Water-Moon Merit Internet Cafe

True World, Southern Jin.

Alleys crisscrossed the area, with uneven old houses lining both sides of the roads.

Many blue bricks on the road were missing, and last night's heavy rain had left murky puddles in the depressions.

Several plainly dressed civilians carried large bundles on their backs as they hurried along the muddy, dilapidated road together.

A silver-badge constable from Southern Jin's Six Fan School secretly followed behind them, using his methods to observe them from afar.

An Exterior Manifestation martial artist could wield the power of the Earth-Origin Qi Sea, allowing him to inspect the appearance of distant things without using his eyes.

"Strange, very strange."

Watching the several ordinary civilians stride forward as swiftly as if they were flying, he was greatly surprised.

Poor scholars, rich martial artists. To practice martial arts, one naturally had to eat well from the start.

Ordinary families could barely afford food and clothing, much less have spare money to seek out a martial arts school.

Yet these civilians now walked steadily, their footsteps firm. Just two days ago, they had still been people too weak to truss a chicken.

The records of every martial arts school in the city were under the Six Fan School's control. These civilians had not attended any martial arts school at all.

Besides, what martial arts school could teach someone so quickly, turning an ordinary person into a martial artist overnight?

In a moment of distraction, the civilians suddenly vanished around a corner.

Looking from afar, the silver-badge constable saw a grand courtyard with towering gates that gleamed with golden light, utterly out of place amid the surrounding old houses.

Every brick shone with refined gold, clearly cast from pure gold. Their total weight had to be at least several billion jin. If dismantled, they could