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Chapter 1387: Reunion
Bai Zixi was suddenly grabbed by the hand by Mo Hua, and her expression froze for a moment.
At the side, Xiao Ju was so furious she nearly exploded, wishing she could pounce forward and bite Mo Hua to death.
She thought to herself that Sister Zixi would definitely be angry, that she would surely strike this damned man down with a single sword.
But after waiting for a while, there was no movement at all. Looking up, she saw Sister Zixi simply standing there silently, her expression indescribably complex.
Mo Hua didn’t have much strength to begin with, and now, being heavily injured, he had no strength at all. His hand merely rested weakly on Bai Zixi’s hand.
Bai Zixi only needed to move slightly to break free, yet for some reason, she allowed him to hold her hand just like that.
Xiao Ju was completely dumbfounded.
Meanwhile, the unconscious Mo Hua simply held onto his Little Senior Sister’s hand.
Like a creature that had drifted for a long time in the bitter sea of Divine-Sense, finally finding an anchor to its humanity, his mind gradually stabilized. The pain and torment inflicted upon him by abyssal evil entities and the great horrors of the mortal world also eased considerably.
Mo Hua’s breathing became steady, and he slowly fell asleep.
As he slept quietly, it was as if he had returned to childhood—free of troubles, carefree—his expression becoming peaceful and pure.
Bai Zixi looked at Mo Hua’s face and could faintly see the shadow of her Junior Brother from back then. Without realizing it, she found herself unwilling to let go.
Dressed in white, she simply sat silently beside Mo Hua, watching his face. In her breathtaking eyes, emotions flowed, though it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Time passed little by little. Within his Sea of Consciousness, Mo Hua’s mind grew calm, no longer suffering from the loneliness of humanity amid the storm of evil thoughts.
Yet his eyelids still felt as heavy as iron, weighing a thousand catties.
After an unknown amount of time, as his Divine-Sense recovered somewhat, Mo Hua finally managed to open his eyes.
The surroundings were unfamiliar, there were pill furnaces, jade walls, folding screens, and lotus patterns.
Within this elegant and refined setting was also a flawless face like fine jade, and a pair of eyes as cool and clear as autumn water.
The moment their gazes met, Mo Hua’s heart—tempered by countless encounters with evil—unexpectedly skipped a beat.
What followed was deep confusion.
For a moment, he couldn’t understand what exactly was happening before him.
Mo Hua frowned. Just then, he felt as if he was holding something in his hand. He couldn’t help but squeeze it slightly, cool and smooth to the touch, soft and delicate, like fine jade, yet also like silk.
His heart began to beat even faster. It didn’t seem like he was dreaming.
“You’re awake?” Bai Zixi said.
Her voice was pleasant, like jade falling upon ice, carrying a refreshing clarity.
Mo Hua tried to speak, but the moment he opened his mouth, his throat felt as if it were being sliced by knives. The pain was unbearable, and his voice came out hoarse.
“Don’t speak,” Bai Zixi said calmly. She then took out a pill and fed it to him.
The pill dissolved in his mouth, turning into a sweet medicinal force that flowed into his organs. Mo Hua felt much better, and only then realized that he was still holding his Senior Sister’s hand.
Mo Hua held it a while longer before finally letting go, though that soft sensation seemed to linger in his palm.
Bai Zixi’s gaze flickered slightly. She silently withdrew her slender, jade-like fingers and instructed, “Rest well.”
Then she stood up and left.
Mo Hua wanted to say something, but the stabbing pain in his throat prevented him. By the time he looked again, his Senior Sister’s graceful figure had already disappeared.
Mo Hua’s expression turned quiet. Suddenly, he lifted his head and saw another small head hanging in front of him, filled with anger, like a furious little tiger, or perhaps a little orange cat.
...
Outside the pill room.
Bai Zixi was looking at a jade slip, searching for the next prescription.
True Person Rong walked in and asked, “He’s awake?”
Bai Zixi replied, “Mm.”
True Person Rong said, “Your junior brother’s injuries are quite unusual. The contamination is severe, it can’t be cured in one go. He’ll need to recover slowly.”
Bai Zixi nodded.
True Person Rong glanced at her, then suddenly said, “Zixi…”
Bai Zixi looked at her.
True Person Rong hesitated for a moment, sighed, and still emphasized again, “You… take care of yourself.”
After saying that, she didn’t add anything more and turned to leave.
Bai Zixi watched her go, then couldn’t help but touch her palm. A trace of warmth still lingered there.
Her expression remained calm, though her gaze flickered uncertainly.
...
In the following days, Mo Hua kept thinking he was dreaming.
In the dream, there was a little girl like white porcelain, acting like a little orange cat, threatening him every day.
His Senior Sister, whom he hadn’t seen for years, was also by his side, treating his injuries and even feeding him pills.
It was all too unbelievable. Mo Hua couldn’t understand why, after waking up, he had suddenly ended up beside his Little Senior Sister.
So he could only assume that he was still dreaming.
Yet the vivid realism of everything around him told him that perhaps… he wasn’t dreaming.
“What… exactly happened?”
Mo Hua was extremely confused.
Or rather, what had happened during that period before?
He began to trace his memories backward, trying to recall everything he had experienced before this.
But the moment he tried to remember, his Divine-Sense began to ache intensely.
Many of his memories had become blurry, and they carried a sense of dread.
Mo Hua even felt that part of his memory, part of his Divine-Sense, and even a portion of his cursed Fate Pattern had been stripped away.
As if the Strange Dao had split off a portion of his power.
At the same time, fragmented, dark memories seemed etched into his Sea of Consciousness, flashing incessantly.
Strange-Fire, rotting flesh, black blood, grotesque monsters, the darkness of the abyss, and all kinds of battles between high-level cultivators… all mixed together.
The moment Mo Hua tried to think, his Sea of Consciousness churned like a stormy ocean, causing unbearable pain.
He could only vaguely recall that he had formed his Golden Core in the Great Wilderness, and afterward experienced something, but what exactly, he could no longer remember clearly.
A sense of unease rose in Mo Hua’s heart.
Because he could feel that what happened afterward contained some kind of terrifying great karma, something extremely important to him.
He absolutely could not forget it. He had to remember.
Every detail had to be recalled, or something disastrous would happen.
In the days that followed, Mo Hua remained lying on the sickbed, under the care of his Little Senior Sister.
At the same time, whenever he had the chance and the pain in his Sea of Consciousness lessened, he would forcibly retrace his memories, reconstructing every cause and effect, every detail of the final part of his journey in the Great Wilderness.
The process was long, and that segment of his experience seemed shrouded in pitch-black fog.
Each time Mo Hua remembered a little more, his Sea of Consciousness felt as if it were being torn apart, and his Divine-Sense was rapidly consumed.
But he never gave up. After countless failures and who knew how long of torment, he finally broke through that layer of fog.
The memories lost due to his near-fatal injuries surged back into his mind along with that dark abyss of black flames.
The sealed ancestral court of the Great Wilderness, True-Person Zhuge, the plan to hunt the Strange Daoist, the Ancient Steller Grand formation, seven Profound-Hollow-Void ancestors, the depths of the Endless abyss, the Guixu Grand Formation, the terrifying Strange Dao demonic manifestation, his nearly invincible Martial Uncle, his life-and-death battle with him, and the Yang Clan ancestor who risked everything to activate the ancient formation and send him away…
These scenes crashed into Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness like a tidal wave.
His face instantly turned pale, and his entire body was soaked in cold sweat.
Bai Zixi noticed something was wrong and asked, “Junior Brother, what’s wrong?”
Mo Hua’s heart was filled with indescribable panic. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, his expression changed drastically as he looked at Bai Zixi.
There was no color in his face. His body had not yet recovered, and his voice was still hoarse as he said:
“Senior Sister… is there somewhere quiet?”
Bai Zixi frowned, but still said to Xiao Ju, “Prepare a meditation room.”
Xiao Ju was unwilling, but seeing the terrifying aura faintly emanating from Mo Hua, she got up to prepare the room.
Before long, the meditation room was ready.
Bai Zixi supported Mo Hua by the arm and led his still-weak body into the room, then said, “Xiao Ju, you may leave.”
Pouting, Xiao Ju reluctantly left.
Bai Zixi stayed behind, watching Mo Hua.
Still heavily injured, his frame thin, Mo Hua sat cross-legged on the ground. After glancing at Bai Zixi, he chose not to hide anything. Touching his finger, he took out a series of items out of thin air, a brazier, demon bones, three copper coins, and other objects tied to karma.
Seeing this, Bai Zixi’s pupils shrank slightly, but after looking at her Junior Brother, she said nothing.
After taking out these items, Mo Hua let out a long breath. His face was as pale as paper, and he couldn’t help but mutter anxiously:
“Don’t die…”
“Please… don’t let any of them die…”
His Martial Uncle’s terrifying strength, that heaven-shaking scheme, and the Endless Abyss that devoured all living beings surfaced again in his mind.
If the Strange Dao descended and catastrophe struck, the entire Great Wilderness might truly be reduced to nothing but bones.
And in that Great Wilderness, there were too many people he cared about…
Little Senior Brother, True-Person Zhuge, Situ Jian, Situ Fang, Dan-Ling… and also Dan-Zhu, Lu-Gu, Little Zha-Tu from the Desolate Wilderness…
Once his Martial Uncle’s grand plan came to fruition and the Strange Dao descended upon the Great Wilderness, those people would likely…
Mo Hua took a deep breath, suddenly not daring to calculate further, afraid of arriving at results he could not accept.
But cold reality never bends to personal will. Avoidance was useless.
In the end, he could only suppress his unease—even his fear—and, with his damaged Divine-Sense, activate the Demon-bone divination art of the Great Wilderness, one by one calculating their fortune and misfortune, determining their life and death…
Demonic fire rose, flames licking the white bones and leaving cracked traces.
Mo Hua’s Divine-Sense poured out as the divination art operated. Heavenly secrets began to flow under the support of his consciousness, and the aura of karma spread outward.
Watching from the side, Bai Zixi sensed this mysterious aura and quickly realized what Mo Hua was doing. A trace of astonishment appeared in her clear, jade-like eyes.
Not far away, within a cultivation chamber shrouded in mist...
True-Person Rong also suddenly sensed this karmic aura. Her expression changed instantly, and her Divine-Sense swept over at once.
With his body gravely injured, his Divine-Sense depleted, and his mind anxious to know the karmic results, Mo Hua had no time to employ many of his methods. His approach was far from thorough.
Moreover, True-Person Rong’s Divine-Sense was also powerful. With a single sweep, she sensed that mysterious Causality and quickly understood what Mo Hua was doing.
Her face was filled with shock.
“Golden Core early stage… and he can already calculate Causality?”
And the method he used seemed to be an ancient and obscure form of divination.
What he was calculating even involved fortune, misfortune, life, and death... the traces of Causality were extremely complex.
“Could this child… truly be that person’s disciple, having inherited the true teachings of Causality?”
True-Person Rong frowned deeply, her thoughts unsettled.
At that moment, on the table before her lay a book titled Introduction to the Art of Causality.
It was densely covered with tiny annotations, along with countless circles, clearly someone had studied it for a long time, yet remained full of confusion, unable to grasp its essence.
True Person Rong suddenly had the urge to release her Divine-Sense and spy on what exactly Mo Hua had calculated. But after a moment’s thought, she restrained herself, even withdrawing all her Divine-Sense entirely.
Within causality lay great danger.
Before truly entering its path, when one’s mastery was insufficient, rashly attempting to spy on the unknown could easily invite great terror and bring about one’s own destruction.
This was the Old Matriarch’s warning.
Through the flesh sample observed in the spiritual mirror, True Person Rong had already determined that beneath Mo Hua’s seemingly ordinary exterior lay something indescribable... a monster beyond words.
There was no way she would willingly entangle herself in such causality.
She withdrew her Divine-Sense and returned her gaze to the Introduction to the Art of Causality before her, her brows knitting tighter and tighter.
...
Elsewhere, Mo Hua was still calculating.
One vivid face after another flashed before him; strands of life-and-death causality flowed through his mind.
As he continued calculating, the tension in Mo Hua’s heart gradually eased.
The results of the divination were not optimistic.
The fate patterns of many people from the Great Wilderness indeed showed “ominous signs.”
This meant their circumstances were perilous, they had encountered immense hardship, were facing cruel trials, and might even have uncertain fates between life and death in the future.
But the presence of “ominous signs” also meant that, at the very least, they were still alive... still struggling.
Otherwise, their vitality would have already been completely severed; they would have died and their Dao dissipated, leaving behind no causality at all.
Mo Hua let out a long breath of relief.
His Divine-Sense was insufficient, he couldn’t confirm through causality the life or death of every person connected to him.
Some of the people he knew might indeed already be dead at this very moment.
But at least, from the current signs, the situation in the Great Wilderness was not a certain death trap.
Many people still had a chance to survive…
With that thought, Mo Hua’s mind relaxed, and the pain in his Sea of Consciousness surged back.
At the same time, his body grew light and hollow, as if completely drained. Boundless exhaustion swept over him, and his eyelids felt as heavy as lead.
Finally unable to hold on, Mo Hua slowly closed his eyes and collapsed to the ground.
Bai Zixi reached out, supporting his body and gently lowering him to the ground. Looking down, she realized that, exhausted in both mind and spirit, his Divine-Sense depleted, he had once again fallen unconscious.
His face was filled with fatigue, his brows tightly furrowed, his lips pressed together, as though even in dreams, he was still worrying, still anxious about something…
Bai Zixi couldn’t help but think: over these years, though she didn’t know what her Junior Brother had gone through, he must have endured countless hardships, borne immense burdens, and struggled for a long, long time amidst the strife of the cultivation world…
Bai Zixi released her Divine-Sense and sensed that True Person Rong was not watching her.
After a moment’s hesitation, she finally couldn’t resist. She extended her slender, jade-like fingers and gently stroked the space between Mo Hua’s brows, as if trying to smooth away the tight furrow there, and soothe the hardships he had endured over the years, wandering through the cultivation world.
(End of Chapter)