The competitions came to an end, on the alchemist side Hua Qing also won the first place without incident, and returned to the Woyun Sect’s stands with a box of Forget Sorrows Herb. His colourful clothes swept through the air, light and elegant.
“Sure enough, only alchemist Hua can wear such fancy clothes.” The female disciples from other sects were chattering.
“I used to think that men would look ugly if they dressed extravagantly, but having met alchemist Hua I don’t think so anymore.”
“I heard that he is only around one hundred years old!”
Hua Qing, standing tall and erect, looking straight ahead and with his chin faintly raised, nodded at those who gazed at him reverentially. He was nearing the Woyun Sect stands when suddenly, a white figure came rushing in his direction.
The people only saw Qingtong Zhenren suddenly appear and drag alchemist Hua away, which made them think that this shishu was greatly concerned about his shizhi, perhaps he feared that he had exhausted all his strength while refining and thus he could not climb onto the stands. They all sighed with emotion, the atmosphere at Woyun Sect sure was good.
Hua Qing was slapped onto the floor of the Woyun Sect stands by shishu, and fell flat on his face. Fortunately, cultivators had tough and thick skin, so being thrown down like this would not hurt him, but… it was so painful!
“Master, save me!” Hua Qing immediately called for help from his Master. Xuanji stopped weaving hemp rope, looked up at his disciple who had been swatted down by shidi, then elbowed Yu Li, who was crouching beside him playing with water, and motioned for him to help his shixiong stand up.
Yu Li looked up and stared at Master in disbelief, was he asking him to save shixiong? Master, are you sure you’re not sending your disciple to his death?
Unable to rely on his own Master, Hua Qing just pressed his head to the floor and stopped moving, he was very practised in using this strategy, as long as he did not flutter around, shishu would not swat him again.
Qingtong kicked his motionless shizhi for a little while, then got bored and returned to his seat.
Mo Tianliao’s lips twitched, he stepped forward and patted Hua Qing, who was still playing possum, then said, “Shixiong, did you bring the Forget Sorrows Herb?”
Hua Qing kept his face against the ground while he held up a jade box for him.
Mo Tianliao took it, put the jade box containing the Wenyu branch in his hand, got up and returned to his seat, then he slowly opened the jade box. A very beautiful herb lay quietly inside it, its leaves were like bird feathers, composed of many tiny sections.
“This is the Forget Sorrows Herb?” Mo Tianliao asked Taishi.
“Yes, if you eat this, you will forget the past.” There were many people around, so Taishi did not dare transform, he spoke inside Mo Tianliao’s mind.” Think about it carefully, if you give this to the cat, he may forget you.”
Although the Forget Sorrows Herb was a very rare spiritual plant, it could not be compared with the Dixiu tree after all. The Dixiu tree would wash away people’s worries, while the Forget Sorrows Herb might cause people to forget everything.
Mo Tianliao frowned and asked, “What about the Dixiu tree?”
“The Dixiu tree would be better. However, if you are the source of his sorrow, he will still forget you,” Taishi said in a rather desolate tone.
Mo Tianliao’s lips pressed into a thin line, he put the Forget Sorrows Herb in his storage bracelet. Love begat fear and worries, the little furball, who should have always been carefree, had missed him for three hundred years. Therefore, he himself was Qingtong’s greatest sorrow, if Qingtong forgot him, forgot their precious memories… Just thinking about it made his heart hurt like it was about to tear into pieces.
He would absolutely not take this step unless he had to! Anyway, his baby had already accepted him, then that simple way to repair his soul that would not cause them to hurt each other, maybe…
Thinking like this, Mo Tianliao could not help peeking at Master beside him.
“Why are you looking at me for?” Qingtong held his forehead with a hand and squinted at him.
“Nothing, I just want to look at you.” Mo Tianliao leaned close and tried to touch the top of his hair. The place where Qingtong and Xuanji sat had a high back and it was shaped like a couch, his little movements were invisible to the disciples behind.
“Mo shishu, did you really work at the forges of Duantian’s Mo Palace when you were young?” Suddenly a clear voice sounded behind him.
The hand that Mo Tianliao had just stretched out suddenly froze, then retracted slowly. He inwardly cursed this group of inconsiderate brats, turned his head, then putting on a knowledgeable and benevolent smile he said, “Not exactly.”
“Huh?” The female disciple who had asked was obviously made to do so by others, when she got such an answer, she did not know how to proceed.
There were dozens of putuans behind the Elders’ seats, sitting on them were the disciples from their sect who had come to attend the Three Sect Conference. Hearing this, several people had an “I knew he was just bragging” expression on their faces.
Mo Tianliao looked up and happened to see Ding Zijin coming, he carried a box and was followed by Ding Ziyu, who did not look well. He smiled and said, “Tending the fires and working as a blacksmith were only part of my daily routine, my most important task was to serve Lord Duantian’s beloved.”
“Ah?” Many disciples could not help but be curious, “I had heard that Lord Duantian had no partner!”
“Duantian’s beloved was a snow-white cat.” At the same time as Mo Tianliao had his head turned and was talking to everyone, he was also reaching out to Master and holding his hand under the cover of their long sleeves. “My main task every day was to fulfil all of the cat’s basic needs.”
The hand under the long sleeves was scratched by sharp claws, Mo Tianliao grit his teeth. He did not feel much pain, rather he felt a tingling sensation spreading through the back of his hand.
Ding Ziyu happened to hear this sentence and could not help laughing derisively. “Lord Duantian never let anyone touch the cat that he treasured more than life itself.”
Mo Tianliao looked up and secretly glanced at the hint of blue on Ding Ziyu’s wrist. He smiled and said, “Brother Ding only tended the forges at the time, of course he would have no idea about the matters of the inner palace.”
“You…” Ding Ziyu’s face turned red, people had already begun to doubt his status as Lord Duantian’s successor. He had just heard that his brother was going to the Woyun Sect section to see Mo Tianliao, and he had followed him without even having to think about it, he had been planning to once again try and discern this man’s truth. Just now, he had felt that it was a good opportunity to prove himself, so he had spoken rashly.
“Ah, my mistake,” Mo Tianliao said, slapping his own forehead as if he had just remembered something. “Brother Ding later also worked as a blacksmith.”
Ding Zijin bore and forbore, and did not laugh out loud. Although he had failed to win the first prize, this bastard had been thoroughly humiliated, which put him in a great mood. “Brother Mo, this is what I promised you before.”
Mo Tianliao reached out and took the jade box, when he swept his divine sense over it, he found out that there was a Wenyu fruit inside. He could not help raising his eyebrows, now that most of Liuyun Sect’s Wenyu fruits had been lost, the fact that Ding Zijin could still get one was a testament to his abilities.
Ding Ziyu stared fixedly at Mo Tianliao’s face, trying to carefully determine whether he was reborn or not. However, he had had little chance to see Duantian in the Mo Palace. Although he remembered his face, he did not know much about his manner or way of speaking.
Mo Tianliao ignored him, the fish had already been hooked, he was in no hurry. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Ding Zijin, he saw their guests off, sat back in his place, opened the jade box and took out the fresh Wenyu fruit.
“Wenyu fruit?” with his sharp eyes, Hua Qing, who was still hiding to one side, saw the thing inside the box, and immediately leaped closer, his eyes shining. “Shidi, how did you get this?”
“I exchanged it for some materials,” Mo Tianliao shoved off Hua Qing’s reaching hand. “This is for Master to eat.”
Upon hearing Mo Tianliao mentioning his Master, Hua Qing stiffened. He turned his head slowly and was confronted with that pair of beautiful and icy eyes. Just now, he had been so excited that he had somehow forgotten the danger and entered shishu’s hunting range again.
Mo Tianliao took out a jade knife and cut open the Wenyu fruit, the brittle and hard pulp was very firm, no juice spilled out after the first cut. The whole fruit was like an ice sculpture, so much so that little shards fell when it was cut. He frowned slightly, summoned Taishi and turned it into a tortoiseshell-coloured fruit knife, the all-conquering divine weapon cut through this hard thing like it was tofu, and soon the Wenyu fruit was turned into a plate of fruit slices.
Handing the plate to Qingtong, Mo Tianliao said fawningly, “Try it.”
Qingtong took a piece and put it in his mouth, it had no taste. He chewed it, crunch crunch, it was very firm, just right for crushing it between his teeth.
In the end, Hua Qing stood frozen in place, watching helplessly as shishu treated the precious Wenyu fruit as a snack, making crunching sounds with every bite. “Shishu, er…” At least save me a little piece, with my alchemy skills, I would be able to refine a Nascent Soul Pill for sure!
“Hmm?” Qingtong put the last piece in his mouth and looked up at him.
Hua Qing shook. “No-nothing.”
After finishing the fruit, Qingtong turned to look at Mo Tianliao, his beautiful eyes were full of expectation, he seemed to want more.
The look melted Mo Tianliao’s heart, he wanted to give him anything he asked for, but if he took out another fruit right now, it would clearly let the Liuyun Sect know that it was him who had stolen all the fruit. He drew close to Master and whispered in his ear, “Now is not a good time, how about tonight?”
“He can only eat one per day.” Fruit knife Taishi lay on the plate and communicated mentally with its master.
“Right, you shouldn’t it a lot of it or you’ll get a toothache.” Mo Tianliao held the cat’s paw which was trying to get at the fruit. It seemed that he would not be able to leave the fruit with Qingtong.
“It’s not a matter of toothaches!” Taishi had reached the end of its rope. It jumped up, intending to turn into a mouth, but it was quickly caught by Mo Tianliao and turned back into a wristband.
“I know, it has to be slowly digested. I just needed to say something to persuade the cat, I can’t believe that you fell for it too,” Mo Tianliao said inside his mind, full of derision.
“…” Taishi abruptly became mute, if something like this were to happen again in the future, it would not talk even if it was burned to death!
Now that this competition was over, it was time for the main fighting tournament.
“As we all know, Duantian was the best craftsman of the demonic path and maybe of the entire Taixuan continent. His Mo Palace, filled with spiritual treasures and lingshi is comparable to the ancient abode of the immortals. With this admittance token, you can enter and exit Duantian’s Mo Palace whenever you wish.” Liu Mang Zhenren held a token in his hand and spoke in a resounding voice. “My Liuyun Sect spent three hundred years mapping out Duantian’s Mo Palace, all the traps on the outer palace’s fortification have been marked, but whether you can get into the inner palace or not will depend on your own luck”
The Mo Palace was covered in barriers, and both the demonic and righteous paths had joined forces in order to set up another ward, which could only be crossed with a token.
Mo Tianliao smiled, had they said that they had discovered a method for disrupting his array? In reality it was just that there had been no one to supply his Great Mountain Guarding Array with lingshi for many years, after 300 years it was probably ready to collapse, this made some people feel like they had a chance. However, the Mo Palace had too many trap arrays, they needed some sucker to go first and lead the way, that was how they came up with this idea. This kind of token was most likely also being distributed in the demonic path.
“Baby, why didn’t you go add lingshi to our house?” Mo Tianliao asked Qingtong with a smile. From the time he had learnt that Qingtong had found a way to protect his Mo Palace, Mo Tianliao had felt that he had nothing to worry about. That was until the other day, when Lord Kitty mentioned that the Great Mountain Guarding Array’s lingshi was surely almost depleted, and he realized that Qingtong had not set foot in Duantian’s Mo Palace in all this time.
“I don’t know the way,” Qingtong said coldly, dropping his gaze.
Mo Tianliao was stupefied, he thought back carefully, all the trap arrays in the Mo Palace were accessible to Mo Xiaozhao, but at the time, although Lord Kitty had been allowed to run around anywhere, he was so delicate that he would meow and cry until he was carried around after taking only a few steps, that meant that he had never walked alone in the Mo Palace.
“You refuse to return home unless I carry you?” Mo Tianliao’s eyes were smiling, even if he did not know the way, he could have gone in to have a look, anyway, those barriers would never hurt him.
Qingtong did not answer, he leaned against the tiger cushion and closed his eyes. “You can’t get through that ward without a token, so go get one.”
While he was speaking, a Liuyun Sect servant came carrying jade slips that would be used for drawing lots.
Mo Tianliao picked one at random, the servant immediately said, “That’s a Nascent Soul cultivator’s lot, you should pick these ones.”
There were two kinds of jade slips on the tray: yellow and white, the yellow ones were for Golden Core cultivators, the white ones were for Nascent Soul cultivators, Mo Tianliao held a white jade slip between his fingers.
“If you want to compete against Nascent Soul cultivators, then that’s not a problem.” Qingtong opened his eyes and stared at him. Given Mo Tianliao’s methods, it would still be possible for him to defeat a cultivator in the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul level, but it would take some work.
Mo Tianliao put down the white jade slip without hesitation and picked up a yellow one. Why bother if he could get the token easily? He had to win quickly so he could accompany his cat back home properly.
The arena was huge and it was divided into eighteen areas. One only needed to win a single match in order to advance to the next day’s bout.
Mo Tianliao’s section was the second one, located far away from the Woyun Sect’s stands. After the gongs and drums rang three times, he slowly descended on the arena.
“I’m Chao Leng from Qingyun Sect.” A man in a Qingyun sect robe, who was also at the middle stage of the Golden Core level, stood in front of him and saluted him.
Mo Tianliao remembered that the word for the current generation of Qingyun Sect disciples was “super”, he returned the salute. “Woyun Sect’s Mo Tianliao.”
As soon as the words were spoken, a water dragon rushed towards him, Mo Tianliao did not try to dodge, he raised his hand and shot out a huge tree with a dense canopy.
The huge impact force splintered the thick tree, and the water, its power now reduced, quickly rushed to drown Mo Tianliao. From under the water he threw several wooden thorns, water nourished wood, the sharp wooden thorns sped through the water meeting no resistance, forming a triangle and quickly rushing towards his opponent.
Chao Leng had seen that Mo Tianliao had had no chance to dodge thanks to his surprise attack, but unexpectedly, before he had finished using his water dragon, three wooden thorns imbued with spiritual power rushed out of the water, heading straight for his vital organs. The wooden thorns had captured the water’s spiritual power and moved very fast, Chao Leng was startled, he immediately turned the flowing water in front of him into ice.
Mo Tianliao burst out of the water and, tortoiseshell-coloured longsword in hand, he stabbed straight at the ice wall. Chao Leng smiled contemptuously, the ice was thick, how could a three-chi-long sword penetrate it?
When the sword touched the ice, it instantly turned into a spear and pierced the ice wall effortlessly.
Chao Leng was stunned, he quickly gave up on the ice wall, wanting to make a move while the spear was stuck in the ice, but shockingly, the spear turned once more into a sword, instantly cutting open the ice, while at the same time an infinite number of vines attacked him.
Cultivators at the Golden Core level would need to pause briefly after every attack, that was why Chao Leng had used his method, but who would have imagined that there would be no wasted time between this man’s moves. One move came directly after another, it was overwhelming and there was no room for counter-attacking.
Chao Leng did not dare to be careless; he took out his ultimate spiritual treasure, a blue scimitar, and tried with all his might to cut the vines in front of him. At the same time, he shot innumerable icicles at Mo Tianliao.
Mo Tianliao held the vines by one end, a raging fire burst out and ran directly along them, which not only burned Chao Leng, but also easily melted the icicles.
“Aaghhh!” Chao Leng had only seen him use wood-based attacks, he had thought that he only had a wood attribute, he had not expected him to have a wood and fire double spiritual root, he was caught off guard and suffered the full brunt of the attack. He quickly summoned water to put out the fire, and just at that moment, Mo Tianliao leaped closer and kicked him off the martial arts platform.
“You went easy on me.” Mo Tianliao raised his hand, made a casual salute, and returned to the Woyun Sect’s stands on his flying sword.
Chao Leng lay on the ground; he did not recover for a long time. Other people stared at him; the competition had just started but he had lost already?
Regular Golden Core cultivators were extremely easy for Mo Tianliao to take care off. He won without difficulties for three consecutive days, and soon made it into the top 20, getting the token before anyone else.
Ding Ziyu watched Mo Tianliao win match after match easily, he grew more panicky with each victory.
After getting the token, the top 20 people could still compete for another prize, but Mo Tianliao was not going to participate. Ding Ziyu touched his wristband and headed toward the Woyun Sect’s stands. Whether this man was Lord Duantian or not, he had to get rid of him as soon as possible!
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
This is the longest chapter yet! Although soon we’ll get chapters that are even longer.
MTL: “You refuse to return home unless I carry you?” Does that mean we’ll get a scene with MTL carrying Lord Kitty over the threshold?