Mingliang spent the whole day on arranging Sari's mother departure to her home in another province. Like mother, like daughter, he must spend a couple hours to convince her to leave the province. After that, he spent another couple of hours to explain, why he couldn't leave with her.

After they finished talking, they spent the next few hours on planning and packing.

He finally sent both mother and daughter on their way to another province. Now, he was dragging his body to his rented room. Somad tagged along behind him, carrying a bag that contained all his wealth.

The scene of his room, the familiar smell of the burning incense, and the wind faintly blew through the windows, they all greeted Mingliang the moment he opened the door to his room.

The first thing Mingliang did, was to light a new incense. The sight of his ancestor pictures, all stood in a row, caught his eyes. A part of the past that never went away, just by looking at them all, he felt all big part of his worries away. Probably like an animal returned to its nest, a sense of security washed the weary bones.

"Okay, find a place to keep your clothes, I think the two bottom rows in the cabinet was half empty.", Mingliang threw his body to his bed.

"Yes, teacher.", Somad smartly answered. He wasted no time and started to arrange a place for his clothes.

Mingliang didn't lay on his bed for a long time. He closed his eyes for maybe five minutes before got up and started to hit the old computer. The detective who handled the murder case didn't want him to meddle with their investigation, and at first, Mingliang didn't want to disobey his wish.

Their encounter with people from the same group as the man in black changed his mind.

Dr. Sunyoto didn't tell him the location of the murder, but such a case would never totally escape the public's eyes, and Mingliang knew exactly where to find it on the net.

In real life, his social reputation was on the floor of the society. But here on the net, where all kind of people were mixed, Mingliang found himself a perfect niche. There were several forums where people who were interested in supra-natural and mysticism gathered. Among them, he was known as the Venerable of Bright Mind.

He even had his own column, explaining the nature of supra-natural existence and cultivation technique. His followers reached more than thirty thousand members. More than 70 percent were Indonesian, but the rest came from other countries as well, even reaching the US and Europe.

He browsed through all the news and found the post he wanted to find. Someone posted about a strange murder that happened in his neighborhood.

The poster even took a picture of the corpse. Mingliang only needed to see it once to confirm that it was the same corpse. Mingliang sent a pm to the poster, asking for the location of the murder.

He didn't wait for a reply. He had been thinking about it for a while and decided to start a new topic on the forum. In the op, he wrote a short explanation about a crack between the two worlds border and how it would affect the area around it. He explained that so far, he already met with one such phenomenon.

Mingliang asked the member of the forum, to open their eyes and see if there were similar phenomenon near their place.

He read the post for the second time and was satisfied. With a click, the topic was created, now he just had to wait. Mingliang turned his attention to his only disciple. Somad finished with his task. He was sitting in a lotus position with his eyes closed, right now. His breathing was long and steady.

Mingliang nodded his head. He had no complaints at all with his only disciple.

He was planning to meditate too when his phone rang. He looked at the screen. It was Dr. Sunyoto's call. Minglian didn't want to guess, so he picked it up right away.

"Hello... Yes, it's me."

"Haha, yeah everything is fine. How about you?"

"Hm... yeah. Good to hear that."

"Of course I still remember that case. Any new development?"

"What!?"

"Do you need my help?"

"Uhm..no? Okay, sure. I understand."

"I see... I got no problem with that."

"Yeah, I'm really okay with that. In fact, it makes me feel safe knowing the police are watching me."

"Hahaha, yeah, you're right. Like having a personal bodyguard."

"Okay, thanks for the news. You can call me anytime if you need my help."

"Yeah.... yeah... once again thank you very much."

Mingliang put his phone on to the table. He turned around and saw that Somad was looking at him. Mingliang explained it all to the boy, "Hmm... there was another murder. Same runes were on the corpse. Now, the detective who leads the investigation thinks that we might have something to do with the case. He sent someone to observe us closely."

Somad was indignant when he heard the police suspected them, "What an idiot..."

Mingliang knocked his head, "Don't talk like that about police. They're just trying to do their job, besides that means we got some protection now."

The boy's eyes glistened mischievously, "Hehe... it would be interesting if we can make them meet that old man."

"Hahaha... I won't count on it. If we got the chance to let them know each other, then we should. But for now, I prefer if those men never found this house.", Mingliang laughed, he knew the idea of his disciple.

"Yeah, we have to make the detective see them doing something suspicious, that won't be easy.", Somad gave a serious thought about it.

"Now, stop worrying about that. Focus more on your own training. I see you make good progress, that's why I decide to let you read my book. You know the basics now, and I think you're ready to study on your own.", Mingliang perused his collection and took one book.

He gave it to Somad, who accepted it reverently. The boy opened it carefully. His eyes hungrily digested every character in the book.

Mingliang messed the boy's hair as usual, "Take your times. You can ask me when you find something you don't understand. Be careful when you try a new rune."

Somad closed the book and bowed to his teacher, "Thank you very much, teacher. I promise to take care of the book and use it carefully."

"Hm, I know that. By the way, that book covers all the basics rune and also teaches several intermediate runes. Once you master them all, you can begin to learn how to combine runes to create an array of runes.", Mingliang showed his trust in him.

"But don't forget, although you know many runes, it is better to master a handful runes than knowing many but master none.", Mingliang seriously reminded his beloved disciple.

"I know, teacher. Because in a fight, I have to be able to draw runes fast and under pressure.", Somad replied confidently.

Mingliang raised his thumb, "Good answer. Now, go to sleep, because tonight, we'll go to check the murder location."

"Have you found the location? But, I think you said the detective doesn't want us to meddle with his investigation.", Somad carefully asked.

"I know that, but we need more energy to grow stronger.", Mingliang sighed, he wondered if he gave a bad example to his disciple, "Listened, I don't like doing something against the law, but sometimes we're forced to..."

Somad laughed, "Oh, teacher, don't worry. I get it. I mean what you did in that haunted house was much worse than what we're going to do tonight. Or at least that's the plan.

"I know that, but we need more energy to grow stronger.", Mingliang sighed, he wondered if he gave a bad example to his disciple, "Listened, I don't like doing something against the law, but sometimes we don't have any options."

Somad laughed, "Oh, teacher, don't worry. I get it. I mean, what you did in that haunted house a week ago, was much worse than what we're going to do tonight. Or at least that's the plan."

Mingliang knocked Somad's head with his knuckle, "Smarty ass... just go to sleep now."

"But I'm not sleepy at all...", Somad complained, his eyes were glued to the book. He wanted to read it.

Mingliang laughed, "Okay, I give you two hours, but after that, you have to go to sleep. We start moving at midnight."

"Alright! That's great! Thanks, teacher.", the boy quickly made himself a comfortable spot to read the book.

"Teacher, how are we going to go to that location? I thought someone is going on a stakeout on us?", the boy asked the question, without his eyes leaving the book.

"Hmm... I have to think about it. When Dr. Sunyoto called, he just heard it from the detective. He doesn't know for sure, whether there is someone are on stakeout on us right now, or not. Now, leave that to me. I'll think about it.", Mingliang answered him, but he didn't seem to worry about it at all.

Somad nodded and decided to focus on reading the book. Mingliang watched him studying for a while before he returned to his old computer. He checked on the forum and saw he got a pm. Mingliang opened it and read the message, and just like that, he got the address of the first murder location. He gave a reply to say thank you and then checked the new topic he made.

People started posting there, but so far he didn't find new information. Fortunately, his reputation attracted many members in the forum to the topic. He believed, if there were any new information, he would see it posted in a day or two. All he had to do now was monitoring the topic once and a while.

To keep people's interest, Mingliang post another message on his topic, giving a hint that the phenomenon could be related to the murder. He gave hints about the rune and how it could affect the seal that separates the two worlds.

Mingliang was thinking about posting a description on the gray hair and his team, but after some thought, he decided to give it up. He decided to keep his identity on the internet as his hidden card. His reputation in the forum provided him with information. His loyal followers were his eyes and ears. He could use the forum to warn them too, in case the problem with the seal spread and not stay as a local phenomenon.

Mingliang looked at the clock. It was 10 hours before midnight. Suddenly he remembered something, he took some money out of his wallet and gave it to Somad, "Listen, sorry, I forget about your dinner. Here, buy something for your dinner."

"Hehe, no problem. How about you, teacher? What do you want for dinner?", Somad deftly took the money and prepared to dash out and buy his favorite dish.

"Just buy something for yourself. I'll skip dinner today.", Mingliang gestured Somad to go, the boy waited no more.

Left alone, Mingliang threw himself, laid on the bed and thought, 'I wish I have some character's panel like in those RPG.'

He closed his eyes and checked on his dantian, through years of effort, his qi channel and centers were enlarged and had decent capacity. He only needed to gather more energy, but he had relatively no problem in using a large amount of Qi.

'Even if I gather another round of qi from the haunted house, which would take another week. Collect some more qi from the murder's location. I won't have enough qi to build up the 2nd layer of Xuan Wu body.', he calmly analyzed his situation.

The 1st layer of Xuan Wu body would strengthen the skin layer. The practice involved embossing the skin surface with the runes. The final result depended on the practitioner's degree of creativity, effort, and knowledge.

Mingliang spent a lot of time to design the rune and the placement of each rune, for his 1st layer Xuan Wu body. The result was satisfying, but the energy to complete it was enormous.

The 2nd layer of Xuan Wu body was doing the same process, but this time he embedded the rune into his muscles creating a three-dimensional array. He could arrange a less dense array to cut the energy consumption, but the result would be weak. The 2nd layer of Xuan Wu body, not only create a defense layer but by strengthening the muscle, it would also give the practitioner more muscle power. But that power needed a strong bone structure, which was the 3rd layer of Xuan Wu body.

After he thought about it, Mingliang decided to put aside the 2nd layer of Xuan Wu body for now. He refused to practice a lower quality Xuan Wu body, in exchange of cultivation speed.

Since he wouldn't practice Xuan Wu body, he needed to strengthen himself at the other aspect.

Suddenly he remembered their first encounter with the gray hair. The fight between Sari and the muscular man replayed in his mind. Mingliang clenched his jaw, unconsciously he made a fist, and anger filled his heart. He didn't show it before but back then, watching the scene frustrated him. He felt powerless in that situation, although he already completed the 1st layer of Xuan Wu body by then, he lacked the strength to subdue their enemy.

Later that day, he saw bruises on Sari's forearm. It pained him more. With fire in his eyes, Mingliang got up and opened the top drawer of the small cabinet. He took a wooden chest from the drawer.

He opened the chest. Inside the chest was an old wooden sword handle and bunch of metal hexagon coins. A rune was etched at the surface of each coin. One coin was bigger than the other, Mingliang took it and slipped it into a gap on the wooden sword handle. It fitted perfectly, forming a small dagger.

With the small dagger in his hand, Mingliang fed his energy to the dagger and it cheerfully hummed.

"Cheng Ying sword, wake up!", Mingliang hissed the name of the sword.

"Bzzziiinngg! Bzzziiinngg!", all the metal coins flew to the dagger and attached themselves to each other, forming a long sword.

Cheng Ying sword was one legendary sword. The myth said that it only had a handle and the blade was nowhere to be seen. Mingliang didn't know, whether the sword in his hand was that Cheng Ying sword, or it just happened to have the same name.

The sword was part of his family inheritance. He never used it before, neither his father. Only his grandfather had used it in the past.

The sword had its own consciousness, but Mingliang's grandfather sealed its power and kept the sword sleeping, to preserve its energy. He only summoned the sword when he introduced the sword to its new owner, his son. And then his father do the same when he gave the sword to Mingliang.

Through their relation, Mingliang could feel the sword was happy. The sword was ancient, his age probably close to four thousand years or maybe even more, but his age didn't change his character. The sword was vibrant and valiant.

When Mingliang told all that happened in the past few weeks, the sword was humming excitedly. He wanted to see the enemy and fought.

The sword's valiance, affect Mingliang's soul as well. When he remembered the gray hair and his men, Mingliang's heart was itchy to fight. He trained in sword for years. His build wasn't muscular, but his muscle was well developed to use the sword. His fighting style focused more on agility and accuracy, which fit well with the Cheng Ying sword characteristic. Nimble, resourceful and sharp.

His decision to wake the sword meant he was serious now. He could tolerate insults and threat to his own life, but he couldn't tolerate the fact that someone threatened Sari and her family.

Mingliang pulled up his shirt, the sword flew and wrapped himself around his body. One of Cheng Ying sword's characteristic was his ability to change form, depended on the metal coins formation.

With the sword wrapped around his body, Mingliang closed his eyes and started to meditate. Strengthening the link between his mind and the sword's soul and familiarized himself with the sword. It was their first time to work together.