Chapter 735: Report

"Dare to steal my pig?"

Mo Hua's voice was crisp, tinged with faint disdain.

The Duanjin Gate senior knelt before him, filled with humiliation.

He had been blasted by arrays, slashed by blades and axes, and poisoned—his body was covered in wounds.

But he was still at Foundation Establishment late stage, his roots strong; though grievously injured, it wasn't fatal.

Moreover, his bones were still hard, and he continued to curse:

"You little beasts!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Mo swung a massive palm across his face.

Blood trickled from the Duanjin Gate senior's lip; his gaze was venomous, yet his mouth remained defiant, teeth gritted:

"Today I'm a tiger fallen to the plains, caught by you brats—I admit defeat! But this debt, I will collect back. You'll regret it."

Mo Hua raised an eyebrow.

Bones this hard?

He asked, "Aren't you afraid we'll kill you?"

Just teach him a lesson is enough.

Indeed…

The Duanjin Gate senior's chest tightened, his face twitched, yet he still wore a defiant sneer.

"This humiliation, I will make you pay a hundredfold!"

He really couldn't kill him.

Mo Hua fell into silent thought.

What's there to be proud of, kneeling on the ground?

"If Duanjin Gate were truly powerful, you wouldn't be kneeling before me now."

Mo Hua paused, suddenly understanding.

If he were a criminal cultivator, a demonic cultivator, or a dark cultivator, fine—but he's from Duanjin Gate, a disciple of one of the Twelve Streams Sects in Qianxue Province, and hasn't committed any grave offense explicitly forbidden by Daoist law. If we kill him, Duanjin Gate will surely come demanding justice.

The Duanjin Gate senior was furious but powerless to resist, forced to endure Cheng Mo's arbitrary actions, his face flushed with shame and hatred:

"I won't let you go!"

Mo Hua asked, "Should we kill him?"

Mo Hua nodded. "Strip him naked, hang him from a tree, and draw a turtle on his body."

"You stole it, then got it stolen back; even after being stolen back, you couldn't fight back—and now you're on your knees?"

The Duanjin Gate senior sneered, "You won't dare kill me."

Mo Hua raised an eyebrow, deciding to show him with action whether he dared or not.

Cheng Mo couldn't stand his smugness and said:

"Little brother, really not killing him?"

Mo Hua sneered, utterly dismissive.

The Duanjin Gate senior's eyes flared red: "You're treacherous and despicable, ambushing us! Otherwise, I'd never have…"

Seeing this, the Duanjin Gate senior became even more certain Mo Hua wouldn't kill him, his expression growing bolder.

Cheng Mo shook his head.

I may be reckless, but I'm not stupid.

"Kid, I'll warn you once: don't offend Duanjin Gate—you have no idea how powerful we are!"

Though Lianyao Mountain is filled with demonic beasts and perilous terrain, it's not lawless land.

The Duanjin Gate senior immediately choked on rage and spat out blood.

"Besides, if it comes to treachery, we're no worse than Duanjin Gate…"

If we truly killed him, we'd invite major trouble—Duanjin Gate, Grand Void Gate, Dao Ting Si, even our own Cheng family wouldn't let it slide.

"Using your numbers to shamelessly steal a lower-grade disciple's demonic beast."

Moreover, this is Lianyao Mountain.

Cheng Mo didn't hesitate—he immediately acted, stripping the Duanjin Gate senior's Dao robe, binding him with spirit-binding ropes, and preparing to hang him from a tree.

Dao Ting Si wouldn't stand idly by.

"Kneeling's one thing—but stripped naked, hung from a tree, with a turtle drawn on your body…"

"Got it!"

Mo Hua was speechless. "You think this is child's play? 'Treacherous and despicable'? You're grown men, acting this childish—your Dao cultivation's gone straight to the dogs…"

"Do you eat only to grow your head, not your brain?"

This humiliation is worse than killing him!

"You little turtle, dare you?!" the Duanjin Gate senior roared.

He was just asking.

Mo Hua kindly said, "Then next time, be more careful. If you're this useless again and fall into our hands, I'll make you kneel a hundred times—and draw a hundred turtles on you."

Mo Hua sighed. "I admit, I overestimated Duanjin Gate's disciples."

"Bind him, hang him, draw a turtle."

The Duanjin Gate senior froze, then his expression shattered.

"All the tricks I prepared—and you're even worse than the pig I killed before…"

Hao Xuan warned, "Stop talking, little brother, or you'll make him die of rage."

Don't let the knives and axes fail to kill him—only for your words to finish him off.

Dao Ting Si investigated, and we couldn't explain it clearly either.

"Oh."

Mo Hua glanced at the Duanjin Gate senior brother, hanging from a tree, face pale, chest tight, breathing in but barely breathing out, before finally falling silent.

But Mo Hua still kept his promise, dipped his brush in spirit ink, and painted a turtle on the man's chest.

The turtle was painted with remarkable realism.

Mo Hua was very satisfied.

The Duanjin Gate senior brother rolled his eyes back and fainted from rage.

"Is he dead?" Sister Situ asked.

Mo Hua sensed his breath and said, "He's still alive."

"Good he's not dead."

"Clean up, let's leave."

"Alright!"

Then the group swiftly began looting the storage bags—but halfway through, they suddenly realized a problem:

"Can we even take the storage bags?"

"Seems like we can't…"

Sister Situ mused, "We've beaten Duanjin Gate disciples; Duanjin Gate is stingy, so they'll resent us, but that's fine."

"But if we take their storage bags, that's pillaging cultivators—it'd sound terrible if word got out."

"Besides, if their storage bags contain Duanjin Gate's lineage teachings, like the Duanjin Yu Jian Jue, and we take them, Duanjin Gate will surely blame us…"

"If Duanjin Gate, shameless as they are, insists we stole their sect's core sword art, that'd be a real problem…"

The group discussed it.

"Exactly, exactly!"

Guilty, Mo Hua nodded vigorously.

Because he had indeed stolen Duanjin Gate's core sword art.

The jade slip of the Duanjin Yu Jian Jue now lay in his Na Zi Ring…

They must never find out.

Mo Hua said, "We're all upright people—we don't rob or plunder. We only take back what's ours."

"If others don't provoke us, we won't provoke them."

"But if they provoke us, we strip them, hang them on trees, and paint turtles on them!"

Cheng Mo and the others all nodded. "Senior Brother is right!"

Afterwards, the group gathered all the materials from the Pig-Head Demon, but returned every Duanjin Gate disciple's storage bag to its owner.

Once everything was settled, while night had not yet deepened, Mo Hua and the others left Lian Yao Mountain.

As for whether Duanjin Gate disciples would later be eaten by beasts—

Mo Hua didn't care.

After all, he didn't kill them; if beasts ate them, it was their own fault.

Still, Mo Hua was kind-hearted—he gave each of them a healing pill before leaving, just in case they truly died.

After Mo Hua left, some time passed, the medicine took effect, the Duanjin Gate disciples' injuries improved, and they gradually regained consciousness.

Then they saw their once-revered, "wise and mighty" senior brother, stripped naked and hung from a tree, a turtle painted on his chest, looking exactly like a clown.

All the disciples froze.

"Senior Brother, you…"

The Duanjin Gate senior brother woke up, furious: "Get me down right now?!"

The disciples scrambled to untie him.

"Senior Brother, who did this to you?"

"I just felt dizzy, went black, and passed out—I saw nothing…"

"I only felt shadows upon shadows—were we attacked by many people?"

Someone looked solemn: "Even Senior Jin couldn't stand against them, and was humiliated like this—the enemy must have at least one late Foundation Establishment cultivator…"

"Senior Jin…"

"Shut the hell up, all of you!"

The Duanjin Gate senior brother named Jin roared.

Their words stabbed him like knives in the chest.

He felt only humiliation and rage, his chest constricted, and he couldn't stop spitting out blood.

Night had deepened; the forest was desolate, with occasional beast roars.

The atmosphere in the mountains grew increasingly dangerous.

"Let's return first—this debt must be repaid!"

The Duanjin Gate senior brother's eyes brimmed with malice.

The other disciples dared not speak, supporting each other as they walked down the mountain.

After they all left, from the dark slope, Elder Xun Ziyou slowly stepped out of the shadows and sighed deeply.

He didn't need to intervene.

A late Foundation Establishment senior brother from Duanjin Gate, accompanied by seven mid-Foundation Establishment disciples, had been thoroughly dealt with.

Though the methods were harsh, they were restrained—no one was killed.

But where did this child learn such tactics?

He looks so clean and sweet, so well-behaved—yet when it comes to action, he's sly and cunning, full of mischief…

Elder Xun Ziyou shook his head, then thought to himself:

"But this is better—he's not the type to be bullied. If he's truly wronged, he doesn't need the sect elders to intervene; he can handle it himself…"

That's rare indeed.

He acts with inner integrity and outer flexibility—upholding principles while being "unscrupulous"; observing rules without binding his own hands…

Suddenly, Elder Xun Ziyou felt a pang of melancholy, lost in thought.

"Brother Xuan, back then, had extraordinary talent and an upright nature—but perhaps precisely because he was too upright, he broke too easily…"

"If only he hadn't been so upright…"

…

Mo Hua and his group returned to the sect.

The next day, Mo Hua acted as if nothing had happened, resuming his usual cultivation and classes.

Elder Xun Ziyou secretly glanced at Mo Hua and saw his expression unchanged—as if nothing had occurred the night before…

He had never killed a second-rank mid-stage boar demon.

He had never been robbed by the Duanjin Gate.

He had never turned the tables and robbed the Duanjin Gate, leaving one of their Foundation Establishment late-stage senior brothers severely injured, stripped of his clothes, hung from a tree, and drawn on with a turtle…

Elder Xun Ziyou felt helpless.

This child has too big a heart.

Even if he really killed those Duanjin Gate disciples last night, he'd still show up for class with a calm face.

With such composure, he is destined for great deeds.

But one wonders—between righteousness and unorthodoxy—will his great deeds be good or evil?

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