"Such a waste!! Over 40 men! Even if they only contribute 10 AP each that's over 400 AP!!" Mu Cheng complained inwardly. For some reason, he did not notice that he was questioning the thing. Shouldn't he be questioning about why those cloaked men could so easily kill the guards and the innocent bystanders without a good reason.
After the cloaked men finished killing the guards and a few innocent bystanders that did not manage to leave while the crowd went through panic and stepped on each other. They went back into the tea house, half of the group fell down on the ground in exhaustion.
"Eeeh... I seem to have missed my timing to leave..." Mu Cheng sighed internally. Although he had finally met people from a martial arts sect, he had quite some mixed feelings about joining a demonic sect after seeing them treat people like grass and killing wantonly.
"There's only a potential lead to a martial arts sect in Featherbranch Cliff. But now I got actual sect members here. The best way is to get some information about sects from them. But how do I do this then...? Joining the sect? Too bad I did not change my appearance beforehand. Now I don't have a chance to do it. Otherwise, I could just join and then disappear once I got the information about other sects. But I might actually bring my family into danger. Every one of those cloaked men is stronger than the city guard's captain. If they were to seek revenge..." Mu Cheng pondered the question. He could simply leave, but his goal of joining a martial arts sect to become stronger was just in front of him.
"I got it!" Mu Cheng smiled. He could not make large changes to his appearance, but a few small changes might not look as much, but it would definitely make one believe he just looked similar to someone else and no appear too suspicious.
A few moments later, Mu Cheng still looked very much like an aristocrat with similar features to his identity as Su Yihan, but people would just think he was his brother or cousin.
"I'm adopted either way, so it doesn't matter." Mu Cheng smiled.
"Humph! What are you smiling for!" A cloaked man happened to see Mu Cheng smile and got angry. The group of cloaked men looked quite miserable right now, both exhausted and bloody. Not only did they fail to capture Man Xierui, they even lost four men! Now seeing Mu Cheng, this 9-year-old boy smile, he could only connect it with him sneering at them.
"Ah?" Mu Cheng stared at the angry cloaked man in confusion. But after seeing his miserable appearance, he quickly understood.
"Ai... You fools, although I'm not confident in fighting twelve of you at your peak conditions, I do not fear the lots of you right now." Mu Cheng smiled wryly as he fiercely rolled his eye internally.
The exhausted cloaked man seeing Mu Cheng not even replying was angered and walked up to Mu Cheng.
"I'll teach you a lesson!" The cloaked man albeit exhausted had managed to recover some of his strength after resting on the ground for awhile now. He clenched his fist and punch at Mu Cheng's stomach. He clearly wanted to torture Mu Cheng instead of simply cutting him in half with his blade.
"Oh god! This idiot!" Mu Cheng rolled his eyes. He stretched out his palm and slapped the cloaked man's wrist to redirect the kinetic force behind his punch, then he slapped his palm right at the cloaked man's face.
Bam! A loud and clear slap resounded in the tea house as the big adult man was slapped away by the tiny 9-year-old boy and rolled on the ground a few times. The man did not stand up again, he had clearly fainted from the attack which contained quite a bit of Mu Cheng's own strength plus the kinetic force from the cloaked man's punch.
"Brat! Are you from the righteous force? You dare fight us alone?" The leader narrowed his eyes and put his hand on the hilt of his blade. It seems that Mu Cheng's skilled counterattack had led the leader to believe Mu Cheng was a martial arts sect member.
"What righteous force? I'm not even affiliated with any sect!" Mu Cheng rolled his eyes.
"Eh... That's also true, they would certainly not let a kid your age roam around so freely without protection." The leader took a look at Mu Cheng's noble robe which was clearly unlike the martial arts world's style of clothing. He was now staring intently at Mu Cheng as if he was a treasure, he was after all a skilled martial arts practitioner with a keen eye. The Tai Chi move of nullifying the opponent's force and borrowing the opponent's force to enhance your own attack was expertly displayed by Mu Cheng's earlier palm slap. This wasn't a level which a 9-year-old boy could achieve, in fact, even the leader himself would only be able to reach such a level after a dozen years of hard training.
"Who's your master? Isn't he afraid you'll get hurt by leaving you by yourself? No matter how strong you are, you're still just a kid." The leader asked.
"I don't have a master, I just happened to learn Tai Chi from a hermit in passing. I came here since I heard rumors that martial arts sect members have appeared in Featherbranch Cliff. So I'm just traveling there to try my luck and join a sect." Mu Cheng said honestly, now that he had slightly changed his appearance a bit, he wasn't worried about anything else.
"Hahaha! Good, good, good! Why don't you join our Crimson Brute Sect?" The leader said happily.
"Eh, sure." Mu Cheng said with a wry smile. The opponent had quickly changed into a fawning man.
"Great! I'm Liu Yezi, the newest Law Enforcement Elder. You can just call me Brother Liu. What's your name, little brother?" The leader smiled.
"I'm Mu Cheng." Mu Cheng stared dumbly at Liu Yezi, his new self-proclaimed elder brother.
"Since little brother Mu is already so skilled, there's no need for you to go through the entrance test. I'll vouch for you and you'll immediately be able to join our sect." The leader said kindly.
"Oh, what's the entrance test?" Mu Cheng wondered curiously.
"We normally gather a few hundred kids and teach train them in the mountain, teach them to train their bodies and basic martial arts. Then they'll go through three life and death trials during their three years of stay in the mountain. Once they pass all three trials, they're admitted to our sect." The leader explained carelessly.
"How brutal..." Mu Cheng's lips twitched.
"Yeah, that's why there's a Brute in our sect's name. The survival rate is about one third. Sometimes less, sometimes more survive the three life and death trials. But with your skills, it's just a waste of time as the entrance test takes three years." The leader gave a cruel smile.
"No wonder it's a demonic sect. They're already used to treating people as weed." Mu Cheng rolled his eyes internally.
Liu Yezi was the newest Law Enforcement Elder and was therefore suppressed by the other elders, the more elders, the fewer benefits and resources there were since everyone had to share. This time, Liu Yezi had failed his mission to either capture or kill Man Xierui and was bound to be badly punished by the biased elders. But since he managed to recruit such a talented kid, his contributions would ease most of the punishment and he might even get rewarded! It was no wonder that he treated Mu Cheng so warmly.
After chatting for awhile, the unconscious cloaked man woke up, and just before he could release his rage on Mu Cheng, the leader berated him.
Since everyone had recovered more or less, the group did not want to leave their fallen sect members be, so four of the cloaked men carried the four corpses on their backs and the group left Green Willow City.
There were no more guards coming to arrest the group, even the guards at the city gate shook in fear when they saw the group. The guards did not care about the repercussions of leaving their posts and simply abandoned the city gates.
At first, the leader wanted to move slowly due to having Mu Cheng, a 9-year-old boy in the group. He even intended to offer to carry the boy. But unexpectedly, Mu Cheng could follow the group's speed with ease, without even breaking out a sweat. Mu Cheng had thus earned the respect of the group simply by keeping up with them as a 9-year-old boy. With his physical attributes at 4 points and Minute Subtlety, Mu Cheng could easily overtake the group.
They traveled until night before stopping.
"We'll bury our friends first." The four cloaked men carrying their friends said before walking into the forest.
"You think I'm that gullible? If I was a kid, then maybe. But would you really carry your friends the whole day until you feel like burying them? If you really wanted to bury them, you could have done it a few hours earlier. I had thought you guys wanted to bring your friends' corpses back to the sect. But turns out you have some other plans for them... Seeing how the other guys are looking at them with envy..." Mu Cheng mocked the cloaked men internally without showing any change to his facial expressions.
An hour later, the four men walked out with slightly ruddy faces and seemed to be in quite a good mood. While the other cloaked men had envious looks plastered on their faces.
"I smell a heavy bloody smell from them... Is this...! Blood Absorption?! Damn, these guys won't even let their own companions rest in peace." Mu Cheng cursed the cloaked men internally.
"If I didn't inspect their skills before, I wouldn't know that they had something like Blood Absorption. Though they've somewhat covered up their actions. It seems they're pretty used to it and because I'm just a kid, they have unconsciously treated me like kid. Heh! Seems like there are some benefits being a kid. Atleast others won't be wary of me and might even unconsciously reveal quite a few secrets every now and them." Mu Cheng thought.
The group found a nice place to sleep for the night while two cloaked men would keep guard and rotate every two hours. Since Mu Cheng is just a kid, he did not need to wake up during the night. He discovered yet another privilege as a kid.
As usual, Mu Cheng woke up early in the morning at 4 am and practiced Tai Chi for half an hour. When he finished his practice, he noticed the leader, Liu Yezi watching him while resting his back on a tree.
"You're diligent, already practicing so early in the morning." Liu Yezi greeted Mu Cheng with a smile.
"It's just a habit, besides I'm only working out for half an hour. It can't really be called real practice. It's unfortunate that I don't really have any useful martial arts to practice." Mu Cheng shook his head in disappointment when he thought of the three years he spent lazing around. It was somewhat similar to the feeling of his summer holidays during his student life. It's fun and enjoyable for awhile, but during the last few weeks of the summer holidays, he would get bored with that kind of lazy lifestyle.
"Don't worry. Once you have registered in our sect, you will be able to browse through quite a few useful martial arts. Though you'll only be able to learn a few necessary ones for free. The rest would require sect contribution points." Liu Yezi explained. As a sect, they would naturally have much higher grades of martial arts, but they can't just freely hand them out. One problem would be loyalty, by contributing to the sect, you're showing loyalty to the sect. And in return, you will gain contribution points that can be redeemed for various items and martial arts manuals.
But considering Mu Cheng's talent, Liu Yezi believes that the sect would be somewhat biased and show greater care and nurturing Mu Cheng. After all, a sect has many many sect members. But few would become pillars of the sect. To become a pillar of the sect, you would either be extremely strong, or have some special talent which helps the sect greatly. For example, they require someone skilled in managing the sect's resources well. In this case, strength matters little. A sect with numerous members will have a high expenditure, even if they have high revenues. If the resources are wastefully spent, the sect might need to spend several times more than necessary. If the sect only spends it's resources efficiently, it might cut down on its expenses by more than half. Which is a necessity in case a sect want to grow bigger or strengthen their foundations. A sect's expenditure could not be in the red for long as it's foundation would weaken and grooming new talents would be restricted.
Therefore various talents were needed to manage a sect. Strength wasn't everything, but strength was a necessity in the martial arts world. A weak sect without the strength to protect itself will get raided by others. Be it for their wealth or their precious martial arts manuals, precious treasures or even talented seeds to be groomed.
