Not knowing that he became the disciple of a famous array master, his big sisters only asked Shui why he was later than usual. It was simple for Shui to come up with an excuse for this so there was nothing for them to worry about. Shui had considered using his status as the disciple of an array master to protect his family, but since he hadn't fully grasped the personality of Nikolai or if he had any strong enemies, he put it off for the time being.
After eating and washing up, it was time for bed. If it was just this then he could make better use of his time by cultivating at NIkolai's house, but there was another thing he had in mind. His first priority was to get as strong as possible, as quickly as he could without experiencing any sort of cultivation complication. And so, there was no way he wouldn't exercise his demonic art.
With the knowledge he used Lily to collect, even though the time period was different, it was easy for him to determine which areas had a lot of crime and targets he could pick from. Even though he was using a demonic art and this was just an imaginary space, Shui didn't plan on draining essence from mortals and innocent people. After all, not only did that go against his values, it would also make it easier for him to form heart demons. Furthermore, with the amount of shameless criminals casually running around, why would he resort to such extreme measures?
Under the cover of the night, Shui had changed into an average-looking young man and was searching for prey. He might have lost his cultivation, but his understanding of the perfect limit of the Mortal Realm still remained. It was unfortunate that he could now feel a bit of a drain from keeping up this transformation, but as a disguise it was splendid.
Without moving three houses away from his home, Shui found a lanky man attempting to rape a housewife while her husband was being held by the man's friends. The husband and wife were mortals so they didn't have enough strength to resist the men despite their meagre cultivation. The woman was stuck with the choices of biting her tongue and waiting for her husband to follow her, or enduring this humiliation for the small chance that both of them would live.
The law enforcement force of the city wasn't useless, but unless it was brought to their attention they wouldn't purposefully interfere in cases with mortal victims. A waste of time and resources they would call it. Shui also understood that cultivators tended to be aloof when dealing with mortals, and he was no hero so he wouldn't go around trying to help every mortal he found either. However, since it was right in front of him and he could profit from it, there was nothing stopping him from getting involved.
"Why don't we leave it there?"
"Who's there?!"
The lanky man who was over the crying woman and about to take off his pants, hurriedly looked behind him to find Shui who stood with his back leaned on a door. After the lanky man, the two men holding on to the husband also turned to him.
The lanky man was the strongest of the three men with a cultivation of third level in the Mortal Realm. In other words, they would be easy pickings for Shui.
"Oi, why don't you mind your own business huh?"
The lanky pulled up his pants and approached Shui while trying to seem intimidating. He believed that the one level of cultivation he had over him, would be enough to scare him off. And if that wasn't enough, then he could simply have his friends, who were both at the second level of the Mortal Realm, help.
Now that he decided to interfere, there was no reason for him to play along so the moment the man entered his range, Shui pulled him closer with martial intent and grabbed his neck. Since he didn't have to worry about killing him, Shui quickly drained him of his essence and dropped his shrivelled corpse.
'As I thought.'
Unlike when he fought those kids, even though the amount of essence he drained was greater, it no longer filled him up as much. The only reason why he was able to jump to the second level in the Mortal Realm despite mainly keeping the strongest boy's essence, was because it was the first time he absorbed the essence of a human. With the World Assimilation Art, he would receive a boost to his cultivation when he first absorbed a type of essence. He had also received a boost when he absorbed lunar essence but it wasn't as significant.
When they saw their friend become a dried-up body in under ten seconds, the two other men dropped the husband of the wife, who was also staring at Shui in fear. Since he wasn't satisfied by the essence he obtained from the lanky man, Shui turned to the two men who were running away. Instead of paying attention to the couple who looked at him with even more fear than they looked at the men with, Shui went after those fleeing. They had the same cultivation, but with martial intent they had no hope of escape.
Shui quickly caught up and turned them into shrivelled corpses as well. Even so, he still wasn't satisfied.
"It looks there's not much point if they're not at least a level higher than me."
Although it would make this hunt harder, Shui wasn't too disappointed by the fact that he had no need to look for weak opponents. Shui took his time searching and managed to find and drain the essences of two thieves in the third level in the Mortal Realm.
"Just one more."
While Shui looked for one more target to end the night, he ended up reaching an antique shop. Inside the antique shop, there was an old man being confronted by a young man. This young man dressed like a kind gentleman but his facial expression betrayed that.
"Leave! I've already paid the rest of my debt."
While shaking with deep emotion, the old man shouted at him. This young man had constantly harrassed him and his family for so long because he took a loan from the group behind him, but now he was free from that debt so he should have been fine. But that was only what he thought.
"Tsk tsk tsk, you have the wrong idea old man. Don't you remember that you missed a payment? You're already a few months overdue."
"What sort of-?!"
"Ah, I'm a fair man. Just show me your receipt from three months ago and I'll go sort everything out."
In response to this statement, the old man trembled as a certain memory came back to him. He remembered a couple days ago, when his house was ransacked and the only thing that was missing was a single receipt. Since he didn't think he would be able to get it back, he stopped minding it, but now he realised that it was all part of their plan.
"You little-! Is this how you run your business?! Where is your honour?! Where is your pride as a merchant?!"
Along with his words filled with intense emotions, the old man's mouth also released spit that splashed on the young man's face. For a moment, his expression froze as he took out a handkerchief from his pocket. After he finished wiping his face, without caring about the rant that the old man was going on with, he slammed his fist into his right cheek.
"Damn old geezer! Didn't you get told not to spit when you talk?"
If any of his superiors were here, they would have surely admonished him for endangering their 'client', but since he was by himself there was nothing to stop him from beating up the old man who could do nothing but curl up his weak body.
"Stop!"