Yu Xuan woke up to find the sky above bathed in moonlight. His head throbbed like someone had crammed a hundred different headaches into one.
"Ahh..." he groaned, pressing a hand to his temple.
He glanced up at the silver moon and muttered, "At least I survived."
Then promptly slumped back down like a sack of defeated potatoes.
By morning, golden sunlight slipped past the canopy and landed on his face. His eyelids twitched, and a moment later, they snapped open.
For nearly five minutes, Yu Xuan just lay there staring blankly at the sky, too dazed to think, too sore to move.
Eventually, he pulled a small pill from his space ring and swallowed it.
A warm sensation spread through his body, knitting together torn muscle and fractured bone. Within twenty minutes, the pain dulled and his injuries mended, the pill clearly wasn’t cheap.
Finally, he sat up, looked around, then spotted the mangled remains of Gu Yifan’s body sprawled a good distance away — split into three clean pieces: hand, torso, and head.
"...I stink," Yu Xuan muttered, wrinkling his nose with visible disgust.
He checked his medallion for the nearest water source and found a river nearby. Without hesitation, he made his way there, stripped off his tattered robes, and submerged himself into the refreshing flow.
The grime and dried blood washed away. He sighed in relief.
Afterwards, he changed into a clean set of robes, crisp, fresh, and very much not soaked in battle trauma and began walking back to the scene of the incident.
His expression was contemplative, though the pounding headache still made him wince every few steps.
"Ugh. I don’t remember anything," he muttered. "The last thing I recall is taking the Soul Nourishment Pill... then that blob of soul shot into me... and then..."
Pure, frustrating blank.
"Still, at least I survived," he said, giving credit to himself. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✦𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮✦𝓷𝓮𝓽
’I’m still young. I haven’t even experienced worldly desires yet, I should definitely lay low now.’ he thought, dramatically raising a flag.
That said, this really was his first true brush with death in the cultivation world — and oddly enough, he hadn’t panicked. Not truly.
’Is this my nature? Am I just too calm? Or... should I be even more ruthless going forward?’
This was not the first time he killed, but during a battle it was the first. The headache spiked again.
"Ugh, thinking hurts."
He finally returned to the battlefield, gazing at the scorched earth, shattered trees, and torn surroundings.
"...What now?" he muttered aloud, standing among the remnants of chaos.
’Should I call Senior Ban for help?’ he wondered. He hadn’t even made it to the main peak yet the "array of trees" marking the boundary was visible from here. A twenty minute walk, maybe.
His gaze shifted to the corpse in front of him, or rather, what remained of it.
’Should I bury it... or burn it?’ he thought. But before dealing with the corpse, he did the practical thing first — he walked over and removed Gu Yifan’s space ring and medallion.
Might as well report it to the Discipline Committee. That was the responsible thing to do, right?
Just as he was about to send the message—
The wind shifted sharply, and suddenly, multiple powerful auras surrounded him. He hadn’t even sensed them approach, likely because of his lingering headache and depleted mental condition.
Then, from the shadows of the trees, figures began to step out.
Disciples in black and white robes. The character for "Discipline" stitched boldly on their chests.
’One, two... ten of them. Three at Foundation Establishment, seven in Core Formation... and the one in front, definitely a Nascent Soul cultivator.’
Yu Xuan calmly assessed the situation, already guessing who they were: the Discipline Committee.
He opened his mouth to explain what had happened, but before he could utter a word—
"Fellow disciple," the Nascent Soul leader declared, voice cold and authoritative. "You are charged with the murder of another disciple outside a sanctioned life and death duel. As per sect law, you will be taken for trial before judgment is passed. Do you object?"
That weight of Nascent Soul spiritual pressure pressed down on him like a mountain, enough to make most Qi Condensation cultivators buckle.
Yu Xuan, however, didn’t even flinch.
He looked up, slowly raised both hands... and in the tone of an arrogant young master, deadpan as ever, said, "I won’t say a word without my lawyer present."
The surrounding disciples all twitched in irritation. One even looked like he wanted to throw a rock at him. The Nascent Soul leader, however, simply stared. The culprit was still calm in this situation , so was he experienced?
Then he waved to one of the Core Formation cultivators. "Restrain him."
The disciple stepped forward and slapped a pair of black cuffs on Yu Xuan’s wrists. As soon as they clicked into place, Yu Xuan felt the seal snap across his meridians, his Qi was locked.
"Record the scene. Retrieve the body," the leader instructed. "Don’t touch anything else."
As the other committee members activated recording crystals and began cleaning up the battlefield, Yu Xuan stood quietly in the middle of it all, cuffed and very much unbothered.
’Is this... the rare moment when the cops actually arrive on time?’ he sighed inwardly. ’Truly a historic day.’
He looked around at the stiff-faced disciples moving with practiced precision.
"So, how are we getting to the court?" he asked one of them casually, as if discussing travel plans to a teahouse.
The disciple gave him a sharp glance, snorted in disdain, and continued recording without answering.
Ten minutes later, the site had been thoroughly documented, the broken corpse secured, and the committee gathered in formation, preparing to leave.
Yu Xuan, now thoroughly done with standing still, glanced at their leader and said, "I’m not walking all the way there, you know."
One of the nearby Foundation Establishment disciples snapped. "Watch your tone, criminal!"
Great, he had already been declared a criminal.
Before things could escalate, the Nascent Soul leader raised a hand. The disciple instantly fell silent, though his glare remained.