Why do I have so many masters?

The Zhao residence was a place in Xi Dingzhou where a veteran of Jianghu had retired to, and its former master was known as the "Divine Fist with Iron Arms." He had once roamed the Jianghu in Fufeng, stirring up storms within its community. Having retired in his old age, it had been ten years since he last lifted a hand, and no one knew the extent of his martial arts cultivation.

Yet, when he retired back then, he was already a martial artist skilled in the seventh rank, and after ten years, he might have progressed even further.

At the very least, his capabilities peaked at the sixth rank.

And over those ten years of quiet recovery, his inner strength must have grown even more refined.

Wang Anfeng looked up at the high green walls and silently leaped, lightly tapping his palm against the wall before soaring upwards. He overcame a wall several meters high in the blink of an eye. It was nearly dawn, the time when people felt most tired, yet there were house servants still patrolling the Zhao residence.

They walked in groups of three, each holding a lantern to light up their surroundings. With their thick limbs and wrists adorned with fine steel bracers, they clearly possessed considerable martial arts abilities, even more formidable than the average patrol officer in Xi Dingzhou City.

As Wang Anfeng flipped over the wall, these house servants had just walked out from the adjacent courtyard.

The youth’s expression remained unchanged as he quietly took a breath. His body, as if weightless, flipped over the wall. With only his toes lightly touching it, he made no sound in the dark night. His Qinggong was far superior to those of the patrolling servants. Although they were martial artists and not far from him, they failed to detect his presence.

Just then, footsteps could be heard from the street outside.

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Wang Anfeng was slightly taken aback but soon saw five constables dressed in vermillion clothes walking from the east side of the street. While ordinary people were drowsy at this time, and even the trailing constables yawned occasionally, the commanding officer leading them was exceedingly alert. His round eyes were wide open, and Wang Anfeng could sense the violence and frustration in his gaze even from tens of meters away.

Concentrating his Pupil Skill, Wang Anfeng’s vision zoomed in, and he saw a bright red palm print on the burly patrol officer’s cheek—it looked as if he had gone to a brothel, refused to pay, and received a fierce slap from the madam.

The palm print was somewhat large, so it was unclear whose handprint it was.

The patrol officer’s gaze swept towards Wang Anfeng’s location, while inside the Zhao residence, those three patrolling servants still moved leisurely. They had just reached the spot below the youth and were quietly gossiping about trivial household matters and stories of the serving girls. As their interest peaked, they even stood still, bursting into bursts of lewd laughter.

Meanwhile, the constables from another direction were also walking towards them.

The lantern carried by the leader cast a bright light that illuminated the walls on both sides of the road. The approaching white light, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, felt like a sharp longsword closing in on Wang Anfeng and reflected in his pupils.

Wang Anfeng frowned slightly.

He had already learned from Gongsun Jing when Xi Dingzhou’s patrols took place; at this time, there should not be any constables passing through this area.

Could it be that today, had they caught a thief?

And it took them some time to bring him back to the yamen?

He also sensed that the house servants inside the Zhao residence had stopped and hadn’t left, which made him feel rather uneasy.

He was here only to probe a little; he had no intention of directly confronting a Jianghu legend from thirty years ago, now a martial artist of the middle third rank.

At this moment, Wang Anfeng had not worn specialized Nightwalker attire, and although his Qinggong was excellent, he was not able to counteract the natural forces of Heaven and Earth. Since he moved swiftly, no matter how silently, some sounds would still be made, and under these circumstances, he was nearly under the watch of two groups.

Any slight disturbance could provoke the clearly irate patrol officer.

Once the arrest officer of Great Qin drew his sword outside, that sound, which could cause any martial artist’s heart to skip a beat, would also put the house servants inside the mansion on alert. If he wanted to infiltrate unnoticed, it would be nothing more than a fool’s dream.

The footsteps grew closer.

Wang Anfeng took a deep breath, scanning his surroundings. Then his eyes slightly brightened, and with his right hand behind his back, he deftly took out a Copper Coin from his pouch. With a slight bend of his finger, he flicked it out using the "Stars Pointing Flick" technique.

The whistling sound of the coin cutting through the night air was clear. The constables behind did not seem to notice anything, but the arresting officer’s eyes brightened slightly. His left hand held the lantern, and his right hand had already clenched the handle of his sword. Such brusqueness made it unclear what he had experienced that day to have such seething rage.

With one hand holding the lantern and the other on the sword’s hilt, the arrest officer moved towards Wang Anfeng with deliberate steps.

The candlelight approached like a piercing sword.

Wang Anfeng breathed evenly, waiting quietly. Just as the light in the constable’s hand was about to reveal his form, there was a sudden squawk in the sky. The noise carried far in the stillness of the night, causing the constable’s footsteps to halt abruptly. His eyes widened as he heard a rustle, and a large dark bird fell directly onto his head.

The constable, on high alert and caught off guard, suddenly had something appear on his forehead. His body instinctively shuddered, and he let out a cry as he forcefully drew his combat sword from its sheath with a clanging sound that was piercing in the night. The clamor startled the four constables behind him, and each one instinctively drew their weapons.

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The clanging sound continued incessantly for a moment.

Inside the gate, the three house servants who had been casually chatting had a slight change in expression. They exchanged glances, and the one with the highest martial arts skill immediately leaped up, his tiptoes touching the top of the wall. Using it as leverage, he scaled upwards, his garments rustling softly. Just then, Wang Anfeng loosened his grip on the wall with his toes.

As his body fell downwards, his robe made a faint noise, but it was masked by the disturbance of the constables and went unnoticed. A meter into his descent, he channeled his inner strength and lightened his body, shifting several meters to the left. At that moment, the house servant had just climbed the wall and shone his lantern outside, feeling relieved when he saw the five patrol officers.

Meanwhile, Wang Anfeng had already climbed back up the wall. Taking advantage of the moment when everyone’s attention was elsewhere, he leaped down, rolling forward on the ground and concealing himself behind a decorative rockery. With his back against the bluestone, he let out a long, murky breath, finding this endeavor even more strenuous than defeating those assassins earlier.

It was at this moment that he finally understood what his third master had said.

"Sneaking in secret and being skilled in qinggong are two different things."

A divine thief’s qinggong must surely be unmatched in this world, but possessing unmatched qinggong doesn’t necessarily make one a divine thief.

Hiding in this spot, Wang Anfeng evened out his breathing. Taking advantage of a moment when the house servant was occupied talking to a patrol officer, he lightened his steps and flitted into the courtyard like a drifting catkin. Utilizing the blind spots and scattered rockeries, he made his way towards the central area of the courtyard.

At the same time, the house servant who had climbed up came back down into the courtyard, waved to his companions, and stifled a laugh, saying:

"No worries, no worries."

"A patrol officer outside got hit in the face by a crow and drew his sword in a fright..."

Outside, the frustrated constable, convinced that the earlier noise had been made by one of the house servants, saw the black crow that had fallen on his head cawing as it flew away. He let out a snort, nearly managing to suppress his anger and avoid yelling out loud. Sheathing his sword, he suddenly felt a sticky sensation overhead.

His face turned blue with disgust. Reaching to his head, his fingers encountered something slippery and slimy, a pile of white gunk that emitted a terrible stench.

The constable opened his mouth, his body trembling slightly. Then his expression turned to rage, and he fiercely smashed the lantern and the sword in his hands onto the ground, shouting out angrily:

"Damn it all!"

"Fuck, I quit! I quit!"

............

Inside the Zhao residence, Wang Anfeng moved forward in silence, marveling to himself.

The one who designed this courtyard must surely be an old hand at Jianghu, full of crafty ideas.

There were corners to hide in everywhere, and in any spot that could offer concealment, there were house servants patrolling with lanterns. There were large open spaces, well-lit and dotted with various mechanisms and hidden weapons, intricately laid out in the pavilions above.

What seemed peaceful and tranquil was actually fraught with danger at every step. Anyone with slightly inferior qinggong or a less careful mind, even a Seventh Rank expert, could be injured by these traps. Once the alarm was raised and the courtyard’s martial artists were alerted, one’s life could very well end there.

Raising his hand, he shot out three silver needles, directly snapping the key components of a mechanism and rendering it useless.

Wang Anfeng raised his eyes to look at a room ahead, from which the scent of the miracle medicine was emanating. The tightly shut wooden door suddenly opened, and a foot stepped out. Wang Anfeng’s pupils contracted as he swiftly retreated to one side, narrowly avoiding detection just in time, and concealed himself in a nearby corner.

The person, apparently in a hurry, did not look closely and did not discover Wang Anfeng as they hurried off.

Wang Anfeng let out the breath he had been holding. Looking up, he noted the person who had emerged. Although they were no longer dressed in black with a bamboo hat, and there was no scent of the miracle medicine on them, their physique and pace were exactly the same as the person he had seen earlier that day. It was clear that the person had discarded their disguise and was now dressed in splendid silks, striding with an air of casual elegance.

But what could they be up to, venturing out in the dead of night before dawn?

Wang Anfeng pondered this as his gaze followed the figure. No matter what plans this person had, the need to come out at this hour meant it was certainly no trivial matter. After some thought, just as the figure was about to vanish from his line of sight, Wang Anfeng stepped forward to follow, like a shadow, staying close behind without making a sound.

PS: Here’s the first update...