Chapter 142: New Recruits

Chong Jiayi looked at the walking stick Mu Yi gave him. He seemed astonished. He had already seen the walking stick before in Big Slave’s backpack. Initially, he was surprised to see that Mu Yi had a walking stick, but then, he realized it was a religious tool, so he understood.

Even though he had been traveling the world half of his life, he had always relied on legendary venomous insects. Then, Mu Yi had destroyed them with evil spirit slaying charms. He felt really sad since he had always relied on his insects, but he couldn’t blame Mu Yi.

Even though he was sad, he was now convinced that he would be able to raise new insects. Regarding religious tools, he had heard about them. He had even seen some. He had seen Qu Yang’s religious tool. Even though it was broken, Qu Yang considered it as a precious treasure.

Apart from religious tools, there were religious tool embryos. They weren’t as precious, but they were still difficult to obtain because making religious tools or religious tool embryos was difficult. Raising insects was easier which is why Chong Jiayi had decided to do so. He would have never thought he’d lose his freedom and obtain a religious tool.

“Ma– Master!” Chong Jiayi raised his head, his voice trembled. He looked at Mu Yi. The words didn’t come out.

“I destroyed your insects. I can’t help you raise new ones, but I think that walking stick will be good for you.”

Mu Yi had never used it after obtaining it anyway. It wasn’t because that walking stick wasn’t good. I was just that Mu Yi had never had to fight in close combat. Therefore, he didn’t need to use objects meant for that purpose. Even though he now understood some principles of close combat, he had his Bamboo Tree of Life, so he still didn’t need the walking stick.

Big Slave didn’t need it either. Therefore, Mu Yi had come up with the idea of giving it to Chong Jiayi since it would be useful to him.

“Master, my insects weren’t as precious as this religious tool. How can I accept it?” Chong Jiayi shook his head, “I don’t deserve such kindness, Master.”

He had completely changed. He looked like a perfectly docile slave. He indubitably acknowledged his new social status.

“I insist. Keep it. I can’t use it anyway. It’s just a burden to carry it around. Besides, the stronger you are, the better you can serve me.”

“Thank you, Master.”

Mu Yi was firm, so Chong Jiayi stopped refusing. Instead, he fell to his knees and took the walking stick with both hands.

Mu Yi hadn’t asked Chong Jiayi to act that way, but he didn’t say anything. It was a good thing that Chong Jiayi acknowledged him as his master and respected him.

After taking the walking stick, Chong Jiayi’s face turned red. He looked at it and touched it with the greatest care. Mu Yi was surprised.

After that, Chong Jiayi modified it a little for his own needs. He couldn’t make the most out of it, but at least, it would be enough for him to protect himself.

It became dark outside. Mu Yi and Chong Jiayi left the village. Big Slave was too slow and too big so he stayed in the village. Besides, Mu Yi was just going to watch the Qu Mortuary, he didn’t intend to fight Qu Yang.

The Qu Mortuary wasn’t far from Chong Jiayi’s village. They were both by the Yellow River but on different sides.After an hour, they arrived near the Qu Mortuary. From where they stood, they could see a huge mansion. Chong Jiayi told Mu Yi it was the Qu Mortuary.

Mu Yi released some mind strength and used it to follow Chong Jiayi as he went to the Qu Mortuary alone.

He didn’t release enough mind strength to watch or hear anything, it was just in case. If Chong Jiayi was in danger, Mu Yi would sense it, and he would think of a solution to save him. Chong Jiayi wouldn’t betray Mu Yi. The latter knew that, so he wasn’t worried.

After Chong Jiayi entered the Qu Mortuary, Mu Yi got closer. He completely recalled his Qi in order not to be noticed. Unless there was someone as strong as Qu Yang in the vicinity, nobody would be able to find him.

The Qu Mortuary was gigantic. Even though Mu Yi wasn’t too close, he could sense a dense death Qi. Two types of people could live in such a place: dead people and people who didn’t fear death Qi. If Mu Yi lived there for a long time, he would be physically impacted. Thus, saying that Qu Yang was alive was wrong, but saying he was dead wasn’t right either.

When Mu Yi fought against Qu Yang, he sensed that Qu Yang’s Qi was abnormal. His body contained both life and death Qi in perfect balance. Even though Mu Yi didn’t understand much about the art of capturing or raising corpses, it seemed that Qu Yang had used some methods on his own body as well as on Bei Ming. They used different methods than people who captured corpses. People who raised corpses like Qu Yang could, and usually did, use it on people who were alive whereas people who captured corpses, obviously, used people who were already dead.

Qu Yang’s methods were even more cruel. He probably destroyed people’s personalities, and he was probably alive only because he was extremely strong.

Mu Yi was audacious and brave. He climbed up a wall and entered the Qu Mortuary. The mortuary was covered in mist. Through the mist, Mu Yi could see some shapeless shadows and twisted silhouettes wandering around. They were Qu Yang’s zombies, but their Qi was extremely weak. They weren’t as strong as the black shadows who had attacked the Far Ink Professional Organization.

Mu Yi hid in the darkness without destroying the zombies because he didn’t want to alert Qu Yang.

The Qu Mortuary’s territory was a dozen mu (Translator’s Note: mu is a traditional unit of area equal to 60 square zhang, equivalent to 6.667 ares or 0.165 acre). The way the territory had been designed was interesting. There were courtyards in courtyards shaped like the Chinese character “回”. As Mu Yi walked further and deeper into the territory through the courtyards, the number of corpses decreased; however, the Qi of the corpses grew increasingly powerful. Mu Yi hesitated and asked himself whether he should go back or not.

Suddenly, he felt unsafe and heard an icy voice, “How audacious! Surprisingly, someone dared break in at night!”

They found me? thought Mu Yi.

He hadn’t thought someone would notice him so quickly. He had been very careful. He hadn’t released any Qi. What was going on?

Had Chong Jiayi betrayed him? Mu Yi quickly excluded that possibility.

His control technique was extremely powerful. Even if Chong Jiayi wanted to betray him, he wouldn’t have done it like that.

How had they seen him then?

While Mu Yi asked himself questions, he sensed a powerful Qi invading the space around him. Mu Yi thought it was powerful, but the Qi wasn’t as powerful as his own. Besides, the owner of the Qi didn’t seem to cultivate their mind. Instead, they seemed to practice martial arts.

“Qu Yang, you’re going to die. Surrender now,” said a voice clearly and righteously.

When Mu Yi heard that, his mouth twitched and receded further into the darkness. He hadn’t been the one who had been uncovered. He didn’t need to reveal himself. However, he was curious to know who had been uncovered. Who had decided to come out at night?

“You think you stand a chance?!” said someone with an icy tone. Mu Yi recognized it as Qu Yang’s voice.

Mu Yi wondered the same as Qu Yang. The intruder seemed to have overestimated themselves. His Qi wasn’t that powerful.

“Of course not. Since you uncovered me, everybody, come out,” the person shouted loudly for everyone nearby to hear him.

After that, threads of explosive Qi invaded the space quickly. Some threads of Qi were more powerful than others, but the most powerful Qi seemed to come from someone who had reached the second difficulty.

“Tee-hee! Prince Xu, you’re really bad at hiding. They uncovered you so quickly,” said a woman.

Prince Xu was, apparently, the one who had been uncovered. Silhouettes flickered. Mu Yi found some holes in the wall and watched what happened inside the courtyard from there.

There were five people in the courtyard. The one in the middle was a man in black clothes. He seemed to be around twenty years old. Next to him, there was a man and a woman. The man wore a Taoist robe, he looked thirty years old. He held a horsetail whisk.

Mu Yi had sensed the Qi of someone who had reached the second difficulty, and it was that man’s Qi. He was also the only person in the group who cultivated his mind.

The four others, including Prince Xu, were all martial artists.

The woman who had just spoke looked twenty years old. In the darkness, one could easily see her because she was wearing white clothes.In Mu Yi’s opinion, she was extremely careless. It was a big risk, and it proved she had little experience. The three others were all around thirty years old. They looked like protectors or servants.

“Hmph! An expert taught me this hiding technique. I was just careless a moment ago. A living dead found me. Normal people wouldn’t have found me, ” Prince Xu said in a icy tone. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself and didn’t feel at ease.

“I thought some brave warriors had come, but it turns out that it’s just a group of morons who overestimate themselves, ” someone said.

A strong wing blew, and three people appeared: Qu Yang, Bei Ming, and Chong Jiayi.

Qu Yang had his hands clasped behind his back. He glanced at the five people with disdain.

“Under normal circumstances, we would have never dared to come here, but you fought someone and got injured. You haven’t recovered yet. Many of your zombies were also injured or died. You think we’re afraid of you now?” Prince Xu said loudly.

“Injured? I haven’t recovered?” Qu Yang asked with an icy smile. Suddenly, the temperature in the courtyard dropped drastically. The group of five suddenly looked worried and surprised. They had a bad feeling.