Word of his return spread like wildfire across the realms, first whispers, then shouts, then proclamations carved on jade slips and carried by flying messengers.
The cultivation world, lulled into complacency for five years, erupted anew.
Everyone spoke of Chen Mo's emergence: the prodigy reborn, the butcher returned, the man who had walked out of a sealed Tomb stronger than ever.
No one was more shaken than Xu Canghai.
Fear gnawed at him day and night, visions of that chipped sword at his throat, of the marketplace massacre repeated on a grander scale.
But contrary to every expectation, Chen Mo did not attack outright.
Instead, he vanished again. For two full years, no news of him surfaced. No massacres. No sightings. Just silence.
---
"It's worrying," Shen Tianjin muttered, staring out over the grand hall from her elevated seat. "Chen Mo has remained inactive since his return?"
