Drainage Channel
Mu Yu couldn’t find it in him to insult grey-rank disciples. Overdo it and it’d be unconvincing enough to work as a ruse. The solution? Stake out and monitor those who bullied grey-rank disciples. Sure, lots of cultivators looked down on them. That being said, not all of them deliberately started on the grey-rank disciples. Some of them were actually quite nice to grey-rank disciples, albeit being the minority. Mu Yu was looking for those who picked fights with or without reason.
The grey-rank disciples were in charge of hygiene, serving tea and carrying out other orders. Occasionally, cultivators would call them over for jobs. Most of them coldly ordered them around and left after decreeing their desires. After watching them at the grey-rank disciples’ courtyard for most of the day, Mu Yu finally saw someone getting abusive.
The cultivator was a middle-aged man with a light tan – Fang Chang, a disciple of Mystic Ice Sect. Mystic Ice Sect’s disciples’ aptitudes were quite good given the sect’s ranking. Though Fang Chang was only a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, he condescendingly reproached a grey-rank disciple over twenty. The grey-rank disciple had tears welling up in his eyes. He quietly explained, “Young Master Fang, the bone herb you asked me to purchase is out of stock. I could not find any in the entire city.”
“If there’s none at Pine City, go search Yi City. Use your brain. What does every sect feed you for? Bloody useless dolt.”
“Yi City is on the mountain and is very far away. I am only a Qi Condensation Realm First Layer cultivator; I have not learnt to fly yet. It would take five to six days to go there and back!” sobbed the grey-rank disciple.
“Enough with the excuses. I’m only going to wait here for three days. If you can’t bring back any bone herbs within three days, I’ll take your legs! There are plenty of other grey-rank disciples here. This place will function just fine even if they’re less you.”
The grey-rank disciple retreated until his back was on the wall and scared mute. Fang Chang could’ve easily gone to Yi City and back in a short span of time, yet he was making an impossible demand and trying to enforce punishment for failure to meet terms he couldn’t possibly meet.
Bone herb was a great plant for healing wounds that normally grew on the bones of rank three or higher fiend beasts. The reason they were rare was because few cultivators ever dared to venture into the territory of rank three or higher fiend beasts. By the same token, there was no guarantee there was stock for sale at Yi City.
Fang Chang left. The helpless grey-rank disciple shook his head and went into another courtyard to pack his luggage.
Mu Yu couldn’t argue Fang Chang didn’t deserve any pity if he died. There was plenty of his kind in the world of cultivation. However, one didn’t deserve to die purely because they were advanced cultivators. Mu Yu didn’t give the idea much thought and focused on tailing Fang Chang.
Fang Chang went into Mystic Ice Sect’s courtyard. Mu Yu couldn’t go in as there were no trees inside. Hence, he staked out in a tree outside the courtyard.
Night eventually fell. There was a glaring flaw to Mu Yu’s stakeout plan: there was no guarantee Fang Chang was the only potential target. Mu Yu went up a tall tree that afforded him a view inside the courtyard. Fang Chang’s room was still bright. Right as Mu Yu prepared to leave, the light went out.
Mu Yu’s tension seized him. The door to his room silently swung open, and someone sped out, seemingly holding another individual in their arm as they dashed toward another dark corner of another courtyard.
Mu Yu didn’t recklessly barge into the courtyard they went. If he broke the formation to infiltrate and was seen with Fang Chang’s corpse, there was no way he could clear his name. He had no other option but to wait until the next day to ask for Fang Chang at Mystic Ice Sect’s courtyard. When he asked them the next day, Fang Chang had purportedly departed from the academy. Mu Yu knew that wasn’t right since nobody left their courtyard all night.
Given his past experience with the culprit, Mu Yu questioned if every courtyard had a secret passage. The theory wasn’t plausible. To dig a secret passage in every courtyard without anyone noticing at the academy was a tall order, one too tall.
Mu Yu went back to Dustfallen Sect’s courtyard and searched for a secret passage to no avail. It didn’t take long to search their entire courtyard as it was so small. There was only one way out, which was a drainage channel.
The channel was only wide enough to fit a head, though. Not one to believe in voodoo tricks, Mu Yu sent a string of grass into the channel. Surprisingly, it was wide enough for two people to travel through simultaneously at the bottom. That meant the culprit only needed to cut open a block of earth to travel from courtyard to courtyard even if the entrance was too small. There was no way anyone would’ve seen it from outside. The layer of earth in Dustfallen Sect’s courtyard hadn’t been pried open, indicating the culprit hadn’t gone there yet.
The channel was designed to filter rainwater out, so it didn’t need to be so large. Mu Yu used the grass as a medium to enter the channel, and he used his sword as a light source as he traversed the rancid channel. He discovered a bulging passageway after a few metres. Mud was scattered along the path. The claw marks left along the walls resembled the wounds on Xiaohu and Tu Panshan. He entered the passageway and treaded through the wet mud.
Upon hearing a crunch, Mu Yu looked down to see a rodent’s skull. He didn’t like the sight of the rodent’s brains splattered all over the ground. He continued along the straight path until he returned to the drainage channel. It was uncannily quiet; the only sounds were the occasional drips of water. He sauntered over to the light. When he looked up, he guessed he was in another courtyard’s drainage channel. Despite having yet to figure out what the passageway was for, he continued along the channel.
Every time he saw light, he’d see if he could pull off the layer of earth at the entrance. Alas, it never worked. After an hour of repeating the process, a rotten stench violated his nose. If he wasn’t mistaken, there was also blood in the mix. It was a stench one would easily barf at. He calmed himself and turned into another passageway.
Mu Yu heard rustling and tweeting sounds. He was disappointed with himself for he was scared. He swung his sword, revealing a pair of swollen, white human eyes staring back at him. Mu Yu flinched, hitting his head on the ceiling. “Jeepers!”
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