Chapter 611: Breaking the Golden Jade Slip

The big man angrily said, "I am not!"

On this iron plate, array patterns were densely packed, like a prison of knives, needles, and fire. One didn't even need to look to know it was definitely not a good thing.

"Will you kneel or not?" Mo Hua's face was stern.

The big man sneered, "You think I'm stupid... Ah—"

Before he could finish speaking, Ouyang Feng pressed down and kicked his knee.

The big man's knees buckled, and he knelt on the iron plate, instantly letting out a painful howl. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his face was contorted.

Mo Hua didn't know if his pain was real or fake. He asked with a curious expression, "Does it hurt?"

He really wanted to know...

Although he had designed this iron plate and drawn all the arrays on it himself, Mo Hua wasn't clear about the specific effects.

He could only estimate that it should be very painful.

After all, he had drawn not just one array on the iron plate, but several arrays that would cause immense pain upon touch...

There was the Gen Shan Wei Zhen Array, which, once activated, would make spirit power fine and dense like needles, stabbing into the knee and causing pain.

There was the Ba Gua Kan Shui Array, which would immerse spirit power into the knee, making it bone-chillingly cold.

There was also the Li Huo Array, where fire-attribute spirit power would slowly burn, causing a bitter burning sensation...

These three arrays would cycle successively, making the punished person experience the feeling of needles stabbing into bone, bone-chilling water, and the bitter burn of fire...

In any case, it was definitely not comfortable...

But Mo Hua had no idea exactly how uncomfortable it was.

He wasn't stupid; he would never try it himself.

Now this traitor from Duan Jin Men was the first person to try this "Shan Shui Huo Xing" iron plate.

Mo Hua really wanted to know how he felt after using it, so he could judge whether his design was qualified and whether the arrays needed improvement.

So he asked very sincerely.

But the big man thought Mo Hua was ridiculing and mocking him, and his anger surged. His eyes turned blood red, and he bit down hard on his teeth, enduring the pain of the needle, fire, and water punishments. He didn't say a word.

"Speak, does it hurt?"

Mo Hua pressed him for an answer.

The big man finally lost his mental defense and cursed with a trembling voice, "You son of a bitch..."

Mo Hua immediately took out his Qian Jun Bang, stuffed it into his mouth, and said with a serious face, "You actually curse people? Your quality is really low..."

The big man's mouth was stuffed, and he couldn't speak. He just stared with wide eyes, full of hate.

"It seems it's still not painful enough. The power of the arrays is still a bit lacking..."

Mo Hua stroked his chin and thought,

"It seems I need to add a few more arrays..."

"What arrays should I add?"

"Gold Needle? Wood Poison? Or..."

Murong Cai Yun and Ouyang Feng opened their mouths.

The big man felt his scalp go numb and his gaze filled with shock. He thought to himself, how can there be such an insidious, vicious, heartless, and crazy little cultivator in this world?!

Who exactly did he learn all this from?

The big man desperately made two "wu wu" sounds.

Mo Hua took away the Qian Jun Bang. The big man gritted his teeth and said, "I'll talk!"

Mo Hua was delighted and nodded, "Good." His first question was about the matter he was most concerned about:

"Does kneeling on this iron plate hurt?"

The big man was so ashamed and angry he could have died. He didn't want to open his mouth.

Murong Cai Yun couldn't bear to watch. She touched Mo Hua's shoulder and whispered, "Ask something else. Don't make it difficult for him..."

Such a big cultivator being forced to kneel and still being asked if it hurts.

This would truly make a person go crazy with anger. They also wouldn't be able to explain it well to Dao Ting Si and the Xie family.

"Oh, okay."

Mo Hua thought that was right. Important matters were still the priority. As for the feedback on using this iron plate for punishment, he could ask others about it later.

Mo Hua felt a little regretful. His divine sense led the array eye, and he temporarily closed the arrays on the iron plate.

The pain disappeared. The big man panted heavily, and his breathing gradually slowed down.

Mo Hua began to ask about proper matters:

"Do you know Jiang Lao Da?"

After asking, Mo Hua released his divine sense and looked into the big man's eyes to confirm that he wasn't lying or speaking falsely.

The big man frowned, his gaze somewhat blank. "Jiang Lao Da? Who is that?"

Mo Hua asked again, "Then do you know Tu Diao?"

The big man's face turned pale. "Tu Diao... I've only heard of him... This person is ruthless and vicious, not someone to mess with..."

"You haven't seen him?"

The big man shook his head.

"Then have you seen any other bald ones?"

The big man was confused. "Bald... bald ones?"

Mo Hua described them, "Just like Tu Diao, possibly bald but wearing a wig, or whose street names contain words like 'bald', 'light', 'Luo Han', 'Tou Tuo', and who are criminal cultivators..."

The big man frowned through the pain. "You... what do you want to ask this for?"

Mo Hua was displeased. "Am I asking you, or are you asking me?"

Under pressure, especially after experiencing the pain brought by the densely packed array patterns under his knees, the big man said helplessly,

"I have kept a low profile and worked in the dark for some time. I've heard of some cultivators, famous ones..."

"For example, 'Tu Lang', 'Tu Jiao', 'Ku Tou Tuo', 'Xie Luo Han'..."

"But my cultivation is not enough, and I only do some small theft and minor business, so I have no contact with them..."

Mo Hua silently noted down these names and asked again,

"Do you traffic in cultivators?"

The big man's pupils slightly shrank, but he still shook his head and said,

"I wouldn't dare. In the Qian Xue State boundary, families are clustered together. I don't have the guts to mess with this and traffic in cultivators."

Mo Hua's gaze slightly narrowed, looking at him as if he was thinking.

The big man forced himself to calm down, but he was clearly a bit nervous and slightly shifted his gaze away.

Mo Hua smiled slightly and didn't press further, but said,

"One last thing, hand over your disguise technique!"

The big man's expression changed, and he stubbornly argued,

"What disguise technique?"

Mo Hua's face showed displeasure. "Playing dumb with me?"

Seeing the big man's stubborn expression, Mo Hua's divine sense moved slightly, and the arrays on the iron plate were reactivated to the extreme.

The big man's eyes suddenly widened. Pain made his whole body tremble, and his knees suffered torment, but he still bit down hard on his teeth and didn't open his mouth...

Mo Hua was a little strange. "How can he endure so much?"

Before his words fell, the big man fainted from the pain...

Mo Hua was a little helpless and muttered to himself,

"Rather suffer punishment than hand over the 'Disguise Technique'..."

"Is it because the 'Disguise Technique' is too important to hand over, even if he dies..."

"Or is it because the power of the arrays on this iron plate is still not enough to force the truth out of his mouth?"

What a pity, he couldn't use this iron plate himself, so he didn't know exactly how powerful it was...

He would have to think of a way to improve it later...

Mo Hua silently said to himself.

Currently, the information spit out by this big man was not enough.

Mo Hua planned to wake him up, let him suffer a little more, and then let him spit out some more truth.

He was almost certain that this traitor from Duan Jin Men was definitely hiding something.

Moreover, he must have also done things like trafficking in cultivators, he was just nervous and didn't dare to say it.

Since that was the case, Mo Hua didn't need to be polite with him.

Mo Hua raised his Qian Jun Bang, wanting to knock this big man awake, but he was stopped by Murong Cai Yun.

Murong Cai Yun said helplessly,

"Junior brother, that's enough... Don't play with him until he's disabled, he still needs to be handed over to Dao Ting Si..."

Mo Hua blinked. "Then I'll hit him lighter?"

Murong Cai Yun had a headache. "That won't work either."

Mo Hua was a little regretful. "Okay then."

The mission was important, and merit was important. Intelligence could be inquired about later.

Murong Cai Yun was still a little doubtful. "Then what about Jiang Lao Da, and Tu Diao, and the human trafficker? Why are you asking him these questions?"

Of course, it was for the Si Xiang Array.

And also for the conspiracy of the human traffickers behind them.

But these things were not easy to say clearly.

Mo Hua then said, "I suspect he is part of a group of human traffickers! I have a little brother who was almost trafficked away by human traffickers, so I'm conveniently asking around to see if I can find any clues and catch them all in one swoop!"

Mo Hua put on a face of hating evil.

Murong Cai Yun and Ouyang Feng looked at each other, both not knowing whether Mo Hua was telling the truth or not.

Mo Hua quickly changed the subject:

"Then can I search his body?"

The Xie family's purpose in catching people was not to let them search the body.

Ouyang Feng thought about it and sighed. "You search then..."

He also took out the storage bag from the big man's body and handed it to Mo Hua. "You can search this storage bag as well to see if you can find any clues."

Mo Hua's expression lit up, and he immediately took the storage bag. He was still a little embarrassed to say,

"Senior brother, is this appropriate?"

Ouyang Feng laughed. "It's fine."

He was also a little curious and wanted to see what Mo Hua could find out.

As for Bi Shan City's Dao Ting Si and the Xie family, with his background, he fundamentally didn't care about them.

The reason he kept to the rules was only because of Tai A Men's sect rules and the Ouyang family's family precepts, not wanting to do anything outside that would tarnish the sect and family's reputation.

Mo Hua immediately searched the big man thoroughly and then frowned.

He found that the big man's body was soft, all "fake", like something attached to his body, which could be pinched into a special shape.

So he could be a woman, a young man, an old woman, or a strong man.

The big man's face was clearly pasted with some kind of skin sack, which looked very strange.

As for what he originally looked like, it was impossible to tell.

"Looking" with divine sense also didn't work.

What divine sense "saw" was the empty white space, the essence of spirit power of all things, or the trajectory of Qi, not the true appearance.

The flesh appearance was all skin and flesh, just the outer image.

However, Mo Hua clearly saw the "spirit power" essence of this big man and silently recorded it in his heart.

This way, if he ever met him again, he wouldn't be able to escape...

The big man's body did hide some things. Mo Hua didn't miss anything and searched everything out. Finally, he put them all together with the storage bag.

Mo Hua went through them one by one.

Spirit stones, pills, spirit tools...

Most of them were things that ordinary cultivators would carry.

There were also some cultivation methods and Dao methods, but they were not rare, and it was even less possible to see what connection they had with Duan Jin Men.

There was no disguise technique...

The only strange thing was a jade slip.

This jade slip was made of white jade and inlaid with silk gold edges.

Mo Hua looked at it and felt extremely familiar. After thinking for a moment, his heart was shocked: he had seen jade slips of the same style before!

Jiang Lao Da!

In the hands of that human trafficker Jiang Lao Da, there were two jade slips of the same style, but they were all sealed and couldn't be spied on with divine sense. Mo Hua had just stored these two jade slips in his own Na Zi Ring.

Mo Hua's divine sense moved slightly and found that the jade slip in the big man's hand was also sealed, and it seemed to use the same sealing method as Jiang Lao Da's jade slips.

Mo Hua's heart skipped a beat and he quickly asked,

"Senior brother Feng, do you know what this jade slip is?"

Ouyang Feng took it, looked at it, his gaze stopped slightly, and he stayed on the golden edge of the jade slip. He said with some surprise,

"This seems to be... a Duan Jin Men inheritance jade slip?"

"Duan Jin Men!"

Mo Hua's heart felt slightly cold.

So, that Jiang Lao Da was also once a disciple of Duan Jin Men?

Mo Hua thought of something and suddenly asked again,

"Senior brother Feng, is Duan Jin Men of the Twelve Streams primarily cultivating swords?"

Ouyang Feng nodded. "That's right."

"Then does their sect have any powerful sword arts?" Mo Hua's eyes lit up.

"Yes." Ouyang Feng nodded and said, "Duan Jin Men has a metal-attribute sect-suppressing sword art with extremely great power, its name is—"

Ouyang Feng said in a low voice, "Duan Jin Yu Jian Jue!"

Duan Jin Yu Jian Jue!!

Mo Hua's eyes emitted light.

Sect-suppressing sword art!

So, the move that Jiang Lao Da displayed, that majestic, golden light flashing sword art, was the Duan Jin Men sect-suppressing sword art, Duan Jin Yu Jian Jue?!

Then the inheritance jade slip in his body wasn't just...

Mo Hua's heart pounded rapidly.

Murong Cai Yun silently glanced at Mo Hua, a little strange. "Junior brother, you... why are you suddenly so happy? Your face is all red..."

Mo Hua waved his hand and smiled, "It's nothing..."

Suddenly, he thought of something again and asked,

"Senior brother Feng, how do I look at this jade slip? It seems to be sealed..."

Ouyang Feng said, "This is an inheritance jade slip. In order to prevent the inheritance from being lost, this type of jade slip is specially 'added with a seal'. You must know the 'secret pattern' to untie the seal and see the contents inside."

"Added with a seal, secret pattern?" Mo Hua was startled. "Is this 'secret pattern' an 'array pattern'?"

"This..."

Ouyang Feng hesitated.

He didn't learn arrays very well, so he really couldn't explain the details.

Murong Cai Yun then said, "That's also one way of putting it..."

"The so-called 'adding a seal' naturally refers to using arrays to add a seal, and the 'secret pattern' to untie the seal is naturally also a subtle array pattern."

"This can also be considered a special application of arrays, just that the form is different and the saying is a little different."

Mo Hua understood.

In other words, as long as he mastered the arrays inside and cracked the "secret pattern" of the added seal, he could get the inheritance inside the jade slip!

Ouyang Feng saw Mo Hua's eyes rolling, not knowing what he was thinking, but still helplessly reminded him,

"This jade slip cannot be learned."

"If I'm not mistaken, the seal inside the jade slip should be Duan Jin Men's body method, Dun Jin Shu..."

"This is Duan Jin Men's inheritance. If you learn it without permission, you will be pursued by Duan Jin Men..."

"Furthermore, this jade slip was stolen, and it will definitely be recorded by Duan Jin Men. It won't work to secretly learn it..."

Mo Hua nodded and said, "Don't worry, senior brother Feng."

It didn't matter if he didn't learn this jade slip, he still had the other two...

He just didn't know what was sealed inside those two jade slips...

Mo Hua planned to quietly research and criticize them after returning to the sect to see if he could use his array knowledge to crack the "secret pattern" of the added seal inside the inheritance jade slip and obtain the Duan Jin Men inheritance...

Even if he didn't learn it, researching and criticizing it to deepen his understanding of sword arts would also be good.

Maybe he could even lay a foundation and pave the way for learning the Tai Xu Shen Nian Zhuan Jian Zhen Jue...

Ouyang Feng raised his head to look at the color of the sky and asked,

"Junior brother Mo, is there anything else you want to ask?"

Mo Hua shook his head repeatedly.

He already knew a lot.

What he didn't know, he probably couldn't ask about now either.

Moreover, Senior Sister Murong also didn't want him to ask, fearing that he would toss and turn again and that "big man" would lose his life...

Murong Cai Yun nodded. "Then I'll send a signal to call the Xie family cultivators over."

"Okay," Ouyang Feng said.

Afterward, Murong Cai Yun took out a paper crane and sent out a smoke signal.

Mo Hua tidied up the scene, covering up the traces of his "moving punishment" interrogation and body search of the storage bag.

Ouyang Feng was very considerate and checked for omissions for him from the perspective of a bystander, reminding Mo Hua if there were any exposed areas.

Soon, the Xie family cultivators arrived.

Seeing the unconscious big man lying on the ground, their expressions were wrong, and their gazes towards the three of them were also a little subtle.

Not gratitude, but rather...

Mo Hua thought for a moment.

Like... regret?

Regretting asking the three of them to come and help?

Or, was it because the three of them had taken the lead and caught this big man, and they felt regret in their hearts?

Mo Hua's gaze slightly narrowed.

This Xie family was indeed a little off...

However, this was not his concern.

Their mission was already complete.

Soon, Murong Cai Yun began to negotiate with the Xie family, discussing the details of the mission and the rewards.

During this time, many questions were deflected by Murong Cai Yun.

For example, how they caught the big man.

How the big man fainted.

What happened to the injury on his knee?

Who punished him to kneel... etc.

Murong Cai Yun's tone was gentle, basically just saying that the three of them were patrolling, happened to meet, and coincidentally caught him. During the fight, their spells hit his knee, leaving the injury.

The Xie family still wanted to ask more, but this time Ouyang Feng's face sank, and his gaze was like a sword.

The Xie family cultivators did not dare to ask again.

Mo Hua thus guessed that the Ouyang family's name should be very big.

After the matter was properly handled, the three of them didn't stay either and set off to leave Bi Shan City.

Just as they were leaving, Mo Hua turned his head to look at Bi Shan City, surrounded by clouds and fog with strange mountain shapes. He vaguely felt that this matter was probably not over yet...

The carriage left Bi Shan City and drove towards the Qian Xue State boundary.

After driving for half the way, Mo Hua said goodbye to Senior Sister Murong and Senior Brother Feng and got off by himself.

"Senior brother and senior sister, I just remembered, I still have something I want to take care of, so I'll get off first. I'll go back to the sect myself tomorrow."

Murong Cai Yun and Ouyang Feng were both startled and looked at the barren mountains around them, couldn't help but ask,

"What do you need to take care of here?"

Mo Hua laughed, "I have a Dao friend who lives in the mountains, alone and lonely. I'm going to see him."

"Dao friend?"

"En."

"Lives in these mountains?"

Murong Cai Yun looked around. It was a desolate mountain forest, not looking like anyone lived there.

Mo Hua laughed, "He's a bit afraid of strangers."

"Alright then." Murong Cai Yun sighed, looked at Mo Hua, and her eyes showed worry. "Be careful."

"Don't worry, senior sister!" Mo Hua laughed.

After speaking, he waved his hand and turned around to walk towards the deep mountains...

In the deep mountains, there was a broken temple. In the broken temple, there was a mountain god.

This mountain god was frowning and looking troubled, wanting to cry but having no tears. Soon it was going to see someone it absolutely did not want to see...

(End of this chapter)