"Master Fan, someone is here for you."
Fan Tong, who was drinking wine with his concubine in his arms, frowned slightly at the trembling voice of the gatekeeper.
"Who is it?" Fan Tong asked.
"Me!"
Li Gou stepped over the threshold and walked in.
Fan Tong was taken aback when he saw Li Gou. How did this rural brat suddenly dress so well? Where did he get the money?
He most likely stole or robbed it!
With this thought, Fan Tong glared angrily at the gatekeeper.
"What kind of gatekeeper are you? How did you let this filthy stray dog in?"
The gatekeeper trembled, quickly wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
It wasn't Fan Tong he feared—it was Li Gou beside him.
"Master… Master, please don't speak recklessly. This young sir is not an ordinary person. You may not care for your life, but I still want to live!" the gatekeeper stammered.
"Nonsense! This brat is nothing but a country mutt. What's there to fear? I think you've served as gatekeeper long enough—you're fired! Get out now!" Fan Tong shouted angrily.
"Heh heh, that's perfect!"
The gatekeeper laughed with genuine joy, then turned to Li Gou nervously. "Young sir, you see, I've been dismissed. May I leave now? I promise I won't report anything to the authorities."
Li Gou waved his hand, and the gatekeeper fled like a rabbit.
"This useless gatekeeper! Is there a need to be so scared?" Fan Tong sneered.
"Where is my daughter?" Li Gou asked coldly.
"I sold her right away!" Fan Tong replied indifferently.
Li Gou's heart sank. He asked, "Where did you sell her?"
"Bang!"
Fan Tong slammed the table and said coldly, "Who do you think you are, you filthy mutt? Why should I tell you?"
Without hesitation, Li Gou formed a hand sign and cast the Thorn Technique.
A vine as thick as a pinky shot from Li Gou's palm, tightly binding Fan Tong.
"Ah!"
The concubine beside him screamed in fright.
Fan Tong was completely stunned. For a thorn to appear out of thin air—only those legendary Immortals could do that!
But how did this poor rural boy, who owed him money, suddenly become an Immortal?!
Fan Tong was terrified and finally understood why the gatekeeper was so frightened, even smiling when he got fired. Clearly, he feared being implicated.
"Spare me, Immortal!"
Fan Tong fell to his knees with a thud, but because he was bound by thorns, he couldn't kowtow. Otherwise, he would be banging his head by now.
"Where is my daughter?" Li Gou repeated the same question.
This time, Fan Tong didn't dare show any arrogance. Instead, he trembled in fear.
"S-sold… she was sold," Fan Tong stuttered.
"Where was she sold to?" Li Gou continued to ask.
"S-sold to a strange man. I don't know where he came from," Fan Tong shivered as he replied.
Li Gou's heart sank to its lowest point. Suppressing his rising anger, he asked, "What was strange about this man? What did he say or do?"
"T-that man was dressed very elegantly. At the slave market, he was holding a bead and asking people to touch it. Later, he came to me and put your daughter's hand on the bead. The bead glowed blue, and the man was delighted, muttering something about an 'exotic root.' He gave me a gold ingot worth ten taels and took your daughter away."
Li Gou felt a chill in his heart. The man was likely referring to an "Exotic Spiritual Root."
An Exotic Spiritual Root is a rare type of spiritual root formed by the fusion of two mutually reinforcing attributes, with talent second only to a Heavenly Spiritual Root.
While Li Gou now knew his daughter was a cultivation genius, he couldn't feel any happiness.
In this vast world, how would he ever find her again?
But Li Gou wouldn't give up. He was a naturally lonely transmigrator, and this was his only family in this world!
"What did that man look like, what was he wearing, and were there any distinctive features?" Li Gou pressed.
"T-that man was around thirty years old, with hawk eyes and an eagle nose. His ears were slightly larger than usual, and he was dressed in black brocade robes with three white clouds embroidered on the chest," Fan Tong hurriedly replied.
Li Gou memorized the description and asked, "When did this happen?"
"The day before yesterday," Fan Tong replied quickly.
Two days had passed—it seemed catching up would be difficult, and he'd have to inquire further along the way.
Li Gou sighed inwardly.
"Immortal Li, I've told you everything. Can you spare my life?" Fan Tong pleaded, ingratiating himself.
Li Gou didn't respond; instead, he raised the Spiritwood Sword.
"Immortal Li, please spare me! I have a family fortune of thirty thousand coins. I'm willing to offer it all to you—just spare my life!" Fan Tong cried out.
"Swish!"
The Spiritwood Sword in Li Gou's hand shot out, piercing Fan Tong's head and embedding itself into the wall.
Fan Tong fell to the ground, dead with his eyes wide open in disbelief.
"Ah!"
The concubine beside him screamed again and fainted from fright.
Li Gou turned and left.
He had no interest in Fan Tong's wealth; as a cultivator now, mundane gold and silver no longer held much value to him.
Leaving Fan's mansion, Li Gou headed to the so-called slave market mentioned by Fan Tong.
Seeing various men, women, elderly, and children waiting to be sold, Li Gou paid them little attention. Every world has its rules, and he didn't feel the need to intervene in others' fates.
After asking around, Li Gou learned that the hawk-nosed, eagle-eyed man in black had come by carriage. Besides taking his daughter, he had also taken a little girl of about a few years old.
When he left, he headed west.
Li Gou went to the horse market, bought a jet-black horse, and set off on the westbound road.
At first, Li Gou's riding skills were a bit clumsy, but after riding attentively for a while, his speed grew faster and soon exceeded his running speed with the black leather boots.
Li Gou tossed a Wood Spirit Pill into his mouth and continued cultivating as he rode.
...
One day later, a red-bearded man arrived in Sanhe County.
At this time, the man's beard and hair were streaked with gray, and his face showed more wrinkles.
The man was none other than Qingyun Shangren, who had come in pursuit of Li Gou after taking over a new body.
Qingyun Shangren held a small black-furred rat in his hand. The rat's nose twitched in every direction, and each time it squeaked, Qingyun Shangren adjusted his course.
He leaped over the wall into Fan's mansion and quickly arrived at the place where Li Gou had killed Fan Tong.
Several constables investigating the scene saw Qingyun Shangren, and the head constable shouted coldly, "Who are you? Get out of here and stop obstructing our investigation!"
Before he finished speaking, a fireball appeared in Qingyun Shangren's palm and shot toward the head constable.
"Ah!"
The head constable was instantly engulfed in flames and, after a scream, was reduced to ashes.
The other constables fled in terror.
Ignoring them, Qingyun Shangren examined Fan Tong's corpse and then looked at the sword mark on the wall, feeling a surge of shock.
'Unexpectedly, that brat also had a wood-attribute spiritual root and had already reached the first layer of Qi Refining.'
'He probably relied on those two Wood Spirit Pills, and the first layer of Qi Refining would be his limit.'
If he'd known earlier, he would have just taken over the boy's body. Then he wouldn't need to adapt to this body without a wood-attribute spiritual root.
Fortunately, this body was already at the third layer of Qi Refining. With the elemental advantage, killing a mere first-layer Qi Refiner should be easy.
With this thought, Qingyun Shangren followed Li Gou's previous path, arriving at the western road out of the county. He stepped on a swiftly spinning, fiery red metal wheel and turned into a red streak, faster than a horse, pursuing him.