Several meters away, Shen Yuan looked at the retreating beast and smiled faintly. "See you again, friend. You were of great help."

He turned around and disappeared into the night.

*

Shen Yuan did not rush to market after getting the money from two servants.

He moved to his usual location and started training.

The place he had drawn the two victims tonight was different from his usual place. He took them deep enough in the forest without them even realizing.

Everything he did was just so no one could tie him to the murders.

Shen Yuan was a cautious man.

Even if he were not in the old world, he did not want anyone to link him to a series of murders because that would ruin his reputation.

And reputation was everything in the world.

If people did not know he was a ruthless serial killer, they would easily drop their guard before him.

"I should start with stretching and yoga poses." Shen Yuan’s aim was first to make his (DEX) stats reach the peak of their limits first.

Storing everything but his axe in the inventory, Shen Yuan started training once more.

From Planks, to cobra pose to reverse prayer.

Shen Yuan went through every yoga pose he knew from his old life.

At first his limbs felt like they were being ripped apart, and his poses were awkward. This was because this body had never been through the extensive stretches of Yoga.

Shen Yuan wanted to keep going until he could, but the people just did not want to leave him alone.

Very soon, he sensed a presence coming in his direction and started to pretend like he was trying to chop a tree for a long time.

It only took him three casual hits to go halfway through it, and then he started to hold back.

Whoever it was, they did not announce themselves. Instead, that person climbed up a tree and watched him from the distance.

’Hmmm. 300? No, he should be around 500 meters away from me.’ Shen Yuan insanely calculated the distance based on the gaze he was feeling on the side of his face.

Even though he could see a faint shadow from the corner of his eyes, he did not look closely.

’Definitely someone in the same realm as me if they can see me clearly from that distance,’

With some rough guesses, Shen Yuan could tell that this stalker was also someone with the ninth stage of body tempering cultivation.

So he started to put more effort into his act of chopping the tree.

Shen Yuan thought whoever it was, they might leave soon. But they did not; instead, they followed him back even as he delivered the wood back to the warehouse.

’Just who is it? Shi Jin? Or another one of his goons?’ Shen Yuan wondered as he entered his house.

The moment he felt the gaze disappear, Shen Yuan’s face hardened. He jumped out of the window in his room and used the cover of the night to sneak around the back of his house, barely dodging the edge of the cliff.

Had it not been for his nimble body, Shen Yuan would have fallen down the cliff the moment he stepped out.

He went around the area and appeared on the spot not far away from where he last felt the presence.

Fortunately for him, that person was still standing in the same place.

But whoever she was, the woman was covered in black robes from head to toe. She looked more of an assassin than a servant.

She silently stayed in one spot under a thick tree and stared at his house as if she were waiting for him to come out.

An hour later, when Shen Yuan did not come out, She turned around and left.

’Finally.’ Shen Yuan grinned wildly before following the woman discreetly. He did not care about her identity; he wanted to know who had sent her to tail him.

The woman seemed like a professional, not someone a thug like Peng Ho could get his hands on.

With his stats, Shen Yuan would have no trouble following her even if she had used her full speed.

But she was running neither too fast nor too slow.

’She is conserving her strength. Is she scared someone might attack her in the middle of the night?’

Shen Yuan’s alertness towards the woman rose to another level when she went out of the district and entered the marketplace.

’I have to change.’

But he had no time. He had to follow her.

So Shen Yuan started to improvise. Even though some of the shops were closed, the market did not sleep.

"Come! Come! Have Ching’s Famous Chinese Noodles!"

"Do not miss the special midnight sale. Buy three masks and get one free. Buy one Buy many! come-come."

"Silk robes, the finest of the Bloody Moon Cult, Just for 50 Girds."

Several shops were still running; people were going in and out like it was the middle of the day.

Shen Yuan blended into the crowd; he started to snatch clothes hanging outside the shops at angles where no one would notice instantly.

He picked up an ashen robe hanging on the shop from here and a demonic mask from there.

From another shop, he pocketed a makeup box.

As he ran, Shen Yuan draped the cloak over his robes and hid his clothes. Before covering his face with the mask, he used the makeup to blacken the spots that would stick out of the mask.

Woosh!

Shen Yuan did not let the woman out of his sight. It was hard to miss her since she was running on the roofs of the building while he was down below, hidden in the crowd.

Before people could notice his new appearance, Shen Yuan sneaked into an alley and jumped onto a roof parallel to the woman and stopped.

He had not given up on chasing, but when he saw her running in a straight line, the corner of his lips twitched. ’Looks like I gave her more credit than she deserves. But now that I look at her, she looks familiar. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Shen Yuan only moved when she had stopped.

She removed the tile of a shop’s roof and slipped down from the gap.

"Oh my, would you look at that?" Instead of following her, Shen Yuan jumped on the roof of the shop opposite to the one she had jumped in.

He crouched down on the slope of the roof and peeked through the open window.

*

"You are back early... What did you find?" The curtains moved with a light breeze, revealing nothing but the lower half of the speaker. His upper body was leaning back in the chair, which made it impossible for him to see.

The woman covered in black knelt before the man and lowered her head.

Shen Yuan could see her clearly from that angle better.

He even clearly saw her face when she removed her mask to speak clearly: "I followed him for hours, master. He was in the same place as you told me, but there was no one from Peng Ho’s side."

’It’s her.’ Shen Yuan’s eyes widened as he recognized the woman as the abused victim of Zhu Wei, Shi Lui.