“Well? I asked you a question,” Yun Ruoyan prodded Li Mo, dissatisfied.

However, Li Mo wanted to keep his answer to her question secret. He frowned and changed the topic. “Now that the old geezer’s been found, Dong Tiehe will surely try to head to Kongming Academy, activate the all-seeing mirror, and speak with the dragons. I need to think of a plan to stop him.”

When she heard Li Mo’s words, Yun Ruoyan felt as though it was immature of her to be worrying about such trivialities. As predicted, she stopped her questioning. “That old man’s called Dong Tiehe? The same one that owns the Yuelu Villa, the head of the governing body of cultivators?”

Yun Ruoyan had never met Dong Tiehe before, but Li Mo had had a few interactions with him in the past. When he heard his voice, he had immediately recognized the man.

“Exactly. I hadn’t expected that he would know the old geezer, and he might have been implicated in the attack on my parents as well.”

Yun Ruoyan knew nothing of the conversation that she had overheard in the cave regarding the draconic realm, and it seemed that Li Mo was about to engage an incredibly powerful existence. She couldn’t help but worry a little.

“Li Mo, do you have a plan?”

Li Mo’s eyes glinted. “I’ll beat him at his own game!” 

He wrote a letter to the first elder describing the specifics of the conversation that they had overheard, and requested that he create an opportunity for Dong Tiehe to follow through with his own plan. Doing so would undoubtedly drag out the culprits who had orchestrated the entire affair.

Next, Li Mo announced his intentions to visit the old man in the cave once more. He had done so at almost the same time every month, and he had to keep up the routine in order to avoid arousing unnecessary suspicions. Yun Ruoyan decided to follow him again, and the two of them entered the cave at sunset.

This time, they intentionally made some noise as they approached.

“Ha, you little brat, you’re here again?” the aged, elderly voice called out before they could turn the corner.

Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan appeared in front of the wizened man together.

“Hmm? Another person… This is the first time you’ve ever brought someone with you.”

The wizened old man was skinny and emaciated. He sat cross-legged on a huge boulder, his shoulder blades pierced through by two thick, black chains.

Despite Yun Ruoyan’s mental fortitude, this scene greatly disturbed her for some reason.

“Well, old man? Are you still unwilling to talk?”

“Don’t expect me to tell you anything, you brat!” the old man snorted.

“In that case, we’ll stick to what we’ve been doing. Yan’er, get back!”

Yun Ruoyan nodded and retreated.

“Old man, I fought you on an even footing last month. This month, I’ll surpass you,” Li Mo growled out.

“In my prime, I could have taken you down with just two fingers!” The old man didn’t back down. “Now stop talking nonsense and come at me!”

Li Mo’s body blurred, appearing in front of the wizened man. The spiritual energy that exuded from his palms let out a blinding glow as it shot toward the old man’s head. Despite the speed of his attacks, however, the old man was able to block each blow with ease. The clashing of their respective spiritual energies gave off sparks in the air, dazzling Yun Ruoyan.

Even from afar, she could feel a huge aftershock of spiritual energy in the air. She stumbled back a few steps and finally stabilized herself only after hitting the side of the cave. 

How strong these attacks are! 

This was the first time she had seen cultivators fight on this level.

Li Mo and the old man had exchanged countless blows within a few seconds. At the beginning, the attacks were slow enough that Yun Ruoyan could see each move clearly. By the end, however, Yun Ruoyan could only see blurred figures wrapped in a hurricane of spiritual energy, and even standing too close to the two men would be difficult.

“Old geezer, take this!” Li Mo shouted amidst the storm, thrusting out both his palms and directing a torrent of spiritual energy at the old man’s chest.

The spirit-locking fists?! 

The old man was shocked. Over the last decade or so, he had managed to critically injure Li Mo multiple times. Every time, however, he would return stronger and more capable.

The spirit-locking fists was the technique that the old man most frequently employed against Li Mo, because it would both cause a severe internal injury and prevent him from using spiritual energy for a considerable period of time.

His features became more serious as he prepared to summon the last of his spiritual reserves to defend against the attack.

The two pulses of spiritual energy clashed soundlessly. This time, there was no explosion nor blinding flashes of light. Li Mo’s feet began to lift up above the ground as he forced out another pulse of spiritual energy from his body, finally breaking the old man’s defense.

The old man spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at Li Mo with hopelessness in his eyes. 

After being trapped for decades, right after being found by a subordinate… am I to die here and now, days from salvation?

If Li Mo were to keep his attack up, the old man would die without a doubt—but Li Mo relented.

“This is my victory,” Li Mo uttered softly as he landed on the ground. After a decade of failure, getting injured time and again, he had finally beaten the old man once. A triumph that had taken years was distilled into four simple words.

“Why aren’t you killing me?” The old man clutched his chest as blood seeped out of his mouth.

“Killing you would be too painless.” Li Mo’s tone turned ice-cold. “You killed my father, abducted my mother, and destroyed my home. Your life isn’t enough to defray these wrongs, but if you tell me my mother’s whereabouts…”

“Dream on!” The old man wouldn’t relent. “For their crimes, even death wouldn’t be sufficient!”

“What crimes?” Li Mo asked hurriedly. No matter what he tried, he’d never heard anything more about his parents from the old man. Indeed, this was the first time he had volunteered such information.

“I can’t tell you!”

“You’re not my opponent anymore. I can easily wait until the day you give in. You’ve been hit by the spirit-locking fists, so you won’t be able to use any spiritual energy for three months. I won’t come back until then, so think carefully about your next steps until then. Yan’er, we’re leaving!”

Li Mo extended a hand to her.

Yun Ruoyan took Li Mo’s hand and walked off with him. After turning a corner, she couldn’t help looking back at the old man. For a moment, it looked as though the old man’s eyes had turned an icy blue.

“Ahem, ahem!” After leaving the cave, Li Mo staggered to the ground, coughing and clutching his chest. During his confrontation with the old man earlier, his spiritual vortex had received some amount of damage.

Yun Ruoyan immediately fished out a spiritual pill from her ring and passed it to him.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Actually, this is the best I’ve felt right after exiting the cave.” Li Mo smiled faintly. “Master should have received my letter by now. I’ve given them three months to act, so I wonder what kind of plan Dong Tiehe will cook up. I’ll need to head to the Yuelu Villa tomorrow to check up on him.”

“Alright, I’ll go with you.”

The next day, Yun Ruoyan had Li Luo inform Yun Moxiao of her return. Yun Moxiao had sent a message back via Li Luo, asking Yun Ruoyan not to return to the Yun manor for the next few days.

Yun Ruoyao’s corpse had been so mutilated that Madam An had gone half-crazy from the shock, and the entire family had been thrown into disarray.

In the evening, Yun Ruoyan dressed up as a young man and entered the Yuelu Villa with Li Mo. Because of their break-ins a few months ago, Yuelu Villa was now far more populated with guards than before.

However, they might as well have not existed to Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan. As he brought her to courtyard after courtyard, each filled with its own kind of excitement—gambling, sideshow acts, fighting—Yun Ruoyan found her horizons quite broadened. 

“Is there a brothel around here?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“A brothel? Yan’er, what would 

you 

do at a brothel?”

“What else?” Yun Ruoyan smiled. “I’m curious.”

Yun Ruoyan really was quite curious. 

Has Li Mo been to one of the brothels in Yuelu Villa?

 Li Mo glanced at Yun Ruoyan. Dressed as a noble young master, she was idly fanning herself with a folding fan. Her face was plain and unadorned, with two loose strands of hair by her temples and deliberately thickened eyebrows to turn her feminine beauty into a masculine gentleness. Walking with Li Mo had stripped away any imposing aura she might have had, but her face was still as radiant as ever.

“As you wish, let’s go!” Li Mo strode forward in haste.

“Ah, you’re serious?” Yun Ruoyan scrambled to keep up.

“Young masters, you’re so handsome! I’ll have a drink with you on the house.” As soon as they arrived at a brothel, a rather scantily-clad beauty twisted her waist as she plastered herself against Li Mo’s body.

“What’re you doing?!” Yun Ruoyan hurriedly blocked her way, preventing her from touching Li Mo.

“Oh, your skin is so fair!” The beauty couldn’t help extending a hand to caress Yun Ruoyan’s face, but before she could get close, she let out a scream. “Ouch!” 

Li Mo had seized her wrist. 

“Young master, is something the matter?”

“He’s mine. Don’t touch him, or I’ll have your hands cut off.” Li Mo scowled.

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