The First Legendary Demonic Scholar

Chapter 111: Chapter 111: Lin Xia Is Out For Blood

And at the top of every single ledger, in the same practiced, elegant handwriting he’d already come to recognize from countless nights of transcription work, was Bang Fo’s personal seal.

This isn’t scribing work.

Shen Yuan’s expression didn’t change, though his mind raced through the implications with cold, rapid clarity.

These are confidential financial records. Evidence of embezzlement. And she just handed them to me without a shred of hesitation.

He glanced up sharply, already forming the beginning of a protest—This isn’t something I should be looking at, take it back before someone thinks I—

But the words died in his throat.

Something had shifted in the air around him. Subtle, easy to miss unless he’d spent the better part of a week learning to recognize its exact texture—that faint, oppressive pressure of the estate’s surveillance technique, the one that watched every room, every servant, every quiet corner of Bang Fo’s household.

It was gone.

Shen Yuan’s gaze snapped toward the doorway.

Lin Xia stood there, one hand still resting lightly against the frame, watching him with an expression that had shed every trace of her earlier hostility. In its place was something far colder, far more deliberate—a thin, satisfied smirk curling at the corner of her lips, the kind of expression worn by someone who had just watched a trap close exactly as intended.

"Careful what you read, new boy," she said softly, almost pleasantly, "some knowledge isn’t meant to be survived."

Then she turned and walked away, leaving Shen Yuan alone in the sudden, unnatural silence of a room no longer being watched—with a stack of documents in his hands that he was quite certain he was never supposed to see.

Shen Yuan sat motionless at the desk, the stack of incriminating ledgers still resting beneath his hands, silence pressing in around him now that the estate’s surveillance had been so deliberately withdrawn from this one room.

She wanted me to see this.

The realization settled cold and heavy in his gut.

Lin Xia hadn’t made a mistake handing him confidential documents.

She’d engineered it, waited for the exact window when no one would be watching, then dropped evidence of Bang Fo’s embezzlement directly into his lap like a lit fuse, and walked away smiling.

’If I refuse the task, I look suspicious for questioning my assignment.’

’If I complete it, I’ve read something I was never meant to see, and whoever’s watching Bang Fo’s affairs will have every reason to silence me the moment they realize it.’

’If I burn the documents, destroy the evidence, I’ve tampered with something that belongs to a man who can kill me with a sneeze. And who knows what if these documents could leave a trace that someone touched them or did something to it.’

Every path curled back toward the same conclusion.

’There’s no version of this where saying no keeps me alive.’

He exhaled slowly, forcing the spiral of possibilities to still, and reached instinctively for the one constant he could always rely on in moments like this.

[Ding!].

The familiar translucent panel bloomed into existence before his eyes, and for the first time since entering this study, three separate notifications hovered together, waiting.

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[Hidden Mission: Active]

[Investigate the Murder within Bang Fo Estate.]

[Find the Individual Responsible for the Servant’s Death.]

[Uncover the Hidden Secret of Bang Fo.]

[Mission Difficulty: Deadly.]

[Reward:]

• Appraisal Skill.

• 50,000 Qi Strands.

[Failure: None.]

──────────────────

Shen Yuan’s eyes lingered on this one for only a moment. It was familiar.

The same mission that had triggered days ago beside the murdered servant’s burned remains. He moved his attention to the second notification, brow furrowing slightly as it unfolded.

──────────────────

[New Mission Triggered: The Deeper Secret]

[You suspect embezzlement is the whole of Bang Fo’s hidden agenda. It is not.]

[Uncover what truly lies beneath the Hall of Secret Affairs’ quiet corruption.]

[Mission Difficulty: High.]

[Reward:]

• Breakthrough: 2 Major Cultivation Realms.

[Failure: Unknown.]

──────────────────

Shen Yuan’s breath caught faintly at the reward, though he forced his expression to remain composed even in the privacy of his own thoughts.

Two major realms. Not stages—entire realms.

The kind of leap that could take ordinary cultivators decades of careful, dangerous cultivation to achieve, offered here as a reward for simply following a thread of curiosity to its true end.

He swallowed the unease threatening to creep into his composure and turned to the final notification, the one that made his pulse quicken despite himself.

’What’s more is that even the system is no longer showing no consequences for the failure of this mission. Which means that if I don’t do it might life could be in danger and if I complete it... There could be chance of survival.’

──────────────────

[New Mission Triggered: Survive]

[Complete your one-month term of service within Bang Fo’s estate and leave this place alive.]

[Mission Difficulty: Extreme.]

[Reward:]

• Guaranteed Survival Through the Remainder of Your Service.

• Profound Qi Condensation Pill (100% Purity)

[Failure: Death.]

──────────────────

Shen Yuan stared at the last line for a long moment, something cold settling into his chest despite the otherwise straightforward simplicity of the mission’s terms.

Survive. That’s it. That’s the whole task.

The fact that the system needed to spell it out as a formal mission, complete with a tangible reward for simply staying alive, told him more about the danger ahead than any of Candy’s warnings ever had.

Curious despite the unease curling through him, Shen Yuan focused on the unfamiliar reward, and a final panel unfolded in response.

──────────────────

[Item Details: Profound Qi Condensation Pill (100% Purity)]

[Grade: 3 Star-tier, Superior Class]

[Effect: Instantly refines and purifies all Qi Strands currently held by the user, permanently increasing their absorption rate for future cultivation by 15%.]

[Effect: Grants a single guaranteed breakthrough to the next Major Realm regardless of current Qi Strand accumulation, with zero risk of deviation or backlash.]

[Effect: Cleanses minor impurities within the user’s meridians accumulated from cultivation techniques of mismatched attributes, reducing long-term risk of Qi deviation.]

[Note: Pills of this purity are exceedingly rare even among Core Formation cultivators, as most alchemists cannot stabilize Qi Condensation-tier pills above 80% purity without significant loss of potency.]

──────────────────

Shen Yuan exhaled slowly, silver eyes tracing over the description a second time, turning the implications over with the same careful precision he applied to everything else.

’A guaranteed breakthrough with zero risk of deviation. Fifteen percent permanent absorption increase. ’ He almost laughed at the absurdity of it. ’This is a pill that outer sect elders would kill for, being offered to me for the crime of simply not dying.’

He closed the status screen slowly, letting the weight of everything settle into place.

Three missions.

All tangled together into the same month, the same estate, the same man sitting quietly behind his study looking no different than a simple inner disciple.

’Whatever I need to complete these missions, it should all be in this room or else why would I get a task like this. I have to take the advantage of the lack of surveillance and find it.’

Shen Yuan glanced down at the stack of incriminating ledgers still resting on the desk before him, Lin Xia’s parting smirk echoing in his mind.

’She wants me dead. Bang Fo might already suspect something’s wrong with his "harmless" new servant. And now an elder capable of seeing through lies with a glance knows my face from a brothel I had no business visiting.’

A slow, humorless smile tugged at the corner of his lips despite the danger pressing in from every direction.

’Well then.’ He reached for his brush, dipping it carefully into the inkstone before pulling the first ledger toward him, expression settling into practiced, diligent focus. ’Let’s see exactly how deep this rabbit hole goes.’

’I’ve survived worse odds than this.’