It seemed that things had finally settled down.

The heroes had regrouped at the Abundant Spiritual Inn.

Whoosh!

Xu Xiaoshou jerked awake and sat upright in the bed.

He felt like he had awakened from a long dream. In his dream, he had met a man who was a perverted individual. He was almost killed by this man.

Xu Xiaoshou opened his eyes slowly.

Bang!

Mu Zixi, who was gently nursing him with a hot towel, immediately experienced a rush of blood to her head and jumped back.

As her body collided with the bedboard, her small body flung and was almost caught inside the wall.

Splash!

Simultaneously, a basin of boiling water hit the side of the bed frame. Half of the water had been splashed onto Xu Xiaoshou’s bed.

Unfortunately, the other half of the water had landed squarely on Xin Gugu, who was fast asleep and drooling beside the bed.

‘A wave?’

Xin Gugu was rudely awakened by the hot water.

Cursed, Passive Points, 1, 1, 1, 1…”

Insulted, Passive Points, 1.

Xu Xiaoshou’s expression was full of confusion and shock. He gazed at the two, who looked as though they were contemplating life. He turned to see the familiar room in the inn.

He truly did not have a clue about what was going on.

“Huh?”

Xin Gugu waved his hand and pushed himself up against the bed. “Are you awake?”

“What happened?”

Though he asked the question, Xu Xiaoshou was trying to remember what happened on his own.

His memory was still intact. He could recall how he was supposed to be angered to death by the scruffy-looking man.

It was the kind of anger that was unstoppable, yet he had been unwilling to die.

From the looks of his current state, he seemed very alive and well.

Therefore, the man might have saved Xu Xiaoshou after all.

It was also possible that Xin Gugu had arrived in time and turned the tides of events by saving him from the scruffy-looking man.

“Honestly, so much happened when you were out cold…”

Xin Gugu’s cheeks were bright red from the burns. He held his face carefully and tried to calm down.

He recollected the orders of the scruffy-looking man and about the shocking slaying of the City Lord Mansion and held in his anger.

The scruffy-looking man was terrifying.

He had even struck out at the City Lord Mansion, which the man had eliminated. Its destruction had forced Yuan Sandao to immediately retreat for safety.

It was no longer a scheme for battle but pure suppression from a stronger power.

Tiansang City was no match for someone on this man’s level.

The more important issue at hand was that the scruffy-looking man had taken a liking to Xu Xiaoshou.

Xin Gugu never thought that his mission to seek out and protect Greedy the Cat Spirit would land him into the position of being a bodyguard for Xu Xiaoshou.

However, Xin Gugu could not express his bitterness out loud. Instead, he sighed and said, “Those things were not important. All you need to know is that I saved you.”

“You saved me?” Xu Xiaoshou asked.

“Correct. If I had not arrived on time and fought five people to suppress those Sovereigns, the man and the City Guards would have torn you apart.”

Xu Xiaoshou was more confused than ever.

He did not fully believe what Xin Gugu had just said. ‘Xin Gugu must be joking,’ he thought. The City Lord Mansion being destroyed and Xin Gugu fighting five people seemed impossible.

Xu Xiaoshou thought about the finger move by the scruffy-looking man. He was unsure if Xin Gugu would have been able to handle the attack.

Before Xu Xiaoshou could ask anything else, a teeth-gritting voice came from the wallboards.

“Xu… Xiao… Shou!”

He turned toward the voice. Mu Zixi was holding her head in pain. She cursed rapidly as she walked over.

Xu Xiaoshou had a headache. “How many times did I tell you to keep your spiritual source protection open?”

Mu Zixi relaxed her clenched fist and remained quiet. Her logical side agreed with Xu Xiaoshou’s statement as she thought, ‘It’s true. He has mentioned this to me before.’

However, this was not enough to quell her anger. She was fuming.

The girl stared at Xu Xiaoshou. Her eyes were full of unreconciled fury. Her heart was full of anger.

All she wanted to do was to clean his face with a towel. Instead, she was attacked and suffered great pain.

‘The human world is truly not worth my time,’ she thought.

“I was changing your towel, but you sneakily attacked me!”

“Sorry, it was not intentional…”

Xu Xiaoshou had no idea why he had done what he had. He motioned Mu Zixi to go closer with a wave of his hand.

Mu Zixi stopped in her footsteps. “What?”

“Come here.”

The young girl had an uneasy feeling in her heart. However, since she was injured while trying to take care of others, she rationalized there was nothing worse that could happen.

She stepped forward courageously.

“Here, let me see where you are injured.” Xu Xiaoshou tapped the mattress and gestured for her to sit down.

“Here!”

Mu Zixi pointed to a wound on her forehead. It was roughly the size of three fingernails. Her face was twisted with anger.

Looking at the big wound he had caused, Xu Xiaoshou felt extremely embarrassed.

He inched closer and held her head up. “Here, I’ll blow on it. That will make it better. Be good, OK?”

Mu Zixi was stunned.

Her pupils enlarged as she thought, ‘Do you think I’m a child? Is he messing around?’

Hoo!

Suddenly, a gust of life force exited with Xu Xiaoshou’s exhale.

As Xu Xiaoshou exhaled, Mu Zixi felt her ponytails float upward. The pores on her body eased. Her face was flushed red. She almost groaned.

She quickly remembered there were others around her and held in her expression.

She decided on a softer hard exhale from her nose as an alternative. Her body spasmed.

“You…”

“Shameless!”

The young girl blushed the moment her wound healed to its original appearance and took off quickly after speaking.

Xu Xiaoshou watched her disappearing figure. He had many questions in his head.

‘Shameless?’

‘How was I shameless?’

To Xu Xiaoshou, this was the best healing method. Greedy the Cat Spirit would have loved this method. It was a shame it did not have access to it.

He turned to look at Xin Gugu, who was beside him.

Xin Gugu had a displeased expression.

He almost had drawn the staff that was in his hand.

Fortunately, life was precious. He could not attack just anybody.

After a while, Xin Gugu finally squeezed out a few words. “You know there are other people like me here, right?”

Xu Xiaoshou was more confused than ever.

“Did I do something shameless?”

Xin Gugu did not reply.

Cursed, Passive Points, 1.

Xin Gugu felt like his body had taken a million hits. The thirst for revenge after he was scalded was abandoned immediately. He stood up and was prepared to leave.

“Wait.”

Xu Xiaoshou called after him in a hurry.

He could not let Xin Gugu leave before he was able to clarify the questions and doubts that were in his mind.

“How long have I slept?”

Xin Gugu replied with annoyance, “A day.”

“One day…” Xu Xiaoshou lowered his head and tried to remember. After a while, he spoke up again. “Nothing really happened while I was out, right?”

“There was…”

Xin Gugu nodded. “I already told you.”

Xu Xiaoshou fell silent. He did not believe that Xin Gugu was able to defeat them one to five.

The scruffy-looking man was a tough opponent. Xu Xiaoshou supposed that Xin Gugu was not able to offer him a clear story. Hence, he decided to stop pursuing the matter.

It was fortunate enough for him that Red Dog had been thoroughly defeated.

“Then, how did I get here? Do you know this place?”

Xu Xiaoshou posed another question. He was not convinced that Xin Gugu was able to locate him and subsequently locate his room in the inn.

“The girl brought me here.” Xin Gugu nodded in the direction of the door.

“Mu Zixi?”

Xu Xiaoshou was shocked. “How did you meet her?’

Xin Gugu laughed.

“She ran out to see why the half of Tiansang City had exploded. Is that not OK?”

“On the other hand, we want to know something from you too. How did you get yourself into the middle of a battle between Sovereigns?”

Xu Xiaoshou was silent.

At this moment, he recalled his Passive Fist. Even a bounded domain had not managed to obstruct it. He assumed that it had harmed a large number of innocent civilians.

He had not given the attack much thought. When he was in that state, the top priority was keeping himself alive.

Therefore, he had not considered the repercussions of his actions or his attacks on the others around him.

Once he had returned to reality, Xu Xiaoshou’s eyes met with Xin Gugu’s. His eyes were filled with curiosity, but Xu Xiaoshou shook his head.

“No, you don’t want to know.”

Even if Xu Xiaoshou said it, Xin Gugu would not believe him.

Xin Gugu was speechless.

He did not say anything else and walked out of the door.

He had finished his quota of speaking with Xu Xiaoshou for the day.

Xu Xiaoshou watched the two figures disappear from his sight and returned to his thoughts.

Lifting up his blanket, he got up from the bed and stretched his hands and his legs.

His body was in perfect form.

‘Not a single injury from the attack…’

Xu Xiaoshou was amazed by his body. All the intense injuries he had sustained had healed in just one day.

If Red Dog had known about this, he would have come back from the dead out of sheer anger.

It was at this moment he felt a presence of energy within his own body. The energy was foreign and did not belong to him.

“Sword Aura?”

The ray of white Sword Aura was resting on top of his energy center.

‘No,’ he thought. “This does not qualify as Sword Aura.”

It was similar to the ordinary power of thought he had mastered on the Black Cliff.

There was still a difference between the two.

In comparison to the ordinary power of thought, the energy was far ahead in power and had completely left the boundary of the ordinary.

“Sword Cognition?”

Xu Xiaoshou uttered this phrase bluntly as if he had been possessed by an unknown entity.

His brain immediately cramped as knowledge that did not belong to him began to flood his mind. He felt as if he had figured out the tenth level of Sword Technique Expertise.

The waves of knowledge had struck him so powerfully that Xu Xiaoshou had to hold on for his dear life.

Xu Xiaoshou collapsed onto the floor. It had taken him half a day to fully recover his consciousness.

The massive amount of knowledge in his mind and transformed itself into an ancient-looking and thick book.

Three characters were written boldly on the cover:

“Sword Observation Manual.”