The Yang Residence's Secret

Another three days passed.

Today, the Yang Residence was bustling. The family head was heading to Blackstone City to handle affairs, so the servants had to prepare the master's food, clothing, and daily necessities early in the morning.

Though they were only putting on a show of being busy, there were barely more than ten people in the entire group, so they did not need much at all.

Still, they had to make it look like they were working. Otherwise, whether they were there or not made no difference, and sooner or later they would be streamlined out.

People at the bottom had their own ways of surviving.

Zhou Qi was not among them.

He was the young master's personally chosen fighter. All he needed to do was focus wholeheartedly on the clan duel seven days from now.

Once the servants returned to the front courtyard from the middle courtyard in twos and threes, Zhou Qi knew that the Yang Residence's strongest combatant had left.

But it was only around three in the afternoon. There were still five or six hours until nightfall.

Night fell, black as ink, with a cold wind whistling high.

Zhou Qi changed into the nightwear he had prepared long ago—really just a large piece of black cloth crudely cut into shape.

He covered his face as well. Before leaving, he thought for a moment, then covered his head too, leaving only his ears and eyes exposed.

Everything was ready.

At the hour of the ox, when people's drowsiness was at its deepest.

A shadow quietly pushed open the wooden door and slipped toward the main courtyard.

The Yang Residence had three courtyards. The front courtyard was for receiving guests and housing servants, the middle courtyard was where Yang Mingyuan and the other direct descendants lived, while the rear courtyard belonged to the family head, Yang Zhenshan.

Zhou Qi crossed the middle courtyard, evaded several patrols, and arrived outside the rear courtyard wall.

The wall was two zhang high, but it was nothing to him now.

He drew in a breath and leaped. His toes tapped the wall twice, and he flipped over it.

The rear courtyard was far quieter than the front. Only a few lanterns swayed in the wind, and every room had already gone dark.

At the hour of the ox, around one or two in the morning, everyone except the patrols was asleep.

Zhou Qi crouched low, using the flowers and trees as cover as he searched room after room.

Study, bedroom, meditation chamber...

Nothing.

Zhou Qi frowned.

Something like the latter half of the Nourishing Qi Scripture had to be the foundation of a great clan. It would certainly be hidden somewhere secret.

Could there be a hidden chamber?

Zhou Qi retreated to the artificial hill in the rear courtyard. Just as he was about to search the study once more, he suddenly noticed that the grass beneath his feet was unusually sparse.

Strange. Zhou Qi bent down and studied it carefully. The grass here had been trampled bare over the years, but who would keep walking around an artificial hill—and only this one spot?

He reached out and pushed one of the rocks in the artificial hill.

The rock shifted slightly.

Delight rose in Zhou Qi's heart, and he shoved it harder.

"Crack, crack..."

The artificial hill slowly split open, revealing a staircase leading downward.

An underground chamber!

Zhou Qi's spirits rose, joy appearing on his face. At last, he had found something.

He drew a deep breath and slipped inside.

The staircase was long. The farther down he went, the damper the air became, mingled with a strange smell.

It smelled like blood, yet also like medicinal herbs.

A bad feeling surged within Zhou Qi.

At the end of the stairs stood an iron door.

He gently pushed it open a crack and peered inside.

Several night-luminescent pearls gave off a faint blue glow, just enough to reveal the state of the room.

Zhou Qi swept his gaze over it, but the sight within made his expression freeze.

Beyond the iron door was an enormous cellar.

More than a dozen stone beds stood in the cellar, with a person lying on each one. Their hands and feet were shackled with iron chains, while thin tubes had been inserted all over their bodies. The other ends of the tubes connected to earthenware jars.

Their skin was pale as paper, their eyes tightly shut, their chests rising and falling weakly.

Inside the jars, blood-colored humanoid herbs were slowly growing.

Medicine Humans?

Zhou Qi's mind boomed.

Then he immediately thought of the Blood-and-Flesh Pill Yang Mingyuan had given him.

A thread of clues gradually became clear in his mind.

No wonder...

No wonder Yang Mingyuan could casually produce such an evil pill.

They had actually refined all of this themselves.

Suppressing his shock, Zhou Qi stepped closer.

Suddenly, a familiar face caught his attention.

Zhang Hu!

The rough and boisterous Zhang Hu now lay on a stone bed, his eyes sunken deep, his lips cracked, his whole body reduced to skin and bones.

"Brother Hu..."

Zhou Qi instinctively looked toward the others beside him. They were all attendants who had been sent to Blackstone City as shop hands during this period.

In an instant, he understood even more clearly what was happening.

These attendants of his were actually Medicine Humans raised by the Yang Residence.

If they were useful, they served as thugs. If they were useless, they were sent here to feed the medicine.

A chill condensed in Zhou Qi's eyes. Just as he was about to step forward and rip apart the tubes continuously drawing blood, a cold shout came from behind him.

"Who goes there!"

Zhou Qi whirled around.

Two gray-robed elders stood at the stairway entrance, their gazes like lightning as they stared at him.

The system panel appeared:

[Name: Yang Yuanshan]

[Realm: Qi Refining Level Seven (Early Stage)]

[Techniques: Shadow-Escape Steps (Mastery), Blazing Flame Palm (Mastery)]

[Name: Yang Jinshan]

[Realm: Qi Refining Level Six (Late Stage)]

[Techniques: Falling Leaf Sword Technique (Beginner), Army-Breaking Fist (Mastery)]

Zhou Qi's heart sank.

There was actually a Level Seven cultivator.

"Breaking into forbidden grounds—die!"

Yang Yuanshan shouted low and struck with his palm, the palm wind carrying scorching waves of heat.

Zhou Qi twisted aside to evade it, then threw a backhanded punch.

Mountain-Splitting Fist.

Yang Yuanshan snorted coldly and did not dodge at all, meeting it with his palm.

Fist and palm collided.

Bang!

With a dull boom, Yang Yuanshan's expression changed, and he staggered back three steps.

He stared at Zhou Qi in disbelief. "You... what realm are you really at?"

Zhou Qi felt strange to him. He was clearly at Level Six, yet he had taken Yang Yuanshan's Blazing Flame Palm head-on without falling into the slightest disadvantage. Yang Yuanshan was already at Level Seven, and his Blazing Flame Palm was a high-grade Yellow-rank technique that he had even cultivated to Mastery.

Zhou Qi was not foolish enough to answer him. Taking advantage of his shock, he turned and fled.

He pushed the Cloud-Wandering Step to its limit, becoming a wisp of smoke as he shot toward the staircase.

"Chase him!"

Yang Jinshan grabbed at him with a punch, his fist wind fierce and sharp.

Zhou Qi felt a chill wind at his back and immediately turned, throwing a full-force punch. He actually interrupted Yang Jinshan's fist technique, and the immense impact sent him stumbling back several steps before he finally crashed into a stone bed and barely stopped.

Zhou Qi, meanwhile, used the collision's force to accelerate. In the blink of an eye, he burst through the iron door and raced madly up the stairs.

Footsteps pursued relentlessly behind him.

Zhou Qi was the first to rush out of the artificial hill. His perfected Cloud-Wandering Step operated at its utmost limit as he darted left and right through the darkness.

The two elders chased behind him, but they were a step slower.

When he reached the rear courtyard wall, Zhou Qi leaped up, flipped over it, and vanished into the night.

Yang Yuanshan and Yang Jinshan chased to the wall and stopped.

"Fourth Brother, he got away." Yang Jinshan's face was dark.

Yang Yuanshan narrowed his eyes, looking in the direction Zhou Qi had vanished, and slowly said, "That person used the Mountain-Splitting Fist, and his movement technique was the Cloud-Wandering Step. His build looked young. He should be someone from the residence."

"Someone from the residence?" Yang Jinshan froze. "Who else in the residence has Level Six cultivation?"

Yang Yuanshan fell silent for several seconds. After thinking it over, he said, "An ordinary person could not possibly have Level Six cultivation. A Rogue Cultivator may have infiltrated the residence and hidden his strength. He was either after the Blood-and-Flesh Pill for breaking into the middle realm or planning to steal a late-stage technique."

Yang Jinshan seemed to come to a realization.

"Jinshan, investigate who in the residence has learned the Mountain-Splitting Fist and the Cloud-Wandering Step," Yang Yuanshan instructed. "I'll inform Second Brother."

"Second Brother? Didn't he go to Blackstone City?"

"No. He went to deliver the monthly allowance to that person."

"Alright!" Yang Jinshan nodded, clenched his right hand into a fist, and viciously punched the air downward. "If Second Brother had been here, this never would have happened."

"What about Eldest Brother and Third Brother?"

"Don't spread the news. I'm afraid Eldest Brother will use this to stir up trouble." Yang Yuanshan paused, then continued, "Besides, we cannot rule out that it was one of Eldest Brother's people, trying to destroy the Medicine Humans so we fail to meet our quota at the end of the year."

Yang Jinshan's pupils contracted upon hearing this, clearly not expecting such a deeper motive.

His not particularly clever eyes rolled around. After thinking for a while, he said heavily:

"Alright!"