Chapter 26: Mu Family Upheaval, Reclaiming the Cave Dwelling

The day after the Mu family's foundation‑establishment birthday banquet, the Mu clan members were still immersed in celebration.

Yet, terrible news suddenly arrived.

An elder at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm, several elite clan members, and more than twenty hired Scattered Cultivators, while stationed to guard a mine three hundred li from Nanshan Fang, were suddenly attacked.

The ninth‑layer Qi Refining Realm elder fell dead on the spot, none of the Mu family's elite cultivators escaped, and only a handful of the hired Scattered Cultivators survived by luck and fled back to Nanshan Fang to report the news.

Upon hearing the news, the Mu family was both grieving and enraged.

The Mu family rarely suffers such a heavy loss; losing nearly ten clan members at once, including a top‑ranking elder of the Qi Refining Realm, is a considerable weakening of their strength.

Moreover, the most crucial point is that this mine accounts for almost one‑third of the Mu family's economic income.

If the mine is not reclaimed, the Mu family's future resources will be strained.

While several major families in Nanshan Fang were waiting to see how the Mu family would strike back, the Mu family unexpectedly held back in the end.

Mu Renjie, the Mu family's foundation‑establishing cultivator, had just announced his seclusion; outsiders could not disturb him, and the news could not get through, so the matter had to be put on hold and considered carefully.

Naturally, outsiders did not believe this explanation.

The banquet was just held yesterday, and he went into seclusion the next day? No one would believe that if it were said aloud.

Moreover, under normal circumstances when such a major incident occurs, even if one truly is in seclusion, one would forcefully break the seal to take revenge first.

Clearly, the Mu family is making an excuse for itself; in fact, they are cowardly.

The Mu family's reaction caused a huge stir among the upper echelons of Nanshan Fang.

Many realized that the loss of the mine is a minor issue; there may be an even bigger trouble looming.

Though they do not yet know what it is.

Yet a clan that is indifferent to its members' deaths and does not fight to reclaim seized resources likely has only two reasons.

Either the clan is already outwardly strong but internally withered to the extreme—a foundation‑establishing cultivator in name only, a paper tiger lacking the power to avenge; or it knows it has provoked someone it should not have, whose strength far exceeds its own, forcing it to swallow its grievances.

The Mu family's cowardice, no matter how much it tries to hide, only makes it more evident.

At first, it was only whispered within the major foundation‑establishing families; ordinary mid‑ and lower‑rank cultivators could not learn of it.

But as time passed, many of the Mu family's external enterprises were attacked, clan members kept dying, and Mu Renjie remained in seclusion, leaving the Mu family without any organized retaliation.

Consequently, increasingly unfavorable news about the Mu family began to spread widely.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the Mu family, which clearly had robust adult foundation‑establishing cultivators, replaced the Zhang family, becoming the weakest and most precarious among the major foundation‑establishing clans.

The Zhang family's foundation‑establishing cultivators were already nearing their end, with at most a few years left to live.

Once the Zhang family's foundation‑establishing cultivators pass away, the Zhang family will fall apart.

Yet the current situation is even worse for the Mu family than for the Zhang family.

Rumors say that Mu Renjie, in order to establish his foundation, employed rather despicable methods to seize an opportunity, and now that the plot has been exposed, he is being hunted for revenge.

Moreover, the opponent's background is deep, far beyond what the Mu family can afford to offend, so the Mu family and Mu Renjie can only endure the bitter medicine in silence, unable to speak of their suffering, and must retreat like a turtle.

……

Mu family.

Family head's cave dwelling.

It looks as if a thirty‑year‑old Mu Renjie is sitting on a straw mat, his complexion deathly pale, his whole body shrouded in black aura, with an evil presence filling the entire training hall.

Yet the black aura does not stem from Mu Renjie's internal magical power, but from a jade‑shaped Magic Treasure hovering in mid‑air before him, which seems to contain boundless energy and emits wailing cries from within.

Mu Renjie's own magical power remains righteous and bright, but after absorbing excessive evil qi, his aura can no longer be as pure as before; the inadvertent expression on his face gives others a chilling, hair‑raising feeling.

Buzz— the black aura and magical power receded, the training hall returned to calm, and Mu Renjie slowly opened his eyes. Publicly claiming seclusion is naturally an excuse he uses to avoid fighting.

Now it's not only the outside world that is speculating; within the Mu family, several senior elders are also guessing his condition and are already very dissatisfied with him as the family head.

If the Mu family did not currently have him as its sole foundation‑establishing cultivator, the senior elders would likely have forced him out of the family head position and chosen a more capable successor.

"Trying to force me to join the Evil Cultivator camp? No way! I, Mu Renjie, will never fall for your tricks!"

"Threatening me with the Mu family. But if I were to join the Evil Cultivator camp, that would be a cataclysm for my Mu family!"

"I will endure for now; once I refine the supreme treasure and attain power comparable to a Fake Core True Person, the Mu family will become unprecedentedly strong because of me!"

"However, refining the supreme treasure requires purchasing a massive amount of 'Stabilizing Divine Pills' to ingest, and Spirit Stones are not a small number. In the current situation, persuading the clan's old‑fashioned elders to pool resources for me will not be easy."

"Hmph… anyone who disagrees, be killed!"

……

In the blink of an eye, several months passed.

News that the Mu family was targeted by a mysterious force and suffered heavy losses spread through Nanshan Fang, and while Xiao Zhangqing was at work, he learned of it from other Basic Talisman Masters at Lingfu Pavilion.

"The Mu family is blocked, Spirit Stone supplies have been drastically cut; they won't take back the cave dwelling I live in, will they?"

Xiao Zhangqing muttered to himself.

Honestly, after living in a Bing-level Cave Dwelling for so long, he had grown somewhat accustomed to it.

After all, the spiritual energy density, location, and convenience for work are all excellent.

If the Mu family reclaimed the dwelling, his current income would not allow him to afford such a fine cave, and he would have to move to a Ding-level Cave Dwelling.

Now his cultivation is already mid‑stage of the Qi Refining Realm, and he possesses a great‑achievement level Changchun Gong; although the spiritual energy of a Ding-level Cave Dwelling is barely sufficient, its efficiency and speed would certainly be affected.

"It's been less than a year; the Mu family shouldn't be this impatient, right?"

Xiao Zhangqing weighed it in his mind.

Improving a Symbol Master's skill progresses much slower than cultivation.

From Basic Talisman Master to Entry‑stage Talisman Master, even a genius like Lu Qiu needs more than three years.

Over the past year, Xiao Zhangqing has been feverishly drawing Cleanse Talismans; even though his Talisman Path talent is lacking, his proficiency has inevitably risen, and not long ago he advanced from minor achievement to mastery.

The speed is much faster than initially expected.

Reaching great achievement should take roughly two years.

Once the Cleanse Talisman reaches great achievement, it can be equipped with a dual‑winged tiger‑hair brush, allowing one to become an Entry‑stage Talisman Master and even be among the best of the entry‑stage practitioners! Then he can repay the Mu family for the gift of the cave dwelling.

He is a First-rank Talisman Master, and knows as many as twenty‑seven kinds of Advanced Symbol Talismans, though he is not yet at the level of the former Lu Qiu Symbol Master, whom many major Foundation Establishment cultivators vied to see but could not; nevertheless he can at least become a distinguished guest of several major Foundation Establishment families, a target they strive to win over.

"I hope the Mu family can be a bit more patient…"

Xiao Zhangqing muttered inwardly.

Just that.

The more you try not to let something happen, the more it will come.

That morning, Xiao Zhangqing was about to leave for work.

A member of the Mu family blocked him squarely.

After a brief courteous exchange, the Mu family cultivator stated his purpose, demanding that Xiao Zhangqing move out and relinquish his cave dwelling…

I was delayed by something today, so the update is a bit late. Happy Children's Day to everyone!

(End of chapter)