When He Yuan got to a spot covered by rocks, he lifted the core. He would have preferred doing this outside of the barrier but there was to way to leave -even his teleportation talismans were not working.
Once Mo Jiu woke up, he would definitely be discovered. How was he going to hide the core then? A core of this spiritual magnitude would be sensed even if he hid it in his interspatial ring.
Absorbing the core was even more impossible. With the state of this body, if He Yuan were to absorb this core, he would directly implode.
Anyways, his aim was to stop Mo Jiu from being insanely overpowered and not to create another problem for the realm by making Mo Sheng unnecessarily overpowered.
He Yuan placed the core on a sturdy rock and lifted a huge rock. After a taking a few breaths, he smashed down on the core with all his might.
BOOM!
A bright light shone from a point in the core and a blast of spiritual energy blew He Yuan away. It didn't stop there, it proceeded to blast the already unconscious Mo Jiu away too and continued to increase until it blasted away the entire barrier and the horde of cultivators hammering down on it from the outside.
He Yuan was blasted over a mile away. He crashed into a tree and had a huge branch pierce the flesh on his right side from behind and burst out through the front. Even his defensive robe couldn't survive the blast.
"S-shit," He whispered as he shook his head to clear his mind. The blood loss from enduring the spiritual pressure in the barrier coupled with his wound was making him muddleheaded. He quickly took out his first aid kit and treated his wounds as best as he could.
He was seeing in twos and threes so he couldn't determine the exact result. Once he was done, he bit his lips to keep himself awake as he pulled out one of his silver needles. It was a good thing he catalogued the needles according to the kind of poison he'd seeped into it.
After extracting the beast repelling poison from within it, he applied it all over his body, even in his hair -making sure to avoid his bandaged wound. Once he was done, he put on new robes, shakily climbed up the tree and passed out on a really huge branch.
"...think he's dead?"
"Who knows?"
The next time He Yuan woke up, it was to sound of voices coming from somewhere below. He remained unmoving as he listened closely, thinking at first that the voices were referring to him until he heard them clearly.
"He'd been missing for three days after all." The second voice continued.
"BAH! I don't believe it. It's brother Jiu we're talking about here. He's the brightest star of our generation. There's no way he'd be taken down so easily." A new voice said.
"Yeah. Jiu-gege is amazing isn't he? All the spirit beasts had gone into hiding since that beast had appeared and yet he had managed to fearlessly defeat the pseudo divine level beast all on his own. Ah~ So dreamy. Lowly ones like us can't compare." The first voice from earlier said.
"He wasn't found in the vicinity though." The second voice pointed out.
"Hey, Pong! What are you implying? Are you perhaps doubting the fact that brother Jiu defeated it? You idiot! The elders had found traces of his spiritual energy all over the beast's remains. Are you telling me that someone else killed the beast and magically applied brother Jiu's spiritual energy all over it?" The third voice said heatedly.
The owner of the second voice chuckled in embarrassment. "My bad, my bad." A slight pause. "Hey, I just realized no one has seen that Sheng trash since that day? With brother Jiu missing, do you think the trash had somehow met his doom with no one to rely on?"
"Ha!" The second voice began. "What good news that would be. Maybe then Jiu-gege would not be stuck with such a shameful daxiong and elder Mo might actually accept a new disciple. Although I'm pretty sure the trash ran away to hide with his tail in between his legs."
The three people below laughed loudly as they walked away.
He Yuan groaned as he sat up on the tree branch. He was sore all over and his throat felt parched. He hopped down the tree as he mulled over the new information. He'd been unconscious for three days and Mo Jiu had been missing for the same amount of time.
Since the beast core was destroyed, Mo Jiu had nothing to absorb that would keep him secluded for three days so why was he missing?
Could he have gone ahead and tried to subdue the Phoenix? Wouldn't that be impossible? The Phoenix was a high grade beast that was about to enter pseudo divine level whilst Mo Jiu was in the middle stage of Core formation. On top of it all, he'd been incredibly weakened when he raised his cultivation level to fight off the beast.
It was practically impossible for him to be able to singlehandedly subdue and contract the phoenix... Or was it? He Yuan had no idea. Mo Jiu was full of unpleasant surprises after all.
He Yuan decided to head over to the lake where Mo Jiu had first met the jade twins. In the storyline, Mo Jiu had killed off the blue robed cultivators and then said goodbye to the twins over there before he left the Spirit beast forest. The next time he'd met them was during his quest for unification.
As He Yuan journeyed on the lotus artifact, he discovered that the entire Spirit beast forest was awfully quiet. It was no joke when those cultivators said all the beasts had gone into hiding.
The location of the lake was in between two really low hills. The hills were so low they were more like muddy slopes. He Yuan decided to approach the lake from one of the elevations rather than the forest path. If Mo Jiu was indeed there, he didn't want to be discovered.
When He Yuan got down from his lotus artifact, he slowly crept to the edge of the hill and peeked down. There was nothing. Where on earth was Mo Jiu then? He was about to straighten his posture when the wind carried some sounds over the hills.
He Yuan froze. No way. It was broad daylight! He slowly moved away from the edge of the first hill and ran over to the second hill and crept towards the edge.
From this angle, he could clearly see what was going on clearly. The Mo Jiu, whom the entire Duoluo sect and many others were worrying their heads over, was currently right there, balls deep in Chu Leng with his face in between Chu Feng's breasts.
Mo Jiu had one hand on Chu Feng's behind as he sucked on her luscious breasts whilst his other hand was on Chu Leng's manhood, slowly pumping him as he dug his own manhood into the moaning male cultivator's chrysanthemum.
He Yuan pinched his forehead in exasperation as he turned away from the show and laid down on the hill, facing the skies. He normally enjoyed a good show but at this point, even his filthy mind could not handle all of Mo Jiu's adventures.
This was too much stimulation, why was Mo Jiu still alive and functioning? He wanted to be sure if Mo Jiu managed to encounter another enlightenment opportunity but with the current state of things, nothing could be found out.
He Yuan straightened his posture and turned to leave when he came face to face with a very tired looking Gu Long. His body subconsciously moved to block off the edge of the hill and then he frowned. He had no idea why he'd done that.
Gu Long also noticed his action and frowned in confusion. Then his eyes trailed to the edge of the hill. His cultivation was much higher than He Yuan's hence his senses were sharper. A bitter smile formed on his face. "He's there isn't he?"
He Yuan sighed. Gu Long looked like he'd spent every waking moment scouring through the forest in search of Mo Jiu. To end up facing such a thing after all that effort was quite pitiful. He Yuan crossed his arms over his chest. "Why do you even bother?"
"Honestly... I don't know." And then Gu Long smoothly steered the topic away from Mo Jiu. "You were missing too."
He Yuan shrugged. "Glad someone noticed." And then he moved away, watching as Gu Long settled cross legged at the edge of the hill. He couldn't help himself from asking, "Is he worth it?"
Gu Long lowered his misty eyes. "I don't know. I also don't want to feel this way but I can't help it. They say you don't choose who you fall for."
He Yuan said nothing at first. Gu Long was actually one of the people that watched out for Mo Sheng in the sect. The man always minded his business and remained silent but he was always quick to lend a helping hand if someone bothered Mo Sheng in his presence.
The young cultivator didn't have to, but he did anyways which was noteworthy for He Yuan.
He Yuan observed the youngster once more. He'd never been in love so he had no idea how Gu Long felt. He could judge all he wanted but he would never truly understand Gu Long's pain or choices because he'd never been in the same situation so he sighed and said,
"Even if you can't choose who you fall for, you can at least choose your pain. It's either you let go and suffer through heartbreak or continue to hang on and suffer through even more heartbreak. With the first option, you have the chance of forgetting and moving on but with the second, you would only doom yourself to eternal damnation -maybe even develop a heart demon along the line and suffer from a qi deviation."
Gu Long looked up at He Yuan. It was as if he was truly seeing Mo Sheng for the first time. He sighed. "You know, every single time I convince myself to leave, I end up coming back. Maybe this us my fate and at this point, I've resigned myself to it."
"You know what you need?" He Yuan suddenly asked with a small smile and Gu Long gave him a questioning look. "One of those righteous pep talks Mo Jiu always gives himself about defying fate."
Mo Jiu always complained about how hard his life had been and how he had to struggle every step of the way because fate was against him but in fact, there was no one fate loved more in the entire realm.
Yes, it was true that Mo Jiu had been abandoned as a child but even when he was rejected by Duoluo sect, he always forgot that elder Mo had accepted him regardless. No one gave him any problem whatsoever and two years later, it had been discovered he was a genius.
What hardship did he go through? Most of the attacks in Mo Jiu's life would be easily avoided if the man didn't go about running his mouth and angering people.
Mo Sheng had been orphaned young too, Mo Sheng had faced rejection all of his life, Mo Sheng worked his ass of every single day to become better but with no progress. Fate had never been against Mo Jiu because fate was too busy making Mo Sheng's life difficult for no reason!
Even Mo Sheng's ending in the storyline was absolutely pathetic. In Mo Sheng's entire life, he'd only been truly happy when his demonic half was unsealed and he began to properly cultivate but then he died six years later. The man had seen happiness for just six short years.
The problem with Mo Jiu was instead of being grateful for what he had, he kept on antagonizing the heavens whenever things went wrong in his life due to his own leaky mouth.
It was always the fault of others for being angered by his insensitive words and actions, it was always the fault of the heavens for allowing him to be abandoned as a child, it was always the fault of Duoluo sect for rejecting him -something that didn't succeed because elder Mo took him in.
Everything was the fault of everyone and everything except himself!
Mo Jiu always wanted to protect this person or that person but no one was ever in danger and if someone was indeed in danger, hundred percent of time, it had something to do with Mo Jiu.
Gu Long began chuckling breathlessly. "He does that all the time."
He Yuan hummed in agreement and turned to leave but before he did, he asked, "So you're just going to stay here and torture yourself by listening to them?"
Gu Long shrugged and smiled at He Yuan but his smile didn't reach his eyes. "Mo Jiu can be a bit.. Careless... At times like this. Someone has to keep watch in case of danger right?"
He Yuan felt a pang in his chest at Gu Long's forlorn look. It was so strong that he gasped and held his chest as he walked away. Something wasn't right.
After running his soul energy through his soul body, he found out the problem. Mo Sheng's soul thread was trembling fiercely. Normally, the leaser's soul threads were dormant except when faced with triggering events.
He Yuan's eyes widened as he realized what had caused Mo Sheng's soul thread to react so fiercely and affect him in return.
Mo Sheng was in love with Gu Long.