Chapter 582: Conspiracy
Chapter 582: Conspiracy
Mo Hua looked at the little boy who was younger than him and sighed, then felt a surge of anger.
Even such young cultivators were being abducted...
Those led by Elder Jiang truly deserved their fate.
He should have fed them a few more Fireball Techniques...
The eatery was in ruins, with burn marks everywhere.
The little boy looked around, his fear growing. His small face turned pale, and his eyes glistened with tears, but he held them back and didn't cry.
Mo Hua asked softly, "Are you alright...?"
The boy glanced at Mo Hua and nodded slowly.
"What's your name?" Mo Hua asked.
The boy opened his mouth to speak but then seemed to remember something and shook his head, deciding not to say it.
Mo Hua paused, then understood.
This child probably dared not speak his surname.
Speaking his surname might reveal his identity, and there was a risk of extortionists targeting his parents.
It was a good thing that a child so young had such wariness. Mo Hua didn't mind.
"Then what should I call you?" he asked.
The boy thought about it. Mo Hua's gaze was clear, and his expression was kind. Although he was older, he didn't seem much older than the boy.
He was much better than those fierce and vicious kidnappers...
The boy hesitantly said, "My parents call me 'Yu Er'..."
"Yu Er?" Mo Hua repeated.
The name 'Yu' was similar to the word for jade, implying a wish for the child to be as pure and gentle as jade.
"Where are your parents?" Mo Hua asked.
Yu Er's expression fell, and he shook his head.
It was normal for a kidnapped child not to know where his parents were...
The boy's face was pale, and it was clear he had been through a lot of fear and worry these past days.
Mo Hua felt a pang of sympathy and thought for a moment before saying, "Then I'll take you to find your parents..."
Yu Er's gloomy eyes suddenly lit up, and they held a hint of timid hope as he stared at Mo Hua.
"Really...?" he asked, his gaze revealing a fragile longing, as if he was afraid Mo Hua was deceiving him.
Mo Hua guessed that after being abducted and experiencing the evil in people's hearts, the boy found it hard to trust others again.
"Mm," Mo Hua replied gently. "If they can't find you, your parents will definitely be sad..."
Yu Er's tears fell like pearls. "I... I miss my mother..."
"Let's go," said Mo Hua.
"Okay," Yu Er nodded, wiping away his tears.
Mo Hua lifted him out of the box.
Yu Er looked around at the surroundings and saw the group of cultivators lying dead in various terrible states. His face paled further as he looked at Mo Hua.
"What about these bad guys...?"
Mo Hua's expression turned solemn. "I don't know who killed them..."
Yu Er was stunned.
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then started to tell a serious lie, "I came to Qian Province to study. I happened to pass by this place and wanted to find an eatery to fill my stomach..."
"But when I entered, I saw this scene..."
"These cultivators were killed by someone, their deaths were quick and clean..."
"I noticed something odd about the box, so I opened it and rescued you..."
...
Mo Hua described the situation as if he had nothing to do with it.
He was just a passerby, an unknown, kind-hearted young man.
Yu Er looked at him doubtfully, "Really?"
Mo Hua nodded seriously.
Yu Er looked at Mo Hua, then at the corpses on the ground. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed strange.
This child was quite clever...
Mo Hua said, "Let's go quickly. Otherwise, your parents will definitely worry about you..."
This statement brought Yu Er's thoughts back to reality.
"Okay," Yu Er nodded repeatedly.
Mo Hua took out a cloak from his storage bag and draped it over Yu Er's body.
It was a concealment cloak that he and his junior martial brothers and sisters had used when they were hiding and tailing someone in Nan Yue City.
It had a concealment array painted on it by Mo Hua.
Although it was only a first-grade array, it was sufficient to hide them in the gradually darkening night.
It would be better to be cautious, as the traffickers might return with others.
"What's this?" Yu Er asked, puzzled by the cloak over his head.
"Don't ask, just put it on," Mo Hua said.
"Oh," Yu Er obediently nodded and awkwardly wrapped the oversized cloak around himself.
Suddenly, he looked around, his expression turning sad again, as if he felt some reluctance.
Mo Hua asked, "What's wrong?"
Yu Er looked at the bodies lying on the ground and said softly, "Do these people also have parents? If they're dead, won't their parents... never see them again?"
"Won't they... be very sad too...?"
Mo Hua was surprised.
He hadn't expected this child to have such a pure and kind heart...
Even though Elder Jiang and his group had abducted him...
Mo Hua thought about it and felt that while it might not be a good thing to be too naive and ignorant of the evil in people's hearts, for a child of four or five years old, it was better to be pure-hearted.
This world could accommodate many evil and selfish people.
Why couldn't it accommodate a child with a kind heart?
So Mo Hua said with "good intentions," "Don't worry, these people have no parents."
Yu Er was stunned, then shocked, "Can people really have no parents?"
"Most people do, but some are different. They have no parents," Mo Hua explained.
Yu Er's understanding of the world was shaken. He couldn't quite process this information, but after thinking about it, he felt that this kind-hearted brother who had rescued him probably had no reason to lie to him.
Yu Er felt a little better.
Since they had no parents, there would be no one to grieve for them when they died...
That was a good thing...
Yu Er nodded, and in his heart, he silently said,
"It's really great that these bad guys have no parents!"
After comforting Yu Er, Mo Hua looked around once more. He erased all traces of the arrays he had deduced, inferred, and drawn, as well as the marks left from breaking the array.
The box...
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then disassembled it into wooden boards and put them into his storage bag.
These boards had remnants of unknown arrays on them, and he wanted to keep them for future research.
Then, Mo Hua pointed his finger, and a Fireball Technique destroyed the remaining two storage boxes, burning the wooden debris on the ground into charcoal, mixing them together.
Mo Hua's movements were clean and efficient, and he finished in about ten breaths' worth of time.
"So, children must study hard. Otherwise, when you venture into the cultivation world, you'll be at a severe disadvantage!"
Yu Er was a bit perplexed but nodded earnestly nonetheless.
After tidying up the place and covering their tracks, they were ready to leave.
Mo Hua, holding Yu Er's hand, stealthily made their way out of the eatery.
A young cultivator in his early teens and an even younger one, hand in hand, they headed toward Qingzhou City in the distance...
However, under the cover of dusk and their hidden forms, no one seemed to notice their departure...
...
Not long after Mo Hua left, a group of four or five black-robed cultivators arrived at the eatery. Their faces were covered with black cloth, obscuring their features, except for their eyes, which held a cold and sinister gleam.
But the coldness and sinister aura they exuded turned into astonishment and shock upon witnessing the state of the eatery.
"Where are they?"
"Are they all dead?!"
The black-robed cultivators inhaled sharply, taken aback by the scene.
"Who did this?"
"I don't know..."
"Where's the 'merchandise'?"
The black-robed cultivators released their spiritual senses, probing the surroundings. Soon, they spotted the pile of broken storage box fragments in a corner of the eatery.
"Was it a... kidnap-for-ransom gone wrong?"
The group exchanged bewildered glances.
"Something's not right..." One of them frowned. "There's no trace of blood or remains."
"The boxes seem off too..."
"What about Mr. Jiang's special box?"
"Was it dismantled or destroyed?"
"That box had Mr. Jiang's array on it. Who could possibly dismantle it? As long as the box exists, so does the person inside. If the box is destroyed, the person is as good as dead..."
"Not necessarily. There are countless capable people in Qian Province. Nothing is impossible," another countered.
The group discussed the situation, filled with uncertainty.
"Big brother, what should we do now?" one of them asked, addressing the leader.
The one addressed as "Big Brother" was also clad in black, and while his attire was unremarkable, his eyes shone with an intense light, giving off a sharp and menacing aura.
The black-robed leader surveyed the scene, his voice hoarse as he said, "It looks like Elder Jiang and his group were ambushed and wiped out."
"This time, the 'merchandise,' along with the box, has been taken away."
"A thief among thieves?" someone suggested.
The others angrily retorted, "Who among the underworld would dare to steal our 'merchandise' after we've already made contact? They must have the guts of a demon!"
"People will do anything for money. This 'merchandise' is extremely valuable, so it's not surprising that someone would take the risk," another chimed in.
"Even if it was a thief among thieves, who has the ability to pull this off?"
The leader's eyes narrowed, his gaze sweeping across his companions' faces. "The ground is still warm, and the charred remains indicate the use of an array."
"Arrays are powerful, but they are also complex and time-consuming to set up..."
"This suggests that someone anticipated this and set up the array beforehand. They then used the array's power to ambush and kill Elder Jiang and his group, before making off with our 'merchandise'!"
"They stole our prize right from under our noses!"
"Mr. Tu's calculations are rarely wrong, unless..." The leader's eyes narrowed further, "...unless there's a traitor among us who leaked the information!"
At this suggestion, the faces of the others paled, and they began to protest their innocence.
"Big brother, you know my loyalty..."
"I am devoted to you, big brother!"
"My life is yours, big brother. I even went against our clan's teachings for you..."
"Big brother..."
Each of them tried to assert their loyalty and distance themselves from the accusation.
Seeing their earnest expressions, the leader furrowed his brows and retracted his gaze, his voice cold as he said, "We'll discuss this later. Our priority now is to retrieve the 'merchandise.'"
"The array still has residual warmth, and the sword qi hasn't completely dissipated, indicating that the battle didn't take place long ago. Our target might not be far ahead yet," he analyzed.
After a moment of thought, the black-robed leader asked, "Did any of you notice any suspicious individuals or children on your way here?"
The others exchanged glances, unsure how to respond. They had traveled from different directions to meet up near the eatery, focusing solely on their journey and paying little attention to their surroundings.
The leader let out a low curse. "A bunch of useless fools!"
His eyes, sharp as an eagle's, scanned the surroundings, committing every detail to memory. He was seething with rage, his teeth clenched so tightly that they seemed in danger of shattering.
They were so close!
Just a little further, and they would have obtained the young master with the unique bloodline. Once delivered to Mr. Tu, he would have served as a blood sacrifice to the Divine Master, earning the leader immense favor. With that, even the chance to undergo a life-changing blood transformation wouldn't have been out of reach.
A tiger's lair, a covert operation.
Mr. Tu had planned everything meticulously, and so had he!
And it had all come to this!
The leader's eyes gradually turned bloodshot, the veins in them resembling cracks, giving off a chilling aura. His voice was hoarse and inhuman as he vowed, "I will find out who ruined my plans, and I will devour their flesh and drink their blood..."
"I will make sure you suffer a slow and painful death, and I will consume every one of your friends and family!"
The leader's voice was filled with suppressed rage and a thirst for bloodshed.
The other black-robed cultivators lowered their heads, their faces pale, trembling in fear and silence.
The atmosphere grew heavier, and the scent of blood thickened in the air.
The leader's face contorted, and his hands shook as he took out a flask and gulped down a mouthful of liquor, wiping away the blood that had appeared at the corner of his mouth. Only then did he seem to regain a semblance of calm.
"Pursue them!" he commanded.
The others heaved a sigh of relief and quickly responded, "Yes!"
As they turned to leave, one of the black-robed cultivators stepped toward the door, but before he could cross the threshold, a sudden gust of wind sliced through him, cutting his body into pieces, and his blood splattered everywhere.
A graceful young man with a paper fan appeared in the eatery, his face cold as ice.
"Where's the child?"
His eyes were like icy daggers.
The black-robed leader, recognizing the newcomer, let out a cold laugh. "So, it's Young Master Gu..."
At the same time, dozens of cultivators in uniform robes appeared, surrounding the dilapidated eatery.
The leader glanced at them with disdain. "Dogs of the Court of Dao."
Young Master Gu looked at the leader, his nose wrinkling at the scent of blood emanating from him. "An evil cultivator who has lost his way. Whose skin are you wearing?"
The black-robed leader smiled at Young Master Gu. "In this world, people wear masks of virtue while harboring sinister intentions. Are you any different?"
The black-robed leader pointed to the eatery, his finger trembling slightly. "As you can see, this was the state it was in when I arrived. Whoever took the child you wanted to save is long gone..."
"Perhaps..."
The black-robed leader's smile was sinister. "...he's already been disposed of."
Enraged, Young Master Gu retorted, "Fine, then! Leave your life behind as well, to accompany that child's death!"
The black-roobeader sneered, "With just you, the Gu family, and these Court of Dao lapdogs, you think you can do anything to me...?"
The two sides were at an impasse, and a fierce battle was about to erupt.
Young Master Gu wielded his paper fan with deadly precision, sending razor-sharp gusts of wind slicing through the air towards his opponent.
The black-robed leader, however, seemed reluctant to reveal his full capabilities and relied solely on his physical body and the vile blood energy that surrounded him to counter Young Master Gu's wind blades and the attacks from the Court of Dao cultivators.
As they fought, both sides took care not to damage the eatery, seemingly intent on preserving the clues within.
It was a vicious battle, with neither side holding back.
However, due to the limitations of the second-rate provincial realm they were in, neither Young Master Gu nor the black-robed leader could unleash their full power, making it difficult to truly fight to the death.
The intense battle raged on for half an hour.
Finally, the black-robed leader, badly wounded, managed to escape.
Young Master Gu was also weakened, his breath ragged, indicating significant injuries.
The other black-robed cultivators, on the other hand, lay dead.
Young Master Gu instructed, "Go and make note of these people's appearances. I'll settle the score with them later."
One of the Court officials went to do as instructed and soon returned with a report.
"Young Master, their faces... I can't make them out..."
Young Master Gu stepped forward to inspect the bodies and discovered that these black-robed cultivators had been infected with demon poison. The demonic energy had corrupted their bodies and spiritual roots, leaving behind nothing but a black, putrid mess of flesh, making it impossible to identify them.
Young Master Gu cursed, "A bunch of cowards and scum!"
"Too timid and cowardly!"
"You dare to turn to demon practices but don't have the guts to show your faces!"
With their identities obscured, the only option left was to report them as "missing cultivators" and launch an investigation across the various sects and clans.
However, this approach was futile.
There could be numerous reasons for a cultivator's disappearance.
Some might be delayed during their errands, some might have been assassinated by malicious cultivators, some might be trapped in secret realms, and others might simply have rebellious tendencies, running away from their families out of dissatisfaction with their arrangements...
The possibilities were endless.
It was impossible to conclude that a missing cultivator had turned to demon practices.
Moreover, neither the sects nor the clans would acknowledge such an accusation, much less allow an investigation, as it would jeopardize their cultivation interests and bring shame upon their names.
Young Master Gu's anger grew, and he casually waved his hand, shredding one of the black-robed cultivators into pieces.
But his anger was useless. The priority now was to find the young master's whereabouts.
He, too, had inspected the scene and reached a similar conclusion to that of the black-robed cultivators.
Elder Jiang and his group had been killed or severely injured by a second-rate Earth Fire Array.
This was undoubtedly a premeditated and carefully planned ambush.
No one could have spontaneously decided to set up an array and kill these kidnappers...
If there was a cultivator capable of such a feat, they wouldn't need to resort to such complicated means and could probably eliminate these kidnappers with a mere flick of their fingers.
Additionally, most of the kidnappers had perished from a simple second-rate fireball technique.
This was likely done to conceal their true abilities and give the impression that the kidnappers had been killed by a common, widely-known fireball technique...
No cultivator of any significance would seriously cultivate such a basic technique.
And then, there was the matter of the young master's disappearance...
The black-robed cultivators didn't seem to be lying.
Someone else had beaten them to it and taken the young master...
Young Master Gu furrowed his brows.
"A thief among thieves?"
"Or is there another motive at play..."
"This young master is the product of an alliance between two great families. Who dares to target him? Which sect or cultivator has the audacity to go after him...?"
"And who would dare intercept and 'abduct' the young master in transit, regardless of the consequences and the heavenly laws they would offend?"
"Who has the power to conceal their actions from heavenly sight?"
The most challenging aspect of this case was the concealment of heavenly cause and effect, obscuring the truth from divination.
Who could achieve such a feat?
Young Master Gu's mind was in turmoil.
After a moment, he recalled his cousin sister's anxious and grief-stricken expression, and his heart twisted with worry.
Young Master Gu's eyes turned colder, and despite his injuries, he ordered, "Those with severe injuries, rest for now. The rest of you, follow me to continue the pursuit."
"The spiritual energy here hasn't completely dissipated yet, so we should still be able to track them..."
One of the Court officials, a man named Dian, hesitated and asked, "Young Master, should we continue the pursuit...?"
They had been searching for several days, without rest or food, and the recent battle had exhausted them further. The officials, who were used to a comfortable life and doing the bare minimum, were struggling to keep up.
As members of the Court of Dao, they couldn't be pushed too far, even by the influential Gu family.
Young Master Gu's eyes narrowed, and he replied coldly, "Let me remind you, if anything happens to that young master, I will flay every one of you and strip away the 'skins' you wear!"
Dian's heart skipped a beat as he realized the truth behind the rumors he had heard.
The young master was not from the Gu family! He was...
Dian felt as if he had been doused with cold water, and he shivered involuntarily.
"Rest assured, Young Master Gu. We will do our utmost to find the young master!"
He then scanned the group and added, "Quickly take your healing pills, and as soon as your injuries improve, we'll set off!"
Despite their misgivings and confusion, the officials knew the importance of the task and dared not delay, so they hurriedly tended to their wounds...
Young Master Gu's gaze turned towards the distance, his expression shrouded in a layer of gloom.
"Where has that child, Yu Er, fallen into...?"
...I'll try to squeeze in an extra chapter or two by the end of the month.
I'll also try to get Little Mo a spot in a sect sooner.
Of course, my efforts may not bear fruit.
If I fail, let's just pretend I never said anything...
(End of Chapter)
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