342 The Core of the Burning Stampede Sect

The next day, Shui came down the stairs to the living room to see a solemn family gathering with Fatty and Sheila kneeling on the floor while surrounded by the rest of the family. He could guess what happened but he acted ignorant and asked Kane who was nearest to the stairs.

"Oh, um, well..."

"Just tell him. We have nothing to hide."

Kane seemed hesitant to explain, but his father encouraged him to tell Shui what happened despite how shameful it was.

"Basically we were woken up in the middle of the night because these two were shouting expletives regarding 'adult' matters."

'Nope, didn't see that coming.'

Since he was the one who asked for Fatty's assistance, Shui wanted to help him but he found it hard to defend him when Serina was also woken by their shouts and even now kept an awkward expression.

Sheila had changed her clothes into something with less exposure and considering the behaviour of the rest of the family, her night visit hadn't been exposed. That made it even harder for Shui to interfere with their punishment, especially since Fatty didn't say anything.

"So, I think I've given you two ample time to reflect. Do you want to explain why you were have such a ridiculous argument late at night?"

Their father's glare caused cold sweat to drip from their foreheads, but neither said anything. Despite how often they fought, Fatty didn't want to embarrass his sister in front of her crush, even though he already knew, and Sheila obviously didn't want that either.

Their father had thought that they would at least try to twist the story to make this incident the other's fault, but seeing that they both remained silent he narrowed his eyes.

"So you both choose to stay silent?"

"..."

"..."

"Fine then. You'll have the same punishment. Honey,"

"Here Dear."

Their mother handed two planks of wood to their father who then gave it to them.

"You'll wear that for the entire day. Outside as well of course."

When they looked at what was written on the planks, both of their faces turned ugly and Sheila immediately protested.

"Father! Isn't this too much?! Fatty's one thing but,"

"Hey!"

"I'm part of the disciplinary department I can't walk around school with this on."

Sheila's defence seemed valid, but the way she kept nervously glancing at Shui didn't help.

"You should have thought about that before you woke us up with your profanities."

"How could I have imagined this?! Father, please reconsider, imagine what this will do to the prestige of our clan."

"Hmph, besides those bastards of the Stein clan who would dare insult our clan over something like this, and they can always find a reason to bother us. The only ones who will be affected are you two."

"Father!"

"Just give up, elder sister. You know father doesn't give up when he's like this."

"Tch, it must be nice to lack shame like you."

"Oi, are you sure you wanna talk to me like that?"

Normally Sheila wouldn't even hesitate to continue bashing him, but since she knew he was covering for her, she grimaced before turning towards Shui. If she couldn't avoid damages then she at least wanted to limit them.

"Um, Shui, do you have any plans for today?"

"Uh, after I give some advice to Serina I'm planning on exploring the city. Why?"

"Oh, no reason."

Anyone seeing the way she sighed in relief after getting that response, anyone could tell that she was glad Shui wouldn't see her with the plank on, but no one pointed it out. And since he wasn't a demon, Shui also didn't point out the fact that he could see through the plank.

' 'I'm horny.' Wow, I almost feel kind of bad.'

Once the punishment was decided and they ate breakfast, Serina and Shui were the only two remaining inside the mansion. The words she heard last night were no longer stuck in her head, so Serina could face him with a better mindset.

"So, what dream did you have?"

Shui had never tested the herb on anyone with a sacred treasure before, so he was genuinely curious, but of course he hid that interest.

"It was strange. It was like I was having a lucid dream from a third-person perspective. In the dream, I saw myself having a normal day, but for some reason the way 'I' acted seemed different from the way I normally do. It wasn't a big difference but I felt that the way 'I' carried herself was just..."

Shui nodded while seeing Serina struggle to come up with a right word to describe her dream self's mannerisms.

"Do you remember her movements?"

"Yes, surprisingly."

"Well done. The 'you' you saw in your dream was likely the ideal for how you should act in order to draw out the power of your sacred treasure. I know it'll be hard to completely copy her, but try to at least grasp the essence of it."

"Okay."

"Keep practising the Sword Bird Manual. I might not be back tonight but I'll definitely be there for your battle."

"Where, got it."

Serina wanted to ask where he would be going, but stopped herself since she knew that she had to stay focused on her own problems. Besides, there was no reason to worry about Shui, he always knew how to take care of himself.

After leaving Serina to train, Shui headed to the Burning Stampede Sect. One might wonder why he didn't just go with the rest of the family, but that was because the objective he had for going wouldn't be smiled upon. He donned a cloak and sneaked his way into the sect without anyone noticing, quickly reaching the inner section. However, the hard part was up ahead.

Without even frowning due to the increasing heat, he managed to enter the outer section and inner section without being caught by the sect's detection array, but that wouldn't work for the core section as not only was the array's power focused here, there were also several experts in the Sky Realm. To enter the core section without being detected, it wasn't enough to suppress and conceal his presence and aura. Just being a human would be enough for them to be alerted of his intrusion. Mimicking the aura of Fatty's father wouldn't help either as the array was actively monitoring the auras of all those in the core section, a duplicate would be detected instantly. Even so, Shui still saw a chance.

'This would be easy if I had started studying the Stealth chapter, but it isn't like the Perception chapter is worthless.'

After training each of his five senses, the core of the Perception chapter was to make him train his sixth sense to the level where it could replace the other senses. Thanks to it he was able to to figure out more about the array than his normal eyes could tell him, and with this knowledge he was able to come up with a trick that could get him inside the core section.

Like most arrays, there were always certain types of creatures that were subtly ignored because it would take too much energy and a more complex array to account for them as well. Of course even these creatures would still be caught if they leaked the tiniest amount of nature energy, but otherwise they were treated as exceptions.

'I'm not very good at controlling my body in that state, but it should still work.'

Even if he was caught, Shui was sure that he could still break out of here so he focused on himself with little worry in his heart.