Chapter 390 - 362: Manor Master

Chapter 390: Chapter 362: Manor Master

Nie Yun had no idea what expressions Mu Jie and the others wore after he left. He and Mu Xia followed Mu Yan and soon arrived at a spacious hall.

Mu Yan announced their arrival, then smiled and led the way, bringing the two into the main hall.

The hall contained only a few tables and chairs for receiving guests and some simple plants. The decorations were very plain, but the simpler the decor, the more grand the atmosphere, suggesting the master possessed extraordinary confidence.

"Come, please have a seat."

Nie Yun glanced around casually and heard a slightly aged voice from the very center of the hall. Looking up, he saw an old man seated there, a faint smile on his face.

The old man appeared to be in his fifties. His eagle-like eyes were sharp and piercing, and his hands were large and powerful, covered in calluses. A single glance was enough to tell that his palm techniques were exceptionally formidable.

’Peak of Primordial Saint Realm? Early-Stage Spirit Level Soul!’

After a quiet observation, Nie Yun instantly discerned the man’s true strength. With a flash in his eyes, he completely concealed the energy within his body, making it impossible for anyone to notice anything amiss.

His soul was currently at the Mid-Stage Spirit Level, far surpassing the old man’s. As long as he suppressed his energy, there was no way the man could see through him.

"Manor Master, this is Mu Yun and Mu Xia, who have just arrived in the Ancient City to participate in the trials. They are disciples from the Mu Lian branch." Mu Yan bowed and introduced them to the old man above, then turned to Nie Yun and Mu Xia. "This is the Manor Master of our Dieyi Manor."

"We greet the Manor Master," Nie Yun and Mu Xia said, rising to their feet.

"Heh, there’s no need for such formalities. I wasn’t even born when the Mu Lian branch left the Ancient City. Thirty years ago, I met a Mu Tao from your branch. I wonder, is he doing well?"

The old man leaned back in his wide chair, his fingers gently stroking the armrest as if lost in memory, and asked.

The question sounded innocent enough, like simple reminiscing, but it carried the weight of a test. A wrong answer would lead to trouble.

"Thank you for your concern, Manor Master. Mu Tao was my father. He passed away from an illness last year." Mu Xia quickly stood up, a sad look on her face.

"My deepest apologies. That was tactless of me. When I met him, his Thousand-Leaf Divine Palm was cultivated to the peak, and he was in excellent health. How could he be gone in less than thirty years...?" The old man seemed to find it hard to believe.

"My father suffered a hidden injury during his Cultivation back then, and it never healed. Also, perhaps the Manor Master remembers incorrectly. My father cultivated the Profound Clarity Iron Palm, not the Thousand-Leaf Divine Palm. He never reached the peak, and his strength didn’t even reach the Ultimate Venerable level," Mu Xia explained.

"Oh, perhaps I do remember it wrong. My apologies." Hearing Mu Xia’s words, the old man nodded to himself and said with a smile, "The Holy Spirit Disciple Competition is in three days. You can rest here. I doubt Muaixia Manor will dare to come and cause trouble."

At this, he turned to Mu Yan. "Mu Yan, take them to Lixuan Pavilion to stay. While you’re at it, explain the rules for this year’s Holy Spirit Disciple Competition so they can prepare properly."

"Yes, Manor Master!" Mu Yan nodded. "This way, please."

"Mm," Nie Yun acknowledged. He knew the purpose of the Manor Master’s questions was to test whether they were truly from the Mu Lian branch. Mu Xia’s answers should have dispelled their suspicions. He nodded, and he and Mu Xia followed Mu Yan out of the hall.

Just as the three of them left, a figure emerged from a corner of the room.

"What do you make of those two?" the Manor Master asked the figure.

"I can get a read on the girl, but the boy’s essence and Qi are completely restrained, and there’s no fluctuation from his soul. I don’t know what method he’s using, but even I can’t see his specific Cultivation level!" The figure’s brow furrowed.

The figure was also an old man. His breathing was long and deep; he would take a breath and not exhale until a long while later. From his breathing alone, one could tell that his body’s functions were at their absolute peak. He was definitely an expert of the Second Layer Primordial Saint Realm.

The Primordial Saint Realm involved drawing Primordial Saint Particles from the air to change one’s physical structure, forming a Primordial Saint Body. A person’s overall bodily capabilities would be enhanced, with a qualitative leap in strength, Defense, and physical functions.

"I couldn’t see through him either. That boy is not simple. Although he’s still at the Ultimate Venerable Level, his combat strength is likely enough to defeat an ordinary Primordial Saint Realm expert."

The Manor Master nodded and spoke slowly.

"I just can’t fathom how a disciple from an outer branch could possess such talent," the figure said, his face full of puzzlement.

"Who cares about his talent? Since he’s here for the Holy Spirit Disciple Competition, he’s destined to die anyway. When the time comes, as long as we transfer his potential to Mu Jie, that boy will surely make rapid progress. Our Dieyi Manor won’t have to worry about not growing stronger!"

The Manor Master’s eyes flashed with a cold light as he stroked his beard, having thought of something.

"Exactly. These outer branch disciples have no sense of belonging to our Ancient City. The only reason we let them participate in such a grand event is to transfer their potential. As long as we transfer the potential from these disciples, our Ancient City can continue to prosper, and the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring will endlessly produce its water!"

The figure also nodded.

"Keep a close eye on these two for the next few days. Don’t let them leave. Once the Holy Spirit Disciple Competition begins, they won’t be able to escape even if they want to."

A sinister, cold light glinted in the Manor Master’s eyes as he tapped his fingers on the armrest, his thoughts unknown, and gave the order.

"Yes!" The figure nodded, turned, and left the hall, apparently to make the arrangements.

***

’Transferring potential? It seems this Holy Spirit Disciple Competition isn’t so simple!’

Nie Yun’s brows furrowed as he walked behind Mu Yan.

After leaving the Manor Master’s drawing-room, he had quietly activated his Celestial Eye and clearly watched the conversation between the figure and the Manor Master.

Previously, Nie Yun didn’t know how to read lips, so even if he saw a conversation, he couldn’t tell what was being said. However, during the month it took to travel to the Ancient City, he had carefully studied the art of lip-reading.

The skill sounded complicated, but it was actually quite simple. Every word spoken produces subtle differences in mouth shape. While an ordinary person would find these differences difficult to spot, it was incredibly easy for a powerful expert with a special talent like a Celestial Eye Master.

Therefore, Nie Yun could now understand what people were saying just by observing the shape of their mouths as they spoke.

The moment he had entered the hall earlier, Nie Yun had noticed someone hiding off to the side. Not even a Concealment Master could evade the gaze of the Celestial Eye, so how could some ordinary concealment escape his notice?

He had simply pretended not to see them and used his Celestial Eye to observe the situation as he left.

His current Soul Level was higher than that of the Manor Master and the others, so even if he kept observing them with his Celestial Eye, they wouldn’t be able to detect it.

Nie Yun had heard of True Qi being transferred and strength being transferred, but he had never heard of potential being transferable. Seeing the conversation between the Manor Master and the figure, he found it rather incredible.

’No matter what they’re plotting, my purpose here is to find the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring Water. As long as I get it, I’ll leave quietly. There’s no need to get too involved with these people.’

Unable to figure it out, Nie Yun decided not to dwell on it.

In any case, he had come here to find a way to steal the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring Water. As long as he got what he came for, he could just turn around and leave. There was no need to get tangled up with them.

Of course, if they really wanted to start something, Nie Yun wouldn’t mind taking action.

"You two, this is Lixuan Pavilion, the most honored place where we host our guests. You may stay here."

After observing for a while and seeing nothing new, Nie Yun stopped looking. Following Mu Yan, the three of them soon arrived at a small, independent courtyard. Mu Yan made some arrangements and spoke with a smile.

"Alright, thank you for your trouble, Uncle Mu Yan. By the way, the Manor Master just asked you to tell us about the Holy Spirit Disciple Competition. Could you explain it to us in detail? We’ve never been to the Ancient City before, so we don’t know many of the rules here. Please don’t laugh at our ignorance."

Seeing Mu Yan about to leave after getting them settled, Nie Yun quickly asked his question. If one didn’t know about the Asura-like display he had put on earlier, forcing a group of people to their knees, one might really mistake him for a well-behaved and humble youth.

"It’s actually very simple. You should know what the most precious thing in our Ancient City is, right?" Mu Yan explained, pausing for a moment.

"The most precious thing is, of course, the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring," Nie Yun said, nodding after a moment of thought.

"Correct. The most precious thing in our Ancient City is the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring. Without it, how could we possess such great strength at such a young age? The Spirit Rhinoceros Spring is a wonderful thing, but its water is far too scarce—only one drop is produced a year! Because it’s so precious, disagreements arose over its distribution."

"As you know, our Ancient City has Five Great Manors, each governing its own affairs. Everyone wants to control the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring to gain greater benefits, which led to conflict. To prevent these conflicts from harming the safety of the Ancient City, the City Lord’s Mansion established a method: our five great families would hold a Holy Spirit Disciple Competition every ten years. Whichever manor the first-place disciple belongs to gets to control the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring for the next ten years."

"Disciples from the outer branches can also participate. This competition both allows the disciples to grow stronger through rivalry and resolves the issue of distributing the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring, so it gained the support of the Five Great Manors. Over time, it became a tradition. Lord Yun, the moment you appeared, you possessed strength far beyond that of an ordinary person. That’s why you caused a panic in Muaixia Manor. After all, they were the ones who won control of the Spirit Rhinoceros Spring last time, and they aren’t ready to let it go."

Mu Yan explained the origin, purpose, and details of the Holy Spirit Disciple Competition.

’So that’s how it is...’ Nie Yun was beginning to understand.

No wonder that Mu Shang fellow came looking for trouble right after he found a place to stay. It seems this was a deliberate act by Muaixia Manor. If an outer branch disciple was weak, they would just drive them away. If they were strong, they would immediately report it and have the manor’s experts come out to kill them, eliminating the threat. That’s why Muaixia Manor’s experts arrived so quickly.

They just never dreamed they would encounter a monster like Nie Yun. An Ultimate Venerable Level cultivator with a Mid-Stage Spirit Level Soul, and his combat power was off the charts. The supposedly foolproof experts they had sent were now all kneeling on the ground, having utterly lost all face.

P.S. A quick word about updates. The guaranteed base for this month is two Chapters a day.

Today we have a new Alliance Leader, the great Long Yinyue, who was third on last month’s monthly ticket leaderboard and is the author of the *Unrestrained Imagination Quadrilogy*. Thanks to Long Da for the donation! For Long Da, I’ll be adding the ten bonus Chapters I owed before, which is 20,000 characters.

Also, for the Alliance Leader devildragon’s donation of 20,000 Qidian Coins today, I’ll add a bonus of 2,000 characters.

And there are also the seven previous 10,000-coin donations, which means I owe everyone 7,000 characters.

So, all in all, I, Lao Ya, now owe everyone 29,000 characters...

The new book month competition was too brutal, so I (Lao Ya) plan to rest for a few days instead of pushing myself to the brink. Starting tomorrow, in addition to the two guaranteed daily Chapters, I’ll add an extra 6,000 characters. At that rate, the 29,000 characters will be covered in five days... (with 1,000 characters as a bonus)...

In other words, for five consecutive days, there will be four updates a day, totaling 12,000 characters. The update times will be: 12:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM, and 12:00 AM.

I will release them on time. I hope everyone will come to Qidian to catch the earliest updates.

Lastly, a shout-out for monthly tickets! When I woke up this morning, we were ranked in the thirties on the monthly ticket leaderboard, and now... *sweatdrop*... we’ve fallen to over fiftieth.

Anyone who has subscribed to this book has a guaranteed monthly ticket. You can vote for me with this ticket regardless of whether you’ve spent anything in the last three months. I hope you’ll all cast your votes and help our ranking on the leaderboard look a little better.

And recommendation tickets, too! Those are free... We’ve only gotten about two hundred recommendation tickets so far today, which is really... embarrassing!

Also, there are no more updates tonight. The next update will be at 12:00 AM sharp. Tomorrow, the updates will follow a regular schedule, so please tune in at the set times. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)