Chapter 360: Seed Demon

Old Kui sighed: "I never thought his Dao Heart Seed Demon had reached this level…"

Mr. Zhuang fell silent.

Old Kui said: "You're in deep trouble."

Mr. Zhuang replied: "Debt piled high brings no worry; lice too numerous cause no itch. It doesn't matter."

Old Kui snorted, then frowned, curious: "What exactly did he do?"

"How would I know?"

"He's your senior brother—how could you not know?"

"I've never cultivated Dao Heart Seed Demon…"

Old Kui thought for a moment, then said: "Tell me the principles of Dao Heart Seed Demon, and I'll grant you one request."

Mr. Zhuang froze. "Really?"

Old Kui looked at him, calmly: "Didn't you just say you didn't know?"

Mr. Zhuang said: "I could know."

"My word is binding," said Old Kui.

Mr. Zhuang paused, his gaze darkening slightly, then explained:

"Dao Heart Seed Demon is a demonic art that manipulates spiritual awareness."

"This art can sever one's spiritual thought, forge it into a demon seed, and plant it atop another's mind sea, destroying their Dao heart, forcing them into demonic corruption—or shattering their Dao heart entirely, turning them into mindless corpses to be manipulated…"

Old Kui frowned. "Sounds simple."

"Spiritual awareness techniques always sound easy but are extremely hard to execute. Otherwise, Dao Heart Seed Demon wouldn't be one of the Ten Forbidden Demonic Arts," said Mr. Zhuang.

"Then what about Feng Xi? What did Gui Dao Ren do?"

Mr. Zhuang said coolly: "It's simple—he planted a demon thought in one person, sent him to Great Heishan to die, fed his corpse to pigs, and that demon thought naturally entered the pig demon's body."

"Normally, a human's demon thought cannot survive long inside a beast. But someone kept feeding pigs with humans, so that demon thought survived by devouring human spiritual awareness—thus appearing as one face, yet actually composed of many faces; sounding like one voice, yet many people speaking."

"When the time was ripe, it replaced and took control of the entire great beast."

"Within the provincial borders, the great beast is invincible. With his demon thought controlling it, he could do as he pleased—even the Dao Court and major clans couldn't stop him…"

Old Kui sighed: "Your senior brother is far smarter than you."

Mr. Zhuang hesitated, then added: "He is smarter than me—but too bad he fell into my disciple's hands… Hmm, to put it another way, he fell into my hands."

After speaking, Mr. Zhuang nodded to himself.

Fortunately, I foresaw this—I took Mo Hua as my provisional disciple and taught him the Great Array.

And he truly learned it, built it, and used the Five Elements Beast-Slaying Array to drain the great beast's blood qi, forcing Gui Dao Ren to reveal his demon thought.

So, this time, I won.

Old Kui couldn't help saying: "Have some dignity."

Mr. Zhuang ignored him.

Old Kui frowned again: "The Great Array killed the great beast, but now it's alive again—surrounded by death qi, half-corpse, half-ghost. Can even the Xiancheng cultivators handle it?"

Mr. Zhuang sighed: "We can only delay it."

"Wait for the Dao Court to act?" Old Kui's gaze sharpened.

Mr. Zhuang nodded: "Inside this half-dead Feng Xi is Gui Dao Ren's demon thought. The Dao Court will surely try to extract and study it—but…"

…but no one knows if Xiancheng can hold out…

Once the half-corpse, half-ghost Feng Xi enters the city, Xiancheng's cultivators will still face great disaster.

Mr. Zhuang didn't say it outright, but both understood.

Old Kui's gaze also grew somber.

"So…" Mr. Zhuang raised an eyebrow, "my earlier request."

Old Kui froze, sensing something unpleasant.

"If Feng Xi enters the city, you die once—and intervene," said Mr. Zhuang.

All this circling around—he'd been plotting this all along.

Old Kui's expression was complex: "All you array masters have filthy hearts."

Mr. Zhuang bowed humbly: "Not at all—not at all. Water too clear has no fish; just a little dirtiness."

Old Kui said: "Xiancheng has nothing to do with you—why are you so generous?"

Mr. Zhuang sighed: "I am still a Mr. —before leaving, I must do something for my disciple."

Every cultivator in the city is either Mo Hua's kin or acquaintance.

I can bear my own regrets—but I won't let my little disciple suffer the same.

Mr. Zhuang's gaze lowered, tinged with melancholy.

Old Kui nodded: "Fine."

"Thank you," said Mr. Zhuang coolly.

"Don't thank me—I agreed only because of Mo Hua," said Old Kui.

Mr. Zhuang's expression froze. "What if there were no Mo Hua?"

"I wouldn't have agreed."

"My earlier request…"

"One sentence from you, in exchange for my life—do you think that's fair?"

Mr. Zhuang eyed him suspiciously: "Didn't you already plan to break your word?"

"Near ink, one turns black—I learned from you. Breaking a promise is simple," said Old Kui, expressionless.

Mr. Zhuang sighed: "You, too, have a filthy heart."

Gui Lao ignored him.

Mr. Zhuang paid it no mind, but secretly sighed with relief.

As long as Gui Lao was willing to help, he didn't want Mo Hua to be heartbroken, nor did he want his senior brother to commit more killings.

Mr. Zhuang's spirit felt weary; he lay on the bamboo chair, gazing up at the sky, then suddenly frowned, sensing something amiss.

Gui Lao looked at him and asked, puzzled: "What's wrong?"

Mr. Zhuang's gaze sharpened, his fingers pinched a seal, his thoughts churned, and his brow furrowed.

"The Dao still holds uncertainty… but that's impossible—how could there still be uncertainty?"

"Where is the uncertainty?"

Mr. Zhuang faintly sensed something, and silently gazed toward the Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array deep in Shenshan, his frown deepening.

Within the array, cultivators were already beginning to evacuate.

Feng Xi had died and come back to life, half-dead and half-alive, its body suffused with terrifying death qi.

The Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array could still wear it down to death.

But there were no more spirit stones left.

The collected spirit stones had been entirely consumed; only a few remained, enough to power the array for a few hours—insufficient to crush the resurrected Feng Xi.

Other Foundation Establishment cultivators were already exhausted and unable to fight Feng Xi further.

At this point, they could only retreat first and plan further.

Everyone wore grim expressions, their faces faintly tinged with despair.

They could not think of any way to kill Feng Xi again.

Mo Hua stood atop Shanfeng, gazing far off at Feng Xi, his mind made up, his expression gradually hardening.

Elder Yu and the others came over and said helplessly: "Withdraw first, rest for now, and think of another plan."

Mo Hua nodded: "You go first. I'll control the array and hold the rear."

Zhang Lan and the others frowned and hurried to say: "That won't do—how can you hold the rear?"

We're all Foundation Establishment cultivators here—how could we let a junior cultivator like Mo Hua hold the rear?

Besides, Mo Hua's status is no longer what it was.

He successfully constructed the array and repelled Feng Xi; whether or not someone helped him, he will surely become a famed master arrayist in the future.

Under these circumstances, not even a sliver of risk can be taken.

Mo Hua corrected: "It's the array holding the rear, not me."

Zhang Lan and the others still wanted to speak, but Mo Hua said:

"Hurry—tell everyone to withdraw first. Before leaving, place the last of the spirit stones on the Spirit Gathering Reassembly Array at the array's core."

"I'll activate the array to hold the rear—after that, rest assured…"

Mo Hua's demeanor was too calm, his tone carrying unshakable certainty; Zhang Lan and the others had no doubt and nodded, following Mo Hua's instructions.

Within the array, cultivators still operated the array—both array masters and dao soldiers.

They had to maintain the formation and transport spirit stones to supply it with spiritual power.

Most spirit stones had been consumed in crushing Feng Xi; only a small portion remained, painstakingly saved by Mo Hua while controlling the array.

These spirit stones were deliberately kept by Mo Hua.

To ignite firecrackers, you need a spark.

To trigger the array's collapse, you need spiritual power as a catalyst.

These spirit stones are the "spark" for the array's collapse.

He would use these spirit stones as the catalyst to trigger the array's collapse and utterly slay the great demon!

He had said he would kill the great demon with the array—he must see it through.

He didn't know what this great demon had become now.

But whether this great demon was alive or dead, corpse or ghost, drenched in blood qi or death qi, once it entered his array, it would die without fail!

It would not step out of the array to devour another soul.

Within the array, cultivators were gradually evacuating.

Mo Hua, who had long pre-calculated everything, prepared to begin inscribing the Reverse Spirit Array on the array's pivot to trigger its collapse.

Before picking up his brush, Mo Hua hesitated, his heart filled with reluctance.

This was his first array… and in the end, he could not keep it.

Mo Hua sighed softly, then his small hand dipped the brush and drew the first line of the Reverse Spirit Array.

Almost simultaneously, Mr. Zhuang in the mountain dwelling felt a sudden jolt in his heart, sensing something, and stared blankly:

What is that child Mo Hua going to do…

…

Two hours later, the cultivators had fully evacuated.

Mo Hua had finished inscribing the Reverse Spirit Array.

Mo Hua's spiritual sense swept through—the array held no one but himself; Shenshan was desolate and silent, devoid of any cultivator aura—he finally relaxed.

The resurrected Feng Xi remained trapped within the array.

【106】 With insufficient spirit stones, Mo Hua did not activate the killing array, only using the containment array to hold it, preventing escape.

His spirit stones were insufficient, so Mo Hua did not activate the killing array, but merely trapped it with a binding array, preventing it from escaping the grand array.

But even the containment array could not last much longer.

Many arrays within the formation had dimmed, starved of spirit stone power.

The pressure on Feng Xi lessened sharply—and at that moment, it sensed the sole cultivator's aura within the array.

That aura belonged to Mo Hua.

The sealed boar was like a small mountain, death qi swirling around it, its steps stumbling, slowly walking toward Mo Hua.

With every step it took, the ground boomed.

Its eyes were a pitch-black, terrifying black hole.

Finally the sealed boar arrived before Mo Hua.

The tiny Mo Hua stood high above, staring straight at the massive sealed boar, at those pitch-black, terrifying pupils.

The sealed boar's face was a human face, its appearance shifting through several struggling changes, finally revealing the countenance of a Daoist. It opened its mouth to speak, but it was as if several different people were speaking at once:

"Your aura?"

"Quite the nerve…"

"An array master?"

"So familiar…"

Finally all the voices gathered into a single sentence:

"Who are you?"

Cold light gathered in Mo Hua's eyes, and in a crisp voice he said:

"The one who sends you to the heavens!"

Then Mo Hua's eyes closed slightly, and with a single thread of divine sense he drew on the array hub, reversed the spiritual energy, and triggered the collapse of the Five Elements Demon-Slaughtering Grand Array!

Thanks to reader Wild Mathematician for the tip~

Next chapter's plot will be slaughtering the pig~