Mage's Cultivation Journey 37

I stood up immediately, but didn’t rush out to check the sound. This time, it wasn’t about maintaining my role, but true caution.

The explosion at the gate was loud, and likely devastating, but, for a night raid, it wasn’t the best choice … especially since I suspected it wouldn’t be very effective against higher-ranking martial artists. It was not a certainty, but…

I smelled a distraction.

Which was why I moved back inside the house. A good thing. Just as I stepped inside, I felt four martial artists, each at Bone Forging Realm, shift their direction to arrive inside. I continued my path toward the basement.

I also threw in four pills to replenish my internal energy. One of them, I started processing, while the other three, I wrapped in a protective cocoon together. There was a chance that I wasted all four, but it was much better to practice.

The sudden presence of four Bone Forging martial artists coming to us when there was an emergency to react … the desire to protect us didn’t explain it.

I caught them in the corridor, alerted by the explosion. “What’s going on, master?” he asked.

“Not sure yet, young master,” I responded, giving him a pointed glare to stick to the roles. “There’s an emergency going on with our hosts. We’ll wait it out.”

They caught up quickly. “Shall we return to the training room, steward?” Yu Xing suggested. “It’s a defensible position.”

“No other exits, we don’t want to get pinned there,” I replied. A part of it was about playing our roles, but the bigger part was to avoid getting pinned down. An underground room with no exit was good to avoid potential spies, not enemies with potential explosives. “We will go upstairs, and wait.”

Yu Xing looked hesitant. “Maybe I should go and check what’s going on,” he said.

“No splitting the group,” I said with a sigh. His request sounded reasonable on the surface, especially because he was the fastest among us, but it was just an invitation for trouble.

Before we arrived at our destination, two things happened. One, another explosion, even louder. The second, a knock on the door. “Lord Steward, may we come in!” their leader called in.

“No,” I replied, my tone calm even as we settled into our seats. I picked mine deliberately, close both to the door and the window, yet in a way that wouldn’t give anyone with a ranged weapon an angle to attack.

I looked at Su Mi, and pointed at the tea set in the corner of the room, one that was safest from any battle, and pointed a seat close to her for Yu Xing. That way, if things developed the way I feared, I wouldn’t be distracted by protecting them.

Technically, there was nothing that pointed to a plan against us that would convince the others, but I had lived through too many dangerous situations to not trust my gut. The response time of the four Bone Forging martial artists had been enough.

I continued to stretch my senses, feeling the movement of their internal energy. It wasn’t as accurate as reading body language, but seeing that their internal energy started to churn faster only after I had refused to go with them, and not when the explosion happened, was enough for me.

“There’s an emergency. We’re here to escort you to safety,” he added a few seconds later.

“No,” I repeated, and continued examining their energy flow, which got more intense. Too panicky for someone who was about to fail a mission.

I started absorbing the second and the third pills at once, raising my internal energy reserves further, raising them to a point that I would have to release into the air to waste in about ten minutes to avoid the strain of keeping it contained.

I couldn’t hear them talking among themselves, but when one from the group had split from the rest, while the others just opened the door and walked inside, I knew that my preparations were not for waste. I signaled the kids, asking them to stay still while I pulled the needles, ready to attack.

Technically, there was a risk that I was misreading the situation, and they were here to give the appearance of helping us, therefore earning my goodwill, and they were being a bit overzealous. It wouldn’t be the worst mistake. I might even have tried to see if that was the case if I were half as strong as I was trying to be.

The decision was already made when they were halfway through the corridor, and for some reason, started to wait. The reason for it turned obvious when the fourth one had returned, accompanied by someone else.

A mysterious figure, whose body was brimming with internal energy, yet somehow felt harder to detect despite the amount of internal energy that was flooding his whole body. I wondered if I was about to face an Organ Refinement expert, or if what I was feeling was the semi-legendary Connate realm.

After a moment, I decided it was Organ Refinement. While the books that had been delivered to me had nothing above Bone Forging realm — and even they were fragmented to the point of uselessness — reading between the lines, it implied that Connate Realm had some fundamental transformation.

The approaching figure felt similar to Bone Forging, only with his internal energy spreading across his whole body. Organ Refinement was the most likely case. So, as he split from the rest of the group and walked toward the window, I continued examining him.

The weirdness about his internal energy was not limited to his martial prowess. It felt difficult to detect, vogue, like someone dressed in black in the dark of the night. His transformed element was probably something to do with shadows or darkness.

An assassin.

I sighed even as I pulled a few more needles, and used the time it took for the fourth Bone Forging realm visitor to join the rest to absorb the last pill. We would clearly need it.

At the same time, I used more of our predetermined signals to give Yu Xing strict commands to stay in his place and defend Su Mi. No exception.

As the footsteps started to get closer, another explosion rang outside. It came from farther away, as if the attackers were retreating, making me suspect that the whole mess had been about giving the assassin a chance to strike.

The question was, why? Why would someone go through all that trouble for me, when I had done nothing yet? It couldn’t be the truth about my situation getting revealed, as the current situation was the exact opposite of taking advantage of my weakness.

At a distance, Su Mi trembled tensely after the third explosion, the tea she was preparing sloshing on the ground. Yu Xing looked at her, smiling to encourage her. It didn’t work very well. She still clutched the porcelain with a tight grip, her knuckles paling, her eyes darting toward the door.

Only then, I realize she had been affected by the explosions more than I had realized. It wasn’t just fear. I had seen her handle more dangerous situations with far more ease. It had something to do with explosions.

“Young master, go calm your servant. She’s getting annoying, ruining my tea,” I said, though I threw an apologetic glance at them as I added the last part. I had to speak out harshly, as we hadn’t arranged a signal for emotional comfort, and both the assassin under our window, and the other four visitors were too close to listen to us.

Yu Xing didn’t even care about the word selection as he rushed to her side and hugged her, trying to help her with her fear. But, he didn’t stop looking at the room entrance. A good call. “Are you okay?” he whispered.

“T-the explosions…. It reminds me of the fire when … my mother …” she added, her voice getting smaller. Her tone implied a tragedy, one that I had no opportunity to question at the moment. Maybe once the immediate threat had been dealt with.

Yu Xing hugged her, but not without angling his body so that he would be free to intervene with any potential attacker. I wasn’t the only one that was hearing the approaching footsteps.

I took a step, readying myself for the inevitable fight.