Chapter 224: Deceiving Yourself

Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

The few of them stared at one another. Sang Yiping, Nie Zhengnong, and Zhuang Yan were not that knowledgable, hence they could not think of much on the spot. Pu Qian was too lazy to even think about these things deeply. But now that Mo Wuji had surfaced these issues, they realised that there were so many problems hidden within.

“So head senior brother, you put those things back?” Sang Yiping finally understood why Mo Wuji would place those items back.

“Perhaps Heaven Sect’s sect head used some means to spread the news about the immortal estate.” Zhuang Yan said unconfidently.

“No, the Heaven Sect’s Sect Head is not such a generous person. You can see that from the treasures he collects from all over the world. Head senior brother placed the ring back, otherwise if he opened it, there must have been all sorts of treasures in it.” Sang Liping immediately added on.

With a grin, Mo Wuji replied, “I’ll definitely take the ring, but before I do, we have to resolve these issues. One more thing is that the spirit energy here is very dense, but we never saw anything like a energy gathering array or something similar. I suspect that there’s a spiritual vein here.”

“A spiritual vein?” The few of them were simultaneously shocked.

Mo Wuji nodded his head, and he swept the area with his spiritual will, sensing that the location with the densest spiritual energy was where Jing Gumu lay. If they wanted to investigate the source of the spiritual vein, they would have to move Jing Gumu’s corpse. But in Jing Gumu’s last words, he said not to move his dead body.

Just as everyone was thinking about the spiritual vein that Mo Wuji mentioned, Mo Wuji’s expression suddenly changed for the worse, and he immediately shouted, “Everyone come here quick…”

Once he finished speaking, he was the first to charge into the house that Jing Gumu was in. Pu Qian and the rest completely trusted Mo Wuji by then, so when he entered the house, the remaining four of them followed suit.

As Sang Yiping wanted to ask what was going on, a few rounds of guffawing could be heard coming from the outside.

“Is that the True God Stage expert?” Zhuang Yan inquired with a shaky voice.

At that point their faces all turned as pale as a ghost. This wild laughter was so frightening, so who could it have been other than that True God Stage expert?

“It’s him, and he knows that we’re in here.” The tone that Mo Wuji took while he spoke became more rushed now, as they were going against someone that was way stronger than they were. Even if this guy was severely injured, he was not someone they could deal with.

Seeing that everyone was quite lost, Mo Wuji immediately rushed to a corner of the room behind Jing Gumu’s corpse, at the same time gesturing to the others. When the few of them came closer, he continuously threw out spirit stones, then took out a few simple array flags. Those array flags were things that Mo Wuji could not create himself, so a few were low grade array flags that he had bought, and others were found from other people’s storage rings.

A few minutes later, he finally stopped.

“Head senior brother, you’re setting up a concealment array?” Nie Zhengnong recognised what he was doing and asked.

Mo Wuji nodded, “That’s right, this is a simple concealment array which can’t even be considered a low grade concealment array. Other than this concealment array, I added on a sound isolating array.”

At this moment, Mo WUji was truly thankful towards Chu Xingzi. Without Chu Xingzi, he would not be able to recognise simple arrays, much less set them up.

Sang Yiping quickly followed up, “Granny Linglong said that the black clothed man is at True God Stage Level 1, so even if he was severely injured, and have less than 1% of his strength, could this concealment array block his spiritual will?”

After Sang Yiping asked this question, Pu Qian and co. gazed at Mo Wuji hopefully, hoping that he would say that it could.

But Mo Wuji shook his head, “You must be dreaming if you think this concealment array can block the spiritual will of a True God Stage cultivator. I daresay that the guy will be able to sense the existence of this concealment array right when he enters, then discover our presence.”

“Ah…” They were stunned, since this concealment array could not obscure them from the black clothed man’s line of sight, why were they using it?

Mo Wuji still calmly spoke, “We don’t have anywhere to hide, so this is the best we can do.”

Sang Yiping and co. all lowered their heads, while their head senior apprentice was deceiving himself, this was all that he could do. Otherwise, where would they go to hide instead?

This sort of trick has a name back where I lived, which is deceiving yourself [1].” Mo Wuji continued.

“What’s deceiving yourself…” When Zhuang Yan asked this, without his explanation, she had understood immediately. It meant covering your ears to steal a bell, so the only person you were deceiving was yourself.

However, Sang Yiping still asked, “Head senior brother, there must be some reason behind your actions right?”

Sighing, Mo Wuji replied, “I can only hope that my guess is correct. Everyone keep quiet, the guy will soon find us here.”

“Bang!” Jing Gumu’s room was kicked wide open, and the and cracks spread throughout its walls.

If things went as Mo Wuji expected, the black clothed man that killed the corpse cultivator would be standing at the door. Mo WUji did not use his spiritual will to sweep across this black clothed man, and could see that the injuries on him was just as Granny Linglong had said, without any improvement. He probably dared to come here because he did not take any of them, Mortal Realms cultivators, seriously.

The black clothed man’s gaze swept across the house, and when it reached Mo Wuji and co. hiding at in the corner, a cold grin appeared on his face. Such an inferior concealment array, and they thought they could hide from him. This was simply too bold of them.

He did not bother with Mo Wuji and co, instead focusing straight on the three items at the corpse in front of him. His eyes lit up, and with a step forward, he grabbed the three items.

Seeing the black clothed man do that allowed Mo Wuji to heave a sigh of relief. As long as the black clothed man did not attack them straight away, they would stand a chance. Even though they did not get acquainted with the black clothed man, but from his actions of killing the corpse cultivator without saying a word, then taking Granny Linglong’s strike with the intention of bringing the corpse cultivator’s leftovers away, they could infer that this was a very proud man. Once his mind was fixed on something, he would not ask for other people’s opinions. Just like how he was so sure that the corpse cultivator had an immortal estate after hearing Mo Wuji’s words, so he simply went on to snatch it.

Now that he did not act against them immediately after entering, instead going to take the few things in front of the corpse, meant that this man felt that the few of them were acting smart to set up a rubbish concealment array which wasn’t worth mentioning. The black clothed man definitely wanted to keep the things that Jing Gumu left behind, before tearing up their concealment array, and letting them die slowly in fear.

But this was what Mo Wuji was aiming for when setting up the concealment array. If he did not set it up, they would have been spotted immediately after the black clothed man entered, and perhaps the black clothed man would have killed all of them in seconds. However, people might try to act smart, and the black clothed man did so when he thought that Mo Wuji and co were the ones trying to act smart.

In a flash, the black clothed man scanned through the scroll that Jing Gumu left behind, then he flipped the jade seal around a few times. However, he did not use his blood to refine it, instead knocking Jing Gumu’s dead body aside with his hand. As for whatever Jing Gumu said about not moving his body, it was bullsh*t to him.

The instant that he swept Jing Gumu’s corpse to one side, the black clothed man stopped for a moment. He suddenly felt that something was not right. The youth in blue (Mo Wuji) had used words to manipulate him to fight with the corpse cultivator, and in the end that youth took the chance to save the woman that he had been pursuing for days.

So that youth was definitely not an idiot, and since he wasn’t one, wouldn’t he know that setting up a concealment array here would not be able to block his field of vision? Perhaps the youth did not know that it would be him, the black clothed man, coming, so he thought that the concealment array would hold up.

Regardless, it would be better if he killed the youth first.

At this point, dense spiritual energy rose up. This was the source of a spiritual vein, which made the black clothed man very excited. He didn’t expect that there was a spiritual vein beneath the dead body, no wonder Jing Gumu told people not to move his corpse.

What would a dead want want with a spiritual vein?

Not good, the black clothed man instantly reacted.

The instant he did, a strong divine spirit rushed into his sea of consciousness.

Spirit possession? A nasty expression appeared on the black clothed man’s face, as he did not imagine that someone would try to transfer their spirit into him.

He immediately sat cross legged, clashing with the newly introduced divine spirit in his sea of consciousness. His aim was to tear the divine spirit into pieces.

“Crack” With a raise of his hand, Mo Wuji tore open the concealment array before him, and was the first to step out.

The black clothed man knew what was going on straight away. This youth was really very cunning, and this was the second time that he had been manipulated again.

“What’s going on head senior brother?” Sang Yiping looked at the cross legged black clothed man uncertainly. This black clothed man had a savage expression, and seemed as though as he was struggling in pain.

This time, Mo Wuji would not give him any chances, and he threw electroball after electroball at the black clothed man while saying, “Quickly kill this tramp.”

His guess was spot on, as the spiritual energy was very dense here, but they could not see any spirit stones or energy gathering array, so there obviously was a spiritual vein around.

As Mo Wuji had opened 101 meridians, he was very sensitive to spiritual energy, and on top of that he had his spiritual will to search with, so he could guess that the spiritual vein was right below Jing Gumu’s body.

Just as the black clothed man had guessed, why would a dead man sit on top of a spiritual vein? The only possibility was that this dead man was actually not completely dead. With someone who was not completely dead, and could not attack others, it would mean that there was a divine spirit.

Mo Wuji had no idea that divine spirits could possess others. Moreover, the dead body was sitting on a spiritual vein, and anyone would have sensed the source of spiritual energy, so they would have thrown the body to one side. As long as someone came into contact with the corpse Jing Gumu’s divine spirit would have the chance to enter the person’s sea of consciousness to undergo spirit possession.

While the black clothed man was not Jing Gumu’s ideal spirit possession target, he had swept the corpse to one side, so Jing Gumu had no choice but to act.

When Jing Gumu started the spirit possession process, the black clothed man naturally would not be able to care about Mo Wuji and co for a short duration of time. Mo Wuji would have been an idiot if he did not act then. Moreover, this was the moment that he was waiting for.

The rest of the group slowly began to understand what was going on, so they drew their spiritual items out, and attacked the black clothed man.

The black clothed man was originally severely injured, and now he had to take a continuous barrage of electroballs from Mo Wuji, without being able to return a blow. This made him very frustrated.

But as a True God Stage Level 1 expert, even if his strength was 90% gone, he could not be easily killed by a few of Mo Wuji’s Lightning Flashes. His injuries worsened, but none of the wounds were fatal still.

“Boom Boom Boom!” Countless lightning bolts flew over at him, and the black clothed man simply laughed. While this leftover spirit was strong, it was even less durable than him now. It had been suppressed, and with a little more time, he would be able to suppress it completely. Then he would slowly dead with this sly youth. Threw the slew of electroballs that hit his body, he clearly knew the youth’s cultivation level, which was no more than Transcending Mortality Level 1.

At this moment, an extreme sense of fear overwhelmed him, as though as he was facing death itself.

[1] TL: The raw is 掩耳盜鈴, which literally means covering your ears to steal a bell. This means that you are deceiving yourself as you assume that other people cannot hear the sound of the bell if you can’t.