Chapter 52: Diligence and Frugality in Managing the Household

Thud, thud...
The head of the man who had approached Mo Xuanyu rolled continuously across the ground, finally bumping against the heel of another person's foot.
Frugal and resourceful as ever, Mo Xuanyu first retrieved the Descending Spirit Rope carried by the fallen man.
Hearing the commotion, the other sorcerer attempted to turn around, but before he could do so, Mo Xuanyu kicked him squarely in the chest, sending him flying face-first against the carriage wall.
Bang!!
Yanyue's long blade plunged deeply into the steel panel of the carriage right beside the man's head.
Mo Xuanyu, his right hand encased in a black glove, slowly gripped the hilt. His voice rang out coldly from behind the pinned man,
"Tell me, which method of execution do you prefer?"
Shaking uncontrollably from the terrifying aura of Yanyue, the man immediately threw up his hands.
"Wait! Don't kill me yet! I have information! I am useful!"
Mo Xuanyu withdrew the blade and kicked the man's shin, forcing him to kneel on the floor before speaking in an icy tone,
"You had better hope your information is actually useful."
The man immediately spilled everything he knew. As it turned out, they were not core members of the Holy Creation Sect, but rather freelance sorcerers hired by the cult.
"Did the Sect pay you a hefty sum?"
The speeding train windows reflected the figures of Mo Xuanyu and the kneeling man.
At that moment, the train plunged into a tunnel, plunging the carriage into utter darkness.
With a sudden movement, the man whipped out a pitch-black short blade and thrust it toward Mo Xuanyu's neck the instant the light dimmed.
Tier-1 Cursed Object: Blade of Breaking Demons (Replica)
Item Description: A weapon forged in imitation of the Special-grade Cursed Object, Blade of Breaking Demons. It can be used without a contract and possesses the special ability to pierce through all defenses.
This was the sorcerer's trump card. Because of its limited attack range, he refused to use it unless absolutely necessary.
Now, facing life and death, he was driven to unleash combat potential far exceeding his usual limits.
Simultaneously, as he drew the short blade, he summoned his own contracted cursed spirit.
A massive, spider-like cursed spirit swung its razor-sharp jointed limbs from the ceiling, lunging down at Mo Xuanyu.
Mo Xuanyu took two steps back, effortlessly evading the short blade while dodging the descending limbs from above.
Then, with a swift slash of Yanyue, he severed all eight jointed limbs of the spider cursed spirit within a single breath.
The cursed spirit emitted a pained shriek and spat spider silk at Mo Xuanyu, attempting to bind his wrists and restrict his movements.
Yet, the tough spider silk ultimately became Mo Xuanyu's asset.
He violently seized the silk wrapped around his wrists and pulled downward with immense force, dragging the spider cursed spirit straight down from the ceiling.
Swish!
Mid-fall, Mo Xuanyu followed up with a horizontal slash, instantly disemboweling the creature and cutting it clean in half!
The cursed spirit was obliterated in a flash, and the stunned man found the tip of Mo Xuanyu's blade pressed against his throat.
This time, Mo Xuanyu wasted no words. He immediately activated the Eye of the Moon to impose a forced hypnosis.
With a soft clink, the defense-shattering Blade of Breaking Demons dropped to the floor.
Mo Xuanyu kicked it up with his foot and caught the hilt in mid-air.
A fine item; it now belonged to him.
"Answer my question. Why are you working for the Sect?" Mo Xuanyu cut straight to the point.
The man answered in a daze, "Because the Pope of the Holy Creation Sect promised that once the mission is completed, he will grant us the opportunity to become Special-grade sorcerers."
Mo Xuanyu frowned slightly.
According to the intelligence he had gathered in this world, a sorcerer's total cursed energy and upper limit were innate.
No matter how hard a sorcerer tried, they could only ever reach the ceiling of their native talent.
If you were born an ordinary person, you would remain ordinary for life.
If your innate limit was a Tier-1 sorcerer, it was virtually impossible to ever become a Special-grade.
Even rare geniuses like the original Joshua, capable of contracting with Special-grade cursed objects, still remained capped within the Tier-1 domain.
"What is this opportunity?" Mo Xuanyu pressed further.
"Ouroboros... It's the Ouroboros..." The man suddenly descended into extreme terror, as the three words he uttered seemed to trigger certain restricted intelligence.
Clutching his throbbing head, his eyes bloodshot, he cried out,
"Kill me... Please, make it stop!"
Seeing this, Mo Xuanyu narrowed his eyes slightly. He lifted the man's chin with the hilt of his blade, channeling wisps of healing psychic power through the weapon into the man's body.
As the healing energy entered, the bizarre cursed energy wreaking havoc in the man's brain was briefly suppressed, before engaging in a fierce struggle against the healing power.
"Keep answering my question. What on earth is that opportunity?"
Mo Xuanyu stared into the man's eyes, sharply catching the faint flash of a golden arc flickering within them.
Was this the power of the Ouroboros?
Once the splitting headache subsided slightly, the man managed to recall some fragments of information,
"It's the Pope! He controls a Special-grade cursed spirit named 'Ouroboros,' and uses its power to control many sorcerers!"
"Then how did you know my whereabouts in advance?" Mo Xuanyu continued.
"There are moles arranged by the Pope within the upper echelons of the Association!"
Hearing this, Mo Xuanyu pulled out the voice recorder he had switched on earlier from his pocket and glanced at it.
Splendid, it had captured everything.
He pursued his questioning, "What is your next plan?"
Clack-clack, clack-clack!!
The train finally emerged from the tunnel.
"Our next plan is..."
The man fell into deep recollection, but just as he was about to speak, an RPG missile suddenly streaked from the roadside bushes, slamming directly into their carriage!
Boom!!!
The entire train was blown apart by the rocket blast.
The mastermind behind all this was none other than the backup squad of Holy Creation Sect members lying in ambush outside the tunnel.
When the duo on the train failed their mission, this backup team quickly took the initiative to strike.
They had two objectives:
First, to capture Joshua. The Pope had developed an immense fascination with his body, which could house Special-grade cursed objects and survive having them stripped away.
Therefore, the Pope had explicitly ordered that even if Joshua became a corpse, his body was to be brought back to the Sect's headquarters—though bringing him back alive and bound was naturally preferred.
Second, to prevent the Association sorcerers from reaching Red Autumn Town to retrieve the cursed object, Empty Bell. Another team of theirs was already heading there, hoping to seize it before the Association could.
Amidst billowing black smoke, three Tier-2 sorcerers in charge of the ambush slowly approached the train.
"Is that Joshua still alive?"
"He has to be dead, right? After all, he's just a Tier-1 sorcerer, not a superman. With an explosion this violent, even if he survived, he'd be critically injured."
"Wait! Something's wrong, that guy is still alive!"
The three of them suddenly tensed up as if facing a formidable enemy.
A crimson blade light blossomed through the smoke. Mo Xuanyu sliced through the roof of the carriage and slowly stepped out from the wreckage.
His face was spattered with blood—not his own, but that of the sorcerer whose head had exploded like a watermelon after losing the support of Mo Xuanyu's healing energy.
"He's completely uninjured?! Damn it, what a monster!"
One of the Tier-2 sorcerers hastily re-shouldered his RPG and aimed it at Mo Xuanyu.
The other two likewise drew firearms, raining a barrage of bullets toward Mo Xuanyu while releasing their contracted cursed spirits to disrupt his movements.
However, the current Mo Xuanyu was no longer someone who could be harmed by ordinary firearms. Furthermore, beneath his trench coat, he wore a Blue-grade formal shirt, allowing him to take a direct hit from an RPG completely unscathed.
Within mere seconds, only three headless corpses remained scattered across the grass.
They were merely Tier-2 sorcerers within the Sect, virtually shut out from any core intelligence. After trying and failing to get anything useful, Mo Xuanyu slaughtered them all.
He seated himself on a clean boulder, took out his phone, and dialed the Association's logistics department.
Promptly, the logistics personnel provided him with the details of another train heading to Red Autumn Town.
Mo Xuanyu walked over to a parallel set of tracks. After waiting for about three minutes, another train passed by.
He grabbed the handrail and hoisted himself aboard. The passengers were startled by his blood-stained appearance and scattered in shrieking panic.
Seeing this, Mo Xuanyu picked up a bottle of mineral water from the snack cart to wash his hands, and with great courtesy, left behind a large denomination bill, telling them to keep the change.
Upon receiving coordination orders from the police department, the conductor personally escorted Mo Xuanyu to a business-class carriage and pacified the other passengers by explaining that Mo Xuanyu was an Interpol agent executing an urgent mission.
Far away in Red Autumn Town, the logistics sorcerers received the news and anxiously stood up from their seats at the station.
"Lord Joshua has been attacked?! Is he seriously injured?!"
She felt an overwhelming sense of dread, and only when Mo Xuanyu's transfer train arrived at the station and he stepped down carrying the Yanyue blade did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
She hurriedly led the Red Autumn Town logistics team forward. "Greetings, Lord Joshua! We are the logistics team of Red Autumn Town, you can call me A-Qiu!"
"Are you severely injured? Do we need to call for medical assistance?"
The girl named A-Qiu looked on with worry, her gaze fixed on the large stains of blood smeared across Mo Xuanyu's coat.
Mo Xuanyu checked their credentials, and after confirming their identities, offered a gentle smile. "Rest assured, none of that is my blood. Also, could you please help me have this coat cleaned?"
He tucked Yanyue back into his storage space, removed the Eye of Goshu, took off his brown trench coat, and handed it to one of the logistics staff members.
"No problem!" The blushing logistics worker nodded immediately.
Afterward, Mo Xuanyu boarded a dedicated vehicle and officially departed the train station for Red Autumn Town.
Only then did he finally have the leisure to organize the intelligence concerning the Holy Creation Sect.
First and foremost, the infiltration of this cult's influence had reached a terrifying degree; they even had a mole planted within the upper echelons of the Association.
The moment Mo Xuanyu had set out, the Sect had received intelligence regarding his movements.
He pulled the voice recorder from his pocket and dialed the Association President's number, reporting the general contents of the recording and informing him that he had squeezed out some vital intelligence.
"Splendid work, Joshua. Have A-Qiu transmit that recording over to us," Ji Yuan's voice sounded pleased on the other end.
He had long suspected issues within the Association, but lacked a valid pretext to conduct a thorough purge.
Despite being the Association President, he was frequently bound by the constraints of the upper brass.
The ossified thinking of those old fogies had already ruined many young sorcerers who ought to have shone brilliantly.