Dustbound Ties

When Shen Mo returned to his quarters, he saw that the Spirit-Hidden Rat had eaten its fill, found a corner on its own, curled up, and was lazily basking in the sun.

"Is it asleep? I'll take a nap too." Shen Mo stretched, thinking to himself.

Though he had spent the past two months guarding the Mystic Crystal Mine, he hadn't experienced the many dangers and close calls that other disciples faced on their missions.

Still, he hadn't gotten much rest. Now that he was back at the sect, it was time to take a break.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Is that you, Senior Sister Chen?"

He paused in surprise, then went to open it.

But the face that greeted him wasn't Chen Mengze's. It belonged to a middle-aged man.

"Deacon Ma?"

The man was none other than Ma Gan, who was in charge of managing the sect's outer disciples.

"Is there something you need from me?"

He was a little puzzled. The other man shouldn't have had any reason to seek him out.

"Your father was Shen Yuanchang, who disappeared twenty years ago, right?" Ma Gan didn't come in to sit. Instead, he took out the register of outer disciples, leafed through it for a moment, and asked.

"That's right." Shen Mo nodded.

"Good." Deacon Ma said, "Someone has come looking for your father. He says he's from your family and has a favor to ask."

"Looking for my father?"

Shen Mo froze. "Someone from my family?"

From the original Shen Mo's memories, he had managed to find a little information about the family.

Shen Mo's father, Shen Yuanchang, had come from the Shen Family of Tianyou City.

The Shen Family was a martial clan with generations of history. They made their living escorting goods and running mines, among other family businesses, and had built up a respectable fortune.

But Shen Mo's father, Shen Yuanchang, had been a distant branch member of the Shen Family and wasn't valued.

His parents had both been sickly and passed away one after another when Shen Yuanchang was in his twenties.

After that, Shen Yuanchang resolved to leave home in search of immortality and the Dao.

While wandering the martial world, he met Shen Mo's mother.

The two married and had Shen Mo. By a twist of fate, Shen Yuanchang then joined the River-Facing Sect and devoted himself to cultivation.

He never returned to the Shen Family for the rest of his life.

"Why would someone suddenly come looking for him now?" Shen Mo was puzzled. The relationship had been severed for over twenty years.

"Where is he?"

"Outside the mountain gate."

Deacon Ma said indifferently, "Mere mortals may not enter the immortal sect. If you want to see him, go to the mountain gate yourself."

Outside the mountain gate of the River-Facing Sect.

The Shen Family member who had come to seek out his kin was a burly man with a face full of bristling whiskers. He bore a faint resemblance to Shen Mo.

He wore a pale green robe and looked travel-worn. It seemed he had hurried here day and night without time to wash, leaving him somewhat disheveled.

"Who are you?" Shen Mo walked up and asked.

"I'm Shen Zhiyun, second son of Shen Zhou, head of the Shen Family of Tianyou City."

When Shen Zhiyun saw Shen Mo, he couldn't tell who he was, so he hurriedly bowed. "Has the immortal master informed my cousin? Is he willing to come out and see me?"

Cousin?

Shen Mo raised an eyebrow. By seniority, it seemed he should call this man uncle.

But he didn't step forward to claim kinship.

In truth, the original Shen Mo had never had any contact with the Shen Family and felt no attachment to it.

The same went for Shen Mo, who had taken his place.

"Why have you come looking for him?"

"I wouldn't dare hide it from you, immortal master." Shen Zhiyun hurriedly replied, "I've come because the family is in danger, and I want to ask my cousin for help."

After Shen Yuanchang joined the River-Facing Sect, he never returned to the Shen Family.

But he had sent letters, telling them he had joined an immortal sect and leaving the address of the River-Facing Sect.

That was how Shen Zhiyun had found this place.

"The family is in danger?" Shen Mo shook his head. "Then you've come too late."

"He's dead. He was killed by a beast tide in the Linjiang Mountain Range twenty years ago."

Since Shen Zhiyun wasn't asking him to return and inherit the family business, but to lend a hand, Shen Mo had even less interest.

"D-dead?"

Hearing this, Shen Zhiyun was struck as if by lightning. He instantly looked crestfallen. "Then my Shen Family really may not survive this calamity."

He had traveled a thousand li to come here, clinging to that one glimmer of hope.

Now even his last hope had been extinguished.

A hulking, whiskered man nearly two meters tall suddenly burst into tears right in front of Shen Mo.

Shen Mo furrowed his brow. He had been about to turn and leave.

But for some reason, seeing Shen Zhiyun weep like that made him feel reluctant to walk away.

"Fine. I'll accept this karmic tie."

Shen Mo knew that this restless feeling of his probably came from the original owner's memories and instincts.

"I'm Shen Yuanchang's son. Tell me what's happened to the family."

At Shen Mo's words, Shen Zhiyun, who had been bawling moments earlier with his tonsils wobbling in the breeze, abruptly stopped crying.

"So you really are my cousin's descendant!"

"Dear nephew! My dear nephew!"

He excitedly patted Shen Mo on the shoulder.

In truth, the moment he had seen Shen Mo, he'd thought he looked somewhat like the people of the Shen Family. And the way Shen Mo had questioned him made it clear he wasn't an unrelated stranger.

After a little thought, Shen Zhiyun had guessed who he was.

But Shen Mo was an immortal master, after all.

If Shen Mo didn't acknowledge the relationship first, Shen Zhiyun wouldn't dare presume to be related to him.

His show of grief just now had been half genuine and half an act, meant to move Shen Mo.

Shen Mo could see through his little schemes, but didn't care.

He simply acted as his heart directed.

Besides, whether he would help or not depended on what had happened to the Shen Family.

"I remember the Shen Family was a prominent clan in Tianyou City, living quite comfortably. How did you end up facing such a calamity?"

"Alas..." Shen Zhiyun sighed and told him the whole story.

It turned out that in all the years since Shen Yuanchang had left the family, the Shen Family had continued to prosper.

With talented members emerging one after another and their escort business, mines, and other ventures expanding rapidly, they had gradually become one of the most powerful martial clans in Tianyou City.

Five years ago, Shen Zhou, the current head of the family, had even been jointly elected martial alliance leader by the righteous sects and clans of Tianyou City. He led them in an assault against the Blood Garment Sect, an evil organization that performed human sacrifices and committed every kind of atrocity.

As the leading power in Tianyou City's martial world, the Shen Family took charge that day and joined forces with dozens of factions, large and small, to wipe out the Blood Garment Sect and rid the martial world of a great menace.

In the years that followed, the Shen Family's prestige in Tianyou City reached its peak.

But their good fortune didn't last.

"Half a year ago, someone in Tianyou City raised the banner of the Blood Garment Sect again and began performing human sacrifices."

"Not only did they return and resume their evil deeds, they also declared that they would take revenge and make every righteous faction that had destroyed the Blood Garment Sect pay."

Shen Zhiyun paused before continuing. "At first, we didn't take them seriously. After all, in the battle back then, the Blood Garment Sect's leader was killed, and all its elders and hall masters were executed."

"At most, only a few lackeys and second- or third-rate fighters managed to escape alive. No matter what they did, they couldn't possibly rebuild their forces in just a few years and restore the demonic cult to its former power."

"But what no one could have imagined was..."

"Those demonic cult remnants really did what they said they'd do!"