The moment this thought arose, Mo Hua's heart began to race wildly. It seemed as if a vast heavenly mechanism had started to turn in the unseen, and karma surged like tidal waves.
From every direction, divine sense came tracing back toward him like a pack of jackals drawn by the scent of blood, or hungry wolves guarding their food.
Mo Hua's expression changed. He immediately used his innate true fire to burn the piece of paper bearing the word "Xirang" to ashes, then washed away all traces with five-element water vapor.
At the same time, he restrained the two-colored light in his pupils, cut off his heavenly calculations, blocked his divine sense, and through meditation, calmed his breath and spirit.
Almost at that very moment, within the vast Houtu City, a dark current of divine sense began to surge.
The "players" in the celestial game used their own arts to trace causes to effects. Yet when these surging tides of karmic thought followed the threads to the outskirts of Little Luan Mountain, they were instantly cut off by the barrier of the small blessed land, unable to penetrate even a hair's breadth further.
Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land was an extremely special place. Those who lived there were no ordinary figures, and their karmic ties were equally as unusual. No one could casually spy on or offend them. This was almost a consensus among certain powers.
Thus, these probing thoughts, for all their boldness, were wary of Little Luan Mountain's deterrent fame. They hesitated only a moment before retreating, each shrouded in confusion. They did not know what terrible existence they might provoke if their thoughts found their way inside, and they did not dare to gamble.
Before long, the karmic turbulence subsided like an ebbing tide.
Inside the guest room, Mo Hua slowly opened his eyes, his gaze dark and deep as muddy water. He did not continue deliberating. Instead, he cut off all stray thoughts, steadied his mind, and sat in meditation as though nothing had happened.
In the study on the other side, Bai Qingcheng and Immortal Rong also sensed something amiss. These waves of causality came and went quickly, and the culprits knew their limits, brushing against the barrier only once before retreating.
The two were in the middle of discussing Mo Hua's future marriage, so they merely frowned slightly and could not be bothered to investigate.
And so, after the stirring, the heavenly mechanism quietly settled once more. The night in Houtu City was tranquil as ever.
The next day passed just the same. Bai Qingcheng again took Mo Hua out "socializing."
Houtu City had more than just the Lu family as a great clan. The Wu, Zhu, and Jin families, the other three great clans, had their own cultivation enterprises and varying degrees of wealth, but none fell far behind the Lu family.
Beyond the four great clans, Kunzhou also hid some great families that kept a low profile, their reputations slightly weaker than the four giants, but their foundations equally impossible to ignore.
Even because their influence was more concentrated, their industries all in one basket, and their internal family structures relatively simpler, they lived even more stable lives.
In the following days, Mo Hua met in turn Madam Wu, Madam Zhu, Madam Jin, a host of wives of the great clan heads, as well as some great elders and ladies at the Feather Transformation level.
Without exception, Mo Hua's beauty was universally praised by these ladies. Even some of the sternest matriarchs among them could not help but be stunned when they saw him.
Among them, it was Madam Zhu who treated Mo Hua best. She was the mother of Zhu Muchen. Zhu Muchen was Mo Hua's junior martial brother; he constantly spoke of Mo Hua and always thought of him when something good came his way.
As Zhu Muchen's mother, Madam Zhu had initially been displeased, feeling that her son had been raised for nothing. But now that she saw Mo Hua with her own eyes and observed his demeanor and appearance, she changed her tune, sighing that Muchen was indeed her son, and had very good taste in people.
With that bond, Madam Zhu was especially kind to Mo Hua.
Except for Madam Zhu, the wives and ladies of the other clans were also fairly courteous to Mo Hua. But courtesy was only courtesy; when it came to marriage, it was a different matter entirely. The subject turned cold and calculating.
There were considerations they would not bring up in public, but in their hearts, each had a balance. Especially the issue of "spiritual root inheritance" that Immortal Rong had raised.
A mid-to-low grade spiritual root, a low-grade golden core, no bloodline awakening: these meant that Mo Hua was destined to be nothing more than a pretty vase. He was pleasing to the eye, but had no value for "breeding" spiritual roots through marriage.
Bai Qingcheng, of course, sensed this. Though the ladies were deeply respectful to her, whenever Mo Hua's marriage was brought up, their expressions were inevitably tinged with awkwardness.
If she only wanted a common daughter of a side branch, it would be fine. But Bai Qingcheng had high ambitions; if she were to arrange a match, it had to be for a veritable jewel among the great clans of Kunzhou.
Those young ladies themselves had good reputations, and some had talent in formation dao, but in the eyes of these matriarchs, Mo Hua still didn't measure up. Bai Qingcheng could use her power to press the issue, but this was, after all, a marriage alliance. Unless it was the last resort, there was no need to force it.
She still hoped that among her "sisters," there would be some matriarch with enough foresight to see through Mo Hua's handsome exterior and recognize the child's inner character and abilities. Rather than her having to rely on her authority and the prestige of the sixth-rank Bai family to compel their consent.
But such a thing was hard to come by. In the eyes of those ladies, Mo Hua was simply a "pretty face." Bai Qingcheng was filled with discontent because of this.
Mo Hua, on the other hand, didn't give it much thought. These days, his heart was occupied by a single matter: the Xirang Grand Formation.
During his visits to the inner courtyards of Kunzhou's great clans with Senior Bai, he would seize every opportunity to ask oblique questions, subtly probing for information and calculating the karmic threads to hunt for clues about the Xirang Grand Formation.
He suspected that the great formation linked to "Xirang" might very well be the core of the entire situation in Kunzhou.
Xirang was a legendary divine soil of the highest order. And the phrase "grand formation" alone held an irresistible allure for Mo Hua, a formation master.
What's more, this mysterious Xirang Grand Formation might have been jointly constructed by the Earth Sect and the four great clans of Kunzhou, a host of behemoths.
How vast was it, how enormous was its value? Even Mo Hua couldn't imagine.
Regrettably, after quietly observing for a long while, he had found no trace of a clue among the four families. But this rather confirmed some of Mo Hua's suspicions.
Lu Zhenlong had been right, "Karmic secrets fail when a word slips out."
Too many grand undertakings had been brought to ruin by a single leaked phrase. Therefore, before a true scheme got underway, not even the faintest wind could be allowed to leak. It was only natural that he couldn't find anything.
In comparison, for Lu Zhenlong to have exposed the two characters "Xirang" to him, revealing the head of Kunzhou's karmic threads, could already be considered a reckless breach.
And for Lu Zhenlong to be able to eavesdrop on fragments from the private talks between her father, the Lu family head, and several Feather Transformation Immortals of the Earth Sect, showed that the seemingly dim-witted beauty, the Lu family's eldest daughter, was by no means simple.
Regrettably, aside from the word "Xirang," Lu Zhenlong didn't seem to know any more.
So more than ten days passed, and Mo Hua met more and more "madams," yet he still had no clue about the Xirang Grand Formation.
In addition, there was another thing that bothered him. He visited friends and discussed marriage with Aunt Bai, but he rarely saw his Little Senior Sister anymore.
They both remained within the Small Blessed Land, yet it was as if they were living in two separate spaces. Sometimes they would meet, but they only nodded at each other, like ordinary fellow disciples. When their gazes occasionally met, they were tinged with faint distance.
Many things in this world are fraught with sharp contradictions and do not obey one's will. Mo Hua understood Aunt Bai's concerns, and he also understood Little Senior Sister's suffering.
Part of it was for his own good, to keep him from becoming tangled in even more dangerous karma. But Mo Hua also understood that he himself was a "dangerous" karma. If his fate and karmic path worsened one day, he might well drag his Little Senior Sister down along with him.
At this point, the reality he had been unwilling and afraid to contemplate was finally set before him. Mo Hua knew that the time had come for a choice. But he couldn't quite bring himself to decide.
While he was hesitating, he took advantage of a pause in the "visits and matchmaking" to go to the Dao Court, hoping to talk to Uncle Gu and learn about the situation in the Great Spirit Field Realm.
When he arrived at the Dao Court and saw Yu Cangming, however, he learned that Uncle Gu had been in the Great Spirit Field Realm all this time and had never returned.
"The situation has worsened, and the unrest has expanded..." Yu Cangming sighed with a grave face. "No word has come from Director Gu in a long time."
Mo Hua's gaze turned. "No news at all?"
Yu Cangxi nodded. "All internal communication methods of the Dao Court, even the Demon-Suppression Department, have been severed."
"The Great Spirit Field Realm is now a fog, and no one knows what is happening there..."
Mo Hua's pupils shrank, his heart sinking. "Some karmic threads... have sped up?"
Yu Cangxi went on, "Demonic cultivators are beginning to surface in Houtu City, too. I can't leave for now. As for Director Gu..." He shook his head, drawing a heavy breath, his eyes full of vicissitudes.
Mo Hua also wore a grave expression, his thoughts unsettled. What kind of trouble had Uncle Gu run into? But no one could give him an answer.
Given the tense situation, Yu Cangming, as deputy director, had little time to spare. After these brief words, he soon had official matters to attend to. Mo Hua went back to Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land.
Back in his room, Mo Hua lay on his bed, all kinds of emotions flooding his mind. Tangled as a mass of hemp, they churned at his heart, leaving him no peace. Even when he employed his mind-calming technique and discarded stray thoughts, his sea of consciousness would not quiet for a long time.
Mo Hua sighed. No wonder Master had once told him that technique was not the sort that grew more profound the more one practiced.
Sometimes, the more you practiced, the worse it became.
"You are still a child now. What you see, hear, think, and feel are still simple, and you have few random thoughts, so entering samadhi may be quicker."
"When you grow up, once you see the thousands of things in this world, and stray thoughts and mortal desires multiply, entering samadhi will no longer be so easy."
Master Zhuang's meaningful words resurfaced in Mo Hua's mind.
He got up again, isolated his presence with a formation, and used the great demon bone divination art to cast a lot for Uncle Gu's whereabouts.
This karmic divination technique, gained from the great wasteland, was something Mo Hua had practiced often and had become skilled at. Driven by his powerful divine sense, the divination activated, and dense lines of karmic texture emerged on the beast bone.
All kinds of auras interwove in the brazier, and those lines and auras were reflected in Mo Hua's eyes, deciphered one by one by his spiritual computation.
At the same time, chaotic pictures flickered through his sea of consciousness, barren fields polluted by an unknown rotting aura; ragged spirit farmers with blood-red eyes; indistinct black-clad shadows moving through the dark; silk-clad figures sitting high above, while grotesque demon cultivators consumed human flesh; destitute thatched houses enshrining earthen idols one after another...
In a land where the people had no livelihood, mourning filled the fields, yet incense burned vigorously.
Then bloodlight burst out, and people kept dying in struggle. Amid flashing blades and swords, cultivators in Dao Court robes fell in pools of blood.
Mo Hua's heart tightened. These recurring, chaotic images flashed through his sea of consciousness in a few breaths quickly crossing, scattering...
Just as he was about to see that familiar figure, an alarm suddenly rose in his heart. It seemed that he had been peering into karma for too long; even if only these few breaths, it had already attracted the notice of some unknown existence.
Mo Hua frowned. No longer hesitating, he immediately stopped the divination, severed his divine sense, and erased the karma. The brazier, the beast bone, the blood, the ashes; all sorts of divination implements were thoroughly dealt with by Mo Hua.
What should be destroyed was destroyed, and the rest were stored in his storage ring, isolated from karma. After doing all this with practiced ease, the feeling of entanglement with karma gradually receded, and Mo Hua slowly let out a breath.
He had experience with such matters and could now anticipate them in advance. But soon his mood grew heavy again. The fragmented images from the divination kept surfacing in his sea of consciousness.
The flourishing incense amidst poverty, the chaotic demonic shadows, the spirit farmers with red eyes dying in despair, and the silhouettes in Dao Court robes fallen in blood.
The originally tranquil blessed land suddenly felt a bit cold. The night around him seemed to become much thicker. Only a single candle flame illuminated Mo Hua's face.
In the darkness, he sat silently facing this candle for a long time, and at last, he sighed deeply. The night was so dense that it seemed to swallow his sigh.
The next day, Bai Qingcheng, as usual, intended to take Mo Hua to visit the wives of the great clans, to secure for him a good marriage and a good future. As she led him out of the blessed land, passing through a fairy forest where luan birds danced, Mo Hua suddenly said, "Senior."
Bai Qingcheng, with her Feather Transformation cultivation, her white robes of glazed silk, her air at once elegant and imposingly beautiful, turned her head to look at Mo Hua and asked, "What is it?"
Mo Hua was silent for a moment, as if he had made up his mind, then softly sighed. "Senior, it's no use." Bai Qingcheng frowned slightly.
Mo Hua said, "I... won't stay in Houtu City. I'm leaving."