Seeing the old Daoist close his eyes and breathe his last, I didn't know what to feel. I just sighed.
Ah Mo's crying voice paused for a while. Then, he burst out and threw himself on the old Daoist's body, sobbing and crying.
The two of them had depended on each other since they were young, and their relationship was even deeper than that of a father and son. Ah Mo's grief was no less than when I had knelt in front of his parents' bodies.
I sighed and didn't say anything to stop or comfort him. I just sat next to him and silently accompanied him.
At the same time, I considered the matter of the old Daoist entrusting his son to me.
Just as he had said, Ah Mo's natural endowments were extraordinary. If he grew up smoothly, he would be a great help to me in the future.
However, the old Daoist didn't mention that accepting Ah Mo was equivalent to accepting a lot of trouble.
Xuande Grotto-heaven wouldn't give up on Ah Mo. If I accepted Ah Mo, I would have to stand on the opposite side of Xuande Grotto-heaven.
This wasn't a big problem. Xuande Grotto-heaven had already attacked me, so we were already enemies. Even without Ah Mo, Zhao Hao wouldn't let me go just because of the Xuanyuan Sword and the Armor Removing Sword.
The bigger problem was that Ah Mo's parents were in Zhao Hao's hands. If Ah Mo followed me, I couldn't just stand by and watch. I had to save his parents as soon as possible.
Saving Ah Mo's parents meant that I had to take action against Xuande Grotto-heaven, which was completely different from protecting myself.
If I just wanted to protect myself, no matter how strong Xuande Grotto-heaven was, I was confident that I could avoid them. However, if I wanted to take action, I would have to fight them head-on. With my current strength, the gap between me and Xuande Grotto-heaven was too big.
Of course, I could also choose to take Ah Mo in, but I could say that I couldn't save his parents.
If I did that, Ah Mo wouldn't say anything, but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.
As a son, I could understand Ah Mo's feelings at this time. He had to judge others by his own standards, and this kind of behavior couldn't be justified.
After thinking for a while, I called Officer Wang over and asked him about Xuande Grotto-heaven's strength.
According to Wang Can, the Xuande Grotto-heaven was extremely powerful. The master of the Xuande Grotto-heaven, who was also Zhao Hao's father, Zhao Chunyang, was at the Great Completion of the Yang Spirit Realm and was known as the "Spring Sun Sword Immortal." His strength could be ranked among the top in the entire Blessed Enclave.
Zhao Chunyang's reputation was only one aspect. What made Xuande Grotto-heaven stronger was the number of sword slaves under him. This time, Zhao Hao had brought four sword slaves with him, and all of them had the cultivation of Yang Spirit. However, the sword slaves lacked spiritual intelligence. Although they had the cultivation of Yang Spirit, their actual combat power was still slightly weaker than cultivators.
In the entire Xuande Grotto-heaven, there were a total of seven Yang God Celestial Master sword slaves and eighty-one Celestial Master sword slaves!
Most of them were like Little Ah Mo's parents. They were hunted and killed by Xuande Grotto-heaven and then forcefully refined.
Because of this, the Xuande grotto-heaven had become the undisputed overlord of the 36 Lesser Grotto-Heavens. Now, they were even eyeing the position of the Ten Major Grotto-Heavens.
Wang Can's words chilled my heart, and I almost gave up the idea of confronting Xuande Grotto-heaven.
Then, Wang Can turned to me and said, "Although Xuande Grotto-heaven is strong, the Saints don't need to worry about it. Zhao Hao offended the Saints, and that's a capital crime!
Before the Heavenly Grand Ritual ends, I can't attack them because of the other Blessed Paradises. However, after the ritual ends and Zhao Hao leaves Wangwu Grotto-heaven, the Saints can attack them at any time.
Although Zhao Hao's four Yang God Sword Slaves are strong, I'll let Ah Fu and the others go with the Saints. We can use our numbers to exhaust them! "
Apparently, he had misunderstood that I wanted to take revenge for Zhao Hao's ambush.
However, I didn't explain. Anyway, our ultimate goal was the same.
I pondered for a while then asked Wang Can, "Aren't you afraid that Xuande Grotto-heaven will take revenge?"
Wang Can smiled disdainfully. "As long as I don't leave Wangwu Grotto-heaven, it doesn't matter how strong Xuande Grotto-heaven is.
If they dare to break in, even if Zhao Chunyang dares to come in, he won't be able to get out of Wangwu Grotto-heaven's protective formation! "
I furrowed my eyebrows. "We can't just hide in the future, right?"
Wang Can shook his head. "After I condense my Yang Spirit, I don't need to hide anymore. Wangwu Grotto-heaven doesn't have much contact with the outside world. It's normal for me to not go out for decades.
Moreover, I'm going to cultivate in seclusion for a period of time after the Heavenly Grand Ritual, so this matter won't affect Wangwu Grotto-heaven. "
I heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed that it was feasible.
It didn't even need to be as troublesome as Wang Can had said. I had the Xuanyuan Sword. When I took out the Xuanyuan Sword, Zhao Hao's sword slaves would definitely lose control.
At that time, Ah Fu alone would be able to quickly subdue Zhao Hao.
After thinking about it, I gritted my teeth and made up my mind.
At this time, Wang Can sighed, his face slightly gloomy. He added, "Of course, everything is based on the premise that we can survive this Allheaven Grand Competition."
If it were before, I wouldn't have dared to promise Wang Can. But now, I had the Armor Stripping Sword. According to the rules of the Allheaven Grand Competition, the contestants had to be below the Yang Spirit level.
Under the Yang Spirit level, Zhao Hao, who was at the Peak of the Seal Heavenly Master Realm, was already a top expert.
I was confident that I could deal with him.
I smiled and comforted Wang Can. His face didn't look better, and he looked worried.
I didn't say anything else. Anyway, I was going to participate in the competition. As for the details, Wang Can would know when the competition began.
We talked for a long time. On Little Ah Mo's side, his cries gradually weakened. Now, he was sobbing. His eyes were still fixed on the old Daoist. His face looked dull and silly, and his whole body was listless.
I walked over and patted his shoulder, asking him to leave with me.
I didn't know if Little Ah Mo heard me or not, but he didn't react at all. He was still sitting on his knees.
Feeling helpless, I had to drag him away from the old Daoist.
Little Ah Mo didn't struggle. He was still listless and let me drag him out of the temple.
After taking him out of the temple, I turned to Wang Can and asked him to send someone to clean up the place and collect the old Daoist's body. Little Ah Mo and I would wait outside the temple.
At this moment, the sky was dark, and the wind was strong. The fallen leaves rolled and whistled through the forest.
Shortly after, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and big raindrops started to fall.
With my cultivation base, I could avoid the rain by releasing a little bit of my aura. However, Little Ah Mo's cultivation base was still low, so he couldn't avoid the rain yet.
I wanted to take him back to the small temple to avoid the rain, but I was afraid that he would be reminded of the past and be sad again. I looked around and saw that not far from there, there was a big rock that the fatty had sat on. It was a good place to hide from the rain.
I took Little Ah Mo to hide from the rain under the big rock.
Not long after he sat down, large droplets of rain fell and hit the ground, making a pitter-patter sound.
Little Ah Mo's face slowly returned to normal. He gazed at the rain in the distance, and his voice slowly came to my ears.
"Master is dead … Before he died, he told me that you would be Ah Mo's master from now on."
I didn't know if it was just an illusion, but although Ah Mo's voice was still young, the childishness in his words had disappeared. It seemed that Ah Mo had grown up overnight.
I nodded. "Yes, from now on, I'm your master.
I will raise you and protect you until you grow up. "
Ah Mo turned his head and looked at me. After a moment of silence, he said seriously, "I will treat you as my master, but I won't call you master … Ever since I was a child, I've only called one person master."
I understood what he meant and quickly nodded.
"It's just a name. It doesn't matter what you call me. It's up to you."
"Okay." Little Ah Mo nodded. His eyes showed a trace of gratitude.
Then, we both fell into silence.
Feeling bored, I turned to look at the huge stone behind me and touched it a few times. Then, I asked Ah Mo, "You said that this stone is a spirit stone. Why can't I see anything magical about it?"
Little Ah Mo shook his head. A hint of sadness appeared on his face as he said sadly, "I'm not sure either … It was Master who told me. He said that after I become a Celestial Master, this spirit stone will be of great use to me."
It would be useful after I became a Celestial Master?
I had heard from Officer Wang that after the old Daoist had brought Little Ah Mo here, he had deliberately left for a while. In the end, he had returned with this huge stone covered in blood.
It was obvious that this stone was very important. Otherwise, the old Daoist wouldn't have risked his life to bring it back.
Since I had nothing to do, I stood up and carefully observed the stone.
After a while, I found a clue on the stone.
At the top of the stone, I could vaguely see a very dim pattern.
This pattern was about one foot long, and it looked like two lines spiraling together.
Abstractly, this spiraling thing should be a dragon or a snake.
This discovery made me happy, and I hurried to study it carefully. However, after studying it for a long time, I didn't find anything strange.
After thinking for a while, I gathered some True Qi on my fingertips and poured it into the pattern.
After I poured my True Qi into it, the pattern had a slight reaction. It seemed to light up, but then it quickly extinguished. It didn't swallow my True Qi.
While I was puzzled, I suddenly felt something move in Xiang Liu's belt. I hurried to check. It was the Xuanyuan Sword Box. I didn't know why, but it suddenly trembled slightly.
What happened?
Could it be that the Xuanyuan Sword could sense this huge stone?
Before I could figure it out, the huge stone seemed to have also sensed the Xuanyuan Sword. The dim pattern on its surface suddenly emitted a bright light. Then, a series of cracking sounds echoed …