294: Unfathomable_1
After Mo Hua left, a cup of tea’s time passed, and the Third Householder could no longer sense Mo Hua’s divine sense, so he returned to the secluded grove.
Blood was everywhere, a complete mess.
Those evil cultivators had indeed been eaten, and quite cleanly at that, but the blood was all over the place.
“The vessel is a child, how on earth did it eat people to create such a mess?”
The Third Householder muttered to himself.
He then noticed something was wrong: there were numerous claw marks, bite marks, and even hairs with blood on the ground.
The Third Householder was taken aback, his brows furrowing slightly.
The evil cultivators, whose bodies were mutilated, were not eaten by a person but by monster beasts.
And the child who had been possessed by another’s spirit, had also vanished without a trace.
The Third Householder’s gaze sharpened as he sensed something was amiss.
Were these people not eaten by that little ghost?
Or was it that the little ghost was not some old demon possessing a body, but a monster beast wearing human skin?
But that didn’t seem right either. Without possession, how could it have only the Qi Refinement cultivation yet possess the divine sense of Foundation Establishment?
The Heavenly Dao has its own rules, and everything has its limits.
The divine sense of a Qi Refinement cultivator, no matter how strong, could not possibly transcend those limits, to be comparable to Foundation Establishment.
The Third Householder could not understand and suddenly was struck by a great shock—he had forgotten something crucial:
The Contemplation Map!
The little ghost had been meditating on his meditation cushion, and underneath that cushion was the Contemplation Map he had stolen from his sect!
The Third Householder, moving as fast as the wind, hurriedly made his way to the Pill Room at the Black Mountain Stronghold.
When he reached the Pill Room and lifted the cushion, he found the secret compartment had been opened, and it was as empty as could be.
A chill ran down the Third Householder’s spine as he was frantic and lost in his thoughts, believing the Contemplation Map to have been stolen, but then he spotted a chart not far off. It was made of a material that was neither entirely skin nor paper; it depicted Qingyan Stream amid the rocks—it was his Contemplation Map.
Overjoyed by the return of his lost treasure, the Third Householder was ecstatic.
Someone had opened his hidden compartment and pulled out his Contemplation Map but failed to recognize the true value and discarded it aside.
This was the Contemplation Map—treasure that countless Formation Masters dream of!
The Third Householder breathed a sigh of relief and unfolded the Contemplation Map with utmost care, but his smile suddenly froze on his face.
The map was still the same map, the mountain still the same mountain, the rock still the same rock, even the stream by the rock and the moss on the rock remained identical to before.
But the one thing missing was the little Taoist Child!
The Third Householder’s hands trembled. He promptly placed the map back, seated himself in the lotus position, forcibly suppressed his mind, and contemplated the map once more.
But no matter how many times he contemplated, he could no longer connect to the essence within the map, nor did his divine sense grow in the slightest.
The Third Householder was both shocked and furious.
The Contemplation Map was ruined! It could no longer enhance his divine sense.
The Third Householder’s complexion gradually lost its color.
Without the Contemplation Map to enhance his divine sense, advancing his formation knowledge would be very difficult.
He had been just one step away from becoming a Second Rank Formation Master, but now that step seemed infinitely far away.
“Who destroyed my Contemplation Map?!”
The Third Householder, unable to contain his anger, thought of Mo Hua in a daze.
“Was it the little ghost who did it?”
But how did he manage to destroy the Contemplation Map?
The Third Householder pondered deeply.
In the Contemplation Map, the scenery remained, only the Taoist Child was missing. Why had the Taoist Child disappeared, and where had he gone?
The image of Mo Hua’s elegant face and innocent smile came to the Third Householder’s mind, and an incredible speculation emerged.
“Could that little ghost actually be the Taoist Child from the Contemplation Map…”
“No, this is impossible!”
The Third Householder shook his head repeatedly.
Yet in his heart, the more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, especially the similarity between their smiles—both innocently cheerful and faintly carrying a hint of mischief.
A chill rose in the Third Householder’s heart, along with a sense of dread.
That little ghost, he was beginning to see through him even less.
Was he human or ghost, an old demon that had possessed a body, or a demon monster wearing human skin, the Taoist Child from the Contemplation Map, or just a figment of his own imagination?
“I must capture that little ghost and find out the truth about his origins…”