Book 2 - Fame Spreads - Chapter 40.1 - Night Scouting

The moonlight dyed the front yard in a shade of gray; stars dominated the night sky. An unspeakable serenity and profoundness prevaded the night in the manor.
He Yiming was inside his room, and his thoughts were still on yesterday’s visitors from Fan family.
Fan Vastsun naturally didn’t enter the range of his thoughts. This person’s age was slightly bigger than his eldest brother and Internal Energy cultivation also seemed to be a notch above that of his eldest brother. Although it hadn’t attained the peak of the seventh layer, he could still be considered as one of the top figures of the young generation.
Although He Yiming had not travelled much, he’d seen a lot of outstanding young talents. Especially in the four great clans of Fire Crow country, young experts were as numerous as clouds. However, those who had been able to attain the seventh layer’s peak before the age of twenty-five were extremely rare.
Those who had further succeeded in attaining the ninth layer before the age of forty, like Lin Taoli, were even more rare.
But after his experiences in the Xie Mansion, He Yiming had also understood that to attain such a realm, Lin Taoli must have consumed many gold cores.
Apart from providing assistance in breakthroughs, there were also gold cores that could increase one’s essence, thereby increasing the efficiency of its Internal Energy conversion. If someone were to say that Lin Taoli had attained his current realm without any assistance from these two kinds of gold cores, He Yiming wouldn’t be convinced even in death.
Therefore, young experts like He Yitian and Fan Vastsun who, after being born in ordinary influential families, could cultivate to the seventh layer’s peak before the age of thirty were already geniuses who were seen only once in several decades.
Of course, He Yiming himself was not included. After experiencing the strange encounter in the lake, he could no longer be gauged by the means of cultivation speed of ordinary people.
However, although Fan Vastsun was remarkable, it was not him occupying He Yiming’s mind, but the two Xiao brothers.
The strength of these two was no joke. The strange armguards on their body was not that big of a deal. What truly made He Yiming’s heart palpitate was, in fact, their mysterious foot technique.
Ever since the two brothers left yesterday, He Yiming had been hiding in his room. He was trying his utmost to recall that foot technique and even attempting to fuse it with Lin Taoli’s Rain Cloud Imprint, thereby making a complete agility technique of his own.
He Yiming had a feeling that as long as he could create such a technique, it would certainly be a Xiantian one.
However, creating a Xiantian technique was easier said than done. Even after his fortuitous encounter and having experienced that these two techniques had different abilities but the same source, it was not easy to accomplish.
With a long sigh, He Yiming eventually opened his eyes.
His eyes shined as he schemed that if he were to capture the Xiao brothers alive, whether he would be able to force their Xiantian agility technique out.
However, this thought merely flickered momentarily. The current him had not become so atrocious yet.
Suddenly, He Yiming’s head tilted to the side as his face revealed an astonished expression.
If he hadn’t heard wrong, some expert had probably infiltrated the manor taking the advantage of the night. If not for He Yiming- a Xiantian cultivator, nobody could have heard the slightest bit of movement outside.
At the very least, He Yiming was sure that his eldest uncle, He Quanxin, wouldn’t have heard anything at all.
However, the next moment, He Yiming’s face revealed an extremely pleasant expression.
He’d already discerned that this person’s agility technique was extremely brilliant. More importantly, it was extremely similar to that of the Xiao brothers.
However, after a few moments, he ascertained that this person couldn’t be one of the Xiao brothers.
Because this person’s Internal Energy was not at the ninth layer, but had already attained the peak of the Houtian realm- the tenth layer. Although this person had not advanced too long ago, it was far incomparable to ninth layer Internal Energy.
Furthermore, although this person’s agility technique resembled Xiao brother’s a lot, it was merely a resemblance and was far from the true essence of the technique.
After pondering for a bit, He Yiming immediately understood.
This person probably had some relationship with Xiao brothers. However, the former didn’t have the talent of Xiao brothers as far as cultivating this agility technique went, and thus was incapable to master it.
As a matter of fact, as powerful Xiantian techniques were, apart from exceedingly talented geniuses, one could hardly cultivate them.
Even a tenth layer might not succeed in cultivating a Xiantian technique of the same attribute.
He Yiming’s mind reeled, and the corner of his mouth curled into a cold smile. SInce this person had come here, it was only naturally that he received a warm reception.
The door slightly opened without making the slightest bit of noise under his ingenious control achieved through True Qi.
The more he used True Qi, the more his understanding increased.
While confronting an enemy, if one were to imbue their weapon with a huge amount of True Qi, one would be able to produce a powerful might. However, if the weapon hadn’t been fused with Magnetic Steel Source or some other ore of similar rank, the powerful True Qi could easily melt the metal away. Especially during a battle, imbuing an ordinary weapon with large amounts of True Qi would lead it to its destruction before it could even touch the enemy.
However, as far as daily-life activities were concerned, merely a smidgen of True Qi could provide huge amounts of assistance and wouldn’t end up damaging the objects on one’s own body.
The more time passed after he entered Xiantian realm, the more his experience of using True Qi increased, and the more unwilling he became to let go of True Qi.
With a flicker, He Yiming advanced in large strides. His feet seemed to be falling on the ground severely, but as if the bottom of his feet were padded with a thick cotton cloth, or as if they had transformed into a cat’s claw, no sound could be heard.
Although he’d never possessed a technique that specialized in agility, under the effect of True Qi, placing his feet on the ground without making a noise was quite a simple task.
As soon as He Yiming stepped out of his courtyard, his feet suddenly halted, and a strange expression emerged on his face.
He wondered whether this nist visitor’s luck was good or bad.
Right as the latter arrived in the interior of the manor, his eldest uncle also suddenly walked out from his room.
He Yiming was flabbergasted. ‘Could eldest uncle have sensed this person?’
After a few moments, He Quanxin opened the gate of his residence and saw a dark figure out of the corner of his eyes. Almost at the same time, that dark figure also turned his head, and the two gazes met in the space.
These were two prepared eyes with a ferocious and determined gaze, even carrying an overbearing aura.
Although this person was covering his true appearance behind a black cloth, his figure stood upright like a tree without bending in the slightest.
He Yiming and He Quanxin both immediately understood that this person had no shady intentions to begin. Instead, he wanted to challenge He Quanxin fair and square.
He Yiming inwardly sighed. He’d looked down on this person.
A tenth layer Houtian cultivator obviously had their pride. Despite acting under the cover of night, this person couldn’t be looked down upon.
He Quanxin’s gaze constricted as he immediately felt the formidable aura erupting from the body of the counterpart.
This was an expert of the same rank; an expert that was not weaker than him at all.
Confronting such an expert, He Quanxin’s blood also seemed to have begun to boil. Ever since he’d entered the tenth layer, he’d never found a true opponent for himself.
In the He manor, be it Lord Master He Wude, or be it his freak of a nephew He Yiming, none of them could provide him an opportunity to fight with his life on the line. The Xiao brothers from the yesterday were, although quite powerful, after all merely ninth layer experts. The battle with them was indeed not to his heart’s content.
At this moment, however, there was an evenly matched opponent before him. The He family’s martial lunatic- He Quanxin, was naturally quite excited.