The Entire Empire Nearly Became Monks

Ever since Li Chaoci had gone missing as a child, the Li family had never given up searching for him.

Even though so many years had passed, and Mrs. Mo’s father had long since passed away early due to mental energy rage disorder, the Li family still believed that Li Chaoci was alive.

Perhaps because he had been too young when he disappeared, he might have forgotten the Li family.

That was what Mrs. Mo had always thought.

Now, suddenly hearing what Wen Zhaoyan said, Mrs. Mo could hardly believe it.

Forgetting propriety for a moment, she quickly asked, “Your Highness, the person you speak of—is he truly Baibai’s uncle, my… our Li family’s missing… my younger brother?”

Wen Zhaoyan understood Mrs. Mo’s feelings, so he didn’t beat around the bush. A hint of barely perceptible gentleness appeared in his cold, handsome features. “If madam has only one younger brother named Li Chaoci, then yes, it is he.”

Mrs. Mo’s body swayed.

In that moment, she had both feared Wen Zhaoyan’s answer and desperately wanted to hear it.

Li Chaoci.

Yes, it was Xiao Ci. She had only this one younger brother!

Mrs. Mo said urgently, “You’ve truly seen Chaoci? Where is he? Does he know that Baibai is his nephew? Then he must know I’m here too? Then why…”

Why hadn’t he come to find her?

Why hadn’t he returned to the Li family?

Wen Zhaoyan understood Mrs. Mo’s excitement and urgency.

He lowered his voice slightly. “Madam Mo need not worry. He is well. However…”

He paused, his voice dropping even lower. “Many people are looking for him. It is not advisable for him to reveal himself now.”

Mrs. Mo immediately calmed down.

She was usually a calm, self-possessed person. Just now, she had been momentarily overwhelmed by the sudden news of her brother.

Hearing Wen Zhaoyan say this, she quickly adjusted her emotions and asked in a low voice, “Is Chaoci in danger now?”

Wen Zhaoyan said, “Not if his identity remains hidden.”

Right now, the StarNet was full of suspicions that Mo Li was the mermaid king.

Hackers, nobles, even the Mermaid Association—everyone was looking for him.

Wen Zhaoyan himself did not think Mo Li should reveal his identity directly.

Mrs. Mo understood.

She thanked Wen Zhaoyan sincerely. “I don’t know how you and Chaoci came to know each other, but I beg you to tell him this: no matter what happens, he can come to us. We will stand with him. And I hope he can… come home soon.”

Wen Zhaoyan said, “I will.”

Knowing that her brother would be in danger if his identity were exposed, Mrs. Mo stopped asking questions.

She instructed the guards to donate all the toys and playground equipment piled up everywhere to kindergartens in Mo Bai’s name, then took Mo Bai back inside.

Back in the living room, Mrs. Mo placed Mo Bai on the slide and then began to drift into thought.

Sensing that she was still unsettled, Mo Bai asked, puzzled, “Aren’t you happy?”

Meeting her son’s concerned gaze, Mrs. Mo couldn’t help patting Mo Bai’s head and said softly, “I was thinking about what His Highness the Crown Prince said.”

Mo Bai: “?”

Mrs. Mo said, “Baibai, do you think His Highness the Crown Prince was telling the truth?”

Deep down, Mrs. Mo still harbored some doubt.

If it really was her younger brother Li Chaoci who had returned, and he even knew that she had married into the Mo family and that Mo Bai was her son, why hadn’t he come to see them?

Even if he was worried about the danger of exposing his identity, upon learning that the Li family had never stopped searching for him, he should have sent them some word.

But there was nothing.

Nothing at all.

Instead, the Crown Prince, who had always been somewhat distant from them, was the first to know about this.

This made Mrs. Mo’s mind wander.

Was Wen Zhaoyan lying to her?

The Crown Prince’s position was unstable now, and the Empire’s Emperor didn’t like him either.

If the Crown Prince wanted to return to the capital planet, he would surely need to make some preparations.

And the Mo family was now the richest in the Empire.

Mrs. Mo even began to suspect that Wen Zhaoyan might be trying to use the Mo family for something.

It wasn’t that she was overly suspicious. Ever since the Mo family had been framed by the other two hover vehicle companies and nearly went bankrupt, she felt that aside from her own family, she needed to maintain a certain level of vigilance toward everyone else.

Mo Bai said, “It should be true.”

Mrs. Mo hadn’t expected Mo Bai to trust Wen Zhaoyan so much. She was surprised. “Why is Baibai so certain?”

Mo Bai said, “Because Wen Zhaoyan likes little uncle.”

Mrs. Mo paused for a few seconds.

Mrs. Mo: “…What did you say? His Highness the Crown Prince likes… your uncle?”

Mo Bai said, “Mm. Wen Zhaoyan said so himself.”

Mrs. Mo didn’t speak.

She took a while to digest this, then asked again, “When did this… happen?”

Mo Bai calculated the time. “Around the time Daddy’s mental energy acted up?”

Mrs. Mo murmured to herself, “No wonder…”

No wonder they had lived next to the Crown Prince’s estate for two years without any contact. Yet that night, His Highness the Crown Prince had suddenly summoned Kai and had Xixi come to treat Mo Xiangtian.

At the time, they hadn’t understood why. Now, thinking back, it was all for her younger brother.

“Mm.” Mo Bai, completely unaware that he was a six-year-old child, nodded seriously, his voice milky. “It’s only right to curry favor with the family.”

Mrs. Mo: “…”

Mrs. Mo’s feelings were complicated.

Neither mother nor son noticed that the guards standing silently nearby had overheard every word.

Each of them looked as if struck by lightning.

Who would have thought that His Highness the Crown Prince and their Sir had such a relationship!

They desperately wanted to gossip with their fellow brothers. But knowing their Sir’s personality, if they actually said anything, they’d likely be chopped into pieces and fed to the monsters.

Daring to gossip about their Sir behind his back? Were they tired of living?

The guards each patted their chests, looking as if they would never dare to speak.

That night.

After the Mo family had gone to sleep, the guards followed their daily reporting routine.

They meticulously reported everything that had happened at the Mo family to their immediate superior.

Li especially loved hearing about his little nephew. He made the guards talk about it every day.

He never grew tired of hearing about the little guy going online; Li could listen to it many times without getting bored.

As usual, the guard reported every move of Mo Bai’s that day. When he mentioned what Wen Zhaoyan had said, Li—that is, Li Chaoci—narrowed his fox-like eyes. “Wen Zhaoyan knew the gifts were from me?”

The guard answered honestly, “That’s what he said.”

Li Chaoci tapped his fingers on the desk, his fox-like eyes thoughtful.

After a long moment, he spoke slowly, his voice carrying a hint of laziness. “Continue protecting the Mo family. Watch all strangers who approach them.”

“Yes, sir.”

After ending the call, Li Chaoci let out a disdainful snort.

The monster stretched his four arms and yawned. “Sir, you’re not happy.”

Li Chaoci said flatly, “Someone is impersonating me to get close to the Mo family. And that Empire’s Crown Prince.”

The monster thought to himself, ‘Who would dare impersonate you, old fox?’ But he said, “Who is impersonating you?”

Li Chaoci said with a sneer, “Who else? That Mo Li.”

The monster immediately thought of Mo Li, the suspected mermaid king—the only person who had ever stumped him, the mysterious figure whose whereabouts he still hadn’t found!

Li Chaoci said coldly, “This person resembles the little brat, which makes it easy for him to gain the Mo family’s trust.”

And they still hadn’t uncovered who this Mo Li really was or what his purpose was.

For the Mo family, this was actually very dangerous.

The monster said, “It would be easy to expose him, as long as you go back yourself.”

Genes couldn’t be faked.

No matter what method this Mo Li had used to make himself look so much like the Mo family’s little brat, the genes inside his body couldn’t be related to the Li family.

Hearing this, Li Chaoci’s face immediately darkened. A few seconds later, he gave a dismissive laugh. “Do you think I can still go back looking like this?”

The monster opened his mouth to say something, his tentacles shifting uneasily, but in the end, he said nothing.

–

A few days later, the second round of the singing competition also ended.

Xixi was still in first place.

Because the second round onward were all live performances, not long after the second round ended, the third round—the finals—began.

This time, Xixi sang the ‘Mind Purification Mantra’ that Mo Bai had specially recorded for him to learn.

At the competition venue.

As soon as the Mind Purification Mantra began, the entire venue fell silent.

Even those watching the live stream became quiet. Not a single bullet comment was posted.

If, before, Mo Bai’s a cappella version of The Great Compassion Mantra had sounded strange and unpleasant, then this Mind Purification Mantra, sung with a mermaid’s uniquely celestial voice and carrying the mermaid clan’s unique soothing ability, made everyone feel an unprecedented sense of calm.

This calm felt as if even their spiritual sea had been elevated.

Even after Xixi finished singing, everyone was still immersed in that state of mental stillness and purity. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Only one person sent Xixi a message.

[Mo: Beautifully sung.]

Xixi smiled, his sweet, and replied, [Thank you. You taught me well.]

The venue was silent for a full few minutes before erupting in thunderous applause.

Xixi faced the audience. “Thank you, everyone. That was the ‘Mind Purification Mantra’ that Mr. Mo taught me. I hope you like it.”

The audience both inside and outside the venue went crazy, flooding the comments with ‘Mo is awesome,’ ‘Xixi is awesome,’ and so on. Because they had truly felt their spiritual sea being soothed.

And even through a screen, this soothing was even stronger than what they had felt listening to Xixi sing other songs before!

Unsurprisingly, in the third round finals, Xixi again took first place, becoming the champion of the singing competition finals!

After the competition ended, Mo’s ‘Great Compassion Mantra’ and Xixi’s ‘Mind Purification Mantra’ became songs played on loop in every street and alley. Some even said they had been adopted by the military and the front lines, used alongside calming agents to provide soothing support to soldiers on the battlefield.

And because more and more people were being soothed by these two scriptures, Mo Bai, who had made it all happen, received even more faith, invisibly.

One night, a small glass bottle, shaped like a wishing bottle, suddenly appeared around his neck.

“This is…” Mo Bai’s eyes widened slightly. “A faith collector!”

His faith collector was back!

Every god actually had a faith collector. It could more accurately collect faith and condense it into a divine status, or into becoming a high priest.

But after he was reborn as little Mo Bai, not to mention a divine status, he didn’t have a faith collector either.

And now, his faith collector was back.

That meant that one day, his divine status would also be restored. It was just a matter of time.

He wondered how the other gods were doing…

Perhaps they too had been reborn elsewhere, like him?

Mo Bai held the glass bottle, unable to put it down.

Just then, Xixi messaged him again, hoping to learn more scriptures.

Xixi was determined to help more humans with their mental energy rage disorder. Having discovered that his soothing ability, when used with the scriptures, had an amplified effect, he only wanted to sing scriptures.

Mo Bai, overjoyed at having regained his faith collector, agreed without hesitation. “Alright! I might not know much else, but chanting scriptures is my specialty.”

After all, he was a Wish-Granting God who had come from temples and Taoist monasteries. What scripture didn’t he know?

Mo Bai immediately recorded over a dozen scriptures for Xixi.

Things like The Diamond Sutra, The Mahaparinirvana Sutra, The Shurangama Sutra, The Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Vow Sutra, and so on.

After receiving them, Xixi obediently thanked him. With Mo Bai’s permission, he posted Mo Bai’s recordings to his StarBlog.

After posting Mo Bai’s original versions, he then worked hard to learn them himself. After learning them, he also recorded his own cover versions and posted them.

Suddenly, all across the interstellar, everywhere was chanting scripture… reciting sutras…

Over ten days passed.

The number of people suffering from spiritual sea rage attacks had decreased by nearly 50%!

Many people said that after listening, they felt very relaxed and comfortable.

And if they learned to chant it themselves, the effect was even better!

A month passed.

The number of rage attacks decreased by another 30%! A total reduction of 80%!!

The Empire’s government was almost moved to tears. This data had never been seen before!!

Did this mean the Empire’s people would no longer suffer from mental energy surges?

If mental energy didn’t surge, it wouldn’t worsen. Even if the source of pollution still existed, at least the pain was reduced, and lifespans were extended!

Until two months later.

The Empire’s government vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

Couples and pairs who had already set their wedding dates for those two months suddenly decided not to get married.

Asked why—

“Buddha says to save all beings. Until all beings are liberated, how can I abandon the countless souls of this world?”

“If I do not enter hell, who will?”

The Empire’s government: “???”

Couples who, under government persuasion and subsidies, had been planning to have children suddenly decided not to continue preparing for pregnancy.

Asked why—

“Our past flesh was so filthy, our souls so greedy. We only decided to prepare for pregnancy because of the government’s birth subsidies.”

“How can such greedy people like us pollute a pure new life?”

“We have decided to cleanse our souls and purify our bodies. Only when we are truly ready to be parents will we have a child.”

“Take care of your own small family first, then you can take care of the larger family. Amitabha.”

The Empire’s government: “…………?????”

The Birth Office, looking at the birth rate, which was already negative, finally shed tears.

They mobilized en masse and earnestly sent private messages to Mo Bai and to Xixi.

“Please, stop recording! Save the Empire’s child birth rate!”

“If you keep recording, the entire Empire will want to become monks!”