Chapter Thirty-Nine: Meeting Zhao Hu Again (Part Two)

The place where the fight had broken out was only a few miles away from them. Ji Mo ran at full speed and arrived at the scene within a few breaths. There, at the edge of a mountain hollow, a young man in green, barely twenty years old, was wielding a vine about as thick as two fingers. The vine was densely covered in inverted black triangular thorns and lashed viciously toward the blood-soaked neck of another youth. If the vine managed to coil around his neck, it would immediately pierce it like a beehive.

Crack! Just as the thorny vine was about to entangle the boy's neck, a silver whip streaked across the air and intercepted it, wrapping tightly around the vine. With a flick, the silver whip snapped the vine in two. The young man in green let out a muffled grunt and staggered back several steps before regaining his balance.

Seeing that his prey had slipped away at the last moment and that he had even suffered a minor injury through his own carelessness, the young man in green was furious. His eyes glinted with malice as he glared at his disruptor, only to find it was a mere girl at the third stage of Qi Refinement. His anger grew even stronger. Without a word, he formed a hand seal, and countless thorned vines erupted from the ground, sweeping toward Ji Mo.

Ji Mo raised her brows slightly. The silver whip in her hand transformed into a flood dragon, darting up and down. The vines shattered into countless fragments before they could draw near, falling in a rain of debris to the earth. These vines were driven forth by the green-clad youth’s spiritual energy, bound to his mind. Now, as Ji Mo destroyed them one by one, he suffered severe backlash. His face turned pale, and with a loud retch, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Brother Zhao Hu?” Ji Mo paid no heed to the young man in green, turning instead to call tentatively to the bloodied youth.

“Xiao Mo?” The boy, snatched from the jaws of death and unsure of who had saved him, was still dazed when he suddenly heard a familiar voice. Disbelief flickered in his eyes as he focused on the young girl before him—a face still touched with childhood softness, yet already strikingly beautiful. He called out uncertainly.

“Brother Zhao Hu, it really is you! Are you badly hurt?” Overjoyed, Ji Mo rushed to his side, catching his swaying body in her arms. This boy was none other than Zhao Hu, the one Ji Mo considered a brother.

Feeling the warmth of the girl's hands and seeing the concern on her face, Zhao Hu’s tense body gradually relaxed. Despite the blood on his face, he could not hide his excitement. He gripped Ji Mo’s hand, his voice hoarse: “Xiao Mo, it really is you! I never thought I’d see you here. These are just flesh wounds, nothing—” But before he could finish, his grip loosened and he slumped, unconscious.

Startled, Ji Mo caught him, hurriedly took a healing pill from her pouch, and slipped it into Zhao Hu’s mouth, laying him flat on the ground. Only then did she turn, her expression cold, to the green-clad youth who, having missed his strike and failed to flee, had been blocked by Wei Qiu. “You used the Thornvine Technique. You must be a disciple of Purplewood Peak, aren’t you?”

“I am a disciple of Purplewood Peak. What... what do you want?” The youth, seeing that this mere third-stage Qi Refiner had so easily injured him—and with a fifth-stage cultivator at her side—was overtaken by despair. Although the Moonwatch Sect strictly forbade disciples from killing each other, in the trial grounds, if someone died and there was no solid evidence, their death would be in vain.

“What do I want? If I recall correctly, the sect’s rules strictly prohibit disciples from killing one another. You’re an inner disciple and a fourth-stage Qi Refiner, yet you attacked an outer sect body cultivator and even tried to take his life. If you can’t give a reasonable explanation, I’ll have to hand you over to the Hall of Enforcement.” Ji Mo’s voice was icy.

Seeing that Ji Mo had no intention of killing him on the spot, the youth breathed a sigh of relief. His mind raced as he immediately protested, “He and I both set our sights on a spirit herb at the same time. We quarreled, and that’s how the fight broke out. I had no intention of killing him. I only wanted to knock him out and claim the herb for myself.”

In Red Maple Valley, conflicts over treasures between fellow disciples were not uncommon. As long as no one ended up dead or crippled, and there was no clear evidence, the sect would usually turn a blind eye.

“You’re lying! I never fought with you over any herb. I don’t even know you. You just appeared out of nowhere and attacked me without reason!” After swallowing the healing pill, Zhao Hu slowly regained consciousness. Hearing the green-robed youth’s lies, he grew furious and immediately refuted him.

“Hmph! Clearly you’re all in league with each other. Now that you see I’m alone and weak, you want to frame me with any excuse. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to.” The green-clad youth sneered, turning the accusation back on them.

“Heh, what a clever tongue you have. You must think, seeing how young I am, that I don’t know much of the world, and that I’ll be constrained by the sect’s rules and won’t dare to do anything to you in private. Isn’t that so?” Ji Mo chuckled, her eyes glinting with a hint of amusement as she strolled over to stand before him, studying him from head to toe.

Her gaze made the youth’s heart race with dread, though he kept his face impassive and turned away with a snort. But in the next moment, his composure vanished—without warning, Ji Mo’s jade-white dragon whip lashed out, striking him squarely on the shoulder blade.

“Ah—you!” The youth cried out in shock and anger, a deep, bone-deep welt appearing on his left shoulder. The searing pain made his body tremble.

“Brother Zhao Hu is an outer sect body cultivator, and you’re an inner sect spiritual cultivator. There should be no enmity between you, and yet you attacked him on sight, intent on his life. I can’t help but question your motives. Let’s make a deal—why don’t you tell me the truth behind all this? If your reason is convincing, I’ll let the matter drop. What do you say?” Ji Mo ignored his fury, lowering her head to gently caress the jade dragon whip in her hand, her tone cool and indifferent.

A jolt of fear shot through the youth, though his face remained angry. “I don’t understand what you mean. We fought over a spirit herb, nothing more. There’s no other motive.”

“Ah, so it is because I am young that people think I am naive and easily deceived. Wherever I go, someone tries to scheme against me. Since you refuse to speak, I have no patience for this. In Red Maple Valley, a death or two won’t prompt the sect to investigate too closely anyway.” Ji Mo sighed, looked up, and raised the jade dragon whip high, sweeping it in a beautiful arc toward the youth’s neck.

Although he was a fourth-stage Qi Refiner, the green-clad youth was powerless before Ji Mo. With Wei Qiu standing by, escape was impossible. Seeing the whip about to coil around his neck, he was overcome by terror; all thoughts vanished in the face of death, and he cried out hoarsely, “Don’t kill me! I—I was only following someone’s orders!”