Chapter 423: Disappeared

The mine shaft shows strange signs; we cannot stay long.

Mo Hua and the others left the mine and went to Nanyue City, found a place, and rested for a while.

Wang Lai was covered in wounds, looking miserable, but still breathing.

Mo Hua woke him up and, while they had time, asked him some more questions.

When dawn began to break and no more information could be extracted, Mo Hua handed Wang Lai over to Situ Fang.

He also recounted everything Wang Lai and these hooligans had done.

Lao Yu Tou and the other three served as witnesses.

Upon hearing this, Situ Fang was both shocked and furious.

She never imagined these hooligans like Wang Lai could actually commit such heinous acts.

Killing people for spirit stones, then fraudulently claiming compensation.

Situ Fang's delicate eyebrows rose in anger and said:

"Leave the rest to me—I'll take Wang Lai straight to the Dao Prison, interrogate him for accomplices, then net them all!"

"What about the Dao Ting Si… will there be problems?" Mo Hua asked.

The Dao Ting Si in Nanyue City differs from that in Tongxian City; its waters are murky, and the Zhou Zhangsi isn't necessarily a good person.

Situ Fang frowned, pondered for a moment, and sighed:

"I'll be careful—I'll follow procedure exactly. The Zhou Zhangsi shouldn't be able to object."

Mo Hua nodded and said, "Alright, Situ sister, be careful."

"Don't worry."

Situ Fang nodded, glanced at Mo Hua and the other three, and said with feeling:

"This time, we truly owe you."

Mo Hua waved his hand. "It's nothing—just a small favor."

Situ Fang patted Mo Hua's shoulder. "I'll treat you to a meal another day."

Then she took Wang Lai away.

Lao Yu Tou and the other three bowed repeatedly to Mo Hua, thanking him profusely.

"Thank you, young lords! Thank you!"

"Thank you, our savior!"

Mo Hua said, "No need to thank me—go home, rest, and heal."

The three bowed deeply again, then returned, overwhelmed with relief after narrowly escaping death.

They had almost died in the mine.

They had almost been forever separated from their families…

After Lao Yu Tou and the others left, Bai Zisheng asked Mo Hua:

"What now?"

Mo Hua thought for a moment and said, "I'm going back to the mine."

Bai Zisheng was startled. "Are you mad? Going back to die?"

Mo Hua pointed to the sky.

The sun blazed high above.

Bai Zisheng then realized it was already daytime.

Even if the mine shaft "haunted," it only happened at midnight.

"What are you going to do at the mine shaft now?" Bai Zisheng asked.

Mo Hua's gaze grew deep. "I want to see what happened to those hooligans' corpses…"

Bai Zisheng's expression also turned solemn. "Then let's go together."

Mo Hua shook his head. "No—I'll go alone. You don't know concealment techniques. Even though your cloaks have concealment arrays, these arrays are incomplete; they work fine at night, but during the day, faint traces remain, easily spotted."

Bai Zisheng didn't care. "So what if they spot us? It's no big deal…"

No one in this mine could stop him.

But Mo Hua said, "This mine belongs to the Lu family. During daylight, there might be a Foundation Establishment cultivator stationed there. If they spot us, even if we escape, we'll alert them and expose our trail…"

"Once the Lu family becomes wary, it'll be much harder for us to investigate further."

Bai Zisheng said, "If you go alone and encounter a Foundation Establishment cultivator, won't you be in equal danger?"

Mo Hua shook his head. "The Lu family's Foundation Establishment cultivators won't detect me."

He knew concealment techniques, had concealment arrays, and possessed Nascent Soul-level twelve纹 spiritual sense—impossible for the Lu family's Foundation Establishment cultivators to spot him.

"Oh, right."

Bai Zisheng nodded, but still looked worried.

Bai Zi Xi said, "You go in alone—we'll wait outside to cover you."

Mo Hua was about to object, but Bai Zi Xi gave him a cool glance and said softly:

"I'm your senior sister."

Mo Hua had no choice but to agree.

So after a brief rest, they set out again and returned to the Lu family mine.

The sky was now fully bright, filled with morning glow.

The mine had resumed operations.

Mine cultivators arrived one after another, enduring the heat, gripping their mining picks, striking the ore again and again.

The mine was once again noisy and bustling, utterly devoid of the night's eerie stillness.

Mo Hua concealed his form and walked boldly into the mine.

Inside the mine, a Lu family elder—a Foundation Establishment cultivator—sat idly sipping tea, watching the miners toil.

Beside him stood a pretty maid fanning him.

Mo Hua walked past him calmly.

The elder noticed nothing; his eyes darted greedily over the maid's slender figure.

The elder's pitiful demeanor made Mo Hua shake his head.

Mo Hua passed through the crowd, entered the mine shaft, and walked deep inside to the place where Wang Lai had failed to kill someone last night.

The surroundings were empty—no miners anywhere.

No trace of anyone remained.

The several ruffians Mo Hua had left here last night had also vanished.

There were no miners because this was the deep, remote, and quiet part of the shaft, with no ore to mine, so miners rarely came here.

But what of those ruffians?

Dead? Reduced to dust?

They had committed many evils; if they were dead and gone, it mattered little.

But Mo Hua wanted to know how they had died…

Mo Hua released his spiritual sense, perceiving everything around him in the pale white vision.

The rock walls were cold, a faint black-gray.

There was faint, weak blood qi here—left over from last night, nearly dissipated.

Among the many traces of blood qi, some were mixed with pitch-black death qi, winding along the ground and stretching along the rock walls into the distance.

Mo Hua silently opened his eyes, locking his spiritual sense onto this trail of blood qi, walking step by step along the rock wall.

After a cup of tea's walk, the blood qi ended.

Before him stood a rock wall.

A sweep of Mo Hua's spiritual sense revealed a formation painted onto the wall.

Behind the wall must lie the mine tunnel the Lu family had dug.

Mo Hua's gaze sharpened.

"From the traces… these ruffians were dragged—straight into the mine tunnel…"

What had happened inside the tunnel, Mo Hua did not know.

But most likely, these ruffians, like the five missing miners, had been eaten by something…

Mo Hua hesitated, considering unraveling the formation to enter the tunnel and investigate.

But as soon as he raised his brush, he stopped.

His spiritual sense stirred slightly; he calculated for a moment, then slowly lowered his brush.

"It's… been reinforced…"

Not only had the rock wall grown stronger, but layers upon layers of alert formations had been painted inside.

Mo Hua could unravel these formations—but he wasn't sure whether unraveling them would trigger disturbances and alert the Lu family cultivators.

Or perhaps the Lu family had deliberately painted these formations to lure him in?

Mo Hua weighed his options and decided it was better not to risk it.

If the Lu family trapped him inside the mine shaft, it would be bad.

Mo Hua sighed and turned to leave, yet a cloud of suspicion settled over his heart.

What purpose did the Lu family serve by building these tunnels inside the mine?

What secrets lay within these tunnels…

As Mo Hua left, frowning, he eavesdropped on the nearby miners' conversations.

But he heard nothing useful.

Moreover, none of the miners nearby had noticed the ruffians.

The ruffians had simply vanished—like the five miners—disappearing into the mine shaft…

…

After leaving the mine, Mo Hua met up with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zi Xi.

"Did you find anything?" Bai Zi Xi asked.

Mo Hua told them about the ruffians.

Bai Zisheng snorted. "Served them right!"

Then he frowned. "Is the Lu family doing something illicit?"

Mo Hua shook his head. "Not clear yet."

"If not the Lu family, then someone else?"

"Didn't Wang Lai say there was a gray-robed cultivator?"

Mo Hua nodded. "At this point, we can only pursue the gray-robed cultivator."

The three turned back.

On the way, Mo Hua's expression remained gloomy.

Bai Zi Xi asked, "What's wrong?"

Mo Hua sighed. "I'm worried about Teacher Yan…"

"Sister Situ said Teacher Yan entered the mine and vanished—no one has seen him since…"

"I fear he may have been harmed by Wang Lai and the others…"

Bai Zisheng nodded without thinking, "It's possible…"

Mo Hua grew even more worried upon hearing this, his little brows furrowing as well.

Bai Zixi gave her elder brother a light glare, then said gently to Mo Hua:

"Fortune favors the good; Mr. Yan may not have met with misfortune."

Bai Zisheng realized he had misspoken, scratched his head, and laughed sheepishly:

"I was just talking off the top of my head, don't take it to heart. It's also possible that Mr. Yan discovered some other clue, so he left South Yue City to investigate on his own."

Mo Hua knew his senior brother and senior sister were just comforting him. Though he felt their words didn't make much sense, he still felt a little better inside.

"Hopefully Instructor Yan is favored by heaven…"

Mo Hua sighed softly.

Seeing that Mo Hua was a bit unhappy, Bai Zisheng changed the subject:

"That gray-robed cultivator—should we investigate him?"

Mo Hua nodded. "We should."

No transaction, no killing.

It was that gray-robed cultivator who wanted to buy corpses, so he had incited Wang Lai and the others to kill the mine cultivators.

The root of it all lies with that gray-robed cultivator.

Even if Wang Lai is removed, there will still be Zhao Lai, Qian Lai, Li Lai…

As long as the gray-robed cultivator is still around, naturally there will be other cultivators who, for spirit stones, kill mine cultivators and sell their corpses.

To rid of evil, one must be thorough—cutting the grass requires removing the root.

Bai Zisheng nodded repeatedly as well.

Then a question occurred to him: "Wang Lai said he met up with that gray-robed cultivator at a brothel, so…"

Bai Zisheng asked with a solemn expression:

"Are we going to a brothel?"

This question stumped Mo Hua as well.

Thanks to readers Jing Di, Today Is Not My Shift, and Nan Qilian for their tips~

(End of chapter)