Chapter 235 The Ruthless Senior Brother of the Path ...

Heng Mo didn't care about his second senior uncle's answer. After all, his task was just to ask for advice, so it didn't matter whether he answered or not.

This is a trick he's learned from playing the game for so long; in Lin You's words, it's about exploiting bugs.

But the Second Elder couldn't refuse to answer. His junior nephew thought he was clever and came over to seriously ask him about managing the clan. Although he didn't know the answer either, he could teach him something else.

The Second Elder then pulled Heng Mo aside and explained in detail for quite a while how the family system in the cultivation world operates, how to manage a family, how to handle various family situations, and which method is more suitable for Heng Mo's situation.

Heng Mo listened attentively to his irrelevant answer, and after obediently pouring tea for the Second Elder, he praised, "Second Uncle is indeed Second Uncle, you know so much. I didn't understand anything before, but after you explained it, I understood."

He even took the jade slip to record these words, and his serious demeanor helped him regain face for the Second Elder.

The Second Elder maintained his serious expression, pretending to calmly sip his tea. To be honest, even though he knew the kid was just trying to coax him, it still felt quite comforting.

Perhaps it's because his coaxing was simply to make people happy, without any other purpose.

After completing the progress bar of two tasks on his second senior uncle, Heng Mo looked at the fourth elder and said, "Fourth senior uncle, when Master taught me, he often said that I was highly talented and had excellent literary skills. May I ask you a question?"

The Fourth Elder didn't think as much as the Second Elder, mainly because the Second Elder had just come out of seclusion and hadn't spent time with Heng Mo, while the rest of them had been fed by Heng Mo from afar many times.

Although all the snacks passed through the hands of the Third Elder, and some were stolen as interest, they were still considered tributes received.

The Fourth Elder nodded, also somewhat curious about what Heng Mo would ask for advice on. He didn't think Heng Mo would ask for advice on cultivation; the kid's basic skills were good enough to teach in a class, so why would he need someone else to teach him?

He also knew that the Third Elder had been chasing Heng Mo for half a year, making him learn swordsmanship. As a result, this guy learned all kinds of weapons, including knives, spears, and clubs, and could even wield a hammer, but he stubbornly refused to learn swordsmanship.

Heng Mo smiled obediently as always, “Fourth Uncle is so talented in writing. I wonder if he could make our introductory techniques simpler and easier to understand. After all, only a small number of children in the mortal world have studied. I am not very knowledgeable and have never studied. The tutorial I wrote is a bit too complicated.”

When Heng Mo chatted with Lin You, he also mentioned modern education. Compared with the obscure and difficult-to-understand ancient education and the uneven quality of education, modern education is already very advanced.

Detailed teaching materials, uniformly trained teachers, and continuously improving educational models—each of these is worth learning from.

Heng Mo himself has never been to school, and he has already done his best to teach a few of An Guo's friends. For such detailed matters, it is better to leave them to the professionals.

I heard that the Fourth Elder was once a third-ranked scholar in the imperial examinations before he began cultivating, and his natal weapon is a calligraphy brush. He also has a dashing and refined appearance, so he must know how to teach students.

He explained in detail to the Fourth Elder his ideas on combining modern education models, emphasizing the importance of teacher training and early childhood education. The Fourth Elder's eyes lit up as he listened.

He had heard about the Xuan Yang Sect's educational reforms, but he assumed it was just his senior brother preparing a few more open classes. He never expected it to be like this.

After completing the task progress bar with his fourth senior uncle, the fourth elder took the plan that Heng Mo had written earlier and left in a hurry.

If this is done well, the strength of the entire Xuan Yang Sect will be elevated to a higher level, and he will be able to have his own page in the sect's records.

The Second Elder looked at Heng Mo with a hint of resentment. He asked him questions that Heng Mo didn't know, but when it came to the Fourth Junior Brother, the questions were all relevant to his expertise. Wasn't that a bit too biased?

Heng Mo looked at the Second Elder with a puzzled expression, then at the potato chips he had almost finished eating. He thoughtfully handed him two more storage bags of snacks, adding that he would send them to him as a token of his respect later.

The Second Elder was exasperated by his antics, and seeing his junior brother trying to suppress his laughter, he helplessly went over and ruffled the junior brother's hair before finally taking the snacks away.

Before leaving, he didn't forget to give Heng Mo a gift: a spatial ring filled with alchemy herbs and weapon-refining materials suitable for beginners.

Not only Heng Moyou, but even Shen Ting was involved. As the second elder of the Xuan Yang Sect, he couldn't possibly give a junior an irrelevant answer as a greeting gift; he couldn't afford to lose face like that.

However, this is only because Heng Mo passed his test that he received so many things. If he hadn't performed well, he probably would have only received a low-grade spirit stone.

As for Shen Ting, although he only glanced at him, after listening to the Third Elder's complaints for so long, he knew pretty much what kind of person the child was. He was a good kid, just a bit mischievous, but... the Third Elder was no less so; like master, like disciple.

Upon receiving so many gifts at once, Heng Mo subconsciously looked at his master, his eyes like those of a child in the mortal realm who, during the Lunar New Year, is forced to accept a red envelope by a relative and looks at his parents with pleading eyes, asking if he can accept it.

The Seventh Elder had just tidied his hair, which had been ruffled by his stingy second brother, when he looked up and saw this expression on his face. He was successfully amused by his disciple's little face.

"Your second uncle gave it to you, why can't you accept it? Just take it. At worst, you can spend more time with that lonely old man and chat with him. He's so old, and he doesn't even have a disciple."

The Second Elder, who was "an old, lonely man of advanced age," paused halfway up the mountain. "Little Seven has only just recovered and he's already acting up again? It seems I don't need to hold back during his training."

Heng Mo then looked at his remaining fifth and sixth senior uncles. Just as he was thinking about how to start a conversation without seeming abrupt, each of his senior uncles stretched out an arm and grabbed him, mysteriously pulling him aside.

The Seventh Elder was naturally pleased with the harmonious relationship between his disciple and senior brother. Not only did he not stop them, he also made sure to give them space to talk while he stood with his hands behind his back and looked at the medicinal fields and grain fields on the mountain that were growing exceptionally well thanks to the nourishment of the spiritual rain.

Even though there were no outsiders on the mountain, the Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder insisted on acting suspiciously. Heng Mo was helplessly sandwiched between the two senior uncles, listening to them discuss various culinary disasters for Xuan Ling.

"Little Mo, it's not appropriate for you to get involved in this. Could you give the recipes for these two to your senior master? He'll trade you something in return. Don't worry, it definitely won't be leaked." The Fifth Elder discussed with a grin, though his expression seemed a little sly.

Heng Mo naturally wouldn't let him exchange anything. Not only did he take out the recipe, but he also specially led the person to the small kitchen in his yard for a live demonstration.

The two senior apprentices were very talented in cooking and quickly learned how to make egg yolk pastries and grass jelly.

They used the eggs of the scaled frog, which can cause bad breath for three months, instead of the egg yolks in the egg yolk pastry, and used the juice of the ghost vine, which will turn people black after eating, to make grass jelly. On the surface, it looked exactly the same as the one made by Heng Mo.

Along with two other normal dishes, the Fifth Elder, right in front of Heng Mo, had someone deliver them to Xuan Ling.

Heng Mo took the opportunity to ask about some spiritual plants suitable for pranks. Well, whether they were useful or not, the task progress bar was now full.

After bringing a bunch of snacks for his fifth and sixth master uncles and receiving many strange and unusual gifts from them, only the master and disciple remained on the mountain.

Seeing his master busy in the herb field, Heng Mo naturally went over to help. The herbs in the field were growing well after the spiritual rain, and many could be harvested, with the quality even being a level higher.

After harvesting the herbs from a plot of land and categorizing them, the Seventh Elder suddenly looked up and asked Heng Mo, "You really don't want to learn swordsmanship?"

With a top-grade ice spirit root, the most suitable physique for learning swordsmanship, how could he not want to learn swordsmanship? The Seventh Elder didn't know why he avoided learning swordsmanship like the plague, but it was most likely related to Xuan Ling.

"How could I not want to learn? I'm just waiting for Master to teach me." Heng Mo originally wanted to use coquetry to get away with it, but under the Seventh Elder's watchful gaze, his smiling face slowly disappeared, and he finally told the truth.

"Not long after I started cultivating, the Supreme Elder would hint every few days that I should become a disciple, and he would also say that my temperament was not good and that he would lock me in a formation for ten years or so."

The demonic cultivators are rampant in Anguo. I am Anguo's only direct disciple. The others are either servants or outer disciples, and they are simply incapable of handling Anguo's affairs. If he takes me away, with no end in sight, I fear Anguo will be plunged into chaos and devastation..."

Heng Mo held the Seventh Elder's hand and talked on and on about how he had been terrified of Xuan Ling, about his experiences in Anguo, about how Heng Zheng, whom he regarded as his own father, died because of the inaction of the Xuan Yue Sect, and about how many people the demonic cultivators in Anguo killed every month, yet they were powerless to do anything about it.

As I was talking, a strange sense of grievance suddenly welled up inside me, and tears started falling without warning.

Heng Mo rarely sheds tears. Even when he was a child, he would roll down a hillside while digging for wild vegetables and fall so hard that he couldn't get up for a long time, he never shed a single tear.

He knew from a young age that no one cared about him, and that crying only wasted his energy and served no purpose whatsoever.

The last time he cried was when he returned to Anguo, when Hengzheng passed away. But this time, even though nothing had happened, he suddenly felt like crying.

Although the Seventh Elder had never coaxed a child before, he had been the one who was coaxed in the past. He awkwardly hugged his little disciple and patted him gently.

Heng Mo's initial grievances were made to feel like laughing by his actions of coaxing a child, but for some reason, her tears flowed even more fiercely.

"Don't be afraid, Xiao Mo. Your master is here and won't let anyone take you away." The Seventh Elder gently patted Heng Mo's back with one hand, while his fingers moved slightly with the other, and a faint fragrance silently spread throughout the room.

Smelling the calming incense, Heng Mo's eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Listening to his master's soothing words, his mind gradually relaxed, and he soon fell asleep.

Lin You, who was cultivating, was awakened by a system notification. When she opened the system page, she found that she had completed 80% of her main quest.

Where is the promised high-level mission world? The speed at which she completes the main quest is among the best in all her mission worlds.

She opened the mission details. The mission in this world had two points: change Heng Mo's ruthless Daoist heart and resolve Heng Mo's death calamity.

Now, the task of changing one's Dao heart is 95% complete, and the task of resolving the death calamity is 65% complete.

Lin You originally planned to go find Heng Mo and tell him the good news, but when she went there by following her senses, she found that little Heng Mo was actually asleep.

The Seventh Elder sat by Heng Mo's bedside, processing the medicinal herbs in his hands while fiddling with the tranquilizing incense beside him, and occasionally glancing up at the sleeping Heng Mo.

Yes, that looks just like a modern mom who knits while taking care of her child, doing chores and looking after the baby at the same time.

Heng Mo slept for a full day and night. When he woke up, he felt refreshed and invigorated, as if his chronic illness had been cured and his body felt much lighter.

He stretched and stood up, only realizing after Lin You reminded him that he had actually broken through to the late stage of Qi Refining.

When the Seventh Elder saw that he had woken up, he calmly told him to rest and consolidate his cultivation before leaving with his hands behind his back, showing no sign that he had been watching over him for a day and a night.

Heng Mo didn't need Lin You's reminder to know that his master definitely hadn't left, after all, there were seven or eight kinds of lingering processed medicinal herbs in the room.

His master needed exactly one day and one night to process these medicinal herbs.

Heng Mo quickly prepared breakfast by cooking porridge in the small kitchen, steaming two baskets of buns, and adding some pickled vegetables he had previously made. He then took the breakfast out to eat with his master.

Shen Ting spent two days in seclusion cultivating before he could stabilize all the spiritual energy that Ling Yushi had absorbed. After finishing, he rushed over excitedly, intending to ask Heng Mo where they were going to play in the afternoon. However, he suddenly discovered that his friend, who had always been with him through thick and thin, had actually broken through.

In order not to fall too far behind Heng Mo, Shen Ting, somewhat resentful, stuffed a storage bag full of delicious food into his pocket and quickly went into seclusion.

Heng Mo's breakthrough not only had a significant impact on Shen Ting, but also left Xuan Ling with a bitter pill to swallow.

Originally, someone was giving him food under the guise of Heng Mo's name, and the food was indeed closely related to Heng Mo.

Xuan Ling also planned to use this as an excuse to do something. Even if he couldn't take Heng Mo as his disciple, he could still bring him back and teach him a lesson.

Unexpectedly, Heng Mo went into seclusion to cultivate at this time and even broke through his cultivation level, so his excuse became somewhat untenable.

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Author's Note: [Owl emoji]