Outside Li Mountain City, at the cultivation sect’s encampment.

Noise and chaos descended.

Cultivators lay dead and injured everywhere.

These cultivators had all been planted with demon seeds by the strange Daoist, causing them to kill each other.

True Person Si Tu calculated with his fingers and illuminated every corner of the encampment with the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp. Once he confirmed there were no demon seeds and no trace of the strange Daoist, his expression slightly eased.

Afterward, the tragically deceased cultivators were placed in coffins.

The remaining cultivators, their souls unsettled, rested and regrouped.

Inside a room, True Person Si Tu was restless, frowning and contemplating.

After a moment, a figure suddenly flashed. A person dressed in white, Bai Qingcheng, burst through the door and said, “Senior Si Tu, I have something I need your help with.”

Bai Qingcheng looked anxious.

True Person Si Tu was startled and immediately frowned, guessing that the matter was not small.

A moment later, he followed Bai Qingcheng into a secret room within the encampment. Seeing Mr. Zhuang lying inside, his breath almost completely gone, his heart sank even more.

“This…”

True Person Si Tu pointed at Mr. Zhuang, his finger trembling slightly.

“The Return to Ruins Map was seized by the strange Daoist. My senior brother’s life force is draining away, and his life hangs by a thread. Please, Senior, save my senior brother!” Bai Qingcheng pleaded.

True Person Si Tu gave a bitter smile.

It wasn’t a question of whether he could save him…

“True Person Bai, I am not a pill master…”

“A pill master cannot save him.”

“Then…”

Bai Qingcheng said, “I want to ask Senior to use the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp to extend my senior brother’s life!”

True Person Si Tu’s heart skipped a beat, and he immediately refused, saying, “No, no!”

Then he saw the icy expression on Bai Qingcheng’s face and explained, “It’s not that this old man is stingy, but… the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp is not a Seven-Star Ever-Bright Lamp. It… cannot extend life!”

“It can!”

Bai Qingcheng said with certainty.

“No…”

True Person Si Tu was halfway through speaking when Bai Qingcheng interrupted, “My ancestor mentioned to me that the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp, in a moment of crisis, can temporarily extend life…”

True Person Si Tu’s face darkened.

He had forgotten about this…

This girl was from the Bai family. Their family history was deep, and they knew the details of this profound treasure. He couldn’t deceive her…

True Person Si Tu was still unwilling to agree and said, “Then do you know how to use it?”

Bai Qingcheng shook her head. “I don’t know, but you certainly do!”

True Person Si Tu was stunned.

Bai Qingcheng’s gaze sharpened, and she continued, “You are the great elder of Profound Machine Valley, with high virtue and profound calculations. You must know how to extend my senior brother’s life!”

“This old man’s skills are not perfected…”

But Bai Qingcheng’s gaze was firm, and she simply wouldn’t listen.

True Person Si Tu was helpless and decided to tell the truth: “It’s not that I don’t agree, but the price is too great…”

“This Qiankun Clear Light Lamp contains heavenly secrets within it and drives away evil and disaster. It is the supreme treasure of our Profound Machine Valley, passed down for more than ten generations, and is extremely precious…”

“This supreme treasure is not the same as the Seven-Star Ever-Bright Lamp. It is not used to extend life.”

“If you use it as an Ever-Bright Lamp, it will be consumed violently. Perhaps it won’t extend life for long, and this Clear Light Lamp itself will face its end and fall dormant…”

“This old man considers himself not a selfish person, but no matter what, it is impossible to waste the sect’s supreme treasure to extend the life of an unrelated person…”

True Person Si Tu repeatedly shook his head.

Bai Qingcheng bit her lip and said, “I will find a heavenly secret treasure and gift it to Profound Machine Valley in exchange for the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp.”

“A heavenly secret treasure… where is it so easy to find…”

True Person Si Tu did not agree.

“Then just consider it that our Bai family owes you a great favor,” Bai Qingcheng said.

“Is it the Bai family that owes the favor, or is it True Person Bai who owes the favor?” True Person Si Tu asked.

If the Bai family owed a favor, then he could consider it.

But if it was just a favor from a True Person in the Feathering realm…

Although a favor from a True Person in the Feathering realm was precious, it was clearly not precious enough to exchange for Profound Machine Valley’s supreme treasure…

True Person Si Tu was unwilling to agree in any way.

Bai Qingcheng’s gaze became a little unpleasant.

True Person Si Tu was startled, and then his heart skipped a beat. Her meaning was…

Did she want to forcibly take it?

He had heard that this eldest daughter of the Bai family had always been arrogant and acted willfully, but that was all over a hundred years ago…

Now that she had become a True Person and had a pair of children, she should be more stable.

But what if she really did try to forcibly take it…

He still wouldn’t give it!

The Qiankun Clear Light Lamp would certainly not be lent out!

Just as True Person Si Tu was about to sternly refuse, he was suddenly stunned.

Scene after scene of the daylight Dao Heart Plant Demon reappeared before his eyes…

The disciple’s eyes, pitch black pupils.

On the Dao Court’s side, those with demonic thoughts planted, cultivators killing each other.

The strange Daoist who calmly walked past them.

As well as that shocking, heavenly secret strange calculation aura…

True Person Si Tu’s heart turned cold.

If Mr. Zhuang truly died, who else could restrain the strange Daoist?

Without heavenly secret calculation, how could they contend with heavenly secret strange calculation?

Heavenly secret calculation might be different from cultivation.

No matter how high one’s cultivation, if they didn’t know heavenly secrets, it was possible to be calculated to death.

Their Profound Machine Valley’s spiritual sense calculation was indeed profound, but no matter how profound, it was still unable to parallel one thought and two laws, heavenly secret strange calculation…

And suppose one day, the strange Daoist truly became a great demon tyrant, with heavenly secret strange calculation as his root and Dao Heart Plant Demon as his technique, slaughtering Profound Machine Valley and exterminating Profound Machine Valley’s calculation? What would he do then?

How would he defend?

How could he defend?

The more True Person Si Tu thought about it, the more alarmed he became.

This thought was absolutely not unfounded.

One who penetrates heavenly secrets and is proficient in calculation has ten thousand kinds of thoughts in their sea of consciousness, floating light and fleeting shadows, all of which are omens.

It is all the future possibilities, fragments like mirror flowers and water moons within cause and effect.

Vaguely, he seemed to see the scene of the strange Daoist slaughtering Profound Machine Valley.

The mountain gate was gloomy, filled with strange energy.

The disciples at the gate, their eyes pitch black, became walking corpses, killing each other…

An absolute annihilation!

True Person Si Tu’s heart trembled with fear.

Surging strange calculations, extinguished life force, in this situation, let alone one Qiankun Clear Light Lamp, even ten would be useless…

True Person Si Tu looked again at the weakly breathing, life-force-dissipating Mr. Zhuang and sighed deeply.

In this world, if there truly was someone who could contend with the strange Daoist, he could only think of Mr. Zhuang, who was from the same school as the strange Daoist and had shocking talent…

“Gamble it…”

Although he might not live to that day, he still wanted to make plans for the future disciples of Profound Machine Valley, to forge a good fate…

“Alright!” True Person Si Tu nodded and said, “I promise you.”

Bai Qingcheng was startled. She had prepared to forcibly take it but did not expect True Person Si Tu to suddenly change his mind.

“But, I have several conditions…” True Person Si Tu said again.

Bai Qingcheng nodded. “Please say them, Senior.”

True Person Si Tu sighed and said, “This counts as your entire Bai family, or at least True Person Bai, owing our Profound Machine Valley a favor…”

“Later, if our Profound Machine Valley is in danger, please, True Person Bai, lend a hand!”

Bai Qingcheng promised, “That is natural.”

True Person Si Tu said again, “As for the heavenly secret treasure to replace the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp, if True Person Bai obtains it later, please also gift it to this old man, to compensate Profound Machine Valley’s loss…”

Bai Qingcheng said, “Good.”

“One more point…” True Person Si Tu’s gaze was solemn. “This matter of me saving him, I do not want anyone to know…”

Mr. Zhuang had too many enemies, and the cause and effect were too great.

True Person Si Tu was afraid he couldn’t bear it.

Bai Qingcheng solemnly nodded.

True Person Si Tu breathed a sigh of relief. Although very reluctant, he still took out the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp and said to Bai Qingcheng, “You and Mr. Zhuang are from the same school. You should know that Mr. Zhuang’s sea of qi is dried up, and his sea of consciousness is shattered. No pill can heal him, and no human power can save him…”

“I can only use the Qiankun Clear Light Lamp as the eye of the array, consume this lamp’s life, set up the Profound Fire Ever-Bright Array, and lock Mr. Zhuang’s cause and effect.”

“Without the cause of ‘death’, the fruit of ‘death’ will not come.”

“By locking the cause and effect, Mr. Zhuang is temporarily not considered ‘dead’.”

“But you must know that this is only extending life through heavenly secrets; it is not saving his life, and cannot save his life.”

“Once the lamp is extinguished, the array is destroyed, and the cause and effect succeed, Mr. Zhuang will still die…”

Bai Qingcheng said with pain, “Good.”

Even if it was just locking cause and effect, not considered dead, it was still good to have a glimmer of life…

It was better than having no hope at all…

True Person Si Tu sighed and then began to burn the Clear Light Lamp, set up the Profound Fire Array, light the Ever-Bright Lamp, temporarily lock the cause and effect, and seal Mr. Zhuang’s “death”.

Bai Qingcheng breathed a slight sigh of relief. After guarding Mr. Zhuang for a few days, she suddenly remembered that she seemed to have forgotten about Mo Hua.

She swept her spiritual sense over Da Li Mountain and found Mo Hua walking alone on a mountain path outside Da Li Mountain, not knowing where he was going.

Bai Qingcheng’s heart ached a little, so she brought Mo Hua to Mr. Zhuang.

Mo Hua saw the teacher who had earnestly taught him, who had smiled at him, who had touched his head, and who had cared for him deeply, lying there cold, unconscious, his life and death unknown. Tears flowed uncontrollably.

After that, Mo Hua didn’t eat or drink for several days, guarding Mr. Zhuang.

Inside the Qiankun Lamp, clear light overflowed.

Inside the Profound Fire Ever-Bright Array, the array patterns were profound.

Mr. Zhuang lay in the array, his breath faint like clouds and mist, ethereal and illusory, seemingly alive, seemingly dead, only a trace of life force lingering.

He originally thought his body was already dead and he would sleep forever, never to wake.

But in a hazy state, he still perceived a trace of familiarity, a breath that made one miss it.

Mr. Zhuang opened his eyes for the last time and looked at Mo Hua.

Mo Hua was guarding him, his head lowered, his figure lost, his eyes red, constantly wiping away tears with his sleeve.

Mr. Zhuang felt a little heartache and also a little gratified.

There were still people who truly missed him…

He imprinted Mo Hua’s figure in his mind, silently reciting in his heart:

“Live well…”

“Cultivate well, learn arrays well…”

“Learn well…”

Mr. Zhuang’s thoughts froze, and then he felt his life force stiffen. This thought seemed to be only a final reflection, lingering remnants of intent…

But, this was enough…

Mr. Zhuang looked at Mo Hua, closed his eyes with satisfaction in his heart.

Mo Hua was suddenly stunned. When he looked up, Mr. Zhuang had already closed his eyes.

Mo Hua rubbed his eyes, but his eyes were sore and he couldn’t see clearly. He didn’t know if his teacher had woken up, if he had looked at him.

“Teacher…”

Mo Hua’s heart ached, and tears flowed again.

Three days later, Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi also came.

They looked lost. After seeing Mr. Zhuang, their hearts ached even more, and their eyes were red.

Only after seeing Mo Hua safe and sound did they feel a little better.

The two sat beside Mo Hua, accompanying him, always guarding Mr. Zhuang. No matter what was said, they wouldn’t leave.

Bai Qingcheng was very helpless, but there was nothing she could do.

She didn’t expect that her two children and this little disciple Mo Hua had such deep feelings for their senior brother…

She only instructed Aunt Xue to prepare some food or blood-nourishing pills, and every day she watched these three children eat a little, not letting them lose blood and qi.

Besides this, what Bai Qingcheng worried about most was still the strange Daoist.

This matter seemed to be settled, but she always felt a lingering fear in her heart, as if the strange Daoist still had some scheme.

She went to ask True Person Si Tu, and True Person Si Tu also frowned, not understanding.

The strange Daoist’s actions were strange and utterly unpredictable.

But when he thought about it, the Return to Ruins Heavenly Burial Map was already in his hands, and the strange Daoist’s goal was achieved. He should have no other intentions.

Moreover, he had inquired earlier.

It seemed that an elder from the Seven Pavilions of the Dao Court had used the Gold Light Heavenly Instrument to lock onto the strange Daoist’s qi and was always pursuing him.

The strange Daoist himself was not free and should not risk doing evil again.

Bai Qingcheng breathed a sigh of relief.

Afterward, Bai Qingcheng planned to leave.

She wanted to properly arrange Mr. Zhuang so that the Ever-Bright Lamp wouldn’t be extinguished, and she also wanted to send Zixi and Zisheng back to the clan.

At the same time, she also wanted to find a way to send Mo Hua, this child, back home.

The Dao Court stationed outside Li Mountain City, and the cultivators from all sides of the Dao Court, also wanted to leave.

But on the evening before leaving, another change occurred.

Because the departure was imminent, True Person Si Tu simply set up a wine banquet to say farewell.

But before three rounds of wine had passed, a disturbance in the array came from inside the encampment, accompanied by voices of alarm, ferocious voices, wild shouts, and sounds of fighting…

True Person Si Tu’s heart trembled. “This is, Dao Heart… Plant Demon?!”

Everyone else’s expressions also changed greatly.

They immediately rushed out and saw several Dao soldiers. Their entire bodies were indeed filled with demonic qi, they had lost their intelligence, and their expressions were ferocious, as if they wanted to devour people…

It was exactly the same as the signs of the Dao Heart Plant Demon that day.

True Person Si Tu faced a great enemy, quickly restrained the several disciples who had fallen into demonization, turned around to let everyone be on guard, but looking up, he couldn’t help but frown.

There was no aura of heavenly secret strange calculation…

Meaning, the strange Daoist was not here…

True Person Si Tu was a little surprised.

Had these several Dao soldiers just erupted now, having been stained with demon seeds before?

This kind of demon seed was extremely faint and not contagious, posing very little threat.

True Person Si Tu released his spiritual sense and swept around, finding nothing abnormal. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

“I was overthinking…”

Everyone else also exhaled a long breath.

They had thought the strange Daoist had returned…

Everyone then thought of going back to continue drinking, pressing the alarm as they walked. But halfway there, Bai Qingcheng suddenly froze and stopped.

True Person Si Tu was a little doubtful, “True Person Bai?”

“Something’s not right…” Bai Qingcheng frowned and murmured.

True Person Si Tu was a little astonished, “What’s not right?”

Bai Qingcheng said, “Great Master… The strange Daoist’s every move has a scheme. He would never scatter these few demon seeds here without reason. He did this for another purpose…”

As Bai Qingcheng spoke, her face suddenly turned pale. “Zisheng, Zixi!”

Her body was like a falling feather, wind was born under her feet, and in a few flashes, she arrived in front of the secret room.

Zisheng and Zixi were both holding bowls, being attended by Aunt Xue, drinking nourishing soup medicine.

Seeing Bai Qingcheng’s hurried actions, the two were a little doubtful, “Mother…”

Bai Qingcheng pulled them forward, carefully looked at her two children, sensed their breaths with her spiritual sense, and then looked at their eyes. The heavy stone in her heart finally fell.

“Mother, what happened?”

Bai Zixi asked.

Bai Qingcheng shook her head, just about to say something, when her expression suddenly changed. “Where is Mo Hua?”

Bai Zixi said, “Mo Hua was too tired and fainted. Aunt Xue sent him back to his room to let him sleep for a while…”

Bai Qingcheng’s face was deathly pale.

Bai Zixi also realized something was wrong and said with a trembling voice, “Mother…”

“You two wait here…”

Bai Qingcheng instructed, then her body flashed, graceful like a startled swan. In a moment, she arrived inside Mo Hua’s room.

Mo Hua’s small body was lying on the bed, sleeping peacefully and quietly.

Bai Qingcheng breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt a little uneasy, so she gently called out, “Mo Hua…”

Mo Hua seemed not to be sleeping. Hearing the sound, he straightened his body and slowly sat up.

“It’s nothing, you can sleep more…”

Bai Qingcheng choked before finishing her sentence.

At this time, Mo Hua had already turned his head.

His face was innocent, but his pupils were completely black.

Adding one more chapter, I did my best.