Chapter Ninety: Guests Arrive from All Quarters

In the Hall of Divine Machines, Hu Mo sat in a chair of beast hide, looking down at the old men below with their weary faces. He stretched lazily and said, “All right. The game has reached this point, and things are basically settled. Elder Li, you will take charge of the Hall of Divine Machines for the time being. I still have some other matters to handle, and I may not be able to come by for a while.”

“As you command, Young Master!” the white-robed elder replied respectfully, his voice ringing out.

Hu Mo waved a hand and said no more. He left the Hall of Divine Machines at once. Just dealing with these matters had kept him from home for more than a month, and that left him genuinely uneasy. What worried him most was how Cang Ling would react when she saw him. If she gave him a sound beating, then he would truly be doomed.

Yet it was strange. For so long, Cang Ling had not come looking for him at all, as though she had forgotten him. That only deepened Hu Mo’s confusion. With all these feelings piling together, he became even more tangled and unsettled.

It was not only Cang Ling. His personal guard, Lin Nan, had also disappeared without a trace. Since he had gone to the Hall of Divine Machines, Hu Mo had not seen her again, and that made him rather frustrated. This subordinate was being far too inconsiderate of her master.

By the time he returned to the Hu residence, night had already fallen.

The bright moon hung high overhead. Bathed in its radiance, Hu Mo could clearly feel his spiritual power steadily recovering, and his exhausted body growing much more comfortable.

The three treasures were tirelessly and ceaselessly releasing their respective powers. Though Hu Mo had been swamped for the past month, his cultivation had not slowed in the slightest; instead, he had risen from a third-tier Battle King to the level of a fifth-tier Battle King. That left him unsure whether to rejoice or worry.

Over this past month and more, because of these trivial affairs, he had temporarily abandoned the tempering of his soul. As his cultivation continued to rise, he increasingly felt a sense of crisis. Just as Cang Ling had said, with his current mental state, it had become very difficult to control such a sudden surge of power.

So he had to find Cang Ling as soon as possible and resume that method of cultivation to temper his soul.

The Hu residence was not far. Since Hu Mo had deliberately avoided the guards, his return did not disturb anyone. He moved lightly through the residence, wanting nothing more than to find Cang Ling quickly and enter cultivation at once.

However, when he reached his own small courtyard, he did not receive the usual fiery welcome from before. Instead, it was eerily quiet, so quiet that even the rustle of little insects turning in the soil could be heard clearly.

“Where has she gone? Even if she is not coming to find me, there is no need to run all over the place.” Hu Mo muttered to himself, his brow knitting tightly.

At that moment, he suddenly sensed a familiar fluctuation of soul power, and his expression changed at once. He shot upward into the sky.

He had sensed Cang Ling’s aura, and it was exceptionally concealed. That was highly unusual. Following that faint thread of soul resonance, he soon arrived at the edge of a dense forest. The moment he landed, his body was forced down to the ground, and a small hand immediately clamped over his mouth.

Hu Mo’s expression changed drastically. He was about to resist, but before he could gather any strength, he received a hard knock on the head. When he looked up, he saw Cang Ling’s stern face, and beside her, Lin Nan with her cold expression.

“Be quiet. Stay crouched here!” Cang Ling transmitted to him, covering his mouth with one hand while pinching the soft flesh at his waist with the other. It hurt so badly Hu Mo nearly blacked out.

He looked at her pitifully, sucking in a sharp breath, and sent back, “Do you really have to be this ruthless? I...”

“Lie down. Conceal all your aura!” Cang Ling pressed him down with one hand. His nose nearly struck Lin Nan’s chest, and the sudden fragrance almost caused Hu Mo to lose himself again. He was already terribly exhausted now, and his mental defenses were extremely weak.

Lin Nan pushed him away at once, and just as she was about to speak, Cang Ling stopped her as well. Thus the three of them crowded together in a most bizarre fashion, secretly watching the scene ahead.

Hu Mo crouched there with helpless resignation. In front of this combination of a capricious enchantress and an ice-cold beauty, he truly seemed all too small.

He did not know what the two of them were doing, but his intuition told him that something enormous was about to happen.

“Stop looking around. Wait here, and just watch,” Cang Ling emphasized again.

Just as Hu Mo was unable to resist the urge to complain a few more times, dozens of black silhouettes suddenly appeared in the originally empty woods. With his keen sense of smell, Hu Mo immediately judged that the power radiating from these people was water-element battle power, and that every one of them was no ordinary figure.

“So many water-element combatants here? The City of Flame doesn’t seem to have this many water-element experts.” Hu Mo thought silently. After a while, his gaze suddenly grew strange.

He saw an acquaintance. Though the light in the woods was very dim, that feeling was still unmistakably clear.

“Situ Feng? How could he be here? What relationship does he have with those people?” More questions arose in Hu Mo’s mind, and his expression turned grave.

“Just watch. What are you mumbling about in your head?” Cang Ling did not even look at Hu Mo as she sent the message.

After thinking for a moment, Hu Mo suddenly figured something out. Had Cang Ling deliberately released her aura to draw him here, in order to help him investigate Situ Feng?

At that thought, Hu Mo could not help but smile at Cang Ling, his expression filled with gratitude. Unexpectedly, Cang Ling frowned and looked at him as though he were an idiot, sending, “What now? Are you smitten? Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t tell me you’re plotting something improper against your master again?”

Hu Mo nearly choked from the shock of it. If he had not been afraid of startling the prey, he would probably have shouted out loud already.

Lin Nan looked at the two of them in great confusion. Though she could not hear their words, Hu Mo’s expression made it obvious that he had once again been outmatched. Thinking of this, a faint, inadvertent smile appeared at the corner of her lips, and delight at his misfortune was plain to see.

Hu Mo gave a wry smile, steadied himself, and sent, “Master, can you hear what they are saying?”

Cang Ling shook her head decisively. “Their vigilance is too high. If I try to listen, they will definitely notice. A few of those dozen or so youngsters are quite formidable. Though they are far beneath me, I am not someone who can simply act whenever I please. Wait. Let’s see just how much of a storm these fellows can stir up.”

Cang Ling narrowed her eyes slightly. That faint smile made Hu Mo’s heart give a jolt. He suddenly realized that this was the true face of a cunning old fox.

“Then are we just watching like this?” Hu Mo asked in a low voice, his tone full of uncertainty.

“For now, yes. Since I called you out, it could not be for something so simple. This forest will probably not be quiet tonight,” Cang Ling said solemnly, entirely unlike her usual one-track-minded self.

Hu Mo gave a soft acknowledgment and crouched there without another word, keeping his aura utterly concealed.

Situ Feng seemed extremely respectful toward those people, as though he had met a long-lost father. That multiplied Hu Mo’s suspicion by a thousand times. As a descendant of a prominent family of the Heavenly Flame Empire, how could he possibly have such close dealings with outsiders? After this period of deduction, Hu Mo could almost be certain that these people must be connected to the Frostwater Empire.

The group gathered there for about half an hour, then vanished swiftly before Hu Mo and the others’ eyes. Just as Hu Mo was preparing to stand, Cang Ling pressed him back down with one hand.

“What are you in such a hurry for? Everything has only just begun.” Cang Ling wore an inscrutable expression, her eyes still fixed in that direction.

Sure enough, not long after, another group appeared there. Unlike the earlier aura, the power radiating from these people was extremely sharp metal-element battle power, and from the strength of that power, they were not much different from the earlier water-element experts.

Hu Mo’s mood suddenly tensed. Metal-element combatants were almost nonexistent in the Heavenly Flame Empire. To this day, he had only seen Uncle Fu, that metal-element Battle King of Slaughter, and besides him, Hu Mo had truly never seen another.

Now that so many experts had suddenly appeared, they were clearly not from the Heavenly Flame Empire. If the Frostwater Empire and the Radiant Gold Empire had both sent so many powerhouses at once, what exactly were they planning to do?

What shocked Hu Mo even more was that the person receiving the Radiant Gold Empire’s delegation was also someone he knew. Xu Zhu was seen chatting with those combatants with a broad, smiling face. Compared with Situ Feng’s behavior earlier, Xu Zhu was obviously far more sycophantic, as though he were looking at his own beloved grandfather.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one. After one surprise after another, Hu Mo’s mood grew much heavier. So many experts from the great empires had suddenly appeared in the City of Flame, and every one of them was acting furtively, even colluding with some of the city’s major families. When something is unusual, there is bound to be something sinister behind it. Hu Mo did not even dare imagine what would happen next.

Cang Ling, however, looked at this group of people flying back and forth with complete composure, showing no sign of wanting to stop them. Hu Mo had originally intended to let out a long line to catch a big fish, to see just what these people were up to. But judging from the current situation, if he kept letting the line out, he feared even he would no longer be able to control it.

By the fourth watch, the forest finally fell quiet.

At that point, Cang Ling was the first to stand up. She patted Hu Mo’s shoulder and said, “All right, let’s go back. The show is over.”

As she spoke, she took Lin Nan by the hand and started walking back. Hu Mo seemed not to hear her at all; he still sat there in a daze.

Cang Ling frowned slightly, turned her head, and shouted, “Hey, why are you still not moving? Do you want to sleep here tonight?”

Hu Mo jolted awake and, with a muffled response, appeared beside her. His face was extremely gloomy, as if he had a few hundred pounds of weight pressing on his heart. The feeling was truly suffocating.

Lin Nan did not look at Hu Mo, but her brow was also faintly furrowed. The situation was obvious: something big was about to happen in the City of Flame, and most likely it would be nothing good. That made it very hard for her heart to remain calm.

“What? Scared? Worried? Discouraged? Are you going to give up after seeing all this?” Cang Ling fired off several questions in succession, her aura growing unstable.

Hu Mo listened to her rapid-fire questions and first froze. Then, little by little, the corners of his mouth rose slightly, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

“Thank you. I understand.”