Secret Tracking Technique! A Night Visit to the Liu Family Mansion!

Just as Mu Yang had thought, Liu Qingke truly wanted to host a banquet, not play any tricks.

As the Liu Family patriarch, he even brought several white-haired elders and personally waited outside the mansion gates.

When he saw Mu Yang and the others arrive, he hurried forward to greet them, smiling as he lavished them with praise.

He said Mu Yang was not only exceptionally strong, but also strikingly handsome—truly a man of outstanding talent and appearance.

His praise overflowed without restraint.

At the banquet, the Liu Family elders either praised him or toasted him. Dancers performed throughout, and the entire feast was harmonious and cheerful.

During the feast, Mu Yang also stirred his Blood Qi and activated the Keen Sense of Smell trait.

Yet the air held only the faint scent of rouge and the fragrance of food and wine.

The servants nearby also looked perfectly normal, their manners measured and proper, without the slightest hint of anything unusual.

It seemed the Liu Family truly had nothing to do with demons.

Mu Yang silently thought it was a pity.

Sitting across from him, Liu Qingke had been watching Mu Yang the whole time and happened to catch that fleeting trace of regret in his eyes. The corner of his eye twitched sharply.

That look...

Wasn't he regretting that our Liu Family had no demons?

Liu Qingke was somewhat speechless.

Just how much did Mu Yang love killing demons?

Here he was, eating and drinking, yet still thinking about hunting demons and killing them.

Around halfway through the feast, Liu Qingke set down his wine cup and gave the steward beside him a look.

Very soon, an exquisite wooden box wrapped in red brocade was brought into his hands.

"Head Constable Mu, meeting you today has been a great honor for Liu. I have prepared a humble gift as a small token of my respect."

As he spoke, Liu Qingke opened the wooden box in his hands.

Inside were not gold, silver, or jewels, but four neatly arranged thread-bound manuals. One of them had a slightly yellowed cover and was clearly quite old.

Before giving this gift, he had evidently done his homework.

"These three are all High-Grade Martial Arts unique to my Liu Family. This copy of Tracking Technique, meanwhile, is a special secret art treasured by my Liu Family for many years. Once mastered, one need only collect a wisp of the target's scent to track them across a thousand miles without the slightest error," Liu Qingke said.

A special secret art?

Tracking Technique?

Mu Yang curiously looked at the yellowed manual.

An ink-wash panel immediately appeared.

[Equippable Item: Tracking Technique (Special Martial Art)]

[Rank: No fixed rank]

[Equipment Effects: ① Scent Collection (Blue): Can collect the lingering scent of any living creature. The scent can be preserved for up to thirty days.

② Tracking (Blue): Using a collected scent as a guide, one can follow the scent and precisely reach the target's location. Maximum tracking range: one thousand miles.]

"Thirty days and a thousand miles. It is quite a practical secret art."

Though this Tracking Technique could not directly enhance his combat strength, it would help him locate demons and pursue enemies.

If he encountered a demon like Huang Feng again, one hiding away in the mountains like a turtle drawing its head into its shell, he would no longer need to search bit by bit as before. He could simply collect a wisp of its scent and charge straight for the dragon's lair.

"Master Liu is too courteous."

Mu Yang did not take the wooden box, merely stuffing the four martial arts manuals into his robes.

Liu Qingke did not mind. As long as Mu Yang accepted them, it meant he had given the right gift.

The banquet continued, and the atmosphere remained cordial.

Liu Qingke never once mentioned the Wang Family or the Hu Family. He only kept praising Mu Yang for being so accomplished at such a young age, while indirectly probing into Mu Yang's future plans.

When he learned that Mu Yang had set his sights on the Demon Slayer Bureau in the Prefecture City, the smile on his face became several degrees more sincere. He repeatedly raised his cup in toast, wishing Mu Yang success the moment he set out.

Before long, the banquet drew to a close.

Liu Qingke led the elders and personally escorted the three of them out of the mansion.

The chilly streets were now nearly deserted.

As they walked, the three discussed their journey to the Prefecture City.

Xue She did most of the talking while Mu Yang listened.

He spoke about the matters that needed attention in the Prefecture City.

"Then, Brother Mu, we'll meet at the east city gate early the day after tomorrow."

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching for the author. It may have simply been renamed!

After saying that, Xue She left with Zhou Heng.

Mu Yang, meanwhile, headed alone toward his small courtyard.

Upon returning home, Mu Yang shut the courtyard gate behind him.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps between the branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows across the courtyard.

He took out the four martial arts manuals he had brought back from the Liu Family, then looked toward the Equipment Slot panel.

[Equipped Items: 1. Fox Demon Corpse (Third Rank), 2. Thirty-Six Mace Techniques +1, 3. Iron-Body Technique, 4. None]

Since he had killed no demons today, there was only one vacant Equipment Slot.

After thinking it over, Mu Yang tucked the other three manuals back into his robes, leaving only Tracking Technique behind.

"Equip Tracking Technique."

Mu Yang silently recited the command in his mind.

[Ding! Tracking Technique equipped!]

In an instant, countless techniques concerning scent identification, scent collection, and trail tracking flooded into his mind.

At the same time, Mu Yang felt his mind clear, as though the world around him had become somehow different.

Within a hundred-meter radius, all kinds of scents he would ordinarily have ignored became clear to his senses.

The faint scent left by ants crawling along the wall, the scent of the old locust tree outside the courtyard swaying in the wind, even the overlapping, restless scents of people in the other homes down the alley...

He distinguished them one by one from a unique perspective.

Paired with the Keen Sense of Smell trait, it was simply a perfect combination where one plus one was greater than two.

After briefly testing the effects of Tracking Technique, Mu Yang leaned against the edge of the well and raised his head to stare blankly at the sky.

It was not that he was sobering up. There were simply some matters that puzzled him.

For example, among Qingxi County's Three Great Families, both the Wang Family and the Hu Family had problems. Did the Liu Family truly have no problems at all?

Were they genuinely spotless, or had they simply hidden their secrets too deeply?

"Should I go take another look?"

Whether it was because he had just experienced the wonder of Tracking Technique and wanted to find a chance to test it, or because he simply wanted to try his luck once more, he did not know.

Mu Yang swiftly rose, returned to his room, and changed into a fitted black outfit.

With a light tap of his feet, he vanished from the courtyard.

Outside the Liu Family Mansion.

Even though it was already late at night, lights still passed along the walls of the Liu Family Mansion.

They belonged to the servants keeping watch over the residence after nightfall.

In a corner beyond the servants' notice, a black shadow drifted past with the wind, lightly vaulting over the wall and entering the estate.

In less than a moment, Mu Yang arrived at the rear courtyard where Liu Qingke lived.

Relying on his repeatedly enhanced sharp hearing, Mu Yang discovered that there was only one relatively weak yet steady heartbeat within the room.

Mu Yang raised a brow and quietly slipped inside, only to find that there truly was just one person in the room—but it was not Liu Qingke. It was his wife.

At this moment, Madam Liu was sleeping deeply alone.

Out in the middle of the night instead of sleeping—where had he gone?

Could there really be something suspicious going on?

With a thought, Mu Yang circulated Blood Qi to his fingertips and lightly hooked a finger toward the bed.

A wisp of nearly invisible pale white scent drifted from the room and landed upon his fingertip.

It was Liu Qingke's lingering scent on the pillow.

"If Liu Qingke knew that the secret art he had given away this afternoon was being used against him that very night, I wonder what he would think."

Mu Yang silently teased, then immediately activated the tracking method.

The pale white scent on his fingertip trembled slightly, then grew thinner and thinner, pointing in a certain direction like a compass needle.

Mu Yang's gaze sharpened.

At this thickness, it appeared to be very far away.

He was most likely outside the city.

Mu Yang's eyes lit up. Leaving the city in the dead of night—could there really be a reward waiting for him?

With that thought, Mu Yang immediately set off, quickly leaving the city by following the guidance of the scent at his fingertip.

About half an hour later, Mu Yang arrived at the foot of a mountain outside the city.

The mountain was not particularly large and had no name. Its woods were dense and its weeds rampant, making it seem rarely visited by anyone.

Mu Yang continued deeper inside. Before long, a narrow cave appeared before him.

Thick, long vines covered the cave entrance, making it look no different from an ordinary mountain cave.

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching for the author. It may have simply been renamed!