I hurriedly jumped from one rooftop to another, running across the sky as my gaze wandered in all directions.
My heart ached like it never had. Almost as if a part of it had been stolen from me. My eyes grew blurry, for they had lost the beacon that lit my view.
The county of Xiouyue had been under the rule of my clan for thousands of years. Although, along with our clan, it had declined from its past prosperity.
Thousands of houses had been abandoned, left to rot with time. While those who stayed lived poor their whole life.
With little to no tourism and our clan's power decline, the people had come to despise us as rulers. The only thing that had been holding them back was the past of the Mo's.
But if someone were to kidnap and harm the direct bloodline of the Mo clan from within their own grounds, the public interest would be crushed.
Without a doubt, they will rebel in an instant. However, in that moment, what I feared was not their wrath.
But the image of me losing my son.
Since birth, he had been suffering from a special condition. The Seven Mind Restrictions—something that made his mind stay a child no matter how old he became.
Even at the age of 17, his mind stays as young as that of a 3-year-old. In a sense, he was as good as dead to this world where the strong were praised unconditionally.
But to me, he was my heartbeat.
A reflection of a promise that I made to my wife on her deathbed.
"Take care of our son, please." Those were her last words as she kissed her newborn and held my hand tightly.
Of course, I was saddened beyond someone's comprehension. Having lost the only woman who genuinely cared for me, I felt lost.
Despite having a clan full of blood relatives, they felt like nothing more than strangers to me.
But my son—Mo Wusheng—brought me the joys I never knew existed. In his innocent, childlike persona, I found a new world.
But now, that same world I so loved was gone. My heart and mind both repeated the same set of sentences.
"Please be okay..."
"Please be..."
"PLEASE..."
Each time, the voice only grew louder with my desperation. Before I could notice, I had already crossed the borders of Xiouyue and entered the range of Mt. Qingmao.
In an instant, I flared my suppressed qi to its peak and released it all at once. The Qi, as it released, formed a spherical shape around me and expanded to several kilometers.
Within this sphere, I could even feel the slightest breeze of air with ease.
And yet, I couldn't find his whereabouts.
Then, all of a sudden, a sharp, guttural shriek reverberated from the depths of the mountain.
"AAAARGH!!"
My heart skipped a beat. I recognized the voice. My eyes widened, and my pupils trembled as something strange snapped within me.
For a brief moment, my mind stopped working. I couldn't process what I had just heard.
"It was his voice, wasn't it?"
"Why can't I move!?"
"I need to go save him!"
But before I could move, another shriek came haunting my soul. This time, it was much more horrifying than before.
"FATHERRRRR!"
My heart sank to the bottom of an unknown abyss. My muscles refused to move. For the first time in my life, I became a coward.
I wanted to save my world. But I feared to go before him. As his father, I should've protected him from all dangers. But here he was, wailing in pain.
But in that moment, a voice struck my useless thoughts down.
"Take care of our son... Please..."
It was my late wife's. But that small push was enough to wake me up. As my body came back into my control, with all the power I had in my body, I leapt high into the air.
Encompassing a mountain thousands of feet tall in a few steps, I reached the top. There, I saw a pair of giant wooden stumps, dug vertically into the ground.
"Here comes our small little hero," an elderly voice—full of sarcasm—echoed in the vicinity. I quickly chased it with my eyes.
Up front, a middle-aged man stood mid-air, dressed in long silken robes. A scar ran across his left eye, creating a pattern through his small beard.
Looking towards me, the man grinned hysterically.
"Say, did you like my invitation?" He laughed out loud.
Hearing his words, my blood boiled.
'He was the one behind all this?' I asked myself in silence.
But my rage had become too violent for me to suppress.
"HAND OVER MY SON!!!" I roared at the top of my lungs. My words, mixed with my qi, reached the man like a turbulent oceanic wave.
In an instant, he spat blood. But still, he continued to grin.
"Do you guys hear that? "Release my son," he says! "
Following his words, countless more laughs erupted.
*Crack!*
*Crack!*
Across the sky, countless cracks appeared in the air. From these cracks, thousands of cultivators poured out dressed in different uniforms and attire.
My eyes widened in shock as I recognized each outfit.
"The six clans..." I muttered beneath my breath.
The realization hit me like thunder.
Right... Other than them, who else could've been behind this?
To hammer the last nail into the named coffin of "Mo," they decided to eliminate the bloodline...
'But... where is Wusheng?' I thought as I noticed a crimson-painted human foot hanging next to the wooden pole.
Right behind the mysterious old man, a young boy, painted red in his own blood, hung nailed to the wooden stump.
"Fufufu..." The mysterious man floated a bit back and extended his hand to the right. He was pointing towards the wounded young man.
Grabbing his hair, the man pulled the young man's head upright. And with a swift motion, he used his other hand to behead him cleanly with a small palm-sized dagger.
"Release your son, yeah?" He laughed hard as he swung his arm towards me.
*Thud!*
A loud, wet thud echoed in the area as a body-less head fell onto the ground, blasting into a splash of blood before my eyes.
The head, although damaged beyond recognition, rolled in my direction. Touching my feet, it stopped spinning any further.
My eyes were stuck to its face, as I recognized it to be my world.