Runes • Rifles • Reincarnation

"Oh, no, nothing like that. The opposite, actually," Chen Ai Yun said, explaining her reason for banning the Fire Spiritization Method. "Since it was designed for women to cultivate—phoenixes being an all-female race—it had the side effect of… developing a certain male appendage. But it couldn't be cultivated by humans. They would lose all their qi. So it was sealed away and forbidden."

"Ah… so, no cutting?" he asked, just to be sure.

"No cutting," she replied with a faintly amused look.

Jin Shu let out a sigh of relief. He never planned to cultivate the technique, but knowing it didn't involve removing any important body parts made him feel a thousand percent better about reading it later.

"So… does that mean the phoenix clan… uh… they can…?" he trailed off, unsure why he was even asking.

She gave him a blank stare.

"That's not a question I can answer."

"Right… well, anyway… I'll go see Nurse Xi Yue now."

"Mm-hmm." She nodded and waved him off.

Jin Shu turned and began walking down the mountain path but stopped after only a few steps.

"Stepmom," he said, glancing back.

"Yes?" she asked, brow raised.

"Um… thank you." He hesitated, searching for the right words. " Also, I… uh, ahem… I love you."

He didn't wait for her reaction. With a flicker of qi, he slipped into a slipspace ripple and vanished.

While walking through the streets of Phoenix City, Jin Shu kept his head low beneath a veiled conical hat, not wanting a repeat of last time—when simply showing his face had stirred up a storm of rumors. Even so, he kept an ear out for gossip as he made his way toward the medical hall.

"Seriously, it's nothing to be embarrassed about," Gold said from within the soul space.

They'd been arguing ever since Jin Shu left the mountain. Gold insisted he should be more manly and own up to what he'd said. But Jin Shu was still mortified that he'd blurted out "I love you" to his stepmother. He'd been so flustered he wasted their entire hour limit on ripple walking and now they were stuck walking the streets again.

Thankfully, he'd brought the veiled hat just in case.

Jin Shu was about to reply when something strange caught his eye. As he passed a shadowed alleyway, he paused. Two girls were speaking in hushed tones deep within. Curious, he guided a sliver of wind element into the alley to catch the end of their conversation.

"...Naked will cost you extra," whispered the girl in a veil similar to his own.

The other girl—barefaced and younger-looking—pulled three smooth white stones from her sleeve. Jin Shu's eyes narrowed. He had never seen them before, but the qi radiating from them was unmistakable: qi stones.

Unlike gold or silver, which were meaningless to long-lived cultivators with access to boundless wealth, qi stones served as both currency and training resources among cultivators.

Jin Shu had studied them but never handled one himself. Qi stones came in three main tiers. The lowest tier—white, like the ones the girl held—contained basic qi. Middle-tier stones were darker gray or took on elemental hues, depending on their aligned qi. High-tier stones were either pitch-black or glowed with pure elemental light, able to store vast amounts of energy.

He also knew of a fourth, rare tier: source stones. Not technically used as currency, they were pure crystallizations of elemental qi. Both Li Xue and Bing Hou had received one each as a reward during the tournament, which was how Jin Shu had first learned of them.

And now, here he was—witnessing his first low-tier qi stones in person.

Still, something didn't add up. Sect members typically used contribution points for internal transactions, as they were more valuable within sect grounds. Why would a disciple be using qi stones here?

Unless… is this an illegal trade? Jin Shu wondered.

Biyu had once told him that contribution tokens could be tracked. Every transaction made with them was logged and sent to a hub station, where elders monitored for illicit activity. Some things were strictly banned within the sect—like forbidden drugs, outlawed cultivation techniques, and worst of all: demon worshiper contraband.

Jin Shu ducked behind a wall and kept watch. If the exchange turned out to be something serious, he'd intervene. After all, he was the son of both sect leaders. If anyone had the responsibility—and the authority—to step in, it was him. Besides, dealing with something like this might win him favor with those elders and disciples who still looked down on his presence in the sect.

Despite his stepmother's reassurances, he knew the rumors about him weren't as harmless as she made them out to be.

Take the Grand Elder, for example. Apparently, the rumors surrounding her had persisted for hundreds of years—and even the current sect leader didn't know the truth. All because Feng Lian was too lazy to deny them and just let them spiral.

Stolen story; please report.

If Jin Shu let the rumors about himself fester like that, it wouldn't just hurt him—it could harm both his mothers as well.

"Three low-tier qi stones can only get you the still image orb. That okay with you?" the veiled woman said.

"Those are all my qi stones…" the teenage girl pouted. "You really can't give me a discount?"

"No discounts." The woman shrugged. "Either take the still image, or come back with four stones for the video."

"Uuu… fine." The girl reluctantly handed over her stones and received a small white orb in return.

Jin Shu immediately recognized it: an image-storing orb. His mother had used them often to record his childhood—and Li Xue had recently captured one of him, likely on his mother's orders.

So… the orb holds naked photos? he guessed, recalling their earlier conversation. That would explain the secretive atmosphere. It was sleazy, sure, but not illegal. He turned to leave.

Until he heard the next words.

"Can I test it now?" the teenage girl asked.

"Go ahead. Refund guaranteed if you're not satisfied," said the veiled woman with a lazy wave of her hand.

The girl nodded and infused the orb with a bit of qi. A pale light glowed, and a holographic image formed in the air between them.

Jin Shu peeked around the wall—just a glance.

He coughed, choked, and finally spit blood as his mixed qi and blood surged. The blood dripped down the veil covering his face, splashing silently on the ground.

The girls immediately spun toward the sound.

"Who's there?!" the veiled woman barked, flaring her qi in his direction as a warning.

Her cultivation was stronger than he'd expected—ninth-stage Core Realm, at the very least. But that wasn't nearly enough to intimidate him. He'd once gone toe-to-toe with the monster known as Liu Hua, whose Spirit Realm power far outclassed this woman.

Still coughing, Jin Shu stepped out from behind the wall, eyes locked on the floating image.

A naked man.

Him.

He recognized the scene instantly—the day he'd dressed up with Tian Li and the others to sneak around the sect.

"Where did you get that orb?" he growled through clenched teeth.

"Oh? Are you here to buy one?" The veiled woman smiled as if nothing was wrong. "Only the video orb left. Four low-tier qi stones. Interested?"

"I won't ask again," he said, his voice ice-cold. "Where did you get that?"

"I can't reveal my sources," she said with a careless shrug. "If you're not buying, we're done here."

Then she turned and bolted.

Before he could react, she vanished into the shadows of the alley, leaving only the fading light of the orb behind.

Jin Shu shot past the stunned girl and gave chase.

Behind him, she finally snapped out of her daze.

"Hey! My orb—and my qi stones!" she shouted, realizing too late that the veiled woman had taken everything without refunding her.

As he ran, Jin Shu mentally reviewed a very short list of possible suspects. Really, it came down to two names: Li Xue or his mother.

He doubted his mother would be selling naked photos and videos of him—but with her, nothing was truly off the table. Still, he'd much rather it be Li Xue. That was the assumption he clung to—for now.

Either she was the one under the veil, or she was working with whoever was.

The alley stretched long and narrow before him, dimly lit and cluttered with trash and crates. The woman ahead wove through the debris like she knew it by heart. Fortunately, Jin Shu wasn't helpless in the dark—he extended his senses through the wind element, sensing the air as it bent and shifted around obstacles. With that, he closed the gap.

He was gaining on her.

Then she flared her qi, and in the blink of an eye, vanished.

A movement technique.

He cursed and tried to boost his own speed by channeling qi into his legs—but the moment he did, his blood stirred in tandem, throwing off his balance. A wave of dizziness hit him like a hammer. His vision spun. His knees nearly buckled.

He dispelled the qi instantly, letting it flow back into its natural circulation alongside his blood.

"Damn it!" he growled, staggering forward before kicking a broken crate aside in frustration.

He'd lost her—whoever she was—thanks to the bizarre nature of his new body.

Still breathing hard, he followed the winding alley until it spilled back out onto the main road. He scanned the crowd, searching for any trace of the veiled woman.

Nothing.

No lingering qi. No glimpse of motion. No sign of her at all.

She was gone.