Chapter 586: Mr. Tu

Qianzhou, a certain forbidden zone.

Beneath the ground, a secret chamber, dark and sinister.

Inside the chamber stood an altar, upon which rested a massive, bone-white skull—human-faced, with goat horns, jagged fangs, and splattered with bloodstains.

Mr. Tu knelt before the skull.

His face was pale, tinged with a greenish glow; his fingers, long and slender, looked as if soaked too long in blood, cracked and stained crimson.

Mr. Tu's pupils were hollow, as if parasitized; his voice, hoarse, muttered incessantly—sometimes as if speaking to someone, sometimes as if to himself:

"That man is dead, his Dao bone stripped; the Gates of Guixu will open sooner or later…"

"The living will die; the dead will live…"

"The ten-thousand-year plan is about to make its move…"

"Everything was calculated…"

"That child… must be obtained. Goodness is the breeding ground of evil; his blood, his flesh, his mind sea, are the finest offerings; his spiritual awareness, the perfect 'Divine Embryo'…"

"But… he was 'stolen' away…"

Mr. Tu's numb expression suddenly twisted in pain and fury, blood seeping from his eyes.

As if rebuked, he felt fear, shame, and hatred.

"It's not my fault, it's not my fault…"

He trembled as he spoke, and after a long while calmed himself to continue:

"The child is gone, no one knows where—he's vanished; to find him now is like searching the sea for a needle, the heavenly patterns obscured…"

"But that child has a mother… and a father too…"

"We can make another…"

"The Four Symbols Demon Array, the Feathered Embryo, karmic corruption—if his mother leaves Qingzhou City, we can scramble the heavenly patterns and capture her…"

"This act will enrage the Dao Court, offend the Shangguan and Wen families, and destroy our thousand-year scheme, wiping out the demons of Qianzhou…"

"But…"

"To die for the Divine Master is their honor."

"As long as we seize the child's mother, all is worth it…"

"With her, we can control Shangguan Yi…"

Mr. Tu sneered.

"Shangguan Ce is deep-minded, cold, and calculating—but every sip and bite, his son is deeply attached; his weakness is obvious, easy to grasp…"

"…Force them to have another child."

"This child, bearing the pure bloodlines of Shangguan and Wen, will be in our hands from birth—the perfect substitute."

"But…"

Mr. Tu coughed up a mouthful of blood, "…we miscalculated again…"

"Someone has disrupted our karmic threads!"

Mr. Tu roared in fury.

His eyes suddenly turned crimson, his voice sharpening into a shrill, mad wail, no longer human: "Who? Who?!"

The inhuman voice echoed through the chamber.

After a long while, Mr. Tu coughed a few times, then spoke calmly again:

"I don't know…"

"I cannot calculate it…"

"No," Mr. Tu gritted his teeth, "I dare not calculate it…"

"I saw a vast, blank fog obscuring the heavenly patterns; I saw endless mountains of corpses, oceans of the dead; I saw a pair of blood-red, cruel eyes; I saw the abyss of exploitation; I saw the corruption of the Dao itself…"

"This is the aura of Dao Corruption…"

"I…"

Mr. Tu's eyes filled with terror, his teeth chattering, "I… dare not calculate it…"

"I'll be corrupted…"

"I dare not…"

Mr. Tu shuddered violently, banging his head against the ground until his forehead was drenched in blood, muttering over and over, "I dare not…"

But moments later, blood seeped from the human-faced goat skull.

A malevolent thought flooded into Mr. Tu's mind sea.

Mr. Tu instantly regained clarity; his gaze gradually steadied.

"Yes… that's right."

"This cannot be…"

Mr. Tu murmured: "This… cannot be true. Dao Corruption is merely an illusion, a trick to obscure the heavenly patterns."

"If the true cultivator who nurtures Dao Corruption were here… I would already be dead."

"This man is a fraud…"

"He deceived me."

"Who is he?"

Mr. Tu frowned, asking and answering himself:

"I once wore a 'human skin' and personally visited that eatery… my array was broken, leaving traces—but the method of dismantling it was clumsy, unskilled…"

"He must have done it on purpose…"

"He's mocking me, deceiving me!"

"Clumsy, unskilled hands—these cannot unravel the array. Someone who can unravel the array would never be this unskilled..."

"This person... has deep scheming, is sinister, and cunning..."

"He is an extremely skilled array master..."

"He must also be an ancient monster..."

"What might he look like..."

Mr. Tu began sketching this person's image in his mind...

Middle-aged or older, perhaps an elder with centuries of cultivation, hawk-like nose, deep nasolabial folds, piercing eyes with inner brilliance, likely outwardly gentle, but when he smiles, his expression is soft yet venomous...

Mr. Tu felt this was more or less accurate.

He took a deep breath, his gaze filled with malice.

"Thwarting my Divine Lord's grand plan..."

"One day, I will drag this person out..."

"I will offer his flesh and blood as the three sacrificial offerings to feed the demons; I will present his living soul as a sacrifice to worship the Divine Lord..."

"I will condemn him to eternal torment in the wilderness's hell, never to be reborn..."

"Let him know—the Divine Lord's majesty cannot be defied; the master of the Great Wilds is immortal and indestructible!"

Mr. Tu's expression was fanatical, fearless...

And Mo Hua, who always "ate people," did not know someone else wanted to make him a sacrificial offering to "consume."

He was eating right now.

And what he ate was true "mountain delicacies and sea treasures."

To thank Mo Hua, Xu Wanyi treated him to a huge, huge meal at the largest and most expensive dining hall in Qingzhou City!

Mo Hua had never seen so many ornate, incomprehensible, yet clearly extremely expensive dishes.

The entire table was full of dishes—he didn't recognize a single one.

Because they were so expensive, the taste in his mouth felt strangely peculiar.

Mo Hua couldn't tell if they were delicious or not.

He only felt he was chewing on "spirit stones," not food...

But fortunately, he wasn't picky, and he ate happily.

Shangguan Yu sat beside Mo Hua; though not hungry, seeing Mo Hua enjoy his meal, he imitated a little scholar, eating whatever Mo Hua ate.

Xu Wanyi watched Shangguan Yu without blinking, afraid that if she looked away, her child would vanish again.

Even now, she felt as if it were a dream.

She had merely clung to a sliver of hope in utter despair, but never expected that after stepping out once, she truly found the child she had longed for day and night.

Xu Wanyi found it unbelievable.

And Shangguan Yu was even more incredulous.

Hearing that Shangguan Yu had been found, he rushed over immediately; upon actually seeing him, he was both delighted and stunned, deeply confused, muttering only:

"This can't be..."

It defies heavenly fate, contradicts cause and effect—this should not, and could not, be the case...

Xu Wanyi gave him no good look.

Shangguan Yu was sensible enough and didn't stay long.

With mother and child safe, the stone in his heart had settled; as for his wife, he would soothe her gradually later.

Shangguan Yu thanked Mo Hua and said: "Young friend, if you ever need anything in the future, just speak up—the Shangguan family..."

"Not interested," Xu Wanyi said coldly. "Leave quickly. Your presence here kills my appetite."

Shangguan Yu smiled bitterly and left reluctantly, but before departing, he cast a thoughtful glance at Mo Hua, as if pondering something.

Besides Shangguan Yu, Mo Hua also met a Mr. Gu.

Extremely handsome, holding a paper fan, elegant and free-spirited, yet with an air of arrogance.

Xu Wanyi said: "This is my cousin, surnamed Gu, named Changhuai."

Mo Hua politely said: "Hello, Uncle Gu."

Gu Changhuai was greatly surprised, but said only words of gratitude, asked nothing further, stayed a while, then took his leave.

When he left, he also glanced at Mo Hua.

In his haughty gaze lay deep suspicion.

Mo Hua quietly asked Xu Wanyi: "Auntie Wan, is this Uncle Gu unpopular? His gaze is strange..."

Xu Wanyi paused, then couldn't help laughing.

"Don't mind him—Changhuai has a good heart, he's just young and reckless, a bit aloof."

"And since this is his first time meeting you, he's naturally uneasy, so his manner seems cold—don't take it to heart."

"Mm-hmm." Mo Hua nodded.

"By the way," Mo Hua asked again, "that uncle who was very handsome and gentle—was he Yu'er's father?"

Xu Wanyi looked disdainful. "Yes..."

She briefly explained Yu'er's identity to Mo Hua.

Yu'er was the child of a marriage between the Shangguan and Wen families, possessing the most direct bloodlines of both clans, so his full name was "Shangguan Yu."

Mo Hua ate what seemed like a chicken leg, though he didn't know what spirit beast or flying creature it was, his expression calm, even somewhat bewildered.

"Do you know the Wen family?" Xu Wanyi asked.

Mo Hua shook his head.

What about the Shangguan family?

Mo Hua still shook his head.

He came from a small place like Tong Xiancheng and knew almost nothing about the prominent families of Qianzhou.

The Qianzhou map he obtained had marked a few families, but Mo Hua hadn't paid much attention to them…

His attention was entirely on the major sects within Qianzhou's borders.

Besides, these families were a mess.

One had deep roots, another had a storied past, their power was immense, their history spanned thousands—even ten thousand—years…

Mo Hua couldn't tell who was who.

Wen Renwan was slightly surprised; she hadn't expected Mo Hua to truly know nothing.

"You… aren't a cultivator from Qianzhou, are you…"

Wen Renwan asked gently.

"Yes," Mo Hua nodded. "I'm a lone cultivator. My home is in Lizhou. I come from a second-rank small Xiancheng. My parents are both Qi Condensation…"

Wen Renwan opened her mouth, even more astonished. "Then… how did you end up in Qianzhou?"

"I came to study!"

"You came alone?"

"Yes. My parents are both very busy, and they're only Qi Condensation. The journey is too dangerous—I didn't trust them to come with me, so I came alone…"

Wen Renwan didn't know what to say; she felt the child's words might be backwards…

Then she silently sighed, her heart filled with emotion.

No wonder they say children of the poor grow up early.

From Lizhou to Qianzhou—the journey is so far, traveling alone, braving mountains and rivers, enduring wind and dew, facing beastlings and all kinds of treacherous cultivators…

This isn't just about cultivation level—it demands rich experience, extraordinary resilience, unwavering perseverance, and indomitable determination…

Yet Mo Hua looked no older than ten or eleven.

At his age, the scions of prominent families still train carefree, ignorant of the world's hardships and the malice of men…

Wen Renwan looked at Mo Hua and felt an unexpected pang of sympathy.

She told Yu'er: "You must learn a lot from your Mo brother from now on…"

"Mm-hmm!" Yu'er nodded vigorously.

Wen Renwan affectionately stroked Yu'er's head, then suddenly felt puzzled. She looked at Mo Hua, hesitated a moment, then asked:

"Then… how did you save Yu'er?"

Mo Hua was Yu'er's savior; out of politeness, Wen Renwan hadn't probed deeply with her spiritual sense.

But from appearances, Mo Hua was merely Foundation Establishment.

His blood qi was weak, his spiritual energy unimpressive, he was a lone cultivator from a poor background, and he didn't seem to possess any good spiritual artifacts.

Even if he had a top-grade spiritual artifact, his spiritual energy likely couldn't unleash its full power.

How could such a young cultivator have rescued his Yu'er?

He couldn't possibly have killed over a dozen human traffickers by himself…

Mo Hua blushed and said, "I was just lucky—I happened to pass by and saw that all those traffickers were already dead. Yu'er was locked in a crate, so I 'picked' him up and brought him to Qingzhou City…"

Mo Hua gave the same story again.

He was just a kind passerby, a good-natured older brother.

He'd gotten a little lucky.

The traffickers' deaths had nothing to do with him.

Wen Renwan was taken aback, yet couldn't help feeling suspicious.

Everything was too coincidental…

How could human traffickers die for no reason?

And how could he just happen to find Yu'er?

Something was off…

Seeing Wen Renwan didn't believe him, Mo Hua thought for a moment, sighed, and showed a look of "fearful relief":

"Come to think of it, this is all because Yu'er has great fortune and divine protection."

"If I'd been less lucky and hadn't found him, and someone else had taken him instead, it would've been disastrous…"

Wen Renwan's heart jolted.

That's right!

If some other cultivator with ulterior motives or sinister intent had "picked" him up, Yu'er would've been in grave danger!

She pondered further, and the more she thought, the more reasonable Mo Hua's words seemed.

Shangguan Yi had told her earlier that Yu'er had been manipulated by a high-level schemer, abducted and moved around, with no chance of escape…

But human plans can't match the will of heaven.

By sheer chance, Yu'er was rescued by this child, Mo Hua.

Doesn't that prove Yu'er has deep fortune and excellent destiny?

Which mother doesn't hope her child has deep fortune?

Wen Renwan felt comforted.

Of course, this child Mo Hua also had good fortune.

But if Mo Hua had good fortune, shouldn't she be grateful?

If he hadn't been so lucky, he wouldn't have saved Yu'er—she might never have seen Yu'er again…

The more Wenren Wanyi thought about it, the more sense it made, and she couldn't help but nod.

Mo Hua is right!

Yu'er just has good fortune!

Since Yu'er can have good fortune, why can't this child Mo Hua have good luck?

A lucky child saving a fortunate child — what could be the problem?

Thinking of this, Wenren Wanyi felt convinced, believing it seventy or eighty percent, and the more she looked at Mo Hua, the more she liked him, and the more grateful she felt in her heart. She said sincerely:

"Mo Hua, you have done a great kindness for both the Shangguan and Wenren families. What do you want?"

Mo Hua was taken aback, and actually felt a little embarrassed.

He had saved Yu'er on a whim in the first place; now asking for a reward seemed a bit like… leveraging a favor for personal gain?

Besides, he quite liked Yu'er too.

Auntie Wenren was also very good to him, and had even treated him to nice things.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, decided to forget about a reward, and just let them help with a small favor.

"Auntie Xu, can you send me to Qiandao Sect?"

Although this place was within the borders of Qianxue Prefecture, it was on the edge of the prefecture, and Qianxue Prefecture was a fifth-rank prefecture with an extremely vast territory. Going there on his own would still take some time.

If he missed the timing and delayed, and couldn't join the sect, that would be bad.

Wenren Wanyi misunderstood, and said with some shame and some difficulty:

"Qiandao Sect is one of the 'Sida Sect'. Its threshold is extremely high. Relying on the Wenren family's connections, I'm afraid it would be rather difficult…"

Mo Hua was taken aback, then shook his head and said: "Auntie Xu, just send me there…"

Wenren Wanyi was puzzled. "Send you there?"

"Mm."

Mo Hua thought for a moment. Yu'er was kind-hearted, Auntie Xu was also a good person, and the Wenren family was a great clan. It seemed there was no need to hide it, so he continued:

"I have a Ru Sect token…"

Wenren Wanyi was stunned, and said in a trembling voice: "A Ru Sect token… from Qiandao Sect?!"

Still working hard on it, there will be another chapter later

I'll post it as soon as I'm done.

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