Chapter 808: The Transaction
"Oh." Unfortunately, Yu Zitong's burst of courage was met with nothing more than an insipid response.
"......"
"Since Senior has already decided to go to the Yin-Yang Sect, then... this junior will presumptuously take the Immortal Ascension Token from Medicine King Valley." Yu Zitong struggled fiercely for a few seconds, but in the end, he made his choice.
He had initially considered clinging to the Foundation Establishment Senior's thigh, but he had been taught since childhood that the demonic women of the Yin-Yang Sect were more terrifying than tigers... Under years of accumulated dread, he truly lacked the courage to follow.
"This last one is for you." The Immortal Ascension Token from Yellow Wind Valley was tossed by Bai Mo into Han Yu's hands.
......
"I hope there will be a day when even mortals can cultivate immortality." After a passionate and stirring speech, the dying Mo Tianxie, filled with regret and reluctance to leave his distant wife and daughters, breathed his last.
......
"Live on for me, and see that day?" Han Yu, the poor boy who had become rich overnight after the inheritance was divided, murmured the words the old man, Mo, had secretly left for him before his death.
Besides the three Immortal Ascension Tokens, the old man, Mo, had also left behind a vast sum of gold notes. This money was originally intended for his expenses after achieving Body Seizure, but after Bai Mo mercilessly extinguished his last hope of Body Seizure, it all transformed into their inheritance.
The three of them buried Mo Tianxie outside the Seven Profound Gate.
As part of the deal, Bai Mo prepared to make a trip to Taizhou Prefectural City first.
As for Yu Zitong, who had already decided to part ways, he chose to bid farewell to the two and leave alone with the Medicine King Sect's Immortal Ascension Token, to avoid any complications arising from delays.
Han Yu, with his sister's bewildered expression, knew that with an Immortal Ascension Token in his possession, it was no longer safe to remain at the Seven Profound Gate. He, too, bid farewell to Bai Mo, choosing to walk his own path.
......
The road to Taian Prefectural City was far from peaceful. Bai Mo would occasionally spot vagrants and bandits, who would plunder anything they deemed worth taking.
From gold and silver ornaments to food, from food to clothes, and then to the flesh wrapped beneath the clothes.
After all, in years of great calamity, food was always a scarce commodity.
And human flesh was also a kind of meat.
Only when approaching within a hundred li of the prefectural city did faint figures of city guards on patrol begin to appear. Most vagrants and bandits stopped at this point, as if it were an invisible boundary.
Large swathes of emptiness lay between cities, traversable with relative safety only by merchant caravans controlled by major powers like the Seven Profound Gate.
Trailing behind one of these merchant caravans, Bai Mo also entered Taian Prefectural City.
On the streets all around, shops of all kinds lined every corner, bustling with crowds, so prosperous it was like a world completely different from outside the city walls.
However, the beggars visible everywhere, and the corpses in dark alleyways that hadn't yet been dragged away, all hinted that this great city was not so far removed from the chaotic era.
"Good sir, please, spare a few silver coins, I'm starving to death..." A feeble voice drifted over.
As Bai Mo had not concealed his presence, his attire clearly marked him as no commoner, and he presented an unfamiliar face, so he immediately attracted the nearest small beggar.
The beggar was scrawny and small, reaching only Bai Mo's waist when he approached. His face bore a puss-filled sore the size of a copper coin, accompanied by a stench that drove others away.
"You're actually still alive?" Bai Mo looked at the small beggar, who was bowing his head, eyes squinted, waiting for alms, and gently brushed through his hair.
One.
Two.
Three.
......
Over a dozen insects fell from his head.
"......"
Since he could remember begging, he had never encountered such a thing.
While speaking the most cold-blooded words, he performed the most gentle actions.
Yes, the most gentle.
In his short life, no one had ever bothered to remove those annoying vermin from his head. Those people would only tell him to hurry up and scram, finding even curses and blows too dirty and smelly.
"A Chayin Constitution born in a male body, yet you've survived until now?"
"?"
The small beggar looked up blankly, gazing at the adult who was speaking some strange words he didn't understand.
"I see. You've been castrated. That, at least, saved your life." Bai Mo scanned him with his divine sense again, reaching this conclusion.
"Cas—tration?" The beggar didn't quite understand the term.
In the Great Qian Dynasty, impoverished families, when unable to support all their children, would sometimes choose to send their surplus offspring to be castrated and then sold into wealthy households as servants. It was highly probable that this small beggar had undergone a similar experience, only to suffer the misfortune of falling on hard times after his castration...
"I'm just about to head to the Yin-Yang Sect anyway, so I might as well bring him along."
"Do you know where the Heaven-Asking Gate is?" Bai Mo made a casual decision and then asked.
"I do."
"Take me there."
"Very well."
From that day on, no one ever saw this small beggar, who had regularly frequented this main road, again.
But no one paid him any mind.
They were like stray dogs by the roadside; only when they died in some forgotten corner would someone bother to clear away their corpses.
......
"A calling card for the Clan Master?" Before the Heaven-Asking Gate, the gatekeeper eyed the large and small figures before him with a hint of surprise and suspicion.
The smaller one had a large scar on his face, and his movements were still somewhat timid and cringing. Although he was wearing a rather decent set of clothes, he was clearly unaccustomed to them, constantly squirming. He was, in all likelihood, from a poor family.
As for the larger one... a master. An absolute master.
Because he found that he couldn't even muster the courage to look the other party directly in the eye, only daring to occasionally steal a glance from the side.
"Please enter, Great Hero. The Madam and Young Miss are already waiting in the reception hall." In less than a quarter of an hour, the gatekeeper, with an even more humble demeanor, respectfully invited Bai Mo inside.
This Heaven-Asking Gate was precisely the sect established by Mo Tianxie. The two characters, "Heaven-Asking," were truly the words of his heart. After his disappearance, his wife and daughter took control of the sect.
Bai Mo stepped into the reception hall, one step at a time. Behind him, the small beggar, who had never seen such a scene, wanted to tug on his sleeve and shrink to the side, but found that no matter how he tried to grasp it, he couldn't touch the sleeve that seemed so close.
......
Inside the reception hall, five beautiful women sat upright, staring intently at Bai Mo as he approached unhurriedly. For in his calling card, he had mentioned information about their husband, who had been missing for over half a year.
"A guest from afar, tea shall be served." Though the leading woman's face was like frost, she showed no hint of discourtesy.
"To make a long story short, Mo Tianxie is dead." Bai Mo picked up the teacup, took a light sip, and then spoke.
"His essence was depleted; one could loosely say he died of old age."
"My father was a perfectly fine Innate Grandmaster, how could he suddenly deplete his essence and die of old age?!" At this moment, Mo Fengwu, the youngest among the women, demanded.
"He suffered a qi deviation during cultivation." Bai Mo had no intention of explaining further. "My visit this time is merely a transaction; the cause of death has been explained sufficiently."
"A transaction?"
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