Da Xuan Martial Saint

Chen Mu, dressed in his Inspectorate official's uniform, made his way down to the bottom of the building.

Outside the Inspectorate's Chamber Building, there was a light drizzle mixed occasionally with a few snowflakes, but they were very, very scarce.

"My lord."

An official on the side quickly jogged over, respectfully opening an umbrella for Chen Mu.

With a calm expression, Chen Mu stepped forward, walking out of the Inspectorate Chamber Building. He looked up at the sky and said, "This year's winter has been warmer than before. We hardly see any snowflakes in the rain on the ninth day of the first month."

The official had not expected Chen Mu to strike up a conversation with him—a mere lowly door official. As he held the umbrella, following closely beside, he replied with a pleasantly surprised tone, "What the lord said is true, mainly because last year's cold snap predicted a warmer year to follow.

Moreover, there was a big drought around the middle of last year, so even without much snow this year, it's definitely going to be a good year."

A good year...

Perhaps.

Chen Mu slightly shook his head, thinking that at least the start of this year had not been very good, as they had to chase the escaped remnants of the Heavenly Corpse Sect throughout the mountains and wilds.

According to intel, the remnants of the Heavenly Corpse Sect had been secretly developing in Yu County for nearly a hundred years. The battle at Purple Mist Mountain revealed corpse refinement forces that nearly formed an army of over ten thousand. Although they were massacred by various sect forces, no one knew if more remained hidden, or how many had escaped.

Even with over ten thousand pigs, the underlings couldn't catch them all in ten days.

However, remnants of the Heavenly Corpse Sect were harder to capture than pigs, but easier to find, since no matter the level of the corpse refinement, the stench of a corpse could never be completely concealed. There were also magical insects that could specifically track the stench of corpses, which could be used for searching.

Walking out of the Inspectorate.

An official sedan chair with a red top, unbeknownst to when, had been waiting outside.

Apart from rainy or snowy days, Chen Mu rarely rode in sedan chairs. In fact, most of the influential figures in this world did not like to travel by sedan chair, mainly because almost every official, regardless of rank, possessed martial arts skills, which made traveling on foot more convenient and faster.

In contrast, those merchants from the marketplace—without martial skills but with some wealth—preferred to travel by sedan chair.

Of course, there were also those who enjoyed pomp and circumstance, who wished to maintain an air of dignity, and still carried the custom of traveling by sedan chair, but they were the minority. Consequently, in the cities of this world, sedan chairs were rather rare.

Looking at the attentive official and the few sedan carriers with their heads bowed, Chen Mu normally did not use a sedan chair, but suddenly, he felt a stirring in his heart. With a glint in his eyes, he stepped into the sedan chair.

"Let's go."
Continue your journey with empire

The sedan carriers were Martial Men who had practiced martial arts. Despite the chilling winter rain, they felt no cold as they lifted the sedan chair with steady force, then proceeded forward.

The icy rain continued to fall, patterning onto the umbrella-like sedan top and dripping down the edges of the chair.

In the distance.

An old man with white hair but a youthful face appeared in the rain, watching from afar as the sedan chair disappeared into the alleyways; he shook his head momentarily,

"This young man..."

The old man was Yu Jiujiang. Even as he stood in the rain, dressed as an old fisherman with a hat, the raindrops fell slowly off his hat and over his oilskin coat, as if they weren't mere raindrops but glistening gems slowing down their descent along his body.

Yu Jiujiang continued to walk forward.

The rain near him gradually dispersed, refracting off each other as his figure slowly vanished, as if he were about to disappear completely into the rain, becoming unseeable.

But at that moment.

Clack.

A crisp sound of pearls hitting the ground rang out, followed by a continuous cascade.

Just then, Yu Jiujiang, whose figure was about to vanish in the rain, came to a halt. The raindrops that fell toward the ground around him turned into beads of ice before striking the earth and scattered, rolling away.

"Old Steward Yu, please stop."

In the rain ahead, a figure in a Mysterious Robe suddenly appeared, carrying a bamboo basket on his back, and looking at Yu Jiujiang with a smile. He said, "I am Cheng Houhua, disciple of the sixty-third generation of the Mysterious Mechanism Pavilion. May I have the pleasure of Old Master Yu's company to drink a cup in that small building over there? It could save both of us some energy..."

Without a sound,

Within a radius of several yards, the falling raindrops suddenly froze in mid-air. They then began to flow and converge, one drop after another, forming streams of water that circled around Yu Jiujiang.

His ancient eyes revealed a trace of coldness. Without saying much, he now had a fishing rod in his hand, which he flicked. In an instant, the surrounding water streams turned into countless arrows and blades, flying towards the figure in the Mysterious Robe.

"Ah, what a hassle," sighed Cheng Houhua. The bamboo basket on his back suddenly opened, and a sword emitting a faint chill flew out. With just a light flick, all incoming streams of water rapidly froze, hanging motionless in the air.

"Old Master Yu, you're not in good condition. If you don't engage in combat, you could maintain your Qi-Blood for another two or three years. But if you do fight, after a few battles, I'm afraid you will only have old age to look forward to... Alas, I don't know why they chose a rainy day, don't they know how formidable your Kan Water Artistic Conception is?

Fortunately, my 'Cold Winter Artistic Conception' is best suited to withstand Kan Water, otherwise, I wouldn't have any assurance standing here..."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!!

Yu Jiujiang stayed silent, continuing to swing his fishing rod. All the raindrops falling from the sky that entered within his three-yard radius transformed into lethal edges, arrows piercing through the air. His oilskin coat vibrated incessantly, as he brought the Yuan Gang of Kan Water in his body to its peak.