Shen Mansion

Shen Mansion.

Mu Xinghe slid the longsword into the scabbard on his back. The swords and blades that came with this Demon Sealer were all very ordinary equipment.

Fortunately, casting spells placed no particular demands on equipment.

In the world of Sword and Blade Demon Sealing, characters could cast spells after being shared with players, but only to a limited extent. After all, this game had no Spiritual Energy setting to speak of. It was an era when Spiritual Energy was scarce.

Otherwise, people wouldn't have taken the path of Divine Aperture martial arts.

Mu Xinghe looked into the distance. The newcomer was a handsome young man dressed in a Snow White Tight Suit. Judging by the shape of his face, Mu Xinghe guessed he might be a girl disguised as a boy.

As for how he could tell, it was purely a gamer's instinct...

If he were in the Cultivation World, with all its weird concealment spells, he wouldn't have been able to tell.

But in a game, the feeling was subtle. Anyway, whenever a handsome man showed up, his first suspicion was always that the man was a girl in disguise.

"Where'd this little girl come from?" Mu Xinghe glanced at Madam Shen beside him.

Madam Shen was staring at him blankly. At the sound of his voice, she came to her senses and turned slightly, letting the moonlight hide the faint blush on her face.

[Madam Shen Favorability increased: 25/100]

What was the point of hiding?

Mu Xinghe thought. Her Favorability had gone up, so it seemed Madam Shen was attracted to strength.

But in these troubled times, who wasn't?

"How did you know I was..." The young man held a Cloud Pattern Longsword. The moment he began to speak, he hurriedly shut his mouth, then glared at the Demon Sealer in front of him, his face red with anger.

Madam Shen hurriedly stepped forward and said:

"This is Shen Tianxing's... daughter, Shen Qingchan. She just had her Coming-of-age Ceremony this year. She's been studying at the Yunhai Sword Sect..."

Mu Xinghe heard that she'd just had her Coming-of-age Ceremony and thought, Isn't she only fifteen?

She really was just a little girl, not even an adult.

Wait...

A fifteen-year-old Third Grade expert? The same as her father?

What kind of monstrous prodigy was this?

Mu Xinghe had heard of the Yunhai Sword Sect in Taiping City. It was a renowned major sect in the Jianghu, specializing in swordsmanship.

The sect was home to one of the few Fifth Grade Grandmasters in the world.

"Qingchan went to the Yunhai Sword Sect when she was six..." Madam Shen said. "She's been practicing martial arts for nearly ten years. When she heard something had happened to the Shen Family, she hurried back from the sect..."

"Qingchan, don't go picking fights!"

"Hmph."

The young man on the eaves flourished his sword in a Sword Flower, then returned the longsword to its sheath. With a light tap of his toes, he landed steadily on the ground.

"Ten years of training, and she's only Third Grade?" Mu Xinghe repeated.

Wasn't much to brag about, was it?

So she'd been training since she was little. Still, with talent like hers, she had to be far stronger than Master Yan and the others, who'd studied for decades.

If she had character tags, this little girl would surely have several Gold Tags, like "Martial Arts Genius" and "Peerless Bone Structure."

"What do you mean by that?" Shen Qingchan seemed to catch his implication. A proud frown appeared between her brows, but she quickly suppressed it. She was clearly well brought up. "Aunt Yun, I'm back now, so I'll protect the Shen Family from now on. You'd better send this Demon Sealer of unknown origins away."

"There's something off about him. The way he looks at you and me isn't right."

Mu Xinghe: "..."

[Shen Qingchan Favorability unlocked: -5/100]

No way. Even underage characters have Favorability? I ought to report this Game System!

Of course, that was just a snarky remark.

In this game, all the female characters had Favorability, while the male characters had Friendship.

Most of them were just passersby, though.

Besides.

I only asked about your father's cultivation technique. What's the big deal?

"That won't do." Madam Shen still wore her elegant smile. "You saw for yourself just now. You might not even be able to beat him... Besides, he did me a kindness and once saved my life. How could I send him away?"

"What's more, he's a Demon Sealer."

"If you want to find out exactly how your father died, you may need his help."

"After all, you can't sense the aura of demons on your own. If you can't find one, you can't avenge your father."

Shen Qingchan froze. For a long while, she said nothing.

"Hmph. I still won't ask him for help."

"I can do it on my own!"

"In a month, I'll go to Chishui Village and find the demon that wounded my father myself. I'll make sure to cut it down with my sword!"

With that, she returned to her room.

Madam Shen's gaze sharpened slightly.

"If there's nothing else, I'll be going," Mu Xinghe said, preparing to leave. "I'll get back to you within a month."

He wouldn't need a month, really. At most, it would take him a dozen days to uncover something.

Watching Mu Xinghe's retreating figure, Madam Shen called out:

"If you're interested in the Sea-Covering Supreme Art, I'll tell you a little about it when the time comes."

Mu Xinghe paused, waved, and vanished into the boundless night.

A moment later,

the Man in Black emerged from the shadows, his voice tinged with displeasure.

"Madam, you're asking a Demon Sealer to investigate. Don't you think you're looking down on me?"

"I'm a professional when it comes to this sort of thing."

"Then investigate it for me."

"Well..." The Man in Black hunched his shoulders. "Even without investigating, I can tell there's probably a lot more to this than meets the eye. Maybe we should leave it alone."

"Then why are you wasting your breath?" Madam Shen said. "I don't even need to think to know one of those families must have done it."

"Then you..."

"I have a bad feeling..." Madam Shen murmured. "Ever since something happened to Shen Tianxing, those people seem to have been plotting something... I want to know what they're planning. This Demon Sealer, Mu Xinghe... may be the variable we need."

After eating his fill on this trip, Mu Xinghe logged off.

The next day, Mu Xinghe entered the game and chose the Ranger again. He went to the martial arts school first, practiced as usual, and took the opportunity to turn in his quest.

"This... this is the Divine Aperture Diagram for Vajra Leg... How did you get your hands on it, kid?"

Yan Zhennan stared at him in utter shock.

I stole it, of course!

"I have a brother," Mu Xinghe decided to tell the truth. "He can burrow underground and hide himself. I had him steal this for me."

"Bullshit." Yan Zhennan laughed and scolded him. "If someone could burrow underground and hide, he'd be a deity, wouldn't he? Why would a deity help you with petty thievery? Your brother, my foot..."

"Forget it. I don't care how you got it."

"Maybe it was destined."

"You're sure to carry on my master's divine art and bring it to greatness..."

"But you'll have to wait a while. These two Divine Aperture Diagrams will take time to decipher. Only then will we learn where my master buried the Innate Qi Technique back then."

Mu Xinghe nodded. Only then did the quest show as complete.

"Also, Vajra Leg is harder to master than Crimson Flame Fist..." Yan Zhennan said. "Naturally, you can't ask Tie Longgang to teach you. How about this... I know a little about it. I can't use it myself, but I learned some back when I was still at the sect."

"From now on, if you run into problems practicing Vajra Leg, come to me."

"I'll spar with you myself. That should help you make sure your progress stays on track."

With a brand-new martial arts school owner as his training tool, Mu Xinghe was confident he'd be able to master Vajra Leg quickly, too.

"Oh, right..." Mu Xinghe suddenly took out the piece of meat, handed it to Yan Zhennan, and asked, "Master, do you know what kind of meat this is?"

"Hm?"

As soon as he heard the question, Yan Zhennan's expression shifted. He quickly pulled Mu Xinghe straight out of the courtyard and into a room, locked the doors and windows, then stared at him gravely.

"Where did you get this?"

"My immortal brother stole it from the Iron Leg Sect while he was thieving."