Chapter Thirty-One: Sworn Brotherhood

“Come on, Big Brother. I’ll take you somewhere to get something to eat.” Mu Qingnan pulled him toward another part of the city.

Before long, Mu Qingnan brought Yu Qi to a restaurant called the Guest’s Arrival. The moment they entered, the proprietor came forward to greet them.

“Master Mu, you’re here. Please, come in.”

“The usual. Remember to bring it up later.” Mu Qingnan had clearly visited this place many times. At the proprietor’s urging, he headed upstairs.

After entering a private room, Mu Qingnan gave a smug grin. “Big Brother, this place is pretty good, isn’t it?”

“It’s not bad.” Yu Qi glanced around. The room was situated on one of the upper floors, and from the window, the entire scenery of Fenghua City could be seen.

Before long, the waiter brought in the food. After exchanging a few words with Mu Qingnan, he left.

To be honest, although the Mu Family prepared decent meals for its guards, they were ultimately no match for the dishes served in this restaurant. Looking at the delicacies spread across the table, Yu Qi felt his appetite stir.

After taking a bite, Yu Qi suddenly remembered the dagger. He quickly took it out.

“By the way, I heard that this dagger is very important to you.”

Mu Qingnan accepted the dagger and fixed his gaze upon it, as though recalling some distant event. Even his usual playful expression had faded considerably.

“This dagger was actually given to me by an old friend.”

It was the first time Yu Qi had ever seen Mu Qingnan like this. He could not help asking, “An old friend? Can you tell me about him?”

Mu Qingnan seemed reluctant to recall those events. A sorrowful look appeared in his eyes.

“He was once my sworn elder brother, and he shared the same surname as you, Big Brother.”

“Big Brother, you must have heard of the Yu Family of Cang Commandery, right? My elder brother was a member of that family. His name was Yu Mo.”

Mu Qingnan rarely drank, but at the mention of this, it was as though something deep within him had been touched. He poured himself a cup and downed it in one gulp.

Yu Mo!

The instant Yu Qi heard those two words, it was as if lightning had split through his mind. His face suddenly stiffened, and even the hand holding his chopsticks froze.

Yu Mo was a genius of the Yu Family. He had entered the Intent Realm far earlier than Yu Qi, and he was also Yu Qi’s cousin.

At the thought of the ruins left behind after the Yu Family had been annihilated, a raging fury ignited within Yu Qi’s heart.

Crack!

The wine cup in his hand shattered beneath the force of his anger.

“Big Brother? What’s wrong?” Mu Qingnan asked in confusion as he stared at Yu Qi’s unusual reaction.

The question brought Yu Qi back to his senses. He calmed himself and returned to his normal expression before saying, “It’s nothing. I just suddenly thought about how such a powerful family as the Yu Family was destroyed. It feels like such a pity.”

“Yes, it was destroyed. Elder Brother Yu Mo is gone too. This dagger is the only thing he left me.”

Mu Qingnan seemed to share his anger. The arm gripping his cup began to tremble slightly.

“Actually, from the first moment I saw you, I felt that your appearance resembled his somewhat. That’s why I wanted to swear brotherhood with you.”

Mu Qingnan rose to his feet and held the dagger out toward Yu Qi.

In Mu Qingnan’s pupils, Yu Qi’s face gradually overlapped with the image of Yu Mo in his memories. Crystal tears spilled from his eyes as he revealed a smile.

“Big Brother!”

Yu Qi watched the scene with a faint smile at the corners of his lips. He stood as well and accepted the dagger.

“Second Brother!”

The two of them became sworn brothers just like that. There was no grand ceremony, nor any witnesses. They had only the figures preserved within their memories.

“Do you know who destroyed the Yu Family?” Yu Qi asked, gazing at Mu Qingnan with a glimmer of hope.

Mu Qingnan clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it against the table.

“I don’t know. I asked my father, but he refused to tell me anything.”

Yu Qi nodded lightly. Although he had failed to learn the identity of the culprit, he had discovered something else: Mu Wenfeng certainly knew who had destroyed the Yu Family.

Mu Qingnan had a poor tolerance for alcohol. After only a few cups, his face had turned bright red, and Yu Qi’s figure appeared doubled in his eyes.

“Big... Big Brother, how...”

Before he could finish, his head thudded onto the table.

Yu Qi sighed helplessly. After finishing his last cup of wine, he carried Mu Qingnan out of the restaurant.

Because Fenghua City was so vast, traveling from one place to another took an extremely long time. By the time Yu Qi carried Mu Qingnan back to the Mu Residence, it was already afternoon.

He walked straight toward the gate in the center. The guards had intended to stop him, but when they saw Mu Qingnan on his back, they hurriedly let him pass.

This truly was the heart of the Mu Family estate. Corridors connecting the various towers stretched in every direction, while all kinds of flowers and trees grew along the sides, filling the air with fragrance.

The place was like a maze. For a moment, Yu Qi had no idea where to go.

He tried to wake Mu Qingnan, but the young man was sleeping like the dead and could not be roused no matter how loudly Yu Qi called. Left with no choice, Yu Qi could only wander aimlessly.

“Mu Wenfeng really is something. No matter how powerful he is, he should at least station a few guards here.”

Yu Qi cursed inwardly. He had been wandering for some time and wanted to find someone to ask for directions, but he discovered that there was not even a single guard in the center of the estate.

As he continued walking, the faint sound of conversation drifted from ahead. He hurried toward it.

It was a garden. A stream murmured through the grounds, with several fish swimming happily within it. Birds perched on the branches of a great tree, singing the songs of nature without pause.

At the end of the stream stood a small pavilion. Inside sat a man and a beautiful woman. They were the source of the conversation he had heard.

The moment Yu Qi entered, waves of fragrance reached him. At the same time, the middle-aged man seated inside the pavilion turned his gaze toward him.

An overwhelming battle intent descended upon Yu Qi’s heart, like ten thousand horses charging forward. The pressure bore down on him until he could barely breathe.

He had felt this kind of pressure from only one other person—the white-haired man he had encountered in the mountains.

Within the Mu Family, there was no need to guess who possessed such strength. Yu Qi immediately knew the man’s identity.

Mu Wenfeng was irritated that a guard had dared disturb him. But when he saw the figure on the guard’s back, the pressure radiating from him vanished without a trace. In the next instant, he had appeared beside Yu Qi.

Although Mu Wenfeng had withdrawn his pressure, Yu Qi could still sense an invisible aura spreading through the surroundings. It was the innate suppression that a supreme expert exerted over the weak.

“Speak. What happened?” Mu Wenfeng said mildly, yet his words carried boundless authority, making resistance impossible.

Supporting Mu Qingnan, Yu Qi respectfully replied, “Today, I was ordered by Chief Steward Wu to search for the young master. I did not expect him to discover me. After that, the young master insisted on taking me to the Guest’s Arrival to drink. In the end, he became like this.”

“Oh, dear! How much did Qingnan drink to end up this drunk?” The woman hurried over anxiously.

Mu Wenfeng looked at his son, anger rising in his heart.

“This good-for-nothing knows nothing but eating, drinking, and having fun all day!”

Despite his words, he and the woman still helped Mu Qingnan down from Yu Qi’s back.

Mu Wenfeng extended two fingers and tapped his drowsy son. A stream of pure inner power immediately flowed from his fingertips into Mu Qingnan’s body.

Under the force of the inner power, droplets of liquid seeped from Mu Qingnan’s five fingers, and the strong smell of alcohol instantly spread through the air.

Yu Qi stared at the scene in shock. Mu Wenfeng had forcibly driven the alcohol from Mu Qingnan’s body using his inner power.

To accomplish this, one needed an incomparably refined mastery of inner power. As far as Yu Qi was concerned, he was nowhere near capable of such a feat.

Once all the alcohol had been expelled, Mu Qingnan opened his bleary eyes and looked at Yu Qi.

“Big Brother, where is this?”

He swept his gaze across the scene ahead and found it somewhat familiar. Before he could think too deeply, he felt an intense stare fixed upon him from nearby. Mu Qingnan turned his head and hurriedly retreated several steps in fear.

“Father!”

“I’ll deal with you later.” Mu Wenfeng glared at Mu Qingnan before turning his attention to Yu Qi. “Are you the young man who saved Qingnan?”

Yu Qi smiled and bowed respectfully.

“This junior is Yu Qi. Greetings, Senior Mu.”

Mu Wenfeng nodded. There was now a hint of approval in his eyes.

“Not bad. At such a young age, you have already entered the Micro-Insight Realm. Truly, heroes emerge from the young.”

With that, he turned toward the woman.

“Wan’er, take Qingnan downstairs first. I have something to discuss with Yu Qi.”

Murong Wan nodded and pulled her son away. Mu Qingnan even waved at Yu Qi as he left.

“Big Brother, I’ll come find you later.”

After the two of them departed, the garden fell silent.

Looking at Mu Wenfeng, Yu Qi vaguely sensed that the man had discovered something.

“Tell me. What is your relationship with Yu Mo?”

The simple question stirred enormous waves within Yu Qi’s heart.

Yu Qi knew that before an expert of Mu Wenfeng’s level, every movement he made would be observed. Lying was clearly impossible.

“Yu Mo is my cousin,” Yu Qi replied.

As expected. My guess was right.

The moment Mu Wenfeng saw Yu Qi, he had already grown suspicious. Yu Qi’s appearance bore a slight resemblance to the Yu Mo he had once seen. After asking, the truth was exactly as he had expected.

Mu Wenfeng raised his head toward the sky. His eyes were filled with unmistakable emotion.

“Canglan, the Yu Family was not completely wiped out after all. You should be able to rest in peace now.”

Yu Qi knew who Mu Wenfeng meant by Canglan. He was the current patriarch of the Yu Family—but he too had died in battle two years earlier.

Mu Wenfeng lowered his head and looked at Yu Qi with hope in his eyes.

“Yu Qi, you must cultivate diligently and restore the Yu Family’s former glory, so that its might may once again return to this land.”

Yu Qi clenched both hands tightly.

He had never given up. Although his current strength was still insignificant, he believed that sooner or later, the Yu Family would rise from the ashes through his efforts.