Chapter 12

After wandering for a while, Xiao Hu suddenly asked, "Where are we going next?"

Mo Hua patted his storage bag. "First, Beidajie!"

The group arrived at the entrance of Youyuan Zhai on Beijie. Mo Hua stepped up onto the porch steps, then turned to see his three companions standing still— he asked, "Aren't you coming in?"

The three companions all shook their heads together:

"I get dizzy just seeing arrays…"

"Me too…"

"I'll never have any luck with arrays in this life—I'm not going in…"

Mo Hua could only say, "Then wait here for me. I'll be out soon."

The three companions nodded in unison.

Mo Hua stepped inside; the bell above the door chimed. The manager, hearing it, spotted Mo Hua standing at the entrance, chest puffed out, storage bag slung over his shoulder, and chuckled, "It's you again? What, did your brother finish all the array diagrams?"

Mo Hua nodded. "Yes."

The manager perked up. "Oh? Only five days? That's fast." He waved Mo Hua over. "Let me see them."

Mo Hua took the array diagrams from his storage bag and stood on tiptoe to place them on the counter.

The manager picked them up, glanced through them, and frowned.

Mo Hua felt uneasy. "Are they wrong?"

The manager paused, then said, "They're correct, but this level doesn't look like a seasoned artist's work. A few are decent, but these few…"

The manager pulled out several diagrams. Mo Hua glanced—they were the first ones he'd drawn.

"These are far worse. The brushwork is stiff, uneven, like they were painstakingly patched together one stroke at a time. Are you sure your brother is actually studying arrays with an array master? This level is way too low…"

Mo Hua felt embarrassed—he'd drawn these for the first time, and he'd done his best.

"Can these arrays still be used?"

The manager tapped his fingers on the desk, studying them carefully.

"The brushwork is poor, but the arrays themselves are fine—they'll work. It's just the brushwork that's bad."

Mo Hua exhaled in relief. "Good. Maybe my brother's never drawn this array before—he's just unfamiliar, so the first few are clumsy. Look, the later ones are much better, aren't they?"

The manager examined the later diagrams and slowly nodded. "True. These later ones are indeed better—decent, at least."

"Right?" Mo Hua assured him. "Don't worry—I mean, my brother will definitely get better with each one!"

The manager laughed at Mo Hua. "You've got a lot of faith in your brother. Alright, I'll count this order as complete—for your sake. But next time, the arrays must meet the standard of these later ones. No more submitting practice sketches as finished work."

Mo Hua nodded eagerly.

The manager neatly packed the array diagrams and placed several spirit stones on the counter.

"Eight successful, two failed. We deduct two spirit stones as deposit. Your payment is six spirit stones."

"If your brother continues drawing, the deposit remains ten spirit stones. He already has the Minghuo Array diagram—I'll give him ten more sets of paper and ink."

The manager handed Mo Hua another storage bag filled with paper and ink.

Mo Hua tucked away the paper and ink, then picked up the six spirit stones, unable to suppress his joy.

Six spirit stones in five days—that's roughly what a mid- to late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivator earns.

Mo Hua's mother, Liu Ruhua, worked in the dining hall, earning one spirit stone per day. His father, Mo Shan, earned more hunting demons, but his income was unstable—sometimes more, sometimes less if he caught no valuable beasts.

Mo Hua thanked the manager and stepped out of Youyuan Zhai. The three companions waited outside, watching him eagerly.

Mo Hua patted his storage bag and waved his small hand. "Come on—I'll treat you to snacks!"

Da Hu and the others all exclaimed "Whoa!" in delight, surrounding Mo Hua as they headed to a pastry shop on the street.

Xiancheng had many pastry shops; the expensive ones used rare ingredients, far beyond Mo Hua's means. They chose a humble shop called Wang's Pastry, run by a low-level Qi Condensation cultivator. The shop was simple, the ingredients not luxurious, but generous and affordable.

Common cultivators often bought these during festivals to treat their children.

Wang's Pastry was famous for its Five-Color Cake, made by steaming five different colored spirit grains together—sweet, soft, and chewy. One cake cost only two fen of broken spirit stones.

Low-tier itinerant cultivators earned so little that many didn't earn a full spirit stone per day, so they cut spirit stones into pieces. One spirit stone equals ten fen of broken spirit stones.

Broken spirit stones aren't recognized by the Dao Court or sects or clans—they circulate only among low-tier cultivators, and only poor Qi Condensation cultivators use these fractional pieces.

Mo Hua spent two spirit stones and bought ten Five-Color Cakes. The shopkeeper, seeing he bought many and was a child, added two extra cakes for free.

Mo Hua gave two cakes to each of his friends, keeping four to take home for his parents.

The four boys each held a cake—warm, sweet, fragrant—and ate as they walked. Xiao Hu burned his tongue but kept talking:

"This cake is amazing! When I earn spirit stones, I'll eat this every day!"

Shuang Hu said, "Then you'd be better off marrying a woman who makes cakes—you'd eat them every day."

Xiao Hu suddenly realized. "Right! Why didn't I think of that!" Then he frowned. "But I already like someone… I can't be fickle…"

Shuang Hu widened his eyes. "Who do you like?"

Xiao Hu said, "The girl who sells tofu on the west street. I like her first—you can't steal her from me!"

Shuang Hu snorted and waved his hand. "Relax. She's got a terrible temper—I wouldn't even dream of competing with you…"

Shuang Hu and Xiao Hu chatted, while Da Hu focused on eating, quickly devouring both his cakes and licking his fingers clean.

Mo Hua gave him his uneaten cake too.

Da Hu smiled shyly but couldn't resist taking and eating it.

Shuang Hu suddenly asked, "Mo Hua, did you really draw arrays for that place?"

Mo Hua nodded.

Xiao Hu's mouth dropped open. "You can draw arrays for people now?"

Shuang Hu rolled his eyes. "Then where do you think the spirit stones for these cakes came from?"

Xiao Hu froze, cake in hand. "These cakes were bought with spirit stones from your array drawings? No way! Mo Hua, you're really going to become a Rank-One Array Master someday!"

Mo Hua said, "It's too early to say that. Array masters aren't that simple. Keep this between us—don't tell anyone. When I earn more spirit stones, I'll treat you to more cakes."

The three of them nodded hurriedly at the mention of pastries, and Xiaohu even vowed, "If I ever tell anyone, I'll never get to eat snacks for the rest of my life!"

Mo Hua and the others wandered around the streets a bit more, looking at all sorts of strange and curious novelties, and once the sky began to darken, they each headed home.

Mo Hua gave the pastries to Liu Ruhua. Liu Ruhua steamed them in a pot, then placed them into Mo Hua's bowl. Mo Hua refused flatly, and after a round of polite back-and-forth, in the end Mo Hua still ate two, while Seeing Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua each tried one.

The pastries Liu Ruhua had steamed were warm and fragrant, and as Mo Hua ate them, they tasted even better than the ones at noon. He couldn't help asking, "Mother, can you steam pastries?"

Liu Ruhua laughed and said, "What's so hard about that? Your mother can make even the most complicated dishes. It's just that many of them require a stove specially forged by an artifact-refining master, along with a special array. We don't have the means at home, that's all."

"Are stoves very expensive?"

"A stove has to be forged by an artifact-refining master, so naturally it isn't cheap—but what's even more expensive is the array. Getting an array master to inscribe one isn't easy, let alone for something as large as a stove. So unless you're opening a tavern or restaurant, no one would spend a fortune to set one up…"

Mo Hua nodded. It seemed arrays were used even more widely in the cultivation world than he had imagined. He wondered which kind of array was used on the stove.

Mo Hua silently noted it down, planning to learn it when he had the time later.