Above the Flower Queen's main hall, a yellow-robed Zhenren had appeared at some point, hovering in mid-air. He held a jade imperial seal in his hand, his hair and beard half white, his brows severe and imposing.
Great Cycle true qi, like colored-glass crystal, moved around him.
Traces of law, like illusory feathers, flickered faintly around him.
Hovering in the void, Great Cycle true qi, law's Feather Transformation—
This was a fully realized Feather Transformation Zhenren within the great prefecture, unrestricted by the rules of heaven and earth.
Just by standing in the air, the true qi he gave off and the momentum of law flowing through him were enough to suppress every Golden Core cultivator in the hall.
This was the first hint of the difference between mortals and immortals—a sign in legends of beginning to transform into beings like immortals.
Even late Golden Core cultivators, even those at the peak of Golden Core, felt a strong sense of inferiority before a true Feather Transformation Zhenren.
And this yellow-robed Zhenren was not only powerful, but also extraordinary in status.
On his robe was embroidered the earth-colored emblem of the Earth Sect. Clearly, he was a Zhenren of the Earth Sect, possibly even a grand elder.
The instant he appeared, everyone in the hall—even the legitimate young masters of the Four Great Families and the Earth Sect's Great Young Master—cupped their fists and bowed to him:
“We greet the Zhenren. May your blessings be as vast as the Eastern Sea and your longevity match the sun and moon.”
Only Bai Xiaosheng said nothing, his brow tightly furrowed, aware that things had gotten troublesome.
The yellow-robed Zhenren in the air nodded slightly, but his gaze was fixed on Mo Hua, and a hint of displeasure flashed in his eyes.
Since entering Feather Transformation, he had been respected by countless people. No junior had ever dared call him “shameless.”
This kid was the first.
The yellow-robed Zhenren's voice was faint and distant, yet heavy as a bell, shaking the soul: “You... are Mo Hua?”
Mo Hua was controlled by the four-sided seal, bound by law, and could not free himself, but he showed no trace of fear. He nodded casually:
“Yes.”
The yellow-robed Zhenren looked down at him from above and asked, “Do you know your crime?”
Mo Hua was a little surprised. “What crime did I commit?”
The yellow-robed Zhenren's gaze darkened, and his voice was deep:
“You, a proud prodigy of the Taixu Sect, fail to keep yourself clean and devote yourself to cultivation. Instead, you harbor licentious thoughts, come to Jade Spring Tower for pleasure, and stir up jealous trouble?”
Mo Hua chuckled. “Am I the only one in Jade Spring Tower? If the young masters of your Kun Prefecture families can come, why can't I?”
“If my coming here is a crime, then aren't the young masters of your Kun Prefecture families also lingering in brothels, fighting over the Flower Queen?”
“Even you, Zhenren, are also... visiting a brothel right now?”
Mo Hua looked at the yellow-robed Zhenren and laughed. “What? Is this brothel one that a Zhenren like you can visit, but others cannot?”
The yellow-robed Zhenren's eyes sharpened, but before he could speak, the family young masters below angrily shouted:
“How dare you!”
“Insolent!”
“To defile a Zhenren's reputation like this—you deserve to die ten thousand times!”
The Earth Sect's Great Young Master and the legitimate young masters of the Four Great Families were secretly shocked and a bit puzzled, unsure whether Mo Hua truly had backing or was simply foolish.
Bai Xiaosheng sighed and thought to himself: This kid really is a Tibetan mastiff—he bites whoever he sees, no matter who it is.
He even dares to bite a Zhenren. He's something else...
The yellow-robed Zhenren indeed turned sullen and said slowly:
“Young Master Mo, you certainly have a sharp tongue. But you have forgotten that this is not your Qianxue Prefecture, nor your Taixu Sect. This is Houtu City. No one is shielding you here, and no one will allow you to be so disrespectful to your elders and run wild.”
The yellow-robed Zhenren's mind stirred, and he wanted to activate the jade seal and torture Mo Hua, to make him suffer a little.
But Mo Hua said, “Wait!”
The yellow-robed Zhenren paused, and heard Mo Hua speak glibly:
“Whether it is visiting brothels or being jealous, in the end this is a matter between disciples—a Golden Core dispute. When Golden Core cultivators fight, isn't it bullying for a Feather Transformation Zhenren like you to interfere?”
The yellow-robed Zhenren shook his head. “Bullying? Young Master Mo, you are not small. You might not know that your reputation in Houtu City is quite big...”
Mo Hua's expression did not change, but his heart moved.
My reputation is big?
Was this yellow-robed Zhenren implying that he had come for me specifically?
Do they value me that much?
Was this yellow-robed Zhenren one of the Feather Transformation beings who spied on me before I entered the Jade Fragrance Pavilion?
Then who exactly was this yellow-robed Zhenren? What role did he play? Did he follow me to the Jade Fragrance Pavilion, or had he been stationed here all along?
After a brief moment of thought, Mo Hua asked, “You've trapped me. What do you intend to do? Kill me?”
The yellow-robed Zhenren shifted his gaze and said calmly, “Naturally, I can't kill you, Young Master Mo. It's just that you have broken the rules here. You'll have to stay and atone a little, to serve as a warning so that no one forgets the rules.”
Mo Hua said, “You want to use me to set an example?”
The yellow-robed Zhenren nodded. “If you want to think of it that way, that's fine.”
Mo Hua then asked, “Are you someone from the Earth Sect?”
The yellow-robed Zhenren thought for a moment and slowly nodded. “That's right.”
“Then that's strange...” Mo Hua said, puzzled. “What does my breaking the rules of the Jade Fragrance Pavilion have to do with the Earth Sect?”
“A Zhenren from the Earth Sect comes to enforce the rules of the Jade Fragrance Pavilion?”
“Could it be...” Mo Hua's eyes flickered. “Is this Jade Spring Tower opened by your Earth Sect? Or has your Earth Sect taken a stake in it?”
Inside the hall, a dropped needle could be heard.
Everyone's expression changed, and no one spoke.
The yellow-robed Zhenren's brow twitched, and his gaze gradually turned icy.
His voice was cold as the Nine Nethers: “Young Master Mo, do not spout nonsense. Falsely accusing my Earth Sect will bring you great disaster.”
Mo Hua studied his expression and smiled faintly:
“I was just speaking casually. Why take it so seriously? A dignified Zhenren really can't take a joke...”
The yellow-robed Zhenren's mouth twitched, and a sudden urge to strangle Mo Hua rose in his heart.
He suddenly couldn't understand how such a frivolous brat had managed to live this long in the cruel cultivation world.
Not wanting to waste more words with Mo Hua, lest he be angered into losing his composure, the yellow-robed Zhenren only said coldly:
“Behave yourself. Seal your own cultivation and surrender, and you can still keep some dignity. Otherwise, don't blame me for making things difficult for you.”
Mo Hua could tell that he had exhausted the yellow-robed Zhenren's patience, so he shook his head:
“No can do. It's late, and I really need to go back. Someone is waiting for me at home. I can't stay overnight in a brothel—otherwise my reputation will be ruined.”
The yellow-robed Zhenren's brow twitched, and he said coldly, “That is not for you to decide.”
With that, he pointed with two fingers, and Great Cycle true power descended upon Mo Hua, driving the four-sided earthen jade seal to close inward like a wall of law.
Mo Hua was trapped in the center like a “cage” of law, and his heart tightened. He immediately used the Fireball Technique and blasted it against the phantom image of the jade seal.
But his early Golden Core Fireball Technique was far too insignificant in front of the Great Cycle true qi of the Feather Transformation realm.
The moment the fireball nearly touched the phantom of the jade seal, it was broken down by the true qi without any effort.
Mo Hua wanted to probe and decode these laws, but in such a short time, he couldn't see even a hint of how they worked.
Even using Flowing Water Step, he probably couldn't escape. If he touched the wall of law condensed by the jade seal, even his flesh and blood body would be torn apart.
He couldn't casually use the Spirit-Thought Sword, and even if he did, it might not cleave through the yellow-robed Zhenren's jade seal prison.
After all, the Spirit-Thought Sword was the power of divine sense.
What the yellow-robed Zhenren used was a Dao art condensed from Great Cycle spiritual power.
In a short time, so many thoughts had turned over in Mo Hua's mind, but in the end, he could only sigh, feeling completely helpless.
When he was very young, he had seen his Senior Uncle kill Feather Transformation cultivators like chickens.
Later, in the Great Wilderness, his Senior Uncle had been unbeatable in the Ghostly Path; even a Dongxu cultivator could not escape his grasp.
But now, he had actually clashed with a Feather Transformation cultivator and made a Zhenren his “enemy.” Only then did he deeply realize that a Feather Transformation cultivator's strength was simply beyond his ability to match.
He had thought Feather Transformation wasn't strong, but that was because he had never actually fought one.
Once he really did fight one, his early Golden Core cultivation couldn't withstand being toyed with by a Feather Transformation cultivator.
Everything in the world was easier said than done.
Without truly facing the pressure head-on, you wouldn't know where the gap was, nor how weak you were.
Mo Hua sighed. There was nothing he could do.
Seeing the force of law closing in around him, and the true treasure jade seal of the Feather Transformation realm about to bind him to death,
Mo Hua could only look up at the sky and call out:
“Rong Zhenren, save me!”
As soon as the name “Rong Zhenren” left his mouth, the yellow-robed Zhenren's face changed.
Before Mo Hua's voice had even faded, a pure-white sword qi, condensed with glass-like Feather Transformation true power, came through the air amid a flurry of white-feather phantoms. It directly broke the jade seal's law prison and split open a crack.
Mo Hua casually slipped out through the crack that Rong Zhenren had split open, sighing in his heart: It feels great to have someone watching over you.
But this meant he owed Rong Zhenren another favor.
On the other side, seeing his sealing Dao art cut open by a single sword from Rong Zhenren, the yellow-robed Zhenren's face turned extremely ugly, and he said in a low voice:
“Rong Zhenren, this is not Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land.”
His implication was that Rong Zhenren was overstepping her bounds, but he couldn't say such an offensive thing directly.
Rong Zhenren did not appear. She loved cleanliness, so she naturally wouldn't set foot in a place of worldly dust like the Jade Fragrance Pavilion. Only her ethereal voice drifted over:
“People of Little Luan Mountain are not to be detained by others.”
With that one sentence, she marked Mo Hua as one of their own under the Little Luan Mountain faction.
The yellow-robed Zhenren's face darkened a few shades further.
Seeing this, Mo Hua nodded repeatedly. He knew to stop while he was ahead, and said:
“Then I, this 'person of Little Luan Mountain,' will take my leave first.”
Mo Hua politely cupped his fists, shot a look at Bai Xiaosheng in the crowd, then turned and stepped onto the stairway nearby.
The yellow-robed Zhenren was still hesitating. He had never imagined that Rong Zhenren would personally act to protect someone on the Jade Fragrance Pavilion's turf.
He had thought Mo Hua was merely “scraps” from Little Luan Mountain, an “outsider” that Rong Zhenren probably didn't care much about.
But now, it was clear he had greatly underestimated Mo Hua's importance.
Should he defy Rong Zhenren and forcibly stop Mo Hua?
But doing so would definitely offend Rong Zhenren.
In the current situation, offending Rong Zhenren in order to forcibly detain a Mo Hua did not seem like a wise choice.
While the yellow-robed Zhenren was hesitating, his thoughts having only turned over twice, Mo Hua was already about to slip away.
Seeing this, the yellow-robed Zhenren could only sigh.
And at that moment, a gloomy shout rang out: “Mo Hua!”
Mo Hua turned around and saw the Great Young Master, clad in an ochre-yellow flood-dragon robe, staring at him with venomous eyes.
The Earth Sect's Great Young Master wore a contemptuous look and said coldly, “If not for Rong Zhenren, you would have fallen into my hands today, and I would have humiliated you in every way.”
Mo Hua glanced at the yellow-robed Zhenren, then at the Great Young Master, shook his head, and said:
“Same for you. If not for relying on a Feather Transformation Zhenren, you couldn't even touch the hem of my clothes.”
The Great Young Master sneered and said slowly, “Fine. I've remembered you. Houtu City is my Earth Sect's territory. Everyone...”
The Great Young Master's gaze was icy. “...we'll meet again later.”
Not only the Great Young Master—the young masters of the most prosperous families in Kun Prefecture all turned their eyes to Mo Hua, each pair of eyes like demons, faintly glowing green with murderous intent, regarding him as an enemy.
Mo Hua raised an eyebrow and also committed each of their faces to memory, saying with a half-smile:
“We'll meet again later.”
Then he turned, stepped onto the stairs, and vanished from everyone's sight.
The Great Young Master and the others were left in place, their gazes full of resentment.
The yellow-robed Zhenren's brow furrowed more and more tightly.
...
After leaving the Flower Queen's main hall, he walked out of the Spring Pavilion and headed out of the Jade Fragrance Pavilion.
Along the way, Mo Hua couldn't see Rong Zhenren, but he could feel that her divine sense had been protecting him the whole time, faintly and unobtrusively.
This time, Rong Zhenren's divine sense was not hidden. It was directly revealed, giving off a powerful Feather Transformation aura.
This was both to protect the karmic threads around Mo Hua from being spied on, and to warn petty villains not to have any improper ideas.
Only after he left the Jade Fragrance Pavilion did Rong Zhenren's divine sense disappear.
It seemed that the most dangerous presences were only hidden in the Jade Fragrance Pavilion. Once away from it, Mo Hua was like a fish in water, free to run wild, with no need for her to watch over him anymore.
Mo Hua wanted to find Rong Zhenren and thank her in person, but when he swept out his divine sense, he found no trace of her at all.
It seemed Rong Zhenren was the type to do good deeds without leaving her name. Of course, it was also possible that she felt the entire flower street was filthy and didn't want to set foot there.
Bai Xiaosheng didn't want to linger either, and said, “Let's leave this place first, to avoid causing more trouble.”
Mo Hua nodded. “Mm.”
So the two returned the same way they had come, passing through the long streets and ornate buildings, leaving the extravagant, gaudy flower lane behind, boarded the carriage, and headed back toward Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land.
The night was very deep, and apart from the flower street, all the other streets were silent.
After about half an hour, the carriage had gone far, and the flower street faded into the distance, no longer carrying that feeling of karmic conflict.
Only then did Bai Xiaosheng secretly sigh in relief. He turned to look at Mo Hua and thought helplessly:
This kid really knows how to make trouble.
In all his life, he had never seen such a troublemaker, and the methods of trouble-making were endlessly varied.
The people he provoked were stronger and stronger. Now he had even provoked a Feather Transformation cultivator. One of these days, he probably wouldn't even spare a Hollow Void cultivator...
Bai Xiaosheng sighed.
But after thinking for a moment, he became a little curious and asked, “Do you know the Flower Queen?”
He asked in a tone of certainty, sure that there was something between Mo Hua and the Flower Queen.
Mo Hua still only said, “Not really...”
Bai Xiaosheng frowned. Although a bit embarrassed, he couldn't suppress his curiosity, so he quietly asked, “Then you and the Flower Queen... did the two of you actually do anything upstairs?”
Mo Hua was startled. “What could we do?”
There were far too many things that could be done... Seeing Mo Hua's innocent look, Bai Xiaosheng was too embarrassed to say it directly.
Under Bai Xiaosheng's strange gaze, Mo Hua could only clarify again:
“I told you, we just chatted.”
Bai Xiaosheng didn't quite believe it. “Chatted about what?”
Mo Hua said, “We talked a little... about the situation in Kun Prefecture.”
Bai Xiaosheng's face went blank, and he was speechless. “Are you taking me for a fool?”
A handsome young man and the beautiful Flower Queen, alone in a room, a man and a woman, and instead of anything else, they talk about the situation in Kun Prefecture?
“Believe it or not.”
Mo Hua couldn't be bothered to explain to Bai Xiaosheng and fell into his own thoughts.
Bai Xiaosheng stroked his chin, his mind full of thoughts. When he saw Mo Hua lost in thought, he couldn't help asking, “What are you thinking about?”
“Thinking about serious business...” Mo Hua said.
“Serious business?” Bai Xiaosheng was puzzled. “What serious business?”
Mo Hua frowned slightly, considered for a moment, and did not hide it:
“I'm thinking, what if I get caught by a Feather Transformation cultivator again next time... what should I do?”
Bai Xiaosheng was stunned. “Caught by a Feather Transformation cultivator... what should you do?”
“Mm.” Mo Hua nodded, looking a little bewildered.
Before, in the Great Wilderness, he had been caught by Hua Zhenren, and Zhuge Zhenren had saved him.
Now, in the Jade Fragrance Pavilion, he had been caught by that yellow-robed Zhenren, and Rong Zhenren had saved him.
If that was the case, then what should he do the next time he met a Feather Transformation cultivator?
If no one came to save him, then... would he just have to wait to die?
From the brief contact just now, a Feather Transformation Zhenren's spiritual power had already undergone a qualitative change through the Great Cycle, and the true qi and methods were far more powerful than he had imagined.
It was only because he had never really stood as an enemy against Feather Transformation before that he had no real sense of their power.
Now that he had actually met one and been “suppressed” by it, he truly felt the pressure of Great Cycle power.
Mo Hua frowned and thought for a long time, then finally sighed:
“I don't even have a way to counter a Feather Transformation cultivator right now. If this goes on, that definitely won't do...”
Bai Xiaosheng understood Mo Hua's words, but then again, he didn't quite understand. It took his brain half a beat to realize what Mo Hua meant. He was so speechless that his eyes almost rolled to the back of his head:
How could this kind of person exist in this world?
Did he have even the slightest self-awareness about his own cultivation level?
What cultivation do you have?! You're only at the early Golden Core stage, damn it! What the hell can you counter against Feather Transformation? Why don't you just ascend to heaven?