There was a master!
Mu Ye's heart jumped. He immediately thought of someone like the old monk who swept the floor.
He turned around. Not far away, an old man with wild, unkempt hair wore a pale robe, chains fastened around all four limbs. He stared at Mu Ye with a kindly smile. The chains were thick, like the kind used on prisoners, yet the old man had come within a dozen or so steps without making a sound.
Could he have opened nearly five hundred apertures, or even... surpassed five hundred? A Fourth Grade Minor Grandmaster...
Mu Ye didn't panic.
He had expected as much before coming.
This was, after all, the mansion of a noble family, one that even commanded an army of a thousand. How could it possibly have no masters?
Calmly, Mu Ye tucked the fruit into his robes, closed the treasure box, then strolled away as if nothing had happened.
"?" The old man.
"Do you think I don't exist, boy?" the old man asked slowly.
"If you wanted to make a move, you would have done it already," Mu Ye replied. "Since you haven't, I assume you're letting me leave. So what's the problem?"
"It's late. You should get some rest, old man. Don't stay up too late, or you might develop dementia."
"..." The old man.
The old man's breath caught. He seemed taken aback by Mu Ye's words.
Thinking it over, he had to admit there was some logic to them. Not much, but some.
"Hmph!"
The next moment, the old man sprang into the air and shot toward Mu Ye as if teleporting. His chain-wrapped iron fist cleaved through the air with a surge of astral force, its menace apparent even before it struck.
Mu Ye shifted aside instead of meeting the blow head-on.
The Light Body Technique was about to wear off. The wandering thief had a Lightness Skill of his own, not a secret martial art but an inborn talent that made him incomparably agile.
The old man didn't let up after Mu Ye dodged once. He lashed his chains out, sweeping them horizontally toward Mu Ye like autumn winds sweeping away fallen leaves.
"Fourth Grade. If he's not one, he's close."
Mu Ye thought to himself.
To Mu Ye's surprise, the old man was also exceptionally skilled at movement. He wasn't using any secret martial arts, yet his speed was no slower than Mu Ye's.
After all, Mu Ye was under the effects of the Light Body Technique. At the same grade, almost no one could even detect him.
With the chains bearing down on him and nowhere to dodge, Mu Ye didn't want to use the Crimson Flame Fist or Vajra Leg. At full mastery, either could easily stop the attack, but they might give away his identity. What kind of wandering thief let himself get exposed so easily?
So Mu Ye drew in his palm and used the Object Manipulation Technique, pulling a table over from the side.
Crack!
The arm-thick chain smashed the desk to pieces.
Mu Ye had only just begun practicing the Object Manipulation Technique, so controlling magical artifacts was difficult. But ordinary objects like these, as long as they weren't too big or heavy, were child's play.
With the character and player in sync, Mu Ye performed the technique without the slightest delay. It felt quite natural.
"Eh? The Star-Sucking Divine Art!" the old man exclaimed in surprise. "What is Marquis Tianwu to you?"
"..." Mu Ye.
What Star-Sucking Divine Art? This was the Object Manipulation Technique.
[1, So you recognize this art, yet you still dare to stop me? (Arrogant and imperious)]
[2, What do you think? (Smiling)]
[3, If you don't want to die, get out of my way! (Calm and composed)]
[4, ...]
Mu Ye thought for a moment, then chose 2.
What Marquis Tianwu? He'd never even heard of him.
The old man's eyes were deep and inscrutable as he stared at Mu Ye.
"I never thought a descendant of Marquis Tianwu would turn out to be a petty thief. I wonder if he's rolling in his grave."
The people on the floor below seemed to have heard the sounds of fighting. The orderly thud of footsteps grew louder and denser.
The nearby guards were surely converging on them.
Mu Ye said nothing. He knew nothing about Marquis Tianwu, and unless he got a prompt, saying even one more word could expose the fact that he had no idea what the old man was talking about.
The old fox had lived long enough to become a demon. Who knew if the old man was just trying to trick him?
Mu Ye watched the old man, waiting for an opening. Casually, he changed the subject.
"I didn't expect someone with your skills to be imprisoned here, either. Were you caught after a botched burglary? Is that why you're stuck here as a doorman?"
The old man froze.
In that brief moment of distraction, Mu Ye vanished. He drifted away like a breeze passing through, then leaped out the window in an instant.
He'd reaped a great harvest today. He had no time to waste getting tangled up with the old man.
With his skills, all he had to do was disappear into the darkness. Those guards outside wouldn't be able to catch him.
The old man gazed out at the dark night sky and fell silent.
A moment later, a young man in fine clothes walked over.
"Old man, what happened? With you personally standing guard, how could the dignified Feng Mansion get robbed?"
The old man replied blandly:
"The intruder was highly skilled, and may even have been one of Marquis Tianwu's people... His Lightness Skill was bizarre and hard to detect, no weaker than mine. It's no wonder we were robbed."
"In the Jianghu, there are only a handful of people below the Fourth Grade with a Lightness Skill like that."
"Oh?" The young man straightened his collar and smiled. "In that case, I suppose I can't blame you. Let me guess: the Wind King Leg was stolen from the Feng Mansion?"
The old man glanced at the most outstanding legitimate son of the Feng family, surprised.
The loss of their secret art didn't seem to worry him at all. He'd clearly expected it.
"Was the Wind Spirit Fruit from our Feng Mansion stolen too?" the young man asked.
The old man nodded slightly.
"What a careless mistake!" The young man feigned a long sigh, but the smile on his face grew more and more peculiar.
"Your Wind Prince Mansion's secret art was stolen, and the Wind Spirit Fruit was stolen too. Aren't you worried?" The old man could see at once that he was putting on an act.
"What's there to worry about?" the young man drawled. "I'm only concerned that the thief may have a life to steal it with, but not a life to learn it."
The old man pondered this.
"Is something wrong with that Wind Spirit Fruit?" he murmured. "Did you do this on purpose?"
"Hahaha..." The young man abruptly stopped laughing. "A month ago, a thief called Bai Zhanfeng broke into the Iron Leg Sect. I told Father then to take precautions. With the grand feast approaching, that thief was bound to come to our Feng Mansion."
"To learn the Wind King Leg, one must take the Wind Spirit Fruit. That fruit was infused with colorless, odorless Heart-Severing Powder long ago. Once swallowed, it will kill the victim within the time it takes to burn a stick of incense!"
The young man said calmly, "Even if the thief really is one of Marquis Tianwu's people, stealing our Wind King Leg won't be so easy!"
The old man thought to himself that Feng Wuque was truly cautious. He'd laid his trap well in advance...
--
"Swift as the wind, unseen to the eye, leaving no trace; its power heavy and forceful, one kick sweeping through all beneath the heavens like a king, its killing prowess unmatched... The Wind King Leg seems a little more advanced than the Vajra Leg."
Mu Ye had changed clothes and headed to the clinic, stopping by to check on Han Qi.
On the way, after studying the Divine Aperture Diagram, he had automatically learned the technique.
"This secret art of the Feng Mansion can open three hundred apertures in the legs... The Vajra Leg can only open two hundred... If I master this secret martial art, not only will it strengthen the Divine Apertures I already have, it'll bring my total to four hundred..."
The Wind King Leg was a leg technique famed for its speed and lethality. It was especially effective against large groups of enemies.
Mu Ye guessed that the secret martial art had been devised and learned by the Feng family in their army long ago.
The Xifeng Army was said to have spent years marching through the wilds and striking distant cities. It was a formidable field army. The first head of the Feng family had trained this extraordinary secret art on the battlefield.
"To learn this leg technique, one must use the Wind Spirit Fruit. After taking it, the legs feel as if they're being crushed by a powerful gale, making it impossible to move them at all. Depending on one's constitution, the symptoms last anywhere from several days to several months."
"After the effects wear off, the legs become extremely agile, filled with a lightness like the wind. Their strength, speed, and stamina all increase significantly. Only then can one practice the Wind King Leg and get twice the result with half the effort."
"Otherwise, one might practice for years and still fail to get past the basics."
Clearly, the requirements for this secret martial art were quite high.
"The Wind Spirit Fruit. I was lucky... There happened to be one in that treasure box..." Mu Ye's heart gave a slight leap.
There was nothing strange about placing the resources for practicing the Wind King Leg alongside a Divine Aperture Secret Martial Art. They were both treasures.
But some purely instinctive feeling told Mu Ye that something was wrong. He just couldn't say what.
So Mu Ye chose to exit True Mode. He had left the Feng Mansion, so he might as well play normally and save first.
He'd eat the fruit and see what happened. If anything went wrong, he could just load his save.
In the real Cultivation World, Mu Ye would certainly have checked the fruit for poison first.
But in a game, what did he have to fear?
Unfortunately, after eating it, the game showed that his character had been poisoned. Not long afterward, he died.
"Looks like the Feng family really isn't simple... There's something wrong with this fruit. Could it be a trap specifically meant for anyone who tried to learn the Wind King Leg? Did they even anticipate it might be stolen? Maybe the Feng family grew wary after the last break-in at the Iron Leg Sect?"
Mu Ye couldn't help but marvel at how impressive their precautions were. It was all so realistic.
Too bad they hadn't counted on him being able to load a save.
"I have the powerful Lingzhi Body Nourishment buff, and it'll last for half a month. Even without eating this fruit, I can still force my way into practicing the Wind King Leg."
He put the fruit away. It was stolen property, so it wouldn't be easy to sell.
"Benefactor, I'm almost fully recovered..." It was late at night when Mu Ye arrived at the clinic. Han Qi was lying in bed, reading by lamplight. He put his book away when Mu Ye came in.
Mu Ye entered the room and shut the doors and windows. Then he suddenly asked:
"You seem well versed in military texts. I take it you know quite a bit about them?"
Before you continue