The Quest for Immortality

Mo Hua silently nodded.

He thought he had considered everything, but he hadn’t expected there to be so many things he hadn’t thought about...

After Mo Hua left with a mind full of thoughts, Mr. Zhuang stared blankly at the dense blood mist in the deep mountains.

After a long time, Mr. Zhuang murmured in a low voice, ”Is this my karma?”

Elder Gui quietly appeared behind him and said indifferently, ”Not everything is related to you. Don’t flatter yourself.”

Mr. Zhuang shook his head.

Elder Gui glanced at him lightly, ”So what? Are you not leaving again?”

Mr. Zhuang sighed, ”I’ll wait until this matter is settled.”

”What do you want to wait for?”

”Until this matter is concluded, the issue of the Dao calamities has a resolution. Then I will leave and no longer get entangled in this karma.”

Elder Gui reminded him, ”The Daoist has already been here.”

”So what if he has? It’s not like he came in person.”

Elder Gui frowned, ”The Dao calamities are breeding here. The news has already spread to the Dao Court, alarming the Tian Shu Pavilion. Your whereabouts will be calculated, and they have always been watching you...”

”Let them calculate. It’s not like they haven’t figured it out before.” Mr. Zhuang said nonchalantly.

Elder Gui knew he couldn’t persuade him. Mr. Zhuang, in such a way, could be called determined or stubborn.

Elder Gui snorted coldly, ”A dead man cannot be persuaded with good words.”

After saying this, Elder Gui turned to leave, but Mr. Zhuang suddenly said in a low voice, ”Thank you.”

Elder Gui was slightly stunned, ”Did you take the wrong medicine?”

Mr. Zhuang smiled bitterly, ”I have always remembered your kindness.”

”What?” Elder Gui asked suspiciously, ”Do you still think about repaying me?”

Mr. Zhuang smiled, ”If there is such a day.”

”Only the living can repay kindness. What can the dead repay? The dead can only repay ghosts.”

Elder Gui said bluntly and left, his back somewhat lonely.

In the bamboo room, only Mr. Zhuang was left.

Mr. Zhuang still silently watched the deep mountains and the blood mist that soared into the sky. After a long time, he muttered in a low voice, ”Senior brother, isn’t the karma you created enough?”

At this moment, in the center of Daozhou, in the Dao Court, in the most prominent position of the court.

An old man with white hair and beard was playing chess.

In front of him was only a chessboard, no chess pieces.

Opposite him was only a cushion, no player.

The cushion was empty, just as the chessboard was empty.

The old man sat silently, staring at the blank chessboard, expressionless, as if he existed both here and in the void.

After a while, the old man slowly said, ”Come in.”

A white-robed cultivator who had been waiting outside for a long time respectfully stepped forward, placed a jade slip on the table, and then respectfully withdrew.

The old man stared at the chessboard for a long time, then couldn’t help but complain, ”No one plays chess anymore...”

He shook his head and looked at the jade slip on the table.

The jade slip had words written in pale golden spiritual power, with only two short lines:

North of Li Province, Second Grade, Black Mountain Province border, Tongxian City.

A Dao calamity has emerged, forming a great demon named Feng Xi.

The old man glanced at it, then ignored it, continuing to stare at his empty chessboard. After a while, he suddenly had a feeling, ”Li Province... Tongxian City...”

The old man opened his right hand, and spiritual power radiated from his palm, forming a celestial compass with the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthly Branches, and the Two Instruments and Four Symbols.

The compass rotated and calculated layer by layer, finally matching each other.

The old man was slightly stunned, ”It really is here...”

He took out another jade slip marked with ”Nine Regions Atlas”, according to the compass calculation, he traced a clear trajectory with his finger and instructed faintly, ”Pass it on.”

The white-robed cultivator at the door bowed forward, took the jade slip, and retreated.

Soon, the jade slip reached the hands of various high-ranking cultivators in the Tian Shu Pavilion. They were all shocked and thoughtful.

After a while, cultivators began to leave the Tian Shu Pavilion one after another, some with serious expressions, some with excitement, and some with ulterior motives.

Every move of the Tian Shu Pavilion was clearly visible in the old man’s sea of consciousness, but he remained indifferent, placing the first piece on the blank chessboard.

After placing the piece, the old man complained, ”Don’t let me figure it out. If I figure it out, it will be difficult for me...”

”Wouldn’t it be better to stay quiet? It would be good for you and me. You have to make trouble for me.”

”Now, whether you live or die depends on your own fate...”

The old man muttered a lot, but no one heard, and no one answered.

After speaking, the old man turned his head again, picked up the jade slip, looked at the two lines again, and muttered, ”Tongxian... This name is interesting...”

”Feng Xi? Who is feeding the pig this time?”

”Fortunately, it is only Second Grade...”

The old man placed this jade slip together with other similar jade slips.

The other jade slips also had similar words written on them:

Qianzhou, Second Grade, Wentao Mountain Province border, Qiandeng City.

A Dao calamity has emerged, forming a great evil, ancient name Huapi.

Annotation: Residual thoughts of the evil god, hidden in the visualization diagram, Qiandeng City has relocated.

...

Genzhou, Third Grade, Longji Mountain Province border, Longshan City.

A Dao calamity has emerged, forming a great ghost, ancient name Wuchang.

Annotation: Ghosts are formless, discovered too late, Longshan City was destroyed, turned into a ghost city, no cultivators survived.

...

Kanzhou, Fourth Grade, Jingwei Province border, Sanchuan Ancient Crossing.

A Dao calamity has emerged, forming a great demon, ancient name Xiangliu.

Annotation: Relocation failed, Xiangliu poisoned the Sanchuan, more than half of the relocating cultivators died or were injured.

...

Kunzhou, Fourth Grade, Cangyun Province border, Cangyun City.

A Dao calamity has emerged, forming a great corpse, ancient name Hanba.

Annotation: Cangyun Province border destroyed, turned into a sea of corpses...

...

The old man gradually frowned.

In recent years, Dao calamities have become more and more frequent.

”Dao calamities are frequent, chaos is born in the world... Is it because the Dao is too exploitative, the Dao of Heaven is imbalanced, causing people’s hearts to generate calamities, or is there someone or something non-human secretly plotting?”

The old man pondered silently.

Finally, he looked up at the sky for a long time and couldn’t help muttering, ”I look at this sky every day. Where is the array? Is the boy surnamed Zhuang lying to me?”

——

In Tongxian City, at the Mo family’s eatery.

Mo Hua was still considering the grand array, but he saw his parents already packing.

”Father, mother, are we moving the city?”

Mo Shan nodded and sighed, ”The Dao Court has already notified us. We must prepare in advance.”

”Is everyone leaving?”

”Yes.”

”Where are we going?”

Mo Shan said, ”The old supervisor is still discussing, but it will probably be south of Li Province, either wasteland or barren mountains, places without cultivators. We will re-cultivate and settle.”

Mo Hua muttered, ”It will be hard...”

”Re-cultivating is secondary, just a bit of hard work. The hardest part is the journey, not all cultivators can safely migrate to the destination...” Mo Shan sighed.

Mo Hua nodded.

Along the way, there might be places like Dahei Mountain with dangerous terrain, toxic miasma, demonic beasts, criminal cultivators, and even evil cultivators.

Even some families, sects, and the Dao Court might not be good people.

”Uncle Ji’s family?”

”They will move with us,” Mo Shan answered with some emotion, ”Your Uncle Ji’s family has nowhere to turn. Originally, they came to Tongxian City, Ji Li and Fu Lan got married, and the family could live a stable life for a while. But unexpectedly, they encountered a great demon, and now they have to move again...”

And their future is uncertain, not necessarily better.

After all, Qi Refining stage cultivators are at the bottom of the cultivation world, life is hard and fragile, they can’t bear much risk.

In the following days, Mo Hua’s acquaintances and former friends were all preparing to move the city.

Mo Hua sighed.

The grand array might not be learned or built...

He would probably have to move with the city.

Once the city moved, he would likely bid farewell to Tongxian City forever, and also to Mr. Zhuang, and his fellow disciples Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi...

Mo Hua felt a bit depressed.

In the evening, a guest suddenly arrived at the eatery, it was Master Luo.

Mo Hua asked in confusion, ”Master Luo? Aren’t you preparing to move?”

Master Luo shook his head helplessly, ”I am moving, but not to the south of Li Province. I am moving to the northern

border of Lanling Province, I have old friends there, and several sects have invited me to be an elder.”

Mo Hua was stunned.

Master Luo explained to him, ”It’s not just me, any cultivators with status and position in Tongxian City won’t move to the barren lands. We all have our ways.”

Master Luo handed an invitation to Mo Hua:

”Young Master Mo, you have your ways too.”