Gui Zihan accepted the sword manual from the butler's hands and said solemnly, "Thank you, Mr. Mo. My master said that if you find it agreeable, we welcome you to return to Great Shun to live. Whatever benefits you receive in Vea State, we can match in full."
Mr. Mo chuckled and shook his head. "When my master passed down his craft to me back then, he made me swear an oath never to harm a single soul from the Eastern Continent in this lifetime. But as I see it, that's nearly impossible to abide by if you stay on the Eastern Continent. So I simply packed up and moved here, and here I've stayed all these years. I find this place suits me well enough. If I went elsewhere, I might not be able to keep this state of mind."
He then gestured toward the distance outside the window. "See that estate over there?"
Chen Chuan and Gui Zihan looked out and saw a manor through the window. Its architectural layout was quite peculiar, resembling a Chan Sect monastery from the outside.
"The fellow next door was once a general of the Chu Dynasty," Mr. Mo said. "When the Chu Dynasty fell, he retreated into the mountains to become a Chan monk. More than two hundred years later, he reentered the mundane world, only to find it plunged into turmoil once again. Believing he couldn't find a peaceful refuge anywhere on the Eastern Continent, he eventually hid away here alongside me. Having found a place of ease and settling his mind, he managed to stabilize his physical aberration. If you made him go back, there's no telling if he wouldn't turn into a yaogui."
Gui Zihan asked, puzzled, "Is the Federation not in turmoil as well?"
"Depends on how you look at it," Mr. Mo said. "Isn't it fine as long as he doesn't see it? What is unheard and unseen simply does not exist. Besides, the people in this land aren't citizens of Great Shun. What does their life or death have to do with him?"
Chen Chuan remarked, "Maintaining one's state of mind is no easy task. That has always been something only a few can manage."
Aberration primarily stemmed from spiritual contamination. The stronger one became, the more contact their spirit had with the other side, and the heavier the contamination grew. Martial artists were people who hungered for progress—otherwise, they never would have become martial artists in the first place—and they usually found it nearly impossible to resist reaching across to seek something from the other side. It was practically their lifelong pursuit and driving force, so even knowing full well that the outcome might not be pleasant, countless people still ventured across.
Mr. Mo said, "I can guard my mind because I have good innate talent, and I happened to catch a good era. Leaning on a great tree, I never lacked cultivation resources, so I reached my present standing just by casually training. Perhaps because it all came so easily, I don't harbor that many desires or stray thoughts, nor any drive to push myself higher. As a result, my spirit remains clear as a bright mirror. But that fellow above us isn't like that at all."
He jutted his chin toward the mountain. "That one has far too many stray thoughts, so he relies on drugs and other things to alleviate aberration. But once you start using that stuff, there's no quitting. The more you use it, the more dependent you become; you could never dispel it on your own."
Chen Chuan glanced in the direction Mr. Mo indicated—an isolated knoll where the person he intended to visit lived. Mr. Mo had evidently discerned his intention to go there and had spoken up deliberately to offer guidance.
He asked respectfully, "I do happen to be heading over to visit him. May I ask how much Senior Mo knows about him?"
Mr. Mo said, "People from Great Shun go to visit him every year, but from what I hear, his demands get steeper by the year. Heh, if he just flat-out refused, that would be one thing. But no, he keeps the door open, willing to negotiate, yet stubbornly keeps you from stepping inside. I'm just waiting to see when Great Shun runs out of patience and comes down hard on him."
Chen Chuan asked, "Does Senior have any advice?"
"Advice? My advice is don't give him any pleasantries. Just beat the crap out of him and be done with it."
When Mr. Mo spoke quickly, his speech took on touches of ancient Eastern Continent pronunciation from several centuries ago, but the two could still understand his meaning clearly.
Gui Zihan asked, "Does Senior have a feud with him?"
"Who around here doesn't have a bone to pick with him?" Mr. Mo grumbled. He picked up the beverage sitting on the table and took a few hearty gulps. "Back when he was in Great Shun, he wasn't any good sort either. A Xuanji martial artist running off to become a bandit, leading outlaws all over the place! Later, when the authorities hunted him into a corner, he fled out to sea to become a pirate. He fell in with that bunch of Yono people and preyed on the coastal regions constantly. Have you heard of the Sea Ghost King?"
Chen Chuan said, "I have. They say he was an evil sea spirit that ate people along the coast."
Mr. Mo slapped his knee. "That's him! The Sea Ghost King of legend was originally a spirit god that punished evil and promoted good. But after his rampage, he ruined the god's reputation instead and turned it into an authentic evil sea fiend. If this were two hundred years ago—" He raised a single palm upright. "I might just have gone and vanquished the demon myself. But now..."
As he spoke, he leaned back again, and the woman stepped up at just the right moment to massage his head and temples. "I just don't have the stomach for it anymore. Drifting along and waiting to die suits me fine. Sigh, so long as I don't aberrate, I could probably live another few hundred years, couldn't I? Who knows, maybe the Great Impact will hit out of nowhere one of these days."
Chen Chuan understood his meaning. He said, "Thank you for your hospitality, Senior. It is time for us to take our leave."
"Leaving already?" Mr. Mo lifted his head and said, "Let me give you a piece of advice: that sea devil can always be handled, but the ones you really need to watch out for are the Federation people."
Chen Chuan took it to heart and replied seriously, "Thank you for the warning, Senior."
He and Gui Zihan bade farewell and came out, boarding a rail car that climbed toward the high knoll. Ten-odd minutes later, they came to a stop at the end of the track.
Here stood an exquisitely built mountain pavilion where several tourists of all age groups were sightseeing. The most eye-catching feature was a tall stone stele bearing a distinct Great Shun style.
Gui Zihan looked at it from a distance and saw that most of the inscriptions had weathered away; only a few large characters remained barely legible. The larger ones read "Lingnan," while below them, smaller characters faintly read "First Year of Shaotong" and the like.
Reflecting that Shaotong was a reign era of the Middle-Ancient Sheng Dynasty, he immediately realized, "Section Chief Chen, this is an ancient boundary stele of Lingnan Circuit."
Chen Chuan hummed in acknowledgment. The person he was looking for originally hailed from Lingnan Circuit. If his guess was correct, this stele had probably been brought over by the man back then—or rather, hauled away when he pillaged Lingnan Circuit.
He said, "When we head back later, we'll take this with us as well."
With that, he glanced upward and proceeded up the stone steps ahead.
By this point, no other people were around, leaving just the two of them. Tourists who visited knew full well that one was only permitted to enter areas reached by the rail; where there was no track, one must not wander rashly. After all, there was no telling what kind of temper the martial artists living here possessed.
After walking for five or six minutes, the two arrived at the crest of the knoll. Before them appeared a lush, verdant bamboo grove.
The stalks were exceptionally thick and luxuriant, each growing as stout as a palace pillar, and the edges of the bamboo leaves were extraordinarily sharp, like individual blades. This was clearly a grove that had undergone specialized cultivation.
As Gui Zihan passed one of the stalks, he tapped it with his knuckles. The bamboo trunk actually rang out with a metallic clatter. He said with certainty, "It's aberrant iron bamboo from the Confluence."
Chen Chuan hummed in acknowledgment. In the past, this material could be used as weaponry, and even now... it might not be impossible.
Gazing ahead, he could sense a scorching, manic power in that direction. He said to Gui Zihan, "Team Leader Gui, I'll go meet him. You wait here for now."
Gui Zihan nodded.
Chen Chuan walked deeper into the bamboo grove. After advancing roughly half a li, he saw a figure sitting cross-legged on the ground. Even seated, the man stood over two meters tall, with a frame of immense, burly proportions. His hair was like wild tangled grass, long and unruly, concealing the upper half of his face. He wore only a close-fitting garment of off-white cloth, and beside his hand, a massive, antique-style ring-pommel sabre was thrust into the ground.
Behind him, his dwelling was nothing more than a crudely cobbled-together bamboo lodge.
This seemed far simpler than the living quarters of anyone they had seen earlier. In truth, however, according to the dossier Chen Chuan had received, the man suffered periodic violent episodes; any ordinary dwelling would only end up destroyed by his rampages, making proper construction entirely pointless.
Chen Chuan came to a halt less than thirty meters before the man and said, "Your Excellency should know the purpose of my visit. On this occasion, the Great Shun government has entrusted me to retrieve the item in your safekeeping."
The man tilted his head slightly. With a low, rumbling chuckle, he said, "'Safekeeping'? Don't make it sound so pretty. I pillaged the thing myself back then. Whether you can take it back depends on what price you can pay."
Chen Chuan nodded. The man had said this very line to everyone who came before him, yet without exception, talks had always broken down in the end. Thus, Chen Chuan had no intention of wasting breath today; he planned to employ a simpler approach.
"I brought an item with me this time."
He swung the briefcase in his hand forward, tossing it directly in front of the man. Upon landing, the case popped open with a click, and Cui Xuanhui's stone head rolled out, tumbling all the way to the man's feet.
Chen Chuan looked at him and asked, "I wonder if Your Excellency is satisfied with this?"
The man's gaze seemed fixed upon the severed stone head. After a long while, he slowly raised his head, looked at Chen Chuan, and let out bursts of low laughter.
"I hope the one sent by the Eastern Continent measures up."
He rose slowly. Once he straightened his frame, he stood fully four meters tall. Reaching out, he took hold of the ring-pommel sabre beside him, then swept it in a swing that smashed the sculpted head before him to powder.
Gazing at Chen Chuan ahead, he said, "The item is right here with me. If you've got the chops, come take it."
As those words fell, a plume of cyan spiritual fire surged up around him. The blazing, turbulent aura enveloped his entire person, while an invisible wave of air surged outward, tossing the entire bamboo grove. Viewed from above, it formed rolling ripples like ocean waves.
At that moment, inside the White Rock Causeway Building, Ryan Cafferty stood before a field screen, watching the two of them.
Just then, he saw the giant man suddenly look up toward the sky. Immediately afterward, the entire field feed seemed to suffer interference, turning blurred and intermittent.
He called out, "Alula? What's going on?"
The white-haired woman appeared beside him. In a soft, ethereal voice, she said, "Relic energy interference detected. Stability will be restored within three minutes."
Ryan looked at the screen. "Three minutes, is it..."
Chapter 1110