Chapter 13: It's the Feeling of a Heartbeat

The chilly moonlight descended upon the Commander's residence in Loushan City.

At this moment, the Commander's mansion courtyard was in utter chaos.

Shrieking, terrified ladies, and soldiers who were rushing forward, along with Commander Wu who was shouting out orders... The scene was a complete mess.

Fortunately, the situation was brought under control with the capture of the Demon Cultivator.

When the Demon Path Cultivator, who had disturbed Loushan City, was subdued, everyone present let out a cheer.

Even the Glass Immortal Maiden, with her cool gaze and indifferent nature, couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the shackled Demon Cultivator.

With this Demon Cultivator captured, they no longer had to worry about the Demon Suppression Magus from the imperial observatory coming to carry out a massacre in Loushan City.

This Loushan City, which was at the brink of being razed to the ground, had finally turned peril into safety, and all the citizens were spared from disaster.

Thinking of this, the Glass Immortal Maiden raised her eyes towards the figure standing to the side.

Clad in the simple black uniform of a constable, his official status and identity were the lowest in the courtyard today.

Yet, it was thanks to him that they had averted all the dangers along the way.

If not for the help of this Nameless constable, perhaps she wouldn't even have been able to enter Loushan City, and would have died in that inn outside the city...

As the Glass Immortal Maiden's thoughts reached this point, the man in the black constable uniform happened to turn around. The sharp angles of his profile, slightly blurred in the candlelight, seemed veiled by a misty gauze.

Their eyes met, and the man gave a slight smile and nodded to the Glass Immortal Maiden.

It was supposed to be a simple gesture of greeting, yet for some reason, at that moment, the Glass Immortal Maiden felt her heart beat wildly.

She averted her gaze subconsciously, feeling somewhat flustered.

But fortunately, at this time, everyone's attention was on the captured Demon Cultivator, and no one noticed the Glass Immortal Maiden's momentary lapse in composure.

After handing over the Demon Cultivator to the soldiers present, the man in the constable uniform walked past the cheering crowd with a smile, approaching the Glass Immortal Maiden.

"Now that the matter here is settled, I must take my leave," he said.

Hearing the man's farewell, the Glass Immortal Maiden was slightly taken aback.

With some surprise, she asked, "Nameless Sir, won't you stay?"

The man's smile was hearty, "No, I have official duties to attend to. The remaining tasks here will have to trouble the Immortal Maiden."

Having said that, and without waiting for the Glass Immortal Maiden's response, the man in the constable uniform turned and left, heading straight for the outer part of the courtyard.

With one step, it seemed as if he used the technique of Shrinking Earth Into Inches, appearing a dozen yards away in an instant, and leaving the courtyard in the blink of an eye.

But as the man reached outside the courtyard gate, out of sight of everyone, his figure disappeared under the moonlight, vanishing like a wisp of light smoke.

The Glass Immortal Maiden and the pennant officer Zhao Erhu, who had come out to urge him to stay, could only gaze at the empty corridor, unable to locate the man's figure.

Clad in armor, Zhao Erhu scratched his head in bewilderment, "That constable has impressive movement techniques, he left so swiftly. I didn't expect there to be such capable people within the imperial government..."

Zhao Erhu couldn't help but sigh.

In the midst of this turmoil, he had had several close brushes with death and owed his survival to the mysterious constable's intervention.

Thus, although Zhao Erhu held disdain for the nobles of Capital City and held no favorable opinion of the imperial observatory, he had utmost respect for this mysterious constable from the observatory.

Zhao Erhu sighed, "But such remarkable movement skills and almost precognitive danger instincts, and yet he only serves as a lowly constable in the observatory. The court really is rotten to the core."

"If such a talented and extraordinary individual were in our Ever-Victorious Army, General Guo would definitely make good use of him!"

Zhao Erhu lamented.

Meanwhile, on the corridor touched by the night breeze, the Glass Immortal Maiden in green clothes stood beside him, silent.

Beneath the moonlight, the Immortal Maiden looked at the deserted corridor in front of her, unable to find the man's figure. For some reason, she felt it would be a long time before they met again.

This feeling came so unexpectedly, yet it triggered another throbbing in her heart, somewhat painful.

The Glass Immortal Maiden's eyes were slightly confused.

What's happening to me?

The Sword Cultivators of the Mysterious Sword Sect had always been transcendent and detached, unaffected by worldly distractions, pursuing the supreme realm of forgetting oneself in objects and becoming one with heaven and earth.

The continuous stirring of the heart and mind that occurred tonight was a first for the Glass Immortal Maiden.

She was somewhat lost.

Perhaps after returning to the mountain, she would have to ask her master for advice, thinking that maybe there had been a divergence in her recent spiritual practice, which led to this inexplicable palpitation and sense of loss...

...

...

In the Outer Sect of the Refinement Demon Sect, under the setting sun, Li Muyang was herding a group of two-legged goats that emitted a strong scent of blood through the streets.

On the stone slab-paved streets, all Outer Sect Disciples avoided the goats as if avoiding the God of Plague.

Although herding goats in Blood Mist Valley was a job with high reward, very few were willing to do it willingly, and usually, overseers would assign the task in turns.

Li Muyang, herding the two-legged goats through the streets and lanes, finally drove the flock into the pen. Only then did he find the overseer to hand in his identity disc and Magic Artifact.

The overseer was a surnamed Wang, a burly, good-natured fat man with a cheerful smile.

His jovial appearance gave people a sense of closeness, but among the several overseers in the Outer Sect, this Mr. Wang had the strongest wrist.

Almost everyone who dared to provoke him ended badly.

However, the good news was that as long as you didn't provoke him, this Mr. Wang was mostly easy to talk to.

After Li Muyang handed over the identity disc and Magic Artifact, he happily returned to his straw hut.

From the neighboring yard came the fragrance of rice and the aroma of stir-fried dishes—Guan Xiaoshun was already cooking.

After entering his house, Li Muyang first opened the old wooden cabinet to make sure the two pounds of Spirit Rice in his big bowl hadn't been stolen. Then he was relieved.

Next came washing the rice and cooking, all in one go.

Feeling too lazy to cook, he quickly made a pot of rice and directly poured it into a wooden tub. Then, he sat on the doorstep, hugging the tub and started eating.

The top-quality Spirit Rice made the cooked rice soft, sticky, and fragrantly sweet, tasting much better than ordinary Spirit Rice.

Furthermore, once ingested, Spirit Rice would swiftly transform into pure Spiritual Energy, integrating into the limbs, bones, and meridians, nourishing this body.

The cultivation practice of Li Muyang and the other Outer Sect Disciples mainly relied on eating.

The Spirit Rice eaten would turn into Spiritual Energy circulating within the body, gradually transforming into real cultivation without the need for active practice.

—That's how it was supposed to be.

Li Muyang, having finished his meal, was washing the pot when a constant flow of Spiritual Energy surged up from his stomach.

Soon, Li Muyang felt his entire body, all limbs, bones, and meridians, filled with Spiritual Energy.

The overwhelming amount of Spiritual Energy was so great that it even caused him some pain.

"What the hell... So much Spiritual Energy?"

Li Muyang immediately put down what he was doing and started to regulate his breath and meditate on the hard wooden bed, trying to sort out the vigorous Spiritual Energy within his body.

Each day after eating the Spirit Rice meal, he could only feel a slight amount of Spiritual Energy entering his body.

If the amount of Spiritual Energy supplied by the regular Spirit Rice was like a trickle from a small pipe, then the influx brought by the top-quality Spirit Rice was like a bursting flood.

Although he had been mentally prepared for the potency of the top-quality Spirit Rice, this was still too much.

Li Muyang continued to sort through the surging Spiritual Energy inside him, feeling his entire limbs and bones almost filled with Spiritual Energy, and he acutely understood the gap between ordinary people and the powerful heirs of big clans.

—Those favored sons of heaven would gain an amount of Spiritual Energy from a meal of top-quality Spirit Rice that would at least equal two months for ordinary people!