Death to Your Whole Family!

The Divine Strategy Manor.

Night had fully fallen.

Qi Lin headed for his student residence.

He held the Divine Strategy Token in his hand, somewhat speechless.

"One national law class, and I only got five credits. How many years and months would it take me to earn a killing technique?"

He frowned at the words "five credits" on the Divine Strategy Token.

Suddenly, a woman in a white dress emerged from the darkness.

"Father God." Su Lianxi's delicate body trembled slightly as she bowed, her voice reverent. "Xiao Chiyan intended to use a drop of demon blood against you at noon tomorrow."

"And then?" Qi Lin looked at her.

Su Lianxi's eyes were like blood-red suns, and fragrant sweat beaded on her forehead. "His fire burning disease flared up. It's very serious."

"Serves him right!" Qi Lin said gleefully.

"Wasn't it caused by the fire you sprayed today, Father God?" Su Lianxi asked softly.

Qi Lin froze.

His expression changed slightly.

But he quickly asked, without betraying his thoughts, "Anything else?"

"Yes." Su Lianxi hurriedly said, "Xiao Chiyan's father, Xiao Ming, is the master of the Two Moons Pavilion. He wants to recommend me to the Nation-Protecting Divine Church."

Qi Lin raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "To you, who is more exalted, their god or me?"

Su Lianxi's whole body trembled, and her voice was fervent and frenzied. "I am willing to kill everything in the world for you, Father God."

"...Join the church if you get the chance."

With that, Qi Lin walked past her.

Only after taking several steps did Qi Lin look at the little finger on his left hand, his scalp tingling.

How did it become a vent for fire burning disease? Is that good or bad?

On the good side, the fire he had sprayed today had crippled a formidable enemy.

On the bad side, he feared it might be harmful to his own body.

After all, it was a disease!

The all beings equal disease!

And after spraying it, he had no fire left to spray, making it useless for the time being.

Hopefully it's a good thing.

The black wooden sword Divine Vein, the five decays of the Heavenly Dao...

It seemed there were even more mysterious things about him now.

Qi Lin's student residence.

The courtyard!

"The night was lovely, and the beauty belonged in a painting."

Jiang Xinghai, master of the Three Stars Pavilion, paced the courtyard with his hands behind his back. He wore a long robe adorned with stars, and his expression was conflicted.

"Though it's a little presumptuous, Miss Qi will surely like my painting."

At that thought, he straightened his clothes and hat, stepped forward, cleared his throat, and prepared to knock.

"Huh?"

Just then, he suddenly felt a chill, and the hair on his body stood on end!

It was as if he had suddenly been dragged into an icy mist, with a cliff before him. One more step and he might plunge into a frozen abyss.

An illusion. It must be an illusion!

As Jiang Xinghai thought this, his finger was about to tap the door.

"Pavilion Master."

A young man's voice suddenly came from behind him, startling Jiang Xinghai so badly that he leaped into the air.

"Y-y-you... Are you trying to scare someone to death in the middle of the night? Don't you know your sister's asleep?"

Jiang Xinghai shuddered, hid the painting in his hand, and glared at Qi Lin.

"She's still asleep?" Seeing that the door was tightly shut, Qi Lin looked at Jiang Xinghai. "You know it's the middle of the night too. What is a dignified pavilion master like you doing outside my sister's room? If word got out, people might think you were some kind of thief."

"Don't talk nonsense."

Jiang Xinghai hurried forward and pulled Qi Lin away. "As pavilion master, I came to check on you, a newly enrolled student. It's a home visit. Isn't that perfectly normal?"

"Not really, is it?" Qi Lin asked in a low voice.

"Normal, perfectly normal," Jiang Xinghai repeated emphatically.

Qi Lin gave him a curious look. "Pavilion Master, something happened at the Three Stars Pavilion's National Law School today. Didn't you hear?"

"What happened? I was busy painting. How could a dignified pavilion master concern himself with such trivial bits of chicken feathers and garlic skins?" Jiang Xinghai said.

Qi Lin's eyes flickered slightly.

He definitely knows what happened at the National Law School, and he already knows who I am in Mystic City. Yet he still came here and hasn't blamed me, which means he most likely isn't my enemy.

Having figured that out, Qi Lin sighed. "Master Fu is going to test me on national law tomorrow. If I do badly, Pavilion Master, all I can say is that you held me up."

"Pah!" Jiang Xinghai glared at him. "What will it take to shut that big cherry mouth of yours? Just say it."

"I want to learn a sword technique," Qi Lin said bluntly. "One that kills effectively."

"Exchange credits for it."

"I only got five credits after a whole day's work. By the time I've saved enough, the grass on my grave will be three feet tall."

"You little..."

Jiang Xinghai glared at him several times.

Qi Lin looked at him with "utter innocence."

"First Qi Upper Grade. Here!"

Jiang Xinghai set a manual on the stone table and said fiercely to Qi Lin, "That's an advance on your credits—a total of two hundred and fifty!"

"Upper Grade?"

Qi Lin hurriedly stored it in his void ring, afraid Jiang Xinghai would change his mind.

The words "Lesser Star and Moon Sword Technique" could just barely be made out.

"Keep your mouth shut."

Jiang Xinghai patted him on the shoulder and strode out with easy grace.

After leaving Qi Lin's student residence, he suddenly looked back, his gaze slowly growing profound.

This brother and sister... They have an expert protecting them! If I'd knocked just now, could I have withstood that killing intent from who knows where?

Well, a sword technique secretly passed down in my Jiang family counts as forming a good connection.

With that, he turned and left.

Moon shadows swayed.

When Jiang Xinghai returned to the Three Stars Hall, he saw a dark blue figure standing on the steps.

"Did you see Father today?"

The dark blue figure looked coldly at Jiang Xinghai.

"No. I suppose he's dead."

Jiang Xinghai shrugged and walked past him as if nothing were amiss.

"Jiang Xinghai!" The dark blue figure suddenly seized his shoulder, crushing it into a bloody mess. "Our Jiang family has raised you all these years. You should know to be grateful."

"Thanks, big brother."

Smiling, Jiang Xinghai gently pried his five fingers open and said with a grin,

"Then I wish your whole family an early death."

"What a god of sleep."

After Jiang Xinghai left, Qi Lin looked through the window and saw that his sister had rolled onto the floor and was still fast asleep.

"Don't catch a chill."

Qi Lin could only go in quietly, carefully lift her back onto the bed, and tuck the quilt around her.

"Father, Mother, don't go! Long'er will die in your place..."

She suddenly murmured in her sleep, her heart aching.

Qi Lin had been about to slip out quietly, but when he heard this, his body froze in the darkness.

"What happened to them...?"

He strained to recall those two figures, but they were blurry.

In his memories, his father was a gentle gentleman, and his mother was a good woman who kept the household. They seemed quite ordinary.

The Divine Ash Ruins.

Qi Lin committed the place to memory.

"I wonder when Grandpa will take me there?"

He always felt as though he were very far from that place.

It wasn't distance that separated them, but obstacles in reality.

"Forget it. Grandpa and I might not even survive the twin tribulations of Mystic City and the Divine Strategy Manor."

"Only strength can break through all obstructions."

Qi Lin quietly closed the door, returned to the stone table in the pavilion, and laid three things on it.

They were Xiao Ling'er's and Lan Ming's void rings, and the sword manual for which Jiang Xinghai had deducted two hundred and fifty credits.

"I'll absorb and study these three things, and seek a path to greater strength."

"Then tomorrow, I'll accompany Her Majesty Huangxi to the demon-slaying lecture!"

"I hear a 'demon-sealing master' from the Demon-Slaying Headquarters is coming to give the lecture..."