Da Xuan Martial Saint

Little Lotus thought for a moment before speaking.

"The Ancient Courtyard is at the deepest part of the Yu Family's estate, where a great-ancestor of the Yu Family once lived. It's also where the Yu Family's treasury and fundamental objects, such as the Kan Water Diagram, are located," she said.

In Little Lotus's view, it was basically impossible for the He Family to bankrupt themselves to hire an assassin from the Blood Hidden Pavilion. The reason was simple: even if the He Family could really come up with that much silver taels, such a massive movement of silver would be impossible to hide from the Yu Family's surveillance.

It would not be considered an assassination at all, but an incredibly foolish act.

Once such movement was detected,

Chen Mu could just go directly to the Inspectorate and stay there!

As a White-Clothed Guard of the Demon-Slaying Office, Chen Mu belonged to the power under the Seven Profound Sect. With his talent and strength on display, it was not just that the Seven Profound Sect might exceptionally admit Chen Mu into its Inner Sect; at least, that Inspector would not allow Chen Mu to come into harm's way.

By then, the He Family would be making enemies on all sides. Not only would they anger the Inspector, but they would also have exhausted themselves financially, fail to kill Chen Mu, and even invite all sorts of reprisals from the Yu Family. Even if they didn't collapse immediately, they would be scattered and in disarray.

Compared to hiring the Blood Hidden Pavilion,

Little Lotus instead felt that it was more likely for the He Family to just break the pot and let their great-ancestor, who was in the Five Viscera Realm, take the chance to make a move on Chen Mu. That's why she felt that it might be better for Chen Mu to simply move to the Ancient Courtyard and go into closed-door cultivation with Xu Hongyu.

"The Ancient Courtyard, huh."

Chen Mu looked at Little Lotus and nodded slightly, saying, "Hmm, actually I've recently reached a bottleneck in my comprehension of the Thunderclap Artistic Conception, and I was indeed wanting to look at other maps."

Little Lotus looked at Chen Mu and blinked her eyes, comforting him, "The second step of the Artistic Conception is very difficult. You have only one copy of the rubbings, so encountering a bottleneck is normal for most people. Given your talent, it's more suitable for you to contemplate other Artistic Conceptions.

If you could simultaneously comprehend four or five kinds, I fear it wouldn't be much inferior to the second step of any Artistic Conception."

"If one could cultivate four or five kinds of the Eight Phases, then in terms of sheer power, they indeed might be comparable to the second step of an Artistic Conception, but still not quite the same in other aspects," Chen Mu said.

Artistic Conception was not ordinary; each of the Eight Phases Diagram's Artistic Conceptions in itself was extraordinary. Compared to the 'Five Elements Artistic Conception' with its subcategories of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, they could stand on equal footing or even surpass them slightly.

It was only that he had recently encountered 'Heart Sword' and 'Blood Fiend,' which just happened to be on an even higher level.

If he could gather four or five of wind, thunder, water, fire, in terms of sheer power, indeed he could compete with ordinary second-step Artistic Conceptions, but only in terms of sheer power...

After all, managing the simultaneous eruption of four or five Artistic Conceptions would be quite detrimental to one's own body, making it impossible to fight for long without collapsing, whereas the second step of Artistic Conception directly harnesses a portion of The Power of Heaven and Earth and is nearly inexhaustible.

...

At the center of the Yu Family's estate.

"He finally wants to go to the Ancient Courtyard to comprehend the Artistic Conception Maps?"

Yu Zuyi stood in the courtyard, hearing the words reported by Little Lotus, and couldn't help but smile.

To realize the second step of Artistic Conception was exceedingly difficult, especially before stepping into the Five Viscera Realm.

Although there were such people in Yu County, those were individuals who had reached their twilight years after a lifetime of experience and finally comprehended it, but by then, their Qi-Blood was declining, their tendons and bones were decayed, and even if they had grasped the second step of Artistic Conception, it was already too late in their lives, with hardly any vitality left for action.

In his view, with Chen Mu's aptitude, it would be better for him to comprehend other Artistic Conception Maps early on, and realize two or even three different Artistic Conceptions. Then, within the Bone Tempering Realm, he would almost be invincible, and if he stepped into the Five Viscera Realm in the future, he would certainly not be weak.

But for young people, having spirit was a good thing.

That's why he had not previously forced Chen Mu to go to the Ancient Courtyard to comprehend other Artistic Conceptions.

Now that Chen Mu had encountered difficulties and changed his mind, desiring to comprehend other maps of the Yu Family, he also saw it as a good thing, a sign of a young person knowing when to advance or retreat. He was quite satisfied with this grandson-in-law.

"Also, there's another matter to report..."

Little Lotus scanned the surrounding maids and retainers.

Yu Zuyi's expression remained calm as he waved his hand, and the attendants scattered, leaving only Little Lotus.

Little Lotus organized her words and briefly recounted the events of the previous night. The attempt by the Blood Hidden Pavilion to assassinate him was not something to be widely spoken of, but it still needed to be made known to Yu Zuyi. This was also in accordance with Chen Mu's wishes since the He Family likely already knew of the incident.

There was no need to keep it from the upper echelons of the Yu Family, and moreover, it was necessary for the Yu Family's informants to keep a close watch on the He Family from now on.

Yu Zuyi did not know what Little Lotus was about to report and just listened quietly. But as soon as he heard of the assassination by the Blood Hidden Pavilion, his face changed immediately. Then, upon hearing Little Lotus say that Chen Mu had repelled the assassin from the Blood Hidden Pavilion, he was greatly shocked.

Blood Hidden Pavilion.

One of the Four Great Sects established in the Outer States.

The head of the Yu Family, of course, was all too familiar with it. A long time ago, all sorts of intelligence about the Blood Hidden Pavilion had been gathered towards him like snowflakes.

Assassinations conducted by the Blood Hidden Pavilion rarely failed, being successful 99 out of 100 times. Chen Mu had survived an assassination attempt last night... no, according to Little Lotus, he had actually repelled the Blood Hidden Pavilion's assassin, which was truly startling to him.

He even began to doubt the truth of what Xiao He had said.

Perhaps he wasn't an assassin from the Blood Hidden Pavilion at all; maybe Chen Mu had mistaken his identity.

Yu Zuyi furrowed his brows and said, "With his strength, an assassin from the Blood Hidden Pavilion would be at least in the Bone Tempering Realm and possess an Artistic Conception. How did he manage to fend him off?"

Xiao He heard the doubt in Yu Zuyi's words, bowed to him, and said, "In fact, the son-in-law had reached Tendon Changing Perfection quite some time ago and also mastered the Xun Wind and Thunderclap Artistic Conceptions. However, the miss was worried about a recurrence of the old master's incident, so she kept it hidden. The He Family didn't know about it either.

This time, the son-in-law has made a breakthrough to the Bone Tempering Realm; his strength far exceeded the expectations of the Blood Hidden Pavilion, hence he repelled the assassin."

Yu Zuyi stood frozen in place.

Bone Tempering Realm, mastering the Wind Thunder Artistic Conception?

The words of Xiao He felt like a wild and fanciful tale to him, so much so that he struggled to believe them. But he quickly recalled that, in the past, someone had made a move at the Yu Family residence, attempting to steal a bloodline of the Yu Family. They were intercepted and killed by someone using the Thunderclap Artistic Conception, thus preventing further incidents.

At the time, no one knew who had intervened, and there was even suspicion that it was someone from the Xue Family or the Xie Family.

Yu Zuyi remained silent for a while, then slowly said,

"So, did the mottle-faced Tian Jifeng die at his hand then?"

"Yes."

Xiao He, with her head lowered, said, "In fact, the miss didn't know at that time either. Although there was a deliberate attempt to conceal it later, there were reasons for that. I hope the patriarch will forgive us..."

A brief silence fell over the courtyard.

Yu Zuyi looked up at the sky.

Now that he thought about it, there was also He Mingxuan from the He Family, who died under the Thunderclap Artistic Conception, with the murderer never found. At that time, Chen Mu was working under Xu Hongyu. One by one, each puzzle piece began to connect, solving several perplexing questions that had long troubled him. It felt as though there was an invisible hand manipulating everything.

He never imagined that this invisible hand would ultimately turn out to be so close to home.

After a long while,

Yu Zuyi finally sighed and said, "You have no fault in this. I just underestimated him. His talent far surpasses Yi Chuan's. If he were to enter the Seven Profound Sect, he might even stand a chance to become a true disciple."

After a while, Yu Zuyi waved at Xiao He, signaling that she could leave. Xiao He respectfully bowed and then turned to leave the courtyard, leaving Yu Zuyi alone.

Bone Tempering...

Wind Thunder...

Yu Zuyi gazed up at the sky, and even now, the waves in his heart could not be stilled for a long time.

His son-in-law really was... a huge and unexpected surprise out of the blue.

However.

If the He Family were to get accurate information from the Blood Hidden Pavilion, they would surely become completely restless. With Chen Mu's aptitude, if he were to step into the Five Viscera Realm in the future, the balance of power between the He and Yu families would be completely overturned.

After all, the He Family's own Five Viscera expert was also quite old, though not to the point of senescence, and was somewhat better off than the Yu Family. But when compared to Chen Mu, the differences were vast. Moreover, in the past two years, the He Family had suffered successive losses, even with He MingZhen, their talented successor, having gone missing...

Hmm, looking at it this way, perhaps Chen Mu was behind it as well.

For many years, the constant strife between the two great He and Yu families had fallen to an undetected stalemate, quietly equalized by Chen Mu alone.

Now that he thought about it in detail.

Yu Zuyi still found it all to be dreamlike. After all, Chen Mu's background is now well-known; he was truly born into the lower class, initially an inconspicuous, ordinary bailiff, who was promoted by Xu Hongyu from the South City District.

And yet, unbeknownst to many, he had reached such heights.

"Hongyu..."

"Being born into the Yu Family, you truly are our good fortune, the blessing of the Yu Family..."

Yu Zuyi muttered to himself.