During the days Xiao Mo spent in closed-door cultivation,
He Yeye had even set up a Formation around his courtyard, isolating it from all sound and outside Spiritual Sense probing.
No one could enter and disturb Xiao Mo.
And Xiao Mo had sunk completely into a state of utter self-forgetfulness.
He was not merely writing a book; he was also sorting through and verifying the Great Dao he pursued.
If he succeeded in this one go, he would truly be able to forge a Confucian Path of his own.
If he failed, then the road ahead would likely be truly arduous.
What Xiao Mo did not know was that the people of Demon Suppressing City were quietly evacuating the children and ordinary folk.
The Confucian Academy would settle them far behind the front lines, well away from the battlefield.
As for the other cultivators, not a single one was allowed to leave.
They had only two choices.
Either die fighting within Demon Suppressing City,
or sacrifice themselves beneath the Great Wall.
The entire city was cloaked in an atmosphere of taut tension.
Though everyone laughed and joked on the surface, deep down they wondered whether they would live to return to Myriad Laws Under Heaven.
Some had no ties holding them back, and simply spent night after night drunk in the brothels.
Others picked up their brushes and wrote letter after letter home, leaving behind their final words.
No one could guarantee they would live to see tomorrow.
Four months slipped by.
One morning, three long, solemn peals of the bell rang out once more across all of Demon Suppressing City.
In a courtyard off Clear Breeze Street,
a Sword Cultivator named Qu Xuan slowly opened his eyes.
Qu Xuan came from the Willow Leaf Sword Sect in Myriad Laws