[Day 18, Night]
[You set fire to several corpses]
[These are the seventh group of assassins you've killed]
[You've grown accustomed to this by now]
[You continue heading north]
[You only travel at night, spending your days cultivating in inns]
[During nighttime travel, you cover your face completely, leaving only your eyes exposed as you move furtively]
[Like some celebrity just getting off a plane]
[Your fully mastered Art of Hidden Breath operates at full capacity constantly]
[You disguise yourself as an ordinary person]
[Your path northward isn't direct either]
[Your route twists and turns unpredictably]
[You only know which direction to take next one second before your pursuers do]
[After three months of this cat-and-mouse game]
[You gradually shake off those tracking you]
[You don't neglect your cultivation during this journey]
[Your Heavenly Desire Formless Technique has improved significantly]
[In less than two months, you've reached the late Skin Refining stage of the technique]
[Your rapid progress has two reasons]
[First, your martial talent has greatly increased]
[Second, your mental state perfectly suits the Heavenly Desire Formless Technique]
[You feel your true qi has become more responsive to your will]
[The creator of this technique possessed terrifying insight into true qi]
[No one understood true qi better than them]
[Moreover, you experience no side effects from practicing this technique]
[Unlike Wan Qingluan with her seven-day personality disorder]
[You don't know why this is]
[Nor do you have time to ponder it]
[You continue your journey]
[One day, you unexpectedly find yourself back in Xian'an City]
[You consider leaving immediately]
[After all, you don't know who backs the Golden Saber Martial Arts School]
[But ultimately you decide to investigate briefly]
[Putting your traditional skills to use, you infiltrate the county government office]
[There you find the case files about the Black Tiger Martial Arts School massacre]
[After carefully reading through them several times]
[You discover the records match what you already know]
[The only odd detail is]
[After the Black Tiger School massacre]
[Before the investigation was complete]
[County Magistrate Zhang Hongwen repeatedly urged for a swift conclusion to the case]
[Eventually the case was hastily closed]
[You suspect this Zhang Hongwen is involved]
[That night, you break into Zhang Hongwen's residence]
[Searching through his estate]
[You finally discover numerous letters exchanged with Duan Qian, the Prefect of Danzhou in his study's secret room]
[Xian'an County falls under Danzhou's jurisdiction]
[It would be normal for Zhang Hongwen to report to his superior]
[But you don't understand why these letters are kept so secretively in a hidden room]
[After examining all the correspondence]
[You discover that after the Golden Saber School's destruction]
[Zhang Hongwen proactively reported the situation to Duan Qian]
[Duan Qian's reply mentioned sending a team of experts]
[The next day, the Black Tiger School was annihilated]
["So it was Prefect Duan Qian who ordered the Black Tiger School's destruction!"]
[You realize]
["But if the Golden Saber School had connections to Duan Qian, how could they have been destroyed by the Black Tiger School?"]
[You ponder]
["This must mean Duan Qian didn't normally favor the Golden Saber School!"]
["Could their relationship not have been close?"]
["Then why would Duan Qian seek revenge after the Golden Saber School's destruction?"]
[You stroke your chin thoughtfully]
[Suddenly, you have an epiphany]
["Of course! Duan Qian must have wanted to retrieve something from the Golden Saber School that he didn't want the Black Tiger School to obtain!"]
[You roughly understand the whole sequence of events]
[Now having clarity]
[You plan to thoroughly search the Golden Saber School after the simulation ends]
[To find whatever Duan Qian was after]
[The Golden Saber School likely possesses some extraordinary treasure]
[You leave Xian'an County]
[Continuing toward the Cangwang Desert]
[Along the way, you encounter two or three more groups of assassins]
[Having killed so many previously, you've accumulated more enemies]
[In the sixty-eighth year, you finally reach the Cangwang Desert]
[Under the blazing sun lies an endless expanse of yellow sand]
[The scorching air distorts your vision]
[No normal person could survive here]
[But you're no normal person - your simulation space is stocked with water and food]
[You could live here for decades]
[During this journey of over a year, you've advanced your Heavenly Desire Formless Technique to late Bone Tempering stage]
[Just one minor realm away from matching your Wild Heaven Saber Technique's level]
["What a genius I am!"]
[You're quite pleased]
[Taking out construction materials purchased earlier from your space]
[Like assembling building blocks]
[You construct a large villa in the desert]
[Your three-story luxury villa stands out conspicuously in the barren desert]
[But deep in the desert, no one will come]
[So showing off doesn't matter]
[You settle in the Cangwang Desert]
[During breaks from cultivation, you tend to plants]
[Of course nothing grows in sand]
[So you brought thousands of tons of fertile soil from outside to surround your villa]
[Planting flowers, trees and shrubs]
[Your afforestation project succeeds]
[Creating a pleasant environment filled with birdsong and floral fragrance]
[You even dig a pond and stock it with fish and shrimp]
[Becoming the first person to raise aquatic life in a desert]
[Your home becomes the only oasis deep in the desert]
[A beautiful scenic spot]
[Anyone seeing this would think it a mirage]
[Never imagining it could be real]
[Three months later, your Heavenly Desire Formless Technique breaks through to peak Bone Tempering]
[You also feel your Wild Heaven Saber Technique has reached its limit]
[Next is the breakthrough to Marrow Washing realm]
[But although your Bone Tempering has reached its peak]
[You can't seem to touch the threshold of Marrow Washing]
[You recognize this bottleneck]
[But maintain good spirits]
[Continuing regular cultivation]
[Though with slightly reduced hours]
[And more rest time]
[One scorching day]
[After cultivation, you take a short break]
[Eating chilled watermelon in your villa]
[Your true qi can transform into icy properties, perfect for chilling watermelon]
[You've also created ice blocks throughout the house for cooling]
[Your villa stays as comfortable as air-conditioning]
[Life is good]
[Suddenly, you hear footsteps outside]
[Along with hushed voices: "No wonder this villain hides in the desert - he found this treasure land!"]
[You know trouble has come knocking again]
[Instantly appearing outside]
[The six intruders startle at your sudden appearance]
[Recognizing you, their expressions darken]
["So it is you, Extermination Sect villain! Give me back my brother's life!"]
[The speaker is a female martial artist]
[Tall and fair-skinned, she glares at you with hatred]
[Behind her stand five others - men and women, young and old]
[Appearing to be family]
[This female martial artist is quite strong, at mid Organ Fortifying realm - the strongest present]
[Two major realms above you]
[But are you afraid?]
[Not at all]
[Though only at peak Bone Tempering]
[Your actual combat power could kill peak Organ Fortifying martial artists]
[Conventional realm classifications like early/middle/late can't describe your martial level]
[You prefer calling yourself "advanced Bone Tempering"]
["He Yu, you villain! Our family has searched for you for months, enduring countless hardships, today we finally-"]
["Enough already." You interrupt the woman's speech]
[Quite the dramatic extra]
[You crook your finger: "Come at me together."]