Chapter 423: Disappearance
Chapter 423: Disappearance
There was something amiss with the mine, and it was unwise to linger.
Mo Hua and his companions left the mine and made their way to Nanyue City, where they found a place to rest temporarily.
Wang Lai was battered and bruised, his condition pitiful, but he was still breathing.
Mo Hua roused him from his unconscious state and took the opportunity to ask him some more questions while they had the time.
As dawn approached and Mo Hua was unable to extract any further information, he handed Wang Lai over to Si Tu Fang.
At the same time, he also reported Wang Lai's actions and the misdeeds of the local hoodlums.
Lao Yu and the other two served as witnesses.
Si Tu Fang was both shocked and furious upon hearing this.
She would never have imagined that Wang Lai and his gang of thugs would dare to commit such heinous acts.
Killing for spirit stones and then scheming to claim compensation—their actions were despicable.
Si Tu Fang's eyebrows furrowed in anger as she said, "Leave the rest to me. I'll take Wang Lai to the prison first and interrogate him to find his accomplices. Then we'll round them all up!"
"Will that be a problem with the Court?" Mo Hua asked.
The Court in Nanyue City was different from Tongxian City; it was notorious for its corruption, and the magistrate was not necessarily a good person either.
Si Tu Fang frowned and pondered for a moment before sighing, "I'll be careful. As long as we follow the proper procedures, the magistrate shouldn't have any grounds to interfere."
Mo Hua nodded, "Okay, then be careful, Sister Si Tu."
"Don't worry."
Si Tu Fang nodded and glanced at Mo Hua and the others, feeling grateful. "We really owe you this time."
Mo Hua waved his hand dismissively, "It was no trouble at all."
Si Tu Fang patted Mo Hua's shoulder, "I'll treat you to a meal some other day."
And with that, she took Wang Lai away.
Lao Yu and the other two were full of gratitude towards Mo Hua and his companions.
"Thank you so much, young masters! We are forever in your debt!"
"Thank you, our benefactors!"
Mo Hua said, "You're welcome. Now go home and take care of your injuries."
The three of them bowed deeply once more, feeling the relief of having survived a close call. Then they left, feeling fortunate to have escaped death in the mine.
They had come so close to losing their lives and being forever parted from their loved ones.
After Lao Yu and the others left, Bai Zisheng asked Mo Hua, "What now?"
Mo Hua thought for a moment and said, "I want to make a trip back to the mine."
Bai Zisheng was startled, "Are you crazy? Do you want to go back and get yourself killed?"
Mo Hua pointed upwards.
The sun was shining brightly in the sky.
Only then did Bai Zisheng realize that it was already daytime.
Even if the mine was "haunted," it would only be at midnight.
"Why are you going back to the mine now?" Bai Zisheng asked.
Mo Hua's gaze turned profound, "I want to see what happened to the bodies of those thugs..."
Bai Zisheng's expression turned solemn as well, "Then let's go together."
Mo Hua shook his head, "No need, I'll go alone. You don't know how to use concealment techniques, and while the cloak has a concealment array, it's not perfect. It's fine to use it at night, but during the day, there will still be faint traces that can be detected."
Bai Zisheng waved it off, "So what if we're discovered? It's not a big deal..."
There was no one in this mine who could stop him.
But Mo Hua disagreed, "This mine belongs to the Lu family. During the day, there might be a Core Formation cultivator present. If we're discovered, even if we manage to escape, we'll alert them to our presence and expose our tracks..."
"Once we draw the attention of the Lu family, it won't be convenient for us to investigate further."
Bai Zisheng said, "But if you go alone and encounter a Core Formation cultivator, wouldn't that be dangerous as well?"
Mo Hua shook his head, "A Core Formation cultivator from the Lu family won't be able to detect me."
With his concealment techniques, the concealment array, and the enhanced spiritual sense from the twelve meridian marks, it was impossible for him to be discovered by a Core Formation cultivator from the Lu family.
"Oh, that's true."
Bai Zisheng nodded, but he still looked worried.
Bai Zixi then said, "You go in alone, and we'll stand guard outside."
Mo Hua wanted to say something, but Bai Zixi gave him a nonchalant look and said in a soft voice, "I'm your senior sister."
Mo Hua had no choice but to agree.
So they rested briefly before setting off again, returning to the Lu family's mine.
By the time they arrived, the sun had risen high in the sky, and the morning sky was filled with a beautiful pink hue.
The mine was already bustling with activity.
Miner cultivators were arriving in a steady stream, enduring the heat as they wielded their mining picks to extract ore from the mountain.
The mine was once again filled with the loud, chaotic noises of the workers, a stark contrast to the eerie silence of the night before.
Mo Hua concealed himself and strolled casually into the mine.
Indeed, there was a Lu family elder, a Core Formation cultivator, sitting on the side, enjoying the breeze and sipping tea while observing the miners at work.
A pretty maidservant attended to him, fanning him to provide some relief from the heat.
Mo Hua walked past them nonchalantly.
The elder was completely oblivious, his eyes roaming lecherously over the maidservant's curvaceous figure.
Mo Hua shook his head at the elder's undignified behavior.
He made his way through the crowd and into the mine shaft, walking deep into its heart until he reached the spot where Wang Lai had attempted to kill them the night before.
The area was deserted, with not a single miner in sight.
There were no signs of anyone having been there at all.
The mine shaft had been disturbed the previous night, and the thugs that Mo Hua had left behind had also vanished without a trace.
The reason for the absence of miners was that this was a remote and quiet section of the mine shaft, with no ore to be found, so miners rarely ventured here.
They had committed countless atrocities, so it didn't matter if they died and their bodies disappeared without a trace.
But Mo Hua wanted to know how they had met their end...
Mo Hua released his spiritual sense, and in his ethereal vision, he perceived everything around him.
The stone walls were icy cold and a dull black-gray.
There were traces of qi in the surroundings, faint and weak, remnants from the previous night that had mostly dissipated by now.
Among the various qi signatures, some were intermingled with pitch-black death qi, snaking along the ground and crawling up the stone walls into the distance.
Mo Hua quietly opened his eyes, his spiritual sense locking onto this trail of qi as he followed the stone wall, step by step.
After walking for about an hour, the trail of qi abruptly ended.
Before him was a stone wall.
Mo Hua swept the area with his spiritual sense and immediately realized that there was an array drawn on this stone wall.
And behind this wall was undoubtedly one of the Lu family's mine tunnels.
Mo Hua's eyes narrowed slightly.
"From the traces... those hoodlums were dragged by something all the way into this mine tunnel..."
What happened inside the tunnel was beyond Mo Hua's knowledge.
But most likely, these hoodlums, like the five missing miners, had been devoured by something...
Mo Hua hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether to unravel the array and enter the tunnel to investigate further.
However, just as he was about to start, he stopped.
He stirred his spiritual sense, calculating for a moment before slowly putting down his brush.
"They actually... reinforced the array..."
Not only was the stone wall sturdier, but it was also layered with warning arrays.
Mo Hua could dismantle these arrays, but he wasn't sure if doing so would cause any disturbances and alert the Lu family's cultivators.
Or perhaps, the Lu family had deliberately set up these arrays to lure him in?
Mo Hua weighed his options and decided it was better not to take the risk.
If he was trapped inside the mine by the Lu family, things would become troublesome.
Mo Hua sighed and turned to leave, but his heart was clouded with doubts.
What was the purpose of these mine tunnels that the Lu family had dug?
And what secrets were hidden within those tunnels...
With a furrowed brow, Mo Hua left the area, casually eavesdropping on the nearby miners as he walked.
However, he didn't hear anything useful.
Moreover, these miners hadn't seen those hoodlums either.
Those thugs had simply vanished, just like the five miners, disappearing without a trace within the mine...
...
After leaving the mine, Mo Hua met up with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi.
"Did you discover anything?" Bai Zixi asked.
Mo Hua told them about the thugs.
Bai Zisheng snorted, "They deserved to die!"
Then he frowned, "Is the Lu family up to something shady?"
Mo Hua shook his head, "It's not clear yet."
"If it's not the Lu family, then who else could it be?"
"Didn't Wang Lai mention a gray-robed cultivator?"
Mo Hua nodded, "As things stand, we can only start from that gray-robed cultivator."
The three of them began to make their way back.
Along the way, Mo Hua's expression remained somewhat dejected.
Bai Zixi noticed and asked, "What's wrong?"
Mo Hua sighed, "I'm worried about Teacher Yan..."
"Sister Si Tu said that Teacher Yan entered the mine and then disappeared. No one has seen him since..."
"I'm afraid that Wang Lai and the others might have harmed him..."
Bai Zisheng nodded involuntarily, "That's possible..."
Hearing this, Mo Hua became even more concerned, his eyebrows knitting together.
Bai Zixi gently glared at her brother and spoke softly to Mo Hua,
"Good people are blessed with good fortune. Teacher Yan might not have come to harm."
Bai Zisheng realized he might have said something inappropriate and scratched his head, chuckling awkwardly,
"I was just speculating. Don't take it to heart. Teacher Yan might have also discovered other clues and left Nanyue City to investigate on his own."
Mo Hua knew that his senior siblings were trying to comfort him, and although he felt that their reasoning lacked logic, he still felt a little better.
"I hope Teacher Yan is blessed with good fortune..."
Mo Hua sighed softly.
Seeing that Mo Hua was still a bit down, Bai Zisheng changed the subject,
"What about that gray-robed cultivator? Are we going to investigate him?"
Mo Hua nodded, "Yes."
No trade, no killing.
It was that gray-robed cultivator who wanted to buy corpses, so he incited Wang Lai and the others to kill the miners.
The source of all this was that gray-robed cultivator.
Even if Wang Lai was removed, there would still be others like Zhao Lai, Qian Lai, and Li Lai...
As long as the gray-robed cultivator was still around, there would always be cultivators willing to kill for spirit stones.
To eradicate evil, one must also uproot it.
Bai Zisheng nodded in agreement.
Then he thought of something and asked, "Wang Lai said he met with the gray-robed cultivator in a brothel, so..."
Bai Zisheng's expression turned serious as he asked,
"Are we going to that brothel?"
This question left Mo Hua stumped as well.
(End of Chapter)
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