Chapter 679: Smoke Water River

The reward was instantly snatched, leaving the disciples with low spirits.

Meanwhile, Mo Hua, who had successfully snatched the reward in mutual "collusion" with Uncle Gu, was in a joyful mood, his eyes narrowed with a smile. He carefully reread the task entry.

Wanted Reward: Guo Jiang Long

A Foundation Building mid-stage criminal cultivator, cultivating the water system merit law "Bai Lang Mi Shu," proficient in water techniques. He often lurked in rivers, sinking ships and killing people, resembling a "water ghost." He used a hook-claw spirit tool of unclear origin, suspected to be the standard water system spirit tool: San Sha Zhua, with water poison quenched on the claws.

Remember: This person's merit law becomes strong when encountering water. If not necessary, you must not fight him in the water to avoid unforeseen misfortune.

There was also a line of small characters at the bottom:

"Trap him with an array method, capture him on shore, don't touch any trace of water, then proceed to arrest."

This line of characters was added separately. Mo Hua guessed that this was a special reminder from Uncle Gu for him. After all, he originated from Li State's Tong Xian City, bordering Da Hei Mountain, where they relied on the mountains for sustenance. Upon arriving in the Qian Xue State territory, he mostly stayed in the mountains and rarely dealt with rivers or water system cultivators.

"Uncle Gu, this person, despite his icy face, like someone who owes him spirit stones, is occasionally very considerate." Mo Hua nodded.

Furthermore, a file segment was attached to the reward:

On the third day of the third month, at Yan Shui River.

Six merchants were crossing the river by boat. When they reached the lower section of Yan Shui River, the boat sank, and the merchants fell into the water. One person was strangled and had his throat torn by an underwater cultivator. The blood dyed the river water, attracting several water-born demon beasts that bit, killed, and devoured the remaining people. All six perished.

Based on the perpetrator's cultivation, merit law, and weapon, the Dao Ting Si judged that this person was most likely the rampant criminal cultivator in the rivers, the one with accumulated evil deeds — Guo Jiang Long.

Mo Hua memorized the key points of the file, prepared several water system array methods, and the next day found Cheng Mo. Getting straight to the point, he said, "There's a reward, six hundred merit points, equally divided, one hundred twenty merit points per person."

Upholding their fellow disciple friendship, Mo Hua didn't take any cut. He pitied Cheng Mo and the others; earning even ten or twenty merit points was difficult. Mo Hua felt that as their "little senior brother," he should take care of this group of "little senior brothers."

"One hundred twenty points?!" Cheng Mo's mouth hung open, somewhat disbelieving. It had been days since he had taken a reward exceeding fifty points. Who would have thought Mo Hua would offer one hundred twenty points in one go! Cheng Mo was shocked and infinitely curious, "Mo Hua, how did you get this reward?"

"Don't ask about this, I have my own channels!" Mo Hua slightly raised his head, wearing a proud and composed expression. This appearance, in Cheng Mo's eyes, seemed even more effortless, "profound and unfathomable."

"Mo Hua, your background is really tough!" Cheng Mo couldn't help but sigh.

Mo Hua was displeased, "What nonsense are you saying?"

"Oh right." Cheng Mo immediately realized his mistake; this had nothing to do with "background."

"It's just that you, little senior brother, have high means and tough connections!" Cheng Mo praised.

He had scoured the main street and looked over the large gate, taking quite a few rewards. He deeply understood how difficult it was to obtain rewards with high merit. Many fellow disciples were vying for them, and there were more monks than there was porridge. Moreover, there was a crowd of senior brothers and sisters with higher cultivation, older seniority, and richer experience snatching them. And for fairness, the sect's "merit" mechanism was relatively independent and not subject to other interferences. The Dao Ting Si side was also all official business. All means had to follow order and rules; there was no possibility of "favoring private."

But Mo Hua! He had just entered the sect for one year, with Foundation Building initial stage cultivation, yet he could surpass a crowd of senior brothers and sisters, "snatch food from the tiger's mouth," and take a reward of six hundred merit points! How many operations were behind this... How solid were his connections with the Dao Ting Si... Cheng Mo dared not think about it.

At this moment, he felt Mo Hua's entire being was emitting dazzling light. "Little senior brother, have a chicken leg." Cheng Mo immediately offered the "tribute" — a crispy outside, tender inside, juicy and fragrant chicken leg from the famous Jin Ji restaurant.

Mo Hua calmly accepted the chicken leg, took a bite, and savored the lingering fragrance in his mouth, feeling very satisfied. However, he still reminded Cheng Mo, "This time the reward is relatively dangerous, you have to think it over carefully." Guo Jiang Long was Foundation Building mid-stage, proficient in water techniques, a ruthless criminal cultivator. It wouldn't be easy for Cheng Mo and the others to deal with him.

Cheng Mo said, "Rest assured, I know what I'm doing!" One hundred twenty merit points! This was a rare opportunity in a thousand years. Others who wanted to take this risk probably wouldn't have this chance.

"Good." Mo Hua nodded. "Then you and Si Tu and the others prepare. After tomorrow's ten-day rest, we'll set off."

"No problem!" Cheng Mo immediately agreed.

Soon the ten-day rest arrived. After class was dismissed, Mo Hua met with Cheng Mo and the others at the disciple residence. There were a total of five people: besides Mo Hua, there were Cheng Mo, Si Tu Jian, Hao Xuan, and Yang Qian Jun. Cheng Mo, Si Tu Jian, and Hao Xuan were all disciples of "Tai Yi Ju" like Mo Hua, living in the same disciple residence and attending classes together. All three had attended Mo Hua's array method class, so they all called Mo Hua "little senior brother." Yang Qian Jun was an exception; he was from "Tai Jia Ju" and hadn't attended Mo Hua's class, nor did he call Mo Hua "little senior brother." However, he had a good relationship with Cheng Mo. During the last incident with the human traffickers, everyone fought shoulder to shoulder, sharing life and death, and their friendship deepened. Yang Qian Jun himself was from the Yang family of the Dao Bing Si; he was upright, and his cultivation of Dao law was also very good. Mo Hua also had a slight connection with the Yang family, so he brought him along on this task.

As for Yi Li... He was a pure spirit cultivator. He was fine when there were many people fighting few, and he could cast spells from a distance. Once outnumbered, if an enemy got close, he would be the first to be knocked down. So Yi Li listened to Mo Hua's suggestion and went to learn protective and escape spells. Mo Hua didn't bring him this time.

The five people were properly prepared, and then led by Mo Hua, they headed towards Yan Shui River. Along the way, Mo Hua reiterated the points of attention to the others, including Guo Jiang Long's cultivation, merit law, spirit tool, habits, usual killing methods, etc. Cheng Mo and the others' expressions became slightly solemn. They usually took on rewards, but they were mostly for Foundation Building early-stage criminal cultivators; there weren't many at the Foundation Building mid-stage. Even if there were, they were relatively weak. Either they had just entered the mid-stage and their cultivation wasn't deep, or their merit law wasn't good, or their Dao law was mediocre. They weren't truly meaning, accumulated evil deeds, killing people like mowing grass criminal cultivators.

But Guo Jiang Long was different. This kind was an old hand in the cultivation world, cultivating for many years with a solid foundation. His merit law was special, his methods ruthless, and he was extremely experienced in both killing and escaping. He was on a completely different level from the cultivators they had encountered before. The only one comparable was probably the head of the black-clothed human traffickers they had encountered earlier. That black-clothed head was also Foundation Building mid-stage, yet he handled the siege of five people with ease. Even with everyone exhausting their full effort, they couldn't keep the black-clothed head. In fact, if Mo Hua hadn't lured the black-clothed head away, they might have died at his hands at that time. To this day, they still didn't know where the black-clothed head went. Thinking of this, Cheng Mo and the others felt a lingering fear. Thinking again of the possibly equally ferocious Guo Jiang Long they were about to face, they all couldn't help but feel some nervousness.

Mo Hua, on the other hand, was composed. Catching a Foundation Building mid-stage Guo Jiang Long alone was just a small matter. In the past year, the criminal cultivators who had fallen into his hands numbered at least ninety, if not one hundred. Of course, some of them were just "miscellaneous fish" used to fill the numbers. There weren't that many like Guo Jiang Long with a name and face; probably just a few dozen. That list of Jiang Lao Da's had almost all been caught by him. And this Guo Jiang Long was also a character on that list.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua slightly frowned. He always felt that this list was very discordant. The cultivators on the list each had special skills, good cultivation, and even the "Huo Fo," who cultivated forbidden techniques and could be called an unsolvable powerful demon cultivator head in the second-grade state territory. What virtue and ability did a mere Foundation Building initial stage Jiang Lao Da, despite hiding a trump card of "Po Jin Yu Jian Mi Shu" and having a dozen or so human trafficker brothers, possess to own such a list of "accumulated evil names"? This was very unreasonable... Mo Hua had only vaguely guessed before that this list might not belong to Jiang Lao Da at all. If it didn't belong to Jiang Lao Da, then whose was it? What connection was there between the cultivators on the list? Why were these names recorded in such a jade slip with such a secret method?

Mo Hua took out the list and looked at it carefully again. Among the cultivators on the list, the most powerful Huo Fo was dead. Most of the other cultivators had either died or been captured. A small remaining part were either missing or didn't know where they were hiding, no longer showing their faces. Now there were very few clues. The only one who had recently shown his face and had a small tail caught by himself was this Guo Jiang Long...

"Catch Guo Jiang Long and see if I can find clues...""Train Cheng Mo and the others...""Try new array mediums...""Then..."

Mo Hua slightly raised his head, his gaze distant. Through the window, he took in the scenery of Qian State outside the carriage. He silently thought: I also want to see what the lower levels of the prosperous Qian Xue State territory, where families gather and sects are dense, are like...

Heaven moves with vigor; a gentleman strives ceaselessly for self-improvement. The Earth is in a position of Kun; a gentleman carries things with thick virtue. A cultivator seeking the Dao cannot just look up at the sky; occasionally, they must also bow their heads and look at the ground.

The carriage traveled with the wind, and the scenery outside the window changed. After an unknown amount of time, the lush mountains receded, and a vast, long river appeared on both sides of the road. The water surface was vast like a flat mirror, hazy with mist, blending with the sky. Yan Shui River. This was a long river near the Qian Xue State territory, spanning several small state territories, with abundant water flow and continuous current. A clear wind blew, brushing up light ripples, and the fresh water vapor from the river came towards them. Mo Hua took a deep breath, feeling the clear wind enter his chest and his heart open and cheerful.

They traveled another dozens of li and arrived at a ferry. The ferry wasn't large, with several spirit boats moored, and cultivators coming and going, disembarking, and crossing nonstop. The water surface of Yan Shui River was wide, and the upstream and downstream waterways were distant. Although cultivators could learn some "crossing water" body techniques, covering their spirit power at the soles of their feet and treading on water to cross the river as if walking on flat ground, this kind of body technique consumed relatively more spirit power. Once their spirit power was exhausted midway, they would drown in the water. And the most dangerous thing was the various water-born demon beasts at the bottom of the river. These water-born demon beasts varied in grade, were born with the water, were powerful, and liked to eat people. If cultivators suffered attacks from water demons midway while crossing the water or after drowning, if they were not opponents, they would become food for the demon beasts. Therefore, general cultivators crossing the river still habitually rode "spirit boats," using spirit boats to cross the water and resist demon beasts. The larger the spirit boat, the safer it was. And the six merchants who died in the river were riding a "small boat," whose material was probably not good and whose array wasn't solid enough, which was pierced by Guo Jiang Long. The spirit boat sank, and the six people were also buried in the water. As for Guo Jiang Long, he could freely shuttle in the water and avoid demon beasts; he probably also had his own unique methods.

Based on the Dao Ting Si's file, Mo Hua roughly determined the location where the six people died: in the river segment twenty li downstream from the ferry. The several people sat in the carriage and traveled another twenty li, arriving near the river segment. They saw lush wild grass on both banks, dotted with yellow flowers, like a green carpet spread at both ends. The river water in the middle was like jade, flowing murmuringly. The scenery was beautiful and interesting, not at all like a place where people had died.

Cheng Mo looked at Mo Hua and softly asked, "Mo Hua, do you know where those six people died?" Mo Hua's gaze was profound; he spied for a moment and pointed to a river segment on the shore where the water grass was lush, saying, "There."

Cheng Mo and the others approached the shore and looked at the vast water surface, all somewhat bewildered. Except for the water, there was nothing. The water grass swayed in the water; even if there had been bloodstains, they would have long since dissolved clean. But in Mo Hua's eyes, there was indeed a faint blood-colored chain of cause and effect on the water surface. Clearly, not long ago, someone had died here, and they had died very miserably.

"Mo Hua, what do we do now?" Cheng Mo asked. Si Tu Jian and the others were also looking at Mo Hua. Their previous tasks had clear clues, and finding people was relatively easy, unlike now, where clues were few and scattered, leaving them clueless.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and said, "There are Dao Ting Si cultivators guarding both upstream and downstream. Guo Jiang Long should not be out of this river domain..."

"Guo Jiang Long's cultivated merit law is 'Bai Lang Mi Shu,' proficient in water techniques, which has both advantages and disadvantages."

"The advantage is that he is like a fish in water, and the disadvantage is that once he is out of the water, his strength is greatly reduced."

"So, he should not dare to leave the water too far and is probably hiding in some river segment nearby..." Mo Hua took out several array disks he had prepared earlier. "On these array disks, I have drawn water pattern arrays that can monitor the flow of spirit power in the water..." Fearing they wouldn't understand, Mo Hua added, "It's just like using a Si Nan array or a small Yuan Magnetic array in the water."

"This array disk comes in a pair, one for setting the array and one for monitoring..."

"You throw the array disk used for setting the array into the water, throwing one every so often."

"Then we 'guard the stump waiting for the rabbit,' waiting to catch 'Guo Jiang Long'..." Cheng Mo and the others nodded in confusion.

Thus, the several people acted separately, each finding a suitable position to throw the water pattern array disks far into the water. But this river segment was too wide; the water pattern array could only cover a small segment near the shore in the middle of the waterway. Mo Hua was also just trying his luck. Catching cultivators who were proficient in water techniques in the river was originally not easy, and this was already the best method.

After that, everyone stationed themselves separately on the shore, holding the monitoring water pattern array disks and staring at the movement of the water pattern arrays. Mo Hua still admonished, "If there's any movement, don't rush to act. First use the Tai Xu Ling to call people, and when everyone meets, then we'll make a long-term plan."

"Okay." Cheng Mo and the others all nodded.

After that was the long process of "guarding the stump waiting for the rabbit." This process was relatively trying on patience. Mo Hua sat on a branch of a large tree on the shore, held a grass root in his mouth, cocked his leg, and stared at the monitoring water pattern array disk while looking at the distant scenery.

A full hour passed, and there was no movement at all. There was no transmission inside the Tai Xu Ling either. Just as Mo Hua felt bored, he saw a small boat sailing out from the upstream, with three or five cultivators on the boat pulling a fishing net. There seemed to be quite a few fish in the fishing net.

Mo Hua was slightly startled. "Could it be... Guo Jiang Long?" He released his divine sense and looked carefully, only to find it wasn't him. The people on the boat were just ordinary cultivators, two at Foundation Building and three at Qi Refining. They were dressed simply and, although they had a relatively heavy water vapor about them, they had almost no killing aura. They should be ordinary "fisher cultivators" from nearby.

So-called "fisher cultivators" were simply cultivators who made a living by raising and catching spirit fish. Mo Hua thought for a bit, then jumped down from the tree and walked towards this group of cultivators. As he approached, Mo Hua found that these cultivators' faces showed a slight worry. Their feet were stained with mud, and they had a relatively heavy fishy smell on them. They poured out the spirit fish they had caught in the fishing net and put them into another basket. These spirit fish included both first-grade and second-grade ones. Because they were fed with cheap spirit objects, they had spirit energy but no demonic energy and wouldn't eat people, nor did they have the ferocity of demon beasts.

Several fisher cultivators detected someone approaching and looked alert. When they saw Mo Hua and found he was just a small cultivator with lovely eyebrows and eyes, they all relaxed. One fisher cultivator kindly asked, "Little brother, where are you from?"

Mo Hua then said, "I'm from the Qian Xue State territory."

Upon hearing this, several people's expressions showed more respect. "Sect disciple?"

Mo Hua nodded.

"Impressive," one older fisher cultivator then said, "Those who can enter the sects of the Qian Xue State territory are all talents, ranking first or second."

"Little brother, you must also have a high-grade spirit root, right?"

Mo Hua couldn't help but slightly blush. "I... it's a little worse than that..."

The fisher cultivator said, "That's still impressive!"

Mo Hua didn't want to talk about the "spirit root" matter too much, so he changed the subject and asked, "Uncle, are you all catching fish?"

"Yes." The older fisher cultivator nodded and then, somewhat puzzled, asked, "Little brother, why are you, alone, running to this Yan Shui River?"

"I'm here to 'fish'!" Mo Hua nodded and said.

"Fish?" The older fisher cultivator was startled. This child didn't have a fishing rod or bait. What fish was he fishing?

Another fisher cultivator heard this and quickly waved his hand, saying, "Child, quickly don't fish, hurry and leave."

Mo Hua was puzzled. "Why?"

That fisher cultivator pointed downstream. "A few days ago, someone died there. Their bodies were gnawed beyond recognition by water demons. Now I hear that the water demon that ate people is still wandering nearby."

"Oh." Mo Hua nodded. The Dao Ting Si hadn't disclosed the truth, so these fisher cultivators didn't know and could only rely on rumors. They still thought those cultivators were dragged into the water and eaten by "water demons."

The fisher cultivator sighed, "Six died, and one young master."

"Young master?" Mo Hua was puzzled. "Didn't you say they were six merchants?"

The fisher cultivator shook his head. "It was a young master, and I heard he came from a family."

"Family?" Mo Hua was strange. "Which family?"

Another fisher cultivator then said to the older fisher cultivator, "Dad, what family? Just a third-grade family, neither up nor down. It can't reach the threshold of a 'family'."

The older fisher cultivator was angry. "What about third-grade? How is a third-grade not a family? If you can build a third-grade family before I die, I will truly die without regret..."

(End of this chapter)