Zhao Jiuge listened to the sounds of the city, smelled the wine in the air, and watched the stream run along the city. The sun set toward the west and bathed the city in the light of the sunset. The antique roofs and the small bridge above the flowing river created a comfortable mood for Zhao Jiuge.

There were a lot of people in Dong Yang City. Although the sun was almost down, there were still a lot of people on the streets. Zhao Jiuge went from stall to stall and would sometimes pick things up to observe. He was, after all, only a fourteen-year-old boy, so he was overwhelmed by his own childishness because it was the first time he had come to a city.

Soon, he finished strolling through this street and found a strange alley where he felt some spirit force fluctuations. He hesitated a bit before walking down this alley.

This alley was very quiet and very out of place compared to the bustling of the rest of the city. He walked a few steps before he saw people with spirit force fluctuations before a stall. There weren’t many of them, only seven or eight people. One of them was at the Blood Movement Realm, while the rest were at the Spirit Detecting Realm.

As Zhao Jiuge observed them, they were also observing him. They saw a youth in black carrying a long sword. They saw his slightly childish face and were surprised to find that he had spirit force as well. Although surprised at how young he was, they lowered their heads and continued on with their business.

Zhao Jiuge walked over and carefully observed the things the people had set up on the stall. They were ordinary spirit medicines—none of them had strong spiritual energy. There were also some spirit herbs and materials, but nothing he found interesting. A few magic treasures were placed as well, but they were not as good as the long sword he had taken. 

Magic treasures were generally created by engraving spirit stones onto normal weapons, which would increase the absorption of spirit force and increase the power of the magic treasure. Precious treasures were created with spirit materials, so they had their own unique characteristics. Looking at the things on the stall, Zhao Jiuge realized that this was a place dedicated to cultivators, but none of the items here were very good. Zhao Jiuge lost all interest.

He couldn’t help but feel melancholy. Even if a mortal was fortunately enough to embark on the path of cultivation, they would never get far without a proper cultivation method. He thought about how the plain-clothed woman was able to reach the Spirit Core Realm at such a young age. Part of it was her talent and part of it was her cultivation method. Sure enough, everyone below the Nascent Soul Realm were mere ants. Zhao Jiuge suddenly felt very fortunate, and he looked forward to the power of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra and the Sanskrit Divine Body in the future.

He turned around and was ready to leave when he noticed that at the end of the valley, there was a door guarded by two men in black. The door was covered by a black curtain, and Zhao Jiuge was curious about this door that required two Blood Movement Realm cultivators to guard. After hesitating a bit, Zhao Jiuge walked up.

“Stop. Do you have an invitation?” The two men in black looked at Zhao Jiuge with vigilance and looked up and down at the youth. Zhao Jiuge looked at the two men and asked in shock, “Invitation? What invitation?” 

“You can’t enter without an invitation. You must be a foreign rogue cultivator. This is a business that belongs to Dong Yang City’s Mo family. This is not a place to mess around at.” The man in black was still on guard and raised his voice a bit. Although Zhao Jiuge was young, they didn’t dare to be too unbridled. After all, he had spirit force, and a cultivator’s personality couldn’t be compared with a normal person’s.

Zhao Jiuge secretly muttered, “Mo family.” He felt that there should just be one Mo family in the city. Tomorrow, he would ask Old Mo during his visit to the Mo family. He turned around and returned to the inn.

After stretching, Zhao Jiuge let out a breath of foul air and sat down on the bed. He slowly closed his eyes, his hands formed the seal for the Sanskrit Divine Body, and his breathing became smooth. Soon after Zhao Jiuge closed his eyes, ripples appeared in the calm space around him as if a rock was thrown into a calm lake. Strands of spiritual energy were being absorbed by Zhao Jiuge. 

The spiritual energy entered his body and was turned into spirit force by his cultivation method. The spirit force travelled toward his dantian to nourish the golden dragon there. When the golden dragon felt the spirit force, it opened its mouth to greedly absorb it. As time passed, the golden dragon became brighter and brighter; it became much more active as well.

After finishing with the Sanskrit Divine Body, Zhao Jiuge let out a mouthful of white gas and exited his cultivation state. The golden dragon seemed to have eaten its fill, so it lazily curled up in his dantian, its eyes squinting.

Feeling the progress of his Sanskrit Divine Body, Zhao Jiuge felt very satisfied. Right now, he could only slowly absorb spiritual energy to nourish the golden dragon. He had to enter the Spirit Transformation Realm in order to cultivate the second stage of the Sanskrit Divne Body.

He had just reached the late stage of the Blood Movement Realm, and because he had been so busy on the road, he hadn’t had the time to cultivate. He began to cultivate the Sanskrit Heart Sutra and spiritual energy rushed into his body, completing one cycle after another as spiritual energy turned into spirit force. Zhao Jiuge continued to cultivate like this.

On the morning of the next day, the warm, morning glow shined through the crack in the window and a ray of white light shined in the room. The light slowly extended and finally climbed up to the bed next to the face of the youth that was sitting on it.

Feeling the warmth from the outside world, the youthful face trembled and his closed eyes gradually opened, revealing dark and gentle eyes.

Bang, bang, bang… The sound of someone knocking the door echoed. Zhao Jiuge moved his body a bit and got off the bed. He opened the door and a middle-aged man in a blue robe stood before him. The middle-aged man had an elegant temperament, white skin, and a pair of very shrewd and capable eyes. He was smiling at Zhao Jiuge.

Just as Zhao Jiuge was feeling surprised by this middle-aged man, he saw old man Mo behind the middle-aged man, so now he could guess who the middle-aged man was. What shocked him was that Mo Linger had also followed them.

Mo Linger had changed her appearance. Her long hair was tied up in a ponytail and there were two green earrings on her ears. The earrings jingled slightly and gave off a noble aura, and their color made her look even more pure. Her pants were wrapped around her slender legs, making her look even more beautiful.

She was filled with vitality and a youthful aura that caused Zhao Jiuge to slightly lose himself. Of course, he merely lost himself for a moment—there was only one person in Zhao Jiuge’s heart. That person’s shadow was noble, cold, beautiful, and untouchable. He felt that he had stared at her for too long and felt embarrassed.

Fortunately, the middle-aged man in blue said, “Young hero, I’m the Mo family’s head, Mo Longjie. Yesterday, when Old Mo came back, he told me everything. I was late to welcome the young hero, so I came this morning to pick you up to stay at my place. How about I call you ‘Jiuge?’” The middle-aged man showed his gratitude, and his temperament made Zhao Jiuge feel close to him.

“Family Head Mo is too polite. I simply wanted to explore Dong Yang City alone since it was my first time here, so I declined Old Mo’s repeated invitations.” Zhao Jiuge’s face became slightly red. After all, this was his first time dealing with something like this. The other party was very polite and overall gave people a very welcoming feeling.

“Haha, Jiuge, don’t call me ‘Family Head Mo,’ it's such an unfamiliar name. If you don’t mind, call me ‘Uncle Mo.’” The middle-aged man looked very happy and the corner of his mouth curved up as he looked at Zhao Jiuge.

Zhao Jiuge struggled with a smile and whispered, “Uncle Mo”. After the middle-aged man heard this, he became even more happy and grabbed Zhao Jiuge’s shoulder. “Jiuge, ah, I heard about your situation from Old Mo. Since you have no family and you’re willing to call me ‘Uncle Mo.’ then from now on, the Mo mansion is your home. As for the matter with the Xiao family, your Uncle Mo will deal with it, so you don’t have to be afraid.” The middle-aged man observed Zhao Jiuge carefully. From his initial contact with this youth and from what he had heard from Old Mo, this youth’s character was pretty good. After observing him a bit more at the mansion, if this youth really did have such a good character, then he would take this youth in.

Although Zhao Jiuge had never left the mountain village, it didn’t mean that he didn’t understand anything about human relations. Hearing the intent of the middle-aged man, he quickly accepted it and called the middle-aged man “Uncle Mo” to express his gratitude.

From beginning to end, Old Mo stood behind the middle-aged man and didn’t speak a word, but his wrinkled face revealed a kind smile. Mo Linger didn’t dare to say a word due to the presence of her father, and it wasn’t until she heard that Zhao Jiuge had agreed to come to her home that she jumped in joy.

Mo Longjie stared at Mo Linger and only then did she stop. She stuck out her little tongue like a child who had done something wrong and looked very cute.

The group of people smiled and laughed as they walked out of the inn. The sun had risen into the sky and the city looked even more prosperous and noisy than yesterday during sunset.