The person standing in front of him was a very low-ranking female cultivator in the bureau, about forty years old, usually not very talkative.
Mo Xi was somewhat surprised and asked, “What is it?”
“I… just now the academy sent a letter saying my daughter was beaten by the daughter of Lord Changfeng and got a minor injury. I can’t rest easy and want to go see her. But I still have many dossiers that haven’t been organized…”
As she spoke, an awkward and worried expression appeared on her face.
“I, I asked several colleagues already, but they all have things to do. Even Young Master Yue is going to drink with friends in the East Market… so I was thinking, could I trouble you…”
Mo Xi slightly frowned.
He did not mind helping her, only the name “Lord Changfeng,” which had been quiet for many years, seemed to be appearing a bit too frequently recently.
“How serious is the injury?”
“They said she twisted her arm,” the female cultivator said. “Although it’s not serious, she keeps crying and making a fuss, and the elders have no way to deal with it.”
“Then go. Be careful on the way.”
The female cultivator originally did not hold much hope for this cold-faced commander. She did not expect that after asking so many people, it would actually be him who agreed. She could not help but widen her eyes, a trace of joyful color finally appearing on her cheeks.
“Thank you, Lord Xihe. The baskets of documents are over there…” she spoke in excitement, even stuttering, “I, I’ve already organized most of them, I’m really sorry to trouble you with this kind of small matter…”
“It’s fine. Your daughter matters more.”
The female cultivator thanked him three or four more times and hurried away. Mo Xi was left alone in the military bureau sorting past records.
With his high rank and power, he had never handled such trivial matters before. Only now did he realize it was not easy. There were many dossiers that needed to be sorted by year and rank; important ones needed sealing spells, useless ones needed to be destroyed. He was a beginner and worked very slowly. By the time all the records were almost sorted, the night had already grown very deep.
Only the last box remained.
Inside this sealed basket were the records of cultivators from past generations in the bureau. Mo Xi swept his eyes over them and saw a familiar name at the very edge. He stood there silently for a while, then still could not help but reach out and take out a case file related to Gu Mang. He brushed away the dust on the scroll and slowly spread it open.
Inside were many things.
Gu Mang’s background, slave registry, divine weapon, commonly used techniques.
Mo Xi flipped page by page. There was a thick stack; he stood there reading slowly from beginning to end. Suddenly, a piece of silk paper fell out from the military records.
The silk was already yellowed, the cover titled in neat characters: “Cultivation Academy Year Bing-Shen Daoism Examination.”
Mo Xi paused. This was Gu Mang’s graduation answer sheet from the Cultivation Academy?
Looking down, it was indeed a familiar handwriting—wild and messy—and the content made Mo Xi speechless for a moment.
——Cultivation Academy Year Bing-Shen Daoism Examination
Examinee: Gu Mang
Question: “I examine myself three times a day. Please state your shortcomings truthfully.”
Answer: “I am poor.”
Question: “When Chonghua cultivators go out to exorcise demons and subdue monsters, what are the three things most necessary to avoid? How to prevent them?”
Answer: “1. Guard against the client having no money. 2. Guard against the client running away. 3. Guard against the client running away with the money. Prevention method: settle payment before exorcising demons, no credit.”
Question: “Please list the three most benevolent and virtuous predecessors since the founding of Chonghua.”
Answer: “Don’t know. But the three most shameless are—”
The rest was burned into three holes by the furious grading elder using a spell, so Mo Xi could not know which names Gu Mang had written.
Mo Xi looked at this answer sheet. The handwriting was still somewhat youthful. His heart felt both amused and heavy, and he stood there in a daze for a long time.
Suddenly, commotion came from outside.
“Bad!!”
“Someone come! Something has happened at Luomei Villa!!!”
Luomei Villa?!
Mo Xi was shocked—Gu Mang?!
The situation was sudden. When he arrived, the night patrol guard team had only about twenty men, already forming a demon-hunting array, staring vigilantly at the shaky gate of Luomei Villa. Each of them was injured, and the stone pavement beneath their feet had been shattered from the earlier fight. Nearby streets were also in ruins, several shops collapsed, bricks and tiles scattered, broken wood still smoking.
The leading cultivator saw Mo Xi and immediately shouted, “Marshal Mo!”
“What happened?”
“It’s Gu Mang! We don’t know what happened, but a very strong demonic aura suddenly erupted from him, and the whole person went berserk!”
“Where is he?”
“He was just injured by us. He is currently hiding behind the inner gate of Luomei Villa and does not dare to fight again. We are waiting for reinforcements!”
Mo Xi looked toward the creaking gate and indeed saw a vague figure behind it. In the darkness, a pair of eyes glowed with a faint light.
Gu Mang was clearly watching every movement outside.
Mo Xi stared at those wolf-like eyes and asked, “Wasn’t his spiritual core already destroyed? Why can he suddenly fight again?”
“We don’t know either!” the leading cultivator was almost crying. “This man’s movement technique is so damn evil. If we had just killed him cleanly back then, it would’ve saved so much trouble. Why keep him here in Luomei Villa and raise a tiger to bring disaster later—sigh!”
A nearby junior cultivator angrily said, “I think he’s just pretending! What crippled core, what broken mind—look at him now, does he look like someone without strength?”
“Exactly! If he really had no spiritual power, then who gave me this scar on my face?”
“Why did His Lordship even spare his life!”
As they were arguing, the sound of horse hooves came from not far away. Mo Xi turned around and saw twelve high-level cultivators escorting a gilded carriage rushing through the thin snow.
“Lord Wangshu has arrived!”
The curtain of the carriage was lifted. Attendants prepared stepping stools, parasols, and incense burners. After a while, the pale, sickly face inside slowly appeared.
“Oh, quite lively.” Murong Lian glanced at Mo Xi. “Lord Xihe is here again.”
Mo Xi had no intention of wasting words with him. “Gu Mang has gone out of control.”
Murong Lian gave a cold laugh. “I naturally know. I came for this as well.”
He stepped forward slowly and stopped not far in front of the red lacquer gate. Then he silently formed a spell, and blue light surged in his left palm.
“Go. Capture that beast.”
With his command, the blue light turned into a chain that shot toward the gate. With a loud bang, the thick five-inch gate was pierced and collapsed. Gu Mang, hiding behind the door, was caught off guard and immediately bound tightly by the glowing chain.
Murong Lian shouted again, “Return.”
The chain tightened violently. With a clattering sound, Gu Mang was dragged to his knees and pulled in front of Murong Lian.
“Just a mad dog causing trouble.”
A brocade shoe embroidered with moon-shadow patterns stepped onto Gu Mang’s face.
Murong Lian said lightly, “Is it really necessary to trouble Lord Mo to come personally?”
Gu Mang struggled under restraint, his eyes chaotic, spiritual energy violently surging through his body, his teeth grinding audibly.
“Let go—of me…”
“Let you go?” Murong Lian sneered. “Since when is it your turn to give me orders?” He tightened his hand, the chain screeching as it pulled Gu Mang closer. He grabbed Gu Mang’s hair and forced him to look up.
Two similarly pale faces faced each other, almost nose to nose.
“I am the master, you are the slave. General Gu, have you still not learned your lesson after being starved for a month?”
Gu Mang: “…Let go…”
A strange, almost perverse light flickered in Murong Lian’s delicate face. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly saw Gu Mang narrow his eyes. Murong Lian’s heart jumped—his cultivator instinct made him abruptly release Gu Mang and retreat quickly!
At the same moment, Gu Mang’s body erupted again with a brilliant sword array, far more shocking than before. Each luminous sword towered several meters high. The nearest one broke away instantly and shot straight toward Murong Lian’s heart!
“Milord, be careful!”
“Lord Wangshu, watch out!”
The attendants cried out. Murong Lian, though not skilled in movement, still reacted in time. He raised his hand, forming an ice wall. The sword struck it, shattering it instantly into powder. Using the impact, he dodged aside, and the sword ultimately missed, only tearing a cut through his robe…
Murong Lian landed and glared at Gu Mang.
Gu Mang gasped, ripped off the chain around his neck, and threw it to the ground. Then he raised his head, swallowed once, clenched both fists, and an overwhelming surge of spiritual power poured out from beneath his feet, forcing several weaker cultivators to collapse and vomit blood on the spot.
“Not good! He’s going berserk again!” the leader shouted in panic. “Stop him!”
“Form the array! Engage, engage!”
But the spiritual flow around Gu Mang was already too strong—neither body nor spell could approach the sword-formed domain.
Just as he was about to lose control again, Murong Lian formed a glowing blue talisman and threw it out, shouting, “Water ghosts, rise!”
A cold wind rose. More than ten blue ghostly figures crawled out from the ground, screaming as they surged toward Gu Mang’s sword array. One water ghost was sliced apart by a sword, but another immediately replaced it, wave after wave, slowly approaching his body.
Murong Lian shouted sharply, “Take him down!”
The water ghosts howled and rushed in. But Gu Mang merely raised his hand, and a burst of sword light erupted from his fingertips, instantly shredding all those ghost shadows into pieces!
Then he looked up, his blue eyes locking onto Murong Lian. He walked forward through the snow.
Murong Lian instinctively stepped back and shouted, “What are you doing?!”
Gu Mang did not answer, but a phantom of a lone wolf rose behind him, blue like lightning, making his aura terrifying.
Mo Xi saw this and shouted, “Murong Lian, retreat!”
Murong Lian wanted to retreat too, but an unknown sinister force pinned him in place.
Gu Mang continued walking step by step through the snow. To Murong Lian, he looked like a wolf king about to strike, cold and terrifying.
“…Gu Mang! …How dare you! What are you doing?! You have such nerve!”
Of course Gu Mang dared.
He suddenly raised his hand, a fireball igniting in his palm, and hurled it straight at Murong Lian!
With continuous explosions, each fireball blasted deep pits into the ground. The shattered bricks flew everywhere; one had to rise into the air to avoid the attack.
Murong Lian’s expression grew more vicious, his face deathly pale from the use of hallucination drugs now flushing with anger. He hovered in the air and gritted his teeth at Gu Mang:
“You unrepentant wretch…”
No matter what he said, Gu Mang’s face remained expressionless. He raised his hand again, now with five flames igniting at his fingertips.
“Just now I hit you because you stepped on my head.”
“….”
“Now I hit you because I was hungry.”
Murong Lian said in disbelief, “Because what??”
“You didn’t let me eat.” Gu Mang said word by word, “I. Was. Hungry!”
Flames erupted. Gu Mang swung his hand down with a spell—
Murong Lian’s pupils suddenly contracted.