Chapter 266: The Deep Mountains
A chill crept through Mo Hua's heart as he silently memorized those sixteen words.
It seemed that this map was no trivial matter, if he didn't uncover the truth behind it, it would surely become a great hidden danger.
Cultivators relied on the land to survive, adapting to their surroundings.
Around Tōngxiān City, there were no fertile spiritual fields, no surging rivers or seas, and no beasts fit for rearing.
The wandering cultivators nearby all depended on the Great Black Mountain for their livelihoods.
Even the city's refining guilds, alchemy halls, and the prosperous Fushan Restaurant relied on demon hunters who hunted monsters, stripped their flesh and bones, and supplied materials for forging, alchemy, and cuisine.
Mo Hua, in his study of formations, also needed large quantities of monster blood to mix his spiritual inks.
All the cultivators of Tōngxiān City—whether in their cultivation work or daily life—were inseparable from the Great Black Mountain.
If that mountain harbored a deep and terrible danger, then trouble was bound to come.
From then on, Mo Hua studied the Spirit-Reversal Formation while venturing into the mountain whenever he had time. In remote or unfamiliar areas, he would take out the map left by the criminal cultivators to compare, hoping to locate the marked spot.
But after searching for many days, he found nothing.
Feeling dejected, Mo Hua lifted his gaze... and froze. In the distance, a thick fog blanketed the mountains, concealing the peaks and ridges, veiling the sunlight, and leaving the world hazy and dim. It was impossible to tell where the cliffs ended and the valleys began.
That was the deep mountain region of the Great Black Mountain—the most perilous area of all.
Rumor had it that the deep mountains were deadly beyond measure... those who entered never returned.
As Mo Hua stared, a jolt ran through him, his breath catching coldly.
"The Black Mountain fog can conceal even the deepest abyss..."
The location marked on the map... could it be the deep mountains?!
Mo Hua's eyelids twitched. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
He knew the outer mountains like the back of his hand; even the inner mountains were quite familiar to him.
If the marked spot were in either, he would definitely have recognized it.
Not in the outer mountains, not in the inner ones… then it must be in the deep mountains.
The deep mountains—where the criminal cultivators vanished and never returned.
A guess formed in Mo Hua's mind, and an icy dread surged through him.
He immediately performed his movement technique and dashed all the way back to Tōngxiān City. Panting, he found Elder Yu and asked urgently,
"Elder Yu, has anyone ever gone into the deep mountains?"
Elder Yu was startled. "Why do you ask that? The deep mountains are dangerous, you must not go there."
He thought Mo Hua was simply curious and wanted to explore.
"I'm not going," Mo Hua said, catching his breath. "I just want to know—once a demon hunter enters the deep mountains, have any ever returned?"
Seeing Mo Hua's serious expression, Elder Yu realized this was no trivial question. He nodded gravely.
"There have indeed been such cases."
"Since when?"
Elder Yu furrowed his brow, thinking for a while before replying, "Roughly two, maybe three hundred years ago…"
"You're not sure?"
"I've only lived a little over two hundred years. Anything before that, I only know from hearsay."
He stroked his beard, recalling slowly.
"It seems that three hundred years ago, the deep mountains were still accessible."
"Accessible?" Mo Hua asked, surprised.
Elder Yu nodded. "Yes, though the mists were thick, the miasma poisonous, and the beasts fierce—many of them second-grade demon beasts."
He continued, "At that time, what we called the 'deep mountains' were actually just the most dangerous part of the inner range. But later, too many demon hunters who entered never came back. Gradually, no one dared go anymore. Thus the deep mountains became a forbidden place."
"Not even Foundation Establishment cultivators dare enter?"
Elder Yu's eyelid twitched. "Not even them. Because even one of their kind has died inside."
Mo Hua's eyes widened. "A Foundation Establishment cultivator… died there?"
Elder Yu nodded solemnly.
"Not just vanished?" Mo Hua pressed. "You're certain they *died* in there?"
"Because the corpse was found... at the edge of the deep mountains."
The more Mo Hua listened, the stranger it all seemed. "Who was it?"
Elder Yu's expression grew complicated. "The former Grand Elder of the Qian family."
"The Qian family?" Mo Hua was stunned.
Elder Yu nodded slightly and explained,
"I was just a minor Qi-Refining cultivator back then. Word spread that the Qian family's Grand Elder had gone into the deep mountains and never returned. Half a month later, the Qian family's patriarch led a group inside to search—alive or dead, they vowed to find him."
"A Grand Elder of such standing couldn't just vanish. The Qian family's power was already great, their numbers vast, so they dared to venture deep. Even so, they were cautious to the extreme."
"The entire clan mobilized—from Foundation Establishment down to Qi-Refining cultivators—forming a human net that advanced inward from the outskirts. In the end, at the edge of the deep mountains, beneath a tree, they found the Grand Elder's corpse."
"They said his death was extremely strange—one arm missing, as if torn off by a beast. But that was only rumor; the Qian family has never revealed the true cause."
"And after that?" Mo Hua asked.
"After that, the matter was dropped. The corpse was found, which was at least an answer. To go deeper would have risked annihilation for the entire Qian clan."
Elder Yu gave a wry, almost gloating smile—part relief, part regret.
Perhaps he took grim satisfaction in the Grand Elder's death, and mild disappointment that the whole family hadn't perished with him.
Mo Hua asked, "And since then, no cultivators have entered the deep mountains?"
Elder Yu corrected him, "Some have—but none have come back."
"There are always those who are either brave beyond reason or ignorant of their limits. Some skilled, some foolish—but whatever their nature, none who entered ever returned."
Mo Hua's eyes grew dark. He spoke slowly, "So… they entered willingly?"
Elder Yu gave a faint chuckle—then froze. The smile faded from his face, replaced by a deep seriousness.
"You… you know something, don't you?"
Mo Hua took out the map and handed it to him, explaining everything about the bald monk and the group of criminal cultivators—including the sixteen words:
"The black mountain's mist can conceal the Abyss-Marsh;
At midnight's third watch, cast a stone to find the path."
Elder Yu murmured the lines, his voice trembling as he repeated them, his expression growing ever more alarmed.
"You mean… the Great Black Mountain's deep region might actually be a massive den of criminals—where for the past two or three centuries, murderous cultivators have been hiding?"
Mo Hua nodded slowly.
Elder Yu stood up abruptly, pacing back and forth with a deep frown.
After several turns, he finally sat down again, drank a cup of tea to calm himself, and said in a low, steady voice,
"It's… very possible."
"These past two centuries, not just outsiders—even many demon hunters—have vanished within the deep mountains."
"The elders of the Demon Hunters' Guild, myself included, have always warned and forbidden our hunters from entering. Those who did, perished."
"I used to think them foolish, reckless to the point of death. But now… it all seems far more sinister."
"Those who can hunt demons, who survive in the inner mountains, they all know how dangerous the Great Black Mountain is. They're not idiots, nor careless with their lives. Why, then, would they suddenly charge into the deep mountains?"
"Even if they didn't value their own lives, they had wives and children relying on them to earn spirit stones. Who would throw themselves into death, leaving their families to starve?"
"Now it seems clear... they didn't go willingly. They were captured… or killed, and then taken into the deep mountains!"
*(End of Chapter)*