After the Skyfall

“Just how many dangers and horrors are lurking in this city? A dead person is casually blending into the crowd… I only recognized Liu Yan by chance, which is why I was able to tell. But among the countless strangers I pass by every day, how many of them have the same problem?”

“Liu Yan didn’t seem to fixate on me… That was way too close. Right now, if one of those eerie things were to set its sights on me, I’d be as good as dead.”

With these chilling thoughts, Li Yi hurried home. He planned to stay indoors for a while, using the mysterious artifact in his possession to speed up his cultivation and gain some ability to protect himself.

As for whether rapid progress in cultivation might bring trouble, he couldn’t afford to care.

The moment he stepped inside, he locked the door.

After refilling the nutrient supply for his parents’ medical pods, he turned off his phone to avoid distractions, then sat cross-legged in the living room, closed his eyes, and adjusted his breathing, quickly entering a meditative state.

The moment he reached meditation—

Li Yi sensed the energy field radiating from the broken blade coin. He began guiding the pure cosmic energy within that field into his body, absorbing it.

At first, his technique was clumsy, but as time passed, he became more proficient, increasing both his speed and absorption efficiency.

Just as Lin Yue had predicted, he had untapped potential.

In just half a day, his cultivation efficiency had risen to 60%.

That meant out of every ten units of cosmic energy, six were successfully absorbed, while four were wasted.

Such rapid progress was thanks to the broken blade coin. With this incomplete artifact, Li Yi didn’t need to waste time and effort trying to capture the cosmic energy leaking from wormholes.

With complete focus, he could naturally achieve better results.

Gurgle!

Li Yi was woken up by hunger once again. He opened his eyes helplessly. “Hunger really affects cultivation… I’ve been woken up three times in just half a day. If I cultivated for an entire day, wouldn’t that mean getting woken up six times? And on top of that, I have to spend time cooking and eating… such a waste of time.”

“Right, I should test the effects of the No. 2 nutrient solution this time.”

Li Yi took out the No. 2 nutrient solution and glanced at the instructions. It was strictly prohibited for ordinary people, and even cultivators were warned not to drink too much at once. Overconsumption could put too much strain on the organs and cause effects similar to food poisoning.

Carefully, he poured a measured cup and drank it in one gulp as directed.

“Sweet… apple-flavored, huh?” Li Yi licked the rim of the cup—this stuff was expensive, so he couldn’t let any go to waste.

Even though he had only taken a small cup, the hunger that had been gnawing at him vanished almost immediately.

It was incredible.

Normally, when he was starving, he’d have to eat multiple packs of instant noodles, along with sugar water, milk, eggs, fruits, and more just to feel full.

“Expensive things really do have their advantages. This nutrient solution is so convenient… I don’t even want to bother cooking or eating anymore. It’s just a waste of time and energy.”

With that thought in mind, Li Yi resumed his cultivation.

As he continued his practice, he realized that drinking the nutrient solution suppressed hunger far better than eating solid food. Previously, he had to eat once every four hours, but now, he could go a full eight hours before feeling hungry again.

At this rate, he only needed three cups a day.

However, one bottle of No. 2 nutrient solution only contained ten servings, meaning he’d run out in just three days. The cost of cultivation was proving to be exorbitant.

But for now, he wasn’t concerned about that.

The day’s cultivation soon came to an end.

After taking a short break, Li Yi showered and cleaned off the impurities expelled from his body during his evolution. Then, he immediately started a new round of cultivation.

By now, he could clearly feel that his physical abilities had taken a huge leap forward.

However, his ears had started buzzing, as if he was experiencing auditory hallucinations.

Li Yi understood that this wasn’t an illusion—his senses were undergoing a transformation. His hearing was improving, but his body needed time to adjust.

Before long—

The third day of cultivation had arrived.

During this period, Li Yi’s cultivation efficiency had increased once again. His cultivation value had jumped from 60% to 75%, and it was still rising, though at a much slower rate. This indicated that his potential had been nearly fully excavated.

‘At best, my cultivation efficiency will cap at around 85%, and that’s assuming I can fully focus. Without the help of this incomplete artifact, my efficiency would probably drop to about 65%. Lin Yue’s assessment of me was spot on.’

Still, Li Yi wasn’t disappointed. ‘Reaching 80% would already be more than satisfactory. At the very least, this puts me among the better cultivators—it’s not an embarrassing number.’

Closing his eyes slowly, he once again entered a meditative state.

Suddenly—

Something felt off.

“The energy field of that incomplete knife coin… it’s behaving strangely today.”

In the midst of his cultivation, Li Yi sensed an unusual disturbance. The once tranquil cosmic energy began to ripple, and soon, the movement intensified, as if a massive storm was surging through.

The disruption became so severe that he could no longer properly guide the cosmic energy into his body.

He tried to awaken from his meditation.

However, to his shock, his consciousness was being pulled in—trapped within the incomplete knife coin’s energy field. He couldn’t break free, nor could he wake up.

This was the first time he had encountered such a phenomenon, and a sudden wave of unease washed over him.

“This incomplete knife coin… something is definitely wrong with it.”

Only now did Li Yi recall Lin Yue’s warning.

If an artifact was incomplete, it was bound to have flaws—hidden dangers lurking within.

Now, his consciousness was completely ensnared by the energy field, leaving him with no way to resist. He could only watch as the surroundings began to change.

Soon, the scene around him started to shift.

As the energy fluctuations grew more intense, Li Yi sensed something emerging from the depths of the pure cosmic energy field. The surrounding energy surged wildly toward a single point, and before long, it coalesced into a fragmented humanoid figure.

The figure slowly took shape within the energy field, its body and facial features remaining indistinct, yet its lower half was completely missing—severed, just like the knife coin.

“What the hell is that?” A deep, inexplicable fear gripped Li Yi.

Even just perceiving it with his consciousness sent sharp pain through him, as if his very soul was being torn apart.

The fragmented figure appeared to possess a will of its own. The moment it noticed Li Yi’s presence, it opened its mouth and let out a roar before lunging toward him, as if intending to devour his consciousness whole.

“A naturally evil Earth Prisoner… even if only a sliver of my soul remains, I will destroy you!”

Li Yi had no ability to resist. A wave of intense dizziness struck him, and his mind felt like it had been violently shattered. Darkness engulfed him entirely.

“The pain… it’s unbearable!”

His consciousness collapsed, and he blacked out.

At that moment, just as he lost awareness, the door to his parents’ bedroom slowly creaked open.

A shadow, cast by the dim light, stretched unnaturally from within the room. It elongated at an impossible speed until it completely enveloped Li Yi’s body.

The broken knife coin beside him twisted in an eerie manner, as if gripped by an overwhelming, unknown force. Then, with a faint yet chilling shriek, the coin was sent flying, embedding itself deep into the nearby wall—silent and motionless.

Immediately afterward, the dark silhouette retreated back into the bedroom.

“Bang!”

The door closed, and the lights in the living room flickered with a faint buzzing sound before finally going out completely.

The old house fell into a deathly silence.

As time passed, Li Yi, who had fainted, gradually regained steady breathing. However, blood slowly trickled from his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth.

Minute by minute, time slipped away.

The night outside turned to daylight, then once again into deep night.

Li Yi remained unconscious for two full days.

By midday on the third day, he finally began to wake up.

“Ah… it hurts.” Li Yi clutched his head, the intense pain making him suck in a sharp breath.

‘What happened? I was cultivating just fine—how did I end up unconscious?’

Right. He suddenly remembered.

The broken blade coin.

Startled, he sat up and looked around. Eventually, his gaze landed on the half-piece of the coin, now embedded in the wall.

Li Yi hesitated to pick it up. A lingering fear still gripped him—he vividly recalled how his consciousness had been trapped by the coin’s energy field. Then, an incredibly powerful and terrifying presence had emerged from it, trying to kill him.

“The innately evil Earth Prisoner? How the hell am I innately evil? I’m just an ordinary guy working hard to support my family!”

Having suffered such a loss for no apparent reason, he was both furious and frustrated.

But this experience confirmed one thing—the broken blade coin seemed to contain the lingering resentment of someone who had died. Or, in simpler terms, a remnant soul.

‘As expected, burial goods from graves are never anything good.’

Li Yi stood up, his body unsteady as a wave of dizziness hit him.

‘But why was it fine when I cultivated before, yet this time, the coin’s remnant soul targeted me? Could it be because I cultivated for too long this time?’

His expression shifted as he stared at the coin embedded in the wall, unsure of what to do next.

If the same thing happened again during his next cultivation session, he wasn’t confident he could survive it. That kind of experience—he never wanted to go through it again.

But this broken artifact was crucial to his cultivation. Without it, his progress would be painfully slow.

‘So this is the double-edged nature of a broken artifact… On one hand, it accelerates my cultivation, but on the other, it harbors immense danger. If I want to keep using it, I have to figure out a relatively safe way.’

Li Yi pondered for a moment but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to abandon it. He was determined to dance on the edge of danger and find a way to use this broken artifact properly.

Relying solely on his own cultivation was far too slow.

These past few days, with the help of the artifact, he had felt himself improving at an astonishing rate.

After experiencing what it was like to be a genius, he couldn’t bear the thought of returning to mediocrity.