Chapter 53: Innate Weapon!

The last time, it was the Guo family that wiped out Falling Cloud Martial Hall.

This time, Red Willow Villa was also wiped out by the Guo family.

Truly worthy of being one of the three great families!

They exterminate whole clans at the slightest provocation.

"The Guo family destroyed Falling Cloud Martial Hall for the tenth sword of the 'Sweeping Cloud Sword Art.'"

"What was this destruction of Red Willow Villa for?"

Chen Mu was curious.

The Guo family must have had some scheme in mind to go to such lengths and exterminate every single member of Red Willow Villa, high and low.

"Oh right!"

Suddenly, Chen Mu recalled the items sealed on the two equipment cards.

He immediately took them out and unsealed them one after another.

One of them was a pill recipe called "Zhuang Yuan Dan."

Zhuang Yuan Dan — a great pill dedicated to body tempering.

Horizontal-tempering martial artists consume this kind of pill the most; its value is indeed considerable.

But for Chen Mu, it was of no use, and right now he wasn't short on money either.

He tucked this pill recipe away into the palm-space, placing it in the innermost corner.

The other unsealed item was a willow leaf.

This leaf was the same size as a normal willow leaf, pale green in appearance.

Yet its texture was extremely hard, and its edges incomparably sharp.

A weapon!

"Willow-leaf Dart?"

Chen Mu recalled a type of hidden weapon.

Willow-leaf Dart!

Pinching the head of the willow leaf, he drew it across a fine-steel longsword.

Hiss~

A clear scratch mark appeared on the blade.

A single willow leaf was actually sharper than the sword's edge.

If the two collided at high speed, couldn't the willow leaf shatter the fine-steel longsword? Or, more directly, pierce straight through?

Such a weapon…

"A Spirit Weapon?"

Chen Mu's heart skipped a beat.

The two weapons he currently used — a greatsaber and a longsword — though sharp and tough, were both ordinary weapons.

Above ordinary weapons, there were stronger weapons.

Spirit Weapons!

Besides being harder and sharper, the greatest feature of Spirit Weapons was that they could conduct true Qi.

In other words, only in the hands of a Xiantian martial artist could a Spirit Weapon display its true might.

The willow-leaf dart in Chen Mu's hand most likely belonged to the category of Spirit Weapons!

Even if there was only one leaf.

In a Xiantian martial artist's hand, its lethality would be terrifying.

"Could it be that the Guo family wiped out Red Willow Villa precisely for this willow-leaf dart?"

Chen Mu pondered.

Examining the dart's body closely, he suddenly noticed fine patterns carved upon it.

The patterns weren't very complex, but they were incomplete — half of them were missing.

"This willow-leaf dart… could it be part of a set?"

Chen Mu's eyes lit up.

"No matter how lethal a single willow-leaf dart is, it still has its limits."

"But if there were several, forming a complete set, deployed through a hidden-weapon martial art — that would be a devastating weapon!"

Chen Mu thought of the techniques he knew, "Falling Star Needle" and "Swallow Strikes the Vast Sky," both of which could control multiple hidden weapons simultaneously.

Especially "Swallow Strikes the Vast Sky"—within a range of a thousand meters, it whirled and danced, its lethality was truly terrifying!

If that were paired with willow-leaf darts…

"Hoo!"

He took a deep breath to steady his mind.

Chen Mu's gaze returned to the willow-leaf dart, his mind turning.

"If the willow-leaf darts are a set, then the rest were all taken by the Guo family?"

……

At the same time.

Wulong Fucheng, inner city, the Guo family manor.

The Guo family head, Guo Guo Xianliang, picked up a willow-leaf dart, released his true Qi outward, wrapped the leaf and made it spin in his palm, a gleam shining in his eyes.

"Not bad, it really is a Spirit Weapon — and a mid-grade one at that!"

"Haha, I told you it was a Spirit Weapon." Beside him, Guo Xianli laughed loudly. "In terms of lethality, this willow-leaf dart is also top-tier among mid-grade Spirit Weapons. It's just a pity we only found four leaves. The full set has seven, and we simply can't find the remaining three no matter how hard we look."

"Four pieces will do."

With a flick of Guo Guo Xianliang's hand, the willow-leaf darts shot out at once, dancing around his body, tearing the air apart and emitting a faint whistling sound.

"How did the cleanup go over at Red Willow Manor?" Guo Guo Xianliang asked calmly. "No loose ends left, right? Don't be like Falling Cloud Martial Hall and let a fish slip through the net."

"Rest assured, not a single person from Red Willow Manor got away."

Guo Guo Xianliang said solemnly, "No one will know it was us!"

……

……

Outer city.

Home.

Chen Mu played with the willow-leaf darts for a moment, then stored them in his palm space.

This gadget, he wouldn't use it for now—wait until after breaking through to Innate.

As for the matter of the Guo family wiping out Red Willow Manor…

Chen Mu likewise could only keep his mouth shut.

Setting aside the fact that he had no evidence proving the Guo family was behind Red Willow Manor's destruction.

Even if he did, he didn't have the ability to make trouble for the Guo family—needlessly provoking a century-old great clan like the Guo family was truly unnecessary.

As for reporting it to the Zhenwu Bureau?

Very sorry, but the Zhenwu Bureau wouldn't accept this kind of attack between jianghu forces—they couldn't even be bothered to handle it.

The Zhenwu Bureau's duty was to suppress the entire jianghu!

The sects they themselves had slaughtered and wiped out numbered more than a few.

……

The next few days.

Chen Mu still held down the hall, waiting for news to come back.

Only when someone died somewhere would he step out.

Or he would send the compiled intelligence to Guan Tong.

Guan Tong read it and was greatly impressed.

This kind of clear-at-a-glance record of every major and minor force, even some hidden intelligence, filed for reference—just looking at it felt satisfying.

Only by knowing the general situation of every force inside and outside the city could the Great Saber Gang's next deployment unfold in an orderly manner.

These matters, Chen Mu naturally wouldn't get involved in.

He just needed to let Guan Tong know that the hundred thousand taels of silver scattered out had yielded clear returns.

Now that the Great Saber Gang had its own intelligence department, Chen Mu easily picked up a few cards during the process.

Everyone has a bright future!

Over the next few days, he picked up two Internal Force cards, one Cultivation card, three Strength cards, and several Vitality and Stamina cards.

There was also one special skill card that wasn't a special ability.

This card let Chen Mu learn "Vocal Mimicry"!

He could imitate all kinds of sounds—insect chirps, bird calls, beast roars, eagle cries, the voices of men, women, old and young—all could be imitated.

This ability, at special moments, could still be quite useful.

……

"Hall Master, something happened!"

In the afternoon, Chen Mu was lying in a rocking chair, squinting in a doze, when suddenly two gang members from the External Affairs Hall rushed in from outside.

"Hall Master, Liuzi has been detained by Han Qiao of the Green Snake Gang!"

The two gang members ran up to Chen Mu and said urgently.

"Green Snake Gang, Han Qiao?"

Chen Mu opened his eyes and said calmly, "The cousin of Han Qing, the Green Snake Gang leader, right? What were you doing running around on the Green Snake Gang's turf?"

"It's like this—we spotted some Green Snake Gang people apparently selling Carefree Pills, so we followed them to find out more. Liuzi went in a bit too deep, and when he was spotted he didn't have time to run, so they detained him." one gang member said quietly.

Chen Mu's expression, however, turned serious. He stood up and said in a low voice, "Carefree Pills? Are you sure?"

"N-not entirely sure."

"S-seventy percent chance the Green Snake Gang is selling them!"

The two gang members hesitated, each speaking up.

"Seventy percent?"

Chen Mu pondered, "Then it's basically confirmed. Let's go, take me to see Han Qiao. The other side detaining someone must mean they want to extort some money from me."

"Yes!"

The two gang members hurriedly saluted, turned, and led the way ahead.

Carefree Pills—a plant extract that corroded the mind and will.

A poison strictly forbidden by the Great Zhou imperial court!

……

Green Snake Gang territory.

When Chen Mu followed the two gang members and met Han Qiao, the latter was holding a whip, casually lashing Liuzi, who was strung up under a tree.

Seeing Chen Mu come in, the corner of Han Qiao's mouth immediately turned up. He grinned and said, "Oh, isn't this the famous number-one youth of South Cloud, Hall Master Chen?"