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Chapter 1424: "The Jinx"
(TN: This is a temporary chapter. It will be updated again when I get proper Raws.)
It wasn't gambling, it wasn't visiting brothels. Just how did he manage to spend two to three million spirit stones?
Could he possibly be eating spirit stones as food?
But that doesn't make sense either. That many spirit stones, only a monster could swallow them all.
Manager Zhao shook his head, utterly perplexed.
However, he didn't feel it appropriate to pry too deeply into Young Master Mo's affairs, lest he bring trouble upon himself.
After all, there were rumors outside that the eldest daughter of the Lu Clan had some ambiguous relationship with this Young Master Mo…
Manager Zhao thought for a moment and tactfully said: "The market has improved slightly recently, and I do have some orders here. How about you, young master, make do with drawing some for now?"
Mo Hua nodded. "I'll draw the orders when I have time, but earning spirit stones is just too slow."
He let out a soft sigh.
Second-Grade High-Tier formations were, after all, still Second-Grade formations; the spirit stones one could earn from them were limited.
Manager Zhao glanced at Mo Hua, his expression hesitant. After a long pause, he finally asked in a low voice, "You… really want to 'Enter the Earth'?"
Seeing Manager Zhao's demeanor, Mo Hua's eyes immediately brightened. "Manager Zhao, do you have another lead?"
"I do… it's just…"
Manager Zhao was still hesitating.
Although last time, this Young Master Mo had earned him a huge profit, and for such matters, he should prioritize Young Master Mo.
But he was somewhat reluctant to let Young Master Mo get too deeply involved in this line of work.
A young and promising Formation Master, running off underground every day—what kind of business is that?
If he can make a respectable living from formations, why bother getting involved in this dirty, earthy business?
Manager Zhao didn't want his own selfish desires to lead Mo Hua further down the wrong path.
Mo Hua, however, said, "It's fine. I'm just helping out, earning some spirit stones. I won't get too deeply involved."
Manager Zhao looked at Mo Hua. Seeing his determined attitude, he sighed helplessly.
"Alright… I did indeed gather another group of people a few days ago. Originally, I didn't want to trouble you, young master. But since you insist on going, I'll discuss it with them and see if we can reserve a spot for you."
Mo Hua clasped his hands and smiled. "I'll trouble you then, Manager Zhao."
Sometimes, having a familiar relationship really makes things easier.
Manager Zhao gave a slight nod and added, "This matter isn't fully settled yet. I need to discuss it further with those people. In three days, if things go smoothly, I'll send you a reply using the Message Transmission Token."
Mo Hua nodded. "Good."
"Then I won't take up any more of your time." With that, Manager Zhao stood up.
Mo Hua also nodded and stood. "Farewell."
After bidding farewell to Manager Zhao, Mo Hua returned to the minor blessed land to continue his cultivation and study formations.
The days passed one by one. Three days later, a message from Manager Zhao arrived via the Message Transmission Token.
Manager Zhao confirmed once more: "Young Master, are you sure you want to go?"
Mo Hua replied, "Sure."
Manager Zhao: "Alright then. Same as the old rules. The morning of the day after tomorrow, come to the Fortune Pavilion. I'll set up the meeting for you all."
Mo Hua replied, "Okay."
And so, the matter was decided simply and directly.
Mo Hua also informed his little senior sister and True Person Rong, saying he was going out to do business again.
True Person Rong didn't say anything. After all, she couldn't control Mo Hua's affairs and could only turn a blind eye.
Xiao Ju was still quite concerned about Mo Hua. "Don't you go and die out there."
Bai Zixi was also somewhat concerned about Mo Hua, though from a different perspective. She said, "Don't go killing and robbing, you know."
Mo Hua sighed.
Two days later, Mo Hua rose early again, packed his belongings, and headed to Fortune Pavilion.
Upon entering Fortune Pavilion, he met with Manager Zhao. After exchanging a few pleasantries and sharing a cup of tea, Manager Zhao led Mo Hua to his private residence.
Inside the residence, four people had already gathered in advance—these were to be his companions for the journey.
Mo Hua's eyes swept over them briefly, and he was slightly taken aback.
The four of them looked utterly ordinary—one resembled a merchant, another a laborer. On the street, no one would give them a second glance.
Indeed, the more unsavory the profession, the more ordinary the appearance needed to be.
The best kind of appearance was one that was instantly forgotten, impossible to recall.
From this perspective, Mo Hua didn't quite meet the standard.
Thus, when Mo Hua entered the room, the four inside looked at him with an indescribable strangeness in their eyes.
Manager Zhao had said he would find a Formation Master to accompany them into the earth. But they hadn't expected this Formation Master to look so young, so handsome, and so unforgettable.
He was nothing like them.
Among the four, the leader was a lean, middle-aged man with the gloomiest gaze. He looked at Manager Zhao and asked: "Manager Zhao, this… is the Formation Master?"
Manager Zhao nodded. "This is Young Master Mo, highly skilled in formations."
Then he introduced Mo Hua: "This man, nicknamed 'Yellow Weasel,' is an expert at tomb raiding. His ancestors were of no small repute, and his tomb-robbing skills are exquisite. He's quite famous in the trade."
Manager Zhao was referring to the gloomy-eyed middle-aged cultivator who led the group.
Afterward, Manager Zhao briefly introduced the others: one was called "Zhang Jia," another "Wang Si," and the last "Mouse."
In any case, it was clear at a glance that these were likely all nicknames.
Manager Zhao didn't elaborate further. They were going tomb raiding, not visiting relatives—the less familiar they were with one another, the better.
No one would reveal their true background. A random nickname would suffice.
After the introductions, Manager Zhao followed the usual routine and gave Mo Hua a few words of advice, mostly along the lines of "stay safe," "don't get involved in disputes over interests," and "protect yourself."
Then he specifically addressed the cultivator named "Yellow Weasel": "Young Master Mo here is a Formation Master, a person of noble status. He must not come to harm."
"Whatever schemes you have among yourselves are your own business. Don't involve Young Master Mo."
Among these people, Manager Zhao was still most concerned about Mo Hua's safety.
After all, just thinking about how dangerous it was to send a delicate, powerless Formation Master into the earth for tomb raiding made Manager Zhao uneasy.
After giving his instructions, Manager Zhao had everyone burn incense and pay respects to Kṣitigarbha.
This was a fixed ritual before entering the earth, seeking Kṣitigarbha's blessing for a smooth and safe journey.
After Mo Hua and the others finished burning incense and paying respects to Kṣitigarbha, they bid farewell to Manager Zhao and set off on their journey.
Once everyone had left, Manager Zhao tidied up the private residence briefly, then sat in the courtyard, motionless, staring at the incense burning before King Ksitigarbha.
Sure enough, before long, with a sharp "snap," another stick of incense broke in half.
Manager Zhao's eyebrows twitched, and he couldn't help muttering to himself:
Although the protection of King Ksitigarbha might not always take effect, burning incense and praying to the gods was merely for peace of mind.
Generally speaking, unless someone was truly wicked and evil, and King Ksitigarbha truly refused to protect them, would the Incense Offering be severed.
Otherwise, even if protection wasn't granted, the Incense Offering would still be accepted, not cut off.
Let alone being severed twice in a row.
"Looking at Young Master Mo, he couldn't possibly be a 'truly wicked and evil' person. How could the Incense Offering be severed…"
"This is strange."
Manager Zhao frowned deeply.
The incident of King Ksitigarbha severing the incense left Manager Zhao deeply puzzled.
In the following days, Manager Zhao remained troubled, constantly pondering the matter.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't figure out the reason, to the point where he would occasionally lose focus and become distracted while conducting business.
One day, as Manager Zhao was still racking his brains over it, he suddenly looked up and noticed Mo Hua standing in front of the counter.
Manager Zhao was taken aback and exclaimed, "Young Master Mo?"
Mo Hua nodded.
"You…" Manager Zhao looked astonished, "How are you back already?"
Mo Hua replied, "It's done."
Manager Zhao was startled, "It's done already? Then…"
He jolted, glancing left and right around Mo Hua, only to find that Mo Hua was still alone, with no one beside or behind him. He was stunned for a long moment.
A bold guess surfaced in his mind once again, and Manager Zhao opened his mouth wide: "The others, could it be…"
Mo Hua sighed, "They're all dead again."
Even though it was the height of summer and the weather was scorching, Manager Zhao felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, his heart turning icy.
What did he mean by "all dead again"?
How could they all be dead again?
Did you… really send them to "Enter the Earth"?
Manager Zhao's scalp tingled. Remembering that they were at the counter and it wasn't the place for detailed discussion, he hurriedly invited Mo Hua to the secret room on the second floor. After activating the formation to block all sound, he lowered his voice and asked: "What exactly happened?"
Mo Hua sighed, "There was nothing I could do…"
This time, it really had nothing to do with him.
If, during the incident with Old Mo and the others—especially Old Mo's death—he had trapped Old Mo inside the tomb chamber, preventing his escape and allowing the Tomb Master Zombie to kill him, that could still be considered as taking some action and being involved in the karma.
But this time, it truly had nothing to do with him.
"At first, everything was fine," Mo Hua explained. "It seemed to be the tomb of a scion from a prominent family. We went as usual to a small hill outside the Eastern District, found the tomb entrance, entered, broke through some traps and formations, and then located the tomb chamber, where we searched for a few items."
"But the things we found weren't valuable. After calculating, everyone realized this trip would be in vain, so someone suggested opening the coffin."
"Yellow Weasel agreed and opened the coffin. From the hands of the tomb owner's corpse, he pried out a pill bottle."
"However, Yellow Weasel didn't tell anyone. Taking advantage of the darkness in the tomb chamber, he secretly slipped the pills into his own storage bag."
"My eyesight is good, so I saw it, but I didn't expose him," Mo Hua said. "After all, Manager Zhao, you told me not to compete with them over such gains."
Manager Zhao nodded upon hearing this—he had indeed said that.
"But the problem is, I wasn't the only one who saw it," Mo Hua sighed again. "That guy named Zhang Jia seemed to have cultivated some Night Vision Secret Art. He also saw Yellow Weasel pocketing the pills privately, so he drew his sword and insisted that Yellow Weasel hand them over."
"Yellow Weasel refused to hand it over and stubbornly denied it. They had a disagreement, started arguing, and then began fighting each other."
Manager Zhao asked Mo Hua, "And you? What did you do?"
Mo Hua said, "I tried to mediate."
"You tried to mediate?"
"Yes, I told them not to fight, it wasn't worth it, but they wouldn't listen." Mo Hua sighed. "Then the other two, Wang Si and Mouse, also joined the fray. It became chaotic, and eventually they all died together."
Manager Zhao was stunned. "They all died together?"
"Yes," Mo Hua said. "At that time, Yellow Weasel wasn't dead yet. He was the leader and the most ruthless, so everyone else died, but he survived until the end."
Manager Zhao asked, "So… Yellow Weasel wasn't dead yet?"
"He died."
Manager Zhao's expression became complicated. "Then how did Yellow Weasel die?"
Mo Hua said, "Yellow Weasel survived until the end, laughed darkly three times, and said something about fate playing tricks on people. Then he took out that bottle of pills, glanced at it, suddenly his face changed drastically, anger surged through him, and he violently spat out a mouthful of blood and died."
Manager Zhao frowned. "That pill bottle…"
"I retrieved it."
Mo Hua took out a white jade pill bottle painted with crane patterns and handed it to Manager Zhao.
Manager Zhao took the pill bottle, glanced at it, and instantly understood.
Yellow Weasel clearly wasn't dead, but after looking at these pills, he ended up vomiting blood and dying. Why?
Because these pills… had lost their Qi.
For some unknown reason, the pill bottle buried in the tomb had cracked a tiny opening like a mosquito's bite.
The Yin Evil Qi inside the tomb seeped in, contaminating the pills, causing the pill Qi inside to deteriorate and the medicinal properties to spoil.
This essentially meant it was a bottle of "Waste Pills."
When Yellow Weasel touched the pill bottle, the light was dim, and he had selfish intentions, so he didn't examine it carefully in haste.
After killing everyone, when he looked back carefully, he discovered that the pills were already ruined.
In essence, he had killed all his companions for a bottle of Waste Pills.
Yellow Weasel was anxious and furious, plus he was already severely injured, and the tomb passage was filled with heavy Yin Qi. Overwhelmed by rage, he vomited blood and died.
Thinking of this, Manager Zhao couldn't help but feel a sense of lament.
Sometimes, people are like this—fighting and struggling all their lives, risking life and death, only to discover at the end that what they fought and sought throughout their lives was nothing more than a bottle of "Waste Pills."
Manager Zhao asked Mo Hua again, "In that tomb, was there only this bottle of pills?"
Mo Hua brought out several storage bags. "Everything is here. I checked, and it seems this tomb really didn't have much good stuff."
Manager Zhao rummaged through them—they were all old pills and some worn-out Spiritual Artifacts.
Apart from that, there were the "belongings" of Yellow Weasel and his four companions.
But they were going into the earth to rob tombs, so they didn't carry much good stuff with them.
Manager Zhao looked at Mo Hua again and found him calm and sincere in his gaze.
Mo Hua was indeed calm.
In the previous incident, he had at least embellished a little, "processing" it with nine truths and one lie.
This time he didn't even process it—he truly told Manager Zhao everything exactly as it happened.
Of course, he withheld a tiny little thing.
But that thing, Manager Zhao couldn't use anyway.
Manager Zhao pondered for a moment and sighed.
Tomb raiding is inherently like this: wealth is sought amidst danger, with life and death, profit and loss intertwined. Some strike it rich overnight, while others naturally come away empty-handed.
Not every tomb is guaranteed to hold treasures.
Even if there are treasures, they may not have survived intact.
It's common to draw water with a bamboo basket only to end up with nothing, and losing one's life in the process is hardly surprising.
But the problem is…
Manager Zhao glanced at Mo Hua once more.
Twice now.
When the Ksitigarbha incense snapped, he didn't die.
Five people entered the earth, only one returned.
King Ksitigarbha would rather break the incense than protect him, yet he stubbornly survived.
The others' incense remained unbroken, but their lives were all lost.
Two whole times—everyone who went into the earth with him ended up truly "entering the earth."
Yet this young master returned as if nothing had happened, completely unscathed.
"This Mo Hua… I fear he might truly be a 'Heavenly Calamity Star.' Whoever gets close to him dies…"
Manager Zhao's heart once again sank into icy despair.
(End of Chapter)