Chapter 197: Setting Out for the Banquet, the Incense Fire Divine Dao

Chen Mo threw away the lamb rib in his hand; it was indeed a wealthy household, with plenty of food in the kitchen.

In just two or three quarters of an hour, Chen Mo found a small pot of stewed lamb chops, along with other meats like chicken, duck, and fish.

He was hungry now, so these foods were naturally all used to fill his stomach.

This way, he could also unleash his full strength without restraint later.

"May I ask if the brave man who slew the white wolf is inside?" A shout came from far outside the kitchen.

Chen Mo stepped out the door, and outside stood an official wearing official robes along with several bailiffs.

Even though the Imperial Court of this world was different from Great Gan and Great Li, he could tell at a glance who was an official and who was a clerk based on the difference in the fabric of their clothes.

Seeing Chen Mo dressed casually in a simple coarse cloth shirt, the official couldn't help but reveal surprise, disdain, and fear on his face, though he quickly masked it.

"May I ask this brave man, was it you who slew this white wolf demon?" Although he was asking, his tone was quite certain.

Firstly, it was because a servant had identified him earlier, and secondly, he could vaguely sense the restless Qi and Blood on Chen Mo's body.

Chen Mo did not conceal his strength, so as long as one was a Martial Artist, they could all feel that his strength was not ordinary.

"That's right. May I ask what business you have with me?" Chen Mo asked with a smile, though his hand had already gripped the Pudao he had just seized.

He didn't know how the government offices in other places were, but the Changsheng County government office was definitely rotten to the core.

If he killed everyone inside, there might be some who were wronged, but if he killed every other person, there would definitely be some who slipped through the cracks.

"This brave man, you slew this white wolf and saved the common people, which is a great merit. Especially this Wang Enke; he was wealthy but unkind, and your killing him is an act of eliminating evil and bringing peace.

The County Magistrate heard about this and admires you greatly. He has set up a banquet at the residence and sent me to invite you to attend."

The ninth-rank official bowed and spoke.

In reality, his feet were already quietly retreating; he didn't know Chen Mo's specific strength, but he understood that anyone who could kill a white wolf could certainly kill him.

If there was even the slightest sign of trouble, he would immediately run for his life.

"Then, will all the officials from the County Magistrate's office be attending this banquet?" Chen Mo narrowed his eyes and asked carefully.

"That goes without saying." Ma Sanwu responded immediately.

Although he didn't know if all the officials would actually show up, he just gave a vague promise for now and would deal with the rest later.

"Good, thank you all for your kindness. I will definitely attend this banquet." Chen Mo immediately revealed a smile.

With all the County Magistrate's officials together, it would be quite convenient; even if he had to kill them, it would be faster, saving him from having to find them one by one.

"Good, good, good." Upon hearing this, Ma Sanwu breathed a sigh of relief and said to the few bailiffs beside him, "You lot, go quickly and find someone to help the brave man bathe and change."

After finishing, he looked at Chen Mo and bowed again, "May I ask for the brave man's honorable name? Please let me know so I can report back to the County Magistrate."

"Chen Mo," Chen Mo said.

"Then please, brave man, rest here for a moment. When the banquet is prepared, I will come to invite you again." Ma Sanwu cupped his hands in a salute and turned to leave in a hurry.

He dared not stay any longer with this peerless fierce man; this person acted without any scruples and even dared to kill a commander under the Black Mountain demon king, so it was better to stay far away from him.

The remaining few bailiffs looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

Although Chen Mo was wearing a coarse cloth short shirt, it was stained with blood, and his whole body exuded an unmasked, fierce, and violent aura, like a wild beast from the mountains walking through a busy market.

It just so happened that these bailiffs could perceive this aura clearly, which was why they were too scared to move; if this aura were any stronger, they might not have been able to sense it at all with their level of strength.

Chen Mo took out the silver he had just searched for and arranged for these bailiffs to prepare hot water for him to wash and change.

Money makes things easy; once the silver was tossed out, Chen Mo's needs were naturally met quickly.

Chen Mo didn't feel any heartache over spending this money; it was stolen from this wealthy household anyway, so it was free silver, and spending it was fine.

Chen Mo washed the bloodstains off his body, changed into new clothes and shoes, and sat cross-legged in a room that had been temporarily cleared out.

He sank his consciousness into the Good and Evil Reward Token, and his accumulated Good Merit reached over six thousand seven hundred points.

It was enough to exchange for a Precious Elephant Mixing Heaven Pill.

One Elephant Strength was five thousand catties, and above that was the Manxiang Mixing Heaven Pill.

One Manxiang Strength was twelve thousand five hundred catties.

Chen Mo's accumulated Good Merit was not yet enough to exchange for a Manxiang Mixing Heaven Pill, so he could only exchange for one Precious Elephant Mixing Heaven Pill to swallow first.

The five thousand catties of Qi and Blood strength were completely absorbed by him, and his own strength increased further.

Chen Mo estimated that his current avatar's strength might not be a match for an Innate Expert, but ordinary Post-Heaven Martial Artists were definitely no match for him.

He also didn't know how the Martial Dao experts of this world cultivated or what realms they had developed.

But this was not a problem; he would know soon enough.

He finished his cultivation and stood up to walk outside the courtyard; he hadn't wasted much time, and it was still afternoon, with a long time left until evening.

Several bailiffs saw Chen Mo walk out of the room, and their figures couldn't help but pause; the reason they were here was that they had been arranged to monitor Chen Mo.

But watching Chen Mo walk out of the courtyard, some naive bailiffs wanted to chase after him, but were stopped by the old hands.

If they didn't keep an eye on Chen Mo, the worst that would happen was a scolding, or at most twenty strokes of the cane, and then they'd be stripped of their uniforms and kicked out.

But with their strength, if they tried to keep a close watch on Chen Mo, they absolutely didn't have the ability to do so.

If they accidentally offended this fierce man, losing their lives would be a normal outcome.

Whether to lose their jobs or their lives, any smart person knew how to choose.

To put it bluntly, with their strength, they had no ability to do this job at all, not to mention that the government only paid a few coins of silver a month, so it wasn't worth risking their lives for that little money.

Chen Mo stepped out of the residence, his goal extremely clear.

In his perception, another Heaven and Earth Profound Gate aura had never moved, which was an extremely strange thing.

A small range of activity was completely normal; the other party had just descended, and if they were in the city from the beginning, they might not have had the chance to replenish their strength as quickly as he did.

But having absolutely no signs of activity was very strange.

The other party was still alive, but clearly under control.

Chen Mo walked along the residence toward the back of the city; the pedestrians around gradually decreased, and he finally arrived at a sparsely populated area.

There were few pedestrians here, the doors of several houses were tightly shut, and faint sobbing could be heard from within the courtyards.

Chen Mo walked up to a residence and gently knocked on the wooden door, which was somewhat old and peeling from the wind and rain.

"Stop knocking, stop knocking, coming!" A muffled, low shout soon came from inside the wooden door.

The courtyard gate was opened, and a sturdy-looking woman looked Chen Mo up and down.

Seeing that the material of his clothes was extraordinary, she finally revealed a smile.

"Oh, sir, please, come right in." The woman hurriedly opened the courtyard gate and called out.

The courtyard was quite spacious; among the dozen or so rooms, there were at least one or two hundred people being held, mostly women and children, with few young and strong men.

"This sir, the people are all here. Would you like me to help you pick a few clever ones? But you must hurry with your selection; the County Magistrate has already reserved everyone here, and in two days, they are to be sent to Xiaonan Mountain as a gift for his sworn brother.

If you only want one or two now, I can still make the call to sell them to you."

The woman spoke with a beaming smile and quickly explained the situation here.

This place was a Ya Hang, where the Ya Hang agents kept those who had been abducted, swindled, or had voluntarily sold themselves into servitude.

If a wealthy family wanted to buy servants, they would come here to choose.

And since the Changsheng County Magistrate intended to send these people to Xiaonan Mountain, it was clearly not to make them servants, but to use them as Blood Qi food.

However, the Ya Hang agents did not care about this; they only cared about making money.

Chen Mo surveyed the situation in the courtyard; besides the woman, there were several other thugs in the yard, physically sturdier than ordinary people but possessing no Martial Dao cultivation.

Chen Mo sensed carefully and confirmed that the person he was looking for was indeed in this courtyard, and the long saber in his hand suddenly left its sheath.

With one slash to the throat, he ended the woman's life; the remaining thugs reacted and turned to flee, while some shouted to call for their companions.

Chen Mo moved extremely fast, resolving the few men in an instant, and immediately after, six or seven more people rushed out from various places.

Some even held weapons, but upon seeing the scene in the courtyard, every one of them fled for their lives.

But their speed was too slow; in just two or three breaths of time, they were all beheaded by Chen Mo.

At this moment, those imprisoned women and children all cast their gazes toward Chen Mo.

Yet, no joy or any emotional fluctuation could be seen in their eyes; all that remained was numbness and dullness.

Chen Mo shifted his gaze and soon discovered one person; this person was snow-white-skinned but extremely thin, skin and bones like a skeleton.

Upon seeing her, Chen Mo could not help but recall the time he had fled from famine; he himself had been much the same back then.

He felt the extremely familiar aura of the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate from this person, and looking at her features, although extremely emaciated, he could vaguely see the shadow of Bai Yuxia.

She clearly noticed Chen Mo as well, but at this moment, she lacked the extra strength to do anything.

Unlike Chen Mo's arrival, her cultivation strength was the weakest among the four, and her physical Blood Qi was not considered strong.

She had arrived in this world and exhausted most of her power just by constructing her current avatar.

Therefore, having been here for so long, she had not found an opportunity to escape and could only lie low for the time being.

Chen Mo walked into that room, flicked his long saber, shattered the door lock, and pushed the door open.

The smell inside the room was not very pleasant, with a dozen or twenty people squeezed in here.

Even though the weather was not sweltering today, the smell inside the room was still very pungent.

Bai Yuxia stood up unsteadily; although the Ya Hang agents provided them with food, it only ensured they would not starve to death, and they would not let them eat their fill, because having a full stomach meant having the strength to cause trouble.

That was why the expressions on the faces of the others were uniformly numb; they were too hungry, hungry to the point of having no extra strength to think about any problems.

"Are you alright?" Seeing this, Chen Mo walked up and reached out to support Bai Yuxia.

"I'm fine." Her tone was clearly weak, her gaze filled with gratitude.

If she hadn't been lucky enough to run into Chen Mo, in her current state, she would likely have had to wait a few more days to find an opportunity to escape.

Bai Yuxia wanted to grip Chen Mo's arm with force, but she had no strength anywhere in her body, and even her footsteps seemed unsteady.

Seeing this, Chen Mo picked her up with one hand; the clothes on Bai Yuxia were also condensed by the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate, extremely durable, and would not easily tear.

Carrying her to the kitchen in the courtyard, without Chen Mo needing to say anything, Bai Yuxia was already searching for food.

She was like a hungry ghost, devouring all the food she could find before her, and her own Qi and Blood strength was also constantly recovering.

Although she did not specialize in the physical body, the physical body of a Heaven-Human Martial Artist, even without deliberate cultivation, would still possess at least ten thousand jin of strength from being nourished by True Qi and washed by vital energy day and night.

And Bai Yuxia came from a top-tier force; in the early stages of her cultivation, she must have undergone medicinal baths with many spirit herbs, so her physical Blood Qi would only be stronger.

"I have checked the situation here well enough; the Heavenly Law of this world has changed, and it has become much easier for demons to undergo Shape Transformation and awaken their intelligence.

Therefore, there are members of the Human Race who collude with demons to harm the common people, just like the County Magistrate of this county, who has actually sworn brotherhood with a demon and intends to send everyone here, including you, to that Black Mountain Demon King as Blood Qi food."

Bai Yuxia continued to devour the food before her without stopping, while Chen Mo carefully described the current situation to her.

As more food was swallowed into her stomach, Bai Yuxia's complexion gradually became rosy, and her body filled out at a speed visible to the naked eye.

If she had been skin and bones before, then now she at least looked a bit like a human.

"Then what do you plan to do next?" Bai Yuxia swallowed the last bite of food and asked in a focused voice.

"Kill the Changsheng County Magistrate and the others, see if we can obtain the cultivation techniques of this world from their hands, and also observe the reaction of this Great Zhou Dynasty.

Whether looking for the Spirit of Heaven and Earth or the World Core, utilizing the power of the Imperial Court is undoubtedly the fastest choice. We cannot establish an Imperial Court from scratch; that would waste too much time."

Chen Mo did not hide his plan for what to do next and laid it all out.

"Good, I can help you with this." Bai Yuxia took some clear water to wash her greasy hands and spoke after a moment of thought.

Having heard Chen Mo explain the situation of this world and the predicament she faced.

How could she not understand that if Chen Mo hadn't saved her, in at most two or three days, she would have become Blood Qi food in the mouths of demon beasts.

Although there was no real danger to her life, this assessment would undoubtedly be a direct failure.

And Chen Mo saved her life, preventing her from directly suffering the result of a failed assessment.

As long as she could accumulate enough power during the process of the assessment, even if she failed to complete it in the end, the gains she obtained would not be small as long as she returned safely.

Bai Yuxia had always been unwilling to owe others anything; Chen Mo saving her this time, avoiding her assessment failure, was a tremendous help to her.

To return the favor, she should also try her best to repay him.

"You and I shall first find a way to integrate into the Imperial Court of this world; we can kill officials, rebel, and then accept an imperial amnesty."

"Let us cooperate; once we hold the Jade Seal and find the Spirit of Heaven and Earth and the World Core, we can then divide them in detail."

"Even if we must contend for them, we must first find these items before we contend."

Chen Mo wore a smile, his tone calm, as he poured her a cup of clear tea.

There was indeed competition between the two of them, but the premise of that competition was finding the Spirit of Heaven and Earth and the World Core.

If they were to start infighting and competing before finding either of these, it would be a completely meaningless affair.

Furthermore, if both parties cooperated pleasantly, these two items could be divided, perhaps even with each person taking one.

"You saved me this time; if you hadn't acted, my assessment would likely have failed immediately. I can help you obtain both the Spirit of Heaven and Earth and the World Core."

Bai Yuxia drank a mouthful of clear tea and said in a calm tone.

She understood that being able to survive now was already thanks to Chen Mo's help; as long as she could return safely, she would have a great harvest even without obtaining the World Core and the Spirit of Heaven and Earth.

In return, she naturally would no longer contend with Chen Mo for these two items.

"This... are you serious?" Chen Mo's tone was slightly hesitant.

The reason he asked this was because he understood Bai Yuxia relatively well and knew that since she said so, she would do so.

Although he did not know what the rewards for passing the assessment would be, he could imagine they were absolutely extremely generous.

Because the difficulty of this assessment was too high; saving a world from the creatures of the Mirage Sea was something no ordinary person could accomplish.

Even though they were both top-tier Martial Artists within their respective worlds, doing this was by no means an easy task.

A sufficiently high difficulty necessarily meant a sufficiently generous reward.

And that Bai Yuxia was now willing to give up these rewards and help him was enough to show her character.

Bai Yuxia did not say much, only nodding lightly.

"Fine, then let's settle it this way." Chen Mo did not continue to be coy or refuse; he knew that once Bai Yuxia had decided on something, it was difficult for others to change it.

At worst, after obtaining the Spirit of Heaven and Earth and the World Core, he would think of ways to compensate her in other aspects.

Moreover, whether they could even obtain these two things was still a matter with no certainty; worrying about how to distribute them now was completely meaningless.

"This is a Precious Elephant Mixed Heaven Pill; a Martial Artist can ingest it to increase their own strength by five thousand catties. Ingest it first so you can have the power to protect yourself."

Chen Mo's mind sank into the Reward Good and Punish Evil Order, and he immediately redeemed a pill.

The source of the Good Merit for redeeming this pill was those human traffickers he had just killed.

Since Bai Yuxia treated him this way, Chen Mo naturally would not show nothing in return, especially since the two were now allies.

Although Bai Yuxia's strength was not as great as his, she could improve rapidly as long as she had sufficient resources. Not to mention becoming a top-tier Great Ability of any world, but in the territory of a prefecture, she could definitely be called a powerhouse.

"Many thanks." Bai Yuxia took the pill and thanked him.

She made a mental note for Chen Mo, understanding that she owed him even more now.

She found a spot in the kitchen here to sit cross-legged and ingested the pill to refine the Blood Qi within.

Her speed in refining the pill was extremely fast; in no more than half an incense stick's time, the pill's power had been entirely absorbed into her body.

At this moment, her physique quickly filled out; her eyes were bright, her teeth white, her skin like snow, and her figure slender yet curvaceous, no longer like the skin-and-bones appearance from before.

Chen Mo had been guarding her, waiting quietly for her to finish her cultivation, before he spoke.

"The County Magistrate of this county city has invited me to a banquet tonight, and the county office officials should all be there; I plan to take action then. You guard outside the Magistrate's residence, and if anyone tries to flee, you handle them."

Bai Yuxia nodded lightly, then her delicate brows furrowed as she looked outside the house, "There are many people here who were abducted by those human traffickers; they helped me before, and I want to send them back to their homes now."

Chen Mo nodded lightly and fished two packets of broken gold and silver from his Huai.

"Fine, just go ahead and do it; you can find me later by following the direction of the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate." As he spoke, he pushed the silver to Bai Yuxia.

Sending people back to their homes was by no means an easy task; with silver in hand, it would be somewhat easier to resolve.

"This is all I have on me; take it and use it first. If it's not enough, look around here; those human traffickers should also have money on them."

Chen Mo gave a final instruction, then rose and left.

Returning to the Wang family residence, the large house had already been cleaned up; the few bailiffs clearly breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Chen Mo return.

Chen Mo sat cross-legged in the room to meditate and regulate his breath, carefully observing the flow of the world's Heaven and Earth power.

In a trance, a sound of breaking air rang out; Chen Mo extended two fingers to catch it, and a throwing dart was held steadily in his hand.

There was a letter on the dart, and the letter stated one thing: the Changsheng County Magistrate was colluding with the Black Mountain Demon King and intended to poison and harm him tonight.

Furthermore, the Magistrate had made two preparations and had already sent people to notify the Black Mountain Demon King about his killing of the White Wolf.

Attached to the letter was a map; following the map, one could go directly from Changsheng County to Sanqu Prefecture, and from Sanqu Prefecture, one could take a boat to go anywhere within the Yongzhou territory.

Chen Mo looked at this letter and could not help but reveal a smile.

The person who sent the letter knew the Magistrate's schemes, so they were likely a county office official.

Looking at it this way, the county office was not completely rotten; there were still some people with a conscience.

Chen Mo kept the letter; he naturally could not flee, or rather, he had stayed here specifically to wait for the Black Mountain Demon King to arrive.

If he didn't kill that Black Mountain Demon King, how could he increase his strength? If he retreated now, wouldn't all his previous efforts be wasted?

Time passed extremely quickly, as if in the blink of an eye, and it was already evening.

Ma Sanwu came again to invite Chen Mo to the Magistrate's residence.

The Magistrate's residence was located behind the county office; it was vast in scale and built quite grandly, with red wood for beams, blue stone for bricks, and it had rockeries, flowing water, pavilions, and courtyards.

It was definitely the best residence in this city.

The main hall was spacious and used specifically for entertaining guests.

The hall was decorated elegantly, with red wood furniture that was neither new nor old, famous calligraphy and paintings hanging on both sides, and some jade artifacts and antiques placed on the shelves.

The most critical thing was that in the very center of the main hall, a Divine Idol was enshrined; this Divine Idol had a human body and a tiger's head, with red eyes and a fierce aura flowing, and there were two Subordinate Gods, a wolf and a snake, on the left and right sides of the idol.

Incense and offerings were placed before the Divine Idol, and judging by the situation, the incense should be burning all year round.

Chen Mo saw at a glance that this Divine Idol was definitely not ordinary; the incense smoke drifted, and the idol was absorbing the power of the incense.

Not only that, this Divine Idol was actually connected to the power of Heaven and Earth, and there was a thread connecting it to a god who knew how many tens of thousands of miles away.

This is indeed rare; the method of incense cultivation is extremely uncommon among the Human Race in this era.

The reason is simple: because of the descent of the Mirage Sea, incense practitioners are more easily affected by the Mirage Sea compared to Qi Refiners, making it exceedingly difficult to cultivate.

Yet, never had it been expected that in a world on the verge of total collapse, Chen Mo would actually encounter a practitioner of the incense Dao, and judging by their strength, it should be quite formidable.

It is just that, looking at the appearance of this Divine Idol, the other party is likely not of the Human Race.

Inside the main hall, the County Magistrate waited in his official robes, with the County Assistant accompanying him at his side.

The Chief Clerk, the Warden, and others sat in the lower seats, while the Inspector followed behind Chen Mo.

Furthermore, Chen Mo also discovered several Martial Dao experts, likewise smiling and keeping them company; clearly, they were also people invited by the County Magistrate to assist.

They lacked the courage to deal with that Black Mountain Demon King, but they not only had the courage to deal with Chen Mo, it was quite large!

The reason is simple, because they believed Chen Mo was a good person; they had only seen Chen Mo kill demons and eliminate evil, and had never seen him kill people at will.

But that Black Mountain Demon King was different; if one offended him, he truly dared to kill.

"I presume this must be the Scholar Chen who slew the white wolf?" Seeing that Chen Mo had not taken the initiative to salute him, the Changsheng County Magistrate could not help but slightly knit his brows.

But then he thought, the person before him would soon be a dead man, so he did not bother to haggle with him and spoke with a smile to greet him.

Chen Mo swept his gaze around the surroundings, thinking that even if the county government officials and the city's experts had not all arrived, seventy or eighty percent of them were already there.

"Clang!" A sharp blade left its sheath, emitting a crisp, vibrating ring.

Ma Sanwu only saw a flash of blade light before his eyes, and immediately felt his throat grow wet; when he reached up to touch it, he discovered it was his own blood.

"Hah... hah!" His eyes were filled with confusion; he could not understand at all why Chen Mo would suddenly erupt into violence.

Instinctively, he wanted to reach forward to steady himself against a nearby pillar, but immediately lost all strength in his body and collapsed completely.

Although he was not yet completely dead, he would not live for more than a few breaths.

The other experts in the hall saw this situation and could not help but look stunned, not expecting such a change to occur in an instant; Chen Mo had not said a word before directly starting to kill.

Chen Mo would naturally not leave them any extra time to react; holding his Pudao, he stepped into the hall with large strides.

(End of this chapter)