Chapter 343: Choice

Where should I go?

Mo Hua was uncertain, so he sat in the eatery, watching the stream of cultivators passing by, watching the entire Xiancheng.

Xiancheng was no longer lively; instead, it felt eerily quiet, like a storm about to break.

The number of cultivators on the streets had also dwindled.

Those who could find a way out, found one; those who couldn't, the lone cultivators, had only one path:

To join the mass migration of lone cultivators, moving to the barren wastelands of the wilderness, to reclaim the land and build new homes.

With great demons now appearing, even major Daoist powers had no strength to resist, let alone lone cultivators.

They had no choice.

They had no status, no background, no connections, no one willing to take them in; to survive, they could only seek new paths, relying on their own arduous efforts to slowly endure.

Mo Hua sighed.

Mo Hua suddenly understood, so he lay outside the courtyard, gazing up at the sky.

Every time it was easy, would he always remain aloof and self-preserved?

Could such a version of himself truly become immortal? Could he truly seek the Dao?

Before Mo Hua could speak, Xiancheng said:

What exactly was the point of learning array techniques?

But precisely because he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the only one among the lone cultivators, he must protect them during their southern migration.

"What should you do?"

"Nothing is safe, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't act—this concerns the lives of an entire city of lone cultivators," Xiancheng sighed.

After the minor disaster, you couldn't remain aloof—what about the last time?

And that, is what an array master should pursue!

Perhaps the world has always been this way.

……

Xin Youhao looked at Mo Hua and said gently:

Otherwise, without a Foundation Establishment cultivator to hold the line, how many cultivators will die or be wounded along the way?

Even if this disaster is merely a senseless calamity.

The little families are leaving.

Mo Hua walked around again, met a circle of acquaintances, then returned home and sat silently outside the courtyard.

And he probably wouldn't go with them.

"Don't listen to him when he says things he doesn't want—no matter who gives him spirit stones, take them; if he refuses spirit stones, he's a fool."

We lone cultivators don't even dare to dream of immortality—we just want to live well, to live peacefully for a hundred or two hundred years—why is that so hard?

Mo Hua nodded slightly and walked away, burdened with thoughts.

Perhaps he would sleep under the open sky, perhaps suffer hunger and cold, perhaps face oppression from some family, sect, or even Dao Ting Si.

Elder Yu was going to migrate with the lone cultivators.

"This is your identity token for the storage depot—there are ten thousand spirit stones outside, all for you; you won't have time to claim them."

Could he truly uncover the true essence of array techniques, comprehend the ultimate great Dao?

He would walk a path entirely different from theirs.

"Then start from the simplest First-Rank Great Array—figure out how to learn it, and set up your first First-Rank Great Array to slay a Daoic scourge and protect the peace of a Xiancheng!"

The lone cultivators' fate is bitter…

But now, all of it had turned to dust.

All of it felt like a dream.

Mo Hua froze. "Ten thousand… all for me?"

Xiancheng nodded. "These are for your Foundation Establishment."

"You have a better future ahead—learn more array techniques, and in time you'll be able to do more. There's no need to follow them into hardship."

……

And you shouldn't mix with those wealthy lone cultivators—that's no way out.

Mo Hua shook his head. "There's already too much."

"What is your Dao heart?"

The dream is over—we must leave our homeland. Elder Yu may no longer exist.

You could choose a Zuhuoshi Sect, or even Dao Ting Si or Dao Bing Si, to seek refuge, cultivate peacefully until Foundation Establishment, then aspire to Jin Dan, and gradually learn deeper array techniques, seeking higher realms…

You changed some things, but in the end, it seemed nothing had truly changed.

He was a Foundation Establishment cultivator—he could have escaped.

Xiao Hu and the seven others who grew up with Mo Hua, Xiao Zhu who once fought for him, and Xiao Ping his familiar friend—all were leaving with their parents…

The lone cultivators' future was full of thorns; his own future was blooming with flowers.

"Oh, by the way," Xiancheng remembered something and handed Mo Hua a jade tablet:

He worried that during the migration, without alchemists to tend to them, many would die from poisonous mists and injuries, so he decided to go along—others couldn't dissuade him, and no one dared to try.

Watching Mo Hua's retreating figure, Xin Youhao felt reluctant, but could only sigh helplessly.

Mo Hua had helped them too much already—they couldn't burden this child any longer.

"I should've given you more—without your arrays, Elder Yu's lone cultivators wouldn't have lived well, and Great Baishan Stockade wouldn't have been eliminated. But now that we're migrating, spirit stone consumption has increased, so I can only give you this much…"

"If this continues, won't you grow numb and cold?"

If there is a Great Array, then the Heavenly Dao Great Array is the ultimate Great Array.

Xin Youhao sighed deeply, his expression bitter.

"You'd better not go."

It was like waking from a dream.

"What is the Dao you seek?"

They would all leave Elder Yu, walk down an unknown path, arrive at a familiar place, and once again live a life of hardship.

"If... you go too." Mo Hua said.

……

Mo Hua held the jade tablet, and for some reason felt no guilt at all.

Tong Xiancheng looked at Mo Hua, his expression apologetic:

Mo Hua could not help but question himself again.

His divine sense had no bottleneck, and he had enough spirit stones — in the not-too-distant future, he would be able to reach Foundation Establishment.

Mo Hua took the jade tablet, feeling it was very heavy. Just as he was about to say something, Tong Xiancheng interrupted him again:

"We're relocating the city, not building one. Even when we get there, it'll all be wasteland — we won't need his formations for the time being."

Elder Yu sighed helplessly and nodded. "Such large refining halls and pill halls — we can't take them with us..."

Tong Xiancheng, Uncle Yu Chengyi and Uncle Yu Chengwu, and other familiar demon-hunting uncles and elder uncles;

"Will one forget one's original intention, lose one's true heart, extinguish one's Dao heart, and thus completely become a selfish, self-serving person?"

A small palm, seemingly about to grasp the entire firmament.

Xin Youhao nodded and said: "I've already contacted Zhou Zhangsi. The refining furnaces and pill furnaces here — the formations he drew on them are all good things. The Dao Ting Si will convert them into spirit stones and compensate you. After all, with the city relocation and pioneering ahead, spirit stones are the hard currency."

Mo Hua understood Tong Xiancheng's intentions and, for a moment, could not speak.

He ought to go to a broader world, learn profound formations, and seek a more far-reaching Heavenly Dao.

Tong Xiancheng was stubborn by nature; Mo Hua knew he could not win against him.

Mo Hua turned his head, glanced once more at the enormous refining hall and pill hall, and said with some dejection:

Wiping out the Great Baishan stronghold, removing the threat of the evil cultivators, even digging up the roots and dragging out the Qian family ancestor, completely eliminating the great worry in his heart — that was yet another dream.

His parents would probably stay by his side, but the others — those people Mo Hua knew;

Mo Hua's eyes gradually brightened.

For any disaster, the upper-level cultivators always had a way to escape.

Originally, everything was developing in a good direction; originally, their days could have gotten better and better...

He lay in the courtyard, reaching his hand toward the sky.

In the end, it was still the bottom-level cultivators who faced all the difficulties head-on and bore all the suffering.

Old Mr. Feng was advanced in years and held high moral prestige. After so many years of refining pills and saving people, many people remembered his kindness, so naturally he had other paths as well;

Mo Hua's heart suddenly cleared, his expression gradually brightened, his gaze brilliant as the stars.

Xin Youhao glared at him exasperatedly: "What are you butting in for? Even if you go, you can't change anything. The most important thing for you is to study formations well — not to suffer alongside us."

People who grew up with Mo Hua, or who watched Mo Hua grow up;

Uncle Ji's family, Uncle Meng's family, Uncle Chu's family;

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Mo Hua went to see Elder Yu again.

Mo Hua said softly: "This journey will be safe, right..."

But was this truly what he wanted?

The matter of Wu Xiaoyao happened to be an opportunity.

Master Chen of the refining hall had no sons or daughters, and would also follow along in the relocation;

Tong Xiancheng patted his shoulder. "No matter how you choose, you only need to hold your chest high and do it upright and proper — you owe nothing to anyone!"

The sky was high and distant, the clouds vast and boundless, as if containing inexhaustible vitality and principle.

Mo Hua silently pondered.

If there is a Dao, then Heaven is the manifestation of the Dao.

Capturing the spirit mine, building refining halls and pill halls, letting loose cultivators live in plenty — it all seemed like a dream.

"I cannot lay down this kind of heaven-reaching, earth-spanning great formation, using the laws of Heaven to balance the cultivators of the world, so that the cultivation world may flourish and endure without end."

Xin Youhao turned his head again, glanced at the empty refining hall and pill hall, and felt a sudden daze in his heart.

"Are we selling them?"

Elder Yu had also been busy day and night these past few days, looking somewhat weary. Seeing Mo Hua, he spoke directly:

If one's Dao heart is lost, even with success and fame, can one truly seek immortality?

"Are these to be abandoned too?"

People Mo Hua had helped, and who had protected Mo Hua.

Thanks to the book friend and Daily Death Wish Log for the tips~