Joe Di opened his eyes and sat up. With his cultivation, even if someone tried to kill him by any means, he would not die so easily. The only thing that could kill him was the Toxic Rune. Yet now, it was clear he had not perished beneath the Toxic Rune, and it was being stripped away from him at a rapid pace by his Rule Cycle.
But where was this place? Joe Di swept his divine sense outward, and for several miles all he saw was a forest blanketed in snow. It seemed he was inside a cave...
Joe Di's divine sense landed once more on the five unicorn corpses buried in the snow outside the cave. He understood instantly—he had been rescued. But who would save him? And bring him to hide in this place?
A faint, delicate fragrance drifted through the cave. The scent was familiar...
Joe Di quickly remembered—it was the scent from Shana Shan. It must have been Shana Shan who saved him...
In Joe Di’s mind, the scene of Shana Shan rescuing him quickly took shape. After leaving, Shana Shan couldn’t bear to let him be killed by the Shan Family, so she turned back and happened to find him unconscious outside the Shan Family’s residence in Dai City. It made sense—when Shana Shan left, she had repeatedly urged him to escape, but he simply didn’t want to waste time.
The moment he thought of Shana Shan, Joe Di’s memories snapped into clarity. When he was suppressed by the Toxic Rune, his mind was completely lost, and only a sliver of will remained to control his Rule Cycle and resist the Toxic Rune.
Later, he felt a trace of warmth seep into his body...
Joe Di wiped his lips. His mouth was clean, but the faint metallic taste lingered. With the unicorn corpses outside the cave, Joe Di understood—Shana Shan had been hunting unicorns every day and feeding him their blood.
Shana Shan didn’t know that even if he went tens of thousands of years without food or drink, he wouldn’t starve. Still, Joe Di was certain the blood she fed him did help a little.
His Rule Cycle and the Toxic Rune struggled against each other; even the slightest, nearly imperceptible effect was significant.
Thank you... Shana Shan must have gone out to hunt unicorns again. Joe Di silently thanked her in his heart.
If not for Shana Shan, once his physical body was destroyed or his spirit stripped away, even if he could recover, who knew how many years it would take, or if he would ever awaken again, forever lost in oblivion.
With Shana Shan’s help, he gradually recovered, and his Rule Cycle slowly began to suppress the Toxic Rune...
Joe Di frowned. Something still felt off. Even if his Rule Cycle suppressed the Toxic Rune, he shouldn’t have woken up so quickly. Moreover, his Rule Cycle was clearer than before, as if his spirit had gained something indefinable.
It was a kind of interpretation of life itself, and because of it, his understanding of fundamental laws had deepened.
Right, it was because he thought of Manna Zhen...
Joe Di sighed. Manna Zhen was his first love. He thought he had long forgotten her, so why did this obsession remain, that in his spiritual haze he remembered this woman?
But as the memories surfaced, Joe Di’s expression changed completely.
He had actually been intimate with Manna Zhen, even if it was in a daze. Joe Di knew this shouldn’t have happened.
It all felt so real, as if he truly had been with Manna Zhen...
Joe Di suddenly stood up. It was real—after that event, his Rule Cycle had become even clearer, as if he had completed a crucial step on his path.
Joe Di’s divine sense immediately scanned himself, and he became more certain—he had truly done such a thing.
Yet Manna Zhen could never be on Earth, let alone here with him. Who else could it be but Shana Shan?
Joe Di slapped his forehead. He hadn’t expected that his woman would turn out to be Shana Shan. He felt deeply sorry for her—she had saved him, and he had taken advantage of her vulnerability.
With a sigh, Joe Di thought of the women connected to him: Manna Zhen, his first love, whom he thought he had forgotten, yet whose lingering obsession remained deep in his memory. In the end, it was Shana Shan who helped him resolve that last bit of attachment. Perhaps because Shana Shan helped him let go, his Rule Cycle became even clearer, and his understanding of the world’s laws more precise.
Zoe Shen, a woman connected to his previous life. Sherry Jing, the superhuman he once married. Moria Lane, a disciple of Puregate Sect...
In the end, the image in his mind settled on Shana Shan’s delicate face. He had never imagined his wife would be Shana Shan.
With a long sigh, Joe Di decided to take Shana Shan with him. Unless she was unwilling to go, if she wished to, he would bring her along.
Fate truly is mysterious. Unknowingly, he had found a woman he could never let go of. Love was a luxury for him—ever since he severed his naive first love for Manna Zhen, he had never thought about romance, nor planned to fall in love with anyone.
Though he had never truly been in love, Shana Shan had helped him sever even the tiniest obsession he hadn’t realized he held for Manna Zhen. Thank you, Shan.
Once he settled his heart, Joe Di refused to think of anything else. Shana Shan had gone out to hunt unicorns, and after what she had just experienced, her body must be quite weak.
Thinking of this, Joe Di quickly moved aside the stone and rushed out of the cave.
Under his divine sense, there was no trace of Shana Shan.
Joe Di frowned. With his deeper understanding of the world’s laws, the Toxic Rune was being stripped away every moment, and his divine sense was growing stronger by the second.
With his current strength of divine sense, he could scan a radius of ten miles, but even then, there was no sign of Shana Shan.
Shana Shan would never have gone far. Joe Di could no longer wait in place. Every movement within the range of his divine sense was captured.
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Soon, Joe Di spotted some scattered footprints.
From the tracks, he deduced that one person had first stopped beneath a withered tree. Then, that person quickly changed direction and fled, while two others followed in pursuit.
The person in front hadn’t gotten far before being caught by those behind, and a fight broke out. Joe Di arrived at the scene of the struggle and found traces of blood in the snow with his divine sense.
His gaze grew cold. The injured person was likely Shana Shan, and she might have been captured.
Joe Di followed the footprints all the way into Dai City.
......
At the Shan Family’s residence in Dai City, just days ago, Joe Di had turned the place upside down with his killings. Today, another group had arrived.
Unlike before, this time the person seated at the head was an old man with eagle-like eyes. In the center of the hall, a disheveled young woman knelt—it was Shana Shan.
The disguise medicine on Shana Shan’s face had long been washed off, revealing her stunning beauty. But her eyes were filled with fear, and her face was deathly pale.
“You may be a bastard, but the Shan Family at least gave you food. Not only did you show no gratitude, you escaped from the Shan Family and even joined our enemies to kill our disciples. I’ll give you three seconds—tell me where that Joe Di went. Otherwise, I’ll strip you naked and throw you into the Adventurer’s Bar.” The old man’s tone was calm, but the killing intent in his words made Shana Shan tremble all over.
The Adventurer’s Bar was a place frequented by desperados. Ever since Earth became overrun with monsters and beasts, those who risked their lives began venturing into the beast zones. They lived day to day, spending whatever money they made at the Adventurer’s Bar.
Besides drinks and entertainment, the Adventurer’s Bar also offered all kinds of women. Some were there by choice, others were forced. These adventurers didn’t care about their own lives, let alone the lives of the women who served them.
So for the women brought here by force, almost none left alive, and each death was terribly tragic.
"Speak..." Crack! A man in gray uttered two words, then lashed Shana Shan’s back with his whip. The blow tore a bloody groove through her thin clothes, scattering scraps of fabric.
Shana Shan’s face grew even paler. She shook her head, "Joe Di and I were only passing acquaintances. I don’t know where he went."
"You filthy wench, beat her! Strip her clothes and send her straight to the Adventurer’s Bar!" the old man roared.
The man in gray whipped Shana Shan again. This time, the lash swept down from the back of her head, knocking her unconscious as blood and scraps of cloth flew.
Though Shana Shan had fainted, the man in gray clearly wasn’t finished. He raised his whip to strike again.
Obviously, he intended to strip Shana Shan of all her clothes.
But just as he brought the whip down for the second time, he suddenly lost all strength. The gray-clad man stared in horror at his arm—it had been severed at the shoulder and fell to the ground.
Only after he realized it did blood gush out wildly.
"Spirit Blade..." The eagle-eyed old man at the head was the first to react, staring in shock at the furious Joe Di who had appeared at the door.
Even he couldn’t unleash a Spirit Blade; it was said only those at the Half-Dan stage could do so.
(That's all for today's update, friends. Good night!)