The whole Mo Palace was sealed by a transparent barrier which could only be entered with the token. However, because Duantian’s Mo Palace was so big, this barrier was actually made of various layers added one after another. There was no gap anywhere and the only way through was to be teletransported directly inside using an array.
The people from the Demonic Path and the Righteous Path stood facing each other, their appearance as different as night and day. They glared across the space separating them.
Most of the Elders from the demonic sects were in the Nascent Soul stage, a far cry from the Elders of the Righteous Path, but still better than many people. Time passed as they stared silently, the atmosphere becoming increasingly tense.
“This is a relic left by a Lord of our Demonic Path, it’s only proper that we should go first,” The Elder of the Thousand Ghosts Sect said with an eery smile.
All of the people from the Thousand Ghosts Sect had their faces painted like evil spirits, they made anyone who gazed at them shiver in fright.
“Then, since the greatest cultivators of the ancient past all belonged to the Righteous Path, if in the future someone were to discover one of their Abodes, people from the Demonic Path should all give way!” Liu Bi flung her handkerchief and said with a sneer.
“It’s decided then, according to these rules, we’ll go in first.” The Elder of the Thousand Ghosts Sect promptly waved his hand, preparing to bring his people inside, seemingly accepting Liu Bi’s words. Of course, some thought would make it obvious that that was not the case. This was mere talk, for now they would go in first, and if some ancient cultivator’s Abode were to be indeed discovered later, would they bother to talk about rules with these bunch of hypocrites at that point?
The people from the Righteous Path obviously understood the implied message and naturally felt displeased.
“Your Thousand Ghosts Sect was one of the main culprits of Lord Duantian’s death. If you are the first to go in aren’t you afraid that Lord Duantian would come out to have a nice little chat with you?” Mo Tianliao asked leisurely from under his cloak.
When the people from the Thousand Ghosts Sect, full of valiant airs, heard this, they could not help freezing for a moment.
When Grand Elder Kugu had still been alive, the Thousand Ghosts Sect had been one of the best even among the top ten demonic sects. With the Soul-devouring Banner crafted by Mo Tianliao, Grand Elder Kugu, even with his Nascent Soul level cultivation, had been able to act like an overlord in the Demonic Path. But man’s greed is like a snake that wants to swallow an elephant, when Duantian had been besieged and killed, Elder Kugu had been one of the people leading the attack.
“How did you find out about that, brat?” The Thousand Ghosts Sect’s Elder narrowed his eyes and stared at Mo Tianliao whose face was hidden under his cloak. “And how can someone from the Righteous Path be so secretive?”
“I worry that if I were to lift my cloak, I’d scare you,” Mo Tianliao said, still relaxed, angering the people from the demonic sects half to death.
“You impertinent little brat!” This Elder was at the late period of the Nascent Soul stage, he did not really care about Liu Bi’s words, but to be disrespected by a Junior in the early period of the Nascent Soul stage naturally made him furious. He directed an energy blast at Mo Tianliao.
The hit had not yet connected when it was slapped back by Qingtong.
The blow from the white jade-like palm was more than twice the size as that of the Thousand Ghosts Sect’s Elder, it instantly devoured the blast and flew directly towards him.
The man’s face twisted, he immediately focused his qi in order to resist, but he was still pushed back three steps by the force of the impact. Only now did these people found out that the youth in the cloak was protected by Qingtong Zhenren of Woyun Sect and must be his most favoured disciple.
“All right, stop fighting!” Yun Song exerted his powerful Half-Immortal aura and said in a resounding voice. “Only five people at a time can be transported inside the barrier, so it’s impossible for any sect to go first in its entirety.”
“If that’s the case, let’s send five people from our Woyun Sect first,” Mo Tianliao took Qingtong’s arm and said with a laugh. He looked very arrogant, evidently, he was the kind of guy who hid behind his Master’s protection to insult people.
“When it comes right down to it, the Qingyun Sect is the leader of the Righteous Path, it’s only right that our sect should go first.” The people of the Qingyun Sect immediately disagreed, and one of its disciples interjected angrily.
“Chao Fan, be quiet!” Yun Song shouted at his disciple. The Qingyun Sect always prided themselves on their noble character, they must never lower themselves to the level of an ignorant boy from the Woyun Sect.
“How about this? All sects will send one person,” Yun Yuan suggested. “Five people can be sent at a time, so all five people should be from different sects, that’s fair.”
Mo Tianliao lowered his head, hiding the smile turning up the corners of his mouth. This Yun Yuan was really so considerate of Lord Duantian’s possessions. Five people from different sects, both from the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path. When the time came, all it would take was one single word of discord, and people would start fighting even before they could go find the treasure. Even if they found anything, all these people would just end up killing each other.
Yun Song, absolutely convinced about his right to be in charge, began to organize the people from the Righteous Path. The people from the demonic sects ended up accepting this plan for some reason.
“They doubt the map given by Liuyun Sect,” Xuanji whispered.
Ding Ziyu had drawn a map of Duantian’s Mo Palace marked with all the traps and arrays in it. As a gesture of generosity, Liuyun Sect had shown this map to the three major sects and even sent a copy to the demonic sects.
However, the people in the demonic sects suspected the Liuyun Sect of foul play, unsurprisingly believing that the copy sent to them had been tampered with. In their view, it would be much safer to follow after the disciples of the Righteous Path.
Mo Tianliao raised his eyebrows. It seemed that whether he had intervened or not it would have eventually become like this, but he still had much work to do.
Meng Hu, as a “spiritual pet”, had to go with Qingtong, but he still took one allotted space, despite the fact that a spiritual pet that had made a blood pact used the same token as their Master.
Meng Hu, who had Hua Qing’s token, pretended like he did not have one as he followed Master.
Thanks to his previous insolent words, Mo Tianliao was placed in the last group by Yun Song. Seeing everyone go in one by one, he could only wait.
Top-grade lingshi was embedded in the four corners of the teletransportation array. Five people stood in their respective places, confirmed that they had their token, activated the array, then instantly disappeared.
Watching these people daring to go into his Mo Palace so brazenly was like seeing a large mischief of rats swarming into his home, he could not even articulate just how disgusting it felt. Fortunately, he had a guard cat.
Thinking of this, Mo Tianliao could not resist smirking as he looked up at the distant mountains.
Duantian’s Mo Palace covered a hundred li; surrounded by desolate cliffs lacking any type of vegetation, it looked harsh and cold. On the face of the highest mountain, the word “Duantian” was engraved in flamboyant characters.
The way it was written gave off an air of extreme arrogance. If one were to look at it too closely, the power contained in the word would enrapture one’s heart, as if one could truly sense the sky burning and earth-shaking might of the person who had carved it.
“Duantian has been dead for three hundred years, yet the mark of his soul on this word still remains!” Yun Song, as the person in charge of the array, had not left, he was also looking at the word. Abruptly, he released his divine soul and it rushed straight towards the characters.
Mo Tianliao felt a shock inside his mind, caused by Yun Song’s attempt to erase his soul mark on the word.
His lips curled in a sneer. The reason he had left an impression of his soul was, one, to intimidate people, and two, in order to be able to sense the situation outside the Mo Palace. Since he had dared to leave his mark there, he was obviously not afraid of people trying to destroy it.
Mo Tianliao narrowed his eyes, with a thought, the word “Duantian” instantly lit up with a black glow.
“Ugh…” Yun Song groaned and his divine soul was immediately sent back into his body, making him stumble where he stood.
Yun Song had bitten more than he could chew and the people from the demonic sects looked at him with derision. Lord Duantian had been the best craftsman in the Taixuan continent, the strength of his divine soul had been comparable to that of a Demonic Beast, who knew how many people had courted death by trying to attack that “Duantian” sign before, but they had all been taught a painful lesson.
“Impossible!” Yun Song stared at the characters carved on the cliff in disbelief. Once the cultivator died, their soul was destroyed, so the marks left by their divine soul would also fade. Just like the storage bracelet that Mo Tianliao had picked up, even if the cultivator had been someone who was about to soar, once he had been killed by divine lightning, his divine soul had disappeared and the storage bracelet had become ownerless.
Even if Duantian had used some special technique to keep his mark on the things he had crafted, his mark remained after he had been dead for 300 years; it did not make any sense.
An inconceivable idea flashing in his mind, Yun Song looked at the people from the demonic sects, but he did not find anything amiss. The people of the Demonic Path had reached the point of blind worship when it came to Mo Tianliao. Before he could ponder it further, it was Mo Tianliao’s turn to use the array. Apart from this final group, there were only Yun Song and two Elders from the demonic sects left.
Standing on the teletransportation array, Mo Tianliao squeezed his token in the palm of his hand, looked at the now pale Yun Song outside the array, and smirked slightly. “What is Elder Yun Song afraid of? It was your shixiong Yun He who killed Duantian. Even if Duantian did not really die, he would not do anything to Elder Yun Song.”
When Yun Song heard this, his eyes instantly became as big as saucers, but before he had time to say anything, the array activated and Mo Tianliao disappeared.
Mo Tianliao was in a group with three people from the demonic sects and one person from Qingyun Sect. White light flashed before his eyes and his body seemed to turn over in the vacuum several times, making him dizzy. After a moment, the five people were thrown into a patch of wasteland.
“Ah!” The disciple from Qingyun Sect exclaimed, finding himself at the very edge of a cliff and therefore getting a fright.
“Something’s not right!” Said one of the people from the demonic sects standing quickly, his complexion looked a little off. A teletransportation array was usually very stable, even if there were several exit points, they should all be in one fixed place, so they should be able to see the people who had come before them. But now there was no one around and they were standing on a cliff, it did not look like the exit that had been set up.
“The array is broken,” Mo Tianliao said with a malicious laugh. He patted the dust off his body and looked around.
This was the outskirts of the Mo Palace rather than the main entrance, not far from where the word “Duantian” was engraved on the mountain. He did not know what the people who had set up the array were thinking.
“This was an array made by Master Ding. How could it break?” The man from Qingyun Sect was unconvinced.
“Ding Hu?” Mo Tianliao froze for a second, then immediately burst out laughing. The person’s divine soul would be used when drawing a teletransportation array. If the array was unstable, that meant that either the skill of the person was low, or that their soul had been damaged. That being the case, it seemed that he had really burned that dotard Ding Hu’s soul.
The people from the demonic sects were preparing to go towards the gap in the Great Mountain Guarding Array, as had been previously discussed by all the sects.
The reason why everyone had come was because the Mo Palace’s Great Mountain Guarding Array kept getting weaker and because there was now a map. However, even until today the large array had not stopped working, and they were anxious to go in. The only entrance was the gap that had been opened when the Mo Palace had been attacked three hundred years ago, that is to say, the blood-drenched mountain.
The group headed that way while warily keeping an eye on each other but Mo Tianliao did not follow them.
“You go right ahead. I need to go find the rest of my sect first.” Mo Tianliao waved his hand and indicated that they should get lost.
They were not part of the same sect, so naturally no one tried to persuade him. Deciding to mind their own business, they all left.
With a mocking smile, Mo Tianliao turned and started walking in the opposite direction. His Great Mountain Guarding Array would change every few days, so the breach that had been opened 300 years ago would not work now. However, the array was weak and there were people in the Half-Immortal period present, it was only a matter of time before the array was broken. He had to repair it quickly.
As for why he was not following the crowd… As the owner of the house, why would he follow the thieves climbing over the wall when he could use the front door?
“Cats can be used to catch rats”
Carpenter: Xiaozhao, there are rats!
Xiaozhao: And my cold spring fish?
Carpenter: *As if laying an offering at an altar* Done
Xiaozhao: And my scratching post?
Carpenter: *Rolling his sleeves* Ready
Carpenter: *Opens array* Caught
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
I can’t even look at this any more Let me know if it’s an incoherent mess.
Next time… The happy couple will finally get to cross the threshold