Chapter 308: Clouds of Suspicion

Mo Hua stood again before the gates of Great Heishan.

Two days ago, Great Heishan was breached, and most of the cultivators of evil were wiped out.

Of the four Foundation Establishment cultivators, the Fourth Chief died in battle, the Second Chief was severely wounded and captured, while the First Chief and Third Chief escaped wounded and are now being hunted by Dao Ting Si and Dao Bing Si.

Great Heishan, which had hidden deep in Shenshan, committed countless evils, and once flourished, was nearly annihilated.

The surviving cultivators of evil will be wanted and hunted down.

The main force that destroyed Great Heishan was Dao Ting's Dao Bing.

As Zhang Lan said, Dao Bing truly is powerful.

Mo Hua had not seen it with his own eyes, but he had inquired about it afterward from his father, Seeing Mo Shan.

It was said that during battle, the Dao Bing's spears pointed, and all fell before them.

The cultivators of evil beneath their spears had no one who could withstand a single clash; in an instant, they were either gravely wounded or dead.

But that did nothing to help.

Mo Hua thought carefully through the entire affair.

Mo Hua had left the Alchemy Chamber; inside, the small pillars had collapsed, the ground cracked—no Foundation Establishment cultivator had fought there with full strength.

The Golden Bell Array was used for early warning, the Wood Binding Array to trap people, and the other arrays were all roughly the same in function.

After thinking for a long while, Mo Hua finally realized what felt off:

Drawing arrays takes time; Great Heishan had only the Eighth Chief who could draw such a Grade-One array, so these arrays must have been drawn long ago.

This battle was less like we wiped out Great Heishan, and more like Great Heishan had "planned" to be wiped out—methodically, orderly…

The elixir didn't seem to have been completed…

"Could it be to delay the alchemy?"

Mo Hua sat cross-legged beneath the outer wall of the front compound, gazing toward the rear compound, lost in thought.

Yet supporting You Yusu seems to bring us no disadvantage.

Aside from the Qian family, the major forces within Xiancheng are the An family and Tong Xian Men.

With such formidable Dao Bing under their command, it is no wonder Dao Ting unified the cultivation world and has stood unshaken for twenty thousand years.

Mo Hua had asked Commander Yang: during the eight days of the assault on Great Heishan, two full days were spent solely breaking the front compound's arrays.

The purpose was to… delay time?

Mo Hua's gaze sharpened.

Mo Hua frowned.

Behind Great Heishan, was there someone secretly supporting them?

"Did the cultivators of evil notice this?"

Mo Hua covered his nose, silently grumbling in his heart.

The first person he thought of was the Qian family.

With no cultivators of evil left in the stronghold, Mo Hua had no reason to hold back.

Mo Hua did not enter through the main gate, but circled around to the nearby high wall.

There was a treasure vault, empty—likely meant for storage, but already cleared by Dao Bing Si.

Mo Hua also inspected the front compound and found several hidden chambers, used for secluded cultivation.

Mo Hua's frown deepened; he left the Alchemy Chamber, climbed to a high point, and took in the entire Great Heishan stronghold.

In short, no living soul was left.

They were probably cleared away by Dao Ting Si—either handed over to Dao Ting or destroyed on-site, never preserved.

As for Tong Xian Men, they couldn't even redeem their own Tong Xian Peak—how could they possibly spend Spirit Stones to support cultivators of evil?

As for how far he believed it, Mo Hua had no way of knowing.

The prison inside the stronghold was empty.

Unless Mo Hua arrived, Great Heishan would be finished…

The white bone alchemy furnace in the center of the room was damaged—first pierced by a spear, then half its lid hacked off by a blade, exposing the bone walls and the blood-red evil array beneath them.

Of course, that too would be foolish—having been stolen once, to hide the same thing there again would make the Eighth Chief a true fool.

"No, they discovered it!"

Between two mountains, Great Heishan occupied very little ground.

Great Heishan seemed to know it was going to "die," and that death was inevitable—after a brief struggle, it calmly "walked into death"…

No one would mourn them, no one would remember them, not even know their names—no stone would bear their names.

He probably began arranging things shortly before he left.

Mo Hua turned and walked back toward the Alchemy Chamber.

Everything seemed reasonable, yet something felt off.

The rear compound was too small to defend well; concentrating the arrays in the front compound made it harder for Dao Bing to attack.

Aside from this, the front compound had no other peculiarities.

As if an unseen hand had quietly pushed Great Heishan onto the blade's edge, after which You Yusu naturally bowed his neck to be beheaded.

"How could such a small stronghold as Great Heishan have been built at all?"

First, they altered the Mist Forest arrays, added more mist arrays, then strengthened the front compound's arrays.

Dao Ting Si and Dao Bing Si had already entombed the corpses, sealed them in coffins, and taken them back to You Yusu Si to verify identities and give their families closure.

Moreover, with their strength, they could never have supported them effectively.

The Qian family has deep roots and does not scruple over means—such actions by them would not surprise Mo Hua at all.

Perhaps the cultivators of evil killed them after the battle; perhaps during the stalemate, they killed them to replenish blood and spiritual energy; or perhaps during their rout, they slaughtered them in a fit of rage.

Mo Hua had no particular thought; he extended his spiritual sense, sensed through the low wall for a moment, then his gaze suddenly sharpened.

If no one were secretly backing them, this must be a force from Xiancheng, since Xiancheng is closest to Great Baishan and has the most convenient secret routes.

The alchemy furnace had been destroyed, and the strange herbs placed around it were also seen.

Mo Hua spent some time, following the route in his memory, and roughly toured the rear compound.

The An family, constantly suppressed by the Qian family, could only survive by running a dining hall; if they had truly maintained even a small band of heretical cultivators, they would have long since retaliated against the Qian family and reclaimed their honor.

But Great Heishan had made its move.

Dao soldiers are the sharp blades that uphold the Dao Court's authority, symbolizing its strength and dignity.

If I merely assume this is the Qian family's doing because I have no grudge against them but dislike them, and thus blame them, I may be biased.

Many houses had already collapsed; the items outside had been cleared and collectively handed over to Zhong Mingren.

The cultivators who had been abducted and imprisoned here were all killed by the heretics.

Great Heishan is vast, its arrays numerous; constructing it would require immense manpower and resources, especially in such a remote place as Shenshan—could these heretics possibly have built it alone?

Zhong Mingren was thus, as a matter of course, wiped out.

The Beast Gate had been half-destroyed; the arrays behind it had also been forcibly broken—apparently the Dao soldiers had also attacked inward.

After inspecting the rear compound, Mo Hua went to the front compound, took a look around, and furrowed his brow.

These cultivators met with misfortune and died horribly.

Great Heishan was still bloody now, but less dead silent and desolate, and no longer so oppressive.

The Eighth Master had not hidden anything else here.

The Qian family had no collusion with Great Heishan; there were no Qian family cultivators inside Great Heishan.

Mo Hua, Xiao Zijin, scratched his head, unable to understand for a moment.

"This kind of thing… no one could possibly eat it…"

As long as Mo Hua stepped back through the cave entrance, he would trigger the array, alert the heretics, and be trapped in place by the array.

At least up to now, on the surface, the two had absolutely no connection.

If one cannot verify their identity, they will be buried at a distance, given a lavish grave, and marked with a proper stele.

Mo Hua almost knew without thinking: if the Eighth Master still had Zhong Mingren stationed nearby, he would rush over the moment the array alerted.

This was merely a first-rank Dao soldier.

But upon closer thought, it felt wrong.

Mo Hua opened another hidden compartment; it was empty, nothing inside.

After all, these herbs were used to brew human pills—harming heaven and violating reason—and thus classified as contraband.

But why?

First, the Eighth Master noticed the corner of the wall he had dug open and the array he had undone, and grew suspicious.

Did they guess something?

Seven places were splattered with large patches of blood—unknown whether human or beast.

Mo Hua looked toward Great Heishan's gate.

Mo Hua sighed, feeling a strange unease inside.

The Dao soldiers attacked; they seemed to have bought time, but not much; they seemed to have held their ground, but ultimately failed to hold it.

Inside the furnace was a thick, foul-smelling elixir liquid—likely the residue from human longevity pills; just smelling it made one nauseous.

The large hole in the corner was still there.

The concealment array on the gate had failed; the bloody, sinister gate had one pillar broken, and the entire Great Heishan had become ruined and dilapidated.

They discovered this wall hole and planned to wait and ambush!

The previous doubts resurfaced in his mind:

Dao soldiers above first-rank would likely be even more terrifying…

This array must have been set by the Eighth Master.

But if not the Qian family, then who else could it be?

The heretics did this as if they knew they would be attacked, and that they were no match for their enemy, so they delayed setting up arrays in the front compound, intending to fight to the death.

Mo Hua frowned, "Buying time—what's the point? In the end, aren't you just waiting to die?"

In front of the wall hole, new arrays had been added: the Golden Bell Array, the Wood Binding Array, and several others.

Although Great Heishan had been destroyed, he still had many things he couldn't understand.

Mo Hua felt a pang of reflection.

The first time he entered Great Heishan, he had undone the array at the high wall, dug a hole through the wall, and slipped in that way.

The front compound's arrays were dense and numerous, far more than when Mo Hua first came.

He pulled out the Thousand-Jun Club, widened the cave entrance further, and simultaneously destroyed the array on the opposite side, then walked back into Great Heishan through the wall hole.