Wealth Prohibition Edict?
Mo Hua's gaze gradually turned cold.
They were prohibiting my wealth, making it so I could not earn a single spirit stone?
Making it so I could not feed the Taotie...
An inexplicably gloomy aura spread from Mo Hua, like a starving beast slowly opening its eyes because it had never eaten its fill.
Manager Zhao, for reasons he could not explain, felt afraid—so afraid he did not dare look directly at Mo Hua.
He even felt that this mild-mannered Young Master Mo suddenly seemed about to "eat people," and a chill rose in his heart. He hurriedly said in a low voice:
"Young Master Mo, this is the families' decision... I have no way around it. Here in Houtu City, we live at others' mercy. Please do not blame me... please do not blame me..."
Mo Hua gradually suppressed his temper and held down the turmoil inside him. He looked at Manager Zhao and asked,
"Does this Wealth Prohibition Edict involve the Earth Sect and the Four Great Families alike?"
Manager Zhao nodded and said gravely,
"The Wealth Prohibition Edict is serious business. Cutting off a person's money is no small matter, so it is not issued lightly."
"Moreover, in the past, a Wealth Prohibition Edict was issued only by the Earth Sect alone or by one of the Four Great Families, to sanction certain cultivators or factions and forbid them from earning spirit stones in a particular trade."
"But you, Young Master Mo... are clearly different... yours is far more severe."
"Your Wealth Prohibition Edict is a comprehensive ban—covering the Earth Sect, all the families, all merchant pavilions, and all trades."
Manager Zhao shook his head. He truly did not know what Mo Hua had done to make the Earth Sect, the Four Great Families, and the other families join hands to sanction him.
By all reasoning, merely dallying with a Flower Queen and competing with the young masters of the great families for her favor should not have led to this.
Unless he had done something even more excessive and offended the Earth Sect and the great families too deeply.
So deeply that the Earth Sect and the Four Great Families all wanted to squeeze him out...
But those were not matters Manager Zhao could consider.
Manager Zhao could only smile bitterly. "Young Master Mo, I truly... am powerless to help."
Mo Hua nodded. He understood that Manager Zhao was, after all, just a manager, and there were many things he could not do.
Mo Hua asked Manager Zhao again,
"Does the ban apply only to me, or does it also cover the people around me?"
Manager Zhao said, "As long as you have no financial dealings with other cultivators, it applies only to you alone."
Mo Hua asked, "Then what about Iron Mountain Tiger and the others..."
Manager Zhao said, "If they do not do business with you, the Earth Sect will not bother them. But if they go down into the earth with you, then..."
Manager Zhao did not finish, but the meaning was clear.
Mo Hua was now not only a "plague god" but also a "god of poverty." Whoever came into contact with him would have their path to wealth cut off.
Whoever did business with him would be sanctioned by the Earth Sect.
Mo Hua's gaze sank slightly.
Manager Zhao added, "Iron Mountain Tiger came by some days ago. He said it had been a long time since he had seen you, and he wanted to go down into the earth with you to do business..."
Mo Hua shook his head. "From now on, let them fend for themselves on the road."
He had already led them onto this path. Iron Mountain Tiger and the others each had their own skills. Going underground was somewhat dangerous, but they should still be able to earn a living.
If they kept following him, they might not earn a single spirit stone either.
Manager Zhao sighed. "Very well."
Mo Hua glanced at him, cupped his hands, and said, "In that case, Manager Zhao, I will take my leave."
Since there was no business to be done, there was no need to linger.
Manager Zhao gave Mo Hua another deep look, somewhat regretful and somewhat reluctant.
Once they parted now, who knew whether they would ever have a chance to work together again.
The path of cultivation was long, and human connections were shallow. Whether they would ever meet again was probably unknown.
Manager Zhao thought for a moment, sighed, and said from the heart,
"Young Master Mo, some things are truly unavoidable. An arm cannot twist against a thigh, and Fortune Pavilion cannot resist the tide of the times. But if there is a chance in the future, I still hope to do business with you again."
"I wish you a splendid future and a steady flow of wealth..."
Mo Hua was slightly surprised. Looking at Manager Zhao, his gaze softened a little.
He was proficient in cause and effect and knew clearly that his connection with Manager Zhao had always been based on profit alone.
If there was no way to earn spirit stones, they would probably have no further dealings and might never meet again.
Those who befriend each other for profit will grow distant once the profit is gone. This has always been the way of the world and the inevitability of cause and effect.
Mo Hua sighed inwardly, cupped his hands, and said, "Manager Zhao, take care."
Manager Zhao returned the greeting. "Take care, Young Master Mo."
Afterward, the two said no more.
Manager Zhao continued doing business at the Fortune Pavilion.
Mo Hua left the Fortune Pavilion and continued on his own path.
...
After leaving the Fortune Pavilion, what concerned Mo Hua most was the so-called "Wealth Prohibition Edict."
He wanted to know whether the Wealth Prohibition Edict would actually take effect.
Mo Hua first went to the martial arena, intending to spar a few rounds as usual and win some prize money.
But the martial arena refused him entry.
The steward who had been familiar with him before pulled a long face and smiled apologetically, as if Mo Hua were a great Buddha—daring neither to welcome him nor to offend him.
"Young Master Mo, perhaps... you could go somewhere else. Our little establishment is small, and truly... we do not dare..."
The steward smiled apologetically, his voice halting and euphemistic.
Mo Hua understood. He did not want to make things difficult for him, so he turned and went to Hongyun Tower for a meal.
But Hongyun Tower also did not dare serve him.
Mo Hua went to the market, but there too no one dared sell him anything.
Whoever dared to sell him something would have their stall "confiscated."
Mo Hua went to unfamiliar merchant pavilions dozens of li away.
The stewards there were at first very polite, until Mo Hua gave his name. Then their faces changed drastically, as if they had opened their doors in broad daylight to let in an "evil ghost." Their faces paled as they urged Mo Hua to leave.
They said the higher-ups had issued orders they dared not disobey, and they hoped the young master would forgive them and find somewhere else to do business. They could not afford to serve him.
Although they were "refusing a guest," their words were quite tactful, and even carried a note of pleading.
These stewards had survived in the world for a long time and were all shrewd old hands. Naturally, they understood that anyone placed under a "Wealth Prohibition Edict" was no ordinary figure.
What was more, this was a comprehensive ban set up by the Earth Sect and the Four Great Families together.
Then the person who was banned was all the more extraordinary.
At first glance, the Wealth Prohibition Edict seemed to be a targeted sanction.
But thinking about it the other way, it also meant that the Earth Sect and the Four Great Families had no way to deal with this person.
They could not kill him and could not arrest him, so the only thing left was to cut off his path to wealth.
Otherwise, with the Earth Sect's "local emperor"-like power, they could simply have made the man disappear. Why bother forbidding him wealth?
But no matter the reason, whoever was sanctioned by the Wealth Prohibition Edict was someone ordinary stewards like them could not afford to provoke.
So they could only put on a smile and try every means to "send off" this plague god, Mo Hua.
Mo Hua made a full round and received more or less the same treatment everywhere.
If he used a few small tricks—remaining anonymous, disguising himself, or changing his appearance—he could still earn spirit stones.
But that would be meaningless. First, within Houtu City, cultivators whose identities were unclear due to disguise could not enter the orthodox circles of the Earth Sect and the great families, so it was impossible to make big money.
Second, once exposed, he would implicate the peddlers, stewards, or managers who did business with him.
They would be dragged down with him and lose their rice bowls.
In a place like Houtu City, if these ordinary cultivators were implicated by him, hated by the great families, and lost their livelihoods, then trying to survive and earn a meal again would be nearly impossible.
From this, the "Wealth Prohibition Edict" was evidently real.
The Earth Sect and the families of Kun Prefecture had truly sealed off every path by which Mo Hua could earn money, just to target him.
For the time being, Mo Hua had no choice but to return to Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land.
After returning to Little Luan Mountain, Mo Hua was weighed down with worries, and the Taotie's hunger stirred faintly, vexing his mind.
Only when he entered the small courtyard and saw Little Junior Sister's pale, snow-white figure did he feel as if he had found an anchor. His heart gradually calmed.
But Bai Zixi sensed that beneath Mo Hua's calm expression, his mood was not good. She asked, "Junior Brother, what's wrong?"
Mo Hua's gaze sank slightly. He hesitated to speak.
The matter of the Kun Prefecture families was his own karmic burden. He could not cause trouble for Little Junior Sister, nor hinder her cultivation.
Mo Hua shook his head. "It's nothing."
Bai Zixi paused slightly and said in a clear voice, "If anything happens, remember to tell your senior sister."
Mo Hua felt warm inside and slowly nodded. "Mm, alright."
Bai Zixi turned back and continued studying formations. Her figure was graceful and elegant, like a jade figurine, beautiful beyond measure.
Mo Hua's mood gradually calmed as well.
He looked at Little Junior Sister with a gentle gaze, but as he looked, a practical question suddenly rose in his mind:
"How much longer can I stay with Little Junior Sister?"
If the situation in Kun Prefecture changed and great chaos broke out, no one could predict what would happen.
And Little Junior Sister... had her own fate, her own Dao to seek.
"Can I really... stay with Little Junior Sister forever?"
As this thought arose, an enormous disturbance suddenly welled up in Mo Hua's heart, and his heart grew restless.
Mo Hua could only force down the unease in his heart and, while the situation had not yet changed, steal a few more glances at Little Junior Sister.
Bai Zixi seemed to sense something. She turned her head and found Mo Hua's black-jade eyes staring at her in a daze. Her heartstrings stirred slightly, then she frowned a little.
"Why do you keep staring at me?"
Mo Hua's gaze was complicated, and he said softly, "Nothing..."
In the depths of his eyes there was a barely perceptible cherishing and longing.
...
Afterward, the days passed like flowing water.
But the Earth Sect's Wealth Prohibition Edict completely disrupted Mo Hua's plans.
Mo Hua could not earn spirit stones, could not feed the Taotie spirit stones, and could not break through to mid-Golden Core. His cultivation and realm were stuck again.
Cutting off his wealth and blocking his cultivation—these counted as a great grudge.
Mo Hua remembered this debt in his heart.
At the same time, his thoughts were troubled.
He did not know whether it was because the unknown heavenly secrets had been stirred by someone, but Mo Hua felt that recently his cause and effect had changed again and again, and the road ahead was growing increasingly unknowable.
His original plans had become a complete mess.
Perhaps this was the true feeling of uncertain heavenly secrets, of being unable to control one's own fate, of cause and effect interweaving, and of drifting like duckweed.
Things and people in the world changed in a thousand ways, and under the pull of cause and effect, most matters did not develop as expected.
In the days that followed, Mo Hua also tried other ways to earn spirit stones while bypassing the Wealth Prohibition Edict.
But without exception, all of them failed.
The Earth Sect, the Four Great Families, and even all the families of Kun Prefecture seemed to have suddenly become one solid block, colluding together.
All their strength pressed down like a mountain with no gaps, and the blockade against Mo Hua was total.
And Mo Hua was in Houtu City. Earning spirit stones in the city was, after all, making a living on the territory of the Earth Sect and the great families.
If the Earth Sect and the great families would not give him a mouthful to eat, then it really seemed there were no spirit stones for him to earn and no way around it.
This was Mo Hua—from a major sect, with a certain background, high talent in formations, and early-Golden Core cultivation—and still he could not earn spirit stones.
If it had been an ordinary loose cultivator, offending the families of Kun Prefecture would have been almost the same as walking onto a dead-end road.
Because all cultivation resources and channels for advancement were already controlled by the great families.
To get ahead, one could only become a lackey for the Earth Sect and the great families. There was no other choice.
This was the cultivation world monopolized by the great families, the rules set by the great families, and the great families' taming and suppression of loose cultivators.
If you did not become a lackey, you would not get a single spirit stone.
Mo Hua, being in the midst of it and suffering this sanction, felt it even more deeply.
He himself had no good solution, let alone other cultivators.
And just after the Wealth Prohibition Edict had cut Mo Hua off for half a month, with not a single spirit stone earned, an invitation was delivered to Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land.
The invitation was sent by the Wu Family, saying that a younger prodigy of the Wu Family had settled a marriage alliance and inviting Mo Hua to the banquet to celebrate the happy occasion.
Mo Hua's expression was cold.
What did the Wu Family prodigy's engagement have to do with him?
Moreover, after the Flower Queen Banquet and the Wealth Prohibition Edict, Mo Hua could guess with his eyes closed that this was no well-intentioned banquet.
This Wu Family engagement banquet was only a pretext; they would certainly cause trouble for him at the feast.
Mo Hua was not afraid of trouble, but he was also too lazy to seek it out, so he ignored the invitation.
But after that, more and more invitations came flying into Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land like snowflakes.
Rong Zhenren, for some reason, did not intercept them. Instead, he passed all the invitations to Mo Hua.
These invitations were from direct-line heirs of various major powers who were holding "betrothal banquets," asking Mo Hua, the Taixu Sect prodigy, to attend and congratulate them.
The large-scale marriage alliance plan that the Earth Sect had been arranging before seemed finally to be drawing to a close.
The young masters and young ladies named in the invitations were all wealthy or noble—all direct descendants of the Four Great Families or the Earth Sect.
But Mo Hua ignored all these invitations as well.
He had never been interested in marriage alliances and engagements, and having just had his path to wealth cut off, he bore a grudge. He did not want to exchange false pleasantries with the children of these Kun Prefecture families.
...
A few days later, however, an unusual invitation was delivered to the Small Blessed Land.
At the time, Mo Hua and Little Junior Sister were sitting in a serene bamboo chamber, reading and studying formations together.
Little Orange, chewing on an orange, walked in from outside, handed an invitation to Mo Hua, and said,
"Rong Zhenren asked me to give this to you."
Mo Hua was a little surprised. He took the invitation and looked at it, his expression shifting slightly.
The invitation was extraordinary. It was edged with yellow cong jade, woven from earth-spirit silk, and bore heavy gold seal-script characters that were smooth and warm as jade. It also carried the Earth Sect's seal and a faint, fragrant scent.
At a glance, this was stationery that could only be used by a very important person in the Earth Sect's upper echelons.
Mo Hua frowned and had not yet looked at it carefully.
Bai Zixi, seeing the invitation, said with some surprise, "You know Zhao Zhao?"
Mo Hua was startled. "Zhao Zhao?"
Bai Zixi nodded. "Mm."
"I don't know her..." Mo Hua shook his head, then asked, "Who is Zhao Zhao?"
Bai Zixi said, "The youngest daughter of the Earth Sect's Grand Sect Master—in other words, the Earth Sect's Senior Martial Sister."