Merin looks at his donkey, then at the beautiful horses the maids are riding, and at the ornate carriages that follow.

His donkey does not match the aesthetic, but as a thousand-year-old monster, he feels no embarrassment and calmly rides forward to join them.

From inside the large carriage, the woman’s voice sounds, “Your donkey will slow our journey. Leave it. We have a carriage prepared for you.”

Merin replies, “Then can you wait a few minutes? I will return my donkey to my home.”

The woman’s voice answers, “Wu Ti.”

A young man steps out, bowing slightly, “Yes, Lady.”

“Send his donkey back to his home,” the woman instructs.

Merin climbs down, hands the reins of his donkey to Wu Ti, and follows the maid who gestures for him to come.

She leads him to one of the smaller carriages, where he steps inside, sets down his luggage, and waits.

After a few minutes, the carriage begins to move, wheels rolling steadily across the stone path.

Through the small window, Merin sees the sun dipping below the horizon.

For the first time, he is travelling at night.

Because of evil creatures, night travel is dangerous—ordinary people never leave their homes after dusk.

For them, distance at night matters, since every step outside could mean death.

Only martial artists and Celestial Masters confident in their strength dare to travel through the dark.

Merin takes out a book and the two rune pamphlets he had exchanged earlier.

He had not found the time to study them before, having been occupied with analysing the ghost.

From that ghost, he even learned a rune and named it: Spirit Hold.

Now, he studies the Agility Rune.

Reading it once is enough—his mind absorbs it instantly.

Though his strength is gone, his wisdom remains.

For him, learning a Zero-stage rune in a single glance is nothing dramatic.

What truly captures his attention is the structure of the runes in this world.

Each basic rune is composed of a hundred or so smaller runes.

Many of those smaller runes repeat more than ten times.

In essence, the basic runes are miniature rune formations that can be drawn on paper.

He reads the Lightning Palm Rune and, just like before, learns it in a moment.

But after absorbing Lightning Palm, a new idea begins to form in his mind.

He quickly takes out blank rune paper, ink, and a feather pen from the small bag in his luggage.

Inside the moving carriage, his hand remains steady as he draws the Lightning Palm rune.

He draws it ten times, each one a success.

Satisfied, he places them inside the bag, though he keeps one rune paper out.

He pastes it onto his palm and activates it with his spirit.

The rune glows, the paper crackles, and a ball of lightning forms in his hand.

The lightning cackles, striking his flesh and damaging his cells.

This is the danger of Lightning Palm—before it harms the enemy, it harms the caster.

The longer he holds it, the more damage it causes.

His hand grows numb, yet he does not release it.

Instead, he channels vitality into his palm to heal the destruction.

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After a minute, the Lightning Ball fades, but he continues to channel vitality until the damage recedes.

From the Dream Law, he gained Dreamization.

From the Vitality Law, he gained Endless.

As long as a wisp of energy remains in his soul or body, his vitality is endless.

Now, he transforms his spiritual energy into vitality energy to restore his palm.

In moments, the damage vanishes, and his palm’s cells feel tougher than before.

He takes out another Lightning Palm rune and repeats the process.

Each time, the pain lessens, his body adapting to the lightning.

After exhausting all ten runes, the damage still lingers slightly, but he knows it will fade after a few more rounds.

He would continue, but night is coming, and the caravan will soon stop.

An hour later, the carriage slows, then halts.

Merin jumps down and walks to the driver.

“Are we spending the night here?” he asks.

The driver nods silently.

Merin then begins his work, pasting detection runes on the trees surrounding the camp.

The first night passes uneventfully, and after breakfast, the journey starts again.

Inside his room, Merin draws the Lightning Palm rune, continuing his practice and refining his palm.

At noon, they reach a village and learn the road ahead is blocked—the bridge has collapsed.

To continue, they must pass through the middle of the ancient forest.

At dawn the next day, they leave the village and head toward the forest.

On the way, before reaching its edge, Merin notices his palm no longer suffers damage from the Lightning Palm rune, so he begins refining his other hand.

By the time they arrive at Liulan Prefecture City, his other palm also withstands the rune, and in the process, he comprehends the Lightning Palm rune, extending it into the Lightning Body rune.

He stays one night in Liulan before resuming his journey, joining a convoy headed to Misu Town along the way.

Two days later, he arrives in Misu Town and learns the bridge has already been repaired.

Choosing the bridge route, which shortens the return to Mulin City by a day, he sets out once more.

For the last leg, he travels alone.

Before sunset, he reaches an empty temple where two other convoys have already stopped to rest.

Merin follows their example, settling down.

When night deepens and an owl hoots in the distance, a thick fog rises, shrouding the temple.

Merin steps out of his tent and scans the area, the haze unable to block his sight.

He sees chaos—people from both convoys attacking each other with weapons, fists, or even their own bodies.

Two rush at him.

Merin knocks them unconscious in a heartbeat, then pastes Lightning Palm runes onto both his hands and activates them.

Crackling orbs form in his palms, and as he squeezes, the lightning balls stretch into whips.

He lashes them across the frenzied crowd, each strike knocking people unconscious before true casualties can occur.

Suddenly, a dark green fireball streaks toward him.

Merin whirls and shatters it with his whip, eyes locking onto a shadowed figure standing at the temple doorway.

The aura makes his expression sharpen.

“Evil Celestial Master.”

The master hurls fireball after fireball at him.

Merin blocks the first barrage, but his runes burn out, the lightning dissipating.

He dodges the next wave, though the frequency of attacks increases, leaving several unconscious bodies.

Grinding his teeth, Merin has had enough.

He calls upon his Dreamization ability—his will extends into the fog, hooking into the enemy’s soul.

With a wrenching pull, he drags the Evil Celestial Master’s soul from his body and seals it inside his dream space.

The body collapses lifelessly.

A splitting headache stabs Merin’s mind from the drain, but he knows he had no other way.

He cannot match an evil Celestial Master, not one who casts spells without runes.

Stepping forward, he searches the corpse and discovers patches of scales.

His eyes narrow—evil celestial masters, those who devour evil materials, their bodies started to change into a monster.

This one had fused a snake demon’s soul into himself.

Merin cuts off the head as proof for the Four Gate reward, wrapping it securely.

He turns to the fallen convoy members and wakes them one after another.

Shock spreads across their faces as they realise what has happened.

Weapons in their hands drip with blood, some lips are stained red with bite marks, and several lie dead among them.

Even when Merin shows them the corpse of the Evil Celestial Master, fear grips their hearts—none wish to remain here a moment longer.

Together, they set out on the return to Mulin City.

After their departure, a figure steps from the fog—the junior sister of the Evil Celestial Master.

Her face is pale, her eyes fixed with dread toward the direction Merin left.

At the start of the battle, she thought Lin Yu would fall, but instead her elder brother lay lifeless on the ground.

She whispers, “Brother, you are already dead… but once I reach a higher rank, I will avenge you.”

Behind her, a phantom woman emerges, hair veiling her face—an evil ghost.

With a piercing screech, the ghost dives into her brother’s corpse, devouring it from the inside out, beginning at the heart.

On the road, Merin glances back at the temple.

He shakes his head and faces forward, his convoy pressing on.

By noon, they step through Mulin City’s gates.

Merin heads straight for the Four Gate hall, presenting the severed head of the Evil Celestial Master.

The elders grant him a reward of one hundred merits.

With the task complete, he quietly returns home.

During dinner, Lin Zhu speaks, “Brother, you don’t know what happened after you left the city?”

Merin asks, “What?”

Lin Zhu says, “Young Master Xiao’s fiancée came from the capital to cancel the marriage.”

Merin hesitates, then says, “Did Young Master Xiao say something like this—‘The river flows thirty years east and thirty years west, don’t you dare bully me because I’m poor now’?”

Lin Zhu’s eyes widen. “Brother, how do you know?”

Merin pauses, unable to answer, for he cannot very well say he read those words in a book from another world.

Lin Zhu continues, “Brother, you must have heard it from people in the city.”

Merin nods and says, “The lines spread throughout the city.”

Lin Zhu smiles. “Yes, now everyone who feels even slightly wronged repeats that line.”

Merin nods again, then, after a moment, asks, “Did you find a school for Lin Mi?”

Lin Zhu replies, “Brother, what about the school that Young Master Xiao’s sister studies in?”

Merin looks at Lin Mi, who eats her food quietly, her eyes shining with expectation.

He smiles and says to her, “Tomorrow, I will admit you to a school.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep