Chapter 19: Chapter Nineteen: Solid Earth Array

The deposit for the Solid Earth Array was twenty spirit stones; Mo Hua took ten from his previous earnings, handed them to Fatty Manager, and received the Solid Earth Array diagram along with ten sets of paper and ink materials, with a deadline of twenty days.

After leaving the trading house, Mo Hua went to a pastry shop, spent two spirit stones on ten colorful cakes, then returned straight to the sect and gave a few pieces to Brother Da Hu and the others.

The sect's meals were poor; the three often craved better food, but there was little worth eating.

Mo Hua bought these cakes to satisfy their cravings.

Several days later, in the evening, after finishing his daily lessons, Mo Hua was shut in his dormitory studying the Solid Earth Array when he suddenly heard someone knock.

When Mo Hua opened the door, he saw Double Tiger standing nervously outside.

Double Tiger stealthily handed Mo Hua a greasy paper parcel and whispered:

"I saved this for you—don't tell anyone."

After glancing left and right, he fled like a thief.

The disciples' dormitory was housing provided by Tongxian Sect, two to a room, small and furnished with two simple wooden beds and two worn wooden desks, just enough for daily living.

Tongxian Sect also had more luxurious, comfortable dormitories, but they required extra spirit stones.

Mo Hua originally had a fellow disciple as a roommate, but he dropped out this year—not because he couldn't afford tuition, but simply because he found cultivation boring and didn't want to study anymore, so now Mo Hua lived alone.

Mo Hua closed the door, opened the still-warm greasy paper, and found a freshly roasted chicken leg inside.

The chicken leg was fist-sized, steaming hot, slightly charred, emitting an enticing aroma, especially with a faint aura floating on its surface.

It was spirit beast meat.

"This… couldn't it have been stolen from somewhere…?"

Spirit-infused meat was far beyond Double Tiger's means to buy; seeing Double Tiger's furtive behavior, it could only have been stolen.

Mo Hua hesitated, took a bite—it had a burnt taste, some meaty fragrance, but was undercooked and unseasoned, making the flavor rather bland.

Cooking in the cultivation world was highly specialized; without proper training, it was nearly impossible to make anything tasty.

Cultivation ingredients were hard to process—for example, meat was tough, and some meats, like herbivorous demonic beasts', couldn't be tenderized without vast amounts of spiritual energy applied over long periods of steaming.

Spirit meat was slightly more tender, but cooking it still required care.

Besides meat, other vegetables and fruits also carried some aura, which mixed with their natural flavors; if improperly balanced, the taste became strange.

The chicken leg in Mo Hua's hands had been merely roasted, likely cooked secretly with a hidden fire to avoid detection, hastily done—so it couldn't possibly taste good.

But Mo Hua hadn't eaten meat in over a month; he didn't care much—he was just glad to have something.

Mo Hua struggled to finish the chicken leg, then lit a fire to burn the greasy paper, tossed the bones into the small stream outside, and completely erased all evidence.

After eating, Mo Hua spent some time absorbing the aura within the chicken meat, then buried himself again in studying the array.

Sure enough, two days later, Mo Hua heard that several Qi Condensation disciples had stolen a senior elder's ornamental pheasants, plucked them bare, and roasted them.

The elder flew into a rage, caught the disciples, and punished them severely.

Two days after that, Mo Hua saw Brother Da Hu and the others with black eyes, swollen faces, and two large bumps on their heads.

All three were on Tongxuan Peak; the elder could easily trace them—they couldn't escape, and punishment was inevitable.

But though they looked terrible, most injuries were superficial; the elder wouldn't go too far, not really harming them.

It was merely a minor punishment to serve as a warning to other disciples.

Though they looked pitiful, Brother Da Hu and the others stood tall, even proud—after all, stealing a chicken right under the elder's nose wasn't something ordinary disciples could manage.

When they saw Mo Hua, they pretended not to notice; even Little Tiger secretly signaled Mo Hua to pretend he didn't know them.

Mo Hua couldn't help but laugh and sigh inwardly—he decided that during the next ten-day break, he'd buy them more cakes.

Seven days remained until the next ten-day break; thirteen days had passed since Mo Hua received the array materials from Fatty Manager, yet his understanding of the Solid Earth Array remained sluggish.

The array patterns of the Solid Earth Array were unfamiliar to Mo Hua, far more complex than the basic earth-element patterns taught by the sect, making them difficult to grasp.

Moreover, the Solid Earth Array consisted of four array patterns, demanding high spiritual awareness.

Memorizing the patterns wasn't too hard, but when practicing on the stone tablet, his spiritual awareness drained rapidly, and mistakes came easily.

Either the patterns failed to form a functional array, or the drawn patterns were entirely invalid, unable to channel spiritual energy.

After ten days of trial and error, Mo Hua still had no breakthrough; sometimes he thought he understood, but as soon as he picked up his brush, he erred again.

Finally, with no other option, Mo Hua decided to seek guidance from Instructor Yan.

One day, after Instructor Yan finished his lesson and was tidying his desk, the disciples dispersed in small groups.

Mo Hua approached Instructor Yan with several basic earth-element array patterns and respectfully asked:

"Instructor, I don't fully understand these earth-element array patterns—could you please guide me?"

Instructor Yan glanced at the patterns Mo Hua presented and said:

"These are basic earth-element patterns from the Five Elements array system, standard and widely used; they shouldn't be too difficult for you—if you can't draw them well, just practice more."

The earth-element patterns taught by the sect were basic; for Mo Hua, they were no challenge—he was actually asking about something else.

Mo Hua pulled out several earth-element patterns from the Solid Earth Array and said:

"I occasionally saw these patterns and noticed they differ slightly from those in the textbook, but I can't pinpoint exactly how—they're hard to draw correctly; I wonder what's wrong."

Instructor Yan looked and was surprised:

"These are modified Five Elements patterns—different from the sect's official teachings. They're non-standard and rarely used. Drawing them requires altering brush technique and changing the stroke order; basically, just adjust the sequence of these strokes…"

Instructor Yan took a sheet of paper and sketched a few strokes, explaining as he drew.

After listening, Mo Hua finally understood.

Array pattern drawing resembled calligraphy: beyond standard formal patterns, there were many specialized variants, each with slight differences in brushwork.

These variant patterns were numerous and unclassifiable, so the sect normally taught only the standard formal patterns.

"No wonder everyone says array arts are vast and profound—there are too many hidden traps. If I hadn't asked Instructor Yan, I'd never have figured it out even with two heads…" Mo Hua silently grumbled.

"Then how do you connect these patterns into an array, like this one…"

Mo Hua finally pulled out the Solid Earth Array diagram.

Instructor Yan glanced at it, recognized it immediately, and said in surprise: "This is the Solid Earth Array," then looked at Mo Hua again:

"You're looking at this too early now. This isn't something you can draw at your current level."

"This disciple was merely curious and wanted to understand the reasoning behind it," Mo Hua said earnestly, seeking guidance.

"Well… that's true too. It's not a bad thing for you to know some of this in advance."

Instructor Yan perked up. He usually taught only basic array patterns day in and day out, which was rather dull. Now that he finally had the chance to discuss a proper array formation, his interest was clearly piqued.

"Array formations are all composed of array patterns arranged, combined, and linked together. Simple array formations contain simple array patterns, and the number of patterns is small. The more difficult the array formation, the more array patterns it contains, and the sequence of the various patterns, the spatial composition, and the unified linking become all the more intricate and ingenious. The Earth-Fixing Array contains four array patterns. The patterns must be drawn in order according to fixed positions. The remaining two positions are Qian and Kun…"

Instructor Yan spoke with great enthusiasm, and Mo Hua listened with keen interest. Even after the lesson ended, Instructor Yan was still somewhat reluctant to stop, and then added a word of caution:

"The Dao of array formations is vast and profound. It's good for you to understand it in advance. What the sect teaches is only the basics of the basics—it doesn't even count as an introduction. If you wish to become a true array master, the difficulty and the effort required are beyond what you can imagine right now…"

Instructor Yan paused, then went on:

"At the same time, you must never aim too high or rush ahead, blindly attempting to draw array formations beyond your grasp. Simply looking at them is fine, but once you actually put brush to paper, it's very easy to exhaust your divine sense. You must remember this!"

Mo Hua bowed and said, "This disciple has received the teaching!"