Jin Xiao walked through the city, his face calm, his posture relaxed.
On the surface, he looked like every other powerless human—a stray dog wandering in a world now ruled by wolves.
But inside, his mind was a battlefield.
"One night. That's all I have before they start checking more carefully."
The silver-haired woman had marked him. She wasn't certain yet, but if she got curious, she would dig deeper. And when she did, he would die.
Escape wasn't an option. Not in the usual sense.
The city was crawling with cultivators. Every road was watched, every sky was patrolled.
"I can't leave. But I can disappear."
The Art of a Perfect Death
Step one: Create a corpse.
Jin Xiao's gaze swept across the slums of the city. The chaos of the Awakening had left people desperate. Some would kill for food, for power… for nothing at all.
He found his answer in an alleyway.
A dying man—a drug addict, bones thin, face gaunt. His breath was shallow, his body shaking. The Awakening had done nothing for him.
Jin Xiao crouched beside him.
"Do you want to die quickly?"
The man's bloodshot eyes flickered. He let out a weak laugh.
"…You gonna help me?"
Jin Xiao nodded.
"I can give you a powerful death. One that means something."
The man's lips twitched, then curled into a grotesque smile.
"…Better than rotting here."
Step Two: The Kill Must Tell a Story
Jin Xiao worked fast. He took the man's ID, switched their clothes, and broke the corpse's face beyond recognition.
Then, he sliced deep into the body, creating wounds that looked like a cultivator's attack.
Finally, he tore his own shirt, smeared some blood on it, and left it nearby.
A false battle. A fake death. A perfect vanishing act.
Step Three: Make Them Find It
Jin Xiao left clues—just enough to make the death look real.
A drop of blood on a main road. A torn piece of fabric in a drainage tunnel. A scratch mark on a wall.
Then, he disappeared into the underground.
No one would look for a dead man.
And if they did…
"They won't be looking for Jin Xiao. They'll be looking for a corpse."
The Predator Watches
As the city continued celebrating its "new era," the silver-haired woman stood on a rooftop, looking down at the people below.
A small, amused smile played on her lips.
"How strange."
She had felt it—a tiny ripple in the flow of fate.
A single rat had escaped the net.
Her golden eyes gleamed.
"I think… I want to play with you a little more."