Mu Yang glanced at the aura guidance at his fingertips. After confirming the direction was correct, he immediately circulated the Blood Qi within him and activated Three-Breath Lightness, guarding against any mishap.
The result was unexpected. This cave seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary cave.
Though it stretched deep inside and had many branching paths, aside from being somewhat dark, it was generally safe and carried no strange odor.
It did not look like a place where a Monster would hide.
Curious, Mu Yang continued deeper inside.
Suddenly, a glimmer of light appeared within the pitch-black cave.
Mu Yang hurried forward, and the view before him suddenly opened up.
Before his eyes was a lake shimmering beneath the moonlight.
Towering peaks surrounded the lake.
"A valley inside a cave?"
Mu Yang swept his gaze across the surroundings. Though the foliage was lush and the landscape beautiful, the mountains enclosed it so tightly that not even wind could pass through. It was clearly a hidden valley.
Mu Yang stepped out of the cave entrance and looked into the distance.
To his surprise, neat rows of tiled houses stood not far from the lake, along with vast stretches of cultivated fields.
Judging by the size of the earthen houses and the number of fields, quite a few people lived here.
There were even more people here than in Huang Village and Li Village.
Yet he, a constable who participated in patrols outside the city, had never known about such a large village.
"Hidden Households concealed by the Liu Family?"
The Great Jing Dynasty decreed that all commoners had to be registered and pay taxes according to their number, while also serving in corvée labor.
Yet some great Lineages would always secretly hide people away as their private property, sparing them from taxes to the imperial court and from labor service.
Such people were called Hidden Households.
Though the Liu Family concealing Hidden Households was illegal, it was not truly a major matter. At the very least, compared to colluding with Monsters, it was not worth mentioning.
Mu Yang silently made his way toward the village.
He activated Keen Sense of Smell while circulating the Tracking Technique to distinguish the auras around him.
The result left him deeply disappointed.
There was absolutely no Monster aura.
Instead, following the traces of aura led him to Liu Qingke, who had entered the valley.
Liu Qingke was currently inside a place in the village that looked like a granary, though he was at its innermost section.
There were over a hundred sets of armor and weapons there, along with a middle-aged man with Qi-Blood Abundance who appeared to be the steward.
The two spoke late into the night by candlelight, their expressions grave.
For some reason, Mu Yang had the distinct feeling that they were conspiring in the dead of night, preparing to rise in rebellion.
In an ordinary ancient world, a local strongman possessing over a hundred sets of armor would indeed have considerable power. Unfortunately, martial arts existed here.
Without sufficient combat strength to support it, so-called rebellion was nothing but a joke.
Since it was not rebellion, what were they discussing?
With curiosity, Mu Yang leaned closer and listened for a while.
Before long, he understood.
This place was called Liu Family Valley. As its name suggested, it was a place where the Liu Family raised its own people.
It was both their foundation and their escape route.
Liu Qingke had come tonight merely to tell the Liu Family man acting as steward that they should avoid going out these days, lest they accidentally provoke Mu Yang and be slaughtered by him.
Mu Yang: Am I really that bloodthirsty?
Mu Yang was speechless.
Yet amid his speechlessness, he also felt somewhat regretful.
After all, other than maintaining Hidden Households, the Liu Family truly had not colluded with Monsters.
"Forget it. I'll search around once more. If there's really nothing, I'll head back."
Mu Yang tapped off the ground and left the granary.
Before long, an exceptionally tall building entered his sight.
It had a blue-gray tiled roof and upturned eaves, looking like an ancestral hall.
Mu Yang quietly entered and looked inside.
The ancestral hall was spacious and empty. At its center stood a long offering table, upon which rested an incense burner, candleholders, and fresh fruit and pastries as offerings.
Yet what was worshipped above the offering table was not an ancestor of the Liu Family, but a statue nearly two meters tall.
It depicted a woman dressed in white, with a diamond-shaped mark carved between her brows. Her hands formed a hand seal, and her gentle features carried a trace of compassion.
The sculptor was clearly a master. The statue was lifelike, as though it were a True Person.
Still, even after staring for a long time, Mu Yang could not recognize the statue's origins.
He had heard the old constables mention people like Daoist priests with ox noses and bald monks, but he knew nothing about other forms of faith.
It was probably a faith with limited reach, something like a Land God.
"I didn't expect even these aristocratic Lineages to dabble in such ethereal things as faith."
Mu Yang silently sighed.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, an ink-wash-colored panel suddenly emerged from above the statue.
[Equippable Item: Incense Statue (Bai Lin)] [Rank: Sixth Rank] [Equipment Effects: ① Incense Accumulation (Purple): Having been tempered by Incense Power, this statue can store Incense Power. ② Anchor Point (Purple): Having been tempered by Incense Power, after consuming a certain amount of Incense Power, it can ignore distance and transmit the Incense Power stored within the statue to the body of the believer. ③ Blessing (Purple): Having been tempered by Incense Power, once the accumulated Incense Power reaches a certain level, if a believer prays sincerely, it can bless the surrounding area with favorable winds and timely rains.] [Conditions for Permanent Solidification: Equip this item for two full years, or slay any Sixth Rank or higher-ranked demon beast while this item is equipped.]
"!!!"
"Sixth Rank?"
Mu Yang steadied himself and examined it several times in meticulous detail before confirming that he was not seeing things.
Incense Accumulation, Anchor Point, Blessing...
All three attributes were Purple!
This setup was more extravagant than any equipment Mu Yang had ever seen.
Still, this equipment contained an enormous amount of information!
Statue, incense, faith...
"In other words, this world truly has so-called gods?"
Mu Yang was astonished.
But upon careful thought, it did not seem that difficult to accept.
A First Rank martial artist possessed the strength of a thousand catties in one arm.
A Third Rank martial artist possessed more than ten thousand catties of strength in one arm.
No matter how one looked at it, this was not an ordinary low-martial world. The existence of gods and the like seemed perfectly normal.
He simply did not know whether gods could be killed, or whether they could be equipped after dying.
Mu Yang's heart grew heated.
Having come from the twenty-first century, he had a blazing heart. He neither believed in nor feared so-called gods.
With the Equipment Slot at his side, even gods would be nothing more than nourishment for him.
Of course, those were matters for the future.
For now, he planned to return the way he came, quietly taking nothing at all from the ancestral hall.
It was not that he was cowardly.
It was merely a tactical retreat—a measured, planned temporary withdrawal.
Even with his toes, he could figure out that a god capable of creating a Sixth-Rank Incense Statue with three Purple attributes, then spreading it to a small place like Qingxi County, was certainly no ordinary being.
Provoking it rashly would be nothing but seeking death.
"Martial arts, Monsters, gods... this world truly is exciting enough. I need to work harder!"
"I hope that after joining the Demon Slayer Bureau, there'll be more Monsters to aid my cultivation."
In the lonely depths of night, moonlight spilled over the earth like silver.
Everything was as ordinary as ever.
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