The Green Sparrow-rank Purpuregold Rivers and Mountains Scripture!Silas's expression showed genuine surprise, and he quickly asked, "Master Barnaby, this is...""Take it and study it. The follow-up techniques really are a bit early for you still, but the Purpuregold Rivers and Mountains Scripture was built directly on this foundation. Green Sparrow rank matches your current level closely enough — it should help you regardless.""But..." Silas hesitated.He had no interest in actually graduating yet — after all, he still had another two and a half years of squeezing true venerables' remains for profit ahead of him."You don't need to graduate right away. I won't say a word about this to anyone. Stay and keep training by my side, at ease. Even once you do graduate, you can still come to me with any questions you have."Old Barnaby, seeing through his hesitation, spoke up.Sure enough — good teachers really were rare, and this man clearly assumed Silas simply valued his continued instru

At a coffin shop somewhere in the city, Verity stood at the entrance, looking a little dazed.Back when she'd first obtained the complete chapters of the Farsight Qi Technique, she too had felt ambitious, dreaming of a bright future ahead.But her old partner, someone she'd worked beside for ten years, had met his end because of illegal private work.That had been enough to make her, who'd once entertained the same ambitions, quietly set them aside for good.Becoming the most honored Fortune Master had always been the ultimate dream.On the surface, she'd become the most famous fortune-teller in the neighborhood — but in reality, she still studied the Qi-Sight arts diligently every single day, treating even her fortune-telling outings as a form of secret practice.But then, purely by chance, she'd overheard the inside story from Linnea and the other two — and learned that Silas's true talent for fortune work had turned out to be ten times stronger than her own.That revelation had sha

Back when they'd actually been White Goose-rank themselves, though — hardly anyone could pull off something like this."Didn't they say this man's been at it for over four years and never showed much promise?" Someone wondered aloud."Maybe he was just hiding his true skill this whole time. Look at Master Barnaby's face — beaming like that. This has to be his own teaching showing through. If someone like that decides to make an entrance, they don't do it quietly — they do it with a bang.""Master Barnaby's a clever one — hiding a genius like this the whole time!"The senior masters watching from the sidelines marveled at this, but the actual competitors on the field weren't reacting the same way at all.Every one of them stood frozen, utterly stunned, struggling to believe what they were seeing."How is this even possible? This man's reached this level in just four or five years. And I'm supposed to be ranked first in our graduating class — my title doesn't mean a thing next to this!"

At the White Goose Discussion, Silas lived up to everyone's high expectations and claimed first place outright, securing himself a White Goose-rank tomb plot."Congratulations!" Plenty of people offered their congratulations to Silas.The rankings for the White Goose class held no real suspense at all — the three grandmasters swept the top three spots, and Elias claimed fourth place.By contrast, in the Green Sparrow-rank discussion, all three competing masters ended up unranked entirely because of Silas's earlier demonstration, landing at the very bottom instead."Doran, you really need to work harder. Not only did you place last again this round, you didn't even manage to absorb a single trace of fortune."Among the White Goose-rank Fortune Masters, a young man named Doran got mocked mercilessly once more, his confidence thoroughly shattered."Rein in that ego and impatience, and focus your mind on reaching Green Sparrow-rank."Once the event concluded, Old Barnaby asked, sounding g

Silas walked into the mansion, looked around, and nodded a little."Of course, since you're a Fortune Master yourself, you can probably already tell how well-positioned this house is, facing south..."...A quarter hour later, Silas walked out holding a contract, basically a property deed."Eight years of hard work, and finally a proper household of my own." He nodded a little.That night, he changed his face, altered his bones, and slipped out of the house."Guess old nighttime habits die hard."Silas, wearing a mask and black robe, muttered to himself.He went out to buy formation materials.After years of collecting bodies, he'd gained a great deal across all Four Arts, and countless experience packages along with it."The best concealment array I can manage right now can keep out even a Spirit Transformation ancestor's prying eyes — that's about the limit of what I can pull off."Three days later, Silas set up several killing arrays and concealment arrays throughout the property,