The Quest for Immortality

When people die, do they turn into ghosts?

Why would Senior Sister Ye ask this?

Could it be...

Mo Hua’s expression darkened slightly. After some thought, he said to Hua Qianqian, ”Senior Sister Qianqian, are there any belongings left of Senior Sister Ye Jin?”

Hua Qianqian thought for a moment and shook her head, ”It’s hard to say, Sister Jin Er died by self-immolation, the entire house was burned down, nothing was left. Even if anything was left, it was all collected by the Sect and handed over to the Ye family.”

”There aren’t any, then...”

Mo Hua frowned, contemplated for a moment, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration, ”Are there any books? Or a jade slip.”

”Those were all burned too...”

”No,” Mo Hua said, ”Not her own, the ones she borrowed from the Sect, the books and jade slips.”

Hua Qianqian was taken aback and then understood.

Mo Hua said, ”Try to check in the Book Pavilion, see if Senior Sister Ye Jin borrowed any books or jade slips before her death, there might be some clues in them.”

Hua Qianqian gave Mo Hua a surprised glance, admiring him in her heart.

Junior Brother Mo is indeed remarkably astute.

Hua Qianqian said, ”The records in the Book Pavilion are confidential, but I have an aunt who is an Elder there, I can ask her for help. At this time tomorrow, I will bring you the books and jade slips, and if I can’t get them, I will come to tell you.”

Mo Hua nodded, ”Alright.”

The next day, after finishing his class, Mo Hua came early to wait at the foot of the mountain.

After a while, Hua Qianqian, dressed in brocade and with a stunning appearance, arrived.

The two of them sat side by side under a large tree.

Hua Qianqian handed Mo Hua a storage bag embroidered with a hundred flowers, letting out a long breath:

”It was a bit troublesome... no matter what I said, my aunt refused to agree, I coaxed and pestered her for a long time and even promised that in this Sect assessment, I would definitely achieve a ’Grade A’ in Alchemy before she relented and checked the records for me.”

Hua Qianqian pointed at the storage bag, ”All the Tao cultivation books that Sister Jin Er borrowed from the Book Pavilion in the past month are in this storage bag.”

Then she reminded, ”These are not supposed to be shown to outsiders, Junior Brother Mo, please don’t lose them, or I won’t be able to explain to my aunt...”

”Understood, Senior Sister, rest assured!” Mo Hua assured.

Hua Qianqian felt relieved but still had some doubts, ”But... is there really a clue in them?”

”Let’s hope so...”

Mo Hua’s eyes brightened slightly.

...

Inside the Taixu Gate.

After returning to the Disciple’s Residence, Mo Hua opened the storage bag Hua Qianqian had given him.

This was a storage bag from the Hundred Flower Valley.

It was embroidered with a profusion of colorful flowers.

Inside the storage bag, there were a total of four Tao cultivation canons and one jade slip.

Mo Hua flipped through them one by one.

The jade slip recorded a method of cultivating flowers, explaining how to nurture various kinds of valuable magnolia flowers.

The Hundred Flower Valley is named after ”flowers,” and flower arts are one of the Tao cultivation courses there. The female disciples of Hundred Flower Valley are all somewhat proficient in flower arts.

And Mo Hua remembered that Senior Sister Qianqian had mentioned that Senior Sister Ye Jin loved magnolia flowers before her death, so in learning floral arts, she focused on ”magnolia.”

But he himself knew nothing about floral arts.

If it couldn’t be eaten, he wasn’t very fond of growing it.

Mo Hua skimmed through the jade slip, found nothing, and put it aside for the time being.

Then there were several Tao cultivation canons.

Some were about alchemy, some about cultivation, and one taught women how to apply makeup and rouge, but the last one was very peculiar.

The book title was: ”One Hundred Taboos in Cultivation.”

This was a book about nearly a hundred forbidden acts during cultivation, to prevent disciples from going astray and falling into evil paths.

Mo Hua flipped through the book, and suddenly his gaze stopped on a page.

This page had slight creases.

There were water stains on it that looked like tear marks.

Near the tear marks, there was a line of text:

”...if one dies tragically, with deep resentment, they can turn into the fiercest of ghostly entities...”

Tragic death, heavy resentment, transformation into ghosts...

Mo Hua’s heart gradually sank.

He pondered for a moment, put away the storage bag, took out the White Bone Broken Sword, lifted a small seal, and asked:

”Sword Bone, may I ask you a question.”

”Master,” Sword Bone started to say, then immediately realized Mo Hua disliked those two words and changed his address, ”Young Master, please ask.”

”How did you become an ’Evil Spirit’?” Mo Hua asked. .

”This...” Sword Bone chuckled awkwardly, ”Didn’t you already know, I was killed by you, my flesh and blood vanished, and my divine soul became parasitic on the broken sword, turning into a Sword Demon...”

Mo Hua frowned, ”Isn’t your situation... rather special?”

Sword Bone shivered inside, feeling guilty, ”Young Master, you mean...”

Mo Hua said, ”I’ve killed others and seen many people die, but those who could turn into ’Evil Spirits’ after death are very few.”

Among the people Mo Hua encountered, besides the Sword Bone, the only one who turned into an Evil Spirit after death was Zhang Quan, a Foundation Building cultivator collaborating with Lu Chengyun in refining corpses at the Corpse Mountain in South Yue City.

But Zhang Quan’s situation was special.

His entire family were ”Corpse Ghosts.”

He also had an ancestral ”Zombie Image,” and after death, the whole family would neatly enter the image.

There must be some inheritance involved here.

However, Mo Hua was not from the Corpse Path, so he couldn’t tell which evil spell point Zhang Quan’s family inherited.

But apart from Zhang Quan, other cultivators just died and that was that.

They wouldn’t easily turn into Evil Spirit ghosts.

Sword Bone was another more unusual case.

It seemed to have been prepared early on, either to refine its own Magical Treasure and achieve Golden Core Demon Cultivator status or to lose its flesh and blood upon death and transform into a Sword Demon.