Kong Xiao sat on his flying sword and ate a spirit fruit with relish. He stared at Qin Mo, who stood beside him, and raised his eyebrows. He pulled out another fruit and chuckled, "Qin Mo-xiong, want some?"
Qin Mo slowly turned and glanced at Kong Xiao from the corner of his eye. "No need."
He returned to a posture that screamed "come no closer," and Kong Xiao shrugged his shoulders. He closed his mouth and whispered, "Boring!"
Huangtian's secret territory was close to Qings.h.i.+ Village. Qings.h.i.+ was a small village brutally ransacked by demonic cultivators.
When they arrived, Qin Mo and Kong Xiao could see a dense, black cloud in the air above Qings.h.i.+ Village. Qin Mo's brow wrinkled. He had never set eyes on something like this foul gas with an unfamiliar odor.
Kong Xiao wore a relaxed expression up until he saw the black fumes, then his complexion changed violently. He stood up, eyes stunned wide, and muttered under his breath, "How can there be such rich yin qi here?"
"Yin qi?" Qin Mo glanced at Kong Xiao.
"Ordinarily, when someone dies, their soul has its place. However, when someone dies tragically, and the soul is unwilling, resentful qi gathers into this black cloud, and a resentful spirit is created." Kong Xiao's face was solemn as he explained. "But here, there's too much yin qi!" His tone took on a trace of incomprehension.
"Let's go check." Qin Mo understood the abnormality now. His sword s.h.i.+fted, and he descended to the ground. He took the lead and walked toward Qings.h.i.+ Village, Kong Xiao following after him.
When they stepped into the village, Qin Mo unconsciously s.h.i.+vered. He could feel a tenebrously cold sensation rush up from the soles of his feet, chill the center of his heart, and his footsteps paused. Then he continued forward.
The entire village was silent. The only sound was that of the wind blowing through the trees. Everything was chaotic, blackened bloodstains and corpses everywhere.
Qin Mo's long books stepped on a dead branch on the ground, and it cracked, breaking the oppressive silence. He stopped, brow wrinkled again. There was something not right.
He jerked his head around only to discover that Kong Xiao was no longer behind him. He was startled. He tightened his grip on Biyou Jian and called out in a low voice, "Kong Xiao?"
There was no response as if he was the only person in the entire village. Only wind echoed in his ear, strange and abnormal.
Qin Mo pursed his thin lips and turned around, prepared to turn back the way he had come. He wanted to find Kong Xiao.
However, a hand reached out from behind him, the palm a little cold, and grabbed Qin Mo's arm. His entire body stiffened, and he remembered there was no one behind him earlier. His hand unconsciously clenched tighter on Biyou Jian, and he s.h.i.+fted into a defensive posture.
"Qin Mo!" a serious, but extremely familiar, voice rang from behind him. Qin Mo's hand shook. He almost couldn't grip the longsword.
He slowly turned. A familiar figure entered his line of sight. He had a head of short hair, wore a pair of gold-framed gla.s.ses, and was dressed in a white suit. His lips were closed, and he looked unusually serious.
"Father!" Qin Mo's lips parted a little, light flickering in his eyes, and he finally spat out that word.
"En!" The man responded lightly. He patted Qin Mo's shoulder and, with both hands behind his back, turned to walk straight ahead. When he found Qin Mo stood still in the same spot, his brow furrowed and he asked, "You won't come home soon?"
"Go home. . ." Qin Mo mumbled, unconsciously stepping toward this man.
The disorderly Qings.h.i.+ Village was nowhere in sight. Instead, the house he had lived in for twenty years was there. And when he stepped inside, Qin Mo could smell food.
A woman stepped out of the kitchen, having heard the noise, and she smiled in their direction. "Quickly, go wash your hands. It's time to eat!"
Qin Mo's eyes warmed. He hadn't seen this scene in years.
But, Qin Mo tightened his grip on Biyou Jian, and the chill of the sword's hilt pooled in the palm of his hand. It cleared his head, and he blinked. A sour pang struck his heart, and his stare lingered on the scene before him. Fake was still fake after all.
He waved the longsword once, and a flash of light flared from the tip. Qin Mo said under his breath, "Dispell!" In an instant, the scene dissipated. Qin Mo felt disoriented for a moment, then saw Kong Xiao standing anxiously in front of him.
A moment ago, Kong Xiao had been walking behind Qin Mo when the one ahead had suddenly stopped. His entire body surrounded by the black fumes. Just then, Kong Xiao remembered that one of these resentful spirits' favorite methods was to trap cultivators in illusions. Once someone indulged in it, they would never wake up again.
Now that Qin Mo was shrouded in the black qi, Kong Xiao's heart was restless. There was nothing he could do, however. The illusion had to be dispelled by the trapped person. Outsiders could not help him.
He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when Qin Mo woke up. Qin Mo truly deserved his reputation. Kong Xiao's gaze swept around them, and his expression darkened.
Qin Mo followed his gaze, and his pupils dilated. The black cloud surrounded them on all sides, and it was filled with resentful spirits.
They floated in the air, their figures drifting. They were a strange black color, and their eyes were crimson. Qin Mo could feel their resentment in the air. This should be the Qings.h.i.+ villagers that were murdered by demonic cultivators. They had all turned into spirits because of the unwillingness in their hearts. They bared fans and brandished claws at Qin Mo and Kong Xiao.
It looked like they intended to rush them, so Qin Mo s.h.i.+fted the longsword in front of him. He wanted to advance and destroy them all, but Kong Xiao held out a hand to stop him.
Kong Xiao shook his head. "It's no use!"
Only then did Qin Mo turned to look at Kong Xiao. Although his expression was severe, there was no fear in his face, and his eyebrows were relaxed.
Qin Mo retreated a step and dusted his clothes. His gaze flashed and he said, "You go take care of them."
"How do you know I can fix this?" Kong Xiao could no longer maintain his expression. Both eyes were wide with surprise.
"Guessed!" Qin Mo answered, taking one look at him.
"Boring!" Kong Xiao mumbled then raised an eyebrow. There was a smile at the corner of his mouth and a proud look on his face. He said to Qin Mo, "Do you know what our Zhengyang Sect used to be called?"
Qin Mo did not reply, but Kong Xiao did not care. He continued with both pride and joy, "We of the Zhengyang used to be called Zhengyang Temple tens of thousands of years ago, practicing the authentic Fo Sect way. Unfortunately, it fell in the end." His voice lowered as he came to a finish.
Qin Mo's heart was slightly shaken. He faintly knew about the Fo practice. It was seemingly very powerful. He would never have thought Zhengyang Sect originated from it.
Kong Xiao's mood was low for a bit, then it soared high again. He glanced at the resentful spirits around them and said, "Our Fo predecessors have pa.s.sed down secrets, and there is one method just for these spirits!"
Kong Xiao flipped over his palm and held both hands close to his chest. He formed a complicated hand seal and a dazzling golden light flowed around him as he chanted, "An, Ma, Ne, Ba, Mi, Hong. Six-Character Greater Light Curse!"
Just as his voice fell, six golden characters appeared in front of him, the six words he had just chanted.
Kong Xiao pushed outward with his hands and the six characters shot out toward the resentful spirits.
"Ah!" The mournful screams echoed continuously, ringing in Qin Mo and Kong Xiao's ears. The spirits were steadily engulfed by the golden characters in the time it took to drink about half a cup of tea, then the black cloud around them vanished without a trace.
The entire village was calm once more, the sky above it clear blue. Almost as if the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre had never occurred.
Qin Mo stood in the same spot for some time. Finally, he sighed and glanced at the corpses around him. He said to Kong Xiao, "Let's bury them."
Kong Xiao was slightly surprised, but when he saw Qin Mo's serious expression, he nodded.
Both of them were in the Foundation Building stage. Moving mountains wasn't possible yet, but moving soil was remarkably easy. It only took a short amount of time to bury everyone in the village.
Afterward, the two cultivators looked at each other then hurried westward. In the direction of Huangtian's secret territory.
The territory was hidden when it wasn't open. Even if everyone under the endless blue sky knew where it was, no one could find it when it was closed.
However, once it was open, a translucent barrier would appear at its boundaries. One could faintly see inside if they stood outside the barrier. And now, Qin Mo and Kong Xiao stood outside that barrier.
Looking at it, Qin Mo slowly reached out a pressed his hand to it. A wave rippled out where palm met the barrier.
"The Huangtian secret territory's reputation precedes it. The concentration of spirit power here is stronger than anywhere else!" Kong Xiao inhaled deeply, eyes narrowed in intoxication.
"En!" Qin Mo nodded in agreement. When he arrived, the lightning fire in him was invigorated and began absorbing the surrounding spirit power. That had never happened before.
The two walked along the territory's boundary but did not find anything strange. Since the Sect Heads were waiting for news, they turned and returned to Zhengyang Sect.