bleeding detected.]
"Use 10 points to repair the body," Li Ye commanded mentally.
A rush of warm, aggressive energy flooded his veins. It wasn't the gentle Qi described in novels; it felt like thousands of microscopic needles stitching his flesh back together. Li Ye gritted his teeth, not making a sound. He felt his broken ribs snap back into alignment. The internal bleeding in his spleen clotted and healed instantly.
He took a deep breath. The sharp pain in his chest was gone, replaced by a dull ache. He wasn't at 100%, but he could move.
Li Ye crouched down and began to search Wang's body.
"A criminal always carries the evidence of his motive," Li Ye thought.
He found three low-grade Spirit Stones, a rusted dagger, and a small porcelain bottle wrapped in silk.
Li Ye ignored the stones and the dagger. He focused on the bottle. He uncorked it. Inside was a single, crimson pill emitting a sweet, sickly aroma.
[Item Detected: "Bone Strengthening Pill" (Standard Issue).]
[Do you wish to analyze? Cost: 1 Intelligence Point (Temporary).]
"Analyze," Li Ye ordered.
His vision shifted. The world turned gray, but the pill in his hand glowed with complex data streams. It was like looking through an electron microscope.
[Analysis Complete]
[Name: Inferior Blood-Bone Pill]
[Ingredients: Spirit Grass, Wolf Blood, Arsenic (Trace), and... Human Bone Dust.]
[Hidden Effect: Temporarily stimulates strength, but slowly calcifies the user's meridians over 3 years, turning them into 'Human Medicine' for harvesting.]
Li Ye's eyes narrowed.
"Human Medicine," he whispered. "They aren't training disciples. They are marinating them."
This wasn't a sect. It was a farm. And Wang Fatty, Senior Brother Zhao, and even Li Ye himself were just livestock waiting for the butcher.
Snap.
Li Ye recorked the bottle and tucked it into his wet robes. This was Exhibit A.
He grabbed Wang's corpse by the ankle. The body was heavy, but with his body repaired, Li Ye dragged it toward the edge of the ravine known as the Beast's Maw.
"No body, no crime," Li Ye said flatly.
He pushed the corpse off the ledge. It tumbled silently into the darkness below. Seconds later, the roar of a Shadow Panther echoed up from the abyss, followed by the sound of tearing flesh.
Nature was the best disposal unit.
Li Ye returned to his shack—a dilapidated wooden hut on the outskirts of the Outer Sect. It smelled of mildew and poverty.
He sat on the straw mat, crossing his legs. He didn't try to meditate to absorb Worldly Qi. His meridians were naturally blocked; that was why he was considered trash. But the System had changed the rules.
"System, open Interface."
[Host: Li Ye]
[Cultivation: Mortal (Stage 1 Body Refining)]
[Physique: Broken waste (Repairing...)]
[Skills: Anatomy (Grandmaster), Forensic Science (Grandmaster), Bone Dismantling Hand (Yellow Grade - Perfection).]
[Sin Points: 0]
[Truth Points: 0]
"I need strength," Li Ye murmured. "Zhao will realize Wang is missing by tomorrow morning. He won't assume I killed him—he thinks I'm dead. But if he finds me alive..."
Li Ye looked at his own hands. They were pale and slender. Not the hands of a warrior, but the hands of a surgeon.
He activated the [Bone Dismantling Hand] skill in his mind.
Instantly, information flooded his brain. It wasn't just a martial art; it was a manual on structural weakness. He saw a holographic projection of a human skeleton. The technique didn't teach him how to punch hard; it taught him how to strike the gap between the radius and ulna to render an arm useless with 5 pounds of pressure.
"Effective," Li Ye noted. "Brute force is inefficient. Leverage is absolute."
Suddenly, footsteps approached his hut. Heavy, wet footsteps splashing through the mud.
"Open up! Inspection!"
The voice was rough. It wasn't Zhao. It was one of the Night Patrol enforcers.
Li Ye's eyes went cold. If they saw him muddy and bloodstained, questions would be asked.
He quickly stripped off his blood-soaked outer robe and kicked it under the bed. He grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders, shivering intentionally.
Bang!
The door was kicked open. A burly disciple holding a lantern stepped in, scrunching his nose at the smell.
"Li Ye?" The enforcer frowned, looking at the boy huddled on the bed. "I heard you were dead. Some rumors said Zhao beat you to a pulp."
Li Ye looked up. He adjusted his facial muscles perfectly to mimic terror and weakness. His eyes widened, his lip trembled.
"Senior Brother..." Li Ye coughed, forcing his voice to sound weak. "I... I crawled back. Please... don't tell Senior Brother Zhao. He will kill me for real this time."
The enforcer sneered, seeing the pathetic trembling boy. "Tch. Cockroach. Can't even die properly."
The enforcer scanned the room. His lantern light swept across the floor. It stopped near the bed.
A single drop of fresh blood was on the floorboards, missed by Li Ye during the cleanup.
The enforcer's eyes narrowed. "You're bleeding?"
"My ribs..." Li Ye lied smoothly, clutching his chest. "I'm coughing blood."
The enforcer stepped closer, suspicion rising. "That blood is dark. But that drop... looks fresh. And why do you smell like the rain?"
The enforcer reached for his sword hilt.
Li Ye's expression didn't change, but inside his mind, the Investigation Mode activated.
[Target: Disciple Chen]
[Weakness Detected: Left knee injury from previous battle. Exposed Carotid Artery.]
[Kill Probability: 98%.]
"Senior Brother," Li Ye whispered, lowering his head submissively, his hand creeping under the blanket where he held the rusted iron shard. "Let me show you..."
The enforcer leaned in. "Show me what?"
Li Ye looked up. The fear vanished from his face, replaced by a void of emotion that made the enforcer's blood run cold.
"My diagnosis."