Chapter 134: Blood Shadow

Yu Family Residence.

In the east, deep within the inner courtyard, the training room.

Huff! Huff!!

In a dim, airtight secret chamber, Chen Mu continuously threw punches, his entire being like a hunting tiger demon. Each punch was wide and powerful, ferocious and cruel.

His movements involved the motion of his entire skeletal structure, occasionally producing cracking sounds, not from broken bones, but from the powerful bones, muscles, and skin membranes working together, creating a resonant sound of tendons and bones.

He had no idea how long he had been training.

Chen Mu finally stopped.

He called up the system panel for a look.

[Tiger Demon Bone Forging Method (55%)]

[Experience: 12 points]

It had been another month and a half since he last accompanied Xu Hongyu to the market.

Encountering a Heavenly Sword Sect direct lineage disciple and an old Taoist priest of unknown origins had made Chen Mu feel the weight of his insufficient strength. Thus, he had spent the last month and a half almost entirely indoors, not even going to see Xu Hongyu.

This long period of hard training had produced remarkable results. His bone forging progress had already surpassed the halfway mark, not far from Mastery of Bone Forging. His current strength was significantly greater than before.

However, for Chen Mu now, he was more concerned with his artistic conception training.

Even reaching the limit of the Bone Forging Realm was not a qualitative change. It was still difficult to cross the divide between the Bone Forging and Viscera Realms. Only by further advancing his artistic conception, entering the second step of the Thunder Artistic Conception, could he achieve a drastic transformation.

Previously, the Heavenly Sword Sect direct lineage disciple he encountered had only unleashed a hint of his Heart Sword Artistic Conception. It wasn’t even a true exchange of blows, but Chen Mu clearly felt that his Wind and Thunder were noticeably inferior. In the Qian Kun Eight Phases diagram, he probably needed to comprehend at least three artistic conceptions, or one of Qian Heaven or Kun Earth, to contend with it.

But for him, there was no need to pursue multiple artistic conceptions yet. Directly training the Thunder Artistic Conception to the second step would absolutely suppress any artistic conception of the first step. He did not need to fight at the same level.

If only he had the artistic conception map for Qian Heaven or Kun Earth.

Chen Mu felt a slight regret.

With his current understanding of artistic conception, Qian Heaven and Kun Earth each occupied half of the Eight Phases. If he could master Qian Heaven or Kun Earth, he might only need to focus on training the Qian Heaven Artistic Conception. All his other Wind and Thunder Artistic Conceptions would improve along with it.

After all, Wind and Thunder belonged to Qian Heaven, a part of the general Qian Heaven Diagram.

“It’s a pity that even the Demon Slaying Division doesn’t have a general diagram of Qian Heaven and Kun Earth…”

Unlike Wind, Thunder, Fire, and the other six aspects, the general diagrams for Qian Heaven and Kun Earth were rarely reproduced.

The reason was simple: the difficulty of training Qian Heaven and Kun Earth was like ascending to the sky. It required the foundation of at least three phases. Even for top geniuses, even when looking at higher-quality replicas, or even more fundamental Qian Kun Diagrams, they might not be able to comprehend it. Since there was almost no audience, they were naturally rarer, and even more difficult to find in remote areas like Yu Prefecture.

[Martial Arts: Thunder Artistic Conception]

[Experience: 9995 points]

[Available Deduct Times: 0 times]

Chen Mu glanced at the section of the system panel related to the Thunder Artistic Conception. He then withdrew his gaze, stepped out of the secret chamber. First, he rinsed his body clean in the side room outside the secret chamber, and returned to his bedroom, taking out the Thunder Diagram.

From hunting demons outside to the great drought and demon disturbance, it had been more than three months. Although there were times when he did not have time to study the Thunder Diagram, the accumulation of time had almost brought him enough to have another deduction opportunity.

“I wonder if this deduction will allow me to step into the second step.”

Chen Mu muttered to himself.

After completing the first step of the Thunder Artistic Conception, he had already done one deduction before. It had only deepened his understanding of the Thunder Artistic Conception and allowed him to see it more clearly. But, he had still not been able to touch it or reach the realm where he could “feel” the second step of artistic conception.

See it, feel it, and unify body and mind.

These three descriptions were simple and easy to understand for the three steps of artistic conception.

During the process of studying the Thunder Diagram, he wasn’t completely relying on the experience provided by the system panel. In the process of comprehension, he also had his own insights. However, compared to the system’s deduction, his own insights had a smaller effect, far less than the progress he made with one deduction.

Soon, Chen Mu collected his thoughts.

He concentrated his consciousness, focusing on the Thunder Diagram.

The sky had already turned to night. Chen Mu’s bedroom was not lit with candles. Although the moonlight outside was very dim, with just a sliver of light, he could see as clearly as in daylight.

At some point, the dim clouds suddenly obscured the dim moonlight, causing even the weak light to disappear.

Chen Mu shook his head. He casually took the fire stone from the bedside and struck it a couple of times, lighting an oil lamp in his bedroom. A dim candlelight then illuminated his room. Then he continued studying the artistic conception diagram.

The candlelight flickered.

The moonlight was dim.

Chen Mu suddenly felt a sense of alertness.

At almost the same moment, a sword point silently pierced through the wooden board in front of his window, piercing toward his throat. There was almost no sign or aura before the sword point appeared. But when the sword point appeared, it erupted in a terrifying killing intent and sharpness, as if from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

In the face of danger, Chen Mu didn’t have time to draw his saber. But he remained calm, pressing his right hand on the Thunder Diagram. It suddenly lifted, faint thunder light flashing between his fingers. With extreme speed, his index and middle fingers formed a sword, striking sideways. It hit the side of the sword point that was piercing toward him.

Clang!

There was only a clear and subtle sound of metal colliding.

But the Qi dynamic in the entire bedroom seemed to be completely upturned in an instant. The surging evil energy on the three-foot sword that pierced through the wooden board was forcibly struck by a ray of thunder and exploded within.

And it didn’t end there. The meaning of thunder erupted amidst the evil energy. After scattering some of the sharp killing intent, a chaotic gust of soaring wind suddenly appeared from the thunder light, completely disrupting all the killing intent, scattering it in all directions.

This was, in fact, the first true artistic conception clash Chen Mu had ever experienced!

In the past, he had never encountered an opponent who had mastered artistic conception. His encounter with the Heavenly Sword Sect direct lineage disciple in the market couldn’t be considered a clash. But, this was a true, head-on collision.

The sword that struck contained more than just sharpness and speed; it also possessed the power of an artistic conception. That terrifying Qi dynamic, as if it had transformed the entire bedroom into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, did not belong to the Qian Kun Eight Phases. The only source that Chen Mu could think of was:

“Blood Shadow Tower!”

A cold glint flashed in Chen Mu’s eyes.

His sword finger collided with the sword point. His Wind and Thunder Artistic Conception forcibly scattered the sword point’s artistic conception. He also bent the sword point, shifting it away from his neck.

Boom!!!

Immediately after, Chen Mu drew his saber with his left hand, fiercely striking the window with his saber.

The entire window, along with the wall, exploded, creating a booming sound as if the earth had moved. The saber light, entwined with Wind and Thunder, directly struck outside the shattered wall, toward a figure wearing a black cloak and a blood-colored mask.

The face under the blood-colored mask was not visible, but shock was clearly visible in the pair of eyes.

Swish.

A sword light swept horizontally, once again unleashing a blood evil Qi dynamic that collided with Chen Mu’s saber light. After a violent explosion, the Blood Shadow Tower assassin grunted, his whole body flying backward, disappearing into the darkness outside the courtyard.

The immense noise had startled nearly everyone in the inner and outer courtyards. In an instant, it was chaotic and noisy.

Chen Mu coldly stared toward the darkness, holding his saber, but did not pursue. Instead, he stayed alert, monitoring the surrounding movement until Wang Ni and the others, who were sleeping in the side room, ran out in fright.

“L, Lord…”

Ku’er and Le’er looked at the bedroom that had been almost completely shattered and Chen Mu’s figure holding his saber. For a moment, they didn’t seem to understand what had happened.

Immediately afterward, the servants outside also quickly rushed into the courtyard.

“Brother?!”

Chen Yue jumped into the courtyard from outside the courtyard wall, also surprised by Chen Mu’s state, and the bedroom wall that had been completely torn apart.

When Chen Mu saw Chen Yue arrive in the courtyard, his expression became more peaceful. He then looked at the servants and said lightly, "I accidentally lost control when training with my saber, no need to be alarmed, all of you can go back.”

The servants looked at each other, but they didn’t dare ask any more questions. They all retreated.

Chen Yue came beside Chen Mu, looking at the scene in the courtyard with a solemn expression, saying, “Brother, what exactly was that…”

“A Blood Shadow Tower assassin.”

Chen Mu walked back into the bedroom, picked up the Thunder Diagram, and said lightly, "They are indeed remarkable. Their method of concealing Qi is extraordinary. To be able to sneak into the Yu Family Residence silently, and come to my bedroom, they are worthy of being a demonic sect with influence throughout the prefectures and cities."

The person’s strength was also exceptional. His artistic conception aside, his own body tempering realm was at least Mastery of Bone Forging. He was obviously determined to kill Chen Mu with a single strike, without even giving him the chance to make a sound or struggle.

But unfortunately, the Blood Shadow Tower had miscalculated his strength.

Or, rather, only Xu Hongyu and Xiao He in all of Yu Prefecture knew about his partial true strength. Others, even the Yu Family’s head Yu Zuyi, didn’t have any knowledge about him. No matter how detailed the Blood Shadow Tower’s intelligence gathering was, they were still new to Yu Prefecture and had no chance to get his accurate information.

With the skills of that person just now, even if he was at Perfection of Tendon Transformation and had mastered artistic conception, he would have died silently, with no chance to resist or struggle, or even make a sound.

"Blood Shadow Tower?!"

A look of shock flashed in Chen Yue’s eyes as she immediately looked outside.

Chen Mu shook his head, saying, “No need to look, they’ve already escaped, we won’t be able to catch them.”

With the skill of the Blood Shadow Tower assassin, perhaps only one or two people in the entire Yu Family could contend with him. Even Yu Zuyi might not be able to secure victory. Even if he launched a large-scale search, it wouldn’t achieve anything.

As for reporting it to higher authorities, there was no use. Firstly, there was no evidence, and secondly, even if there was evidence it didn’t matter. The Blood Shadow Tower was a demonic sect, whose members always followed their own rules and their own path.

“But brother has a bounty from the Blood Shadow Tower. What should we do?”

Chen Yue’s face was slightly pale.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Chen Mu shook his head and said, “Although the demonic sects don’t adhere to government orders and disregard laws, they have their own set of rules. The Blood Shadow Tower focuses on ‘blood shadow without trace’. If an assassination fails, they will immediately withdraw. They won’t strike a second time, unless someone else puts a bounty on my head for a second time…”

At this point,

A cold glint flashed in Chen Mu’s eyes.

In Yu City, apart from the He Family, he couldn’t think of anyone else who would try to kill him. As for whether it was the Xue or Xie Families trying to stir up trouble, it was unlikely because the cost of hiring the Blood Shadow Tower to kill someone was very high.

His strength, which was displayed in public, was not weak. He was in the Tendon Transformation Realm, had a toughened body, and had mastered Xun Wind Artistic Conception. He assumed the He Family must have spent a lot of money. A second attack was unlikely to be something that the He Family could afford.

There was no need to publicize the fact that the Blood Shadow Tower had failed to assassinate him, as it wouldn’t be a good thing to attract too much attention. The Blood Shadow Tower was even less likely to publicize it.