Thirty-Six Heavenly Dipper Arts: Sight Through Walls.
The clear light in Su Qing's eyes pierced the hazy array, a cold gleam locking onto the figure hidden in the street ahead of them.
The man held a floral umbrella. He was thin, with soft, effeminate features like a eunuch's, and his exceedingly thin lips made him thoroughly unpleasant to look at.
"Neither man nor woman. What a fine neutered dog," Su Qing sneered.
"Carrying an umbrella in a thunderstorm? You're begging for lightning to strike your heart."
No sooner had those words left his mouth than Su Qing abruptly roared, "Dark, dark grow the clouds; rumbling, rumbling rolls the thunder!"
A thunderbolt struck, punched through the Spirit Array, and landed squarely on Ji Zong's floral umbrella.
When a Spirit Array Master's painstakingly prepared array was broken, he could generally start thinking about his last words.
Perhaps he would not even have time for that, just like Ji Zong.
Unlike the tricks Su Qing had spat from his mouth earlier, this bolt was genuine lightning.
It first punched through both the Soul Bewildering Array and the Blood Rain Killing Array, then destroyed their focal point-the floral umbrella in Ji Zong's hand.
That thunderbolt shattered Ji Zong's Spirit Arrays, shattered the array focus in his hand, and shattered his confidence.
The instant the lightning fell, Su Qing rushed at Ji Zong with his sword, sweeping the blade toward his head.
Even with his Spirit Arrays broken, Ji Zong was not entirely powerless. He still possessed early-stage Spirit Movement Realm cultivation, and hastily stepped back, narrowly dodging the strike.
Unfortunately, his opponent was Su Qing. What good did dodging that first strike do him?
Before Ji Zong could regain his footing, Su Qing's second strike came slashing out.
Thud!
Bang!
The first sound was his corpse falling.
The second was his head hitting the ground.
Drops of thick blood slid from the sword.
In a building at the other end of the street, two shadowy figures watched the scene with grim expressions. They were Liu Mubai and his Third Uncle, Liu Ming.
"Third Uncle, what do we do?" Liu Mubai asked dejectedly.
"I thought he'd relied on outside help to kill Blood Butcher. Now it seems I can't even hope to glimpse his back."
"There's probably no one below the Divine Soul Realm who can handle him anymore. Let's leave it at that today. We'll discuss it with your father when we return," Liu Ming said through gritted teeth.
With that, the two leaped into the shadows and vanished.
A handful of Clear Flame burned the blood off his sword. Su Qing took a long look at the building down the street, then turned away.
"Leave him alone. Someone will come collect the body soon."
Seeing Mu Chen still staring at Ji Zong's corpse, Su Qing spoke up to remind him.
"Brother, I thought you were bullshitting before," Mu Chen said, shaking his head. "You took Ji Zong's head as easily as slaughtering a chicken or a dog."
"People who cultivate through external tools are at a huge disadvantage against me. If there isn't much of a gap between our cultivation levels, they can pretty much wait to die when they run into me," Su Qing explained.
"True." Recalling the two strikes Su Qing had just unleashed, Mu Chen could not help drawing his neck in.
"That should be everyone. I'd actually been looking forward to a little more." Su Qing increased the spiritual energy flowing into Sight Through Walls and surveyed the surroundings.
"You're a prickly target. I'd leave too," Mu Chen said with a laugh.
"All right, let's head home." Once he confirmed that everyone from the Liu Domain had indeed left, Su Qing put Kunwu away and walked toward the Teleportation Spirit Array.
"Oh! You two lads are back!"
Su Qing and Mu Chen happened to run into someone they knew as they stepped out of the Teleportation Spirit Array.
The man was thin, with sunken eyes and a fierce, forbidding expression. Yet the moment he saw them, his face lit up, a warm smile softening his features.
"Hello, Uncle Zhou!" Su Qing and Mu Chen called in unison.
"Oh! You've reached the Spirit Wheel Realm, lad?" Uncle Zhou looked the two of them over before addressing Su Qing.
"Yes, I just broke through yesterday," Su Qing replied.
"How's your injury?" Uncle Zhou asked with concern.
"This breakthrough helped quite a bit. It shouldn't cause any trouble for now," Su Qing answered with a smile.
"Heh, just make sure you take care of yourself." Uncle Zhou chuckled, then turned an inquiring gaze toward Mu Chen.
Mu Chen answered as well. "I reached the late stage of the Spirit Movement Realm a little while ago."
Uncle Zhou smiled in satisfaction and cautioned him, "Don't copy your brother. Take it slowly, and don't rush. He knows what he's doing, so I won't interfere, but you must be careful."
Su Qing rolled his eyes helplessly, while Mu Chen could not suppress a grin. "Don't worry, Uncle Zhou."
"All right, I can't chat any longer. Your father sent me out on an errand. See you later." With that, Uncle Zhou waved, passed them, and headed toward the Teleportation Spirit Array.
Smiling, Su Qing and Mu Chen said goodbye to Uncle Zhou and made their way toward the Mu Estate.
Uncle Zhou's real name was Zhou Ye. He was Mu Feng's sworn friend through life and death, having fought alongside him across the Northern Spirit Plains in their younger years and helped him become the lord of the Mu Domain.
He had watched Su Qing and Mu Chen grow up and treated them like the younger generation of his own family. Naturally, they were very close.
Before long, Su Qing and Mu Chen reached the Mu Estate. It was heavily guarded, of course, but the guards smiled and greeted them when they saw who they were.
The two went straight into the reception hall, where a man in black robes sat in the seat of honor, brewing tea.
He had an upright bearing and a resolute face. Strands of white mingled with his black hair, lending him an air of weathered experience.
He was Mu Chen's birth father, Su Qing's adoptive father, and the lord of the Mu Domain-Mu Feng.
"You little brat. So you still remember to come home," Mu Feng grumbled as Su Qing entered the hall, though his eyes held a measure of gratification.
"I was just waiting to make something of myself and do you proud." Grinning, Su Qing walked over and took over the tea-making.
"And you. You follow your brother around, ignoring all his good habits and learning the bad ones," Mu Feng added, turning to Mu Chen with a laughing scold.
"Dad, you can't just spit blood and slander me! I've never copied him," Mu Chen replied with a grin.
While they talked, Su Qing finished brewing the tea. He brushed his hand across the bottom of the pot, and a chill spread through it, producing a pot of cold tea.
"Ah!" Mu Feng picked up his cup, took a sip of cold tea, and sighed. "It has to be you, Qing. No one else has this knack."
"Listen to you. I offered to teach you both, but neither of you wanted to learn," Su Qing said. "This quick-chilling trick isn't complicated."
"But we have you, don't we?" Mu Chen chimed in.
"I've seen right through you. You just don't want to learn!" Su Qing said, curling his lip at Mu Chen.
"What brought you back this time, lad? Don't tell me it's nothing. You never visit the temple without something to pray for. You think I don't know you?" Mu Feng asked.
"I killed Ji Zong in Northern Spirit City just now," Su Qing said calmly, taking a sip of tea.
"Ji Zong, the Man in the Rain?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I didn't notice earlier. You've broken through. Good, very good." Mu Feng looked Su Qing over again.
"The main reason was that I killed Blood Butcher in the Northern Spirit Plains, and Blood Butcher had stolen something extremely important to the Liu Domain."
"I have it now."
Su Qing then took the Copper Fragment bearing the Nine Nether Sparrow out of the Sleeve Universe and handed it to Mu Feng.
Mu Feng studied it with a frown before saying, "If I'm not mistaken, the creature depicted here should be the Nine Nether Sparrow."
"The one ranked eleventh on the Myriad Beasts Ranking?" Mu Chen asked.
"It looks like it," Mu Feng said gravely. "Let me confirm."
After a moment's thought, Mu Feng closed his hand. Blazing fire gathered in his palm, eventually taking the form of a palm-sized fire condor.
It was the soul essence Mu Feng had refined upon reaching the Divine Soul Realm-the Flame Dragon Condor, ranked eighty-fifth on the Myriad Beasts Record Earth Ranking.
When Mu Feng brought the Flame Dragon Condor's soul essence in his palm close to the Copper Fragment marked with the black sparrow, a trace of panic flashed through the condor's sharp eyes. He hastily backed away, looking utterly terrified.
That made it all but certain that this was the Nine Nether Sparrow.
"If it really is the Nine Nether Sparrow, no wonder the Liu Domain values it so highly. If someone could refine her soul essence, his strength would probably rise enormously," Mu Feng said with a sigh.
"But if she really is the Nine Nether Sparrow, the Liu Domain shouldn't be strong enough to hunt her, should they?"
Mu Chen frowned as he offered his analysis from the side.
"She's a Nine Nether Sparrow who failed to evolve," Su Qing said.
At that moment, Mu Feng poured his powerful spiritual energy into the Copper Fragment, and a screen of light unfolded.
The father and his two sons watched the entire scene of the Nine Nether Sparrow's failed evolution, along with the map that appeared on the screen at the end.
"We cannot let the Liu Domain get her," Mu Feng said decisively after watching.
The Liu Domain was already riding high. If they obtained the Nine Nether Sparrow and grew even stronger, they would probably no longer tolerate the other factions at odds with them.
This time, then, they had to secure her at all costs.