Chapter 366: A Good Thing
He piloted the Flying Ship for days on end.
Upon returning to the sect gate, he found the Outer Sect was just as he'd left it, completely unchanged.
He considered visiting some old friends, but he had already been delayed and couldn't afford to waste any more time.
He passed straight through the cloud wall into the Inner Sect. Bai Mo got his bearings and headed for Mi Mountain.
Before long, the purple-black mountain peak was in sight.
The mountain was much greener than when he had left, filled with a burgeoning sense of life.
As he drew closer, he could even see a badger carrying a shoulder pole, diligently going about its work.
A smile appeared on Bai Mo's face.
'Looks like he hasn't been slacking off.'
From a distance, Ah Er saw the green streak of light approaching. It froze for a moment, let out a strange cry, then dropped its pole and scurried toward the base of the mountain.
Bai Mo leaped from the Flying Ship. With a mere thought, the stone door rumbled open, and he brought Ah Er inside along with him.
The stone house was just as he'd left it. In a corner, the Abyssal Vine he had planted before his departure had grown taller than a person, its large leaves covered in purple spots.
One look told Bai Mo that the plant would soon be ready for use.
A moment later, a figure emerged from the black prison. It was Li Wuji, having just completed his patrol.
He looked much more robust than before, his qi and blood surging just beneath his skin.
He radiated heat like a furnace.
Li Wuji smiled when he saw Bai Mo examining the patrol ledger.
"Was your trip a success, Junior Brother?"
Bai Mo nodded.
"It went well enough. No mishaps."
"Any new arrivals in the prison?"
Li Wuji replied, "Indeed, a few have arrived. They were all sent from outside Jade Spring Pass."
Many of the Seven Beasts Sect members from outside Celestial Mountain City were at the Core Formation Stage, yet not one of them had been sent to the black prison.
When he asked Li Wuji about it, the answer was just what he'd expected.
"Those people aren't demonic heretics, after all. We can't really find a reason to lock them up. If their sect found out, it would inevitably lead to a lot of disputes."
"So, unless there are special circumstances, we just capture them and execute them on the spot to be done with it."
Li Wuji asked, "Why? Did you run into some Seven Beasts Sect people, Junior Brother?"
"Those fiends are causing trouble outside Celestial Mountain City, so the sect sent disciples to hunt them down…"
Hearing Bai Mo explain the situation, Li Wuji gave a cold sneer.
"The sect and the Seven Beasts Sect have a long and bitter history. They aren't the type to listen to reason."
"You try to reason with them, and they'll just twist your words and take a mile if you give them an inch. It's best to just draw your blade and start hacking the moment you see them!"
He had been watching over Mi Mountain for quite some time, and now that Bai Mo was back, he handed all his duties over.
"I appreciate your hard work, Senior Brother."
Bai Mo saw him off.
He felt a tug on his leg. Bai Mo looked down and met Ah Er's pitiful gaze.
"What is it?"
"A-eh!"
Ah Er held up its pill bottle, which was completely empty.
The little guy was starting to look more and more like a bear cub. And since it never slacked off, its body had grown quite sturdy and strong.
Of course, this had everything to do with the pills Bai Mo supplied.
"Alright, alright. It's not like I'd let you starve, is it?"
He casually took out two Pills and tossed them to the creature. Bai Mo then returned to the stone house and brought out the Pill Book to air it out.
Everything returned to its familiar routine.
A few days later, Yuan Chu and Gong Gui arrived together.
Bai Mo welcomed the two in, glancing at the cultivator in shackles behind them.
"Brother Xiong isn't better yet?"
Yuan Chu said, "Xiong Xin can barely get out of bed. With injuries like that, how could he recover so quickly?"
"Hurry up and lock this man in the prison."
As he spoke, he handed over the bamboo joint-shaped token from the Foreign Affairs Hall.
Bai Mo inspected it as usual. After a moment, a flash of surprise crossed his face.
"Didn't you say we don't lock up this kind of person in the black prison?"
The shackled cultivator was, unexpectedly, a member of the Seven Beasts Sect.
Suddenly hearing the name "black prison," the sect member's body trembled, and he immediately started shouting.
"Let me out! You dare use a cultivator from a renowned sect as a sacrifice? Aren't you of the Xuandao Sect afraid of being condemned by your peers?"
"Let me go! I want to see your elders…"
Yuan Chu raised his hand and brought it down in a chop on the back of the cultivator's neck.
The man's body shuddered, and he collapsed limply.
The force of the blow made Yuan Chu's palm sting. He grimaced and said:
"This bastard captures gifted young men and women and sells them to various sects for money."
"One of our senior brothers from Divine Dao Mountain ran into him and nabbed him."
He was a Core Formation Cultivator, after all. He and Gong Gui wouldn't have had the ability to capture him themselves.
"Heh heh, he won't be locked up for long. This man will be taken away to participate in the great ritual."
"This is why we took on this errand and came to find you, Junior Brother."
Hearing that they had come on business, Bai Mo quickly took the man away and locked him in the black prison.
During this time, the Seven Beasts Sect member woke up and started making a ruckus again.
The Xuandao Sect's black prison was quite infamous. Most prisoners from there ended up as blood sacrifices to fill the Sea Eye. None met a good end.
"Heh, the warden's back."
"Who's he brought back this time?"
Someone in a cell saw the Seven Beasts Sect member and looked on with disdain.
BANG!
Shoving the man into a cell, Bai Mo locked the door, then returned to the stone house with Yuan Chu and Gong Gui to eat, drink, and talk in detail.
These two were among the few disciples willing to linger inside Mi Mountain.
Bai Mo took out his stock of cured Demon Beast meat. A quick roast over the fire and it became a side dish.
He poured some fruit wine, and everything was ready.
Yuan Chu smiled and picked up his chopsticks. As the slice of meat entered his mouth, he began to speak while chewing.
"For the past two months, we disciples from Divine Dao Mountain and the Golden Jade lineage have been incredibly busy."
"As you know, Junior Brother, we even specifically took three prisoners out to prepare for this matter."
Bai Mo sipped his fruit wine.
"I wasn't on Mi Mountain for the past two months. I happened to be away."
'But I did see the record of those three prisoners being taken out in the register.'
"Eh?"
Yuan Chu was surprised, then waved his hand.
"No matter. It's actually about that savage giant."
"We've found his dwelling place. It's a Secret Realm gleaming with white bones, a true dead zone for the living."
Bai Mo couldn't help but glance over.
Previously, the pale giant had attacked Mi Mountain and nearly smashed off its peak with a single blow.
Later, after his defeat, even while tied up by the people from Divine Dao Mountain, he still managed to find the time to silence his own heir.
At the time, Shang Wunian and the others suspected he was deliberately trying to hide something. Who would have thought they'd still manage to uncover it.
Yuan Chu said, "It's a Secret Realm, ten thousand li from the sect. The elders speculate it's their clan's ancestral land."
"Those ancient races place great importance on their ancestral lands. They cultivate them for a long time, causing them to contain strange powers."
"Since their heir is gone and they have no one to represent them in the outside world, the sect wants to hold a ritual to see if we can trigger the inheritance."
'This is a good thing.'
Bai Mo had heard that whenever such things happened, the disciples of Divine Dao Mountain and the Golden Jade lineage would fight tooth and nail to participate.
'Still, the death of their heir is connected to our sect, after all.'
'There's bound to be some karmic entanglement in all this.'
'But on second thought, I've been involved in so much already and am already tied up in karma. This isn't that big of a deal.'
Yuan Chu said with a persuasive smile.
"If you go, Junior Brother, you might even be able to resolve that karma and come away unburdened…"