Chapter 442: The Mastermind

Mo Hua slid along the roof, avoided the corpse cultivators, left the Shanzhai's gate, and walked to the big rock to meet Bai Zisheng and Bai Zi Xi.

Bai Zisheng asked, "Why did you take so long?"

Mo Hua smiled broadly, "I found Teacher Yan!"

"Is Teacher Yan alright?"

"Mm," Mo Hua nodded, "We'll rescue Teacher Yan in a few days."

Bai Zisheng frowned, "Why wait a few days? Let's rescue him now—I'll storm in and kill every corpse cultivator!"

Mo Hua shrugged, "Fine, go ahead."

Bai Zisheng paused, scratched his head, and said:

"Nah, forget it. You've got too many schemes—I'll follow your lead."

Mo Hua frowned, "It's you who's full of schemes."

Bai Zisheng sighed to himself:

"I wish I had more schemes too, but alas—I'm too upright to think of anything devious."

Mo Hua whispered, "I think it's just stupidity…"

Bai Zisheng reached over and tugged Mo Hua's hair, "Dare you call your senior brother stupid?"

…

The two muttered and bickered noisily.

Bai Zi Xi picked up a stick and tapped each of their heads once, "Focus on the matter at hand!"

"Oh."

Both replied obediently.

The three then began discussing what to do next.

Bai Zisheng thought for a moment and said:

"We set an ambush on the path they must take, capture Zhang Quan, then when the Shanzhai is left leaderless, we strike and wipe them out…"

Mo Hua was about to nod, then suddenly remembered something and shook his head:

"No."

"Why not?" Bai Zisheng asked, puzzled.

Mo Hua pondered, "Zhang Quan must have someone behind him."

"Who?"

"The one who draws the arrays for him."

Mo Hua's expression turned solemn, "The arrays Teacher Yan drew for the Shanzhai were all standard Five Element arrays—used only for ordinary fortifications."

"But the ones used for corpse refining are entirely different, demonic arrays."

"Zhang Quan can't draw such arrays. I just circled the entire Shanzhai—no one there seems capable of drawing them."

"At least, none of the corpse cultivators I saw could draw such an array."

"Besides, this is the Ling Shu Array of the Xiao Ling Yin Sect—no ordinary array master could draw it."

"Unless we find out who this person is, killing Zhang Quan and destroying Great Heishan won't solve anything."

"The array is the key—as long as this person can draw arrays, they'll keep killing, buying corpses, refining them…"

"And," Mo Hua paused, then sighed, "This is Teacher Yan's sect's forbidden array. I don't want any cultivator using this forbidden array to do evil…"

Bai Zisheng nodded, "Alright, I'll follow you."

Bai Zi Xi also gave a slight nod and asked Mo Hua:

"Have you decided what to do?"

"Mm." Mo Hua nodded, then said:

"We let Zhang Quan return to the Shanzhai, then spy on him—see who he meets, who's drawing the arrays for him…"

"Once we find out, we'll tell Sister Situ and join Dao Ting Si to raid the Shanzhai."

"Then capture Zhang Quan, seize his corpse-controlling bell, and restore the Ling Shu Array diagram."

"Best of all, we drag out the cultivator behind him…"

"Cut the roots, eliminate the threat forever…"

"Cut the grass and remove the roots, to eliminate future troubles..."

Mo Hua laid out every detail plainly.

Bai Zisheng nodded in agreement, but still worried:

"It probably won't go this smoothly…"

"Master said we must prepare for every contingency, plan ahead—but plans always change. We'll adapt as we go," Mo Hua said.

"Master said that one must always prepare in advance and plan ahead, but plans can never keep up with change—when the time comes, just adapt as needed," Mo Hua said.

The three finished their planning and began acting on it.

First, they waited for Zhang Quan to return to the Shanzhai.

But even this first step encountered an unexpected twist.

This Zhang Quan seemed overly cautious…

He was still wandering aimlessly in the wild mountains, crawling through caves, hiding in forests, setting traps, outwitting thin air—and still refused to return to the Shanzhai.

Zhang Quan thought himself clever and thorough, unaware that every move he made was watched by Mo Hua.

Mo Hua was thoroughly baffled.

Is he really going to this extreme…?

As for whether it's worth going this far...

And judging by his appearance, he could keep "surviving" like this.

Mo Hua found even watching him tiring.

Even with Mo Hua's patience, he could no longer wait.

So the three agreed and split up to act separately.

Mo Hua returned first to Shanzhai to map out its layout, draw a building array diagram, and chat with Yan Jiaxi to check for any oversights.

Bai Zi Xi would await outside the stockade to support Mo Hua.

Bai Zisheng would seek out Sister Situ to pre-arrange troop movements in preparation for wiping out Shanzhai.

Another full five days passed before Zhang Quan returned to Shanzhai.

He looked disheveled and worn out, yet his heart felt relieved.

After a prolonged battle of wits with an invisible, nonexistent pursuer, Zhang Quan had expended considerable effort and cunning, finally confirming he had shaken off Mo Hua's pursuit—only then did he dare return to his lair of corpses.

Yet occasionally, a subtle feeling lingered.

As if something, like a parasitic leech, clung to him.

But after spending so much time and employing so many tactics, even if something had followed him, it must have been shaken off by now.

Zhang Quan sneered.

He had lived for so many years; his cultivation experience far surpassed that of this greenhorn brat.

That sneaky little brat could never track him down again!

Zhang Quan's heart settled completely; filled with joy, he strode boldly back to his secret, unknown, and illicit Shanzhai.

Meanwhile, Mo Hua had already been waiting for him in his hometown for a long time.

Seeing Zhang Quan enter, Mo Hua's mood was even happier than Zhang Quan's.

During these days spent in the stockade, Mo Hua, hidden from sight, had thoroughly mapped out the stockade and grown bored, beginning to find things to do.

He had even counted how many coffins were in the stockade…

Zhang Quan strode boldly through the main gate of Shanzhai.

Mo Hua's eyes lit up; he activated Shi Shui Bu, leaping lightly across rooftops before slipping into the deepest room, climbing onto the rafters, sitting cross-legged, and waiting patiently.

The room was spacious, concealed, and fully equipped with arrays, filled entirely with corpse-cultivation tools.

He guessed this was Zhang Quan's secret chamber.

Sure enough, after a while, Zhang Quan entered the room, walking right beneath Mo Hua's gaze.

Mo Hua remained hidden, and had even pre-drawn a concealment array nearby.

Zhang Quan sensed nothing.

The room was utterly silent; on the surface, only Zhang Quan was present.

Zhang Quan let out a long sigh, then burned incense, bathed, changed into a respectable-looking robe, meditated for a while, and soon, corpse cultivators began arriving to report on stockade affairs.

The corpse cultivators bowed respectfully as Zhang Quan sat high and listened; Mo Hua sat above his head, ears straining to eavesdrop.

Most of what the corpse cultivators reported were trivial stockade matters.

How many merchants they had robbed, how many cultivators they had killed, how many corpses they had purchased…

How many walking corpses they had crafted, how many succeeded, how many failed;

How many spirit stones they spent, how much material they used;

Which corpse-cultivation materials were running low and needed restocking, which zombies had gone rogue and needed handling, and so on…

These details were scattered and fragmented.

Listening from the rafters, Mo Hua gradually understood how Shanzhai operated.

Shanzhai had bandits and corpse cultivators.

Ordinary bandits could join Shanzhai if they dared to kill, were willing to kill, and had already killed.

But joining Shanzhai did not guarantee instruction in corpse-cultivation techniques.

One had to pass evaluations, endure probation, and earn Zhang Quan's trust to become a proper corpse cultivator.

Corpse cultivators were demonic cultivators who crafted and controlled corpses.

Corpse cultivators needed corpses of cultivators.

There were several sources for these corpses.

One was ambush and murder.

The cultivators within the stockade, before joining, were either criminal cultivators or bandits who routinely ambushed roads, killed travelers, and looted.

But their "loot" included not only spirit stones and spiritual artifacts, but also cultivator corpses.

Shanzhai's bandits killed people and brought back the corpses to use for corpse-cultivation.

Two was purchase.

They hired Wang Lai and others to kill miners and buy corpses.

Or they bought them from grave robbers who plundered tombs.

Of course, the main source was still miners.

After all, Nanyue City had many mines and many miners, and in these people's eyes, miners were cheap, worthless lives.

After purchasing corpses, came corpse-cultivation.

Mo Hua had briefly observed this before.

The corpse-cultivation methods, as his junior sister had said, required herbs, corpse-nourishing coffins, control bells, and so on.

But the specific techniques were more complex.

Which herbs to use, in what proportions, boiled into stinking medicinal broth.

Then soak the corpse in the medicinal broth.

After soaking long enough, place them in a corpse-cultivation coffin to refine.

During the refinement, the corpse cultivators pace back and forth around the coffin, shaking the corpse bronze bell as they walk.

This process is intricate, but the divisions of labor are clear.

Like herbs for alchemy or refined iron for weapon forging, the corpse cultivators of the Corpse Village treat corpses as a "material" for corpse refinement, not as people.

Their expressions, too, were cold and numb, as if it were perfectly natural.

Mo Hua frowned deeply at the sight.

He even considered drawing reverse-spirit arrays to dismantle the Corpse Village outright.

But after thinking it over, he held back.

Little patience disrupts great plans; one must not act on impulse.

The corpse cultivators of the Corpse Village only reported trivial internal matters, never anything concerning the corpse-refinement arrays.

Mo Hua listened for days without any leads, until three days later, he caught a hint.

One corpse cultivator lowered his voice and asked Zhang Quan:

"Boss, should we send the corpses?"

Hearing this, Mo Hua's heart stirred.

Send the corpses?

Send what corpses? Where to? Why send them?

Could it be… that they're being sent to have arrays drawn?

Mo Hua remembered that some newly refined corpses in the Corpse Village had no arrays on their heart meridians.

If they had none, they must be drawn somewhere.

Sending the corpses… that means he doesn't draw them himself, doesn't draw them in the Corpse Village, but sends them elsewhere for someone else to draw them?

Mo Hua held his breath, eager to know where the corpses were being sent, to whom, and who would help Zhang Quan draw the arrays.

But Zhang Quan shook his head. "No."

The corpse cultivator paused, then hesitated:

"If we don't send them soon, it may be too late—those zombies… are losing control…"

Zhang Quan's gaze turned icy. "If they lose control, disable them. Feed them to the other zombies. Do I have to teach you that?"

The corpse cultivator immediately bowed his head. "Yes."

After the corpse cultivator withdrew, Zhang Quan sneered again and closed his eyes to cultivate.

But Mo Hua frowned.

This Zhang Quan is a bit off.

Thanks to the patron pyhuang for the donation~

(End of chapter)