Chapter 144 – Enemies Meet
Lu family's spirit field.
Gu Mo toyed with the vibrant green bamboo sword in his hands. Although this top-grade magic weapon had been refined by his pseudo-core avatar, Gu Mo's true body could now also wield it. However, his true body only possessed the liquid spiritual energy of the Foundation Establishment stage, far inferior to the pseudo-core avatar's core power. As such, he couldn't unleash the full power of this exceptional treasure just yet.
But once Gu Mo finished refining the complete Tier 3 Solar Essence and filled his body with Golden Core power, those limitations would vanish.
Handing the bamboo sword back to his pseudo-core avatar, Gu Mo picked up the jade slip containing the Wind Escape Technique. He planned to study this movement technique in depth.
"Senior, someone is here to see you!"
At that moment, Lu Lingmei's voice rang out from beyond the formation.
"Who's looking for me?"
Gu Mo frowned and set the jade slip aside. If someone were looking for his pseudo-core avatar, it wouldn't be surprising—after all, that avatar had built a considerable network over the past few years.
But his true body had barely shown itself in recent years. Who would come looking for him now?
After a brief moment of thought, Gu Mo turned to his pseudo-core avatar. Immediately, the avatar's aura dropped from the pseudo-core level down to the Foundation Establishment stage.
Then the avatar's appearance also shifted, matching Gu Mo's current identity. Of course, this wasn't his real face. He hadn't forgotten that the Fenghua Sect still had a wanted poster for him—with his likeness on it.
"Let's go."
The Gu Mo avatar stepped out of the formation and called Lu Lingmei to accompany him to the Lu residence. Naturally, he wouldn't invite guests into the spirit field—that place held too many of his secrets.
Once they reached the Lu family's reception hall, Gu Mo saw the visitor and was stunned. He never would've expected to run into an old acquaintance here.
But Gu Mo kept his emotions well hidden.
"Master Hu!"
Upon seeing him, He Shaogang immediately stood and cupped his fists.
"I don't deserve such a title," Gu Mo quickly replied, for he had already sensed He Shaogang's Golden Core cultivation. That He had advanced to the Golden Core stage in such a short time was astonishing.
And not just He Shaogang—even Yao Shifeng, who stood beside him, exuded a faint Foundation Establishment aura. However, there was something off-putting about his energy.
"Master Hu's expertise in cultivating sword bamboo is well-recognized. You are more than worthy of the title," He Shaogang said with a friendly smile. "To be candid, I am the heir apparent of the Fenghua Sect. Upon hearing of your talents, I came to personally invite you to join our sect."
After some polite small talk, He Shaogang extended his invitation.
"I appreciate Sect Master He's generous offer," Gu Mo replied, feigning surprise. "But I've already promised the Lu family I'd stay here for a while, so I'm afraid I must decline for now."
As he spoke, Gu Mo silently weighed the possibility of luring He Shaogang into the spirit field and killing him outright.
But he quickly abandoned the idea. If He Shaogang really was the Fenghua Sect's heir, he likely carried protective treasures. If Gu Mo attacked rashly and failed to kill him, it would cause enormous trouble—possibly dragging the Lu family down with him.
"That's truly a pity. Still, our sect's gates will always be open to you," He Shaogang said with a warm smile. After a pleasant chat, he and Yao Shifeng took their leave.
As He Shaogang walked away, the smile vanished from Gu Mo's face. His expression darkened—he hadn't expected He Shaogang to track him down here, and it was deeply unsettling.
Gu Mo was confident in his master-level Aura Concealment Technique combined with his disguise technique. Unless a Nascent Soul cultivator searched him face-to-face, he shouldn't be exposed. But if He Shaogang had somehow used his soul lamp to locate him, then Gu Mo would be in serious trouble.
As a former core disciple of the Qinglu Sect, Gu Mo had left his soul lamp in the sect's main hall. The soul lamp had two primary functions: confirming the life or death of key disciples, and verifying their identity to prevent impersonation.
It couldn't be used for curses or tracking—it simply didn't have that kind of power. If soul lamps had such vulnerabilities, major sects would never have adopted them.
Still, the soul lamp was now a potential liability. Ideally, it had been destroyed when the Qinglu Sect was overrun.
But the Fenghua Sect likely knew about the lamps' use in identifying Qinglu survivors. Before launching their assault, they almost certainly prioritized seizing the soul lamps of important figures like Gu Mo and Yuan Niya.
That said, the soul lamp had to be close to the target to confirm identity. That's why Gu Mo hadn't been overly worried about its being used to find him—until now.
He hadn't expected He Shaogang to show up unannounced. No matter how good the disguise, sometimes all it took was sheer dumb luck for the enemy to stumble upon the truth.
Still, since He Shaogang hadn't attacked immediately, Gu Mo couldn't be certain whether he possessed the soul lamp—or whether the lamp failed to give a clear reaction because Gu Mo had only sent out an avatar.
Now it came down to whether He Shaogang returned for further probing. If he did, it would almost certainly mean he had Gu Mo's soul lamp and had started to suspect something. At that point, Gu Mo would have no choice but to act.
Elsewhere, as He Shaogang and Yao Shifeng departed the Lu residence, He pulled out a small lamp from within his robes. The flame inside flickered faintly.
Frowning at the lamp, He Shaogang studied it closely. It was indeed the soul lamp Gu Mo had left behind in the Qinglu Sect. He had carried it during every visit to various spirit plant cultivators.
Until now, the lamp had never reacted. But this time, it had responded—albeit faintly. He Shaogang wasn't sure what to make of it.
"Shifeng, do you think that Hu Shuo is actually Gu Mo?" he asked Yao Shifeng, who had once been close to Gu Mo.
"I couldn't say for sure," Yao replied with a shake of his head. "We were close once, but ever since the group disbanded, his progress has been astonishing. Frankly, he feels like a stranger to me now."
"Keep someone watching that place," He Shaogang ordered after a pause.
Even if he couldn't confirm Hu Shuo's identity, the soul lamp's reaction was enough to raise suspicions. He planned to return for another test—or perhaps directly capture and interrogate Hu Shuo to confirm any connection to Gu Mo. If the man resisted, He wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
After all, to the Fenghua Sect, a spirit plant cultivator with no background was nothing more than an ant.
Of course, He would prefer the man to cooperate. Killing people in broad daylight wasn't great for the sect's reputation—especially in a place like Immortal City.
Back at the Lu estate, Gu Mo summoned Fang Jiaoyan.
"Fellow Daoist Fang, begin preparing to evacuate the entire clan to Immortal City," he said solemnly.
Up until now, he hadn't been sure whether He Shaogang had identified him. But once his spiritual sense picked up unfamiliar cultivators lurking around the Lu family's estate, he knew the worst-case scenario had arrived.
He understood He Shaogang too well—once the man caught even a whiff of a lead, he'd pursue it relentlessly. Gu Mo could already see the confrontation coming.
He could flee now, but with eyes watching the area, that would be as good as a confession. Worse still, in his current state, he only had pseudo-core strength—not enough to defeat a true Golden Core cultivator like He Shaogang.
But if he stayed and fought, he could leverage the full power of his spirit field's plant-based defense system. In that terrain, he had real Golden Core-level combat power—enough to threaten even a mid-stage Golden Core.
This was his best chance to take out this persistent pest.
The only problem was that the Lu family would be caught in the crossfire. That's why he told Fang Jiaoyan to prepare for evacuation—not to leave immediately. Leaving too early would only get them intercepted.
The real window to escape would come after Gu Mo killed He Shaogang, during the brief period before reinforcements arrived.
Too early or too late, and the chance would be lost.
"Ah!"
Fang Jiaoyan was stunned by Gu Mo's sudden evacuation order. Why the need to leave, and so suddenly?
"I understand. I'll start preparing right away," she said after a moment. Though confused, she trusted that the master had his reasons—he must have sensed danger.
Returning to the spirit field, Gu Mo assessed his accumulated assets over the years: five Tier 3 Solar Flowers, one Tier 3 Peashooter, and one Tier 3 Torchwood. Together, those two could pose a real threat to a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.
He also had a Tier 3 Potato Mine, a Tier 3 Cherry Bomb, and a Tier 3 Wall-nut at the core of the defense formation.
As long as no late-stage Golden Core cultivator showed up, this arsenal was more than enough to dominate.
At present, He Shaogang's understanding of Gu Mo was still stuck a few years back—back when Gu Mo, still at the peak of the Qi Refining stage, had managed to kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Even after all these years, the most He Shaogang could imagine was that Gu Mo had advanced to the early or mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.
No matter how wildly he stretched his imagination, He Shaogang would never believe that Gu Mo could possess the means to kill someone at the Core Formation level like himself.
Buoyed by the confidence brought by all the intelligence he had gathered, He Shaogang silently infiltrated the Lu Clan one pitch-black night. As for the clan's defensive formation, it might as well have not existed at all—he dismantled it with ease, like brushing away dust.
He quickly made his way to the spiritual field at the mountaintop. Watching the soul lamp in his hand flicker more and more intensely, a faint smile formed on He Shaogang's lips. As expected, Gu Mo was here.
That so-called "Master Hu" was clearly just Gu Mo in disguise. He was curious what method Gu Mo had used to fool him. Had the soul lamp not reacted, he might've really been taken in.
"So then... what kind of entrance should I make?" Standing at the edge of the mountaintop, He Shaogang looked toward the spiritual field shrouded in a formation, picturing the look of shock and horror on Gu Mo's face once he realized who had come for him.
Crack!
He Shaogang took a few steps toward the spiritual field, and a crisp sound rang out beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw a small round-headed wooden stick.
"Not bad. A decent spirit plant."
He Shaogang had long known that Gu Mo possessed a type of underground explosive spirit plant. The one he'd just stepped on was clearly one of them—and deliberately so. This was the entrance He Shaogang had planned.
Boom—!
As soon as he lifted his foot, the buried "Potato Mine" detonated. But its explosive force was blocked by a layer of golden light, leaving He Shaogang completely unharmed. This, too, was by design—He Shaogang wanted to show Gu Mo that even his most powerful techniques were useless against a Core Formation cultivator like himself.
With his cultivation level, crushing Gu Mo would be child's play. But simply killing him felt unsatisfying. He Shaogang had suffered several setbacks at Gu Mo's hands, even nearly having his identity exposed—something that could have jeopardized his entire plan.
For days, He Shaogang had been living in a state of constant anxiety, obsessing over how to eliminate Gu Mo. And now, he wanted Gu Mo to feel that same fear—wanted him to taste despair.
Inside the spiritual field, Gu Mo watched He Shaogang's movements with a slight frown, a trace of regret surfacing in his heart. If he'd known, he would have planted the Tier 3 Potato Mine further out.
The ones buried in the outer perimeter were all Tier 1, low-grade Potato Mines. There were no Tier 2s. Against a Core Formation cultivator like He Shaogang, the difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 was negligible. These mines were meant as a smokescreen—to lull He Shaogang into a false sense of security and pave the way for the Tier 3 mines hidden deeper within.
"Gu Mo, old friend—since I've come to visit, why not come out and greet me?" He Shaogang said coldly, seeing no reaction from within the formation.
The soul lamp had already confirmed that Gu Mo was inside. He wasn't worried about Gu Mo escaping—he had already stationed people around the perimeter, including a False Core elder as commander. Gu Mo had no way out.
Within the spiritual field, Gu Mo stared quietly at He Shaogang. Then, with a light wave of his hand, the Peashooters began a synchronized volley.
Though the barrage looked fierce, they were all just Tier 1 Peashooters—like the earlier Potato Mines, they served only as cover. Hidden among them was a single shot fired by a Tier 3 Peashooter: a high-energy green pea infused with power on par with the Core Formation stage.
Gu Mo didn't have his Torchwood ignite the Tier 3 Peashooter's energy pea—not yet. After all, one fireball amidst a flurry of green shots would stand out too much. Even a fool would sense something was off.
As the glowing green peas flew toward him, He Shaogang quickly picked out the one imbued with Core Formation-level energy.
"Interesting... So this is your trump card?"
A faint smile appeared on He Shaogang's lips. It made sense now why Gu Mo hadn't fled—he must have had some cards up his sleeve. And now, He Shaogang had seen them: a single attack reaching Core Formation strength. An impressive trump card indeed.
If it had been a False Core or Fake Core cultivator who'd come instead, Gu Mo might have actually stood a chance.
Unfortunately for him, this time He Shaogang had come in person.
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