Chapter 59: The Xia Family
Li Mu followed the map and finally reached a valley in Muguang Mountain.
The valley in front of him seemed no different from the other valleys in the Muguang Mountains.
On Li Mu’s map, this place was labelled as “Bailing Valley”.
After walking ninety steps, Li Mu took out a jade plate and placed it on a large stone.
Whoos.h.!.+
The scenery in front of him suddenly changed.
The original stone wall disappeared and a stone staircase appeared in its place.
It seemed to be ascending into the clouds with no end in sight.
“Interesting. Is this a formation or…”
Li Mu took a step on the staircase and the scenery in the valley instantly changed back into a huge stone wall.
It took Li Mu half a day to reach the end of the stone staircase.
He arrived at a beautiful valley.
With the breeze, fragrance of flowers, and sound of birds chirping, it was so peaceful and quiet!
It was just like paradise!
“Stop!”
Just as Li Mu was about to walk forward, two saint-level warriors stopped him.
“Who are you?” The two men looked Li Mu up and down.
They didn’t recognize him.
“I’m here to look for Liu Yu. I wonder if Liu Yu is here?” Li Mu said.
As the two of them looked at him, he also studied them.
These were the Xia Family’s guards.
They seem to be warriors who guarded this path.
And their cultivation was saint-level.
The two of them looked at each other, then looked at Li Mu again.
“Oh! You are the Liu Family’s subordinate! Liu Yu told us about you. But Liu Yu is in a retreat right now. Come with me.” The guard said after a long while.
“Huh? Yes!” Li Mu was taken aback for a moment.
Subordinate?
Liu Yu must have said so in order to protect his reputation.
He was a eunuch in the palace.
No one knew that he had recovered his manhood.
He still had the ident.i.ty of a eunuch.
“Come with me!” The guard led Li Mu to the rows of small houses in the valley.
“Mr. Bai, this is Liu Yu’s subordinate. Please make arrangements for him!” The guard left soon after speaking.
He left Li Mu alone in the courtyard.
After a while, an old man in a gray robe walked over from the small houses and bent down to look at Li Mu.
“Are you new here?”
“I came here to look for Liu Yu.”
“I know! I happen to be missing a cleaner here. In the future, you will be responsible for sweeping the floor! That room over there will be yours.” The old man pointed to the room in the corner.
Huh?
Li Mu froze again.
What was going on?
He had come here to visit someone.
How did he become a servant?
Why was he being asked to sweep the floor?
“Mr…Mr. Bai, is Concubine Jing… Is Liu Yu’s around?” Li Mu asked as he rolled his eyes.
“Liu Yu’s mother? I can’t remember who she is.”
“Then is Liu Yu alright?” Li Mu asked tentatively.
“Sigh. Why are you like this? Liu Yu is your master. Be more respectful to him.” Mr. Bai reprimanded Li Mu, then turned and left.
Li Mu was left standing alone in front of the row of houses.
“Forget it. I’ll just ignore them. Checking in!”
“Congratulations to the host for checking in at the Xia Family’s Handyman Yard! You are rewarded with a Minor Recovery Pill.”
“Wow! I managed to get a Minor Recovery Pill from checking in at the Handyman Yard. Then what about the core living area of the Xia Family?” Li Mu wondered in surprise.
He was now eager to sweep the floor!
After finding Mr. Bai and changing his outfit, Li Mu picked up the broom and ran away.
“What a diligent child. I initially wanted to give him two days off to familiarize himself with the place and learn about the rules of the Xia Family… Hey! Boy, stop!” Mr. Bai chased after Li Mu.
There were many areas in the Xia Family’s residence where handymen should not enter.
“Checking in!”
“Congratulations to the host for checking at the Xia Family’s martial arts training ground. You are rewarded with eighty years of cultivation.”
He spent the rest of the day carrying the broom around.
Even as night fell, Li Mu did not return to the handyman’s room. He continued to sweep the floor, checking in at various places.
Each time, Li Mu was lucky enough to be able to avoid the patrol guards.
Mr. Bai waited at the handyman’s room for a long time.
“Did he get lost? Why isn’t he back by now?”
Li Mu only went back in the middle of the night.
When he saw Mr. Bai, Li Mu initially wanted to sneak by him.
But eventually, he appeared in front of Mr. Bai.
“Did you get lost?”
“Yes!”
“That’s alright then. It’s better than you offending someone who shouldn’t be offended and getting killed, or breaking into a place that shouldn’t be broken into and disappearing. Go sleep now!” Mr. Bai waved his hand.
“Mr. Bai, which areas in the Xia Family’s residence should I not enter?” Li Mu asked as his eyes lit up.
This was probably the place he was looking for.
“Don’t worry about this now. I will tell you tomorrow.”
Back in the moldy room, Li Mu had no mood to sleep.
He sat down cross-legged while he sorted out his gains of the day.
The Xia Family was just one of the families living in Bailing Valley.
In fact, Bailing Valley had several other families living there, such as the Liu Family.
These small families’ houses were all attached to the Xia Family’s residence.
Bailing Valley had been around for many years and the families of the Xia family were all related by marriage.
These small families were also related to each other by marriage.
So technically, they were all part of one big Xia Family.
The Xia Family had a firm control over all the geniuses from these families.
The next day, under Mr. Bai’s guidance, Li Mu familiarized himself with Bailing Valley.
“That’s the Forbidden Ground in front. You can’t go in there. Even the children of the Xia Family can’t enter without a token pa.s.s.”
“What’s that building over there?”
“That’s the Library Tower. You can’t go there either. There are other people who are in charge of sweeping that area,” said Manager Bai as he glanced at the building.
“Okay!” Li Mu secretly noted these two places down.
After following Mr. Bai around for five days, Li Mu had been to all the places around Bailing Valley, except for places where he wasn’t supposed to go to.
Li Mu didn’t think the places he wasn’t supposed to go to were dangerous and he planned to visit there quietly at night.
“Mr. Bai, what’s the matter with Liu Yu and his mother?”
“How… how would I know? I only know that Liu Yu is a genius. They are important people in Bailing Valley. We are just their servants. We can’t ask the masters about this.”
“Oh.” Li Mu was speechless.
After pausing for a moment, he continued, “Well, what should I do if I want to see Liu Yu?”
“Wait. When the master wants to see you, he will summon you.”
“That’s the case for you. I come from outside the valley. I have a lot of news to tell Liu Yu and his mother,” Li Mu said.
“All you can do is wait!” Manager Bai left after speaking.
“After so long, he still doesn’t know where Concubine Jing is! Forget it. I’ll go to check in at night.”
If Mr. Bai didn’t know where she was, he would find her himself.
When he reached there, he would know if it was the right place.
At night, Li Mu went to the Library Tower first.
“Checking in!”
“You have successfully checked in to the Bailing Valley’s Library Tower. Congratulations to the host for gaining 300 years of cultivation.”
Then, Li Mu entered the Library Tower to browse through the books.
After checking in for many days in a row, Li Mu’s cultivation level had reached the half-step Virtual Realm.
The Virtual Realm.
Every Perfected Person had access to field.
And now, he was very skilled in the field.
Li Mu tested out some of the skills he had access to in the field.
Freeze!
Teleport!
Quagmire.
There were also phenomenon-based skills such as thunder and lightning.
He had also seen a Perfected Person from the Dark Yin Sect manipulate various emotions with the field and control the emotions of other warriors.
A person who could control the field would be very powerful.