Explosive

Xiao Fan conscientiously took the black cloth and covered his own eyes. "No."

He truly did want to know... but that bastard's expression was just too punchable. Xiao Fan refused to indulge him, so he simply stopped asking.

"HAHAHA..." Liu Jiashan burst into laughter. "There's no harm in telling you. My martial rank is the same as yours—ninth-grade Qi Refining Realm..."

The moment those words came out, Xiao Fan didn't believe so much as a single punctuation mark. "If you don't want to say it, sir, then forget it. Why make a joke out of me...?"

A Qi Refining Realm cultivator one-shotting an Iron Bone Realm expert with a single punch? Who were you trying to fool here?! Xiao Fan ranted inwardly.

He remembered perfectly well how badly Zhang Bin, who had only just broken through to the Iron Bone Realm, had beaten him when he entered the city yesterday!

Liu Jiashan smiled. "Such spirit in a young man! I wasn't finished... Though my martial rank is only ninth-grade, my arts rank is sixth-grade."

That information... was explosive!

This guy was actually a big shot who cultivated both martial and arts paths?! Xiao Fan was stunned. The cultivation principles of the martial and arts paths were completely opposed; cultivating both was harder than climbing to the heavens!

That was precisely why his opponents were always so shocked whenever Xiao Fan ignited Blood-Burning Flame and unleashed the Fire Element Art...

"Really?! The martial and arts paths can actually be cultivated together?" Xiao Fan's curiosity erupted.

Liu Jiashan nodded lightly in confirmation. "If you want to know the details, become a Gray Robe under my command."

You rotten old man are bad to the bone! This cliffhanger baiting was cut from the same cloth as certain unscrupulous webnovel authors! Xiao Fan was so angry that he was left speechless.

On the northern edge of the capital, near the city walls.

The sound of carriage wheels rolled through the silent streets.

The carriage stopped outside Xiao Residence. Two black-clad men led Xiao Fan down, removed the black cloth over his eyes, returned his Miao saber to him, and then rode away.

At this hour, everyone at home was already asleep. Xiao Fan quietly returned to his room, unwilling to disturb anyone.

What he had gone through tonight could truly be called nine deaths and one life. After being brought into the Shadow Pivot Court, Xiao Fan had been worried that his Essence-Storing Pouch would be confiscated. After all, it contained a third-grade Calamity Artifact!

Fortunately, the Essence-Storing Pouch was quite reliable. It possessed its own mysteries within; unless opened by its owner, even if someone opened it, it would appear to be nothing more than an ordinary empty pouch.

Liu Jiashan apparently hadn't discovered the pouch's secret and thus had not confiscated it.

Even so, Xiao Fan did not dare take out the Soul-Capturing Porcelain to study it at home. The thing was far too dangerous; at his current rank, he simply could not control it.

Putting away the Essence-Storing Pouch, Xiao Fan began reviewing everything that had happened tonight.

There was currently no way to proceed with Wu Xiong's assassination attempt due to the lack of crucial information. He could only find an opportunity later to meet Qin Han, the master behind him, and deal with matters then.

Then there was his father's assignment to escort Dowager Consort Wang's coffin.

Of the entire escort party, only his father was currently alive. There was no way of knowing what they had encountered in Hidden Valley on Great Azure Mountain.

One thing was certain: the true purpose of that mission had never been the coffin, but the Soul-Capturing Porcelain... or perhaps Xun Huan, who had been sealed within it.

Xiao Fan's thoughts raced as he guessed that his father's true mission this time had most likely been to bring the Soul-Capturing Porcelain, originally kept in the imperial mausoleum, back to the capital!

But something had gone wrong on the return journey. The Soul-Capturing Porcelain had spiraled out of control, releasing a white fog of death that devoured the entire party and awakened Xun Huan.

With the information currently available, that was all Xiao Fan could deduce. For anything more, he would have to wait for his father to return.

As for the Shadow Pivot Court's interrogation, Xiao Fan was not overly worried. His father was the sole survivor of the entire mission and would undoubtedly require close protection.

He even suspected that the Shadow Pivot Court's reason for going to Armament Hall in the middle of the night to take someone away had not really been for interrogation, but for protection!

He came to this conclusion because Liu Jiashan's questioning tonight had not been particularly strict. Even the supervisory judges from the Inspectorate had not appeared.

That indicated that the truthfulness of the interrogation's content might not have been all that important. What mattered was Xiao Wu, the only living witness.

The Shadow Pivot Court had most likely merely used this as an excuse to take him away from Armament Hall.

Afterward, Xiao Fan lit a candle, took off his bloodstained shirt, and carefully examined the spot on his chest where the scale was...

"Huh? This scale doesn't seem to have grown much larger, but I clearly felt it growing back then... Was that just an illusion?"

Xiao Fan scrutinized the scale on his chest in the bronze mirror.

"Could it be that there hasn't been much change on the surface, while it's mainly growing inward?"

With that thought, he carefully tugged at the scale...

Ah!

That tug hurt so badly he nearly burst into tears. Clutching his chest, he curled up on the floor as cold sweat instantly soaked his entire body. He panted like an ox, drenched in clammy sweat, the pain as though his heart were being torn apart alive!

Just as he thought! The scale had embedded itself deeper and deeper within him! It had even begun to adhere to his heart meridians!

Only after quite some time did the pain finally ease somewhat...

Xiao Fan panted heavily, cold sweat still pouring from his body. "Damn it! That nearly killed me. If the calamity poison goes over the limit again next time, I might really die!"

He didn't dare charge in recklessly anymore... This time, he truly didn't dare be reckless again...

Who knew what deadly consequences would arise if this damned scale continued to grow.

Xiao Fan climbed to his feet, slipped out of the room with all the stealth of a thief, quickly washed up, then returned to bed!

No matter how huge the matter was, it could wait until tomorrow.

Nothing happened that night...

Early the next morning, Xiao Fan was hauled in by his mother and interrogated about what had happened the night before.

Naturally, he couldn't tell her the truth. He couldn't exactly say that his father had been taken away by the Shadow Pivot Court—wouldn't that scare her half to death...?

Left with no choice, he could only say that his father had official business to attend to and wouldn't be able to return home for the time being.

To keep his mother from digging to the roots and prying into every detail, Xiao Fan hurried out as soon as he finished breakfast.

He had a great many things to do today.

First, he needed to visit the Bladesmith Studio and have a scabbard made for his Miao saber, to suppress some of the Sha Qi seeping out of that cursed blade.

Old Zhang of the Bladesmith Studio was a skilled blade-forger, and the scabbards he made were quite good as well. Once he had measured the blade's dimensions, he could begin crafting the sheath.

"Come pick it up in three days!" Old Zhang said casually as he worked.

Xiao Fan set down an ingot of silver. "This is the deposit."

As he turned to leave, he suddenly remembered something. "Right, Old Zhang—be careful of the Sha Qi inside this Miao saber. If anything feels off, come find me at once."

Old Zhang was long used to such things. "Aiya, I know, I know. A good blade is bound to carry balefulness. If I were afraid of Sha Qi, what kind of bladesmith would I be?"

That wasn't wrong. To a bladesmith, the Sha Qi within swords and sabers was a commonplace sight; they had long grown accustomed to it.

Once the matter of the scabbard was settled, Xiao Fan immediately hurried toward the south of the city.

Next month's Nine Provinces Martial Tournament would be held in the capital. It was the perfect chance for him to make a name for himself, and he could not afford to miss it.

According to the Martial Arts Association's rules, contestants in the Nine Provinces Martial Tournament were subject to rank restrictions and could not exceed the eighth rank.

The reason for this rule was to give newcomers to the martial world a chance to show themselves, preventing them from being suppressed by high-ranking martial artists.

Of course, besides ranked martial artists, practitioners of the arcane arts could also register for the tournament, provided they too were no higher than the eighth rank.

Though the rules allowed arcane practitioners to enter, in reality, almost none of them took part in the Nine Provinces Martial Tournament...

The reason was simple. In this sort of arena match, a head-on clash, arcane practitioners were no match for martial artists. Their combat strength wasn't even on the same level.

It was like how scholars taking the imperial examinations usually wouldn't join a martial arts tournament—no matter how profound their learning, they still couldn't withstand the other side's iron fists.

Before absolute brute force, all manner of flashy tricks were pale and powerless...