Chapter 1135: Chaotic World

On a desolate mountain path in Lizhou, Elder Ji, once a powerful elder in the Azure Wolf Sect, second only to the sect leader, was now driving a carriage like a coachman. Mo Hua sat inside the carriage, his eyes closed in meditation, contemplating the art of Heavenly Secrets and Karma.

The journey south from the Azure Wolf Sect had been relatively smooth so far. Due to the incident at the Azure Wolf Sect, where the former sect leader and Mr. Wu were killed, the seeds of rebellion had been quelled in their infancy. Consequently, most areas within the Azure Wolf Prefecture were untouched by war. Along the way, there were no major disturbances in the various territories or immortal cities. The overall order had not yet collapsed.

This was when Elder Ji's usefulness became apparent. At the Azure Wolf Sect, he was responsible for welcoming and seeing off guests, forging connections, and indulging in drinking, gambling, and other vices. This had given him extensive connections, with acquaintances and shady friends in all the surrounding immortal cities. Furthermore, as an elder of the third-rank Azure Wolf Sect, his prestigious status earned him respect wherever he went. Entering cities, scouting routes, gathering information, or handling any affairs was effortless for him. From then on, Elder Ji led the way throughout their journey. Mo Hua simply played the part of a carefree "young master," always well-fed, well-hydrated, and comfortably lodged, without having to worry about a thing.

However, after leaving the Azure Wolf Prefecture and traveling approximately a thousand miles further south, the situation changed entirely. There were already clear signs of war along the way. The air was thick with the smells of charring, decay, and blood. Hundreds of miles of scorched earth lay desolate.

Elder Ji drove the carriage for another two hundred miles. As dusk approached and they needed to find lodging, they saw an immortal city in the distance, its gates collapsed and black smoke billowing. The city's name had been effaced. Inside the city, buildings were dilapidated, and the scene was one of utter devastation. Corpses lay everywhere, especially in the corners of the city walls.

There were also living people, clad in tattered clothes, their faces distorted by desperation, frantically fighting over something. During the struggle, a few cultivators were strangled to death, their eyes rolling back as they collapsed to the ground, never to wake again. Others, gaunt and sallow, squatted in corners, gnawing on some unknown meat. Mo Hua lifted the carriage window, observing these sights with a solemn gaze, a premonition stirring within him. The chaotic era for cultivators might truly be upon them.

On the desolate and ruined streets, the Azure Wolf Sect's carriage traveled alone, conspicuously. Soon, desperate cultivators rushed forward, attempting to seize the carriage. Elder Ji swatted several of them away with a single blow. The spiritual energy he unleashed, coupled with the pressure of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, filled the desperate and greedy cultivators with terror, sending them scattering.

"Blind beasts!" Elder Ji, who had been toiling like a slave throughout the journey, finally let out a sigh of relief, cursing inwardly: "I can't offend that monster named Mo, but I can certainly handle you scoundrels!" He made to kill a few of them to assert his authority but then felt a cold gaze on the back of his neck.

A chill ran down Elder Ji's spine. He quickly withdrew his hand and turned, smiling, "Young Master Mo, I hope I didn't startle you?" Mo Hua's expression remained indifferent. Elder Ji fumed silently, not daring to speak his mind, muttering to himself: "Damn it, he's late-stage Foundation Establishment, and so am I, but I feel like I'm not even as good as a dog in front of him. What terrible luck! Didn't they say cultivation was the foundation of a cultivator? And nobody told me that the difference in skill and power among cultivators of the same realm could be this damn vast!" Even Sect Leader Duan, a Golden Core cultivator, hadn't exuded such a strange oppressive aura. Elder Ji secretly glanced at Mo Hua, feeling a sense of alarm: "This kid… could he be the reincarnation of some ancient, undying monster? He's truly unsettling."

Elder Ji cursed under his breath, but on his face, he maintained a polite smile: "Young Master Mo, perhaps we should find a place to rest?" Mo Hua gave Elder Ji a fleeting glance, his gaze piercing, making Elder Ji's heart race with unease. Finally, Mo Hua simply nodded: "Mhm."

For some reason, Elder Ji felt an inexplicable sense of relief. He drove the carriage around the streets, making a full circuit, and eventually stopped in front of an inn. The inn's signboard had been burned away, and its main doors were tightly shut, yet there was a faint aura of people inside.

Elder Ji knocked, but no one answered. Impatient, Elder Ji cursed, "Where is everyone? Are they all dead?" Still receiving no reply, he activated his spiritual energy and slapped the main door. With a creaking sound, several cracks appeared on its surface. Only then did a timid voice from inside say: "Sir, sir, this establishment is closed. We are not open for business."

Elder Ji said coldly, "I'll count to three. If you don't open the door, I'll make sure you know the might of a late-stage Foundation Establishment Grand Cultivator." The cultivators inside the inn were instantly terrified out of their wits upon hearing the words "late-stage Foundation Establishment Grand Cultivator." In this small place, even early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators were rare, let alone late-stage ones. Immediately, an elder opened the door and welcomed Elder Ji's carriage inside. "We didn't know a senior was gracing us with your presence. Please forgive our failure to welcome you properly," the elder said, fawning.

Elder Ji, somewhat mollified, ordered, "Prepare two good guest rooms." "Yes, yes, please wait a moment." The elder dared not delay and quickly went to prepare.

Once everything was ready, Mo Hua and Elder Ji each chose a guest room and settled in. Mo Hua was somewhat tired, so he stayed in his room, perusing formation books, while ordering Elder Ji to gather some information in the city. Elder Ji was reluctant, but left with no choice, he went to inquire.

As night deepened, Elder Ji wandered around the small, unnamed immortal city. He found some living people and gathered information. After about two hours, having learned most of what he needed, he prepared to return to the inn to report to Mo Hua. But just as he was about to head back, Elder Ji's steps halted. He couldn't help but ask himself: "Am I crazy? Why would I go back?" That brat named Mo had already let him out; what reason was there to return? If he just ran, wouldn't he be completely "freed from this sea of suffering"? As long as he didn't return to Azure Wolf City and avoided that "Little Yama" named Mo, the world was vast; where couldn't he go? There were still so many luxurious pleasures in the world he hadn't fully indulged in. And so many beautiful women waiting to please him.

Desire swelled within Elder Ji's heart. He imagined seductive women beckoning him, and his resolve wavered. Boldly, he declared, "I'm leaving! Damn that kid named Mo, I'm not serving him anymore. One day, when I achieve success in cultivation, I will surely get my revenge on this—" Elder Ji recalled Mo Hua's various strange actions and the chillingly vicious iron torture device that seemed to corrode one's very bones. This extinguished his unrealistic ambitions. "Forget it. I'll just stay far away. I can't afford to provoke him."

Elder Ji, like a thief, began to sneak out of the city. After walking for about a li, the bloodied face of the deceased Azure Wolf Sect Leader suddenly appeared in his mind, his mouth agape, seemingly trying to say something, a truly unsettling sight. Elder Ji shuddered in fright, shook his head, and forced himself to forget it all. He continued walking forward. After another half-li, Mr. Wu, whom the sect leader had deeply respected, suddenly appeared in his mind as well. And without a word, he began to tear out his own heart, which was bloody and gruesome. Elder Ji was drenched in cold sweat, cursing, "Damn it, I'm seeing ghosts!" He blinked, then, reckless, he gritted his teeth and continued to flee.

But this time, after only a few steps, the deathly pale face of the Azure Wolf Sect Leader, looking like a corpse, reappeared in his mind. In the blink of an eye, the deceased Sect Leader Duan's face suddenly transformed into Elder Ji's own face. Elder Ji slipped in fright and fell to the ground. He seemed to have grabbed something in his hand. He picked it up and found it was a bloody heart. Looking down, he saw his own chest was bloody, as if his heart had been ripped out.

Elder Ji's soul instantly fled his body. A chill surged from the depths of his heart, making him tremble all over. A moment later, the chill dissipated. Elder Ji's bewildered consciousness cleared slightly. He looked down and saw that although there was a scar on his chest, there was no blood, and his heart was beating fine. The "heart" in his hand was nothing more than a blob of mud. Elder Ji woke as if from a nightmare, let out a long breath, then wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Resigned to his fate, he turned around and walked back, dutifully returning to the inn.

In Mo Hua's room, the candlelight was still burning. Elder Ji softly knocked on the door, and Mo Hua's clear voice came from within: "Come in." Elder Ji tiptoed into the room and warily glanced at Mo Hua. In the flickering candlelight, Mo Hua's expression was calm, like a handsome young master untainted by the mundane world, entirely without any sinister or strange aura. Elder Ji inwardly called him "evil" and felt an increasing sense of despair.

"Speak," Mo Hua said. Elder Ji sighed and then recounted everything he had learned, bit by bit: "This place is called Banshan City, a small second-rank immortal city. The Daoist Court Bureau holds the most power, and its director is extremely greedy and ruthless. There are two or three families of considerable size here. However, to curry favor with the Daoist Court Bureau, these local families severely exploit rogue cultivators. Rogue cultivators are very poor and struggle to get by, but most still manage to muddle through."

"But strangely, some time ago, a riot suddenly broke out. About a hundred rogue cultivators stormed the Daoist Court Bureau, intending to kill the director, but they were outnumbered and suppressed by the Bureau instead."

"Suppressed?" Mo Hua was a little surprised.

Elder Ji nodded. "Normally, that would have been the end of it. However, the director of the Daoist Court Bureau, in order to report to the Daoist Court and claim credit, began to slaughter rogue cultivators indiscriminately. Many innocent rogue cultivators who hadn't participated in the rebellion were beheaded, labeled as 'rebels,' and counted as 'achievements.' This act was like overturning a pot of boiling oil. Rebel and die, don't rebel and die too."

"The rogue cultivators then completely rioted, surging into the Daoist Court Bureau. A group of Qi Condensation cultivators, their eyes bloodshot, used their lives to overwhelm and crush the Foundation Establishment director to death. The director's head was twisted off and thrown into a pot of oil, and his flesh was cooked and completely devoured. The families who had aided and abetted these cruelties also met a terrible end. The men were killed, and the women, after being humiliated by the enraged rogue cultivators, were also slaughtered."

Mo Hua sighed inwardly, then frowned, saying, "Local rogue cultivators shouldn't have been strong enough to achieve this, right?"

Elder Ji nodded. "Young Master is wise. There are traces of the Demonic Sect in this matter. These rogue cultivators were secretly taught the 'bloodthirsty' fiendish arts. Driven to desperation, they became completely enraged and lost their minds, leading to a surge in their strength. That's why they were able to overthrow the Daoist Court Bureau, kill the director, and destroy the local families. But the price was that after cultivating these fiendish arts, they either became bloodthirsty devils or couldn't withstand the demonic energy's backlash and exploded into death. So, most of Banshan City's population died, leaving it almost a ghost town. Those who survived are either barely clinging to life or have become inhuman."

Mo Hua's gaze was filled with compassion. In the end, there were truly no winners. Everyone would die. The poor would die, and the rich would die; there was no difference.

"I understand," Mo Hua nodded. "You've worked hard. Go rest."

Elder Ji, relieved, cupped his hands and said, "Then I won't disturb Young Master further."

After Elder Ji left, Mo Hua continued to read by candlelight, contemplating various matters. Late into the night, Mo Hua grew tired. He put down his book and submerged his consciousness into his sea of awareness, practicing the Four Symbols Array Formation Reversion Method of "Myriad Demons Transform into Dragons" on the Dao Stele, while also continuing to practice the Great Barren Demonic Bone Divination Art.

As night deepened further, the entire immortal city became shrouded in gloomy silence. Suddenly, a series of faint bell chimes echoed, particularly eerie in the darkness. At the same time, a putrid aura began to spread. Mo Hua slowly opened his eyes, his gaze narrowing slightly.

After a moment of thought, he rose from his room and went to Elder Ji's door. He found Elder Ji sound asleep, muttering, evidently dreaming a beautiful dream. A dark gleam flashed in Mo Hua's eyes as he subtly triggered karma. In just a moment, Elder Ji screamed in his sleep and tumbled off the bed, his face drenched in cold sweat. He had just been having a pleasant dream, holding a beautiful, naked woman, intending to embrace her. But as his hand touched her chest, it felt soft, then sticky, and suddenly bloody. Looking down, he saw that he had dug out the beauty's heart. The tender dream instantly turned into a bloody nightmare. Elder Ji was jolted awake, then realized Mo Hua was standing outside his door. He truly wished he could hack Mo Hua into a thousand pieces. Of course, he lacked the ability to do so.

Elder Ji dressed and stepped out of his room. Mo Hua glanced at him, said nothing, and walked straight out. Elder Ji hesitated, wanting to speak, but in the end, could only follow. Shrouded by the night, the two left the inn, crossed the street, and silently ascended to the beams of a tall pavilion. They looked down. Not far away, at the four corners of a wall, stood about a dozen shadowy figures. These individuals were imbued with death energy, their bodies cloaked in darkness. They shook copper bells in their hands, silently chanting strange incantations.

As the bells resonated, the corpses on the ground began to tremble, then one by one, like puppets on strings, they twisted and stood up. Elder Ji glanced at Mo Hua, startled: "Corpse Cultivators!" These corpse cultivators were refining corpses in the middle of the night! Conflicts had erupted in the immortal city, with demonic cultivators secretly fueling the chaos, teaching demonic arts, and instigating rogue cultivators, the Daoist Court Bureau, and local families to fight and kill each other, resulting in countless casualties. Then these corpse cultivators would come in the dead of night, shaking their copper bells to refine the deceased cultivators into zombies.

Elder Ji shook his head. This group of unorthodox demonic cultivators was truly sinister in their methods. It was best not to provoke them if possible. Just as Elder Ji thought this, Mo Hua said, "Go, kill all these corpse cultivators."

Elder Ji froze, then his scalp tingled, and he looked utterly shocked. "No, Young Master Mo—"

"You can't kill them?"

"It's not about whether I *can* kill them, it's about—" Elder Ji tactfully advised, "Young Master, when traveling, it's better to avoid trouble."

Mo Hua said indifferently, "Do you think I'm discussing this with you?"

Elder Ji felt bitterness well up inside him. "If you've got the ability, go kill them yourself. What kind of skill is it to always order others around?" But he could only voice this thought internally. Having such an overbearing "ancestor" was something he couldn't do anything about.

Among these corpse cultivators, there were three Foundation Establishment cultivators and eight Qi Condensation cultivators. Elder Ji employed his movement technique, quietly descending from the wall. Approaching a Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator from behind, he launched a surprise attack while the cultivator was focused on shaking the bell, piercing his chest with a wolf claw and ending one life. However, such a sneak attack could only eliminate one person. The other corpse cultivators were startled, exclaiming in anger, "Who's there?"

Elder Ji dared not reply, only shouting, "It's your ancestor!" A Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator, enraged, shook his copper bell and summoned an iron corpse to guard him, cursing coldly: "Dare to disturb the Yin Corpse Valley's work? You're asking for death!"

Elder Ji felt fear in his heart. "Damn it, Yin Corpse Valley!" But at this point, he had no room to retreat. He could only steel himself and say: "I'm killing precisely you beasts of the Yin Corpse Valley!"

"How dare you!""Die!"

A group of corpse cultivators summoned their walking corpses and iron corpses and began to surround and attack Elder Ji. Elder Ji had superior cultivation, but he had indulged in wine and women for years, making him more cunning than genuinely strong. Furthermore, the Yin Corpse Valley specialized in raising zombies and excelled at overwhelming opponents with numbers. After killing a few Qi Condensation cultivators and severely wounding a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, Elder Ji's strength waned. He was then relentlessly suppressed by another mid-stage Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator from Yin Corpse Valley and an impenetrable iron corpse.

After a long entanglement, Mo Hua lost patience. He pointed a finger, and a raging fire ignited. A fireball shot through the air, directly charring half the body of the Yin Corpse Valley's Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator. The Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator was greatly alarmed. Elder Ji's expression also changed drastically. This was the first time he had seen Mo Hua personally "take action" and use a spell. Especially this fireball spell: though its heat was overwhelming, it also contained a terrifying chill, making it truly bizarre. No wonder people often said that one's name reflected their character, and so did their spells.

The Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator, struck by Mo Hua's fireball, still wailed in agony. Elder Ji dared not delay further. With a swift swing, he decapitated the Foundation Establishment corpse cultivator, and then proceeded to eliminate the remaining Qi Condensation corpse cultivators one by one. This group of corpse cultivators was completely annihilated.

Elder Ji looked at the corpses of the cultivators and asked Mo Hua, "Young Master, why did you insist on killing these corpse cultivators?" Mo Hua ignored him, instead letting his gaze sweep over the surrounding corpses. A significant portion of these corpses already had corpse poison brewing within them; some were even beginning to tremble and slowly stand up. If left unchecked, the area around this immortal city would once again become a "corpse city."

"Burn all the corpses," Mo Hua said indifferently.

Elder Ji hesitantly asked, "Should I do it?"

Mo Hua nodded. "You may."

Elder Ji wanted to slap himself. However, he also knew that he couldn't escape such dirty and arduous work. As Elder Ji gathered the corpses and prepared to light them, he noticed a fiery red formation had already been laid out on the ground without him realizing. A Blazing Fire Array. This was the corpse-cremation formation Mo Hua had learned from the Daoist Court Bureau during the Puppet King rebellion in Nanyue City years ago. Once the formation was complete, flames instantly surged, "cremating" the corpse cultivators from Yin Corpse Valley, the transformed rogue cultivators, and the bodies of innocent rogue cultivators, all together on the ground.

After completing all of this, Mo Hua sighed softly. Rogue cultivators rebelled, the Daoist Court Bureau suppressed them, local families exploited, and various demonic sects stirred, ready to act in this chaotic era. The situation had truly deteriorated. And this was only the beginning. If it continued to spread like this, who knew what the cultivation world would become.

Amidst these tragic events, a faint, almost imperceptible "ominous aura" was brewing. Mo Hua's gaze narrowed slightly, he sighed softly, and then said, "Let's go. We should leave this place soon."

Elder Ji nodded repeatedly. He had just killed corpse cultivators from Yin Corpse Valley, a major demonic sect. Even though he did it under Mo's "coercion," he would certainly be resented by the Yin Corpse Valley. It was best to leave early.

In Banshan City, the corpses, walking corpses, and about a dozen Yin Corpse Valley cultivators were being cremated. The corpse energy was purified by the flames, dissipating into the night. Mo Hua and Elder Ji, under the cover of night, drove away from the small immortal city, continuing their journey into an increasingly chaotic world.