Chapter 305: Chapter 163: The Belated Regret
“So what if you know? Which power doesn’t engage in these things? Fu Qinghong, stop pretending here, can you dare say that your Fu family doesn’t possess the Heavenly Destiny Luo Book?”
After hearing her explanation, Mo Baiye let out a cold snort.
Fu Qinghong remained silent.
The other party was right; all the powerful clans of the Zouyi Royal City had once crafted such things. It was no longer a secret, and the Fu family treasured no less than ten of them.
Compared to collateral branches, the Direct Lineage was naturally more important, willing to forsake Life to afford others a chance to live, and some were indeed willing.
“Zhang Xuan, today I might not be able to kill you, but you also can’t kill me… Right, don’t think about catching up to me. If I truly die, your student will have to be buried with me!”
Mo Baiye laughed loudly and, with a tap of his foot on the ground, suddenly darted away.
At this moment, from behind a big tree nearby, a glint of the saber, sharp as a whirlwind and brilliant as the sea, suddenly appeared and slashed towards his head.
It was none other than Mo Hong, who had been badly hurt in the beginning.
Having personally witnessed his teacher’s deeds, his heart was utterly disappointed. He quietly hid here and launched a sneak attack.
Mo Baiye had not expected someone behind him and had no defense; in the moment of crisis, he tilted his head, and his formidable strength exploded, forcibly shifting him half a foot in midair. That half a foot spared him from the lethal blow, but the glint of the saber struck his shoulder, severing his right arm along with his shoulder blade.
“Mo Hong, you’re seeking death!”
Feeling the intense pain in his body, Mo Baiye was furious, and he lashed out with a fierce kick.
That kick contained all his rage. Mo Hong, having lost an arm, was already in a hard place; in this crisis, he raised his Mo Dao to block horizontally, but Mo Baiye’s foot slammed down on the saber, sending the long saber flying out, crashing into Mo Hong’s chest.
A spurt!
Mo Hong’s chest and arm bones were severed cleanly, his internal organs were in complete disarray, and he was clearly not going to live.
Whoosh!
With the force of that kick, Mo Baiye shot out dozens of meters once again, disappearing into the valley in the blink of an eye.
However, although he fled, having had an arm and shoulder severed by the saber, he was now severely disabled, if not dead. Unless he could find medicine to regenerate flesh and bones, he would have to remain this way for life.
“Where are you running…”
Zhang Xuan rushed forward swiftly, but the space before him was empty; Mo Baiye’s figure was nowhere to be seen!
Despite the fact that this guy had been struck by a saber and had his cultivation of the Cosmos Bridge realm pinnacle repeatedly sabotaged by him, he was still at the Galaxy 5-dan Peak, and fleeing for his life, he was extremely fast; even Zhang Xuan couldn’t catch up.
After searching around and finding nothing, he had no choice but to return to Mo Hong and expressed his confusion, “You… why did you attack him?”
This Mo Hong before him had been utterly loyal to Mo Baiye, considered his most faithful lackey. His sudden ambush was something Zhang Xuan hadn’t anticipated.
Not only was he puzzled, but Fu Qinghong and the others were also full of confusion.
Lying askew on the ground, Mo Hong had already lost all strength due to his grievous wounds and looked over weakly: “He has taken a total of 20 direct disciples!”
“20?”
Zhang Xuan was taken aback and then realized something, his pupils constricted.
He currently knew of only Mo Hong, Min Jiangtao, Mo Qing, and Ling Buyang as disciples of Mo Baiye.
As for Chen Yuan and others, they were from the grand-disciple generation.
Twenty direct disciples, only 4 remain… Doesn’t that mean 16 have already died?
Combined with the method of creating the Heavenly Destiny Luo Book, it chills to the bone!
Mo Hong did not continue to explain, but with a distant look in his eyes and a slow voice, said, “When I was eight years old, he adopted me and my younger brother, giving me the name Mo Hong, and taught us powerful saber techniques… Over the years, I have always regarded him as my biological father, never doubting his words, until one year, my brother, more talented than me, noticed a problem in our practice.”
“One day he came to me and said, ‘Teacher’s saber art has an irregular movement that seems to compromise a man’s instincts if practiced long term; has he taught us wrongly?’ At the time, I didn’t take it seriously and just told him to go and ask the teacher…”
“And after he did, he never came back.”
“The teacher told me he was sent on a mission and was killed by the Jiao Dong White Blade Sect… I devoted myself to practice and eventually slaughtered every member of the White Blade Sect, avenging my brother!”
“You wiped out the White Blade Sect? That was a mystery in Zouyi City at the time…”
Fu Qinghong, looking shocked, remarked and then explained upon seeing Zhang Xuan’s apparent unfamiliarity, “The White Blade Sect, also practitioners of saber art, was named for the white ropes tied to the hilts of their blades. Their leader, Bai Yimu, who mastered the White Saber Destiny, was quite famous…”
Zhang Xuan nodded.
In a place like Zouyi City, where sects were as numerous as hairs on an ox, it was common for them to crush each other and kill without relent.
At this moment, Mo Hong began to laugh crazily and hideously, “Back then, I was grateful for the teacher’s covert assistance, but now I know… my brother actually died by his hand, and the so-called White Blade Sect was just a rival he wanted me to help eliminate!”
Zhang Xuan fell silent.
Indeed, he didn’t need an explanation; he had understood everything from the previous conversation.
This Mo Baiye was inherently indifferent, caring neither for his so-called disciples nor for his kinsmen as much as he did for his own cultivation. Once contradicted… death was the answer!
Back then, Ling Buyang was lucky to escape quickly, hiding in Han Yuan City; otherwise, he too might have been long dead.
Mo Hong continued, “Over the years, for my junior brother Mo Ruo, I annihilated the entire Qi Family, for my senior brother Mo Su, I killed thirty-two people, and for my junior brother Mo Qingyan, I slaughtered seventy-seven members of the Yanzi Dock… I’ve long been steeped in wickedness and am beyond forgiveness!”
“But I really believed I avenged them, only to realize… these junior brothers were all killed by him! Pfft!”
While speaking, Mo Hong could no longer endure it; blood kept spilling from his mouth, and his breath became weaker and weaker.
Having just had an arm slashed off and internal organs shattered by a kick, it was already remarkable that he had held on until now.
“Junior brother, Qingyan, Mo Ruo… Though I did not avenge you, I have still inflicted severe damage upon him… Even if we meet again, I shall have no guilt in my heart…”
Mo Hong reached out with his hand towards the distance, as if seeing something, his voice getting lower and lower until it could be heard no more.
Zhang Xuan reached out his hand, only to find that Mo Hong had already stopped breathing.
“He too was a pitiable person…”
Fu Qinghong shook her head.
This Mo Hong was not inherently bad, merely misled by Mo Baiye, nothing more than a pawn in his evil schemes.
“He’s not pitiable. He willingly partook in evildoing; that itself is evilness. He cannot be forgiven simply because of a deathbed repentance!”
Zhang Xuan shook his head, “Regret does not undo the error of straying onto the wrong path. The regret that one swallows often chills the heart more than unfollowed-through crimes.”
“Yes, what Young Master Zhang says makes so much sense…”
Fu Qinghong looked at him admiringly, and then with a smiling face, suggested, “Are you tired? Would you like me to give you a massage…?”
“???” Zhang Xuan’s face twitched.
He was uncertain whether swallowed regrets could chill the heart more than unattempted crimes, but at that moment, he was certain that being subjected to Fox Charm Destiny not only chilled his heart but chilled him to the bone…