Chapter 1213: Heaven's Dao Retribution

In the desolate wasteland where grass and trees had withered away, the first array that fused formation and law—the Thick Earth Reconstruction Absolute Array—was painted by Mo Hua upon the vast, boundless earth, using his divine sense to command ink.

It was a very strange array.

Ordinary array masters working within the traditional framework could not, at root, understand what system this array actually belonged to.

Even array masters of broad and far-reaching insight, who knew that within it were blended Absolute Arrays and certain kindred arrays of the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams, could basically not discern the construction principles of the underlying laws within this compound array.

Nor could they fathom the various transformations of array principles—visible only to Mo Hua himself—that Mo Hua, through painstaking solitary effort, had carried out by using array patterns to transmit laws.

It was a two-layered construction.

The construction of the surface-layer array patterns, array hubs, and array eyes was already very difficult to read.

And what was harder still was the operation of the laws beneath the surface layer.

Laws are formless and hard to grasp. Even if others wished to learn or copy them, they had no way to begin.

This array was unlike any existing school of arrays within the Dao Court, and unlike the sacred patterns inherited from the Great Wasteland; it was an array system that Mo Hua had worked out on his own.

It was a "metamorphosis" in his understanding of arrays, achieved after years upon years of constant study, constant array-drawing, constant thought, and constant comprehension.

And this "Thick Earth Reconstruction Absolute Array" did not disappoint Mo Hua's expectations.

The array began to circulate, spiritual power of cyan-green and earth-yellow interweaving.

This was what could be seen on the surface, visible to the naked eye.

And in the unseen realm, within Mo Hua's divine eyes suffused with Jin Guang, the power of various "life" laws was constantly manifesting.

These laws, using the array Mo Hua had designed as a bridge, flowed slowly along their set paths, diverging from one another, then merging again at fixed nodes, thereby following Mo Hua's will and producing all manner of subtle transformations.

This was the drawing of laws through an array.

In a certain sense, it was also the manipulation of laws.

It took the great-earth Dao resonance contained within the Thick Earth Absolute Array as its core.

It arranged around that great-earth Dao resonance the power of various life-laws—the nurturing of grass and trees, the breeding of water and soil, the arising of wood and earth, the decay-life of burial in earth, and so on—with clear hierarchy and yet mutually complementing one another.

Ultimately, within the "crucible" of this Thick Earth Reconstruction Absolute Array, they all fused together into one vast, powerful law of vitality.

A breath teeming with life spread out from the Thick Earth Reconstruction Absolute Array.

The withered aura of the Famine, upon contact with this force of vitality, still boiled violently as before, perished, and gave off white smoke.

But this time, the aura of the Famine did not devour the force of vitality again.

The two stood as equals; indeed, on a small scale, the aura of the Famine was being suppressed by Mo Hua's array.

This also meant that Mo Hua's conception had taken effect.

He had initially grasped a means to suppress the Famine.

It also meant that, for the first time in his life, he had truly comprehended and taken hold of the fundamental logic of the Dao of Arrays: using arrays to give birth to laws, and the mutual generation and overcoming of laws.

Not far away, Elder Bachuan, who had been on full alert guarding Mo Hua, now saw, before Mo Hua, an extremely complex sacred pattern flickering with a green-wood luster.

And beneath the illumination of this sacred pattern, the land that had been ceaselessly decaying no longer withered, and even showed faint signs of regaining vitality.

In the span of barely a blink, some grass and trees within the cracks of the earth had actually begun to sprout anew…

Elder Bachuan could not understand it at all, but was greatly shaken.

"Lord Wuzhu, is this… finding a way to fight against the unending calamities of the Great Wasteland?"

"Does Lord Wuzhu wish to… save the Great Wasteland from the flood and fire of the Famine?"

Elder Bachuan's eyes went wide.

In that instant, his heart trembled, and his reverence for Lord Wuzhu rose like a mountain too lofty to gaze upon, beyond all words.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side, Mo Hua was still continuing his research with single-minded focus.

This was only the beginning.

He now had a deeper understanding of the relationship between "array" and "law," and had personally put it into practice by constructing a "Thick Earth Reconstruction Absolute Array," using it as a medium to draw upon the great earth's law of vitality and oppose the power of the Famine.

But the reconstruction and derivation of array and law was only the first step.

The second step was to observe the "confrontation" of these laws.

The power of Thick Earth represented "life."

The power of the Famine, in a certain sense also the power of the Taotie, represented "death."

When the power of Thick Earth was applied to the power of the Taotie, the two obstructed each other, occupied the same ground, and so opposed each other, slaughtered each other, and perished together.

And within this slaughter and perishing, there was also the transformation of laws.

When "death" killed "life," it was the conversion of "life" into death.

And when "life" saved "death," it was the conversion of "death" into life.

Life and death were as distinct as a river from a ditch, yet precisely so depended on each other, permeated each other, transformed into each other, until in the end life and death were one.

This was an extremely masterful "transformation of laws," and also a "law-model" akin to a "universal law."

It was not only life and death.

Mo Hua judged by intuition that the myriad laws of this world very likely all followed such a universal law, permeating and transforming one another through "generation and overcoming," forming a single whole.

This could even be called the fundamental model of the "Dao."

But such an evolution touching upon the Dao was far more arduous.

Mo Hua could not, for now, fathom it through.

Yet this did not prevent him from using this fundamental model of the "Dao" to study the transformations of laws.

Even without understanding the principle, he could first put it to simple use.

This was also his current main purpose, and the third step of his plan:

To use the "generation and overcoming" of laws to "dissect" the aura of the Famine—that is, to study the power of the Taotie.

For Mo Hua, this principle was not hard to understand.

When no "generation and restraint" occurs, the power of Taotie is inherently complete and self-sufficient.

Mo Hua naturally could not penetrate the essence of this power.

To perceive its essence, one must impose another force of cosmic law, engaging it with Taotie's power in generation and restraint, forming a "contradiction."

Once Taotie's power encounters external obstruction, internal contradictions arise, exposing its essence.

This is the optimal moment to "analyze" the Taotie Law.

Not only the Taotie Law, but all things in the world follow the same principle.

A cultivator who always progresses smoothly appears "flawless," but only when encountering failure, setbacks, pain, and suffering do their inner weaknesses and fundamental contradictions surface.

These "contradictions" determine a person's true nature.

Whether one can overcome these contradictions also determines a cultivator's capacity and future Dao path.

Beyond individuals, tribes are the same.

If a tribe is developing and growing, everything proceeds smoothly, appearing naturally strong and without issue.

But once development is blocked, encountering powerful enemies or various disasters, internal problems emerge.

Various class contradictions also become acute.

Wulashan of the Wulu Tribe had previously been loyal because he could lead troops in conquest and continuously expand territory.

But when conquest stalled and there were no more wars, Wulashan's inner ambition swelled, his lust for power deepened, his true nature was exposed, and ultimately he brought about his own destruction.

Although the Wulu Tribe still exists today, Wulashan's Wulu Tribe is already dead.

Extending this further, cultivators, the Great Wilderness tribes, families under the Dao Court, sects, all factions, even the Dao Court itself and the Nine Provinces world—all largely follow this pattern.

All things abide by this same "law."

Precisely because it encompasses all phenomena, embraces all things and all laws, perhaps this is a model of... the Great Dao returning to oneness.

Mo Hua felt a sudden insight.

Thereafter, he continued his own conception, using this concept resembling a "Great Dao model" to study "laws."

Using arrays to generate law, he created opposition between laws, causing the Earth-Soil Force and Taotie's power to generate and restrain each other.

Generation and restraint mean mutual combat, mutual infiltration, mutual transformation.

During generation and restraint, intense internal changes occur within Taotie's power.

At such moments, analyze the internal logic and essence of Taotie's power, which symbolizes "famine."

Of course, while this sounds simple, actually doing it is extraordinarily taxing.

Because this entire process simultaneously involves many layers of law transformation.

It includes mutual deconstruction and reconstruction of arrays and laws.

It includes generation and restraint, infiltration, and transformation of laws.

It also includes the analysis of internal contradictions within another law.

Mo Hua, "a newborn calf unafraid of tigers," didn't overthink it; he had no rigid constraints from inherited knowledge.

Since these laws were entangled, presenting a state of "coexistence and interconnection," he simply studied and comprehended them all together.

Following his true heart, he saw what he saw and realized what he realized.

Solely seeking the Dao, truthful and without pretense, was enough.

Of course, the cost was a far more intense depletion of his spiritual awareness.

His comprehension of the laws also became far more difficult.

Mo Hua's spiritual sea rotated ceaselessly, thought ceaselessly, comprehended ceaselessly.

Every day, he merely repeatedly drew the Earth-Soil Reconstruction Ultimate Array, to counteract famine, to observe law generation and restraint, to analyze Taotie's power.

Repeating mechanically, over and over.

It seemed dull, exhausting, painful.

Yet Mo Hua felt as if he had opened a door to a new world, finding joy within it.

To others, he merely drew arrays on barren land—that was all.

But except for Mo Hua himself, almost no one knew what astonishingly wondrous transformations he perceived beneath these dull arrays and the surface of spreading famine.

And what law mysteries, incomprehensible to ordinary people, he had realized.

This is the vast chasm between worldly appearances and their essence.

Mo Hua now felt, more vividly than ever, a wondrous sensation of piercing through phenomena's surface and mastering the essence of all myriad laws.

Though this sensation remained as faint as fireflies.

To deepen this comprehension, Mo Hua still followed the "simple method."

He tirelessly repeated the deconstruction and reconstruction of arrays, again and again.

Again and again, he observed law generation and restraint, analyzed Taotie's power.

Realizing the Dao is actually quite simple.

Find one correct thing, then repeat it, repeat it, repeat it endlessly...

If you repeat it enough times—thousands upon thousands of times—this controlled deconstruction and reconstruction of arrays and laws, this generation and restraint of laws, this analysis of laws—

Then one day, your comprehension of the laws will become as natural as breathing.

Your control and application of the laws will become as simple as eating and drinking.

Even the most profound and obscure laws will be instantly understood before you.

Doing "difficult" things, making "difficult" things simple—naturally, you become strong.

In a sense, this too is a transformation of the "difficulty-ease" law.

And during the continuous process of deconstruction, reconstruction, and comprehension...

Mo Hua became utterly immersed, endlessly delighted, sometimes forgetting everything, even the passage of time, lost in the ocean of array principles, laws, and even the Great Dao.

He did not know who he was, where he was, or what he needed to do.

He merely drew, stared at, and studied the arrays, over and over again.

The sight of him, so utterly absorbed, bordering on "mad obsession," made Elder Bachuan feel deeply unnerved.

Yet he dared not disturb Mo Hua, fearing that even a moment of Tang Tu might disrupt Lord Wuzhu's communication with the Divine Lord, and ruin Lord Wuzhu's grand plan to combat the heavenly calamity.

Just as Elder Bachuan was frantic, utterly at a loss,

Mo Hua suddenly shut his eyes and collapsed face-first into the ground.

Elder Bachuan was terrified, his heart nearly leaping from his throat.

If Lord Wuzhu suffered any harm, he would be guilty of a crime deserving ten thousand deaths.

Elder Bachuan rushed forward, gently and respectfully lifting Mo Hua, checking his breath, feeling his meridians, and only then slowly exhaled in relief.

"He's fine… he fainted from hunger."

Elder Bachuan was at a loss for words, yet deeply astonished.

A cultivator who could starve himself into unconsciousness—how long had he gone without food? Or how long had his spirit been hyper-focused?

Elder Bachuan sighed.

He carried Mo Hua into the tent, brought him some pills and meat broth, fed him, and then tended to him with utmost care.

Mo Hua's complexion had noticeably improved, but he still had not awakened.

He had not merely fainted from hunger—his spiritual sense had been utterly drained, yet his comprehension of the Dao's principles had kept him in a profound "flow" state, allowing his spiritual sense to function for a long time even while depleted.

And this comprehension of the principles had driven Mo Hua to absolute single-mindedness.

Even the Spirit of Fate had been suppressed, daring not to retaliate.

Thus, Mo Hua slept soundly, without interruption, for a full day and night.

When he awoke, Mo Hua's mind was momentarily blank, as if he remembered nothing at all—the heavens and earth were a vast, white emptiness.

In this void, only faint traces of the Dao's principles drifted slowly.

In an instant, Mo Hua had the illusion that he was no longer human—that he had, without realizing it, become a vessel of the Dao, his spiritual sea transformed into a "sacred ground" where principles were born.

Mo Hua startled violently, drenched in cold sweat.

He desperately tried to recall who he was, but his mind remained blank, as if short-circuited—nothing came to him.

Fortunately, he had encountered this danger before.

Side effects of practicing the Supreme Severing of Emotion, or being counterattacked by the Spirit of Fate, often resembled this.

Mo Hua's emotions gradually calmed; he comforted himself: "Even if I am no longer human, it matters little," "The most important thing for a person is inner peace," "Do not panic," "Calmness brings safety…"

Indeed, after a moment, Mo Hua's heart steadied.

When the heart is steady, there is peace; when peaceful, there is stillness; when still, all flows smoothly.

Slowly, all his memories began to "reproduce" themselves from within Mo Hua's mind.

He remembered who he was—his parents, his master, his junior sister, his senior brother, the elders and fellow disciples of Grand Void Gate… and more.

Once all memories returned, Mo Hua let out a long, deep breath.

At the same time, he began to reflect. After a long while, he gradually realized: he had become too obsessed with the profound insight into the Dao's principles, drowning in them, nearly assimilated by the Dao, losing his human heart.

Ordinary people would never encounter such a situation.

The main reason was that Mo Hua had become too "excessive."

Soon, Mo Hua understood why he had become so excessive.

Others comprehended principles through "fate" or "inspiration."

Mo Hua had once been the same—occasionally achieving sudden enlightenment, lasting a bit longer, but never a problem.

But his current comprehension was something he had "controlled."

He drew arrays himself, evolved principles himself, created principle conflicts himself, and cultivated insight himself.

One round was not enough—he kept drawing, kept cultivating, day and night, filling his mind entirely with "principles."

Naturally, the Great Dao did not indulge him.

It nearly assimilated him outright, nearly turned him into a vessel of principles, denying him his humanity.

Fortunately, Mo Hua had always been physically weak, and had fainted from hunger first.

And fortunately, his "spirit refinement" was sufficiently advanced, allowing him to pull himself back from the brink of losing his humanity.

Otherwise, who knew what state he would be in now?

Thinking of this, Mo Hua was drenched in cold sweat.

No wonder others said: "Extreme wisdom brings injury."

Too high a talent, too great a cleverness—sometimes, it is not a blessing; it invites disaster and endangers one's life.

But then, Mo Hua felt a flicker of anger.

His master had said: "People fear fame, pigs fear fatness; when a tree towers above the forest, the wind will surely break it"—this was indeed true.

One who excels too much will be envied.

But that is envy from other people!

It should not be the Dao itself targeting him, right?!

Mo Hua didn't even bother counting them one by one…

When he established his Foundation, his spiritual sense was supposed to double, as planned.

At minimum, upon Foundation Establishment, he should have had a spiritual sense of eighteen or nineteen lines.

But the Dao suppressed him.

His spiritual sense rose, only to be forcibly dragged back down.

Later, when he established his Foundation, his spiritual sense was too strong—and the Dao targeted him again.

On his consciousness sea, a seal was imposed, forcibly locking his spiritual sense for a long time, unable to break through.

Now, needless to say.

I merely grasped a tiny bit of the Dao's principle, and this stingy Heaven's Dao has started its fit again.

This time, it went even further—nearly turned me into a "vessel."

If not for my profound spiritual sense cultivation, I might have been lost entirely.

Mo Hua thought of it, and his teeth ached from anger.

But after fuming for a while, he sighed.

Heaven's Dao targets me, yet I'm just a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator—what can I do but endure it?

Besides, Heaven's Dao is merely the collective term for Heaven and Earth's Great Dao, the unified will of countless principles—not a specific person—so there's no point in being angry at Heaven's Dao.

Mo Hua soothed himself like this for a while, and his heart felt somewhat better.

He, being magnanimous, would not hold Heaven's Dao's transgressions against it.

But then…

Should he continue deconstructing and reconstructing the array?

Should he continue comprehending the Gluttony Principle?

Should he continue observing the interactions of principles?

What if, while comprehending, he slips up again and Heaven's Dao "reprograms" him, turning him into a vessel of the principle?

Mo Hua's expression grew serious.

For him, this was an extremely grave question.

After pondering for a moment, he decided the path of seeking the Dao must advance relentlessly—those with courage thrive, those without starve.

He couldn't stop just because Heaven's Dao had tricked him once.

His comprehension of the principles was likely correct.

It was merely a matter of "quantity" going awry.

Perhaps his self-deconstruction, self-reconstruction, self-control, and self-comprehension had gone slightly too far, exceeding Heaven's Dao's limit.

If so, he merely needed to restrain himself a little.

As long as he didn't comprehend too excessively, Heaven's Dao likely wouldn't target him.

Mo Hua nodded.

Of course, this was merely his own "wishful thinking"—whether he'd actually be "punished" still depended on how Heaven's Dao would "sentence" him.

Mo Hua's body had improved somewhat, his spirit more vigorous, so he set out again toward the front lines of the famine.

Elder Bachuan wanted to stop him but dared not, so he followed behind Mo Hua with a worried expression.

Mo Hua reached the front lines, hesitated for a moment, then carefully began repeating his previous actions.

He drew the Thick Earth Reconstructed Ultimate Array, drew forth the "Life" principle to oppose the Gluttony force, experienced the struggle, and dissected the Gluttony force's core.

This process was too profound, too mysterious—the transformations of countless principles were mesmerizing.

Mo Hua soon became "lost" in it again.

About an hour later, a Jin Shi chime rang out.

This was Mo Hua's "sundial," set to remind him it was time to stop looking.

Mo Hua awoke, rose reluctantly, walked around, stretched his limbs, waited until his spiritual sense was fully replenished, then resumed observing the array and comprehending the principles.

Thus, he observed bit by bit, studied bit by bit; as soon as things grew slightly dangerous, he immediately stopped.

To test Heaven's Dao's attitude toward "punishment."

Mo Hua always had a premonition that, given his "virtue," he might be "punished" by Heaven's Dao from time to time in the future.

If so, he must adapt in advance—learn how to coexist with Heaven's Dao.

Learn to flexibly gauge Heaven's Dao's "sentencing," and master walking along the edge of its "punishment."