Your master has you covered

Hearing this, Zhou Muzhi knew he had truly chosen the right master.

Li Jingfei had not asked how it happened or who the enemy was. He had only asked Zhou Muzhi to state the fundamental problem, which was practically an open declaration that he intended to stand by his own.

Whether he could protect him was another matter. That protective bearing alone showed that the Yuanchu Sect must have a spirit of shared glory.

After considerable thought, Zhou Muzhi decided that giving him advance notice might not be a bad thing, and cupped his hands in a bow.

"Master, I offended the Qian Family. More precisely, their eldest young master, Qian Zhen. He intended to seize my Zhou Family's ancestral estate, so I had Lao Xu strike first and kill one of his servants, a man named Ma Jin."

Li Jingfei shook his empty wineskin and set it on the pavilion table. After listening, he did not immediately speak. For a while, only their breathing could be heard.

A little time passed.

"There really wasn't enough wine. I miss the strong liquor from the town below the sect."

Then, meeting his disciple's rather helpless gaze, he finally coughed and said, "Qian Lucai's Qian Family?"

Qian Lucai was the current head of the Qian Family in Suming County, and the man who had brought the family to unprecedented prosperity.

Li Jingfei had named him outright, so he clearly knew of him.

"Then that unclean thing on you is connected to them too?"

As those words fell, even the breeze carried a chill.

Zhou Muzhi rubbed the rim of his ear as he had before and nodded, tacitly acknowledging it.

"Heh. How mighty the Qian Family is..."

Li Jingfei narrowed his eyes slightly. As he rose, his bearing changed in an instant, and an intensely terrifying sensation filled the little pavilion.

This strange sensation was an outward manifestation of his martial realm. His aura was far more formidable than that of the Blood Gate Realm. Had it fallen upon an ordinary person, it would have been enough to crush their spirit with fear.

Even Zhou Muzhi, who was in the Blood Gate Realm, felt the terror of his life no longer being in his own hands, as though this master could end him the moment he struck.

His strength was enough to look down on others of his realm. If even he could not withstand this pressure, that was ample proof of how high Li Jingfei's realm was.

A moment later, the strange sensation dissipated.

Having regained his composure, Li Jingfei spoke quietly. "The strong never grow beneath another's wings. Disciple, what you lack now is tempering. Go ahead and make this Qian Family your whetstone.

"A mere petty clan in a little town dares provoke someone from my Yuanchu Sect? I'd like to see how many heads they have to spare!"

Though Li Jingfei had been away from his sect for years, its mark had never left him. As a disciple of a martial holy land, his pride had long since been carved into his bones.

Someone in a remote little town dared reach out to harm one of his people. These bumpkins apparently no longer knew what a top martial sect was, or what it meant to be a holy land that had once stood at the pinnacle of the Song Kingdom.

In his younger days, he would already have charged over in a fury to kill them. He would never have considered so much.

If he died in the charge, then he died. If he survived, that was his own ability.

As for the truth, whoever survived was the truth.

It was only because he was older now, with much less killing intent, that he no longer went around fighting and killing.

He approached things more from the perspective of cultivating an outstanding disciple.

For this disciple, the Qian Family might be a good proving ground.

Yes, in the eyes of this disciple of a great sect, now over fifty, the Qian Family was beneath his notice.

Li Jingfei's words were his guarantee of support.

They meant that whoever stood behind the Qian Family would, at least on the martial path, have to face Li Jingfei, a master who had once made a considerable name for himself in Commandery City.

Even if the Qian Family could find someone of the same realm capable of matching Li Jingfei in martial combat, such martial artists were exceedingly few.

What Zhou Muzhi needed to guard against next, then, were methods like the vengeful ghost.

Such things were impossible to guard against completely, and it was easy to fall victim to them. They might be useless against him now, but against the other members of the Zhou Family, they would be lethal.

Zhou Muzhi cupped his fists again. "Thank you for backing me, Master. Your disciple is deeply grateful."

"A small matter. Go on. Do whatever you need to do, and don't stand on ceremony with your master. In all of Suming County, only one person warrants caution from me, and the Qian Family is not among them."

Li Jingfei did not say who that was, but Zhou Muzhi could make a reasonable guess.

After all, there were only two masters in the entire little town.

Having secured his master's promise, Zhou Muzhi remained fundamentally calm, without much excitement.

After all, Li Jingfei was a fallback. Before it came to that, he still had to deal with Qian Zhen himself.

Improving his strength remained urgent, whether in martial arts or anything else.

On the incense-making side, Half-Immortal Xu's Vengeful Ghost Incense for controlling ghosts now seemed particularly important.

Seeing that his disciple could still keep his composure, Li Jingfei was even more pleased with his mind.

After all, talent was innate, but brains were not. If a big oaf acquired talent, he would merely be a big oaf who could fight.

What martial arts needed nowadays were people with steadfast minds.

Of course, if they also had talent, that made them the finest prospects, all the more worth the effort of nurturing.

Zhou Muzhi was very much worth it.

After bidding Li Jingfei farewell, Zhou Muzhi left the Li Residence with the booklet and headed for Youhe Street.

When he arrived at Half-Immortal Xu's home, he found the incense maker frowning deeply, seemingly faced with a difficult problem.

Inside the house.

Standing beside the half-closed door, Zhou Muzhi looked at Half-Immortal Xu and asked, "Are you still missing something?"

Half-Immortal Xu had been waiting for exactly that question and immediately slapped his thigh. "A great deal! I've discovered I can't make this incense with my abilities. I'm missing five of its core ingredients, though I have every supplementary material. Most importantly, it requires a little something special."

He certainly did not mince words. After hearing him out, Zhou Muzhi frowned too.

These things really were difficult to obtain. Suddenly, he remembered the man with the severed arm. The man might appear crippled, but his knowledge and experience remained intact.

If he could get him and Half-Immortal Xu working together, their progress with the incense would improve greatly.

So he said, "I have someone in mind. I can call him over."

After being shocked so many times, Half-Immortal Xu had long since developed a habit of not contradicting Zhou Muzhi. He followed up with a question. "Who?"

"The man who gave me the materials. He's working as a steward at my house now, so he's halfway to being one of our own. If we can persuade him to help us find the materials, it will certainly speed things up."

Half-Immortal Xu nodded too. These materials were indeed hard to find. If there really was someone that capable, he would be a suitable choice.

"All right, bring him in. Also, assign me some guards. These old bones know nothing of martial arts. If I go along, I won't be much use."

Zhou Muzhi looked at him, not having expected Half-Immortal Xu to plan on going himself.

Well, that was good too.

"All right. When the time comes, I'll assign two household guards to you. They're both elite men. They aren't Body Condensation martial artists, but they're stronger than ordinary people."

Half-Immortal Xu hummed in acknowledgment. "That will do. As long as someone is protecting us."

"Also, what was that special thing you mentioned?"

When Zhou Muzhi asked, Half-Immortal Xu frowned and answered, "Memories."

?

What?

Half-Immortal Xu continued, "The memories of the ghost you wish to control. Those are the core of this old Daoist's method of control.

"Alter the ghost's remaining memories to make yourself the person most important to it, then use sealing incense to seal them within the incense mist. Only then can it be attached to a mundane object. This is the complete method!"

Zhou Muzhi was stunned.

How am I supposed to find you something so abstract?

Half-Immortal Xu slapped his forehead and added, "This old Daoist didn't explain it fully. I mean finding out who this ghost used to be, obtaining memories of its background, personality, relationships, interests, and so on. Once those have been collected, the rest will be easy."

Now he understood, but that made things even harder.

Because he had killed the people responsible too soon. But on second thought, those two probably had not known the woman's identity either. If they had, they would have said so already.

This business of "memories" would still have to come down to the gambling house. With so many people in the Qian Family, someone was bound to know.

"All right, I'll handle this!"

After answering, Zhou Muzhi left Half-Immortal Xu's home.

The tasks ahead were quite varied. Besides those, he also needed to examine the cultivation method his master had given him and see what he could extrapolate from it.