Chapter 1328: Bully

Chapter 1327: Bully

The frail young barbarian slave, pointed at by Mo Hua, wore a look of utter bewilderment.

Situ Jian was also somewhat puzzled.

But when Little Senior Brother acted, there was always deeper meaning, something not for junior disciple like him to easily comprehend.

Situ Jian nodded and instructed:

“Someone, buy that barbarian slave and hand him over to Little Senior Brother.”

With the young master’s order given, a Golden Core elder of the Situ clan responded with a “Yes,” then went to summon the steward. The slave’s chains were removed, he was given a slightly more presentable coarse linen outfit, bound with rope, and led before Mo Hua.

Mo Hua examined the boy, paying particular attention to his eyes.

The youth was thin and weak, yet his eyes were bright and carried a certain depth. Though his expression was respectful, there was an unyielding defiance hidden in his gaze.

Mo Hua could even sense, within his Divine-Sense, a trace of hatred born from the annihilation of his clan.

As Mo Hua scrutinized him, the young barbarian slave felt, for reasons he couldn’t explain, as though everything about him had been seen through, body, mind, even soul. He dared not lift his head to meet Mo Hua’s eyes.

Mo Hua said nothing more, only, “Take him back.”

Thus, the young barbarian slave was brought back to the Situ clan’s encampment.

After arriving and entering the main hall of the Situ clan residence, with no one else around, Situ Jian finally asked in a low voice:

“Little Senior Brother, why did you take this boy?”

Mo Hua replied, “I plan to travel around the surrounding areas to observe the situation. I’ll need a guide. This boy is suitable.”

Situ Jian said, “I can accompany you.”

Mo Hua shook his head. “You’re the young master. You have many responsibilities. There’s no need for you to follow me around for such trivial matters.”

Situ Jian said regretfully, “Alright then…”

He truly didn’t have the time, and the clan elders would never tolerate him spending all day idling about behind Little Senior Brother.

Though he dearly wished to stay with Mo Hua, to talk more and exchange ideas, circumstances simply wouldn’t allow it.

Situ Jian sighed. “Then Little Senior Brother, take care of yourself. If you need anything, be sure to come find me.”

“Alright.” Mo Hua smiled, patted Situ Jian on the shoulder, and said,

“Sometimes, kindness and upright intent are gifts from Heaven, spiritual insight bestowed through karmic merit. Your way of thinking is actually the right one. If something truly cannot be done, you may compromise in action, but never compromise in your heart.”

Hearing this, Situ Jian’s gaze became much clearer. He nodded. “Yes.”

…

Night fell.

Inside his room, Mo Hua pored over maps of the Royal Capital Region.

Elsewhere, two Golden Core elders of the Situ clan went to pay a visit to Grand Elder Situ Wei.

“That young Master Mo spent some time walking around the barbarian encampment with Young Master Jian. They spoke privately, and it seems the young master was deeply affected…”

Situ Wei’s eyes were dim as he asked calmly, “What did they talk about?”

“We don’t know the details,” one elder replied. “Only that it likely involved the matter of barbarian slaves. That Mo fellow seems to be teaching the young master how to conduct himself…”

Situ Wei nodded slightly. “I understand. Continue to observe.”

“Yes, Grand Elder.”

The two elders withdrew.

Situ Wei sat alone in the silent chamber, beneath ornate and luxurious carved beams and painted pillars, like a distorted puppet of power. His expression was dark, his voice cold to the extreme.

“To dare instigate the young master and undermine my clan’s foundation… that boy truly doesn’t know what’s good for him.”

…

The next day, Mo Hua personally led that young barbarian slave through the mountains surrounding the Royal Capital Region, investigating the conditions of the various tribes.

The boy served as his guide.

Accompanying them was also a Golden Core elder of the Situ clan.

Nominally, the elder was there as a guard to protect Mo Hua’s safety, but what his true purpose was, Mo Hua knew perfectly well.

He didn’t mind. Acting within the Situ clan’s territory, being watched was inevitable.

For several days thereafter, Mo Hua traversed mountains and rivers throughout the Royal Capital Region, visiting various places to understand the situation.

Without investigation, it was impossible to grasp reality.

And after seeing things firsthand, he realized just how tragic the state of the Royal Capital Region truly was.

The Dao Court wars, the rebellions in the Great Wilderness—wherever war reached, the people were left destitute. Great clans continuously annexed land, seized populations, and trafficked barbarian slaves.

The misery of the Royal Capital Region was even worse than that of the Desolate Wilderness.

Because those oppressing them were the great clans of the Nine Provinces.

“Those not of our kind are surely different at heart.”

In the eyes of many Nine Provinces cultivators, these barbarian cultivators weren’t even considered human. They were outsiders—barbarians. Killing them, selling them, even humiliating them for amusement was seen as entirely normal.

Moreover, this was cultivation warfare, there was little room for mercy.

Everything appeared, in a way, perfectly reasonable.

And that was precisely the problem, everything seemed reasonable.

Everyone pursued profit naturally, exploited war naturally, and treated human lives as worthless weeds… naturally.

Too natural…

This made Mo Hua recall what Elder Zheng had once told him in the Qianxue Prefecture about the “Great Demon Hall.”

“Righteous and evil are one body, mutually infiltrating, mutually transforming…”

“To eradicate evil is righteousness, yet the righteous path itself may, without notice, transform into evil…”

Tens of thousands of years ago, the Great Demon Hall used humans as cultivation fuel, committing endless atrocities and plunging all living beings into misery.

Countless righteous cultivators had sacrificed their lives, shedding blood and giving their heads, to overthrow the Great Demon Hall and establish the unified Dao Court.

Yet now, the actions of the great clans under the Dao Court had begun to blur the line between righteousness and evil.

More fatal still was the fact that, because the benefits were immense, almost everyone tacitly accepted this state of affairs and ignored that boundary.

Even those who noticed couldn’t change anything.

Worse, those who tried to change it were likely to be labeled “aberrations,” busybodies, or mentally unsound.

At this very moment, Mo Hua felt this more clearly than ever before.

He looked up at the sky, observing the Heavenly Secrets of the Great Wilderness, and felt that the heavens were now interwoven with filthy and clear energies, increasingly difficult to distinguish.

The grand pattern of heaven and earth, the judgment of righteousness and evil, was undergoing another round of infiltration and transformation, nearing a critical imbalance. All it would take was a single spark, and everything would erupt, triggering unpredictable changes across heaven and earth.

If another great calamity befell the world, what would become of the cultivators under heaven, especially those at the very bottom?

Mo Hua looked toward the barbarian slaves nearby, enslaved, whipped, humiliated, and felt a deep discomfort in his heart.

A doubt arose within him.

All cultivators under heaven speak of cultivating the Dao and seeking immortality.

But are they truly cultivating the “Dao”? Are they truly seeking “immortality”?

With hearts full of selfish desire—burning, killing, plundering, enslaving, oppressing—can that really be cultivation of the Dao? Can it truly lead to immortality?

If slaughter and plunder do not accord with the Heavenly Dao, and immortality is not achieved this way at all… Then what exactly are these great clans tirelessly pursuing?

Following their current path, what kind of monstrous thing will they ultimately cultivate?

The Dao… or calamity?

An indescribable sense of unease arose in Mo Hua’s heart, his thoughts growing somewhat chaotic.

He could have chosen to ignore everything, to quietly wait for the right moment to form his Golden Core, preserve his own life, and seek his own opportunities.

But he couldn’t deceive himself.

What he had seen, he couldn’t pretend not to have seen.

He couldn’t not care, just because others didn’t.

He knew clearly that if no one intervened, the barbarian cultivators of the Royal Capital Region would be left with only two choices: death, or a fate worse than death.

Having learned the Heavenly Secrets, the world he saw was different from that of ordinary people. Cause and effect, righteousness and wickedness, good and evil, all were starkly clear to him.

“Heaven cherishes life…”

Mo Hua sighed softly in his heart.

When the nest is overturned, how can any eggs remain intact? Under great calamity, how can there be any talk of people’s livelihood? Those who should be saved must be saved, whether in the Dao Court, the Nine Provinces, or the Great Wilderness.

Perhaps this… is the Dao.

…

Mo Hua sought out Situ Jian and briefly explained his thoughts.

While the Royal Court had not yet been breached and there was still a small window of time, they should do their best to carve out some paths of survival for the barbarian slaves of the Royal Capital Region.

Otherwise, once the Royal Court fell and chaos erupted, no one knew how many of these barbarian slaves would still be alive.

And by then, he himself would have to go to the Royal Court to probe the Dragon Pool and seek his opportunity to form the Golden Core, he would no longer have the time to concern himself with the life and death of these barbarian slaves.

Situ Jian frowned. “Little Senior Brother, about this matter…”

Mo Hua asked, “What’s wrong?”

Situ Jian lowered his voice. “Little Senior Brother, if this were the Great Void Sect, I would definitely spare no effort to help you. But our Situ clan may not think the same way, especially the upper echelons, and Grand Elder Situ Wei. He’s not someone easy to deal with…”

At the mention of Situ Wei, Mo Hua suddenly felt a hint of doubt. “Isn’t your Situ clan a Fourth-Grade clan?”

Situ Jian nodded. “It is Fourth-Grade.”

“Then your Grand Elder Situ Wei is at late Golden Core, right? A late Golden Core cultivator can serve as the Grand Elder of a Fourth-Grade clan?” Mo Hua asked.

Situ Jian shook his head. “Normally, the Grand Elder of a Fourth-Grade clan should be at the Feathered Ascension realm. But the previous Grand Elder encountered problems in cultivation and went into seclusion to recuperate. At the same time, rebellion broke out in the Great Wilderness. Elder Wei already had prestige within the clan, sufficient merits, and late Golden Core cultivation, so he temporarily assumed the position of Grand Elder and took charge of front-line coordination.”

Mo Hua nodded slightly.

After a moment of silence, Situ Jian spoke more covertly:

“Elder Wei… has deep roots in the Situ clan and immense influence. I… can’t defy his orders.”

Mo Hua chuckled lightly. “It’s fine. As long as he’s not at Feathered Ascension, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Situ Jian froze.

After speaking, Mo Hua handed a jade slip to Situ Jian and said:

“Use the Situ clan’s channels to summon everyone on this list under my name. I’ll host a meal and have some things to discuss with them.”

Situ Jian paused, took the jade slip, and glanced at it. “Everyone?”

Mo Hua nodded. “Everyone.”

Mo Hua was not from a noble clan. If not for having met Situ Jian, it would not have occurred to him that under the system of aristocratic clans, the distortion inflicted upon these geniuses’ Dao-hearts was actually extremely severe.

And the fate Situ Jian faced was surely not his alone.

The matters of the Royal Capital Region could not be resolved by him alone, he could only borrow momentum.

At the same time, Mo Hua felt that he should also take this opportunity to help some people reshape their Dao-hearts.

This was not meddling for no reason.

After all, they had met and interacted before. If everyone were left to walk their own paths unchecked, then one day—when their sought-after Daos truly came into irreconcilable conflict—it would be inevitable for faces to be torn and life-and-death struggles to erupt.

Mo Hua did not want to see that scene.

He did not want the day to come when he would personally snuff out, with his own hands, geniuses he had once crossed paths with.

So some things needed to be said in advance, to give them a warning.

…

News that Mo Hua was hosting a banquet spread out, and the Slaughter-Mo Alliance was immediately thrown into an uproar.

“There’s no such thing as a good banquet. That vicious Mo Hua definitely has no good intentions.”

“By the way, last time when the Royal Court attacked the camp and chaos erupted in the Great Wilderness, this kid actually didn’t die?”

“Relax. Even if you die, Mo Hua won’t. Haven’t you heard? Good people don’t live long, disasters last for a thousand years…”

“So… are you going to the banquet?”

“I’m not going.”

“Mo Hua inviting us to dinner is no different from Ox-Head and Horse-Face offering wine, Black and White Impermanence inviting you for tea. Who would dare go?”

“Exactly. What decent person would attend Mo Hua’s banquet?”

“Giving him face?”

“If you’re not going, I’m not going either…”

“Since that’s the case, no one goes. Let Mo Hua know we have dignity too, we’re not something he can just squeeze however he wants…”

…

For a time, righteous indignation surged within the Slaughter-Mo Token.

But on the other side, Mo Hua still prepared the banquet as promised, at the Situ clan estate.

Before anyone else arrived, however, an uninvited guest showed up first.

Grand Elder Situ Wei.

Although Mo Hua had warned Situ Jian in advance to be cautious, he knew very well that this matter could not possibly be hidden from Situ Wei.

Situ Wei glanced at Mo Hua, then at Situ Jian beside him, who followed Mo Hua’s every word, and frowned, displeasure rising in his heart.

Still, he said nothing more, only asking, “Young Master Mo, are you hosting honored guests?”

Mo Hua was not surprised. He had even reserved a seat for Great Elder Situ Wei, saying, “Indeed. Meeting some old friends. Elder Wei, care to join us?”

A cold glint flashed through Situ Wei’s eyes as he nodded. “Then I shall accept rather than decline.”

He wanted to see just what kind of connections this kid named Mo Hua could possibly have.

Situ Wei took his seat. But after waiting for a long while—until night fell—not a single person arrived. He frowned and looked toward Mo Hua.

Could this brat be playing me? Is his reputation really so bad that not even one guest shows up to a dinner he’s hosting?

Situ Wei then asked, “Little friend, who exactly are you inviting?”

Inviting ghosts?

Mo Hua replied calmly, “No rush. They need a bit of mental preparation.”

Situ Wei frowned, but seeing Mo Hua’s composed demeanor, he said nothing and patiently waited with him.

Unknowingly, another hour passed. Just as Situ Wei was growing impatient and about to mock Mo Hua, there was sudden movement outside. A figure strode in, tall and burly, built like cast iron, with a mighty, imposing aura.

A peerless prodigy rarely seen even within the Situ clan.

Situ Wei’s pupils shrank.

The prodigy entered, glanced at Mo Hua, then at Situ Wei and the others, cupped his fists, and announced himself:

“From the Qianxue Prefecture, Vajra Gate—Shi Tiangang.”

After giving his name, Shi Tiangang stood silently in place.

Situ Wei felt a slight tremor in his heart. Just as he was considering how to strike up a conversation and build rapport with Shi Tiangang, another person entered from outside—dressed in white, elegant and unrestrained, his expression cold.

“Carefree Gate, Feng Zichen…”

Situ Wei’s expression changed slightly. Before he could speak, more people began filing in from outside.

Each and every one of them outstanding in appearance, with top-grade spirit roots, exceptional talent, and formidable backgrounds, stronger than the last.

“Severing-Gold Gate, Song Jian.”

“Purple-Mist Gate…”

“Dragon Cauldron Sect, Ao Zheng.”

“Heavenly Sword Sect, Xiao Ruohan.”

“Heavenly Dao Sect, Shen Cangfeng.”

“Ten-Thousand Heavens Sect…”

…

Before long, the hall filled as if mighty dragons were passing through, gathering a long line of prodigies rarely seen by ordinary folk.

The hall was packed with heaven’s chosen—each bearing the grace of dragons and phoenixes—giving the sense that heroes of the realm were as numerous as carp crossing a river.

And Mo Hua sat upon the raised platform, casually asking, “Everyone’s here?”

The prodigies remained silent, tacitly acknowledging it.

Mo Hua nodded. “Sit.”

Only then did the prodigies, faces cold, take their seats one by one.

Situ Wei’s pupils trembled. After a long moment of stunned silence, he turned to look at Mo Hua.

There sat Mo Hua on the high platform, legs crossed, chin propped on his hand, casually ordering around the full hall of prodigies—looking every bit like a bully lording over fellow geniuses, yet one that none of them dared to resist.

(Which one is better?)

There sat Mo Hua on the high platform, legs crossed, chin propped on his hand, casually ordering around the full hall of prodigies—looking every bit like a bully lording over fellow geniuses, not one dared to resist him.