Just as Mu Yang had expected, 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 before the mansion gates.
When he saw Mu Yang and the others arrive, he hurried forward to greet them, smiling as he lavished praise upon them.
He said that Mu Yang was not only outstandingly powerful, but also remarkably handsome—a true talent among men.
His compliments 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 cordial.
During the meal, Mu Yang circulated 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.
The surrounding servants also looked entirely normal, their conduct measured and proper, without the slightest anomaly.
It seemed the Liu Family truly had nothing to do with monsters.
Mu Yang inwardly sighed in regret.
Seated opposite him, Liu Qingke had been watching Mu Yang the entire time and happened to catch the fleeting regret in his eyes. The corner of his eye twitched sharply.
That look...
Could he be regretting that our Liu Family has no monsters?
Liu Qingke was somewhat speechless.
Just how much does Mu Yang love killing monsters?
Here he was eating and drinking, yet he was still thinking about tracking down monsters and killing them.
When the feast was about halfway through, Liu Qingke set down his wine cup and gave the steward at his side a look.
Very soon, an exquisite wooden box wrapped in red brocade was placed in his hands.
"Head Constable Mu, meeting you today has been a great honor for Liu. I have specially prepared a humble gift, merely as a 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, clearly showing its age.
Before giving the gift, he had evidently done his homework thoroughly.
"These three are all High-Grade Martial Arts unique to my Liu Family. This Tracking Technique is a special secret art treasured by my Liu Family for many years. Once mastered, all one needs is a trace 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.
... [Equippable Item: Tracking Technique (Special Martial Art)] [Rank: No fixed rank] [Equipment Effects: ① Scent Gathering (Blue): Can collect the residual 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 arrive at the target's location. The maximum tracking range reaches a thousand miles.] [Permanent Solidification Requirement: Equip this item for seven days, or kill a demon beast of any rank while this item is equipped.] ...
"Thirty days, a thousand miles. It truly is a practical secret art."
Although this Tracking Technique could not directly increase his combat strength, it would help him find monsters and track enemies.
If he encountered a monster like Huang Feng again, hiding away in the mountains like a turtle shrinking into its shell, he would no longer need to search bit by bit as before. He could simply collect a trace of its scent and strike straight at the Yellow Dragon.
"Lord Liu, you are 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 pleasant.
Liu Qingke never mentioned the Wang Family or the Hu Family. He only kept praising Mu Yang for achieving so much at such a young age, while subtly probing his plans for the future.
When he learned that Mu Yang's ambitions lay with the Demon Slayer Bureau in the Prefecture City, the smile on his face became even more sincere. He repeatedly raised his cup, wishing Mu Yang instant success upon arrival.
Before long, the banquet neared its end.
Liu Qingke led the elders and personally escorted Mu Yang and the other two out of the mansion.
The streets were cold and desolate, with scarcely a soul in sight.
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 of the things one needed to watch out for in the Prefecture City.
"Then, Brother Mu, let us meet at the eastern city gate early the day after tomorrow."
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 spilled through the gaps in the branches, leaving mottled patches of light and shadow across the courtyard.
He took out the four martial arts manuals he had brought back from the Liu Family and 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 there had been no monsters to kill today, there was only one empty Equipment Slot at the moment.
After thinking for a moment, Mu Yang tucked the other three martial arts manuals back into his robes, leaving only the Tracking Technique behind.
"Equip Tracking Technique."
Mu Yang silently recited in his heart.
[ Ding! Tracking Technique has been equipped! ]
In an instant, countless techniques involving scent identification, scent gathering, trajectory tracking, and more flooded into his mind.
At the same time, Mu Yang felt his mind become incomparably clear, as though the world around him had changed somewhat.
Within a hundred-meter radius, all kinds of scents he would normally have ignored became clear to his senses.
The faint scent left by ants crawling past the corner of the wall, the scent of the old locust tree outside the courtyard swaying in the wind, even the overlapping, excited scents of people from other households in the alley...
All of them were distinguished one by one through his 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 the Tracking Technique, Mu Yang leaned against the well and stared up at the sky in a daze.
It was not that he was sobering up. There were simply some things that puzzled him.
For instance, 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 merely hidden them too deeply?
"Should I go take another look?"
Whether because he had just experienced the wonders of the Tracking Technique and wanted a chance to test it, or simply because he wanted to try his luck once more, Mu Yang quickly rose to his feet, 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.
Though it was already deep into the night, lights still swept past outside the walls of the Liu Family Mansion.
They belonged to the servants guarding the residence after nightfall.
In a corner beyond the servants' notice, a black shadow swept by with the wind, lightly vaulting over the wall and entering the estate.
In no more than a few moments, Mu Yang arrived at the rear courtyard where Liu Qingke lived.
Relying on his repeatedly enhanced Keen Hearing, Mu Yang discovered that there was only one relatively weak yet steady heartbeat inside.
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 soundly alone.
Where had he gone instead of sleeping in the middle of the night?
Could there truly be a problem?
With a thought, Mu Yang circulated Blood Qi to his fingertips and lightly hooked them toward the bed.
A thread of nearly invisible pale-white scent drifted out from the room and settled upon his fingertips.
This was Liu Qingke's scent lingering on the pillow.
"If Liu Qingke knew that the secret art he had just given away this afternoon was being used against him tonight, who knew what he would think."
Mu Yang inwardly joked before immediately activating the tracking art.
The pale-white scent on his fingertips trembled slightly, then became thinner and thinner, pointing in a certain direction like a compass needle.
Mu Yang's gaze sharpened.
At this degree of thinness, it seemed the distance was very far.
He was most likely not within the city.
Mu Yang's eyes lit up. Leaving the city in the middle of the night—could there truly be something to gain!
With that thought, Mu Yang immediately set off, rapidly leaving the city in the direction indicated by the scent on his fingertips.
Around half an hour later, Mu Yang arrived at the foot of a large mountain outside the city.
The mountain was not especially large and had no name. Its woods were dense and its weeds overgrown, making it seem rarely visited.
Mu Yang continued deeper inside. Before long, a narrow mountain cave appeared before him.
Thick vines covered the entrance, making it look no different from an ordinary mountain cave.
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