Han Li brought the large man to an unremarkable room in the building and laid him on the floor. His body was covered in blue frost, and his eyes were open wide and filled with terror.

Han Li then summoned a silver needle in between his fingers with a wave of his hand and stooped down, quickly stabbing the needle several times into the large man’s head. The man trembled as a result and turned completely lax.

Han Li formed a hand gesture and softly muttered an incantation before striking the man’s body with several spell seals. The frost immediately disappeared from the man’s body and he sat up with blank eyes and stiffly crossed his legs, to then wait motionlessly like a puppet.

With azure light covering his face, Han Li waved his sleeve, releasing several various colored spell flags around him. They surrounded the two, creating a Qi concealing spell formation. After activating the formation, his body blurred and reappeared behind the large man.

He raised his hand and pressed it against the top of the large man’s head. At that moment, light brightly glowed from Han Li’s body and enveloped the man.

“What is your name and what is your position in the Kong Clan?” Han Li’s cold and emotionless voice echoed from the light. 

The large man listlessly replied, “I am Kong Dou. I am the chief of external affairs.”

“Since when did the Kong Clan occupy Falcon Cloud Village? Where did the original residents go?”

“Seven years ago, the original residences were all relocated to a town by the name of Snowriver.”

“What is the purpose of the Kong Clan’s Grand Assembly?”

“That is...”

After a string of questions, Han Li extracted most of the information he wanted. At the end, he released his grip on the large man and the man immediately fell to the ground. Han Li then took out a medicine pill and forced him to swallow it before striking all the acupoints on the man’s body with a silver needle.

A while later, Han Li stood up and muttered, “With the Worryfree Needle, his recent memories should be sealed. He won’t immediately stir any trouble. It is a pity I can’t make use of the Dreamtear Technique because of my lacking cultivation and save myself all this trouble.”

Han Li shook his hand and then withdrew the spell flags before walking out of the building. Afterwards, he directly made his way to the village’s exit, having completely lost his interest in further participating in the Grand Assembly.

There were quite a few cultivators that were already leaving. As a result, Han Li hadn’t attracted any attention from the guards at the entrance.

In a streak of azure light, he made his way to the small town that the large man had mentioned.

The small town wasn’t very far away from the Snowmound Mountains. Soon, he faintly saw Snowriver Town over the horizon. It was about four times larger than Falcon Cloud Village, but it still barely qualified as a town. When he entered, it was already late and the sky was dark, leaving scarcely few people wandering on the streets. As a result, Han Li’s arrival hadn’t stirred up any attention. 

As he walked through the streets, he slowly released his spiritual sense, in case there were any Nascent Soul cultivators hidden nearby.

As he expected, there were cultivators in the town, but a majority of them were low-grade ones. The highest of these cultivators was a Core Formation cultivator that was hidden in a courtyard in the southwest corner of the town. As Han Li stealthily swept his spiritual sense through the town, none of them detected him in the slightest.

After confirming that there were no threats to him present in the town, he concealed his aura and walked down the street, occasionally sweeping his eyes to either side as if he were looking for something.

Soon, he arrived at a wide intersection, what seemed to be the center of the town. He glanced at the sign for an inn and narrowed his eyes before coming to a stop.

The signboard was a meter long and was written with the silver words, “Pleasant Arrival”. It was a common name for inns in the Great Jin.  There were surely several hundreds at the very least, if not thousands. Han Li was staring at the teapot mark at the corner of the sign in particular and his eyes wandered.

After examining it for a short moment, he took a deep breath and looked up at the small inn. Seeing that there was no one around, his figure blurred and in a flicker of faint yellow light, he phased through the door as if it weren’t there.

The main hall was pitch-black and completely quiet. It was unknown if there were any guests or if they were all sleeping. After some consideration, Han Li closed his eyes and released his spiritual sense, immersing his mind with the image of the place.

He then silently turned into a gust of wind and disappeared into the darkness.

...

The owner of the Pleasant Arrival Inn was a shriveled old man in his fifties and was among the wealthiest people in the village. After a busy day, he had drawn himself into deep slumber, embracing a young concubine that he had married earlier in the year. But suddenly, he felt an icy bone-chilling wind blow past him, rousing him wide awake. He suddenly opened his eyes and broke out into a cold sweat.

In the pitch blackness, there was someone standing at his bedside, staring at him with cold shiny eyes.

“You...” Just as he was about to yell, a silver line flashed and his throat turned numb; his voice coming to an immediate stop.

“Don’t be loud. Although there are no cultivators in the inn, I don’t wish to alarm anyone. I only want to speak to you about this item.” Han Li raised his hand and a key shining with silver light appeared in front of the old man.

When the old man saw this key, his body trembled and then relaxed. Suddenly, a trace of delight appeared on his face.

The old man hastily jumped up from the bed and gestured with his hands, attempting to speak but no sound came out from his mouth. Han Li smiled and raised his hand, taking out a silver needle from the man’s throat.

The old man coughed several times and eventually regained his voice, then asking, “Could you allow me to examine the silver key?”

After a moment’s pause, Han Li handed it over.

The old man took the silver key and examined it for a long while before handing it back to Han Li with both hands. With a respectful expression, he deeply bowed to Han Li and said, “Are you the great Young Master?”

“You already saw the key,” Han Li said, “Is there a problem?”

“None. Since the Young Master sought me out and he has the genuine key, your identity is certain, but...” The old man then turned his gaze to the young woman sleeping behind him.

Han Li blinked and calmly said, “Don’t worry, I already put her under a spell before I woke you up. No matter how loudly you shout, she will hear none of it.”

“That is good,” the old man sincerely said, “The clan master hasn’t contacted me after several years. I am only a mortal, so I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t dare to make any inquiries, fearing that I would attract the attention of other cultivators. Now that the Young Master has brought the silver key, I can finally relax. Were if not for the clan head mentioning that you had changed your appearance, I wouldn’t have dared to believe it.”

“Something had truly happened to the Feng Clan. As such, I will need to open the secret reserves and take a few items out. Apart from the clan head, none knows of its location. He should’ve left behind a backup map with you. Give it to me.” Han Li spoke bluntly and with a commanding tone.

“Yes! Since you have the key to the reserve, you clearly have the qualifications to open it. Just a moment, Young Master!” The old man then covered himself in several articles of clothing and led Han Li to the inn’s rear courtyard.

Once they reached the courtyard, the old man grabbed an iron hoe and began to dig at an unremarkable corner of the courtyard. Afterwards, he used his hands to carefully search the soil, eventually finding a stone brick with a common appearance. At that point, he was already covered in sweat.

The old man handed over the brick to Han Li and said, “The location of the secret reserve is sealed in here. There is a restriction on it and I am incapable of opening it, but Young Master should be able to!”

“Of course I do!” Han Li gave the brick a few appraising glances and nodded with satisfaction. Then with a stern expression, he commanded, “Now that I have this item, you shouldn’t stay here any longer. Travel far away and hide your identity!” 

The old man’s expression turned dim when he heard this. “Then something must’ve truly happened to the Feng Clan! Don’t worry Young Master, I will immediately depart in a few days. I won’t have the information of Young Master leak out.”

Han Li put away the stone brick and took another glance at the old man’s dim expression. With a moved heart, he flipped his hand and gave a small azure bottle to the old man. “You should know how things stand now. Since you’ve always remained loyal to the Feng Clan, take this bottle of medicine pills. Although you are only a mortal, the pills will strengthen your body and allow you to live a longer life!” 

The old man was stunned for a moment before happily replying, “Many thanks for your generosity, Young Master!”

Han Li waved his hand and expressionlessly said, “Alright, I’ll be leaving now. Take care of yourself!” Then in an azure flash, he disappeared from the inn without a trace.

The old man glanced around him in shock and after a long while, he confirmed that Han Li had left. Then, he lowered his head and blankly looked at the medicine bottle before letting out a sigh.

...

When Han Li left the inn, he immediately flew out of the town and went to find a desolate mountain. After dropping down, he summoned an azure brick with a flip of his palm.