That youth knelt before the graves of his parents, younger sister, and over thirty others for half a day, like a numb stone statue, drained of life.
Mo Hua silently watched him for that half day, and finally asked, "What is your name?"
Only then did a flicker of emotion stir in the youth's hollow eyes.
The demonic cultivators had died horribly, his loved ones were buried. He no longer had the bone-deep hysteria of that day, but his very spirit seemed to have been drained away.
Hearing Mo Hua's question, he weakly replied, "My name is — Tusheng."
His voice was faint, hoarse.
Mo Hua nodded slightly and asked, "What is your surname?"
The youth said gloomily, "I have no surname — my parents said it doesn't matter what surname you have, as long as you can eat a meal on this land and survive. So they just called me — Tusheng."
Mo Hua sighed softly and asked, "Do you have any other family in this world?"
The youth shook his head.
Mo Hua asked, "Where will you go next?"
The youth still shook his head.
Mo Hua said gently, "Then come with me. I'll find you a place to settle."
The wooden-faced youth was startled. He looked up at Mo Hua, as if surprised that this chance-met young master, so handsome he seemed almost inhuman, would say such a thing.
But he still shook his head.
Mo Hua asked, "You don't want to?"
The youth said, "I don't want to trouble you. I am — a lowly person. I should find a way to survive on my own."
"What if you can't survive?" Mo Hua said.
"Then —" the youth's pale face showed a hint of relief, "I can reunite with my parents and little sister."
Tears in his eyes, the youth smiled gratefully: "When alive, I had no family left."
"But if I die, I won't be lonely anymore. My family is waiting for me down there —"
Mo Hua's heart trembled. The feeling was hard to describe. He asked, "Then — don't you want revenge?"
"Revenge —" The youth was jolted from his grief. His gaze cleared a little, but after a moment of thought, his face only showed a bitter smile. "I — I'm afraid I can't take revenge —"
Almost all the demonic cultivators in the lair of Xiaowang Village were dead.
The only one alive was that peak mid-Golden Core White Bone Eye Demon Head.
That day, the youth had witnessed the battle and personally experienced the great demon head's power and the terror of his magic treasure.
This was simply not something a Foundation Establishment cultivator could contend with.
Now he was only at mid-Foundation Establishment, while that demon head was already at mid-Golden Core.
By the time he cultivated to late Foundation Establishment, that great demon head might even break through to late Golden Core.
By the time he formed his Golden Core, the demon head's cultivation might advance even further.
Cultivation was like that: one step behind, every step behind. Falling behind by an entire major realm, an ordinary cultivator basically couldn't catch up.
Moreover, he was a refugee. Where would he get spirit stones to cultivate?
Once the people of Kun Prefecture lost their land and became displaced, it was equivalent to being killed by fate. Just surviving was an achievement. They could never hope for further advancement in cultivation.
Besides, spiritual farmers in the Great Spiritual Field Realm were generally not allowed to break into the Golden Core stage.
Cultivating to Foundation Establishment meant labor. But once one entered Golden Core, that was taboo.
He might cultivate his entire life and still not reach Golden Core.
The youth's expression was dejected and resentful.
Mo Hua looked at the youth and slowly asked, "Don't you want to try?"
Hearing Mo Hua's words, the youth's expression shifted as he struggled inwardly.
Mo Hua's gaze was bright, as if he could see into people's hearts. He said gently, "It's very simple to die. You can die anytime. But the chance to live comes only once. Whether you can take revenge depends only on your heart —"
The youth's face was pale. After a long silence, he clenched his fingers until they turned purple, then knelt to Mo Hua and kowtowed: "I want revenge. I beg you, Master Mo, to help me."
Mo Hua flicked his finger, using a spell to lift the youth up, and said, "No need to call me 'young master.'"
The youth was bewildered. "Then — how should I address you?"
Mo Hua thought briefly, then followed convention: "Call me 'Master.'"
The youth was startled at first, then bowed to Mo Hua and said, "Yes, Master Mo."
Thus ended the trip to the Great Spiritual Field Realm.
The original plan had been to stay three more days; Zhu Muchen was to inspect some farther villages.
But now, with the demonic cultivators' rampage and the refugees' tragic deaths, the plan had to be disrupted.
For his safety, Elder Lu absolutely dared not let the young master stay any longer at Yunyi Villa, lest something go wrong.
Zhu Muchen was returning, and Mo Hua, who had tagged along, had no reason to stay.
Moreover, he had to take this youth named Tusheng out of the Great Spiritual Field Realm.
Elder Lu initially disagreed, wanting to leave Tusheng at Yunyi Villa.
But Mo Hua spoke, and Zhu Muchen was entirely on his little senior brother's side.
Tusheng was just a homeless refugee youth, unrelated to the Zhu family. Elder Lu could think of no way to stop it.
In the end, Mo Hua, Zhu Muchen, and Tusheng took the vermilion carriage they had come in, traveled along the array highway, left the Great Spiritual Field Realm, and began the journey back to Houtu City.
Elder Lu had matters to clean up, so he did not accompany them.
On the array highway from the Great Spiritual Field Realm to Houtu City, a vermilion carriage sped along like the wind.
Inside the carriage, Zhu Muchen occasionally glanced at the refugee youth.
After bathing and changing into clean clothes, the youth seemed to have changed completely.
He had delicate features, slightly dark skin, but his aura was restrained. He looked very shy and quiet, not at all like the ferocious and savage figure from that day.
"Your name is — Tusheng?" Zhu Muchen asked.
Tusheng nodded and looked at Zhu Muchen apologetically. "Young Master Zhu, I'm sorry — that day I wanted to kill you —"
"It's okay, that was a misunderstanding," Zhu Muchen said. "Besides, I'm at Golden Core. You couldn't have hurt me."
"Hmm —" Tusheng said softly, somewhat lost.
"By the way," Zhu Muchen was curious, "that day, with so many people, why did you specifically ambush me?"
Tusheng replied, "You were dressed like a young master, surrounded by a crowd, so you must have high status. And you looked the weakest —"
This time, it was Zhu Muchen's turn to be displeased.
But he had a good temper and didn't mind much. He didn't like fighting and killing anyway. Being weak was fine.
Zhu Muchen asked, "Do you — really have no family left?"
Tusheng's face darkened, and he said nothing.
Zhu Muchen realized he had said the wrong thing.
He had been pampered since childhood, living in the love of his parents. He couldn't imagine that there were people in this world who lost their loved ones young and had no one to rely on.
Zhu Muchen could understand such pain.
But that pain also felt intensely unreal to him.
In his cognition, such painful and desperate things simply shouldn't exist in this world.
Zhu Muchen took out a pile of fruits and dried meat, handed them to Tusheng, and said, "It's still early before we reach Houtu City. Eat something first."
Tusheng hesitated.
Zhu Muchen pressed the food into his hands.
Tusheng took a bite instinctively, and his eyes lit up. He wolfed it down, as if he had never eaten anything so delicious in his life.
Zhu Muchen watched, somewhat gratified, but inexplicably also a little sad.
"There's plenty more. Eat slowly —"
Mo Hua sipped tea on the side, silently watching the two, his mood also complicated.
This little junior brother, though born into a great family, had too kind a heart. He didn't know the dangers and exploitation of the world.
If something happened in Kun Prefecture next, his situation would inevitably be full of contradictions and sharp conflicts.
As for this youth named Tusheng —
Mo Hua shifted his gaze to Tusheng.
No matter how many times he looked, he could still feel that Tusheng was essentially a "dead man."
That night, he might have already died together with his parents, little sister, and that group of companions at the hands of the demonic cultivators in the Skeleton Cave.
There was no "soul" left in his shell.
That was why, when he jumped out from underground to ambush Junior Brother Zhu Muchen that night, no one else sensed killing intent.
Even Elder Lu didn't notice.
Because Tusheng was already "dead."
But the problem was — he was clearly dead, yet he seemed to live as if nothing was wrong. He could eat and sleep, and he himself didn't seem aware.
Mo Hua didn't quite understand why for the moment. He could only sigh, thinking that the great world of cultivation contained all kinds of phenomena. There were countless laws and things beyond his cognition.
Tusheng definitely had secrets on him.
For that reason, no matter what, Mo Hua had to take Tusheng out of the Great Spiritual Field Realm.
The Great Spiritual Field Realm, on the surface a peaceful field realm, calm and quiet, was riddled with holes inside. It had even begun to "cancerate" —
These past few days' experiences flashed through his mind one by one. Looking at the scenery outside the window, Mo Hua's gaze gradually deepened.
Meanwhile, at the Great Spiritual Field Realm, about thirty li west of Yunyi Villa, in a remote Earth God Temple:
Elder Lu, dressed in black and masked, was placing offerings and lighting incense on the altar of the Earth God Temple.
He had told Zhu Muchen that there was a disturbance at Yunyi Villa that needed his attention to clean up.
But no one expected that Elder Lu, who had stayed behind to clean up, was now burning incense in an Earth God Temple.
The area around the temple was quiet and uninhabited.
After a while, another black-robed masked cultivator walked in.
This person was tall and thin, with a sinister air. One of his eyes had rotted away, leaving only bone. He entered without a word, walked to the altar, and first lit a stick of incense to the Earth God.
After offering the incense, he said in a low voice, "Elder Lu, you old dog, you broke your promise and dared to kill my fellow disciples of Skeleton Cave."
Elder Lu lit the incense, bowed three times, and said coldly, "You deserved to die."
A sinister fire began to burn in the White Bone Eye Demon Head's eye, clearly showing his anger.
Seeing this, Elder Lu also grew angry and cursed under his breath, "Do you demonic sects have no brains?
"I repeatedly emphasized: keep the river water and well water separate! I don't care if you kill people or eat them, but don't create karmic consequences near my Yunyi Villa.
"But you damned fools, you killed thirty or forty in one go, left the corpses lying there, and made me clean up your mess. And just at this critical moment, the day before Young Master Chen came to inspect — do you — not take me, Zhu Shoulu, seriously?"
Elder Lu's expression was extremely ugly.
The White Bone Eye Demon Head's gaze was cold, but his tone weakened a bit. "Just over thirty refugees. You're an elder. With your ability, you could have easily disposed of them. Why didn't you help me clean up?"
Hearing this, Elder Lu grew even angrier and burst into profanity: "I — cleaned up for you, damn it! Don't you know?
"I already helped you bury those corpses to cover it up — but that Master Mo dug them up."
The White Bone Eye Demon Head said, "Just buried?"
Elder Lu laughed in anger. "What, should I have eaten the corpses?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head frowned. "Burn them —"
Elder Lu cursed, "You're a demonic cultivator, I'm not. If I set fire to the corpses, the ash would drift for ten li. Are you afraid no one would notice?
"That Master Mo is sly as a ghost.
"Your corpses, buried in the ground, hidden without trace, and he still discovered them twenty li away after two days.
"If I had burned them, the ash would have spread. Do you think he wouldn't have smelled it as soon as he got off the carriage and followed the scent to find the bodies?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head had nothing to say for a moment, only grumbling, "Then you didn't have to actually kill them —"
His batch of accomplices had died. The loss was not insignificant.
Elder Lu sneered, "If I hadn't killed them, would that have worked? That Master Mo was watching from the side. If I didn't kill a single one, wasn't I treating him like a fool? Do you think he would have believed it?
"Then he would have accused me of 'colluding with demonic cultivators' and reported it to the Dao Court Department. I'd be in deep shit — impossible to explain.
"That Master Mo is an extremely troublesome character —"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head frowned, but thinking of the ten-plus demonic disciples he had painstakingly cultivated who died, he was deeply pained.
"Even so, you could have left a few —"
Now the demonic path was in urgent need of people; they were short on hands.
Elder Lu frowned in thought, then said after a moment, "I originally wanted to leave some alive, but I didn't expect you demonic cultivators to be so useless. I led my men in and didn't even go all out. The battle was over in a few exchanges, and I killed them all.
"Even you, as the leader, didn't react in time."
The White Bone Eye Demon Head said angrily, "Impossible. The evil arts of my Skeleton Cave are definitely not that useless."
Elder Lu also found it suspicious. The demonic cultivators of Skeleton Cave practiced ghost arts, which were notoriously troublesome and not easy to kill.
The only explanation was —
Elder Lu said slowly, "That Master Mo's black cloth — does it counter your Skeleton Cave's techniques?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head asked, "What is that black cloth?"
Elder Lu shook his head. "That Master Mo only said — wear it on the forehead to protect the sea of consciousness, repel evil influences —"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head's pupils constricted.
This Master Mo actually had such a method to counter his Skeleton Cave?
Murderous intent surged in the White Bone Eye Demon Head's eyes. "Elder Lu, why don't you find a way to kill this Mo?"
Hearing this, Elder Lu laughed in fury. "Why don't you kill him?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head fell silent, his gaze fierce.
Elder Lu sneered, "I'm a clan elder of the Zhu family. This Master Mo is a prodigy of the Taixu Sect, my young master's little senior brother. How dare I be disrespectful to him?
"But you, a dignified mid-Golden Core great demon head, not only failed to strike at that young master, but were scared off by his words.
"Didn't you say —" Elder Lu's gaze was contemptuous, "that this Master Mo was marked with a Demon Kill Order? Yet you didn't dare kill him?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head's pupils shrank. "You don't know the inside story. According to reports — this Mo Hua is strangely unfathomable. He personally killed our Skeleton Cave's late-Golden Core Ghost Child Hermit back then —"
Elder Lu was stunned. He thought for a moment and spotted the flaw. He sneered, "He killed the Ghost Child Hermit, but didn't kill you?
"What? Is your mid-Golden Core stronger than the Ghost Child Hermit's late Golden Core?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head was also startled.
Elder Lu then laughed coldly, "Your demonic path is degenerating more and more. You believe any ghost story, all timid and hesitant — where is the bearing of a demonic cultivator?
"This Master Mo is kind-faced but black-hearted. He's a ruthless man. If he could really kill you, he would have done so long ago. Why would he waste words with you?"
The White Bone Eye Demon Head thought it over and for a moment found it quite reasonable.