Chapter 285: The Green-Faced Ghost

The green-faced, fanged ghost slipped into a vast, white void of consciousness, ecstatic, cackling:

"Such profound spiritual awareness! Enough to feast on for ages!"

Then its bell-like eyes turned and spotted Mo Hua in the consciousness sea; its grin froze. "How are you here?"

Mo Hua frowned in confusion. "This is my consciousness sea—why can't I be here?"

"No, no! You shouldn't be here!"

The green-faced ghost's eyes darted, its expression shifting, then it shrieked:

"Spiritual manifestation! Extraordinary talent! A natural great tonic! This is a heavenly gift! Excellent! Extremely excellent!"

Mo Hua frowned.

"A natural great tonic? Are you talking about me? This green-faced ghost—does it feed on a cultivator's spiritual awareness?"

Mo Hua recalled what Mr. Zhuang had said:

"The contemplation map reflects another's spiritual awareness and their understanding of the Dao—in other words, what is visualized is someone else's 'Dao,' or perhaps some non-human 'Dao.' Once spiritual awareness sinks into it, the consequences are often terrifying…"

Could this green-faced ghost be the "non-human Dao" Mr. Zhuang spoke of?

Mo Hua's gaze sharpened. "What exactly are you?"

The green-faced ghost sneered. "Kid, once I eat you, you'll find out."

Before Mo Hua could react, it transformed into a green shadow, baring its fangs, grotesque and ferocious, lunging straight at him as if to swallow him whole.

Mo Hua swiftly retreated, his form fluid, evading the green-faced ghost's lunge.

The green-faced ghost was startled.

Mo Hua also paused slightly—he realized he could use the Flowing Water Step within the consciousness sea.

Previously, upon entering the consciousness sea, he had merely sat before the Dao Stele drawing arrays, never attempting to use body techniques. Now, in dodging the ghost's attack, he had unconsciously activated the technique—and only then did he realize.

If the Flowing Water Step works, what about spells?

The green-faced ghost lunged again; Mo Hua dodged while attempting to cast Water Prison and Fireball spells.

But neither spell could be cast.

The Flowing Water Step manipulates spiritual energy through spiritual awareness, using spiritual energy to guide the physical body.

Here in the consciousness sea, Mo Hua was a pure spiritual form—without spiritual energy or a physical body, he could still move and dodge as he did with the Flowing Water Step.

But Water Prison and Fireball spells require spiritual awareness to activate spiritual energy, condensing it into spells—spiritual energy is the foundation.

Since there was no spiritual energy in the consciousness sea, spells could not be cast.

The green-faced ghost moved swiftly, but Mo Hua's body technique was more refined; after several exchanges, the ghost could not land a single hit.

The green-faced ghost grew furious, its face twisted in rage.

Mo Hua's heart sank slightly.

He could only dodge with the Flowing Water Step—he couldn't trap the enemy with Water Prison or attack with Fireball. He was just a stationary target; continuing to evade like this wouldn't last.

He needed another plan!

The green-faced ghost lunged for another long while, still failing to touch Mo Hua once; feeling mocked, its eyes blazed with malice:

"You forced me to this!"

"When I catch you, I'll chew you bite by bite until you're ground to dust!"

Saying this, the green-faced ghost tore off its own left arm and shoved it into its mouth, chewing it into pulp.

Simultaneously, a violent aura rose from the ghost.

Its body gradually swelled, its eyes brimming with murderous intent, its fangs lengthened, its face grew even more grotesque—and in moments, it became a true demon.

"Now you can't run."

The green-faced demon sneered at Mo Hua—only to see Mo Hua standing still, no longer fleeing.

Around Mo Hua, complex patterns had been drawn, unseen until now.

"Playing at sorcery!"

The demon rasped, then charged forward without hesitation.

As it reached a zhang from Mo Hua and touched the patterns, a terrifying force erupted.

Surge after surge of blazing fire engulfed it, burning its body, inflicting endless agony.

The demon screamed in disbelief:

"An array! You're an array master?!"

Seeing the array activate—and its power exceed his expectations—Mo Hua exhaled in relief.

Since spells wouldn't work, the only thing he could use was arrays.

The sect technique Mo Hua cultivated was the Great Expansion Scripture; its bottleneck was the Puzzle Array.

The Puzzle Array forms within the consciousness sea, and to solve it, Mo Hua must draw array patterns within the consciousness sea, unraveling the Puzzle Array to break through the bottleneck.

In other words, arrays function within the consciousness sea.

But this kind of array differs from those outside the consciousness sea.

Arrays are manifestations of Daoic principles—essentially, spiritual awareness's comprehension of the Dao.

Outside, to draw an array, one needs array mediums to carry it, spiritual ink to inscribe it, and spiritual energy to activate it.

The array's effect is realized through spiritual energy.

The array's power is, in essence, the destructive force of the Five Elements and other spiritual energies.

But arrays within the consciousness sea are different.

Within the consciousness sea, there are no external objects—only pure spiritual awareness—so the array's effect is, in truth, the effect of spiritual awareness.

The array's power is, in truth, the power of spiritual awareness.

The first-grade Earth Fire Array Mo Hua drew—the fire it exploded into—was not real flame, but a phantom fire formed from spiritual awareness.

It can only harm the spiritual consciousness, burning without fire, accompanied by the illusion of burning pain.

And as it happens, this green-faced imp should be, like Mo Hua in the sea of consciousness, a phantom spiritual thought-form.

Now it seems the array's effect is even better than Mo Hua imagined.

An array constructed from spiritual consciousness is extremely pure, its power considerable, sufficient to wound the very foundation of this evil spirit's spiritual thought.

Mo Hua's spirit stirred, his gaze gradually turning cold.

Constructing an array takes time; earlier, while being chased by this imp, Mo Hua had no chance to spare, so naturally he had no opportunity to draw the array.

But this imp, enraged, wasted time speaking nonsense in the midst of battle.

Then it chewed on its own arm for a long while, enlarged its body, and wasted even more time.

This long preparation time was more than enough for Mo Hua to draw the array.

This imp transforming into an evil spirit seemed to grow stronger, but it gave Mo Hua the time needed for him, as an array master, to draw the array.

The array master within the array is the strongest array master.

Mo Hua's eyes hardened with frost, and he began considering how to kill this imp.

Earlier, while being chased by it, Mo Hua had swallowed a bellyful of rage; now, he certainly wouldn't let it go.

The green-faced evil spirit was blasted backward by the Earthfire Array, fell to the ground, burned by fierce flames, and screamed incessantly.

It tried to extinguish the flames, but these flames were formed from the spiritual consciousness bound by the array—having no physical form, only spiritual shadows.

The green-faced evil spirit could not extinguish them; the flames burned on until its green ghost-skin was charred black, then slowly faded.

The green-faced evil spirit rose to its feet; its charred skin quickly restored to normal, but its aura had weakened considerably.

Its exterior was a spiritual shadow; the array's fire burned its spiritual consciousness.

Even if its appearance remained unchanged, its spiritual source had suffered grave damage.

The green-faced evil spirit still glared fiercely at Mo Hua, but its bluster masked deep dread.

"What kind of little monster is this? It manifests spiritual thought—and can condense arrays from spiritual consciousness?"

In pure spiritual thought power, it was stronger than this young cultivator.

If they fought normally with spiritual thought, it could have devoured this young cultivator alive.

But this young cultivator knows how to use arrays—that changes everything.

Arrays are inscribed with the Dao, the ultimate application of spiritual consciousness.

Especially in spiritual thought combat, arrays harness the Dao to strike directly at the source, their destructive power even greater.

With this thought, the green-faced evil spirit felt the urge to retreat.

Continuing to struggle was meaningless.

It could no longer harm this young cultivator.

Not only could it not harm him—if it fought on, and was wounded by his array, it might suffer catastrophic damage, even complete annihilation of its spiritual thought.

"Little imp, I won't let you go."

The green-faced evil spirit spat threats, but its body slowly retreated.

Mo Hua saw it trying to flee, and frowned.

His array, whether offensive or defensive, could only function in place.

If this green-faced ghost ran away, he truly had no way to stop it.

The green-faced evil spirit retreated slowly, reaching the edge of Mo Hua's sea of consciousness, about to escape.

At that moment, Zi Shi arrived.

In the center of the pale white sea of consciousness, a broken stele quietly surfaced.

A void yet profound aura instantly spread outward.

The aura carried immense terror.

The green-faced evil spirit suddenly realized—it widened its eyes, its green face paling, its expression filled with utter dread, and shrieked in terror:

"What is this?!"