“Hmph!! What I seek is to do as I please, but without great power, everything is just empty talk. From now on, I will seize everything to increase my strength. To hell with morality and righteousness, to hell with the so-called Great Dao! As long as my power is strong enough, I am the Dao, I am the heavens! Why are heaven and earth so powerful? Because they are ruthless, they treat all things as mere straw dogs! Gods, demons, immortals, Buddhas—these are all nothing but illusions. Only that eternal power is the true foundation!!” James Clark’s thoughts surged and roared like a tsunami, yet his expression remained perfectly natural.

Strolling along the riverside, he soon arrived at the antique street, the largest center for trading antiques, jade, and porcelain in C City, and quite well-known even in H Province. As dusk fell, pedestrians gradually headed home, shop owners pulled down their iron shutters one after another, and street vendors carefully packed up their goods.

James Clark quickly walked up to a storefront facing the street. “Samuel Reed, when did you get back?”

“Mm, I went to Tibet for a bit, got home yesterday, picked up some trinkets, and was just about to call you tonight to come appraise them. And here you are. Come in, I’m closing up.”

Samuel Reed was James Clark’s college classmate. Since childhood, he had aspired to be a collector, and after graduation, he and his girlfriend opened this antique shop, unlike James Clark, who was always on the move.

“Where’s Eric Baker?” James Clark asked as he entered and looked around.

“She? Out shopping with a few girlfriends, won’t be back until after nine tonight. Come take a look, I picked up some good stuff in Tibet this time.”

A dark blue prayer wheel, densely engraved with Sanskrit scriptures. It was a ritual object used by Tibetan Buddhist monks for blessings. Some highly cultivated individuals would even imbue it with Buddhist power, turning it into a talisman for exorcising evil. James Clark swept it with his spiritual sense but detected no magical fluctuations, so he knew it was just an ordinary item—though old and exquisitely crafted, a fine piece of folk art. There were also a few small, delicate Tibetan knives and some antique-looking ornaments with strong Tibetan characteristics.

Casually picking out a few items, including the dark blue prayer wheel, James Clark pushed them aside and said to Samuel Reed, “Set these aside for me. How much?”

“Damn! You’re always like this. Why don’t you just call yourself Jack Clark?” Samuel Reed cursed with a laugh. “But you always manage to get a good price, damn it, even higher than what I sell them for. I really don’t know how you find those suckers. Tell you what, cost price—2,300.”

“Deal! I’ll take them. I’ll pay you tomorrow!”

“Don’t rush, let’s have a couple of beers before you go. I just happen to have a few bottles here.”

Hearing this, James Clark quickly shook his head. “I’m not drinking with you. If Eric Baker comes back, she’ll skin you alive.” Samuel Reed had a terrible tolerance for alcohol but loved to drink, and had been scolded by his wife countless times for it. Thinking of Eric Baker’s ferocity, James Clark couldn’t help but shiver, grabbed his things, dashed out the door, and left behind, “Bro, you’re really asking for it!” leaving Samuel Reed thoroughly frustrated.

After several months of cultivation, the “Sword Qi Soaring Technique” had achieved some results. The true essence in his dantian was thick, and his physical body had become more than twice as strong. In just a few months, he had made more progress than in five years of hard training, making James Clark deeply appreciate the importance of cultivation techniques. But James Clark was still not satisfied.

“Old man Lingyun said that although the Shushan Sword Sect is a major sect, it still ranks below Kunlun, Tianshi, and Maoshan. This method of nurturing qi with the sword progresses quickly, but after all, it’s a side path and the foundation is unstable. There’s no helping it—if I cultivated on my own, it’d probably take decades just to reach the mid-stage of Qi Drawing! Hmm… I should go out and see if I can run into some low-level Kunlun disciples and snatch a few techniques. It’s not like it’s my first time doing this anyway. Those sects are passed down from ancient Daoists—they’re bound to have good stuff.”

Ding! Ding! Ding! The prayer wheel made a pleasant sound as James Clark slowly spun it. A tranquil, meditative feeling flowed through his heart. Strange… did I just stumble upon a treasure? James Clark wondered.

“Calming the mind and spirit, dispelling inner demons—this is a Buddhist treasure! But why can’t I sense even a trace of magical power? And the script engraved on it seems to be ancient Sanskrit that’s been lost for ages! This is just too strange!”

Unable to figure it out, he simply stopped thinking about it. James Clark was eccentric by nature, but not impulsive. Knowing that this prayer wheel was no ordinary item, after trying thirty-six different methods of refining magical treasures with no response, he could only sigh. His mind once again immersed itself in the “Sword Qi Soaring Technique,” as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth slowly merged into James Clark’s dantian…

Chapter 002: Mutual Scheming

A bright full moon hung high in the sky, casting its radiance everywhere. A few stars, weak and listless, clustered around the moon, watching helplessly as their own light was completely overshadowed.

A bat-like shadow landed on the platform of the seventeenth floor. Henry Parker clutched his scorched chest and cursed furiously, “Damn it! Those old bastards—just last month I evolved into a lowly baron, and now they want me to do something this dangerous, tailing the Church’s Light Priest. Even though his status isn’t that high, he’s still not someone a mere viscount like me can handle! Good thing I ran fast, or I’d have been roasted by holy light into a barbecued bat!”