Jade Fox Wang Ying Appeared Again

That evening, everyone from Jimin Hall gathered in a private room at Fengshan Restaurant to welcome Li Mo back.

It was the finest restaurant in town, right beside Jimin Hall, yet Li Mo had never set foot inside since it opened.

Over the lavish banquet, Li Mo slowly recounted what had happened to him over the past two years.

He glossed over his journey to the Eighteen Mountains to practice medicine and see the world, his subsequent trip to Anle City, where he was tested and found to have a spiritual root, and his eventual induction into Lingmu Sect.

When everyone learned that Li Mo had actually become a cultivator, they gaped in astonishment.

Even the martial world of the Eighteen Mountains was a distant place to this peaceful little town, let alone the cultivators of sacred immortal mountains.

Wang Pan's eyes went round, as if he were listening to a myth.

"Li Mo, could you check whether I have a spiritual root? Could I become a cultivator like you?"

"This..."

Li Mo looked embarrassed.

"You need a special magical artifact to test for one, or a cultivation level above the Golden Core Stage. Right now, I'm only a disciple still training in the Qi Refining Stage."

Wang Ben, who was already past thirty, looked eager.

"Little Mo, can you use magic? Show us a couple of tricks and open our eyes!"

Li Mo smiled, unwilling to spoil the mood, and demonstrated Palm Lightning on the spot.

Everyone cried out in amazement. When they looked at Li Mo again, their expressions had changed completely, with a hint of reverence in their eyes. They began asking all kinds of questions about cultivators.

Li Mo shared the basic knowledge he knew with them.

They listened, enthralled and utterly captivated.

It was deep into the night before they finally took their leave, reluctant to go.

Li Mo followed Wang Pan to his home to rest.

"By the way, Li Mo, do you remember Wang Qi?"

"Your cousin who lives in Sanxigou?"

Wang Pan grinned. "That's right. The year we went walking along the riverbank together, my parents wanted to introduce her to you. She still hasn't married. Since you're back, the past is behind us. Want me to arrange for you two to meet again?"

Wang Pan had grown quite a bit taller and looked much more mature.

At that, Li Mo smiled and shook his head.

"Better not. I didn't tell the brothers earlier, but I'm only back because I've been assigned a sect mission. I came by while passing through. I plan to visit Shanbei Village tomorrow, then head back. The deadline for my mission is tight."

"Huh?"

After his initial surprise, Wang Pan couldn't help sighing.

"You're leaving again? I'm so jealous. You've been to so many places and met so many people, while I'll be stuck here my whole life."

Wang Pan had spoken without thinking, but Li Mo took his words to heart and remembered them.

The next day.

Li Mo left Hua'an Town and arrived near the old River God Temple.

He gazed at the Tan River's surging waters. After murmuring a few words, he gently set down the wildflowers he'd gathered along the way, then led his horse onward.

Shanbei Village was still peaceful.

Several Zhao family homes remained buried beneath the boulders. The villagers all said it was punishment from the Land God, so no one had dug them out to this day.

He returned to his house and opened the door, long sealed against the world. He looked at the dust-covered table, chairs, and bedding inside. For a moment, time seemed to flow backward. He was a child again, watching his mother mend his clothes by lamplight, and his eyes grew slightly moist.

"Mother."

After cleaning the room, Li Mo closed the door again.

There was no one at Big Brother Zhang Qin's home, so Li Mo led his horse toward North Mountain on the other side of the river. He did not reach his mother's grave until Wu Hour. Taking a hoe he'd prepared from his Storage Pouch, he cleared the weeds around it.

About half an hour later.

At last, his mother's grave was clean. Li Mo took out the offerings, set them before her grave, and murmured softly.

"Mother, I've come back to see you."

A while later.

Several village women carrying hoes passed in the distance, sighing as they walked.

"Old Zhang wasn't even thirty. How could he be gone just like that, leaving his wife and daughter behind? How are those two supposed to get by now?"

"That's right. His girl is only four. He just up and died on them."

"Have you heard? A bunch of Old Zhang's clan relatives have already shown up at their door. They say the mother and daughter aren't members of the Zhang family, so they have no right to deal with Old Zhang's property. They're planning to take it all for the clan."

"Good heavens! They're trying to swallow up a household with no men left. Isn't anyone going to do something?"

"Of course someone did. After the two of them went to town to report it, the authorities sent people over that very day. They said something similar happened a few years ago in North Mountain Village, across the river. A mother and daughter were swallowed up by their own clan, and then Heaven's wrath fell upon them. The whole clan vanished overnight."

"I heard that too..."

Li Mo listened quietly to the village women's conversation.

Only after they had gone did he look up at the sky. His heavy heart seemed to have lightened a little.

"Mother, did you hear that? Things here are getting better and better. Once I become an inspector, I'll do my best to make this place better still."

Another half an hour passed.

Li Mo gathered himself, mounted his horse, and took one last look at the grave.

"Mother, I'm leaving."

A gentle breeze swept by as Li Mo rode away.

Two days later, after traveling day and night along the main road, he returned to Xinghua Village in Tongchao Town and knocked on the gate of the Xiong home beside the fishpond at the eastern end of the village.

After Li Mo explained why he had come, the old man immediately told Xiong Shao'an to go inside and fetch his bundle, then set off with Li Mo.

"Young hero, take these provisions for the journey."

"Thank you."

Li Mo rode off with Xiong Shao'an.

Xiong Shao'an looked only twelve or thirteen. Li Mo had been about that age when he first became an apprentice at Jimin Hall, where he studied for three years.

Xiong Shao'an's face was bright with excitement. He was full of yearning for the world beyond his home.

On the road, he couldn't help asking, "Brother Li, can cultivators really fly through the sky?"

"Mm."

Li Mo said no more, maintaining his aloof and mysterious air.

After riding at a gallop for nearly an hour, Li Mo passed through a bamboo grove, then suddenly yanked the reins. His horse came to a halt.

Ahead, more than thirty people stood facing off against one another.

Every one of them held a weapon, and they looked ready to come to blows at any moment.

One side had more than ten people in uniform, escorting three carriages. They looked like men from an escort agency.

The other side had over twenty men, each with a ferocious face and a baleful air. These weren't ordinary little bandits. Could they be notorious highwaymen from the Eighteen Mountains?

Both groups noticed Li Mo as well, but seeing that there were only two of them, they paid him no mind.

"Boss, you've had a hard time."

"Hmph. Shopkeeper, you've had a hard time. Toss us a vine?"

"The World-Resounding Bell!"

"So it's Shopkeeper Lei. Let's see your eyes."

"The Lei Shun Escort Agency has always valued peace. Take these tassels as a little something to buy everyone tea."

"Showing your eyes" meant announcing the name of one's escort agency.

"Shopkeeper Lei, we respect the brothers of the road. But this time's different. Our brothers have their eyes peeled. We need to see the goods in those boxes and make sure they're the targets we're after!"

The escort agency's men exchanged glances.

At last, Shopkeeper Lei, the leader, replied, "It's not that I, Lei, am unwilling to be open. I've already shown my eyes, but there's a bean in the box, and it's not convenient. How about this..."

He was using underworld jargon to negotiate, preparing to bargain.

Just then.

Li Mo strode over with Xiong Shao'an, ignoring the two sides as they negotiated their standoff. Everyone froze and stared at him.

Even the more than twenty bandits across from them all turned to look at Li Mo.

"Stop!"

One of them barked, "Did we say you could leave?"

Xiong Shao'an trembled on horseback, frightened. Li Mo signaled for him not to be afraid, then called to the man in underworld jargon, "Mushroom?"

At that, the man burst into laughter.

By the rules of the road, it was a rude question, roughly meaning, "Who the hell are you?"

When he saw that Li Mo's expression remained indifferent, his face instantly turned cold.

"Seven-Pattern Dragon Qu You. Toss us a vine."

Li Mo raised an eyebrow and ignored him, turning instead to the shopkeeper of the Lei Shun Escort Agency.

"Do all these roadblock tigers have leaves that look like them?"

He was asking whether the bandits had wanted posters from the authorities. Beneath that was another question: were they unknown petty thieves, or notorious highwaymen?

Shopkeeper Lei frowned, then answered hesitantly, "A little one, walking on long legs, eating what he shouldn't. Don't be foolish; people die in the martial world."

The literal meaning was "a boy, well-traveled, don't be ignorant, entering the martial world means death." In this context, it was like an elder rebuking a youngster and urging Li Mo to flee. It also indirectly confirmed that the men across from them were notorious highwaymen wanted by the authorities.

Hearing this, Li Mo grinned. Then he dismounted and walked toward the other side.

"Hm?"

Seeing Li Mo draw his sharp sword and quicken his pace, the highwaymen were taken aback.

To Li Mo, these so-called highwaymen were no more than a swarm of mortal ants. He was beginning to understand the disdainful confidence he'd once sensed in that inspector from the Heavenly Talisman Sect.

"Draw your weapons!"

The bandits seemed to sense something was wrong and hurriedly pulled out their weapons.

One foolhardy man charged at Li Mo. Their figures crossed in a blur. Li Mo moved as smoothly as flowing water, and the foolhardy bandit crumpled to the ground. The other bandits were stunned, while the escort agency's men sucked in a sharp breath, realizing their opponents had picked a fight with someone far beyond their league.

"Get him together!"

The bandits surrounded Li Mo.

But to Li Mo, it was as laughable as a flock of sheep surrounding a wolf.

He killed four in quick succession. Then a scar-faced bandit proved rather skilled, and Li Mo couldn't take him down with martial arts alone, even after a brief struggle. As they fought, the other bandits rushed in. Li Mo dodged and weaved, killing two more, but he also suffered a few superficial injuries.

"Hmph."

Li Mo let out a cold snort.

If he relied on martial arts and movement alone, these men really were troublesome to deal with. A flash of lightning suddenly burst from him, accompanied by a deafening rumble, and a hound-like Thunder Slave appeared out of thin air.

The bandits around them cried out in terror.

Once they realized the man before them was a cultivator, they forgot all about surrounding Li Mo and scattered in every direction.

The Thunder Slave was incredibly fast, pouncing on the nearby bandits.

Anyone it touched was instantly paralyzed by an electric shock. Li Mo unleashed Palm Lightning and charged after the scar-faced man. Their sword techniques had been evenly matched, but Li Mo seized the opening to strike with Palm Lightning. The scar-faced man was hurled backward, his entire body charred black. He died on the spot.

In the blink of an eye, the bandits scattered and fled.

Li Mo flashed forward with the Lightning Ball Technique. One fleeing mounted bandit fell on the spot.

A moment later.

With a mission to complete and Xiong Shao'an to protect, Li Mo didn't continue pursuing them. Instead, he began collecting the spoils of battle and found quite a bit of silver.

As for the remaining hard work, he left it to the escort agency's men.

"I am Li Mo, a disciple of Lingmu Sect. Since these bandits are wanted by the authorities, I must trouble you to load the bodies and come with me to report it at the nearest office."

The men from the Lei Shun Escort Agency were shaken to the core.

The fight had been brief, lasting no more than a quarter of an incense stick. In that short time, this young man had wielded lightning arts and wiped out so many notorious bandits in the blink of an eye. It was terrifying.

They completely overlooked the men Li Mo had killed with martial arts.

Magic arts held the same power over mortals as a natural predator's bloodline suppression. Unless they were a disciplined army, ordinary people would instinctively flee at the sight of them.

"Ah, right! Quickly!"

Shopkeeper Lei came to his senses and hurriedly ordered his men to gather the bodies and report the matter nearby so they could claim the reward.

"I wonder how much silver the reward will bring. I can trade it all for spirit stones."

That was what Li Mo thought to himself.

To stumble upon such an unexpected gain on his first mission outside the sect made him secretly delighted.

But just then.

A woman's laughter came from inside one of the carriages.

"Giggle. Doctor Li, long time no see."

Li Mo froze. Then he saw a stunningly beautiful woman pull back the carriage curtain and gaze at him with a beaming smile. His face filled with astonishment.

"Wang Ying?"

It was none other than the Jade Fox, Wang Ying, formerly of the Pingshan Society.

Li Mo had obtained the Spirit Reflection Sword Manual from her. He never expected their paths to cross again.