Receive Its Benefits, Bear Its Responsibilities

Time rewound to a quarter of an hour earlier.

Just as Zhao Xiong and Ao Kun came knocking at the door, and Mo Yuan slipped into the pocket world to face them in battle—

an uninvited guest arrived in silence.

The Mo family’s mountain gate.

Beyond the stairway that stretched a thousand zhang into the sky stood magnificent jade palaces and lofty pavilions, hidden amid the mountain wilderness and swirling clouds. Their true forms could scarcely be seen, appearing and vanishing through the mist as golden light shimmered around them. It was truly an earthly paradise—grand and awe-inspiring.

Yet at the foot of those thousand-zhang stairs—

on cloud steps that had gone untrodden for centuries—there now walked an utterly ordinary young man.

The Mo disciples guarding the gate were so startled that they rubbed their eyes, only then confirming that someone truly stood at the base of the stairs—and that he was an ordinary man with not the slightest trace of cultivation!

Alarm bells rang in the guards’ hearts. One of them shouted loudly.

“Who goes there?!”

The young man at the foot of the mountain raised his head and smiled faintly. “Merely a traveler who has lost his way.”

“A traveler?”

The gatekeepers froze. What sort of traveler could possibly lose his way here? There was a protective formation outside the Mo family’s pocket world, yet this man had somehow arrived at the mountain’s foot without anyone noticing. His strength had to be unfathomable. There was definitely something strange about him!

Not daring to be careless, the guards swiftly took out a communication jade from their robes and reported the matter to the clan.

Before long, the clouds thundered.

A young man clad in a purple-and-gold robe descended through the air. His sword-like brows stood sharply raised as he coldly stared down at Ye Shu below, shouting without the least courtesy, “I am the Mo family’s third son, Mo Hen! Who is it that dares tread these steps? Do you not know that this is the Mo family’s ancestral grounds, forbidden to outsiders?”

Mo Hen’s voice boomed like thunder, its sound waves sweeping through the trees.

The trees lining both sides of the long stairway were shaken until they bent low.

Ever since Mo Yuan had returned with thunderous force a year ago and swept across the whole of the Central Continent, the Mo family had begun to hold their heads high. Their conduct had grown more arrogant by the day.

Mo Hen was an especially egregious example.

Relying on his overwhelmingly powerful family background, he was usually tyrannical and lawless, guilty of every kind of evil. Bullying men and preying upon women were commonplace for him.

Today, upon seeing an unknown young man trespass upon the mountain, Mo Hen had volunteered to handle the matter. He hoped to shed his reputation as a wastrel and earn the clan’s recognition. Then, once Mo Yuan ascended, perhaps he could kick out that useless eunuch, Mo Yu, and become the Mo family’s next heir.

Unfortunately for him, he was destined to kick an iron plate today.

But it was no great matter.

For soon enough, his brothers and sisters would be joining him in the joy of ascension.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, two figures appeared beside the unremarkable young man at the foot of the stairs. One was wreathed in blood qi, his face savage and murderous, like an Asura King of Hell. The other radiated golden light, his palms pressed together and his expression tranquil, like a living Buddha. They stood to the young man’s left and right.

“Bullying men and women, throwing your weight around, your hands stained with countless lives.”

The fiendish figure wreathed in blood qi bared a sinister grin as he stared greedily at the karmic blood aura gathering above Mo Hen’s head in the sky.

“For this calamity, only one word can offer a solution: kill.”

The Buddha-like figure joined his palms and calmly spoke a single word.

“Good.”

Whoosh—

The instant the words fell, the Evil Aspect vanished from where he stood.

At that very moment, the dark mark in the sky let out a shrill, agonized scream. All five of Mo Hen’s limbs were brutally snapped by the Evil Aspect, who then dragged him forcibly from the air and slammed him into the ground, leaving behind a massive crater several yards wide. The Evil Aspect followed up by stomping his head to pieces. Mo Hen was dead—deader than dead.

“Tch. Trash.”

The Evil Aspect spat contemptuously and, with a flash of his form, returned to the young man’s side.

“D-Dead…? Third Young Master Mo… is dead?”

The disciple guarding the mountain gate stared wide-eyed, so terrified he nearly wet himself. Mo Hen might have been an utter good-for-nothing, but he still possessed quite a few life-saving treasures. Yet he had been killed on the spot without even getting the chance to use any of them.

Just who… just what kind of terrifying figure was this?

At that moment, a furious cry suddenly rang out from the horizon.

“Who dares cause trouble at the Mo estate?!”

A headstrong young woman in a green dress came hurtling through the air. When her gaze swept over the headless corpse in the crater, her pupils abruptly contracted, and her face instantly turned livid.

“You actually dared kill a disciple of the Mo family?”

Although Mo Xing had always looked down on her spoiled elder brother, the Mo family was still the Mo family. If someone were allowed to commit murder right in front of their mountain gate, where would that leave their dignity?

Her almond-shaped eyes widened as she pointed her sword straight down.

“Who are you? State your name! I, Mo Xing, never kill an unknown nobody.”

The Evil Aspect raised his head and fixed his gaze on Mo Xing.

“By nature, she is overbearing and uneducated, yet she bears no sins of her own. She cannot be killed. She cannot be killed.”

He stood beside the young man without making a move.

Hearing this, the Benevolent Body slowly spoke with one hand clasped before his chest.

“Though she bears no sins of her own, she is still a daughter of the Mo family.”

“She has enjoyed their blessings and must bear their burdens.”

“Her death sentence may be pardoned, but she shall not escape punishment.”

With that, he slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward, and extended it slightly toward Mo Xing.

“Miss, I ask that you enter the Buddhist Kingdom in my palm and endure three years of secluded cultivation, so that you may be cleansed of the Mo family’s influence.”

“You—what nonsense are you babbling?”

Mo Xing frowned slightly and held her sword horizontally before her.

But as the Benevolent Body extended his right hand, boundless golden light erupted. A vast hand seal suddenly appeared before Mo Xing and swayed gently.

Her vision blurred, and the scene around her abruptly changed.

In the blink of an eye, she was standing atop a high platform, her hands bound behind her to a towering white stone pillar that pierced the heavens. Below the platform sat countless monks, all cross-legged in meditation.

“Let me go! Let me go!”

Thrown into this unfamiliar place without warning, Mo Xing’s face went pale with panic. She struggled desperately, making the golden chains clatter loudly. Yet instead of loosening, they only wrapped tighter and tighter around her.

The monks chanted sutras, their Buddhist hymns echoing through the air.

Mo Xing suddenly felt dizzy and disoriented. Her mind filled with the ceaseless sound of Buddhist chanting, leaving her without the strength to struggle any longer.

Back in the outside world—

The Benevolent Body withdrew his right hand, clasped both hands together, and said calmly:

“Good.”

The disciple guarding the mountain gate was completely dumbfounded. What was this? With one extension and withdrawal of his hand, Fourth Miss Mo had simply vanished?

Just where had this monster come from?

As the young man continued walking toward him step by step, the disciple’s calves trembled violently. He swallowed with difficulty and stammered a plea for mercy.

“B-Big brother, please don’t kill me.”

Hearing this, the young man merely cast him a casual glance and smiled. “Are you afraid? You have done no evil, so why should you be frightened?”

With that, he strode past the gatekeeping disciple.

Behind him, the Benevolent Body glanced at the disciple. “Having received his favor, you must bear his responsibility.”

With a slight wave of his hand, the gatekeeping disciple’s figure vanished as well.

The young man continued upward. When he reached the heights, he called out in a ringing voice:

“Ye Shu of the Ye Clan challenges the Mo Clan to its death!”

His voice shook the heavens, and the entire Mo Clan heard those words of utter arrogance.

“Ye Shu?!”

Hidden inside his room, Mo Yu jerked in shock and muttered in disbelief, “He’s not dead? He’s not dead?!”

“He must have come for revenge.”

“I’m finished. Without the system, what am I supposed to do?”

Mo Yu was as frantic as an ant on a hot griddle. Without the system, he could not even imagine how he might stand against a Heaven’s Chosen—let alone rely on his father, Mo Yuan.

That would be nothing more than a joke to the Heaven’s Chosen.

He racked his brains and thought long and hard.

In the end, there was still only one answer.

Run!

“Being born into humble circumstances is no disgrace. The ability to bend and endure is what makes a true man.”

Gritting his teeth, Mo Yu immediately packed his belongings and prepared to flee along a secluded path. “When the day comes that I rise again, I will avenge the Mo Clan and wash away its shame!”

He made his way along the trail behind the mountain.

Blood rain continued to fall from the sky, accompanied by the screams of countless people. Mo Yu proceeded with his heart in his throat, terrified that Ye Shu might emerge from somewhere and come after him.

Yet no one stopped him along the way.

Just as Mo Yu began to relax, he suddenly saw a young man in white standing at the exit of the rear mountain, as though he had been waiting there for quite some time.

“You?!”

Mo Yu’s pupils contracted as he stared at him in shock.

“Long time no see.”

The young man smiled faintly, his white robes drifting in the wind. “Ye Feng of the Ye Clan has been waiting here for you.”

At the same time, the same scene was unfolding in countless places throughout the world.

The Children of Destiny who had once died now emerged like vengeful ghosts crawling out of hell, blocking every major route out of the Mo Clan and sealing off its every path to survival.

One man had surrounded an entire realm!

“This is the only way to be truly benevolent.”

Ye Shu clasped his hands behind his back and sighed softly.

He leapt into the air and departed from the Mo Clan’s small world. At that very moment, he happened to see that incomparably arrogant phantom figure.

Without the slightest hesitation, Ye Shu took a single step forward.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Step after step of stairs, paved with bluestone and white jade, materialized beneath his feet, stretching through heaven and earth.

The Immortal Gate unfolded in all its splendor!