The Long Clan

Mo Zuo paused in front of his house, all the staff had gone and only he and this intruder were around.

"Wait, didn't the former Mo Zuo keep all his important herbs on him? What herb stash is in the house?" Jason questioned.

Mo Zuo stopped and wondered, Jason did have a point, and the mission said he would have to go to town to find the thief.

Mo Zuo grabbed onto the hilt of his sword and walked closer and closer towards his house, he kept his eyes on the intruder with his thermal vision.

He slowly stepped on the old wooden steps on his porch, and a creaking noise was heard, the intruder immediately stopped going through Mo Zuo's house and immediately jumped into the roof and stopped moving.

'Are they trying to ambush me?' Mo Zuo thought to himself with the fear growing in his heart, 'This is the territory of the Mo clan! I am the son of the first elder, who would dare do such?'

He raised up his sword and wondered if he should contact his father, but for some reason he decided to still walk in, "If the intruder needed to ambush him, it can't be that strong right?" Mo Zuo mentally asked Jason

"Most likely, but do you remember how you were wrong about the strength of the blitz wolf?" Jason replied.

"The blitz wolf didn't hide in my roof!" Mo Zuo stubbornly replied, he walked closer towards the intruder, and he finally saw a flash of movement from the intruder.

The intruder did a flip and landed heroically in front of Mo Zuo.

"You must be Mo Zuo, am I right?" The intruder said.

"It's you!!!!" Mo Zuo shouted.

Looking at the fox masked, white robed figure, he instantly knew who it was, Ji Yue!

Jason soon realised where he had seen such a scene before, just the night before! Mo Zuo had similarly jumped in and asked such a question.

Realising Ji Yan was parodying Mo Zuo, Jason tried to stifle his laughter, 'If cultivation doesn't work out for Mo Zuo, comedy may not be so bad' he silently thought.

"I've been looking for you all day! Where did you run off too this morning?" Ji Yan jumped on Mo Zuo's bed and asked.

Mo Zuo felt slightly irked as he saw her carefree manner, is this how it is in this world? You can just come in and barge in on anyone's privacy??

"How did you get in?" Mo Zuo looked at her and asked, he was still feeling dejected about the weak reply he received from her earlier today.

And seeing how entirely different she seemed as she put on the mask, the entire scenario was a bit disorienting.

"I'm a formations prodigy! Your weak security didn't stand a chance!" Ji Yan responded feeling quite proud of herself.

"She knows formations! I have a few questions to ask her, I think this would greatly help me understand more!" Jason told Mo Zuo.

Mo Zuo nodded his head, but asked Ji Yan another question. "You were able to temporarily delay the blitz wolf, so how strong are you?"

"Hmm? Ummm well the blitz wolf was toying with me a little, so it's not that I'm super strong or anything, I'm just at the fourth level of the Qi Foundation stage." Ji Yan replied casually.

Mo Zuo nodded his head slowly, "Oh so you're just one cultivation level above me, I should catch up within a month...wait! Did you say fourth level of the Qi Foundation stage?"

Ji Yan laughed once again, "Of course, not everyone's as weak as you!"

Mo Zuo's jaw dropped a little, he guessed she was strong, but this was shocking! The former Mo Zuo hadn't been up to date with everyone's cultivation level, so Mo Zuo was not aware how much he was lagging behind.

"How on earth, sorry I mean... what's this world called again? Never mind, how are you so strong!" Mo Zuo hurriedly asked her.

Ji Yan kept laughing at Mo Zuo's over exaggerated reactions, "Not everyone needed to spend all their time trying to activate their bloodline! But aren't you meant to get a cultivation boost since you broke through?"

"A cultivation boost? what do you mean?"

"Well most people with bloodlines, experience a lag phase, as they try to activate their bloodline, and then boom! They skip several steps as the primary activation of the bloodline occurs.

My Dad told me that your bloodline comes from a very far far far Clan, and its of snake origins, is that true??!" Ji Yan asked excitedly. After overhearing the discussion Mo Zhi had with Mo Zuo, Ji Yan had gone to disturb her father, Ji Yao, to explain all the secrets behind Mo Zuo's bloodline, and she learnt some stories concerning Mo Zuo's birth too!

Mo Zuo was extremely confused hearing this all, as he had never even known he had a bloodline, the former Mo Zuo was told he was cultivating a very special skill.

'Just like I thought, and it isn't just any ordinary bloodline! it retraces its origins all the way to Apep!' Jason thought silently. As he had merged with the system, he was privy of some knowledge that even Mo Zuo did not know of!

Seeing Mo Zuo's confused look, Ji Yan said, "You should ask your father to explain it more, my Dad barely even knows the full story.

But considering it slightly concerns your father's rogue phase where he left the clan guess that's why he didn't tell you before hand."

'My fathers rogue phase?' Mo Zuo realised there was really a lot that he didn't understand.

Ji Yan walked towards the window and cranked it open. "We'd talk more tomorrow! Till then!" She leapt out the window and into the streets.

"Alright thanks!" Mo Zuo has no idea why he was thanking her considering she had just broken into his house. He looked through the window, and watched how she gracefully melded into the moonlight.

Feeling weak and tired after all the stress of the day, Mo Zuo quietly undressed, jumped unto his bed and quickly fell asleep.

---

The next day Mo Zuo went for a trip to his father, Mo Zhi's house to discuss the matters Ji Yan had told him yesterday.

"It is a bit unusual that you could enter the second stage of your bloodline associated path, without reaching primary activation of the bloodline. You may need some bloodline stimulating herbs, but I would rather not go into that." Mo Zhi said.

"Then how does one unlock their bloodline?" Mo Zuo asked.

"You already have the second stage and should be able to tap into more of the characteristics of your bloodline, there's no need to rush it, it'll come soon."

"And where does my bloodline come from?" Mo Zuo asked.

Immediately Mo Zhi heard Mo Zuo's question, the look on his face quickly changed and became a shade gloomier. Mo Zuo realised this was probably a sensitive matter to his father.

"There's no need to answer it if you don't want to father."

"No no, I should tell you some details about your origins."

"A couple of years ago, I was implicated in a matter in concerning a very powerful sect. I ran away and was disowned by the Mo clan.

The Mo clan disowning me, was something I could understand, it wasn't that the Mo clan disregarded me, No, my importance in the clan was extremely key! I was one of the rare members of the clan capable of activating the catalyst spirit. A rare treasure for the clan, found in less than 1 out of 50,000 direct members!

But it was a decision they had to take for the safety of the clan, as they planned to use the Mo clan to smoke me out! I held no resentment over their decision, and even rejoiced that I did not implicate them. I knew how painful it was for my father, the former clan head to disown his son.

My father used some of his deep connections, and managed to get a rarely seen transportation formation to extract me from this area. It was somewhat of a random teleportation that could go as far as a 100,000 kilometers away, and I ended up in an unknown area. There I met Long Na, your mother."

"You were teleported into the Long clan?" Mo Zuo asked shocked at his luck.

Mi Zhi shook his head, "No that wasn't the Long clan, or even close to it. You see Long Na had her meridians corroded by a very powerful poison, and even channeling her Qi was difficult, making her close to a cripple and her life force had almost burnt out. But even an almost crippled Long Na was capable of feats I could only imagine.

I first tried curing her ailment, but my skills were not capable of doing anything. But I soon learnt of the heaven defying ability of the catalyst spirit! I was able to use it and the resources she had on her to temporarily stabilize her and prolong her life. With me as an outcast, and she lost and weak, we soon decided to restart our lives, I continued using my alchemy skills as a source of money, and years later my name spread far and wide.

In fact you could say my name spread too far. Way too far. Not too long after, they came for me."

"The sect you offended?" Mo Zuo asked interestedly.

"Them, and the people who set me up in the first place, I soon found out the goal was my catalyst spirit all along!" Mo Zhi said with repressed anger in his voice.

"They managed me to abduct me while I was out attending to a fake high profile call. And they began the extraction of the catalyst spirit." Mo Zhi said as he tightly gripped his palms with sadness written all over his face.

Realisation shone on Mo Zuo's face as he realised how cruel this world treated those who were weak.

"They planned on a transplant of it into an artifact cauldron, and I too would be refined into the cauldron. But my weak self was saved by your mother, the three ancient experts who were present there had already surpassed the sky realm stage and considering Long Na was unable to channel Qi, I urged her to run, but she refused, and then I witnessed the powers of the Dharma. Even if she could not use her Qi she could still Activate the Dharma.

Her sword which she once told me could traverse a thousand kilometers but still stay in one position, I understood what she meant! In a few moments, the three proud figures began pleading for their lives, and with a slash, these three figures became history!" Mo Zhi thought back to the day as he realised how powerful she was.

"What! How powerful was the sword?" Mo Zuo asked extremely shocked.

"The sword wasn't the powerful one, in fact the sword at your waist right now, was that sword."

Mo Zuo glanced at the black blade that he had carried around with him at all times, not too long ago this blade was inside him! 'So this is the blade that could slay 3 experts above the sky realm?' Mo Zuo wondered.

"After that, the 3 organizations involved immediately begged for our forgiveness upon learning that their 3 strongest ancestors had died so quickly, but how could I forgive them? Not only had they destroyed the last catalyst spirit the Mo clan had seen in hundreds of years, they had also cut short your mothers lifespan.

You see it was only with the catalyst spirit that I was able to prolong her worsening condition, and even though she had slightly recovered, she hadn't healed, and in a few years it kept getting worse and worse!

As she was reaching the limits of her life force and the last embers were dying out, her brother arrived and met the three of us, you were only 5 by that time, so I do understand why you can't remember so much.

He was outraged, but also thankful to me for having let her live so long, I asked to follow him back to his clan to accompany your mother, but he..." Mo Zhi paused as he tightly clenched his fist.

"Mo Zuo, I am too weak and I've already lost my spirit, if there's any chance of discovering the location of the Long clan, I believe only you can do it!"

"Me? But if even you can't do it, how can I?" Mo Zuo asked, he was just a poor 16 year old, how would he track such a powerful clan.

"The Long clan has almost no presence, I've searched and searched and I have even come to suspect they may not even exist on this plane! I would like to know if your mother is still alive, you have inherited her bloodline, an with that comes such talent! You will only excel, so I will shamelessly be entrusting this duty to you Mo Zuo." Mo Zhi bowed his head and said pleadingly, Mo Zhi had tried getting stronger, but since his spirit was extracted, he had trouble advancing even the slightest bit.

Mo Zuo looked at the pleading expression in his fathers eyes and couldn't help but say, "Father, there is no need to even ask me! This is my duty!" He replied sincerely.

Mo Zhi looked up at him and could feel the sincerity from Mo Zuo's voice 'Thank you so much Mo Zuo... or whoever you are.'