308 Suspicion_1
Mo Hua once again stood in front of the entrance to Black Mountain Stronghold.
Two days ago, Black Mountain Stronghold had been breached, with the majority of its evil cultivators eradicated.
Of the four Foundation Establishment evil cultivators, the Fourth Householder died in battle, the Second Householder was seriously injured and captured, while the Head Householder and Third Householder escaped with severe injuries and are now being pursued by the Taoist Court and its soldiers.
Hidden deep within the mountains, committing myriad acts of evil and once strong for a time, Black Mountain Stronghold was almost completely destroyed.
The remaining evil cultivators would be wanted and hunted down.
And the main force that destroyed Black Mountain Stronghold was the Taoist Court’s soldiers.
Just as Zhang Lan had said, the Taoist soldiers were indeed powerful.
Mo Hua had not witnessed it firsthand but had inquired about it from her father, Mo Shan, afterward.
It was said that during the battle, wherever the Taoist soldiers’ spears pointed, they were invincible.
Underneath their spears, the evil cultivators had hardly any challenger, falling either seriously wounded or dead within a mere moment of clashing.
The Taoist soldiers were the sharp blades that maintained the authority of the Taoist Court, symbolizing its strength and majesty.
With soldiers as powerful as these under its command, it’s no wonder the Taoist Court has unified the Cultivation World and stood unyielding for twenty thousand years.
And these were only the Qi Refinement Realm First-grade Taoist soldiers.
Taoist soldiers of a higher grade must be even more terrifying…
Mo Hua couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe.
However, although Black Mountain Stronghold had fallen, she still had many things that she couldn’t understand.
Mo Hua looked towards the mountain gate of Black Mountain Stronghold.
The Concealment Formation on the gate had failed, and the sinister, blood-stained gate had one of its pillars broken, leaving the entire Black Mountain Stronghold in a state of dilapidation.
Mo Hua did not enter through the main gate but instead circled to the nearby high wall.
The first time she entered Black Mountain Stronghold, she had undone a Formation at the high wall, dug a hole, and sneaked in that way.
That small hole at the corner of the wall was still there.
“The evil cultivators didn’t discover this spot?”
Mo Hua was somewhat surprised, released her Divine Sense, felt through the high wall for a moment, and then her gaze sharpened suddenly.
“No, they did find it!”
Behind the hole in the wall, several new Formations were added, including the Golden Bell Formation, Wood Binding Formation, and a few other types of Formations.
The Golden Bell Formation was used for alerts, the Wood Binding Formation for trapping people, and the other few formations were put to similar uses.
They found the hole and planned to lie in wait like a hunter!
If Mo Hua were to enter through the hole again, she would trigger the Formations, alert the evil cultivators, and get trapped by the Formations on the spot.
These Formations must have been set up by the Third Householder.
Mo Hua hardly needed to think to know that the Third Householder must surely have ordered people to stand guard nearby. The moment the Formations were triggered, they would rush to capture her.
But they didn’t manage to wait for Mo Hua—the Black Mountain Stronghold was finished before that…
At this point, there were no evil cultivators left in the stronghold, so Mo Hua had nothing to worry about.
She took out the Thousand Jun Stick, enlarged the hole at the entrance even more, and in passing destroyed the Formations opposite it. Only then did she re-enter Black Mountain Stronghold through the hole in the wall.
At this moment, Black Mountain Stronghold was still bloody but had become more desolate and dead, no longer feeling as oppressive.
Mo Hua spent some time following the route she remembered from memory, browsing the front part of the stronghold roughly.
Most of the buildings had collapsed, and the items inside had been cleared out, to be handed over to the Taoist Court.
The stronghold’s prison was eerily empty.
The cultivators who had been captured and imprisoned there without exception had been killed by the evil cultivators.
Perhaps the evil cultivators had killed them before the battle; perhaps during the stalemate to replenish their Blood Qi and Spiritual Power; or maybe in a fit of rage during their defeat.
In any case, they did not leave a single survivor.
The Court Officials and Taoist soldiers had already encoffined these corpses, sealing the coffins to be taken back to the Taoist Court, trying to verify their identities to give an account to their families.
If they cannot verify the identities, they would find a nearby spot for burial, erect a makeshift grave, and place a nameless stone.
These cultivators met with misfortune and died miserably.
After death, they have no one to worship them, no one to remember them, not even anyone to know them, and their gravestones won’t even bear their names.
Mo Hua sighed, feeling somewhat disheartened.
After checking the front part of the stronghold, Mo Hua proceeded to the rear part and frowned as she looked around.
The Formations in the rear stronghold were dense and numerous, far more than when Mo Hua first visited.
Formation Painting requires time, and only the Third Householder among the Black Mountain Stronghold knew how to paint such First-grade Formations, so these Formations had been placed well in advance.
She estimated that soon after she left, the Third Householder must have begun setting them up.