Chapter 1567: Fellow Disciples Turning on Each Other?
“Mo You?”
Song Wen felt that the name sounded vaguely familiar.
He seemed to have heard it before, but it was too distant for him to recall immediately.
“Remove your mask and show me your true face,” Song Wen said.
Mo You didn’t refuse. He immediately took off the mask, revealing the face of a young man around thirty years old.
His features weren’t particularly striking, nor were they ugly; he was the kind of person who looked completely ordinary.
After studying the face closely, Song Wen was certain he had never seen this man before. This only deepened his confusion—where had he heard that name?
“Has Senior Xing Chang met this junior before?” Mo You asked, clearly noticing Song Wen’s strange reaction.
“I haven’t. It’s just… your name sounds familiar,” Song Wen replied.
Mo You chuckled.
“I’m sorry for the confusion, Senior. This junior’s name was chosen casually by my master when I was young; it’s nothing special. The world is vast, and many people share the same name. You must have met someone else with the same name and gotten confused.”
“Perhaps that’s it,” Song Wen said.
Next, the two discussed their plan in detail, exchanged Communication Jade Slips, and then departed separately.
Song Wen took off his cloak, removed his mask, and entered Blood Brilliance City as a rogue cultivator of the Divine Transformation Stage.
He first visited an information shop and purchased intelligence on Huo Wuqi, Huo Ming, Lady Yugu, and Mo You.
The information on the first three was almost identical to what Mo You had told him.
But after reading Mo You’s file, Song Wen finally understood why the name sounded so familiar.
Mo You was an ascended one from the Lower Realm. He had ascended to the vicinity of Blood Brilliance City over two thousand years ago. Due to his outstanding talent and status as a corpse cultivator, he was chosen by the Divine Blood Gate and admitted into their sect.
Connecting these pieces of information, Song Wen finally recalled who Mo You was.
Mo You was Gou Jun’s master and the former sect leader of the Corpse Demon Sect.
Shortly after Song Wen joined the Corpse Demon Sect, he had heard Mo You’s name.
At that time, Mo You was renowned throughout the Tianyuan Realm, a truly peerless genius.
Before him, no one had achieved ascension for several millennia; after him, no one could compare for over a thousand years.
Song Wen never expected to cross paths with him here.
Yet, the once-unrivaled talent of the Tianyuan Realm now seemed to have faded into obscurity.
A late-stage void refinement cultivator nearly three thousand years old was hardly considered outstanding in the mystic realm.
For the next few days, Song Wen stayed at an inn, waiting patiently for Mo You to report Huo Ming’s whereabouts.
However, instead of Mo You’s message, he received one from Qi Luo first.
[Ye Hua, I’m outside your courtyard. Why aren’t you answering? I’ve been knocking for a while now. Are you out?]
Song Wen stroked the communication jade slip from Qi Luo, his expression unreadable.
He had no desire to meet her right now.
Ever since he had tricked Yu Bi out of five Sky-Blue Glazed Fruits, Yu Bi had been relentlessly hunting for “Gu Huang.” He had mobilized the full might of the Divine Blood Gate and even issued a public bounty.
Ye Hua had once asked Wang Qi about the Sky-Blue Glazed Fruits and the Taiyin Netherfire. Yu Bi might have already traced this back to him. Meeting Qi Luo now could risk exposing his identity.
This woman… didn’t she say she never wanted to see me again? Why is she looking for me now? Is she lonely, or is she after Yu Bi’s bounty?
Unable to decide, Song Wen decided to ignore her.
But Qi Luo’s messages continued to arrive.
[Ye Hua, if you receive this, leave Blood Brilliance City immediately. Better yet, leave Azure Wutong Province altogether. I spoke with Wang Qi at the Immortal Herb Hut, and he told me you were asking about the Sky-Blue Glazed Fruits and the Taiyin Netherfire. Yu Bi of the Divine Blood Gate is hunting for a peak-stage Contract cultivator named “Gu Huang” for the same reasons.]
[Even if you aren’t “Gu Huang,” your connection to the fruits and the fire could drag you into this. Staying in Blood Brilliance City is far too dangerous for you.]
Two more days passed.
Mo You finally sent a message.
[Senior Xing Chang, Huo Ming departed half an hour ago on a Giant Flying Ship bound for Yanyin City, accompanied only by Li Yan and a few servants. The ship is approximately one hundred zhang long, flying the banner of the Divine Blood Gate alongside another banner bearing the character ‘Huo’.]
The ‘Li Yan’ Mo You mentioned was the mid-body integration stage guard under Huo Ming’s command.
Upon receiving the message, Song Wen immediately set off toward Yanyin City.
After pursuing for nearly a million li, he finally caught up with the Giant Flying Ship Mo You had described.
The ship was easy to recognize, but Song Wen couldn’t be certain Huo Ming was actually on board.
After all, he couldn’t trust Mo You’s words completely.
What if this was a trap? He would be walking right into it.
If Qi Luo could deduce that ‘Gu Huang’ might be connected to ‘Ye Hua’ through the Sky-Blue Glazed Fruit and Taiyin Netherfire, how could Mo You not realize that ‘Xing Chang’ and ‘Gu Huang’ were related—or even the same person?
“Shadow Void, can your divine sense probe the situation on the Giant Flying Ship?” Song Wen asked within his sea of consciousness, trailing over eight thousand li behind the vessel.
“There are eight people on the Giant Flying Ship,” Shadow Void reported. “Aside from an old man at the mid body integration stage and a young cultivator at Peak Void Refinement, the others are all at the Nascent Soul Stage—likely just servants and attendants.”
“In that case, the information Mo You provided is indeed accurate,” Song Wen remarked.
After speaking, Song Wen had Shadow Void continue to keep an eye on the Giant Flying Ship. He withdrew his consciousness from the sea of consciousness, took out a map jade slip, and activated it to start selecting a suitable location for the attack.
The area where he was currently located was quite rich in Spiritual Qi.
Among the mountains below, he could occasionally see cultivation caves of rogue cultivators and small-scale sect or family forces.
Attacking here would easily leave clues, allowing Huo Wuqi and the Divine Blood Gate to track him.
He trailed them for another three hundred thousand li until the Spiritual Qi in the surrounding area finally grew thin, and signs of human habitation all but vanished.
Song Wen no longer hesitated. He directly unleashed the Haotian Divine Thunder to strike the Giant Flying Ship.
The Haotian Divine Thunder was a secret technique of the Divine Blood Gate, never taught to outsiders. Even if someone learned that Huo Ming had died by this lightning, they would only speculate that the culprit was a member of the Divine Blood Gate.
Dark clouds surged like a black tide, instantly swallowing half the sky.
Dark-golden lightning tore through the clouds, striking the Giant Flying Ship below.
BOOM!
The ship’s protective shield was instantly shattered.
The thunder’s might weakened slightly as it continued to fall, then struck the deck.
The entire Giant Flying Ship was instantly consumed by the erupting thunderlight, reduced to dust.
Only two figures stumbled out of the thunderlight, disheveled and desperate.
At the front was an old man in gray robes, his clothing scorched black in several places.
He held a young man by the collar.
The young man himself bore no injuries, but his face was deathly pale, clearly still shaken by the lightning strike.
Just as they were about to flee, they saw the dark clouds above them grow even thicker.
Deep within the clouds, a faint, dark-golden thunderlight was gathering and growing.
“I am Li Yan, and beside me is Huo Ming, son of Huo Wuqi, the Hall Master of Yinghuo Hall. I wonder which fellow disciple is here? Could you show yourself?”
(End of the Chapter)