Exchange: An Unchanging Path

After arguing with Xiao Wu for over half an hour, Mo Lin felt much better.

Over the past year, Mo Lin had constantly acted and disguised himself for the sake of his plans, presenting entirely different images to different people. His mind had remained in a state of intense operation, accumulating immense pressure. He had thought that he had no emotional attachments in this world, no responsibility to anyone, and could use anyone he wished. He had only returned this time to confirm that he had no living relatives. But today, he had learned of his origins. He now bore an inescapable responsibility as a son and had blood relatives as well. The plans he had pondered for so long had been thoroughly shattered. If he had not vented through that argument just now, all those pent-up feelings would have broken him sooner or later.

Since both sides were exhausted from arguing, they sat down where they were to catch their breath.

At this moment, Tang San naturally stepped in as the peacemaker. He first spoke with Xiao Wu and soothed her emotions before walking over to Mo Lin.

Although it was now almost certain that the Clear Sky Sect had caused his parents' deaths, Mo Lin, being a modern man, would not hold it against Tang San. Children should avenge their parents, but they absolutely should not bear their parents' debts. Besides, Tang Hao definitely had not been the one who acted; it should have been some other old fossils from the Clear Sky Sect.

"Yo, finished comforting your dear 'little sister'?" Mo Lin placed special emphasis on the words "little sister."

Tang San felt that there was something behind Mo Lin's words, but he did not pay it much mind.

"Mo Lin, don't take it personally. Xiao Wu is always like this with people she doesn't know well."

Mo Lin stretched.

"Of course I don't mind. I should even thank her. I finally found a way to relieve stress."

"Is studying at Spirit Hall that stressful?" Tang San asked.

Mo Lin gave a bitter smile.

"Not really. You could say I bring all my pressure on myself. If I could, I wouldn't want to be under so much pressure either."

Though Tang San could not completely understand Mo Lin, he understood that on the Douluo Continent, a Soul Master who did not put pressure on himself could easily stagnate and eventually be eliminated.

The two were silent for a while before Mo Lin spoke first.

"Tang San, do you think we count as friends?"

"We both grew up in Holy Soul Village, so of course we're friends," Tang San replied.

Mo Lin smiled, then shook his head.

"Tang San, childhood friends and friends, sympathy and friendship—there's still quite a big difference. I told you before that I felt distant from everyone during those six years in Holy Soul Village. That was because I felt different from others and was afraid they would get to know me too well, so I always lived behind a mask. If you hadn't been someone who naturally liked caring about others, I doubt anyone our age in Holy Soul Village would have ever taken the initiative to speak to me.

"After arriving at Spirit Hall, everything I did was for my own benefit. Whenever I interacted with people, I approached them for my own benefit as well. Even those I now consider trustworthy, those close to me—I became close to them for the sake of my future interests. Living like this is so exhausting."

These words came from Mo Lin's heart. Though his soul was already over thirty when these seven years were included, the ways of modern life and this world differed too greatly. For seven consecutive years, he had constantly thought about how to accomplish something great, putting on different masks for different people. But now, everything he had planned over those seven years had been overturned by a piece of the past, and he had to start planning again from scratch. He felt exhausted. Worse still, he could not let anyone else know of that exhaustion and could only bear it in silence.

Tang San looked at Mo Lin and understood his words as "the sorrow of an orphan." Without parents—people he could trust unconditionally—he had remained guarded against everyone, afraid to reveal his true self. In the end, he could only face everything alone.

Tang San did not want Mo Lin to end up like that. He sat down beside him and began to counsel him.

"Mo Lin, I'm not an orphan, so I can't understand your feelings or circumstances. But I know one thing: aside from those who gave birth to us and those we give birth to, relationships between people are initially connected through mutual benefit. Only after establishing that connection and getting to know one another do emotional bonds emerge. When I wanted to acknowledge Xiao Wu as my little sister, it was also to fill the emptiness in my heart from having no family. So you haven't done anything wrong. You only need to gradually get to know others through those bonds of interest, and let others get to know you."

"You really know how to talk. Thanks." Though Tang San had not quite hit the heart of the matter, Mo Lin still felt as if he had relaxed somewhat.

"However, Tang San," Mo Lin abruptly changed the subject, "with your personality, aren't you afraid that the people you help, the friends you make of your own accord, might eventually walk a path opposed to yours?"

Mo Lin's words could practically be considered an outright hint. But Tang San still did not know about his own origins, so he naturally did not think that Mo Lin, who was merely studying at Spirit Hall, would necessarily walk a path opposite to his.

"If someone I helped or one of my friends were to walk a path contrary to mine in the future, and that path brought disaster to others, then I would definitely pull them back."

After hearing Tang San's words, Mo Lin raised his head and looked at the sky.

In this world, what path doesn't bring disaster to others?

After that day, Mo Lin stayed at Tang San's home for several days. His presence seriously disturbed the couple's private world, so he and Xiao Wu naturally argued without end, while Tang San had to mediate between them every day. Yet without having to think too much, Mo Lin found those days especially comfortable. If he could, he would have liked to spend a few more days like that.

But the three months were nearly up, and it was time for Mo Lin to return to Spirit Hall. Though he had learned some astonishing things that had affected some of his beliefs and thoughts, he would not choose another path because of them. He had already walked this path for some time. He could not turn back, nor did he want to.

After returning to Spirit Hall, Mo Lin gave three of the immortal herbs he had swindled from Dugu Bo to the three members of the Golden Generation.

The Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower that had originally belonged to Ma Hongjun now ended up in Yan's hands.

Mo Lin had originally wanted to give Xie Yue another immortal herb, but out of a certain mischievous impulse, he gave him the Strange Velvet Heaven-Reaching Chrysanthemum instead. Mo Lin desperately wanted to know what Yue Guan would do to Xie Yue after discovering it.

As for Hu Liena, he gave her an immortal herb that had never appeared in the original work: the Nine Illusion Rose. The moment Mo Lin first saw it, he had been drawn in and fallen into the illusion created by the flower. Had he not promptly recited the Daoist Clear Heart Mantra in his mind, he might have been trapped inside.

However, roses symbolized love, and this immortal rose could easily draw someone into an illusion. It could only be given when no one else was around, and Mo Lin was a man giving it to a woman, so—

"Junior Brother, and you said you weren't trying to flirt with your Senior Sister. You're not even that old, yet you're already giving me roses." Hu Liena wore a broad smile, though it held more teasing than anything else.

Honestly, since Mo Lin planned to cultivate lightning arts—and two kinds of lightning arts at that—he could not possibly do anything sexual before reaching mastery. He truly had not deliberately tried to flirt with any girl. He was not the protagonist of some Japanese harem anime. What if he could not hold back, and one stray thought turned him into Zhang Lingyu and ruined his cultivation?

Mo Lin looked at Hu Liena and curled his lip.

"Do you want it or not? If not, I'll give it to someone else."

Hu Liena snatched it away.

"Give it to someone else? Who else in Spirit Hall could you give it to?"

"Master, maybe..." Mo Lin muttered under his breath.

"What?" Hu Liena asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Hurry and find somewhere with no one around to absorb it. If it weren't extraordinarily compatible with your martial soul, you'd already be trapped in an illusion."