Chapter 19

Lin Du watched the scene in her mind and couldn’t help but chuckle.

The cultivators of the Supreme Sect, known for their immense strength and powerful backgrounds, were often immune to ordinary schemes. This had led to countless tragic tales of them falling for romantic traps.

These people weren’t foolish; they had just been raised in a sheltered environment. Lacking real-world experience, their first reaction to others’ malice wasn’t anger or disbelief, but confusion.

Reincarnated, Mo Lin was now almost unnaturally clever, easily defusing the petty tricks of his peers and understanding when to feign weakness to soften Shao Fei’s heart.

Although Mo Lin was still straightforward, he wasn’t naive.

In that storybook, Lin Du had altered the plot, changing the character’s desire from coveting a spiritual bone to coveting a golden core. The story still featured a senior brother of a sect rescuing a pitiful beauty by the roadside.

The story began with the two traveling together through the mortal world. They encountered another attempt to trap them, and the virtuous senior brother saved the day. However, the beauty drugged him afterward, and the supposed roadside damsel orchestrated the entire situation, seducing the senior brother. The beauty then revealed that the earlier incident was also a trap, claiming to have saved him, setting the stage for their tale.

The story was titled *”After Being Seduced by the Beauty I Picked Up by the Road.”*

But it wasn’t until the wedding day, when the senior brother was cut open to have his golden core extracted, that he realized the day he saved the roadside beauty had also been an intricately designed trap.

Mo Lin had just reached the part where the senior brother was disemboweled during the wedding, but it had already left a deep impression on him.

The young man moved quickly; neither the woman who was struggling to get up nor the demonic cultivators behind him could keep up.

Their commotion eventually attracted the most troublesome creatures in the dense forest—pack animals with dozens of ghostly eyes suddenly lighting up in the darkness like will-o’-the-wisps.

Mo Lin even heard the sound of the serrated wolves snorting.

He stopped in his tracks, expressionless as he lifted his staff, and the pressure of his Tengyun Realm surged out.

In an instant, that vast, cloud-like spiritual power swept over the forest like stormy ocean waves, rolling over the underbrush. The dozen or so wolves bared their sharp teeth simultaneously, emitting low growls of threatened hostility.

The woman’s disordered footsteps echoed from behind. “Immortal, immortal…”

Mo Lin frowned. With this much noise, the pressure was likely useless, and a fierce battle seemed inevitable.

Seeing that Mo Lin had stopped, the woman hurriedly reached out, trying to grab the corner of his robe. Just as her delicate hand was about to touch the edge of his clothing, the young man suddenly moved.

He gripped his long staff tightly, swung it backward, and the back end of the staff just happened to sweep the woman away.

Startled, Mo Lin exclaimed, “What was that?”

He turned around, only to catch a glimpse of a pale shadow disappearing into the underbrush.

…

“This forest actually has earthbound spirits, huh?”

The young man shook his head, feeling like he had forgotten something, but he quickly put it out of his mind as he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Mo Lin took a step back, gathering his strength, poised like a hunting leopard, his lithe body taut with tension.

In almost an instant, both sides sprang into action.

The black-gold staff in Mo Lin’s hand swept through the air, creating a golden arc of light. Where it passed, sword energy surged with an imposing, righteous force, effortlessly slicing through the sharp fangs of the wolves, tearing open their gaping mouths, and continuing onward to cleave through half of a wolf’s skull as easily as cutting through a potato.

Wolves are pack animals, working together; when one falls, others rush in to attack from all sides.

But for the senior disciple of the Supreme Sect’s hundredth generation, this was never a problem.

He effortlessly slaughtered the entire pack of wolves, which ranged from the fifth to the seventh rank of the Enlightenment stage, using only his sword and staff.

In the silent forest, the wolves’ howls, the sound of the staff cutting through the air, and the noise of sword energy ripping through flesh filled the air.

In just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, only the wolf king, which had just reached the Transformation stage, remained.

At that moment, an unexpected change occurred.

The wolf king roared, unleashing its innate power as a beast, and a massive phantom appeared, merging with the moonlight above.

The beast’s power cut through the surrounding trees like a giant wolf’s mouth, the ground upheaving as if the earth itself were its fangs, while the power above loomed like a toppling tree.

Yet Mo Lin remained calm. He was in the mid-Tengyun Realm, and this beast was equivalent to the early Tengyun Realm in human terms—he could handle it.

He lightly tapped his staff on the ground and moved forward, each step accompanied by a tap. After seven steps, shadowy fangs burst from the ground like the lower jaw of a wolf.

The Seven-Star Formation instantly connected, resembling stars embedded in the earth, and in a moment, a massive wave of golden spiritual energy exploded, shattering all the fangs and burying them underground.

Mo Lin’s staff flew from his hand like an arrow piercing the clouds, driving through the phantom wolf’s upper jaw.

“Be careful, Immortal!” a woman’s voice cried out, and then a figure as graceful as a lotus on water positioned herself behind Mo Lin.

The massive hungry wolf had somehow circled behind the young man, its claws aimed straight at his back.

“Annoying,” Mo Lin’s steady voice reached Shao Fei’s ears.

The woman’s eyes widened as she saw a golden sword aura suddenly erupt from the ground in front of her, slicing through the earth and shooting upward, piercing the wolf’s heart.

The foul-smelling blood splattered all over Shao Fei, covering her from head to toe.

The woman was completely stunned.

Mo Lin stretched out his hand, catching the staff as it fell back down, and started walking forward.

This place reeked of blood, which would attract more bloodthirsty beasts, so it wasn’t safe to stay.

“A weak body shouldn’t overestimate itself by trying to protect others.”

You might doubt the emotional intelligence of Supreme Sect disciples, but you cannot doubt their strength.

The young man didn’t look back, secretly pleased with himself.

Those were the exact words the senior brother in the story had said after the woman tried to shield him.

It was only at that moment that Mo Lin understood the truth in the story.

When a weak person tries to shield a strong one, it might be an act of kindness, but it also means that the strong person, who could have handled the situation themselves, would have to pay a greater price than if they had just taken a minor injury.

It wasn’t worth it for either the one protecting or the one being protected.

In the original plot, Shao Fei had been rescued by Mo Lin after she fell at his feet and even took a blow from an evil cultivator for him, which led to him bringing her back to the sect for treatment.

But today, Shao Fei hadn’t been able to shield any harm, so there was no debt to repay.

“You’d better run along now. If you stay here too long, more beasts will come.”

With that, Mo Lin disappeared into the dense forest.

The vision in Lin Du’s mind ended there.

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “As expected of my senior nephew.”

Beasts are classified into five stages: Enlightenment, Transformation, Manifestation, Repression, and Divinity, with seven ranks within each stage.

Mo Lin had killed thirteen wolves without a scratch, and while their cultivation was lower than his, wolves are known to be fierce creatures capable of wearing down stronger foes through sheer numbers.

【Please continue your efforts, Host】

Unbeknownst to Lin Du, Mo Lin, who had just shown the demeanor of a seasoned expert, quickly returned to the scene. He pulled out a sharp dagger and began skinning the wolves, muttering to himself.

“That was close. Good thing no one else came to snatch these. If I had been a bit slower, this wolf hide wouldn’t have fetched a good price.”