At that moment, Xue Renkui also rushed over, and upon entering, he asked Mo Qi, "I heard the Taihe Sect was wiped out. Was it you?"
Mo Qi was startled. The news had traveled faster than he had. This was illogical!
Xue Ying also looked at him intently.
Mo Qi nodded, "I did it. I did it alone, and it has nothing to do with you."
Xue Renkui sighed, "What nonsense are you talking? Do you think we are all cowards?"
Xue Ying nodded in agreement.
Afterward, the elders of the sect also came forward one after another, expressing their admiration and gratitude towards Mo Qi. Mo Qi simply smiled it away.
Thus, the heavy stone that had been pressing down on the Zhenghe Sect was lifted overnight!
The shadow that had hung over everyone's hearts for days vanished without a trace.
Some things are truly chilling when you think about them!
When people carefully considered the matter, they found it incredible!
The Taihe Sect, which the Zhenghe Sect with all its might could not contend with, was annihilated by Mo Qi alone?
Doesn't that mean that the combined strength of everyone in the Zhenghe Sect was less than that of Mo Qi?
The news of Mo Qi's destruction of the Taihe Sect quickly spread throughout the Northern Territory, even causing a stir in the Qionglu Realm.
However, the Taihe Sect was not truly wiped out. Those who escaped later found a small mountain called Watermelon Mountain and re-established a sect, the Taiqing Sect, with Yun Sen, who had escaped at the time, serving as its leader.
But the Taiqing Sect no longer possessed the glory of the former Taihe Sect, nor could it reach its past heights.
To prevent any potential revenge or provocation from the remnants of the Taihe Sect, Mo Qi did not immediately leave the Zhenghe Sect. He decided to stay for a while.
He spent his days meditating and cultivating, refining elixirs.
However, Mo Qi was unaware that in the Murong family of the Qionglu Realm, a shocking plan to put an end to him was being hatched.
He was also unaware that his body was undergoing subtle changes.
Suddenly, one day, while Mo Qi was alone refining elixirs, he heard Yuwen Yan's startled cry, "Ah, there's a hole in your stomach."
What hole? Mo Qi felt bewildered. He lifted his clothes to look and was so shocked that he almost died on the spot!
A hole the size of an orange had appeared on his lower abdomen. It was dark, with no trace of blood.
He dared not look inside, fearing he would see his internal organs, and quickly pulled his clothes down to cover it.
"What's happening? Am I going to die?" Mo Qi asked in panic.
In his haste, he took a handful of healing elixirs. The hole did not heal; it seemed to have expanded instead.
"Yuwen Yan, did you do this?" Mo Qi asked angrily.
"If I wanted to cause trouble, would I wait until now?" Yuwen Yan said with a wronged tone, "You should carefully think about who you've had dealings with recently."
Mo Qi pondered...
The most recent was Murong Huo, and before that, Long Zhenhai...
"Long Zhenhai!" They both said in unison.
But Mo Qi immediately felt confused, "Long Zhenhai didn't injure me when he used the Blood Gu technique!"
"The Gu didn't harm you, but his blood was poisonous. The spreading toxic gas might have injured you," Yuwen Yan said.
"If it's poison, I'm not afraid. I can refine a Hundred Poisons Pill."
"It's useless. What likely injured you is not poison, but a curse!" Yuwen Yan said.
A curse!
Mo Qi's heart trembled!
He had witnessed the terrifying power of curses.
Hong Cheng had been afflicted by the Forgetfulness Curse, and it had not yet been lifted.
Although he was alive, he was like a walking corpse.
If this continued, Mo Qi feared his entire body would rot and he would die!
"But curses are heretical practices. How would Long Zhenhai know such a technique?" Mo Qi asked, confused.
"Firstly, the person casting the curse is definitely not Long Zhenhai. Curses are divided into death curses and other curses. Death curses require the cursed person to die first, and then the caster also dies from the backlash, but they must not die before the cursed person, otherwise the curse is self-resolved. Since you are still alive, the caster must also be alive. Secondly, curses originate from the Baihe Sect in the Southern Sea of Hongmeng, but they never set barriers and teach anyone who comes, so it's not strange for someone in the Taihe Sect to have learned this curse," Yuwen Yan explained.
Mo Qi's eyes lit up, "You mean, if I go and find this caster now and kill him, I'll be saved?"
"Theoretically, yes," Yuwen Yan said. "Or, you could have him willingly break the curse."
"You mean, I've been afflicted with a death curse?" Mo Qi asked.
"It should be a death curse. You were supposed to explode and die, but perhaps the Earth Arrow interfered, delaying your death," Yuwen Yan said. "A curse is essentially a form of mental power emitted by the caster. For many curses, including the death curse, once the caster dies, the mental power is interrupted, and the curse becomes ineffective. However, for some curses, even if the caster dies, the mental power continues to persist. While these curses don't kill, they can sometimes cause more suffering."
"There's no time to lose. I need to go to Watermelon Mountain immediately to find this person," Mo Qi stood up.
At that moment, Xue Ying entered with a bowl of soup, carefully and with a smile in her eyes, "Shopkeeper Mo, you must be tired. I've brewed you a bowl of ginseng soup. Drink it while it's hot."
Mo Qi took the ginseng soup and drank it down in one gulp, finding it a bit hot.
Xue Ying was a little surprised, "Are you in a hurry to go out?"
Mo Qi nodded, "Yes, while I was refining elixirs, I suddenly realized I was missing an ingredient. I'm going to look for it on the mountain."
"Try looking in the alchemy room first, perhaps it's there," Xue Ying suggested.
"It's not there," Mo Qi shook his head immediately. "I've already looked."
"Then I'll go with you."
"No need, it's quite dangerous on the mountain," Mo Qi put down the bowl and walked out directly.
Leaving Xue Ying behind, she sighed.
On the way, Yuwen Yan couldn't help but say, "You lied to her, are you afraid of her worrying?"
Mo Qi nodded, "Some things can be carried by one shoulder; why let two shoulders bear the burden?"
"I hope we can find this person," Yuwen Yan said.
"When did it become 'we'?" Mo Qi asked, a little puzzled. "This is my own business. If I die, you can find someone to possess; I won't condemn you."
"Hmph!" Yuwen Yan snorted and said nothing.
"If we're looking for someone, we should have a target. What range do you think we should focus on?" Mo Qi asked.
"It should be people close to Long Zhenhai, such as his wife and children, or his direct disciples," Yuwen Yan suggested. "Only then can they form a good coordination, one poisoning, one cursing."
Mo Qi agreed wholeheartedly, "That makes sense."
They sped along and soon arrived at Watermelon Mountain.
In the dead of night, Mo Qi, using his invisibility, quietly infiltrated the Taiqing Sect.
He first crept into the rooms of Long Zhenhai's sons, Long Dong and Long Xia. While they were asleep, he lifted their clothes to check, but found nothing unusual.
Then he crept into the rooms of Long Zhenhai's daughters, Long Yingchun and Long Yingqiu. While they were asleep, he also lifted their clothes to check, but found nothing unusual.
Yuwen Yan watched him intently and asked, "Are you really not thinking about anything else?"
"No, at a time like this..."
"You have a nosebleed."
"Ah, the weather is dry, and my inner fire is too strong!"
Mo Qi then crept into the room of Long Zhenhai's wife, Madam Fang.
Even before reaching the room, he heard a pained groan, "It hurts so much."
Mo Qi's heart leaped. He felt the voice was familiar, like someone he knew, but it seemed impossible.
A woman's voice said, "Why do you have to endure this?"
"My eyes were barren at the time, and I thought you were all dead. How could I tolerate this deep hatred? So, I had only one thought: to perish with him. That's why I poisoned him with the Cricket Gu, left using遁术 (Dùnshù - escape technique), and then inflicted the death curse upon him. I thought it would be over in an instant, but I didn't expect it to be such a long, long torment. It's too unbearable." The voice from before spoke.
Long Zhenhai, so it was you, old monster, causing trouble!
Truly, it's like finding a needle in a haystack, and then it appears effortlessly!
Heaven truly never closes all doors!
Mo Qi's eyes welled up with tears at this moment!
At this time, Long Zhenhai was lying on the bed, with a fist-sized hole in his abdomen, bleeding profusely. Madam Fang was squatting by the bed, using paper to wipe away the blood. The more she wiped, the more it flowed, and Madam Fang was sweating profusely.
"Just die, why torture yourself?" Madam Fang said.
"No, no matter how much pain I endure, I must make him pay for destroying my Taihe Sect and killing so many of my disciples. I am certainly going to die, but I will drag him down with me no matter what," Long Zhenhai said indignantly.
"This is not how you settle accounts," a voice appeared out of nowhere, startling the couple.
As they looked in the direction of the voice, they saw Mo Qi appear by the bedside, his face calm, a chilling aura quietly emanating from him, as if the god of death had descended.
Long Zhenhai sat up abruptly, his eyes wide with endless fear.
Blood gushed from his abdomen.
Madam Fang's mouth fell open, her tongue tied, "You, you are Mo Qi."
She remembered the figure that stood in the sky above the Taihe Sect that day, like a demon, too vividly.
Mo Qi ignored their chatter and directly asked, "Do you have an antidote or a method to break the curse?"
Long Zhenhai said resolutely, "This curse of mine cannot be broken."
Mo Qi then sat on the edge of the bed and patiently began to settle accounts with him. "First, you said, if I hadn't destroyed your Taihe Sect at the time, would you have gone to destroy the Zhenghe Sect?"
"Yes," Long Zhenhai replied.
"To prevent you from destroying the Zhenghe Sect, should I have dealt with your Taihe Sect?"
"Yes!"
"Then, the casualties of your Taihe Sect, were they caused by you?"
"..."
"Therefore, the losses of your Taihe Sect were caused by you from beginning to end. You should bear this account yourself," Mo Qi said.
"You executioner, no matter how you quibble, you cannot change the fact that you are a murderer," Madam Fang said, her eyes blazing with anger.
Mo Qi ignored her and continued, "Let me settle another account with you. If I die, you will die; if you die, only you will die. Tell me, which is more cost-effective?"
"But you have already killed so many people, how do you settle this account?" Long Zhenhai gritted his teeth and said.
"You initiated the conflict and invaded the Zhenghe Sect. So many people died on both sides, how do you settle this account?"
Long Zhenhai was speechless.
Mo Qi thought for a moment, "Let me settle one more account with you. I just took a stroll and saw you have two sons and two daughters. If you don't die, then they will die!" He never intended to harm them, but he had to threaten Long Zhenhai.
"You... In that case, only my death is the most cost-effective," Long Zhenhai sighed, his tone softening.
Mo Qi raised his hand.
Long Zhenhai's face showed a look of sorrow, "But you must guarantee that you will not harm my family."
"I will absolutely not harm them in the slightest," Mo Qi said, turning his palm down. "If necessary, I can protect them."
Mo Qi raised his hand again.
Long Zhenhai said, "No need to trouble you. I'll do it myself."
Mo Qi then watched him leisurely.
Long Zhenhai struck his own head with his hand!