Chapter 87 - 87 Inquiry (First Update)_1

Chapter 87 Inquiry (First Update)_1

Translator: 549690339

After a day full of right and wrong, Mo Hua wanted to sleep early, but he couldn’t fall asleep. Thinking it over, he still decided to go into his Sea of Consciousness and practiced the Formation on the stele all night.

When drawing the Formation, his mind was free from distractions, and his mood could more easily settle down.

The next day, Zhang Lan found Mo Hua.

He sat at an Eight Immortals Table in the corner of an eatery, the table laid with several dishes to accompany the drinks, and a pot of wine.

Zhang Lan poured himself a cup of wine and looked at Mo Hua, “Tell me, what happened yesterday?”

“What happened?”

Zhang Lan curled his lips, “Don’t play dumb with me, the matter with Qian Xing.”

“He bullied me, then Brother Dazhu and the others helped, a fight broke out, and then you all came,” Mo Hua said, intentionally downplaying the incident.

Although the account was complete, the key content was missing, Zhang Lan couldn’t help but say:

“Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes, that Formation, it was you who used it, right?”

Mo Hua was startled, “Uncle Zhang, you saw it?”

“I didn’t see it,” Zhang Lan took a sip of wine, “If I had, how could I let them get away with such nonsense.”

Mo Hua asked puzzledly, “Then how did you know it was a Formation and not a Spell?”

After the Earth Fire Formation exploded, the Spirit paper turned to ash. No one should have known it was Mo Hua who hurt Qian Xing with a Formation unless they saw it with their own eyes.

“Where rain falls, traces remain; where geese fly over, they leave their call; a Cultivator doing anything will leave traces. Not being able to see them yourself doesn’t mean others can’t.”

“What sort of traces are there?” Mo Hua humbly asked for advice.

“The ash left by the burned Formation media is different from the ash from other burned objects. After a Formation explodes, the lingering aura of Spiritual Power is also easy to distinguish, and anyone knowledgeable could even tell which Formation you used. There also aren’t many Spells that a Qi Refinement Realm can use. Apart from Spells, only Runes and Formations have such power. Runes are expensive and easier to identify, so thinking it over leaves only the Formation...” Zhang Lan said all this with an air of clear confidence.

“I see,” Mo Hua had a sudden realization, “Then how should one erase these traces?”

“The ash from the Spirit paper scatters with the wind and dissolves in water, or one could directly use other Formation media to draw a Formation, leaving no residue; the aura left by an exploded Formation can be intentionally confused. Still, it doesn’t matter much, as a normal Cultivator can hardly tell the difference between a Formation’s and a Cultivator’s Spiritual Power. And then there is...”

Speaking thus far, Zhang Lan suddenly realized something was off, as if he were teaching Mo Hua how to cover his tracks after doing mischief...

“Court Leader Zhang, you’ve worked hard. This meal is on me!” Mo Hua slapped his chest and offered generously.

“Oh?” Zhang Lan teased, “In that case, let’s have two more plates of beef and two more jars of fine wine!”

Mo Hua felt a bit awkward, “We’re just a small business, that’s probably enough.”

Zhang Lan couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“By the way, do you have a grudge against Qian Xing? Why did he specifically target you?” Zhang Lan suddenly remembered to ask.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, “Not really a grudge—he asked me to do something for him, I didn’t agree, and he flew into a rage from embarrassment.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah,” Mo Hua nodded, “He said he’d kill me and throw me into the mountains to be eaten piece by piece by Monster Beasts, so that the Taoist Court wouldn’t be able to trace it back to him...”

“Son of a bitch!” Zhang Lan slammed the table, exasperating the other customers who turned to look. Zhang Lan quickly coughed and covered it up, “Fine wine!”

Mo Hua couldn’t resist saying, “You’ve damaged our table.”

The table now had several cracks after Zhang Lan’s slam.

Zhang Lan usually restrained his Blood Qi and Spiritual Power, but momentarily, in his anger, he used some strength.

“Put it on my tab, deduct it from my Spirit Stones,” Zhang Lan sheepishly said.

Mo Hua was just speaking rhetorically, but then he asked a question that puzzled him,

“Uncle Zhang, Qian Xing wouldn’t really kill someone, would he...”

Mo Hua had grown up seeing cultivators who mostly toiled for their livelihood. Even if there were fights to the death, they were usually with Monster Beasts. It was rare for cultivators to kill one another.

So when Qian Xing tried to use lethal force over a disagreement, Mo Hua was quite shocked, especially with the casual way Qian Xing talked about murder and the method he described of suspending someone in the mountains for Monster Beasts to eat piece by piece. If he hadn’t actually done it, he probably wouldn’t have spoken so convincingly.

This was also Mo Hua’s first real encounter with the dangers and unpredictability hidden beneath ordinary daily life.

Zhang Lan’s expression also became more somber, “It’s not impossible...”

“Doesn’t the Taoist Court care?”

“The Taoist Court will only act if someone files a report, will only investigate if there are clues, and will only convict if the evidence is conclusive. Otherwise, either they can’t intervene at all or even if they do intervene, they won’t get any results, and in the end, it will usually just come to nothing.”

It seems like the things Qian Xing did would probably all come to nothing...