The Old Man and the Tide I

Oh dear, I'm so screwed... I can't find the old dude here either! Where did he go?

Oh, Mr. Mo ... I need to find you fast.

Hello there, young man. You look troubled. What happened?

Oh? Who are you?

You must be the guests of Tianshi Zhuang! I heard all about you! The defenders of Wuling City!

Everyone in the city fought hard to protect their homes. What's going on?

Er... where should I start? Well, I really need your help to find my mentor.

Your mentor? You're...

My name's Yin Dong and I started my studies at Wuling last year. My mentor, Tianshi Mo, is a lecturer at the Tianshi Bureau Academy. But he's been ... institutionalized for six months now.

When the Blight Tide came, I went looking for him to get him to shelter. He's got bad legs, you see. But...

Physician Cui of the Medical Clinic told me he had run off! I searched the entire city! Nothing!

Physician Cui thinks that the ... old dolt is just throwing a tantrum. He did plenty of that, but always returned after a couple of days.

But ... it's really different this time. People told me he charged straight for the Blight Tide!

Is he crazy?! We're talking about a Blight Tide!

Well, Mr. Mo has always been ... rather interesting. People told me that the Medical Clinic was being extra forgiving because he worked really hard for decades...

But I don't care what they say about Mr. Mo! I'm clumsy too but he took the time and taught me how things work... I'm just worried he really went off into the Blight Tide...

Take a deep breath, young man. Have you found any other clues?

Back then, I was...

Endmin...

Remember the Blight Tide...? We all saw it. Heading outside the city feels like a death wish...

But respecting one's mentor is a really big thing in Hongshan. I don't know ... the lad looks really desperate.

Really? That's awesome!

So the last witness saw him running off to the Maintenance Zone outside the city? The area may be dangerous. We'll handle it.

Alright, young man. Stay in the city and keep searching. We'll look outside the city for you.

You're really helping? I don't know how to thank you all!

But ... Blight Tides and Aggeloi are really dangerous. If...

I'm not asking much. But I'm his only disciple. It's the very least I could do for him ... and myself.

And we will do everything we can.

You're back! What did you find? Anything about Mr. Mo?

......

The clues and footprints led us near the Maintenance Zone. Unfortunately...

...the footprints disappeared into the Blight Tide. And that's where our leads ended.

What...? Did Mr. Mo ... did he really...?

We also found traces that look like lashes from a whip. But there's ... nothing else.

They were made by Mr. Mo's Tide Flayer... He always walked around with that while mumbling: "Back, filthy tide! Back!"

Don't give up yet. There's no proof that Tianshi Mo didn't make it.

I understand... But I gotta thank you all for helping me out. You've been true heroes to Wuling ... and to me.

I'm sorry... But the results...

Ugh. The Blight Tide has receded, but it washed away plenty of people and things... I don't know if they would ever return...

We shouldn't give up. He told us that his mentor was getting treated at the City Medical Clinic.

Yeah. We should head over and ask around.

I'm not giving up just yet... Really appreciate your help, but I have to start looking for other leads.

Who might you be? People are really busy and I can't spare anyone to give you a tour.

The Blight Tide just receded and we could only save a few fields. Also some old troublemaker is giving us grief...

Old troublemaker? Could that be Tianshi Mo?

You know him? Great. Take a look at this mess we have on our hands.

The Blight...

The Blight Tide was just receding. We were trying to get rid of the residual masses when the old geezer showed up.

Then he started lashing out at the Blight with some kind of whip. And he made it worse!

He was also spouting nonsense like "fracture point" and "fault plane". That old clot is nothing but trouble!

Is he...?

I don't care what he was trying. He made things worse. Period.

The Blight messed up the farms. We can't even deploy the rescue measures we prepared. These test fields are the only solution we have.

How did things end up like this...

Food reserves are low. Let's help you with the de-blighting operations.

But I wonder if you could help us find that old troublemaker as well. He's gone missing and his disciple is kinda worried.

......

Protecting these fields is our top priority. I'll be super grateful if you could fix them.

Got a plan. I can get people to look around. But we're really counting on you to clear the Blight.

Leave it to us!

These Blight Cores ... kinda look different.

Someone attacked them before we arrived here. These look like ... lash marks.

...Does that mean?

You did it?! Wonderful! Now everyone can have a peace of mind.

Someone attacked the Blight masses here... They might look bigger, but they're also less hazardous.

Really? Are you saying that...?

Well ... his technique wasn't perfect and he couldn't strike the core itself. It would seem that he made things worse, but he was only trying to help.

So he wasn't here to cause trouble... I should apologize for my outburst earlier.

And thank you for saving the test fields. But ... we couldn't locate the old man. Sorry.

The lash marks he left overlap with the Aggeloid trail...

The lash marks go a long way into the distance. I don't think he's in trouble yet.

Aggeloi? That means he's in danger.

Sorry, I want to do more but I gotta do my job. We need to grow enough food for everyone.

It's alright. We can handle the rest from here.

What now? Should we inform Yin Dong about our findings?

Yes, and we should also use the opportunity to keep everyone updated.

I can't believe you fixed it so quickly!

Let me see... Records from past projects and segments from a few diary entries.

Records of Blight research files... Some data needs decryption and deciphering.

What is it? Did you find something?

The diary entries...

The reason why Mr. Mo gave up the project he was obsessed with...

This is Mr. Mo's diary. The last entry was written two years ago... You should take a look as well.

These are all the test logs made by Mr. Mo ... everything he worked on.

Mr. Mo ... he gave up almost everything for the Tide Flayer. Why did he destroy it all?

Nothing stopped him. Not even his disability nor his doubtful peers... But the research progress halted two years ago...

From the looks of it, Tianshi Mo decided to give up after the failure.

Yeah... Mr. Mo then applied for a transfer ... and got himself admitted to the Medical Clinic...

He kept talking about "letting go"... I finally realized what he was talking about.

My dear heroes, there's a place I want to go. Mr. Mo ... might be there.

Yes. Serenity Garden...

You're here. This is the place...

This is...

This merit stone bears Chun He's name ... She was my senior ... and she was ... Mr. Mo's strongest supporter.

Other senior disciples left but Chun He stayed with Mr. Mo, fighting the Blight Tide at every shore... But she had a birth defect and died young...

Mr. Mo brought me here. And every time he did ... he always brought a lotus flower and blamed himself for not protecting those around him...

That's all Mr. Mo told me. Perhaps he chose to let go because of this.

Letting go ... is a very difficult thing to do.

But would Chun He really want Mr. Mo to let this go...?

What are these...?

I guess my fellow seniors came here as well...

There's a florist over there. I... wanna talk to Chun He alone for a while... I want her to know what we found.

What would you like?

May they rest in peace...

The departed will appreciate this.

There's an old man who likes this flower.

Welcome, visitors... What is the purpose of this visit?

Oh, hi. My name's Yin Dong. I'm a student of Tianshi Mo. My mentor has...

Tianshi Mo... I know him. Has he accepted another student? Oh poor thing, I hope you haven't suffered much.

Wha? My ... uh, Mr. Mo treats me really well. No one's suffering.

Well... My own mentor told me about Old Mo. They go back a long way. Old Mo has an ... interesting temperament. He rarely accepts disciples.

And when he did, those poor souls just wouldn't stop complaining. All of them left after a while.

When his favorite disciple passed away, he simply stopped accepting any more.

That was for the best. His theories are fringe and extreme. It's not easy for anyone involved.

Oh, I also heard Old Mo had been admitted to the Medical Clinic. How is he doing?

He's... Well, I came here to see where he went. Tianshi Mo went missing when the Blight Tide hit us.

What? The Blight Tide... Did he ... do it again...?

He just couldn't let go of his preposterous ideas... Sorry, but I'm afraid we haven't seen him.

You seem to know Tianshi Mo very well. Can you share a few more details with us?

Endministrator and Supervisor Perlica? You're actually here for Old Mo as well.

I don't really know what to say about him. I just started my career when I met him, and he was already planning his resignation.

Why did he want to leave?

It was the Blight Tide. Everyone says so. It's been the only thing on his mind in these last ten years.

He lost vision in one of his eyes during that disaster ten years ago. Since then, he swore to completely neutralize the Blight Tide...

So that's what happened to his eye...

He's like many in the city. They lost loved ones or family, and it burned a mark on them.

He looked upon the ever-growing Blight Tide with nothing but hate...

Old Mo occasionally went to the tidal shores just to curse the Tide. And his curses could last an entire day.

The Institute often criticized his attitude towards his research, but Old Mo never cared.

What is his research...?

It's a project based on a branch of Xiranite science. He chose the most dangerous project of all — the Tide Flayer.

He believed the flaying whip could expand fracture points into fault planes. A direct strike at the core would bring the whole thing down.

It's theoretically feasible, but...

But it's too risky. A user of the Tide Flayer would be completely exposed to the Blight itself.

The slightest miscalculations of core locations would have potentially lethal consequences...

No wonder the Institute went against it.

But Mr. Mo is usually a really kind man, this is...

I hardly ever saw him after he left the Institute. I hope he's doing alright.

Thank you for sharing the information with us. We'll keep searching the Institute to see if there're any clues we've missed.

Blight Tide, Blight Tide... Mr. Mo really hates this thing...

Look at these files... They look like Tianshi Mo's project. "Hazard factors are too high"... I guess this is why the Institute decided to shelve it.

That Tianshi told us the truth.

Mr. Mo's project ... it turned out to be dangerous...

This looks like Mr. Mo's old address... He got admitted to the Medical Clinic not long after I met him... Mr. Mo never mentioned it to me.

I'm not leaving any leads unchecked. Let's go.

Maybe Mr. Mo went home...

There's a letter...

The date written on it is several days ago. Your mentor did indeed come back here.

"We shall meet at Serenity Garden and discuss the promise at length"... Mr. Mo is going to meet someone at the Garden tomorrow...

The letter is anonymous. But the tone tells me it's from someone close to Tianshi Mo.

We finally got a strong lead! Let's look around some more.

Hello, physician. I'm looking for Tianshi, one named Mo. Is he on record?

Tianshi Mo...? You're talking about Old Mo. We probably know him too well...

He's been a constant headache for six months.

Old Mo was still quite normal when we first admitted him... It was just a case of rehab to undo the effects of his tests and experiments.

But as time went by, Old Mo's behaviors became increasingly erratic.

He kept breaking ward furnishings and equipment... We tried asking him why, but he always played stupid.

Breaking... Did he hit or whip them with something?

Not entirely. He got injured twice due to his tantrums. The incidents scared me.

And when he's relatively stable, he would start mumbling things that nobody understands...

Things like "force point" and "karmic cycle"... None of it made any sense.

Sometimes he'd wake up at midnight and start setting off alarms as though he sensed something. Like I said, a real source of trouble.

Has the old dude... I mean, has Tianshi Mo always acted like this?

Well, he was nice before he got sick. But his behaviors only grew stranger with time.

Since you're here ... I'm assuming he caused trouble again. We really apologize for that.

No... He didn't cause any. But the old Tianshi went ... missing. His disciple is worried about his safety.

Missing...? Did you try looking for him at the Tech Production Office test fields?

Test fields?

Yeah. I don't know why he kept sneaking off to the farm. Tianshi Xia Yi has made quite a few complaints about this.

Hoo. Everyone's pretty stressed and anxious. I just hope Old Mo is alright.

Thank you. That's where we'll look.

After all this, we still couldn't find where Mr. Mo went...

I won't give up, not when there's a glimmer of hope.

You didn't know him, but ... you still did so much for him. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I feel.

Don't worry. Mr. Mo is definitely the lucky type.

I'll study the files and clues left by Mr. Mo closely. There's definitely something hidden inside.

Keep us updated on your progress. We'll also pay extra attention on our end.

We shall return here tomorrow, and wait for the person your mentor promised to meet.

This ... this is Mr. Mo's favorite flower. How did you know?

Mr. Mo...