Mo Que'er's mother smiled, indulging her. As she washed the bowls and chopsticks, she chatted casually:
"This water-press was something Great-Grandfather Xuan tinkered up. Back then everyone had to haul water little by little in wooden buckets. Now it's just a light press and the water comes out. Same with those three big waterwheels—irrigating the spirit fields is so convenient, and they can even grind wheat and corn. It's saved our family so much labor and strength. It looks simple, but other families can't copy it no matter what. They can only be jealous."
The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener's mind stirred.
Mo Que'er's beautiful eyes flashed. Countless thoughts leapt up in her mind.
Her soul had fused with Mo Que'er's—yet her own soul was far stronger, so much so that it was practically a cuckoo seizing another bird's nest, close to possession. And yet Mo Xuan hadn't been angry. He hadn't even seemed to react much.
Mo Que'er had racked her brains and still couldn't understand it.
But now, an extremely bold idea surfaced.
Could it be… Mo Xuan, like her, came from that "Earth"?
But looking at Mo Xuan and the Mo family, he didn't seem like an outsider at all.
Mo Que'er suddenly understood.
Yes. This was what "family" truly meant.
She didn't need to live in fear. As long as she truly treated the Mo family as her home, then Mo Xuan was her real great-grandfather—one household, one bloodline.
What was there to fear?
With that thought, the heavy burden she'd been carrying finally slid off her shoulders completely. She smiled like a blooming flower and kept pumping water for her mother.
Her mother teased, "Girl, what happy thing are you thinking about? Don't tell me it's Ding family's young man?"
"Mother…" Mo Que'er pouted and complained sweetly. "Of course not."
"What, our Que'er doesn't fancy him?" Her mother chuckled. "I think that young man is quite decent—handsome and talented."
After being bombarded by matchmakers day after day, even she had ended up saying a few good words for Ding Xinjie. The boy really was sincere.
"I'm not talking to you." Mo Que'er wrinkled her nose and stamped her little foot.
Her mother laughed again and stopped pushing the topic, continuing to wash slowly. In the past she could finish quickly, but now there were simply more dishes—no need to rush.
Back Into the Void
Mo Xuan greeted Teacher Kong, then immediately headed for the main portal gate, teleported to Luo Yu's sub-gate, and hurried straight toward the meteor belt.
Time was money. Every second counted.
Blink-shift, advance. Blink-shift, advance…
Nothing but darkness—darkness without end.
Mo Xuan couldn't help thinking of what Mo Que'er had said. His scalp tingled. He forced himself not to dwell on it—afraid that if he thought too much, he'd lose the courage to keep mining meteors in the void.
That was why he hadn't pressed Mo Que'er about the "demon devouring beast" immediately.
No matter what—first finish harvesting the remaining half of the meteor belt.
But the endless black void really was eerie. Alone in the dark, it was hard not to let ugly thoughts creep in.
Over these ten thousand years, at least a thousand immortals had gone missing in the void. Could it be…
They'd run into that demon devouring beast and been swallowed whole?
Mo Xuan swallowed hard. He stood up from his meditation cushion and slapped his cheeks.
What nonsense am I thinking?
Even if such a beast truly existed, if Qingyuan Minor Immortal Realm wanted to grow, they had to mine the void sooner or later. There was no avoiding it.
And if the sky fell… the tall ones would hold it up first.
With fine wine and roast chicken, and the sheer pleasure of sitting in a real "spaceship" straight out of a story, Mo Xuan soon loosened up.
Live for today.
He'd already lived over two hundred years—he'd made a profit. His family no longer needed to worry.
What more could he ask for?
Contentment was happiness.
"Master… I'm so hungry." Little Eight suddenly spoke up.
…Right.
Mo Xuan rolled his eyes and released Little Eight.
Little Eight could eat anything. It swallowed wine and food by the pile—jars and wrappers and all—without even a burp, floating there with a blissful expression.
What a bottomless glutton.
Mo Xuan studied it for a while.
Was this creature truly that terrifying "demon devouring beast"?
He didn't believe "demon devouring beast" automatically meant evil. In this world there was no absolute good or bad. Power itself was a double-edged blade—it depended on how you used it.
Mo Xuan asked, "Can you use that vertical eye?"
Mo Que'er had described it as something godlike—able to seal all energy. Mo Xuan couldn't ignore that.
Little Eight blinked, not understanding.
Mo Xuan pointed at the almond-shaped glow between its brows. He could sense a deep, surging power within—still small, but not to be underestimated.
Yet Little Eight had no response at all.
It only knew: eat when full, sleep when tired, eat when awake.
A pig.
Back Home: "Collective Going Shirtless"
At the Mo household, Mo Xuan had been away for over a month.
The celebratory firecrackers hadn't stopped—every day another bachelor married a pretty bride.
But the six "old-old bachelors" over a hundred years old, still without a match, were truly panicking.
They threw money around, hiring the most silver-tongued matchmakers within a hundred li.
Money could move even ghosts. The matchmakers went all-out.
At first, when a girl's family heard "a fine Mo family lad" was interested, they served tea and snacks and were extremely polite.
The opening always sounded wonderful. The matchmaker's eloquence turned those old bachelors into paragons from heaven. The girl's family listened with delight, eager to latch onto the Mo family's rising fortune.
But then—
When they heard the groom was over a hundred years old…
Door shut. Dogs released.
Several matchmakers were bitten by vicious dogs. And there was nowhere to argue. You wanted a young, pretty girl to marry a hundred-year-old half-ancient man—wasn't that outright坑人?
They didn't beat you with a shoulder pole; that was already mercy.
The anxious ones weren't only those six old bachelors. Mo Shi and Mo Tian—these family pillars—were anxious too.
Finally Mo Shi slammed the table.
He pulled out the ultimate move.
Under the blazing sun, those six old-old bachelors went shirtless, beating gongs and drums, parading village by village.
Sunlight poured down. The six men were drenched in sweat—yet the harder they sweated, the harder they drummed. Their muscles bulged and quivered with strength that seemed endless.
This didn't look like men over a hundred at all.
They looked like twenty- or thirty-something strong young studs.
Several Mo family kids, around ten years old, carried waterskins behind them, cheering for their "grandpas" as they marched—completely unaware that if these grandpas truly "went shirtless" successfully, those kids would soon be forced to call children younger than themselves "uncle" or "aunt."
For three days straight, those six old bachelors drummed like they didn't know the meaning of fatigue.
Boom-boom, shaking the heavens.
The resulting sensation was obvious. News spread across a hundred li.
A few unmarried girls, curiosity burning, climbed ladders to peek over courtyard walls as the drums drew nearer.
And then—
Wow.
Mo family men were all thick-browed, big-eyed, heroic and handsome. Those sturdy muscles, that sweat shining under sunlight…
Heavens.
Where did these gorgeous men come from?
That single peek over the wall later gave rise to the phrase "a red apricot leaning over the wall."
Only, in this minor immortal realm, it carried no wickedness—more a playful blessing for new unions.
In the end, the six old bachelors "collectively went shirtless," and the weddings were held all on the same day.
There were nine brides in total.
Three of the old bachelors laughed especially happily.
Tonight… they'd enjoy the "blessing of sharing."
Mo Shi and the others grinned so hard their mouths wouldn't close. The Mo family truly wasn't ordinary anymore.
And tomorrow would be even better.
The Meteor Belt: Work, Eat, and a Little "Commission"
Following familiar routes, Mo Xuan reached the meteor belt smoothly.
Seeing that nearly half of it still remained, he finally relaxed.
He started work immediately.
Before long, Mo Xuan was humming again—one meteor core after another, relentless.
Little Eight, like a wolf scenting meat, crawled out of the beast pouch on its own and stared at Mo Xuan pitifully.
Mo Xuan sighed and tossed it a small core. "Eat."
Little Eight pounced, swallowed it whole, and wobbled around with a round belly in delight.
A little brother follows a big brother for what? Big brother eats meat; little brother gets soup.
If you don't even get soup, only fools stay loyal.
"Go play," Mo Xuan said, releasing Little Eight into the void. "But don't go too far."
The moment Little Eight entered open void—without air pressure—its body abruptly swelled several times larger and drifted lazily.
It seemed extremely uncomfortable. It quickly returned to the transport ship, clearly not wanting to stay outside at all.
Fine.
Mo Xuan withdrew his earlier thought that Little Eight would be "like a fish in water" in the void.
"Master, I want to play too," Little Eight begged with big eyes.
"I'm working, not playing," Mo Xuan said.
But he couldn't withstand that look. In the end, he gave Little Eight operation permissions and taught it how to control the eighteen whip-tethers for harvesting meteors.
To Mo Xuan's surprise… Little Eight learned fast.
Very fast.
Soon it was harvesting with skill—faster and cleaner than Mo Xuan himself.
Mo Xuan blinked in astonishment.
Then he realized: with so many tentacles, this was probably Little Eight's racial specialty.
If Little Eight was willing to work, even better.
Mo Xuan had no interest in a subordinate that only ate and drank for free.
So he became a hands-off boss, sitting on his cushion and resting—planning to swap in once Little Eight got tired.
But Little Eight was unbelievably energetic. It worked like a demon, never showing fatigue.
Only…
Before long, inside its round belly, two spheres formed—one big, one small.
It had secretly swallowed a Grade A, Second-tier meteor core.
Mo Xuan kept his eyes half-closed and pretended not to notice.
A little brother deserves wages too.
And Little Eight was smart enough to know: the best belongs to the boss; it would just skim a bit of soup.
Before long, that entire meteor belt had been stripped clean.
Only one huge chunk of meteor debris-trash remained.
Mo Xuan happily patted Little Eight—whose belly now held three spheres (two big, one small)—and put it back into the beast pouch to rest.
Mo Xuan gazed into the void with a sigh.
A whole meteor belt, gone just like that.
He still hadn't mined a second Earth-grade core. But he had obtained five A1 water-wood mixed energy crystals, and three gold-water mixed crystals. The transport ship was packed to the brim.
A very solid haul.
Mo Xuan burned away the remaining space-trash with a small flame, stored the best cores into his storage pearl, and set off at once for the return journey.
Back to Luo Yu's Great Immortal Realm
It was again Luo Yu the earth-immortal's great immortal realm.
Compared with Mo Xuan's last return, the spirit lake's waterline was slightly higher. The vast fields of spirit flowers and immortal herbs were lush, tender, and radiant.
All thanks to that wood-water mixed energy crystal—its effect on plants in immortal gardens, realms, and heavens was extraordinary.
Last time, Mo Xuan had nudged the price up a little. One wood-water mixed crystal had traded for four Rejuvenation Pills.
At Tai Academy, one Rejuvenation Pill cost 3,500 points—painfully expensive. And only earth-immortals or above could refine them, so newly ascended immortals often had no choice but to grit their teeth and slowly save points.
Mo Xuan bowed in greeting and warmly invited Luo Yu aboard for a tour—very skillfully "forgetting" to pay toll fees.
Luo Yu also seemed to "forget" to ask. With a smile and a stroke of his long beard, he followed Mo Xuan into the ship.
As expected—another massive harvest.
Dozens of storage slots were empty, suggesting the meteor belt had likely been mined out… unless Mo Xuan was deliberately throwing smoke. After all, no immortal was stupid. Meteors in the void belonged to no one—whoever harvested them kept them.
Mo Xuan and Luo Yu bargained back and forth.
In the end, Mo Xuan traded away nearly a third of his Grade A meteor cores for a mountain of pills and spirit medicines.
Worth it.
He received eighteen Rejuvenation Pills in one go, plus a large stock of other elixirs—far more cost-effective than exchanging points at Tai Academy.
"Junior nephew, take care on the road," Luo Yu said, flicking his sleeve.
The portal gate opened.
Mo Xuan laughed and answered, "Mm!"
He piloted the transport ship into the gate, and moments later burst out from the main portal's exit.