Chapter 760: Opening the Valley

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The deep night was dark, and the dense forest was utterly silent.

The tall *yaoxiu* was beheaded by Xun Ziyu with one sword, falling straight to the ground and thus breathing his last. Blood flowed everywhere.

Mo Hua showed no fear at all, but his divine sense was like a torch, his gaze penetrating, scanning the *yaoxiu*'s entire body once. Then, from his body, he pulled out a storage bag and a jade slip.

Finally, Mo Hua thought for a moment and tore off the *yaoxiu*'s black robe. Everything was stained with blood. Mo Hua simply wiped them clean and first flipped open the storage bag.

Inside the storage bag were mostly things the *yaoxiu* carried with him. Some strange bloody pills, seemingly refined from unknown flesh. Several spirit tools – they were proper spirit tools, seemingly used by this great *yaoxiu* before he transformed into a demon. He kept them as souvenirs, unwilling to discard them. Besides some bones, there was a pile of dried meat made from unknown meat.

Finally, there were cultivation method secret books and *yao* path jade slips.

Mo Hua held the *yao* cultivation secret book, just about to open it and look, but in the blink of an eye, his hand was empty. Xun Ziyu snatched the *yao* cultivation secret book from Mo Hua's hand. “*Yao* gate evil path, no good things, child don't look.”

“Oh...” Mo Hua lowered his head, wanting to flip open the storage bag again. But in a flash, the storage bag was also snatched away by Xun Ziyu.

“These are also not good things, don't learn bad things...” Xun Ziyu said with a vigilant expression.

Mo Hua was young, looking like a small youth, but in Xun Ziyu's eyes, he was just a child. Children are very curious. Such a good *zhen* master seedling. If he really looked at a few *yao* magic cultivation methods here, became curious for a moment, planted a trace of *yao* thought, and thus caused him to act wrongly later and fall into the *yao* path, then he might truly be “ten thousand deaths hard to atone”. Even if the old ancestor didn't strip off his skin, he would regret it for a lifetime.

Mo Hua was helpless, only able to go look at the transmission order. But just as he lifted his hand, he immediately shrank it back, putting the transmission order away again, and looked at Xun Ziyu vigilantly, afraid he would snatch it again.

This time, Xun Ziyu was not so quick to snatch again, saying: “You look first.”

Mo Hua then nodded, his divine sense sinking into the transmission order, silently looking it up. Inside the transmission order, the latest line of words was displayed: “There's an inner ghost, fast...” This line of words was left by the tall *yaoxiu* before his death; he didn't finish writing it and didn't send it out. Of course, it could also never be sent out. Mo Hua immediately wiped it off.

Besides that, there was still some other information. Mo Hua roughly flipped through it and discovered that most of it consisted of some recent “instructions” from the *yaoxiu*s:

For example, “This month on the sixteenth, the Ten Thousand Demons Valley opens, the White Bone Path appears, all *yaoxiu* must enter the valley, no delay.”

“Task: Three Black Ox Demons, dead.”

“Task: One Azure Profound Fox, alive.”

“Note: Task failed, suffer punishment for three days in the Refining Demon Pot.”

“If you dare to defect, sacrifice to the Refining Demon Diagram, suffer the pain of ten thousand demons gnawing your body, and both body and soul be destroyed...”

“Refining Demon Pot? Refining Demon Diagram?” Mo Hua was startled. “What is this pot?” “And this diagram, could it be...” Mo Hua's eyes slightly brightened, and he silently kept it in his heart.

“See what?” Xun Ziyu, beside him, saw Mo Hua's large eyes rolling around, not knowing what “bad idea” he was thinking, and couldn't help but ask.

“Nothing...” Mo Hua said in a small voice. He couldn't possibly say “I'm hungry”, right...

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then handed the transmission order to Xun Ziyu, “Elder, you also look.”

Xun Ziyu took it, his divine sense scanned it, and his gaze became slightly heavy. This group of *yaoxiu* did indeed have organization, even quite strict rules. But he also had some doubts. These messages seemed ordinary, so why would Mo Hua's eyes brighten, and his expression even have a bit of... excitement? A bit strange...

Xun Ziyu raised his head, then saw Mo Hua taking out brush, ink, *zhen* paper, and a set of strange *zhen* discs from the storage bag, and couldn't help but be startled: “What are you doing?”

“There are still traces of magnetic flow in the transmission order, likely some ‘chat records’ from before that were wiped off. I'll just restore them a bit...” Mo Hua said casually.

Xun Ziyu opened his mouth. Primordial magnetic traces... This child, even understands primordial magnetic *zhen*? And... “simply” restore a bit?! Is this a “simple” thing? Xun Ziyu's gaze was heavy. Although he didn't understand the specific key points of the *zhen*, he had befriended many *zhen* masters from Tian Shu Pavilion and roughly knew some principles. “Restoring” primordial magnetic *zhen* patterns and drawing primordial magnetic *zhen* might be fundamentally different things. Restoring magnetic patterns, the core is secondary thunder flow. It involves the application of the “essence” of primordial magnetism, which is another derivative of “thunder patterns”.

Xun Ziyu was in a daze for a long time, then silently asked: “Did Xun old... old ancestor also teach you this?”

Mo Hua blinked his eyes, “Otherwise? Could I have figured it out myself?”

Xun Ziyu thought for a moment and nodded: “That's right.” If the old ancestor hadn't personally instructed him, how could he have learned these things?

After that, Mo Hua began to restore the indeterminate magnetic patterns. He skillfully disassembled the transmission order, replicated the fixed magnetic patterns, perceived and recorded the secondary thunder patterns, and reconstructed the transmission order within the primordial magnetic *zhen* framework, thereby little by little restoring the wiped-off indeterminate magnetic patterns in the transmission order. Finally, through magnetic ink, they reappeared as words...

Beside him, Xun Ziyu didn't understand, but was greatly shocked. If Mo Hua didn't look so tender, he would even think that it was some “crane-haired child-faced” old ancestor from Tian Shu Pavilion explaining the principles of the primordial magnetic *zhen* to him...

Just like this, the *yaoxiu*'s “chat records” in the transmission order were gradually restored by Mo Hua. Because the secondary thunder flow was obscure and the traces were minute, the derived indeterminate magnetic patterns would have some differences, appearing in the magnetic ink words as somewhat fragmented and chaotic. But the order of the words didn't affect reading. With some guesswork, the general meaning could still be understood.

Mo Hua copied the “deciphered” and restored words onto another piece of paper. These words were mixed with a large number of meaningless greetings, chats, complaints, some exchanges of “insights” on cultivating *yao* skills, unclear daily madness, and some mysterious “*yao* path terms”, etc...

Mo Hua could only summarize the information based on these messy words:

First, it was about the young *yaoxiu* who was killed... He was from a small family, very talented, a bit arrogant, and didn't feel he was much worse than others. When he participated in the sect assembly, he encountered some big family “young masters”, didn't bow his head, didn't ask for courtesy, and wasn't respectful enough, so he was considered “arrogant and rude”. Later, during a demon hunt, he was set up and lost in the dense forest of Refining Demon Mountain. Finally, he was captured into Ten Thousand Demons Valley, and unknowingly, he cultivated *yao* path skills and became a “*yaoxiu*”. Now he was even considered a “stepping stone”. But how exactly he was “set up”, how the plan was executed, how he left Refining Demon Mountain, who came to receive him, and how he escaped easily - these matters were not mentioned on the transmission order. It was estimated that these were more confidential things, which this tall *yaoxiu* didn't dare to say in the transmission order.

Besides that, there were some situations within Ten Thousand Demons Valley: “In this *yaoxiu*'s chat, three *yaoxiu* elders were mentioned...” “He didn't specify their cultivation, but in Refining Demon Mountain, where *yuhua* is forbidden, they were still respectfully called ‘elder’, they must be Golden Cores, but I don't know which layer of the Golden Core realm exactly...” “Besides that, a ‘young master’ was also mentioned.” “It seems all matters must obey the young master's instructions.” “But these *yaoxiu* are deeply taboo about the words ‘young master’ and dare not say more.” “Within Ten Thousand Demons Valley, there are also managers responsible for handling miscellaneous matters, and their power is not small. Below the managers are the ordinary *yaoxiu*...”

Mo Hua told Xun Ziyu some specific situations one by one. Xun Ziyu nodded, looking at Mo Hua, a little emotional. This child, if he did espionage, eavesdropping, and investigation work in the future, would be simply unbeatable. One transmission order, and he dug out so many secrets. Which sect, which force, could withstand him digging like this...

As he was speaking, Mo Hua also had some doubts: “In that Ten Thousand Demons Valley, with so many *yaoxiu*, can only three Golden Core elders suppress them?”

Xun Ziyu frowned, thought for a moment, and slowly said: “Three Golden Cores are just guarding to maintain stability within the valley and avoid accidents.” “*Yaoxiu* are numerous, violent in temperament, and act madly, it's impossible to rely on ‘people’ to manage them, there must be other coercive means...”

Other coercive means... Mo Hua's heart moved, and he suddenly thought of the *yao* patterns drawn on these *yaoxiu*'s bodies, his heart slightly stirring: “Four Symbols *zhen*...”

Xun Ziyu added: “Moreover, the elders who can guard in this Refining Demon Mountain are necessarily not ordinary characters.” Xun Ziyu turned his head, looking towards the dense forest depths permeated with eerie *yao* qi, his gaze deep: “Daring to do this kind of thing under the noses of the Dao Court Department and the major sects in Qian Xue State, once exposed, it's just the end of executing the entire family and revoking the sect's name!” “Non-truly trusted elders would absolutely not be entrusted with such ‘heavy duty’.” “Furthermore, Golden Core cultivators, placed in a fifth-grade family, are also considered general mainstays, very promising in the future, not many people are really willing to guard in this isolated and bloody place for the family, being neither human nor ghost.” “Moreover, if this *yao* valley is not discovered, three Golden Core *yaoxiu* guarding is enough.” “If it is discovered...” Xun Ziyu's tone was slightly cold, “Let alone three, even thirty, or three hundred Golden Cores would be completely useless.”

Mo Hua was startled and slowly nodded. This was indeed... This was the border of Qian Xue State, there were so many big families and big sects. Once Ten Thousand Demons Valley was exposed, no matter how many Golden Core *yaoxiu* guarded it, they would all just be small dishes, no use. And conversely, as long as it wasn't exposed, three Golden Cores were indeed just enough...

“Then Elder Xun, do you want to go back and call people to exterminate Ten Thousand Demons Valley?” Mo Hua asked cautiously.

Xun Ziyu was just about to open his mouth, suddenly startled, looked at Mo Hua, and asked: “What do you think?”

Mo Hua shook his head, “I'm just a small Foundation Establishment disciple, what can I think?”

Xun Ziyu sighed, “Say what you think.”

“Oh,” Mo Hua's eyes rolled, then he said in a low voice: “According to what I see... if we just surround and exterminate like this, it's easy to have problems.” “This Ten Thousand Demons Valley is easy to defend and hard to attack.” “If too few people are dispatched, and it can't be taken down for a while, it will inevitably become a war of attrition, and there will be casualties.” “If too many people are dispatched, it will be a mix of fish and dragons...” Mo Hua looked at Xun Ziyu meaningfully, “In case there are unclean people mixed in and they cause trouble from within, the harm is feared to be even greater.”

Xun Ziyu raised his eyebrows and nodded. Mo Hua was right. This kind of matter, if you want to avoid leaks, you can only find trusted cultivators from your own sect. But this way, it becomes Tai Xu Gate exterminating Ten Thousand Demons Valley, and once there are casualties, the loss is Tai Xu Gate cultivators. If other sects are called, it's easy to leak the wind.

“There's still one problem,” Mo Hua continued, “In front of Ten Thousand Demons Valley, an evil *zhen* is set up. According to the *yaoxiu*, entering the valley rashly ‘will suffer a curse, lose divine sense, go mad and die’...” “It's clear that this evil *zhen* is extremely tricky. If it's not broken, rushing in like this will inevitably lead to heavy casualties.”

“You also can't break it?” Xun Ziyu asked with a heavy expression. As soon as he asked, he regretted it. He, a dignified late-stage Golden Core elder, actually subconsciously put the hope of breaking the *zhen* on a small Foundation Establishment realm disciple... His elder face was almost completely lost.

Fortunately, Mo Hua didn't mind and seriously shook his head saying: “The *zhen* inside is not only an evil *zhen*, it probably also involves some divine sense paths. These are not ordinary *zhen* categories, I still don't understand them...”

General *zhen* masters, even those of the third grade, if they only learn orthodox five-element eight-trigram *zhen*s, and are completely ignorant of evil *zhen*s and divine path *zhen*s, they also cannot see the paths of these *zhen*s.

Xun Ziyu frowned slightly, then said: “According to those *yaoxiu*, ‘every month on the sixteenth, when the moon is full, the Ten Thousand Demons Valley opens, and the White Bone Path appears,’ then you can enter Ten Thousand Demons Valley...” “Tomorrow is the sixteenth, wait for Ten Thousand Demons Valley to open, I'll first see if I can blend in, and then act according to the circumstances.”

Mo Hua hurriedly said: “I'll also go.”

“No.”

“Then if you encounter a *zhen*? If there's a divine path *zhen* inside and you don't know how to handle it, then you'll be discovered?” “Also, when you go in, just hiding is not enough.” “You must use a divine path *zhen* to cover your traces and isolate the perception of others.” “Do you know how to do these?”

Xun Ziyu was left speechless by Mo Hua's words. Mo Hua repeated: “I'll also go!”

Xun Ziyu hesitated for a moment, sighed, and compromised: “You follow me, but absolutely don't run around after going in.”

“Mm mm!” Mo Hua nodded.

Large-scale extermination is too big of an action and easily alerts the enemy. Moreover, there is indeed a big risk. So, according to convention, everything must first be scouted a bit to understand the enemy's situation, check the details thoroughly, and only then is it good to take action.

Of course, Mo Hua also had his own little “private agenda”: he wanted to go in and see what the evil god was doing exactly. And, would there be a hidden Four Symbols *zhen* and complete inheritance of the divine path *zhen* within Ten Thousand Demons Valley? He wasn't greedy, it would be good if he could get a few Four Symbols or divine path *zhen* diagrams. And, the “Refining Demon Diagram” mentioned in the *yaoxiu*'s transmission order, he also wanted to find a way to get his hands on it. See exactly what it is, and whether it is the same as what he thinks...

Mo Hua's eyes slightly brightened.

After Xun Ziyu simply wiped away the bloodstains on the ground and burned the bodies of the two *yaoxiu* with pill fire, he returned to the depths of the dense forest with Mo Hua. The two of them squatted on a big tree, waiting patiently. Waiting until the full moon on the sixteenth, when the Ten Thousand Demons Valley opened, they would find a way to seize an opportunity to blend into Ten Thousand Demons Valley.

But before that, they just had to wait patiently and make some preparations.

On the towering big tree. Mo Hua sat cross-legged on a thick branch, holding two sets of black robes in his hand, exactly the ones stripped from the two *yaoxiu*. He looked at the black robes over and over several times, then slowly disassembled them along the seams and stitches. Soon, the black robes were also disassembled into pieces of cloth by Mo Hua.

And in the black robes, Mo Hua found what he wanted. The “*zhen* pattern sequence” in the divine path *zhen*!

“Indeed...” Mo Hua nodded with satisfaction. When he first saw the black robes on the *yaoxiu*'s bodies, he felt strange. These black robes looked ordinary, but they could to a certain extent conceal their body shape and the *yaoxiu*'s aura. Moreover, the closer they got to the dense forest, the better the concealing effect of the black robes seemed to be.

The dense forest *zhen*, Mo Hua had derived and calculated it once, obtaining some basic divine path *zhen* patterns. Now, by disassembling the black robes and slightly verifying, Mo Hua discovered that the divine path *zhen* patterns in the black robes were as if they were cast from the same mold as those in the dense forest. Moreover, on the black robes, there were even clearer sequence *zhen* patterns! That is to say, the *zhen*s in the dense forest and the black robes were from the same system.

He could, by “imitating” the sequence *zhen* patterns, replace these two already dead *yaoxiu*, communicate with the divine path multiple *zhen* system in the dense forest, and utilize the opposite *zhen*, thereby concealing his own aura. Like this, besides hiding means, there was also divine sense isolation. Even entering Ten Thousand Demons Valley, it would not be easy to be discovered. Mo Hua nodded.

He took out two dao robes, one large and one small. These two dao robes were both custom spirit tools, and *zhen*s were drawn on them. The small one was for his own use, the large one was originally prepared to be drawn with *zhen*s and sold. Now it could be used as a “*zhen* medium”.

Taking advantage of the ample time, Mo Hua successively drew divine path *zhen*s in the same style as the dense forest on the two dao robes, and modified the *zhen* pattern sequences. Now these two dao robes had the same effect as the black robes on the *yaoxiu*'s bodies, though through different paths.

Mo Hua handed the large dao robe to Xun Ziyu. “Elder, put this on.”

Xun Ziyu was not clear why. Mo Hua only said: “For covering your aura, you can blend into Ten Thousand Demons Valley...” He didn't say the too complex *zhen* principles, assuming that even if he did, Elder Xun wouldn't understand. Xun Ziyu had self-awareness, nodded, and obediently put on this dao robe.

Preparations complete, the two people then patiently waited on the tree.

In their idle time, Mo Hua began to observe the coming and going *yaoxiu* below the tree. Looking, looking, Mo Hua's heart became a little complex. These ferocious-looking *yaoxiu* who ate raw meat and blood, most of them were once disciples of sects in Qian Xue State, just like himself. But now, it was probably impossible for them to become human again. Once they cultivated *yao* skills, from body to heart, they would gradually approach *yao* beasts, and thus could no longer turn back... Mo Hua sighed slightly.

Immediately, his heart was filled with emotion again. These disciples who were tempted, or forced, and thus cultivated *yao* methods, most of them seemed to be from small and medium-sized families... The young *yaoxiu* who was just killed was like this. The “missing” and “dead” disciples found in the records of Refining Demon Mountain before were the same.

In this world, scattered cultivators are shrimp, small families are small fish, and big families are big fish. Small fish eat shrimp. Big fish not only eat shrimp, but also small fish. This oppression is not only reflected in families and forces. Within sects, and among disciples, various forms of bullying and squeezing will also happen...

The evil god, or rather the evil god's claws, seemed to be utilizing this “bullying” to carry out infiltration. But, was it really only like this? Mo Hua frowned. Disciples from small and medium-sized families suffer bullying and have to submit, thus being “infiltrated” by the evil god and becoming its claws. What about the disciples from other big families? Will the evil god really let them go? Mo Hua's gaze was a little heavy.

Time passed little by little. Below the blood stream bank, in front of the white bones beach, *yao* beasts gathered, the atmosphere turning from noisy to quiet, and then from quiet, returning to oppressive dead silence.

Finally, unknowingly, it was the night of the sixteenth. The moon was full, but with a hint of evil. The bloody water flowing in the blood stream gradually boiled, the white bones on both banks slightly trembling. The gathered *yao* beasts also found it hard to endure the restlessness and fear in their hearts.

A stock of blood-colored karma qi suddenly surged up from a distance. Mo Hua's gaze condensed, knowing that in the darkness, the gate of that Ten Thousand Demons Valley had already slowly opened...

(End of this chapter)

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