The Feeling of a Fluttering Heart

Cold moonlight spilled over the Commander's Mansion in Loushan City.

The great courtyard of the Commander's Mansion was in chaos.

Shrieking, terrified female attendants, soldiers hurrying forward, and Commander Wu shouting orders... it was nearly a pot of porridge.

Fortunately, with the demonic cultivator captured, the situation was brought under control.

When the demonic cultivator who had thrown Loushan City into turmoil was subdued, everyone present erupted into cheers.

Even the cool-eyed, aloof Glaze Fairy could not help but let out a soft breath of relief as she looked at the bound demonic cultivator.

With this demonic cultivator captured, there was no longer any need to fear that the Imperial Observatory's Demon Suppressing Warlocks would come to Loushan City and slaughter everyone in sight.

Loushan City, which had been on the verge of being razed to the ground, had finally escaped danger. The people throughout the city would be spared this calamity.

Thinking of this, Glaze Fairy raised her eyes toward the figure beside her.

That man wore a dark black constable's uniform. In terms of rank and status, he was the lowest-ranking person in the courtyard today.

Yet it was precisely because of him that all the dangers along the way had been resolved.

Without the help of this constable Wuming, perhaps she would not even have made it into Loushan City and would have died at that inn outside the city...

As Glaze Fairy thought this, the man in the dark black constable's uniform happened to turn around. His sharply chiseled profile appeared faintly hazy beneath the candlelight, as though draped in a veil of dreamlike gauze.

Their gazes met. The man smiled slightly and nodded to Glaze Fairy in greeting.

It was only an ordinary gesture of greeting, yet for some reason, Glaze Fairy suddenly felt her heart stir violently at that instant.

She instinctively looked away, feeling strangely flustered.

Fortunately, everyone was focused on the captured demonic cultivator, and no one noticed Glaze Fairy's lapse in composure for the moment.

After handing the captured demonic cultivator over to the soldiers present, the man passed through the cheering crowd and came smiling to stand before Glaze Fairy.

"This matter has been settled. It is time for me to take my leave."

Glaze Fairy was slightly stunned to hear his farewell.

Somewhat surprised, she asked, "Lord Wuming, will you not stay?"

The man smiled openly. "No. I still have official duties to attend to. I must trouble the Fairy with the remaining cleanup."

Having said that, without waiting to see how Glaze Fairy would reply, the man in the constable's uniform turned and left, heading straight for the courtyard gate.

With a single step, he seemed to shrink the earth to an inch and appeared several zhang away. In the blink of an eye, he had left the courtyard.

Yet the instant he reached the gate and evaded everyone's sight, the man's form vanished beneath the moonlight, dissipating like a wisp of smoke.

Glaze Fairy and the banner officer Zhao Erhu, who had chased after him to ask him to stay, could only stare at the empty corridor. They could not find any trace of the man at all.

Zhao Erhu, clad in armor, scratched his head in bewilderment. "That constable's movement technique is incredible. He left so quickly. I never thought the imperial court had people this capable too..."

Zhao Erhu sighed with feeling.

During this upheaval, he had narrowly escaped death several times. It was only because this mysterious constable had intervened to help that he had preserved his life.

Thus, although Zhao Erhu held the officials of the capital court in contempt and had no goodwill toward the so-called Imperial Observatory, he was utterly convinced by this mysterious constable from the Imperial Observatory.

Zhao Erhu sighed. "With such an incredible movement technique and that danger sense which is practically foresight, he can only humble himself as a minor constable in the Imperial Observatory. The imperial court truly is rotten to the core."

"If such an extraordinary talent joined our Ever-Victorious Army, Lord Guo would certainly give him great responsibility!"

Zhao Erhu sighed again in admiration.

Yet Glaze Fairy, dressed in green and standing beside him in the night wind-swept corridor, did not say a word.

Under the moonlight, the fairy looked at the deserted, empty corridor before her, unable to find the man's figure. For some reason, she felt that the next time they met would be a very long time from now.

The feeling came abruptly, yet it made her heart flutter again, carrying a faint sting of pain.

Glaze Fairy's gaze was faintly puzzled.

What... is wrong with me?

The sword cultivators of the Mystic Sword Sect had always stood apart from the mortal world, unmoved by external things, pursuing the supreme realm of forgetting both self and all things, becoming one with heaven and man.

For Glaze Fairy, this was the first time she had experienced such repeated tremors of the heart in a single night.

She felt somewhat lost.

Perhaps after returning to the mountain, she should ask her master about it. Maybe something had gone wrong with her recent cultivation, causing this inexplicable heart flutter and sense of loss...

Outside the Demon Refining Sect's outer sect at sunset, Li Muyang drove a flock of Two-Legged Sheep reeking heavily of blood through the streets.

On the streets paved with bluestone slabs, all the outer sect disciples hurried out of the flock's way as soon as they saw it approaching, avoiding it as though it were the plague.

Though the chore of herding sheep in Blood Mist Valley paid well, very few people were willing to take it on voluntarily. Usually, the stewards had to assign it in rotation.

Li Muyang drove the flock through streets and alleys, finally herding them into the sheep pen before going to return his identity plaque and ritual artifact to the steward.

The steward's surname was Wang. He was a burly, fat man with an open and hearty smile.

His cheerful appearance made him seem approachable, but among the outer sect's several stewards, Steward Wang had the hardest methods.

Anyone who dared provoke him rarely came to a good end.

The good news, however, was that as long as no one provoked him, Fatty Wang was quite easy to talk to most of the time.

After returning his identity plaque and ritual artifact, Li Muyang happily headed back to his own thatched hut.

The scent of rice and stir-fried dishes drifted over from the neighboring courtyard. Guan Xiaoshun was already cooking.

After entering his room, Li Muyang first opened his shabby old wooden cabinet and confirmed that no one had stolen the two jin of spirit rice from his large bowl. Only then did he relax.

Next came washing the rice and cooking it, all in one smooth motion.

He could not be bothered to stir-fry any dishes. After quickly cooking a pot of rice, he scooped it straight into a wooden bucket, then sat on the threshold and began eating from it.

The rice cooked from high-grade spirit rice was soft, glutinous, and fragrant, far more delicious than ordinary spirit rice.

Moreover, once the spirit rice entered his stomach, it rapidly transformed into incomparably pure spiritual energy, flowing into his limbs, bones, and meridians to nourish his body.

For outer sect disciples like Li Muyang and the others, cultivation mainly depended on eating.

The spirit rice they ate would transform into spiritual energy and circulate through their bodies, gradually becoming genuine cultivation. There was no need to cultivate actively at all.

—That was how it was supposed to be.

Li Muyang was washing the pot after finishing his meal when spiritual energy began pouring from his stomach without end.

Very quickly, Li Muyang felt every part of his body—his limbs, bones, and all his meridians—fill with spiritual energy.

The excessive amount of spiritual energy even swelled him with pain.

"What the hell... there's this much spiritual energy?"

Li Muyang immediately put down what he was doing, sat cross-legged on his hard wooden bed, and began regulating his breath, trying to sort out the surging spiritual energy within him.

Previously, after eating spirit rice each day, he could only sense a faint trickle of spiritual energy entering his body.

If the spiritual energy supplied by the spirit rice he had eaten before was like water dripping from a tiny pipe, then the spiritual energy brought by high-grade spirit rice was a flood bursting through a dam.

He had been mentally prepared for how potent high-grade spirit rice was, but this was far too much.

As Li Muyang continuously sorted through the surging spiritual energy in his body and felt his limbs, bones, and meridians almost overflowing with it, he understood with utter clarity the gap between ordinary people and the great aristocratic clans.

—The spiritual energy those favored children of heaven gained from one meal of high-grade spirit rice was at least equivalent to two months' worth for ordinary people!