6: Chapter 6 Transmitting Sound Through the Jade

Mo Xiaohu is a few years younger than Mo Shoutian.

Hearing Mo Shoutian say this, he asked somewhat unconvinced:

"Brother Shoutian, what do you mean by this?"

Mo Shoutian looked at him coldly.

"Do you think not enough people have died in our Mo Family Village yet?"

Speaking of this, he lowered his head to glance at Mo Changfu in his arms, then looked at the corpse of Mo Xiaoer being held separately by several villagers.

Then he continued:

"Do you think those Immortals won't wipe out our village?"

"If you don't want to live anymore, fine, I'll hack you to death right now."

Seeing that Mo Shoutian was truly enraged, Mo Xiaohu hurriedly said:

"Brother Shoutian, that's not what I meant. I just have pent-up anger."

"If you have anger, bottle it up."

Mo Shoutian looked toward the crowd.

"All of you go home. Early tomorrow morning, gather at the village entrance; not a single person can be missing."

After speaking, he held Mo Changfu's corpse and walked toward the village chief's house.

The other few villagers holding the corpse of Mo Xiaoer went to Mo Xiaoer's house.

By the time Mo Shoutian finished his business at the village chief's house and returned home, it was already the latter half of the night.

Just as he walked to the entrance of his courtyard, he heard the weeping of Mo Xiaoer's wife.

Mo Shoutian did not go over, merely sighed, pushed open the courtyard gate, and walked into his own courtyard.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, Mo Xiaochuan ran out from his own room.

He called out in a low voice:

"Dad."

Mo Shoutian nodded and brought his son into his room.

After entering the room, he first looked around, then asked:

"Are the things all hidden properly?"

"Dad, they are all hidden properly."

"Don't touch anything these past few days; just treat it as if this matter never happened."

Mo Xiaochuan nodded.

Then he said:

"Dad, I know what you did today was to save the people of our Mo Family Village."

Mo Shoutian glanced at his son, nodded, didn't say anything more, and turned to return to the main room.

As soon as he entered the house, he saw Liu Chunmei sitting on the kang doing needlework.

"You're back, dear?"

"Mm."

Liu Chunmei looked at Mo Shoutian and said:

"How come Mo Xiaoer just died like that?"

Mo Shoutian did not answer.

He sat on the edge of the kang, filled his tobacco pouch with tobacco, and took a hard puff.

Liu Chunmei continued:

"Those Immortals too—aren't they also Mortals who cultivated into Immortals? How can they just casually take other people's lives?"

Mo Shoutian still didn't speak, only puffing hard on his pipe.

Liu Chunmei's eyes gradually turned red.

"How do you expect Xiaoer's remaining wife and that toddler to live in the future?"

Mo Shoutian let out a long puff of smoke.

"Tomorrow, send some of the food and daily supplies from home over to Xiaoer's family."

"Mm."

"Alright, go to sleep early; we still have to go up the mountain tomorrow."

After speaking, Mo Shoutian knocked his pipe against the edge of the kang a few times.

"Aren't you going to eat something?"

"Not eating."

Mo Shoutian took off his clothes, got onto the kang, and pulled the quilt over himself.

But how could he possibly fall asleep at a time like this?

Too many things had happened these past few days; he needed to think it through carefully.

Early the next morning, after eating breakfast, Mo Shoutian and Mo Xiaochuan went to the village entrance.

After the people who went up the mountain yesterday arrived one after another, Mo Shoutian led the crowd up Baitou Mountain once more.

Over the next dozen days or so, although they wouldn't dare say they searched every inch of Baitou Mountain spanning hundreds of li around...

...they searched every corner within tens of li centered around that severed arm.

For the first few days, the leading Senior Brother would still come over personally.

Later on, he was never seen again; there were only a few nameless Immortals who came over every day to stay for a while before leaving on flying swords.

Several villagers inquired from these Immortals and learned that the Sect they belonged to was called Baihe Sect.

The three characters "Baihe Sect" were firmly etched into Mo Shoutian's heart.

Right up until the twelfth day, those final few Immortals didn't appear again either.

The Immortals did not come; after going up the mountain, the villagers simply sat in the snow to bask in the sun.

Later, led by Mo Shoutian, the villagers came for two more consecutive days.

Those Immortals still did not appear.

By the fifteenth day, Mo Shoutian felt that the people from Baihe Sect probably wouldn't come again, so he didn't let the villagers continue going up the mountain.

On the sixteenth day, Mo Shoutian still felt somewhat uneasy, so he brought his son to go hunting on the mountain once more.

While hunting some game, he observed whether those Immortals would come again.

Things turned out much as he had thought.

The people of Baihe Sect completely stopped coming to Baitou Mountain.

At dusk four days later, Mo Shoutian and Mo Xiaochuan came down the mountain carrying a good amount of game.

Walking to the courtyard gate, Mo Shoutian glanced at the game hanging on Mo Xiaochuan's body.

"Take the game on your body and send it over to your Aunt Xiaoer."

"Mm."

Mo Xiaochuan nodded and walked toward Mo Xiaoer's house.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Liu Chunmei in the house took a broom and came out into the courtyard.

As she swept the snow off Mo Shoutian's body, she asked:

"Where is Xiaochuan?"

"He went to deliver game to Mo Xiaoer's family."

After hearing this, Liu Chunmei didn't say much else.

After brushing the snow clean from Mo Shoutian's body, she went to the kitchen to cook.

By the time the meal was ready, Mo Xiaochuan had just returned.

Liu Chunmei looked at her son and asked:

"You went to deliver some things to your aunt, why did you take so long?"

"Xiao Niuzi wouldn't let me leave, so I stayed and played with him for a bit."

Liu Chunmei said:

"In the future, when you're not going up the mountain, go over and keep Xiao Niuzi company for a while."

"I know, Mother."

Mo Xiaochuan sat down at the table.

"I'm almost starving to death."

While eating in large mouthfuls, he said to his father:

"Dad, my bow is a bit hard to use; come to my room later and help me fix it."

Mo Shoutian's chopsticks did not stop moving as he simply gave a hum of acknowledgment.

"Mm."

After the meal, Mo Shoutian came to his son's room.

"Take all the things out."

Mo Xiaochuan first walked over to the side of the stove opening, and from behind that smoke-blackened adobe brick, he took out the broken jade.

Then he took out the bag of glowing small stones from beneath the floor tiles at the bottom of the cabinet.

Mo Xiaochuan handed both items over to his father.

Mo Shoutian took a glowing small stone out of the small cloth bag and placed it beside the Dragon on the broken jade.

Afterward, the father and son sat on the kang, staring fixedly without moving.

In less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the Dragon on the broken jade suddenly moved slightly.

Right after that, the glowing small stone turned into a stream of bright light, which was sucked in through the nose by the Dragon on the jade.

During these four days on the mountain, the father and son had secretly discussed it many times.

They had discussed whether this broken jade could be the archaic twin dragon jade that those Immortals were searching for.

They had also discussed why those glowing small stones inexplicably disappeared.

The scene appearing before their eyes was likewise one of the possibilities they had guessed.

But a guess was still just a guess.

When they witnessed this scene with their own eyes, they were still so shocked that their jaws dropped.

Just as the father and son were startled, a woman's voice suddenly resounded in their minds:

"You two Mortals, have you stared at me enough?"