Chapter 1248: Elder You

Chapter 1247: Elder You

“Being watched?”

A chill flickered through Elder You’s heart. He stood up, walked a slow circle around the room, then released his Divine-Sense to scan both inside and out. Nothing. Not a trace of anyone. His brows furrowed deeply.

“There’s truly no one…”

“Could it be… some ancient monster is spying on me?”

Elder You shook his head, fingers brushing the object hidden within his sleeve. His eyes dimmed with thought, and after a moment he sighed softly.

“Forget it. Business first…”

He placed a jade slip beneath a teacup, then swept his sleeve and left. His figure gradually faded into the distance, vanishing amid the mountain valley.

The teahouse fell silent. Not a soul remained.

Nothing stirred.

Half a day passed—still no movement.

Then, within the shifting shadows of the void, Elder You’s figure reappeared.

As if he had never left at all.

He approached the jade slip, examining it quietly.

Within it were inscribed key pieces of information, radiating a powerful wave of karmic resonance.

Others might not have noticed, but one who understood karmic cause & effect would recognize it at a glance.

Yet he had left the jade slip untouched for half a day, and there were no traces of disturbance, no signs of karmic divination or peering. Elder You frowned, his thoughts turning inward.

“My body is hidden by the Hua Family’s ‘Splendid Concealment Robe.’ My aura is masked by the treasure gifted by the Ancestor Patriarch. No one could possibly detect me. This jade slip, however, contains fragments of great secrets. Though only hints and scattered words, the karmic force is intense. If anyone truly lurked nearby, whether out of curiosity or calculated cunning, they could never resist taking a peek…”

Yet after feigning departure and waiting in ambush for half a day, he had gained nothing.

That could only mean… this place truly… had no one.

At that realization, Elder You grew restless and slightly regretful.

This was an age of grand contention, the world ever shifting, every faction scheming incessantly. Each moment was precious beyond measure.

And he had wasted half a day merely to bait an imaginary fish.

Time was money.

Time was spirit stones.

Frustration flared within him. He retrieved the jade slip, wasted no more time, and departed swiftly under his rain cloak.

From afar, Mo Hua watched in silence.

His gaze was calm as still water, but his heart was far from tranquil—burning, in fact, with torment.

Tormented by curiosity.

Tormented by a Taotie-like hunger, a devouring thirst for unknown karma.

He truly wanted to seize that jade slip Elder You had left behind.

Though he had no idea what was inside or what secrets it contained, his karmic intuition told him clearly that his “desire” was not lying.

Yet Mo Hua endured.

He knew Elder You was fishing for him.

In fact, these little tricks were ones Mo Hua himself had long since mastered and discarded.

Even so, he could not suppress the agony of “desire denied.”

After all, bait only tempts fish because it is delicious, irresistible to instinct.

The “bait” Elder You had dropped continued to stir Mo Hua’s heartstrings.

Even after Elder You departed, the lingering pull remained.

The bait might be false.

But Mo Hua knew well… even if it was fake, empty, or meant to tempt him, the scent of karma upon it was real. The Hua Family was scheming toward something far greater.

The Hua Family was profiteering from war.

Yet it seemed their aims reached beyond mere profit.

Mo Hua turned, watching the round, well-fed, seemingly genial figure that had vanished into the distance, his expression thoughtful. He had not expected to encounter Elder You here.

From the demonic sects of Qianxue Prefecture, to the Great Wilderness Sect in Desert City, and now to this famine-ridden barbaric land—Elder You’s shadow had appeared everywhere.

This plump, unassuming elder had moved across too many domains, meddled in too many affairs. He was clearly no ordinary figure. His status within the Hua Family could not be simple.

Mo Hua’s eyes glinted. Knowing the area was unsafe, he did not linger. Remaining invisible, he quietly departed.

After returning to the Shugu Tribe’s main camp, within the hall of the Lord Shaman, and ensuring no one was nearby, Mo Hua finally calmed himself to ponder the chain of events and his next course of action.

First, Jin Wutu.

Mo Hua had long known this man was an important “catalyst,” which was why he had saved him from Lu-Gu’s hand.

Yet now it seemed he had underestimated Jin Wutu.

The man’s “role” in this web was far from minor.

He was not merely a “traitor” to the Shugu Tribe.

He was a Barbarian Collaborator—one who felt shame for his savage heritage and longed to reach Dao Prefecture, the so-called holy land of cultivation, in hopes of “rebirth” and transformation.

Jin Wutu could not yet be killed.

He was Elder You’s “piece” on the board. Kill him, and the pattern of Elder You’s game would blur.

Then what of Elder You himself?

Could he be killed?

The thought had indeed crossed Mo Hua’s mind.

Elder You was of the Hua Family—a “living piece” traveling across the lands, perhaps even serving as an agent directly connected to the Hua Family Patriarch. His importance was self-evident.

If Elder You died, the Hua Family Patriarch would lose a crucial agent. Their entire strategy across the Great Wilderness would falter. Even if not wholly destroyed, they would lose vital momentum.

In such a chaotic era of power struggles, a single missed step could spell slow death. The Hua Family’s grand design would inevitably suffer.

Yet could Elder You truly be killed?

Mo Hua frowned deeply.

From what he had overheard, Elder You was most likely a direct subordinate of the Hua Family Patriarch.

Would the Patriarch truly allow anyone to kill such a vital piece?

If Mo Hua struck him down, what greater consequences might follow?

Moreover…

Though Elder You appeared to be only an early-stage Golden Core cultivator, was that really all he was?

Those who appeared powerful were often the easiest to read.

The truly dangerous were those who hid their depth behind an ordinary shell.

A simple Golden Core early-stage opponent, Mo Hua could slay with ease.

Yet this Elder You—Mo Hua could not grasp his measure.

Sitting upon the Shaman’s seat, he pondered long. Elder You seemed easy to kill, yet when Mo Hua truly resolved to do it, he found no clear point of attack.

“Forget it… not yet.”

His eyes narrowed.

Whether or not Elder You could be killed, any action now would only alert the snake.

The urgent matter was to extract resources from the Hua Family first.

In a year of famine, materials were scarce.

The Hua Family, on the other hand, was thriving through exploitation, hoarding vast supplies—especially Fasting Pills, which were of exceptional value.

He needed to find a way to shear some wool from that fat sheep, perhaps even carve off a piece of its flesh.

But how?

Mo Hua began deducing through karmic derivation.

After a brief while, his brows knit together.

He had intended to trace the Hua Family through Jin Wutu.

However, though Jin Wutu was Elder You’s “piece” and a loyal “dog,” Elder You was too shrewd to leave any real handles on him.

That meant the only path forward lay in Elder You himself.

He would have to divine Elder You’s connections to the Hua Family, what he had done for them, what powers and locations were involved.

Mo Hua had been reluctant to calculate Elder You, knowing the elder was a “living piece.” To divine him was like divining a decoy target.

Yet in the current situation, no other option remained.

He began the calculation—and to his surprise, traces emerged.

Fragments of mountains and landscapes where Elder You had recently appeared surfaced in his karmic vision.

Consulting local maps, Mo Hua compared the details carefully, and finally located a small peak to the southwest that matched perfectly with what he had seen.

That must be the place Elder You frequented recently.

Elder You was a “merchant.”

Where he lingered likely hid his “capital”—his goods.

Most probably, a large stock of Fasting Pills.

Whether there might be greater secrets there remained uncertain.

After brief deliberation, Mo Hua began preparing an assault.

Karmic action depends on timing; the sooner one acts, the fewer the variables.

Within half a day, his plans were ready. He summoned Lu-Gu, along with ten Golden Core cultivators and a thousand barbarian warriors, to move swiftly and lightly toward Elder You’s supposed base.

Lu-Gu, now the Grand Chieftain, should not have needed to charge into battle himself, but with the Shugu Tribe’s only late-stage Golden Core combatant being him, there was no alternative.

Moreover, the mission was no trivial matter.

Yet when the group arrived at the small mountain, they suddenly fell into an ambush.

A band of barbarian cultivators in black surged forward, attacking ferociously. Their weapons were coated with poison—clearly a premeditated trap.

Strangely, Mo Hua’s deductions of causality had shown no sign of this ambush.

Though a simple trap, it was entirely beyond his expectation—a danger his casual arts had failed to reveal. This was the first time such a thing had occurred in all his campaigns.

Failure and setback are natural in all endeavors.

Yet to the sharp-minded, disciplined Mo Hua, this was both a warning and a sign from Heaven itself.

Heaven was reminding him… beyond Heaven there is another Heaven, beyond man another man.

There are countless powers in this world.

His art of causality is not omnipotent.

Fortunately, despite the ambush, the overall situation was not dire, for Lu-Gu’s strength as a late-stage Golden Core cultivator was formidable.

Moreover, since becoming the Great Chieftain, his prestige and status had risen, stabilizing his Dao Heart and strengthening his cultivation even further.

With Chieftain Lu-Gu leading the charge, the black-clad attackers could not withstand the assault.

Lu-Gu cut through them like a blade through mist, slaughtering freely as the enemy scattered in panic.

However, when the Shugu warriors stormed into the stronghold, they found it empty—no people, no cargo.

Worse still, the mountain peak itself was a trap, laced with numerous explosive formations.

Fortunately, Mo Hua was an exceptionally skilled formation master.

Though he could not divine these dangers through causality, his eyes as a formation expert immediately perceived them.

He swiftly ordered the barbarian soldiers to retreat, preventing heavy casualties.

Even so, a small number of barbarian warriors perished forever beneath the collapsing mountain.

Mo Hua’s expression grew grim.

Lu-Gu glanced at him, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately said nothing.

Lord Shaman naturally had his own intentions. Many matters contained hidden mysteries that were best left unquestioned—one simply followed orders.

This had become a near-universal understanding within the Shugu Tribe.

Even Lu-Gu, as Great Chieftain, had gradually come to accept it.

…

Meanwhile, several hundred li away, within a newly constructed hidden base, Elder You was caressing a white jade pendant engraved with nine lotus flowers and imbued with intricate Heavenly Secret patterns. A faint, cold smile curved upon his lips.

“A three-legged cat’s Causality Art dares to calculate me?”

“For a matter of such great importance, how could the Patriarch fail to guard against petty tricks like these?”

The jade pendant in Elder You’s hand gleamed faintly, suffused with the radiance of heavenly mysteries, as though warning him of ill-intentioned gazes probing through fate itself.

Moments later, his expression cooled again as he murmured to himself:

“Still… to be able to trace causality to me at all… that indeed takes some skill.”

“Who exactly is calculating me?”

“Could it be… the Shugu Tribe?”

One by one, the notable figures of the Shugu Tribe flashed through Elder You’s mind—Lu-Gu, the remaining four of the original Six Freaks of Shugu, Tie Shù-Gu, and those colluding with the tribe, such as Chì-fēng and Dan-Zhu.

These individuals, though capable and strong, did not seem to possess such deep and meticulous scheming.

Elder You’s thoughts inevitably returned to that fair-faced youth he had already taken note of before.

He could not help it—the contrast was too striking.

Most barbarian cultivators were tall, robust, and bronze-skinned.

Even the fair and handsome Dan-Zhu possessed the Vermilion Bird’s unique crimson eyes and a tall, exotic presence.

Only that fair-faced youth looked solemn and sacred, with delicate brows and eyes—his beauty gentle and refined.

It was not a face of the Great Wilderness at all; it looked more like…

Someone from Dao Prefecture?

Elder You’s brows furrowed tightly.

He did not recognize that face—it seemed unfamiliar—yet there was a strange, elusive sense of familiarity, as though he had known that youth long ago.

“This so-called ‘Shaman’… who exactly is he? Could it be that he is not the puppet Lu-Gu promoted to win hearts?”

“Has it been this fair-faced youth manipulating everything behind the scenes?”

“What… is his true origin?”

Elder You’s plump cheeks were filled with stern solemnity.

(End of this Chapter)