Chapter 7: On this night, two people were no longer alone...

"What are the conditions?" Mu asked.

This time, Wenrensheng was smarter and didn't directly say her wish to "have family" anymore.

He pursed his lips and obediently replied, "It's a secret."

He Mu was both amused and exasperated.

"A secret?" he repeated.

“Well, it’s a secret,” Wenren said. “I’ll tell you after I’ve helped you.”

He Mu couldn't help but pinch Wen Rensheng's cheek and teased, "Oh, so young, and you already know how to rip people off?"

Extortion? What does that mean?

Hearing voices, he was a little confused and was about to say that all he knew was how to strike a wooden fish.

He Mu waved his hand and said, "It's alright. I don't think you'll make any unreasonable demands. I agree."

Upon hearing a voice, his eyes widened considerably. He jumped up and down excitedly, almost causing a pile of treasures in his bundle to fall out.

Yes, yes, yes!

Hearing voices, his eyes welled up with tears of joy. He tried to hold them back and said in a distorted voice:

"I will do my best!"

He Mu patted Wen Rensheng's head and laughed, "Yes, I believe you."

Actually, this matter doesn't require any effort from Wenrensheng.

Before he ascended to immortality, after forcing Mu to reveal the whereabouts of his spiritual root, he could have simply drawn his sword and killed him.

However, things are different now. He has now ascended to the ranks of immortals, and he can no longer act recklessly or impulsively as he did in the martial world. He must now follow the rules of the Heavenly Court.

The Heavenly Court has very high requirements for the cultivation of immortals. The so-called "acting on behalf of Heaven" and "slaying demons and monsters" are all subject to restrictions. For example, they cannot abuse their divine status, punish the innocent, or kill those whose crimes do not warrant death.

Only by meeting these requirements can the act of eliminating evil and calamity be considered meritorious; otherwise, it will diminish one's divine status, and in severe cases, one may even be demoted back to a mortal.

The advantage is that as long as the conditions for execution are met, the Heavenly Court can issue an invisible "ultimatum," and He Mu has the right to kill the other party in any way, and to bind the soul of the evil person and reform them.

And this "ultimatum"—

He Mu took a copper bell from his waist and handed it to Wen Rensheng.

“Reach out,” he said.

Hearing the voice, he obediently spread out his hands, and He Mu placed the copper bell in his palm.

A cool sensation spread from his palm. Hearing the voice, he slightly clenched his hands and looked down at the exquisitely patterned bronze bell.

This is a four-cornered bronze bell with a bridge-shaped knob at the top, a tile-shaped body, and a small, glowing ball at the clasp.

“This thing is called the Three Purities Bell,” He Mu explained. “If you wave it in front of a bad person and it rings, I have the authority to execute that person.”

In other words, the Three Pure Bells are a "declaration" of Mu's karmic debt of killing.

The Heavenly Court issues more than one type of ultimatum. For example, the naval forces must request a ultimatum to send rain before they can bring down rain, and the drought masters must request a ultimatum to stop the rain before they can bring down a drought.

Killing gods like He Mu are even more troublesome, as they have to request a killing proclamation before each killing.

If one uses magical powers without authorization, one's merits and divine status will be repeatedly diminished. Therefore, it is more like a dog chain that the Heavenly Court puts around the necks of the various immortals than an "ultimatum".

Hearing the voice, he nodded, half understanding.

In short, this must be something important to the mountain god, right?

Then we must cherish it.

With that thought in mind, he carefully packed the bell into his small bundle.

He Mu then said, "We'll sneak into the Sword Sect under cover of night. If we encounter Chen Lian, you can ring this bell next to him, and I'll protect you."

According to the theory of hearing human voices, the dust completely meets the standard of "evil", so there is no reason why the Three Pure Bells would not ring.

He Mu didn't give this much thought. He lifted the curtain of the room again and gestured to Wen Rensheng.

"Let's go, it's cold and the days are short, we need to hurry."

*

This was the first time Wenrensheng had ever played the role of a "knight-errant".

He felt a mix of nervousness and excitement, gripping the straps of his bundle tightly with both hands, not daring to slack off for even a moment, and quickly following behind He Mu.

The teahouse wasn't far from the Sword Sect. Mu and I estimated the distance, so we stopped using the Shrinking Earth Technique and instead, with Wen Rensheng in tow, we quietly slipped in through a side path.

The Guiyi Sword Sect had been disturbed by He Mu during the day, and now its mountain gates were tightly closed. Only the central hall where they held meetings was lit with a dim lamp, and the faint shadows of a few people sitting upright could be seen.

The fact that Mu was a "mountain god" had probably already spread, and these people were now urgently discussing how to apologize.

"Actually, I wanted to keep a low profile." He Mu squatted on the wall with a blade of grass in his mouth, looking towards the central hall and sighed, "If all these people knew that I was cultivating in this area, wouldn't that be like stirring up trouble? How would I catch the villains then?"

Wen Rensheng struggled to hold onto the bricks and tiles of the wall, his feet dangling in mid-air, and managed to peek out with his head.

“Very, very low-key!” he replied breathlessly.

He Mu glanced at Wenren Sheng, who was on the verge of collapse.

The child was pitifully thin, and the apricot-yellow cloth shirt looked particularly large on him. His slender arms seemed to have no strength at all, yet he insisted on climbing up by himself.

He Mu couldn't resist and wanted to reach out and lift him up.

Hearing voices, he shrank back, shook his head in protest, and said, "Don't help me."

After saying that, he stepped on the wall and climbed up two inches, panting like a sparrow fluttering its wings.

They certainly tried hard, but they're still way off.

By the time they hear voices and climb up, Chen Lian will probably be dead by then. Where will they find that half of the spiritual root?

He Mu removed the straw from his lips, subtly hooked his finger, and lifted Wen Rensheng's feet with a force.

Hearing voices, he finally climbed over the wall. He grabbed He Mu's clothes, panting heavily, and put his legs up against the wall.

"Look, look!" Wen Rensheng said smugly, hands on his hips. "I was able to get up here."

He gave Mu Chao a thumbs up and said with a smile, "Hmm, you're really impressive. I underestimated you."

Hearing the praise, he felt even more excited and wished he could take out his wooden sword and fight that invincible elder for a hundred rounds right now.

A cool breeze brushed past his fingers, blew on his slightly flushed face, and gently ruffled a tuft of gray hair on Wenrensheng's head.

Is this what it feels like to be a chivalrous hero?

How liberating!

He hadn't left Fangze Mountain for three years. If it weren't for He Mu taking him down the mountain this time, he would have thought he would never see the boundless scenery below the mountain again.

It turns out that there are times when Heaven still favors him.

Hearing voices, she pursed her lips, let go of her hand and held onto the wall, swinging her legs happily back and forth.

"I'm so happy," he said.

"What's making you happy?" Mu asked.

He had expected the child to reply with something like "You've become a great hero" upon hearing a voice, but to his surprise, the child raised his blue eyes and pointed to the ground at the base of the wall.

He Mu looked over and saw the moonlight shining through their backs, casting two blurry figures on the ground.

One tall and one short, one big and one small.

One is He Mu, the other is Wen Rensheng.

“The shadow,” Wenren said with a smile, “has become two.”

That night, two people were no longer alone.

The second half of the sentence, Hearing the voice, was quietly kept to himself.

*

After enjoying the cold wind for a while, the two stopped relaxing when they heard voices.

He touched the Three Pure Ones Bell inside the bundle through the cloth and asked, "So, where do we go now?"

He Mu also tucked one leg up and sat on the wall, pointing to a corridor next to the main hall.

“I glanced over just now, and Chen Lian left in this direction,” He Mu said. “Do you remember where he took you after he kidnapped you?”

"Um……"

Hearing the voice, he frowned, thought hard for a moment, and then looked at He Mu with distress.

"It looked like a place filled with books, and then there was a step that you could walk down to—and below that was a huge furnace," Wen Rensheng gestured as he spoke.

After saying that, he worried that this information wasn't enough, so he racked his brains and squeezed out a few more sentences: "Anyway, it was a really hot stove, bigger than two people, and then, and then a round lid, and, and..."

Fortunately, Mu Yang waved his hand and said, "It's alright, this is enough."

Although the information given was vague, for He Mu, who had reached the Great Perfection of his cultivation realm, finding this place was a piece of cake.

Hearing voices, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wow, that's amazing!" he couldn't help but exclaim. "I wish I could be as good as you."

He Mu said, "It's nothing special. If you work hard, you can do it when you're older."

These words seemed to ignite a small flame in Wen Rensheng's heart, the flickering flames making his cheeks flush slightly.

That's right, as long as he tries hard, he will definitely be able to find a place for himself!

Before taking action, He Mu seemed worried and reminded Wen Rensheng again: "It's not too late if you don't want to go now. I'll take you back to Fangze Mountain."

Hearing the voice, he shook his head and said firmly, "I'm fine. Let's go and fight that person now."

"You sound like a bandit," He Mu laughed. "Listen carefully, our battle plan is to first find the whereabouts of your other half of your spiritual root. If you encounter bad guys along the way, just ring the bell, then close your eyes and don't worry about anything, understand?"

Wen Rensheng carefully repeated He Mu's words in his mind, then nodded vigorously and said, "Ring the bell, I understand."

After giving repeated instructions, Mu Zong finally got up, supporting himself on his knees. He then scooped up Wen Rensheng and quietly jumped off the wall.

The Guiyi Sword Sect was heavily guarded tonight, and He Mu, not wanting to attract attention, had to exert some effort to reach the corridor.

Near the corridor were two rows of side rooms that served as living quarters. There were no signs in front of the side rooms, so it was impossible to tell which room belonged to whom.

But Mu was, after all, a deity. He had examined Chen Lian's spiritual root beforehand and knew the aura of his spiritual power.

He glanced at it briefly and quickly determined Chen Lian's location.

He Mu picked up Wenrensheng, gestured with his chin toward a locked room not far away, and asked in a low voice, "Does this look familiar? Do you feel like you've been here before?"

Hearing the voice, he stared at the seemingly ordinary door for a long time, but couldn't figure it out. He could only vaguely reply, "I think so..."

He Mu smiled and asked, "Since you don't remember, do you think it's worth a try?"

The person in the voice answered this question with absolute certainty: "Yes, definitely!"

As soon as he finished speaking, his feet landed back on the ground.

Looking up, He Mu had already silently moved to Chen Lian's doorway.

Hearing the voices, they hurried over and stopped at the door like thieves, their eyes both falling on the big lock on the door.

He Mu stroked his chin and speculated, "Is he... locked up in solitary confinement?"

"It's locked," a voice said. "What should we do? Should I bite it open?"

He licked his canine teeth with the tip of his tongue.

In terms of bite force, Wenrensheng, as a wolf demon, was quite confident.

“No need,” Mu Yang waved his hand, his words concise and to the point, “I’ll pry it open.”

Having said that, he pulled a silver needle from his hair ornament, squatted down, and inserted it into the lock core, beginning to put it into practice.

Hearing the voice, he was terrified and couldn't help but take half a step back.

Picking the lock?

Isn't this what those thieves do?

"What's wrong?" He Mu asked, seeing him shrink back. "Want to go back?"

Hearing voices, he quickly shook his head and followed a few steps.

"No, I don't want to go back!"

He Mu nodded and continued fiddling with the lock cylinder.

It took Wen Rensheng a lot of effort to barely accept the fact that the mountain god could pick locks. He looked up at the lock being turned upside down and couldn't help but swallow.

"You don't look like a god at all."

He muttered to himself.

With her gaze fixed on the lock cylinder, He Mu casually replied, "What does that look like?"

“Like that kind of, um…” Wenren thought for a moment and said, “People who roam the martial world.”

He actually wanted to say bandits, but that might be impolite.

The voice paused, then added, "The really handsome kind, a chivalrous knight."

"Can't people from the martial arts world cultivate immortality?" He Mu laughed. "I think those who stay at home all day, claiming to be devoted to the Dao, are the least suitable for cultivating the Dao."

Hearing the voices, he seemed to understand but not quite. He said "Oh" and continued to look at the lock.

The Great Way, the Martial World...

Something as difficult to understand as this lock.

He Mu, who was standing to the side, looked confused upon hearing the voices, but his expression softened, and he said half-jokingly, "I misspoke. How can I preach to a child like you?"

“I’ll listen to all kinds of reasoning, big and small,” Wenrensheng retorted seriously. “I want to become someone like you in the future.”

He Mu smiled and said, "You really want to be a lock-picking god?"

Hearing the voice, he shook his head: "I want to become like you, very powerful, with the strength to protect my family."

"Family..."

He Mu pondered the two characters between his teeth for a moment.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he turned his head to meet Wen Rensheng's gaze.

"Oh, could it be that the condition you mentioned—"

Before he could finish speaking, there was a "clatter".

The lock cylinder turned, and the door opened.

A note from the author:

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