Chapter 1032: Chapter One Thousand and Twenty-Eight: The Tu Murder Scripture

"Why can't I see through it…"

"Is there something else hidden here—some other evil god's scheme? Does Mr. Tu have even deeper plans?"

Mo Hua pondered for a long time.

But the clues were too few; he still had no clear direction.

The revival of the evil gods, Mr. Tu's grand scheme—no one knew how many years they had stretched across.

Without actual causal facts, sitting indoors and guessing blindly could never yield real clues.

But there was another question that intrigued Mo Hua.

Mo Hua rested his chin in his hand, furrowed his brow, and muttered to himself:

"If this Mu Qing really went to the Rouge Boat…"

"What would she have done on the Rouge Boat?"

"Play?"

"Play what?"

So far, the Rouge Boat was an upscale pleasure house.

It used beauty as bait, nobility as lure, power as ladder, to entice prodigies into collusion, forming factions together.

Put simply, those prodigies went to the Rouge Boat to play with women.

Then what about Mu Qing?

She was a woman herself—she couldn't possibly go there to "play" with women…

Then she… played with men?

Kept her own harem, kept concubines, kept pretty boys, indulged in wine and revelry?

"Tsk tsk~"

Mo Hua shook his head, sighing inwardly.

To know a person's face is not to know their heart…

On the surface, such a cold and ethereal immortal lady, yet behind closed doors, she played so wildly…

People in this world truly were more corrupt the more polished and radiant they appeared on the outside.

But this was just his wild guess.

Whether it was true or not, he couldn't be certain.

There was no way—this circle was simply too chaotic, too wild.

The pure-hearted himself simply could not imagine what these noble scions might be doing in the secret chambers of the Rouge Boat…

Now, even if he wanted to find out, it was too late.

Because he had blown up the Rouge Boat.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua suddenly jolted, realizing a problem:

"Did I, in blowing up the Rouge Boat, accidentally kill all of Mu Qing's pretty boys?"

"Could that be why she wants to kill me?"

"No… that doesn't make sense…"

"At first, she didn't want to kill me—I only said her Dao heart was corrupted, and that's when she broke down…"

"But why did she care so much about that remark?"

Mo Hua frowned, pondering for a long time, still unable to understand.

Mu Qing was a woman of extreme beauty, yet also fierce, mysterious, slightly unhinged—utterly inscrutable.

"I'll keep an eye on her…"

"Mu Qing… and the other three Qianxue prodigies… and…"

"Mr. Tu…"

Mo Hua nodded, his gaze deep, flickering with a spark of fire.

Then he cast aside distractions, calmed his mind, and returned to studying arrays.

The matter was tangled and complex—it must be unraveled thread by thread.

Learning arrays required persistence like water wearing away stone; it could not be neglected.

With so many things still unclear, learning more arrays meant having more leverage…

Mo Hua focused his attention and began studying arrays.

Currently, his array studies still followed his previous plan.

First: the Return-and-Evolve Four Symbols Dragon Diagram.

Using the scattered Four Symbols beast patterns—dragon scales from the east, claws from the west—gained during his ordeal in the Ten Thousand Beasts Valley, he pieced together array patterns, returning the beast markings to their source, to reconstruct a complete "Dragon Pattern."

This process of returning to the source was extremely difficult and time-consuming—not something achieved overnight.

But it greatly aided in deepening his understanding and practice of the Four Symbols arrays.

If he truly could, through his own ability, reconstruct a "Dragon" from scratch…

Then, in a certain sense, he would possess an attainment far surpassing ordinary array masters—worthy of being called a Master of the Four Symbols Arrays.

Thus, in Mo Hua's eyes, this process of Return-and-Evolve was both a form of study and a means of deepening and elevating his understanding of arrays.

In addition, there was the Reverse Spirit Array.

Mo Hua had long since learned the basics of the Reverse Spirit Array.

He had also long begun contemplating its underlying principles.

Therefore, learning and mastering the second-rank Reverse Spirit Array presented Mo Hua with few true "major barriers."

But small barriers kept arising.

There's no helping it—after all, this is a second-grade Absolute Array, not something you can pick up that easily.

It requires relentless practice, and comprehension as steady as water wearing through stone.

You have to put in enough effort, and only then will success come naturally.

Mo Hua's heart was full of anticipation.

Once he fully mastered the Reverse Spirit Array, he would truly have grasped the might of a second-grade "Absolute Array."

He could use his own Reverse Spirit Array as the "fire," and someone else's array as the "kindling," to set off even bigger "fireworks."

Of course, these fireworks might not actually be set off.

But the ability to set off fireworks—absolutely must be there.

Mo Hua nodded, then pushed aside the distracting thoughts, calmed his mind, and began to devote himself wholeheartedly to studying arrays.

The Four Symbols Dragon Array and the Reverse Spirit Array were the two kinds of arrays Mo Hua was currently tackling with everything he had.

And both of these arrays belonged to the category of Absolute Arrays.

They were hard to learn, and hard to practice.

The whole process was long, obscure, and tedious.

Accompanied by cycles of divine sense draining and recovering, racking his brain, failing again and again, enduring setbacks, meditating until a spark of insight struck…

Yet Mo Hua took it all in stride, savoring every bit.

There are no shortcuts in arrays—this is the path every array master must walk.

And what's more, it is the broad road leading toward higher realms of arrays.

Precisely because it is so exceedingly difficult, it is therefore exceedingly precious…

……

The next day, the Sword Debate continued.

Mo Hua kept Duanmu Qing's matter in mind for now. The two Absolute Arrays, he was still continuing to learn.

But the situation of the Sword Debate grew ever more tense.

Especially after the duel was lost to Duanmu Qing of Wan Xiao Sect, that tiny "fragile" lead the Grand Void Gate had held was instantly wiped clean away.

The margin for error shrank further.

The Luo Sect surged in hot pursuit, pressing forward step by step.

Looking at it, with only a few victories' difference, the Grand Void Gate's ranking was about to slip once more—falling from the position of first among the Eight Great Gates.

Naturally, the Grand Void Gate was unwilling to accept that.

Not only Mo Hua—the other teams of Grand Void Gate disciples were also fighting with everything they had, nearly every match pushed to utter exhaustion, utterly brutal.

In between, the Tai'a Five Brothers, Yang Qianjun, and a few other teams also fought desperately and won several rounds.

These few victories did not come easily. But compared to the overall situation, they seemed rather like a drop in the bucket.

The overall gap between the Grand Void Gate and the Luo Sect had not been widened.

Because of this, Mo Hua absolutely could not afford to lose.

Afterward, the Dao Debate Heavenly Instrument continued to deduce the matchups.

Mo Hua fought two more Earth-rank Sword Debates—one against a top disciple of Lingxiao Gate, and one against a team from Qiandao Sect that was just below first-rate.

These two teams, while not the absolute strongest, were certainly not weak either—he could not let his guard down.

Mo Hua's tactical thinking was still centered on "arrays," assisting Linghu Xiao and the others in their killing strikes.

The arrays he knew were simply too many.

Within second grade, the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams—nothing was left out.

Killing arrays, defensive arrays, trapping arrays—skilled in every one.

Before battle, he'd toss a small blanket over it; no one would know which arrays he was secretly, sneakily drawing.

Any array was possible.

Combined with the terrain, the match format, adapting to the place and the moment—boundless in variation, impossible to guard against.

And Linghu Xiao and the others, tempered through so many Sword Debates, had made great strides in both strength and mindset.

Add to that Mo Hua's array support.

This team of the Grand Void Gate had indeed already reached the level of a half-step "top-tier" strong team.

Therefore, the two Sword Debates against Lingxiao Gate and Qiandao Sect, though they went through some twists and turns, were both won.

But though the Sword Debate was won, Mo Hua had a bad premonition.

Through these two Sword Debates, he vaguely felt that his conventional array patterns seemed to have been figured out…

Even though in the previous Sword Debates he had already been restrained enough, not abusing his arrays.

Most arrays were used only where they counted most.

When drawing arrays, he even covered them with a small blanket.

But all of this seemed to be of no use.

Mo Hua could faintly sense that, when the other teams responded to his arrays, in every move they made, a kind of norm had formed—something like a "set of rules."

Others might not notice this norm, but it could not escape Mo Hua, whose mind was delicate and whose divine sense was keen.

And this kind of "set of rules" was absolutely not something these disciples could have come up with.

Because their attainment in arrays was still far from reaching that level.

Mo Hua mulled it over for a long time, and deep down vaguely guessed that this was very likely some "one" array elder…

Or perhaps, some "group" of array elders…

Gathered together, dividing the work and cooperating, combining the Sword Debate terrain and match format, deducing his array patterns and style.

This kind of deduction resembled a kind of live-combat simulation.

Borrowing divine sense to simulate, he deduced what terrain, what format, and what opponents in the Sword Debate tournament would prompt him to use which formations…

Mo Hua drew a slight breath of cold air.

"It can't be that bad…"

"I'm just a little Sword Debate disciple — would they really go to such lengths to target me?"

But his experience and instinct shouldn't be wrong.

There must be a "set of rules" behind the Sword Debate opponents' behavior.

As for where this "set of rules" came from, who set it, what form it took, and what it contained…

Mo Hua couldn't guess for the moment, and it wasn't easy to guess.

But soon, he wouldn't have to guess.

Two days later, someone delivered this "set of rules" to him in person.

In the dining hall, Mo Hua stared at a jade slip made of white jade in his hand, falling into deep thought.

The jade slip's name was:

"Rules Against Mo Hua."

Full title: "Code of Conduct That Must Be Adopted Against the Various Treacherous Tactics Used Against Mo Hua in the Sword Debate Tournament."

This set of rules was given to him by Song Jian.

According to Song Jian, "Every sect hostile to the Grand Void Gate, or one that lost to you in the Sword Debate tournament, has this set of rules."

"Ordinary disciples don't have it."

"But among the Sida Sect and the Eight Great Gates, every prodigy disciple who could participate in the Sword Debate tournament and advance to the Earth Rank now almost has a copy."

The Severing Gold Gate, because of Mo Hua, had deep enmity with the Grand Void Gate and was a "hostile" sect.

In this Sword Debate tournament, also because of Mo Hua, the Severing Gold Gate lost many matches to the Grand Void Gate and was defeated badly.

Also because of Mo Hua's "underhanded manipulation," Song Jian was now a "top-ranked" prodigy of the Severing Gold Gate.

Therefore, this "Rules Against Mo Hua" was issued to Song Jian.

In the end, it was forwarded to Mo Hua himself.

Karmic cycle — quite ingenious.

Of course, Mo Hua, looking at this "set of rules against himself," felt very mixed emotions.

In the dining hall, Mo Hua wasn't the only one reading.

Cheng Mo, Sister Situ, Hao Xuan, and a group of junior brothers also crowded their heads together to look at the "Rules Against Mo Hua" in Mo Hua's hand.

Even Linghu Xiao, who happened to come to Taixu Mountain to scrounge a meal, couldn't help sneaking a peek.

The core purpose of "Rules Against Mo Hua" was to counter Mo Hua.

Its contents were divided into many sections: including the "Spells Section," the "Body Techniques Section," the "Formations Section," and even a page called the "Scheming Section."

The Scheming Section had the fewest words, mainly consisting of certain anonymous sect disciples dictating their experiences of being "deceived and tricked," as a warning.

Including: "Don't talk to Mo Hua before a battle;"

"Don't believe Mo Hua's slanderous words;"

"Mo Hua is extremely treacherous; every word he says serves his tactical purpose, and not a single one is true;"

"Beware all his schemes and tricks…" and so on.

Mo Hua was very unhappy.

The prejudice in people's hearts is truly a mountain.

He was such a sincere person, yet people called him "treacherous" — how outrageous…

Fortunately, the "Scheming Section" wasn't long, which meant this was only the opinion of a few people — bias, not to be taken seriously.

Mo Hua continued reading.

The "Spells Section" was very detailed, listing at length every low-tier Five-Element spell Mo Hua had used in the Sword Debate tournament so far.

Even some extremely obscure, extremely niche minor spells that Mo Hua had only casually tossed out once and forgotten about himself were all recorded in this "rules."

After each spell, there were also notes on countermeasures.

Because they were minor spells, there was no need to pay too much attention, so most were just a single sentence.

The truly special ones were only Fireball Spell and Water Prison Spell.

Especially Fireball Spell.

The whole page was filled with "Beware Fireball Spell!", "Watch out for Fireball Spell finishers!", "Better to die first than suffer the humiliation — remember!"

After Water Prison Spell, there was also a long list of points to note about Water Prison Spell, as well as talismans, spiritual artifacts, and dharma methods to counter it.

There were also assertions like "Water Prison Spell is disgusting," "Better to be hit by Earth Prison Spell ten times than Water Prison Spell once."

Although he didn't know who had compiled these words.

Mo Hua could vaguely sense from between the lines a "gnashing of teeth" kind of hatred and anguish.

After that came Concealment Spell, which also listed many points to note.

Including the source of his Concealment Spell, the types of concealment, how to break concealment, how to track, what timing to use spiritual artifacts…

At the same time, someone also noted:

"Beware Mo Hua using visible concealment to confuse sight and hearing, or you'll be treated like a 'big fool' — remember."

Mo Hua read on, completely baffled.

Big fool? Who?

After the "Spells Section" came the "Body Techniques Section."

This one was much more "professional."

Someone had taken Mo Hua's body techniques, every move and stance, broken them apart, ground them down, and drawn them into the jade slip.

Breaking it down move by move.

It even came with some vulnerabilities in the body techniques and moves.

These were probably all painstakingly extracted from the Shadow-Imitation Diagrams, frame by frame, drawn out, and patiently studied.

Every single movement of the body technique had truly been researched down to the pores.

Their eyes were probably nearly blinded from the effort.

Mo Hua sighed, but didn't worry too much.

Because body techniques were a form of strength.

Even if they were familiar with his moves and knew his vulnerabilities, if their body technique wasn't as good, as fast, or as exquisite as his, they still couldn't catch him.

Moreover, the powerful foundation of Mo Hua's Passing Water Steps lay in his powerful and meticulous divine sense control.

Only breaking some things on the level of "moves" didn't mean much.

Therefore, this "Body Technique Chapter," though seemingly exhaustive, was merely "armchair strategy" and nothing to fear.

But in the end, the longest "Array Chapter" was the troublesome one.

Mo Hua only glanced at it, read two lines, and immediately frowned.

As he expected, this was indeed a set of response protocols tailored specifically to him, derived from actual sword-discussion combat.

Up to now, the number of matches where he'd used high-rank arrays in combat was limited.

He'd also been keeping some of his tricks hidden and tucked away.

Logically speaking, there wasn't much material to reference.

But the problem was, this was the Qianxue State boundary, where sects stood like trees in a forest—not only were there many prodigies, but elders with deep cultivation experience were equally countless.

Among them, there must certainly be a large number of brilliant array elders.

Mo Hua didn't have much material of array combat.

So these elders relied on their own knowledge and experience to simulate and deduce.

They laid out the tournament formats, defined the terrain, matched the opponents, and then, based on their rich array experience and the patterns of second-rank arrays, along with Mo Hua's habits in deploying arrays, "deduced" the actual combat situations of the sword discussion.

This kind of deduction was full of countless possibilities.

First, the types of arrays Mo Hua knew were too many.

Second, with different formats, different terrain, and different opponents, battles would develop differently, and arrays would be applied differently.

In a specific sword discussion, when would Mo Hua use what array, place it where, and what easily identifiable signs would there be.

How to be vigilant, how to detect, how to probe the array, how to counter… and so on.

The situations within were truly too complex.

And the sword-discussion tournament's schedule was very tight.

Therefore, this massive amount of simulation and deduction simply couldn't possibly be completed by just a few array elders in a short time.

It must have been a huge pile of elders, working day and night, expending vast amounts of divine sense, pouring in tremendous effort, listing every kind of battle scenario, formulating every kind of countermeasure, condensing all the essence—only then producing the densely packed entire scroll before them:

"Rules for Dealing with Mo Hua · Array Chapter."

Mo Hua was truly filled with amazement.

These array elders were truly formidable.

At the same time, he was also utterly speechless.

These array elders were truly so bored it hurt…

As array elders of the various major sects in the Qianxue State boundary, did they really need to target a little Foundation Establishment disciple like him this much?

Was their divine sense worthless?

Even if divine sense was worthless, they should still cherish their hair…

Divine sense depletion could still recover.

But once hair fell out, it wasn't certain to grow back.

Flesh and blood, bones and body, hair and skin—received from one's parents, in accordance with the Heavenly Dao.

Even for cultivators, hair didn't just grow back on demand; otherwise, there'd be no bald people in this world…

Mo Hua had a headache and couldn't help but sigh.

The fellow disciples beside him, who were looking at this densely packed, clearly itemized "rulebook" into which unknown amounts of effort had been poured, were also deeply shaken.

Cheng Mo exclaimed in awe: "Senior Brother, you really have face."

"So many sessions of the sword-discussion tournament, and I've never heard of anyone making a whole 'rulebook' just to target a single disciple."

The onlookers all nodded in agreement: "Senior Brother, you truly can be called the 'Number One Person of the Sword Discussion.'"

"Unprecedented…"

"Probably won't have a successor either…"

But Mo Hua's face darkened.

People fear fame the way pigs fear getting fat.

When people become famous, they invite trouble; when pigs get fat, they get slaughtered.

This was no good thing at all.

Mo Hua was a little unconvinced. "Has no one ever been targeted like this before?"

"As far as I know," Hao Xuan shook his head, "no…"

Mo Hua didn't understand. "Then why are they targeting me like this?"

"Probably because you're too infuriating…"

A group of Grand Void Gate junior brothers said silently in their hearts.

Setting aside Mo Hua's other abilities for the moment, his ability to "infuriate people" was absolutely top-tier.

In fact, compared to his mastery of formation arrays, it was even more so.

If he were doing it on purpose to annoy people, that would be one thing.

The key was, sometimes he could annoy people without even meaning to.

Annoying people unintentionally was the most annoying thing of all.

Especially when he annoyed people with that innocent, naive look on his face — that was enough to drive someone to death.

This point was demonstrated to perfection at this Sword Discourse Tournament.

Of course, they couldn't very well say that out loud.

After all, within Grand Void Gate, Little Senior Brother was still respectable and adorable.

"Probably because, Little Senior Brother, you're different from the other prodigies…"

"What do you mean?"

"Other prodigies are strong in cultivation — that's raw strength."

"But Little Senior Brother, you're strong in Daoist spells and formation arrays — that's mastery of means."

"Raw strength isn't easy to target; strong is strong, weak is weak, but means can be countered in all sorts of ways…"

Some disciples also guessed: "Probably because of women…"

"Little Senior Brother, you've offended Lu Zhenlong, and indirectly offended many of her admirers…"

An ordinary man, offending people is no big deal, but women — especially beautiful women — are different.

Cheng Mo quickly added: "And Duanmu Qing…"

During the Sword Discourse Tournament, Duanmu Qing chased after Little Senior Brother trying to kill him, looking like she'd "fight to the death."

Someone sighed: "Being hated and hunted by two great fairies of the Qianxue Tournament at the same time — Little Senior Brother, you could say you've got a 'fate that offends peach blossoms'…"

Mo Hua's face turned even darker.

……

After the meal, Mo Hua returned to the disciples' quarters.

He had to busy himself drawing formation arrays, and figure out how to handle the next round of the Sword Discourse.

With this "Mo Hua Rulebook," all his skills — especially his standard formation array routines — had been studied inside out; the next round of the Sword Discourse probably wouldn't be so easy.

But in his heart, he had some doubts.

The formation array portion of this "Rulebook" should have come from the formation array elders of the various sects.

Because it required veteran formation masters to do the actual combat simulation and deduction of formation arrays.

Then what about the other portions?

Who put those together?

Mo Hua frowned.

And at the same time, in the Tu Mo Order, that mysterious figure, blurred like magnetic ink, sent a message in bold ink strokes:

"The various measures targeting Mo Hua have been compiled and entered into the 'Rulebook.'"

"Everyone gets a copy of this 'Rulebook.'"

"Future Sword Discourses will continue to add to it, perfecting it without end."

"Our creed: Mo Hua must die!"

"Our goal: Slay Mo Hua!"

Below, a crowd of people also spammed "Mo Hua must die!"

And this "Mo Hua Rulebook" kept circulating among the members of the Demon-Slaughtering Alliance, being refined and improved…

In the centuries that followed, the Daoist canon that gradually took shape, with this "Rulebook" born at the Sword Discourse Tournament as its prototype, had another famous name:

"Tu Mo Baodian" (Compendium of Mo-Slaughtering).

(End of chapter)