Chapter 273: Inside the Village

Mo Hua secretly dug a corner of the wall and slipped into the Black Mountain Stronghold without anyone knowing.

As soon as he entered the stronghold, a bloody and pungent smell assaulted his senses. It was a mixture of old, rotten stench and fresh blood. All around was mixed with a bone-chilling cold.

Mo Hua couldn't help but shiver. Then he looked around and couldn't help but open his mouth wide. What a large stronghold! The Black Mountain Stronghold sat in the middle, surrounded by mountains on both sides. The mountain wall Mo Hua had just dug open was only a small part of the entire high wall. As far as his eyes could see, there were even taller walls built.

Besides the high walls, the surrounding mountains also served as natural barriers for the Black Mountain Stronghold. The entire Black Mountain Stronghold sprawled under the night sky, like a sturdy and unbreakable fortress, or a man-eating behemoth. Mo Hua was endlessly shocked in his heart, followed by a wave of lingering fear.

This was probably the largest evil cultivator force in Tongxian City, no, perhaps even in the entire Black Mountain State. If he hadn't scouted ahead and had rashly called people over, once a fight broke out, there would likely have been heavy casualties.

After that, Mo Hua began to carefully circle around, sizing up the layout of the Black Mountain Stronghold. The entire Black Mountain Stronghold was very large, with many buildings and houses densely packed in the surrounding mountain valley. Rough estimation showed there were hundreds of them.

The overall atmosphere was gloomy, evil, and strange. Dim firelight shone down. Mottled bloodstains were visible almost everywhere on the roads, on the walls, and on the pillars. In some corners, unknown cultivators' limbs and remains were still discarded.

Some houses were where the evil cultivators lived, while others were used to imprison other cultivators, likely those who had been captured. These innocent cultivators were locked in iron cages, skin and bones, gaunt and emaciated, neither human nor ghost.

Mo Hua frowned slightly. "What are these evil cultivators locking these cultivators here for? Don't they usually just kill them?" That Bald Donkey-like evil cultivator still killed people like mowing grass. This Black Mountain Stronghold was obviously more evil, and the evil cultivators inside were probably worse. Why would they leave these cultivators alive?

Mo Hua was a little puzzled and just watched nearby for a while. Soon, ferocious evil cultivators came over. They picked and chose, grabbing a cultivator with a slightly better complexion, cutting open his wrist with a knife to let out blood. The cultivator's face was in pain, but he couldn't struggle. The blood dripped into a bowl, filling a large bowl. The evil cultivator held up the bowl and drank the blood in one gulp, immediately revitalizing his vital energy. He couldn't help but lick his mouth, actually still feeling a little unsatisfied.

After a while, another evil cultivator came. That evil cultivator stretched out his large hand and pressed it on the forehead of a young cultivator. The young cultivator immediately let out a miserable scream. Mo Hua used his divine sense to spy and saw that the young cultivator's spiritual power was actually flowing in reverse from his dantian, through his meridians, gathering at the top of his head, and finally flowing into the evil cultivator's body along the evil cultivator's palm.

The reverse flow of spiritual power was accompanied by great pain. So the young cultivator's voice was a miserable, inhuman sound. The evil cultivator became annoyed by the sound. While his right hand continued to absorb spiritual power, his left hand choked the young cultivator's neck, not allowing him to make a sound. By the time he finished absorbing the spiritual power, the young cultivator had slowly slumped to the ground, silent, neither dead nor alive.

After that, evil cultivators came one after another. Their actions were mostly similar, either absorbing blood, or absorbing spiritual power, and some even had more terrifying methods.

Mo Hua felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. Only then did he realize that this Black Mountain Stronghold was not just a nest of evil cultivators, but a lair of evil cultivators! Such a large Black Mountain Stronghold, and inside were all evil cultivators, hundreds of evil cultivators! Mo Hua couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.

Evil cultivators killed and robbed for wealth. Evil cultivators used people to cultivate their skills, fundamentally not treating people as people. These innocent cultivators locked in iron cages were not like people, but more like... livestock being raised!

Mo Hua was both shocked and angry. He thought about it for a while and could only helplessly sigh. He couldn't save these cultivators. Not to mention saving them, he was lucky to be able to protect himself now. If the Black Mountain Stronghold was a lair of evil cultivators, then it would be even more dangerous than before.

"Should I slip back while they haven't discovered me?"

Mo Hua thought for a while, then still shook his head. He had some luck getting in this time. If he came again next time, he wouldn't necessarily have such good luck. Moreover, although evil cultivators were dangerous, as long as they were still in the Qi Refining stage, their divine sense wasn't as strong as Mo Hua's, so they couldn't see through Mo Hua's hiding technique. As long as the hiding technique wasn't seen through, he was safe.

Evil cultivators had ruthless and poisonous methods. But Mo Hua didn't plan to fight them head-on. Their methods, no matter how strange, ruthless, or spicy, wouldn't have much effect.

Mo Hua breathed a slight sigh of relief. As it seemed now, the force of the evil cultivators in the Black Mountain Stronghold was so great that it seriously threatened all demon hunters, and even the safety of the entire Tongxian City. If they were allowed to develop for another two or three hundred years and expand further, there would probably be over a thousand evil cultivators. At that time, all the scattered cultivators in Tongxian City would probably be their raised livestock.

Waves of chill permeated Mo Hua's heart. While they still didn't know he possessed a hiding technique and had secretly infiltrated, it was best to get a feel for the evil cultivators' capabilities. Then he would go out, call people, plan carefully, and wipe them all out in one go, otherwise, it would surely leave endless trouble.

Mo Hua had already made up his mind and began to consider how to specifically do it. "First, and most important, is to determine if there are any Foundation Establishment stage evil cultivators inside!" Only Foundation Establishment stage evil cultivators could possibly see through his hiding technique. In other words, as long as he didn't encounter Foundation Establishment evil cultivators, even in this Black Mountain Stronghold where evil cultivators were everywhere, the risk wasn't too great.

Where would those Foundation Establishment evil cultivators be? Mo Hua thought for a while, then used his understanding of arrays to reverse deduce the layout of the Black Mountain Stronghold. His family's array layout was easily seen through by Mo Hua. The refining tools shop and refining pills shop in the South of the City were also arrays designed and built by Mo Hua himself based on arrays. So Mo Hua was still quite skilled at this kind of thing.

After deducing for a while, Mo Hua had a rough idea in his mind. The Black Mountain Stronghold was divided into the front stronghold and the back stronghold. The front stronghold was in the front. Mo Hua walked around stealthily for a bit. Basically, all the evil cultivators were in the Qi Refining stage. Although most of their cultivation was at the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Refining, they hadn't reached the Foundation Establishment stage yet. The arrays used in the front stronghold were relatively simple, mainly first-grade single arrays. Many arrays didn't even reach the first grade. Some dining halls, prisons, residences, and other basic buildings were all in the front stronghold.

The arrays in the back stronghold were relatively more complex. They were mainly based on first-grade earth-wood complex arrays, mixed with first-grade single arrays, and moreover, there was a separate wall separating them, obviously much more important than the front stronghold. Mo Hua still managed to solve a small part of the array and secretly drilled into the back stronghold.

Borrowing the hiding technique and the Passing Water Step, Mo Hua shuttled between rooftops and beams, looking around everywhere at the same time. The back stronghold was relatively quieter than the front stronghold, and also more solemn. The bloody smell wasn't as heavy, but it was also more oppressive. The houses were bigger and more exquisite. However, this exquisiteness brought some Yin energy.

Mo Hua walked along and suddenly heard human voices. He immediately found a beam and lay down. Inside the room, two people seemed to be talking, but their friendship didn't seem deep, and their words were quite cold. Mo Hua secretly glanced downwards. He only saw a table below, and wine and meat on the table. Mo Hua guessed that the identities of the two people were definitely not ordinary, because their food and drink were the best, far better than what all the evil cultivators outside ate.

Seeing that they hadn't discovered him, Mo Hua still thought they were Qi Refining cultivators, then tilted his head slightly and glanced at the two people below again. Among the two people, one was a middle-aged cultivator with a cold and stern expression. The other was a broad-shouldered and round-waisted strong man with slightly red eyes that had blood threads inside. Mo Hua only glanced for a moment, his gaze touching the strong man like a dragonfly skimming the water. That strong man's eyes suddenly widened. The blood threads in his eyes deepened, and his whole body's baleful aura suddenly flourished. He said, "Who is it?"