Chapter 469: Surveillance

If I try to leave, I can't go out for now.

Not to mention Lu Chengyun and Zhang Quan, even the two iron corpses guarding the gate—I couldn't defeat them in direct combat.

Moreover, when Mo Hua entered the room, he noticed that around the entrance, a Xian Chen Array had been laid out.

In certain special areas, Xian Ying Arrays had also been installed.

The ink traces were fresh, clearly painted not long ago, meant specifically to guard against Mo Hua.

"If your trump card is known, others will target you…"

Mo Hua shook his head, somewhat helpless.

But as long as it's an array, it doesn't matter.

Mo Hua didn't take this matter to heart.

It had already passed midnight.

Mo Hua pretended to be asleep in bed, while his spiritual sense sank into his mind sea, practicing the incomplete Ling Shu Array on the Dao Stele all night.

The next day, he woke up and went through his usual cultivation routine.

Since he was here, he might as well make peace with it, unaffected by outside matters or distractions.

Someone brought meals to Mo Hua's door.

Mo Hua ate when he should, drank when he should, completely at ease.

After several days like this, Lu Chengyun never came to see Mo Hua, but Mo Hua had grown bored, so he went to find Lu Chengyun and asked:

"Master Lu, is there anything you need me to do?"

Lu Chengyun smiled:

"No rush, still need a few more days to prepare—Young Master, rest for now."

Calling it rest was essentially "soft confinement."

He knew my secret, so he's locking me up—probably afraid I'll cause trouble for him.

"Fine." Mo Hua nodded.

Lu Chengyun added: "If Young Master finds it dull, you may wander around freely."

"Really?"

Lu Chengyun smiled: "Of course."

Since Lu Chengyun said so, Mo Hua naturally didn't hold back.

The next day, he stepped outside and casually pointed to a passing corpse cultivator: "You, come here."

The corpse cultivator walked over and bowed:

"Young Master, what do you require?"

"Show me around."

The corpse cultivator paused, but remembering Mo Hua was Lu Chengyun's honored guest, he dared not be negligent.

The corpse cultivator then took Mo Hua on a tour.

After touring, Mo Hua realized the place he was in was actually a vast Shi Dian, carved out of a mine.

Numerous stone chambers were all part of this Shi Dian.

The Shi Dian was grand, eerie, yet crude.

Most furnishings were related to corpse cultivation.

At first, Mo Hua found it novel, but after a few rounds, he found it dull.

This Shi Dian had just been built—nothing worth seeing.

Everywhere were monotonous stone chambers.

Just gloomy corpse cultivators, pitch-black coffins, and eerie zombies.

Arrays existed, but they weren't sophisticated.

In some places, stone doors were sealed tightly—clearly something suspicious—but entry was forbidden, and inquiry was not allowed.

Mo Hua muttered inwardly.

This Lu Chengyun was merely outwardly generous, but tightly guarded, terrified of his secrets being leaked.

Like inviting someone to dinner, saying "help yourself," yet serving only radishes and cabbage—no meat at all.

After staying in the corpse mine for several days, Mo Hua grew accustomed to it.

He even found it somewhat comfortable.

Aside from being unable to uncover any secrets, everything else was fine.

The corpse cultivators dared not offend Mo Hua; if he had any demands—food, drink, research materials, array practice tools, ink, paper, or brushes—they did their best to fulfill them.

These days, Mo Hua hadn't seen Zhang Quan.

He was probably deliberately avoiding him, afraid of being provoked.

If he lost control again and attacked Mo Hua, it would be equivalent to defying Lu Chengyun—he'd suffer dearly for it.

Mo Hua didn't go looking for Zhang Quan either.

Now wasn't the time to confront him—not yet the moment to reclaim the "Zombie Map."

Wandering like this wasn't a solution.

On the surface, Mo Hua had already learned the basic layout of the Shi Dian, but that wasn't enough.

He needed to find out about hidden areas.

Mo Hua considered trying a concealment technique.

The Xian Chen Array and Xian Ying Array were both below first-rank arrays—easy to tamper with.

The difficulty was avoiding detection by Lu Chengyun.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, suddenly realizing it was impossible to avoid being discovered by Lu Chengyun.

Being discovered by him was only natural.

Lu Chengyun was suspicious by nature; if Mo Hua acted too straightforward, he would surely grow suspicious.

Better to make small moves right under his nose.

If Mo Hua thought he hadn't been noticed, but Lu Chengyun had actually noticed—then Lu Chengyun would stop suspecting.

Mo Hua's gaze flickered, and he had an idea.

He first put on his cloak, activated the array on it, and used the array to conceal his form.

Then he walked to the door and quietly deactivated the Dust-Revealing Array.

The instant the Dust-Revealing Array was deactivated, it was indeed noticed.

A spiritual sense descended, sweeping back and forth through Mo Hua's chamber, searching for his figure.

This spiritual sense belonged to Lu Chengyun.

Mo Hua knew it well.

For the past few days, a spiritual sense had occasionally probed Mo Hua.

Gentle, subtle, carrying a faint chill, hard to detect.

But in Mo Hua's perception, it was crystal clear.

This spiritual sense matched Lu Chengyun's aura exactly.

Mo Hua deduced that Lu Chengyun's spiritual sense was around the twelfth level, but not yet the thirteenth.

Roughly equal to his own, and even slightly weaker.

Although Lu Chengyun's cultivation was at the peak of Foundation Establishment and he was an Array Master, his spiritual sense strength seemed average.

Compared to ordinary cultivators, it was certainly not weak.

But compared to Mo Hua, it fell short.

Mo Hua had once possessed a solid twelfth-level spiritual sense.

After assimilating several zombie ancestors of the Zhang family, he was now nearing the peak of twelfth level, though still not at thirteenth.

And breaking through to thirteenth level would likely take more time.

Mo Hua then felt a flicker of doubt:

"Lu Chengyun is at the peak of Foundation Establishment and studies arrays daily—why hasn't his spiritual sense reached thirteenth level?"

"Could it be that he spends his days drawing demonic arrays, taking shortcuts and neglecting to refine his spiritual sense?"

But not reaching thirteenth level was fine.

In the Corpse Mine, Lu Chengyun had the highest cultivation and the strongest spiritual sense.

If his spiritual sense hadn't reached thirteenth level, then none of the Corpse Cultivators in the mine—not even the Lu family elders—had spiritual sense stronger than his.

Moreover, Mo Hua had never revealed to Lu Chengyun that his spiritual sense had reached Foundation Establishment.

Not even Elder Su knew.

So in Lu Chengyun's mind, Mo Hua's spiritual sense should still be within the limits of a Qi Refinement cultivator—between ninth and tenth levels.

Mo Hua's eyes brightened slightly.

If his spiritual sense wasn't stronger than his, and didn't know how strong Mo Hua's truly was, then things would be easy.

Mo Hua activated his concealment array, then stopped suppressing his spiritual sense and released a faint trace of aura.

That trace was enough for Lu Chengyun to perceive.

Sure enough, moments later, Mo Hua sensed a subtle spiritual sense settling upon him.

That spiritual sense was Lu Chengyun's.

Mo Hua pretended not to notice, then quietly slipped out the door.

The Dust-Revealing Array at the door had been deactivated by Mo Hua, so his figure remained hidden.

Mo Hua stepped out, sneaking around to inspect every one of the previously strange stone chambers.

These stone chambers held secrets, but few of them mattered.

Even if he discovered them, Lu Chengyun likely wouldn't care.

Sure enough, after Mo Hua probed for a long time, Lu Chengyun's spiritual sense showed not the slightest ripple.

After checking everything, Mo Hua found only superficial secrets, then returned to the stone chamber and lay back on the bed.

Moments later, Lu Chengyun's spiritual sense withdrew.

The next day, Lu Chengyun met Mo Hua and said nothing.

Mo Hua, however, feigned a "guilty" expression, avoiding eye contact.

Lu Chengyun's expression remained calm; after Mo Hua left, a faint smile of complete control curled at his lips.

"So it was a concealment array…"

Lu Chengyun shook his head slightly, "A trivial trick—how could it deceive heaven and earth…"

Mo Hua's subsequent actions had not escaped Lu Chengyun's notice.

Wherever Mo Hua went after concealing his form, Lu Chengyun knew perfectly well.

Several days later, Lu Chengyun grew somewhat lax.

The places Mo Hua visited and the secrets he uncovered were utterly insignificant.

That night, Mo Hua sneaked out concealed as usual, wandered around, and returned to find Lu Chengyun's spiritual sense had already withdrawn.

It seemed Lu Chengyun had lost interest in him.

Mo Hua lay on the bed, motionless.

Sure enough, moments later, Lu Chengyun's spiritual sense returned.

Mo Hua continued to pretend to sleep.

After this happened three or four times, Lu Chengyun finally fell silent after the Chou hour.

Mo Hua felt mentally drained.

This Lu Chengyun had an extremely suspicious nature…

For a full cup of tea's duration, not a single divine sense probed.

Mo Hua quietly rose, draped himself in a concealment cloak, activated the concealment technique, and under dual concealment, suppressed his divine sense to its utmost limit, slipping silently out the door.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows—this was what Elder Yu taught him.

By day, he openly wandered the corpse mine;

by night, he activated concealment arrays and, right under Lu Chengyun's nose, probed for trivial secrets;

when Lu Chengyun let his guard down, he would then unleash full concealment, slipping unseen and unheard to uncover the mine's true secrets…

For instance, how many Iron Corpses were in the mine? How many Walking Corpses?

What was the corpse-refining array?

Where was the Spirit Pivot Array?

What was the Lu family's conspiracy?

…

Mo Hua had many things he wanted to know.

He first visited several sealed Shi Dian chambers, quietly pried open a crack, peered inside, and found iron coffins hidden within.

Inside the iron coffins were the Iron Corpses.

Mo Hua had counted during the day—there were about ten such sealed chambers.

That meant there were likely ten or more Iron Corpses, possibly even more…

In addition, there were other secret chambers.

These secret chambers also contained altars, upon which objects were enshrined.

But what was enshrined was not ancestral portraits or the like.

Instead, they were grotesque statues of ghosts and demons, zombie limbs, and other bizarre artifacts.

Mo Hua didn't quite understand.

There were also places he hadn't had time to explore.

As he wandered, Mo Hua arrived at the main gate.

This gate was the gate of the Shi Dian.

It separated the Shi Dian from the mine shafts outside.

Inside the Shi Dian were many chambers, where corpse cultivators lived.

The corpse cultivators conducted their daily routines, corpse-refining, and corpse-control within the Shi Dian.

Outside the Shi Dian lay the mine shafts.

Mo Hua had only glanced once upon entering—pitch black, filled entirely with coffins, strangely unsettling.

Mo Hua wanted to visit the mine shafts, but the gate blocked his way.

The gate was inscribed with an array.

After using his divine sense to analyze it, Mo Hua realized he could dismantle it—but doing so would inevitably alert Lu Chengyun, so he could not act yet.

At that moment, Mo Hua heard a series of bell sounds from outside the gate.

After the bells rang, countless zombies seemed to rise from their coffins, clinking and clattering with eerie noises, doing something unknown.

These sounds, bit by bit, coalesced into a river.

Even with a soundproof array in place, the noise was grating and piercing.

It evoked a dissonant sensation: a deathly underworld where corpses labored like living beings.

Mo Hua frowned.

"What on earth is Lu Chengyun doing, refining so many zombies?"

"Could it be… mining…?"

I forgot something—I haven't set up a reader group yet…

After thinking it over, I'll hold off for now.

I'm afraid you'll roast me. (￣▽￣)

I won't have the heart to write then~

(End of Chapter)