Chapter 90: Parents

After speaking with Zhang Lan during the day, Mo Hua spent the entire day flipping through the book "Thousand Array Records" given to him by Mr. Zhuang, selecting several usable arrays to study over the next few days, then drawing a few to carry on his person as a precaution.

Do not harbor ill will toward others, but never let down your guard against them.

Mo Hua currently has too few means of self-preservation; relying solely on arrays is clearly insufficient.

The incident with Qian Xing woke Mo Hua up: though the Dao Ting has laws, not all cultivators will follow them; the Dao grants cultivators power, and killing and power have always gone hand in hand.

After all, he is now a cultivator—body cultivators kill with martial arts, spirit cultivators take lives with spells; if he knew nothing, in a peril-filled cultivation world, he would never live to see his parents grow old…

Mo Hua could of course devote himself entirely to being an array master, find a safe place, avoid all battles with beasts and conflicts with other cultivators, and spend his life solely studying arrays in peace.

But entrusting one's life to the kindness of others is ultimately not a good choice.

After all, Mo Hua does not know whether, at some future time and place, a cultivator he meets might develop murderous intent toward him. Once a cultivator harbors such intent and he lacks the power to defend himself, he has no choice but to offer his neck for the blade.

So how can he protect himself?

Mo Hua pondered this in his mind.

Becoming a body cultivator is impossible—never in this lifetime.

With Mo Hua's physique, training his body, learning cultivation martial arts, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat would be no different from walking straight to his death.

That leaves only becoming a spirit cultivator.

But even as a spirit cultivator, Mo Hua's talent is not particularly good.

His spiritual roots are barely average, his qi sea cannot hold much spiritual energy, and the cultivation scripture he practices, "Great Expansion Technique," offers no special enhancement to spiritual energy, resulting in his spiritual energy being slightly weaker than that of cultivators at the same realm.

This is compared to cultivators with similar talent; compared to Bai Zisheng and Bai Zi Xi, Mo Hua's spiritual energy could even be described as "poor."

The amount of spiritual energy is closely tied to the power of spells.

"Forget it, wait until Qi Condensation Fifth Layer—right now I can't even learn spells," Mo Hua sighed.

At Qi Condensation Fifth Layer, body cultivators can learn body-training martial arts, and spirit cultivators can learn spells, because their spiritual energy has become sufficiently abundant to form the foundation for channeling it and wielding Dao techniques.

By Qi Condensation Sixth Layer, many cultivators must earn their own living; learning then would already be late.

After much thought, for now he could only rely on arrays.

Mo Hua sighed again and quietly entered his mind sea to practice several new arrays on the Dao Stele.

Mo Shan, who had been out working all day, now returned home.

"I asked around—Hua didn't do anything wrong; it was Qian Xing from the Qian family who deliberately provoked trouble and tried to attack Mo Hua. Fortunately, Chen Dazhu and the others intervened, so it ended without serious harm."

Liu Ruhua exhaled in relief, then worriedly asked: "Will the Qian family cause trouble for Hua?"

Mo Shan snorted coldly, "Dare they? The Qian family may be powerful, but we hunters who battle beasts and live on the edge of the blade aren't lambs. Unless they send a Foundation Establishment cultivator, if they dare come, they won't leave whole!"

As Mo Shan spoke, his entire demeanor grew harsher—a presence forged through years of battling beasts, making others feel a chill.

Liu Ruhua rarely saw her husband look like this; at home, Mo Shan was always gentle and considerate. She gripped his hand and softly asked: "What if the Qian family really sends a Foundation Establishment cultivator?"

Mo Shan shook his head. "No, the Qian family has Foundation Establishment elders, and so do we hunters. Once a Foundation Establishment cultivator gets involved, it escalates—neither side can easily back down."

"Did you tell the elder about this?"

"I did. I originally planned to make trouble for the Qian family—within Xiancheng it's hard, but here in the mountains, it's the hunters who call the shots; making them suffer a little would be easy. But the elder didn't agree…" Mo Shan sounded displeased.

"Did the elder tell you to prioritize the bigger picture?"

"No." Mo Shan hesitated, then said, "The elder said there's no excuse to go after them now."

"No excuse?" Liu Ruhua looked puzzled.

Mo Shan whispered, "The elder said: Qian Xing bullied Mo Hua, but Mo Hua is perfectly fine, while Qian Xing suffered severe injury and is barely recognizable… going after them under these circumstances gives us no valid excuse."

Liu Ruhua had never met such an elder before and couldn't help asking: "Then what if we had an excuse?"

"If we had an excuse, we'd be in the right, and then we'd go first and make them pay in spiritual stones. Our hunter team has been strapped for cash lately—can't even pay out spiritual stones, and the elder is frantic. If there were an excuse, he'd have already gone to extort them."

Liu Ruhua: "…"

"Don't worry—though Mo Hua is weak and can't become a hunter, he's still one of us. When something like this happens, the elder won't stand by. If we let these families bully us unchecked, we poor hunters won't survive." Mo Shan comforted his wife.

Liu Ruhua finally relaxed, then curiously asked: "You said Qian Xing suffered severe injury? He had servants and guards—how did he get hurt?"

Mo Shan's expression turned peculiar. "Guess."

Liu Ruhua gave her husband a reproachful look, thought for a moment, and said: "Did Chen Dazhu and the others beat him up?"

Mo Shan shook his head.

"Then did some other hunter nearby intervene?"

"No."

…

Liu Ruhua guessed a few more times, all wrong, then shook her head: "I give up. It can't possibly be Hua who hurt him."

Mo Shan raised an eyebrow. "You're right—it was Hua."

Liu Ruhua's mouth dropped open. "Impossible—how old is Hua? His cultivation is so low—how could he have seriously injured Qian Xing?"

Mo Shan's expression was complex. "I didn't believe it either—logically, it shouldn't be possible. But witnesses saw it: that day, when Qian Xing seized Hua, Hua broke free, splashed spiritual ink into Qian Xing's eyes, then slipped a paper inscribed with an array into Qian Xing's robe. At the same time, he crushed a spiritual stone. When he kicked Qian Xing and was himself thrown back by the recoil, the array exploded—and Qian Xing was blasted away…"

Liu Ruhua listened, stunned, then covered her mouth and laughed. "So Hua didn't get the worse end of it."

Mo Shan also laughed. "He got a few scrapes—probably from falling—and a bruise on his neck. Master Feng applied some ointment and it's already healed. Compared to Qian Xing, who's charred like charcoal, Hua didn't lose at all."

"Do others know about this?"

"Very few know, and even if they did, no one would believe it. Hua is still young and only at Qi Condensation Fourth Layer—we, his parents, don't even believe it, let alone others."

Liu Ruhua nodded. "That's good—then the Qian family won't bother Hua. But we really owe Chen Dazhu and the kids a thank-you; otherwise, Hua would've suffered."

Liu Ruhua still felt a shiver of fear.

"Yes, tomorrow we'll prepare something to give to Master Chen and the others."

"Alright."

"But don't worry," Mo Shan smiled again. "Our son has excellent connections—without Chen Dazhu, other cultivators would've helped too. I heard even Dao Ting Si's Zhang Diansi is quite familiar with Hua…"

Liu Ruhua thought of what she'd seen that day and couldn't help laughing. "He even invited Zhang Diansi for drinks—such a small boy with such a big heart."

Mo Shan pulled Liu Ruhua into his arms, "Don't worry—I've told all the brothers in the Demon Hunting Squad to keep an eye out. Anyone who tries to cause trouble for Hua'er will regret it."